AG equipment

[lewis1981]

Hi

i have just joined this forum and am looking to start AG brewing. i have been looking at the H&G 10 gallon brewery and would like to know if these boilers and fermenters have markings on it showing how many litres are in them so i can fill to the right point.

if they dont then not to keen as dont want to be jugging water into them as would take ages. any advice would be good thanks.

if i dont buy this then would just buy the same plastic bins and build it all myself as would be cheaper as well. am i right in saying that i will be ok just buying tesco value kettles and using the elements from them - 2 in a boiler and 1 in a HLT.

thanks

[adm]

There are no markings.

But it's very easy to just jug in water a litre or two at a time and then just mark the levels on the outside with a permanent marker. You only need to do it once.

You will be cheaper building the same thing yourself of course. The plus side of the H&G version is that the element fittings are nicely done and quite rugged and the whole thing is PAT tested.

[prodigal2]

Adm speaks much sense, and even if your containers are marked with volume it worth checking them when you get them as they are not always that reliable.

On a side note one of the most useful objects in my brewery is a cheap plastic 5L jug.

[lewis1981]

thanks for the advice think i might start building this myself soon and try an AG brew before xmas

[booldawg]

Hope all goes well Lewis. There are some excellent threads on here re: building all the bits you need to go AG.

[lewis1981]

thinking of buying some of the equipment to build my 10 gal brewery next week. for the boiler i am looking at using a 10 gal fermenter bucket from H&G for 17.99. this looks like the one that is used in their 10 gal boiler, can anyone confirm this to me as need a thicker plastic bucket than the usual youngs ones. also will a 30ltr coolbox be the same size as the one H&G sell as will be making this as well.

also when i start ordering these i may order some grain and hops for my first AG brew, can anyone recommend a good recipe to start off with.

thanks

[Damfoose]

I sent a message to H&G the other day asking if the 60 litre bucket would be good enough to use for a boiler. The answer i recieved was that it is the same one they use for their boilers so your good to go. if you ask nicley when you order it they will even drill the required holes for you.

[yashicamat]

One thing to note is to make sure your old FV bucket is suitable for boiling though. I was speaking to H&G the other day and it sounds like there's plastic and there's plastic. I was going to use one of my old plastic fermenters, but now they're assigned to grain storage and I've ordered a H&G boiler.

[wetdog]

I bought one of their £17.99 buckets and one of their boiler taps to use as a boiler and it works just fine

[lewis1981]

can anyone reccommend a good recipe to start off with as may be buy some grain with my buckets.

[prodigal2]

Recipies really depend on what you like, if you search the recipe section I can recommend 100% Satisfaction, Styrian stunner, Bluebird. These are single hop ales, which also will help build your palate to understand each hop flavour, also they are real crackers too. If you want to say what style of beers you enjoy, we can help point you in the right direction At the end of the day you want to brew the kind of ales you like.

P2

[lewis1981]

the ales i like are Speckled Hen, Newcastle Brown, London Pride, Banana Beer,Ruddles,Pedigree, these are just a few really.

[youreds91]

the ales i like are Speckled Hen, Newcastle Brown, London Pride, Banana Beer,Ruddles,Pedigree, these are just a few really.

My first 2 AGs were London Pride & OSH, have a look in the Brewdays forum to see how I got on. There are plenty of London Pride recipes on here, do a search in the recipe forum.
I did the one from Dave Line's book which is like this one I've just lifted from the recipes board:

Marris Otter 3.5kg
Crystal 250gm
Demerara sugar 250gm
Goldings 50gm 60 mins
Fuggles 20gm 60 mins
Goldings 15gm last 15 mins

Download yourself a copy of Beersmith too. You can try it for a month before you have to pay.

[wetdog]

Do a search on this forum and you'll find clone recipes for most of those