Hello
Anyone on here with knowledge and experience of home brewing real ale?
My father in law recently retired and I thought it might make a fun present, but not too sure where to start - I naively thought the kits on amazon included everything you need, but all have a disclaimer of 'brewing kit required.
Any help would be massively appreciated.

I had a brief visit into home brewing years back. My few attempts were bloody awful and I poured the whole lot away. Maybe it was because I didn't sterilise thoroughly enough despite following the instructions word for word BUT...
I did have success with 'brew in a bag kits' Haven't looked recently but Boots used to flog 'em. Basically the bags come pre loaded with wort/yeast etc and you just pour in water as directed, leave for an appropriate number of weeks and then sit back and enjoy.
It's probably not the same level of satisfaction as doing the whole lot yourself....but it did seem foolproof and with a satisfactory end product.

I used to get my stuff from Standish street I'm not sure if it's still there & Wilko's used to do some good stuff but all that's gone now, it was fun to do & cheap but a lot of faffing about with sterilising everything.

Many years ago I brewed my own beer. I had two barrels and 120 bottles on the go. I think if you make sure everything is sterilised snd you follow the instructions you should be OK. You will need to provide some heat for initial brewing and I would recommend crown tops instead of the plastic bottles tops that tend to pop off occasionally. You need to remember to carefully 'decant' your beer when pouring to avoid drinking yeast. Good luck.

I used Burnley home brew, very informative.
They do online orders as well.

I last had home brew 40 years ago at university. It tasted awful but my pals said that’s what it was supposed to taste like!
I then went to Asda and never looked back.

I'm a home brewer been doing it for years

If you want to just get him started you will need a fermentation bucket, hydrometer, steriliser and some way of packaging the finished beer, bottles or a pressure barrel, if u decide bottles you will need a bottle capper.

As for the kits (I don't use kits anymore) but I believe they are a lot better than they used to be, if I was to revisit this I would check out the Mangrove Jack's range, you at least get a proper dose of good quality yeast.

You need to think about fermentation temperature, somewhere that is as close to 20C for about 7 days is ideal.

A website for you that I use and I believe also sells kits is

Get'er'brewed you should get everything on there

Also crossmyloof and the malt Miller are good as well

And the last piece of advice is you cannot over do the cleaning and sanitising

Sterilisation is key, I'm terrible at brewing beer but not bad at wine, I'd advise to keep it simple though to start.

My father in law used to brew some incredible stuff

His advice above all else was, as previously said, sterilise sterilise sterilise

Last time I tried it there was explosions in my cellar (the garage) wife not impressed, too much of summat made the the caps blow off! Good fun none the less.

Brings back memories! Yes you need the gear, even for a kit.

Used to brew something called 'Continental Lager' from Boots. Used to run through the lace holes! (Strike that)

Litre bottles. Wife and I had half each. That was enough. Very strong.

Then she stopped and I drank the bottle.

Gave up after standing for a pee and swaying left and right with head thumping!

Good though!

If you live in Burnley or the surrounding area, go and see the fellas at Burnley Home Brew on Standish St. I've always found them to be very knowledgeable and helpful. You'll also be supporting a local business if you decide to purchase.

Started home brewing ales the summer 2019 before lockdown. Bought myself a grainfather kit at the outset for all-grain brewing as the last time did brewing was way back in the early 70's and most of what was avail was in pre-packed ingredients+ can of DME and you only needed a container to ferment the ale in prior to bottling. I have made several decent ales from malted grain in the grainfather kit - 40 pints is too much to go through so I share the delights out . If you father in law gets into it and, eventually goes down the all-grain route, there are several good web sites giving free recipes for clones i.e. Theakstons Peculiar, etc. the secret is generally finding the correct hops and yeast to get the perfect clone.

Got some useful insight of industrial brewing from owner of M-brew - the Reedly Hallows brewer. I generally keg and pressurise as I find I get very clear and very little yeast transfer with that method as opposed to bottling. Best ale I brewed was near 6% - image .As a trial I attempted making Guinness during lock down - appearance wise it looked good apart from the frothy head ( which is more akin to the Guinness of old)- image, and definitely had the malty stout verb. I did not have access to nitrogen to pressurise the keg otherwise thinking head may have been much smoother/creamier. Happy brewing. ps I need a different glass for my ales.

A mate started me off with homebrewing 10 years ago and just started with the standard extract kit, after a couple of years I moved on to adding a few extra hops into the brew, then did a partial grain and finally moves onto whole grain last year.

It a cracking hobby and you can start off really simple and stay there if you like but you can also progress to really advanced stuff.

My advice ( others have touched on it above) are there are only 2 reasons you get crap beer.

1.) Sanitization. If your gear isn't clean any potential little bug can take over the fermentation process from the yeast you are adding, which is where the awful flavours come from. When I was starting I didn't bother using a hydrometer incase it introduced any bugs. As long as it was bubbling away healthly I'd leave it to do it's thing. When it stopped I'd leave it another few days to make sure it was done.

2.) Temperature. I have a slightly different problem where I live as it is pretty hot, so I need to bring my temperatures down whereas you may need to bring the temperature up at this time of year. For a standard ale yeast try and keep it around the 20degree mark. If you dip too much below that your yeast will be sluggish and may not convert all the sugars, too high above 25 and you start to get off flavours.

If you can get an off the shelf starter kit something like the below, yl he would have all he needs to give it a go and see if he likes it before heading down the rabbit hole.

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/ho ... r-kit.html

Give lagers a miss for the first few brews there are some other things to consider.

As others have said if the place on Standish street is still open, get yourself in there.

my two tips:

1. leave it alone.
2. a canister of carbon dioxide but only for the end of the barrel.

I always think when someone says "this is the bible for...." it's a bit overstated however on this occasion, the link below is for the home brewing bible. Everything from beginners stuff through to advanced.

And remember relax and have a homebrew

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Joy-H ... 636&sr=8-2

Me Da used to brew it in our bath!

basil6345789 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:53 pm

Me Da used to brew it in our bath!

In my younger days the bath came in handy for washing fermentation bins & pressure barrels due to the sheer size of them but never brewed the actual contents in a bath.

Jakubclaret wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 19, 2023 12:03 am

In my younger days

you have younger days?

you come across as an infant.

yTib wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 19, 2023 2:09 am

you have younger days?

you come across as an infant.

That’s a compliment I’m a baby really.

Make sure everything is clean, clean, clean and all will be well.

This company based in the Burnley area sell start up kits and are usually very competitive : https://brew2bottle.co.uk/collections/beer-starter-sets

I tend to use this company as they are most local to me. Good service and good advice. Do on-line sales. https://www.colchesterhomebrew.co.uk/co ... -Kits.html

I've been doing this for quite a while. The main points are covered by everyone else, no apologies for repetition.

1) Be paranoid about sanitising. Seriously. I prefer an oxygen based sanitiser as its no rinse. There's loads out there. Avoid the bleach based ones as they add rinsing it out as another step in the process.

2) Equipment list (some of these are essential, some are non-essential but will make your life way, way easier):
A big pan to boil in
Fermenting bucket 25-30l capacity
A secondary fermenting container
A really big sieve
Bubble lock and grommet
A clear plastic pop bottle 2l+
Stick on thermometer strips
Some food grade clear plastic piping
A siphon pump
A hyrdrometer
Loads of bottles. Swing tops like grolsch are so much easier so get drinking (or buying)
Some of these sound expensive or complicated. They are not. The biggest expense will be bottles.

3) Somewhere in the house that has a consistent temperature, usually around 20c (Don't worry it its a little under as brewing does generate its own heat - you won't need lower or higher temps unless you start going down the true lager or wheat beer route).

4) Make a yeast starter from the sachet in the pop bottle a day or so before brew day. This will get your brew starting off with a huge liquid yeast colony instead of a small dried one.

5) Patience. Resist the urge to continually take the top off and have a look at the beer as its fermenting.

6) Always drink beer when making beer.

claretabroad wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:27 am

I've been doing this for quite a while. The main points are covered by everyone else, no apologies for repetition.

1) Be paranoid about sanitising. Seriously. I prefer an oxygen based sanitiser as its no rinse. There's loads out there. Avoid the bleach based ones as they add rinsing it out as another step in the process.

2) Equipment list (some of these are essential, some are non-essential but will make your life way, way easier):
A big pan to boil in
Fermenting bucket 25-30l capacity
A secondary fermenting container
A really big sieve
Bubble lock and grommet
A clear plastic pop bottle 2l+
Stick on thermometer strips
Some food grade clear plastic piping
A siphon pump
A hyrdrometer
Loads of bottles. Swing tops like grolsch are so much easier so get drinking (or buying)
Some of these sound expensive or complicated. They are not. The biggest expense will be bottles.

3) Somewhere in the house that has a consistent temperature, usually around 20c (Don't worry it its a little under as brewing does generate its own heat - you won't need lower or higher temps unless you start going down the true lager or wheat beer route).

4) Make a yeast starter from the sachet in the pop bottle a day or so before brew day. This will get your brew starting off with a huge liquid yeast colony instead of a small dried one.

5) Patience. Resist the urge to continually take the top off and have a look at the beer as its fermenting.

6) Always drink beer when making beer.

Good advice I’d add a paddle to that list as well if the kit doesn’t already have 1.

this is all astonishingly helpful, thank you very much

It makes this thread more relevant with the other thread highlighting just how much people are being ripped off in the pubs, if you know what you are doing you can brew your own at a fraction, you don't really need to bother with bottles unless it's summer with high temperatures (or permanently prefer it cooler) you can go straight from the tap to the glass & save even more money if you don't mind it drinking it at an ambient temperature.

basil6345789 wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:53 pm

Me Da used to brew it in our bath!

Me Mam went apeshit

I used to brew my own beer for a few years as well as working at moorhouses brewery. Stopped doing it due to having my daughter and not having the time to make it or drink it.
You can not sterilise enough. I used to wash everything down and have sterilising soak baths set up where I would keep everything in.
Temperature control is massive. As homebrewer this is difficult to achieve. I used a plug in heat belt and towels around my fermenting bin but you need to find something that works for you.
Take your time with the maturation. I used to see adverts saying it'll be ready in a week. It won't. I used to mature the beer for one week for every % of alcohol. Lagers I used to like brewing in winter and then I could give it a proper cold maturation. I used to bottle my beer but mature it in keg first to drop a lot of the yeast out.
The homebrew kits are a good way to start but you're limited with how good the beer can taste. I used to like putting hop pellets in the keg for maturation. I found treacle worked well with dark beers when boiling up the kit. I also found the kits gave bad hangovers which was probably due to all the sugar in them.
Make sure you use a hydrometer. It's handy to know the strength but exploding bottles can be very dangerous and a keg blowing its top will make a right mess.
If you live in Burnley, the homebrew shop on Standish Street is excellent. Really nice chap who runs it (even though he's a city fan.) He'll do anything to help and they have everything you could need.
Good luck and enjoy

Grain kits from the Malt Miller are great.

Get a giant pot. The bigger the better - at least 30L but maybe more. The grain used is huge, prolly 6Kg so it takes a lot of space over the 20 odd litres you're expecting to need. Check ebay - brewsites are expensive etc but you could also check things like Warehouse / Catering / Chinese supermarket type places for one.

A good idea is to get a starter kit from Homebrewonline (check ebay before Amazon, it's a lot cheaper from the same people). It's basically a bucket, a hydrometer, temp sticker for the barrel, an air lock and a few other things.

You could also do with a good (pref. digital - Inkbird are good) thermometer for checking the mash process.

As you need to cool your wort asap (hot beer), I find the best way is a flexitub with some bricks in - set your pan on them above the line of the tub with a hosepipe running constant cold water (do it outside) is the easiest way, You'll be down to 25-30c in about 15 mins. Stir like crazy.

As for bottles, plastic is good and cheap. Easy to wash but you have to do it by hand or they'll melt in the dishwasher.

A bottle squirter for your sanitiser and a bottle tree for drying are also essential.

Also, get some cheap muslin hop bags and a few micro-whatever mesh sacks for your grain. A couple of buckets is handy for sparging (rinising the malt). I use 2 sacks because the grain is heavy and gets even heavier when wet - they can break so even out the weight.

As for santising, check the Malt Miller - it can be expensive but it's absolutely necessary. I used to use Starsan but I think it's banned now or something but there's loads about.

On bottling day, you'll need some Carbonation drops (basically sweets) to carbonate. Drop a few in and bottle. Wait another week/2 and you're done.

Another thing is, it's very messy. You'll be spending a lot of time holding big heavy bags over a bucket, letting them drain off. You might wanna buy a tarp or something to put down for this.

Give it a whack. Worst case you do it once or twice and you're a hundred quid or so out. Do it a handful of times and you've got lovely beer that's not exactly cheap anymore but definitely rewarding when your weeks of hard work and patience come to fruition!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beer-Craft-no- ... 0751569372

This is a great book - very simple and if you follow it you'll make good beer. It misses out sparging so read up on that (basically rinsing your used grain). You can read further into it online as and when but this is a very good starting point.

Will you be brewing quality or quantity? I brew 1 gallon batches from grain. Takes a few hours but a lot of that is waiting time. Once you get the hang of it it’s pretty easy. You can pretty much experiment and brew as you please. I’ve currently got a on choc-vanilla stout, a raspberry wheat beer and a different ale type stout. Doing a dark wheat beer this week.

If you’re going for quantity then I suggest the mangrove Jack kits or even the coopers kits. They’re ok. Brew 19l though not the 23 it says for a much fuller/stronger beer. And stick to mangroves yeast.

One poster mentioned above that lagers can be tricky. I would agree, you need to develop a bit of nous, not least because for best results (in my view) they need to be brewed 'cold'. One that I regularly use is Cooper's European Lager but I use brew enhancer rather than dextrose as the fermentable. This has the effect of dropping the ABV from 5 to around 4 but adds body. The final taste is really good and comparable to a decent Pils. I believe that the key is to keep the fermentation temperature close to, but below 20 deg C. I also leave the brew in the fermenting bin for a few days after I'm sure that fermentation has finished. I always use glass bottles and batch prime this brew with 160g dextrose to 23 litres. Produces a good head. If you can wait that long (!) then it's at its best after about 3 months in the bottle. I'm currently supping stuff I bottled in October 2022 and it's still excellent.

I have dry hopped this brew in the past with Saaz hops but prefer the standard version.

I wonder if anyone else agrees but I've always found that homebrewed beer develops its full flavour/is at its best after around 3 months in the bottle.

Once tried this when I was a teenager. Sold the whole lot that was made for a reasonable profit. It got people very drunk but also gave them the sh*ts. Looking back the sanitation aspect was not satisfactory. My view is it’s a pain in the arse and best left to the expert brewing companies. It’s probably cheaper too if you value your time but if you’ve nothing better to do maybe give it a go.

I tried it once. Bought one of those brewing bucket-kits from Woolworths and made some shite tasting beer that got thrown down the sink. I know a couple of people who have been into home-brew since the 1980s, and I'd say it's just about passable at best. When I go round to their houses for a cards night, I buy my own.

Tried it with limited success. Wine was really easy and had reasonable success with that.

The beer stank to high heaven, and tasted rank, no matter how many times I sterilised it all. Eventually gave up and used the bucket for cleaning the fish tank instead

As a gift you'd have to be sure that he was prepared to go through all the processes and persevere through any issues etc