Young's Brew Kit - Bitter

[Old Speckled Ben]

Well, I thought I'd have a go at a bitter, so I decidied to start right at basics with one of those Young's Brew Buddies (Bitter)

I know there are better kits out there, but I needed the extra equipment that came with the kit, and I got it on offer on Tesco Direct

I decided to use a brew kit enhancher that I picked up in Wilko's instead of the sugar to try and make it slightly better lol

It's been fermenting away since Saturday (02/01/2011) and it's gone down from 1.044 to about 1.012, so it's going strong

It smells great (I imagine a much better kit smells even better lol) and I'm looking forward to trying it

When it's finished fermenting, I was going to put some of it in a pressure barrell, and bottle some of it in to 1ltr PET bottles

Does anyone know of any reason not to do this, as it's my first attempt and I don't want to ruin it?

Also, can anyone reccommend a good 40 pint kit to try afterwards? I like reasonably dark ales (not wanting to do a stout, just yet, though) and I'm aiming for around the £1 per pint price range lol

Many thanks in advance
Ben

[Shadowknight]

The Tom Caxton ale kits from Wilkensons are good flavour, and come with a hop sachet.

I think bottling some and barrelling the rest is a good idea. I have to do this anyway as I can only get 19 litres in my kegs.

[jason123]

No reason why you can't bottle and barrel a brew. Just make sure everything is sterilised and workout your priming sugar carefully if your not going to batch prime the whole lot and then decant in to the barrel and bottles.

£1 a pint is way over the top. Any good 2 can kit from St Peters or Woodefordes should do be fine and will come in well under the £1 a pint mark

[Geezah]

Next kit - Get a Muntons Docklands Porter. You wont be disapointed & it will be way under £1 per pint

[Old Speckled Ben]

Excellent, excellent, thanks, everyone

I like the fact that £1 a pint is deemed way too expensive lol

I might have to have a gander in Wilko's, next week, then

Me and a guy from work (he's just started brewing, too) are going to a homebrew shop he's found in Chesterfield.....it's about an hour each way from me, so I'd better make sure I buy some stuff lol

[Geezah]

http://www.thethriftyshopper.co.uk/

Orders over £40 delivered free
Absolutely fantastic service from them!

[canarytim]

Hi All,

Couldn't agree more, Geezah. Thifty sorted me out with a kilo of speciality grains that I forgot to order, added them to an existing order and declined to charge me for them on the basis 'it would cost us more in credit card fees to process'. Outstanding! On a slight down side I did get some finings from them in the same order (arrived late December) that expired in Feb 2011.

[Old Speckled Ben]

Oh Geeza.....what have you done?!?!

Now I'm simply going to have to spend all my money on that site lol

[canarytim]

Ahh, the power of thrifty!