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I make some nice stouts and porters though. I prefer dry malt extract and a partial mash. To brewing from a tin.
although I just did a German triple from a tin and added a pound of dark extract.... That ended up pretty damn nice.
so yeah, last few years I have done cheap kit to full grain with minimal equipment, and kinda settled in the middle.
I would encourage you to experiment. You can start with a kit and add extra things to come up with something a bit more special
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sanitise everything
bottle the beer if you want to enjoy at it's best for longer
be patient with the conditioning stage
Don't:
give in because you get a bad batch
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to be honest I'm not really interested in home brewing but will do a couple to appease the good lady, I know I'll never make a beer better than I can buy at my local, so I just want to make the best I can within my limits.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
I just had to "brew link openssl --force" to get my rust compiler to find the header files for openSSL!
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
Sterilise. Then again. Then again. It's absolutely the hardest bit to do right. After that, it's pretty easy.
I liked the woodforde wherry kit for a decent ale, and apparently it's an easy, forgiving one. I also did a nice cerveza - not like the corona piss, but actually a rather nice, gently sparkling beer.
I tried a cider. It got me very drunk very fast but had a smell of sulphur about it. Presumably I didn't sterilise fully.
which Cerveza was it? that sounds like something I'd be happy guzzling.
As for Corona being piss, well it's the perfect drink in this weather and 24 bottles for £10 currently at my local offy.... that makes it the best drink available.... until it goes back up in price
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
I do extract brewing but I have to say that the Woodforde's Wherry liquid tin kit I started with was very good indeed.
In my experience all grain brewing beats extract, which beats two can kits, which beats single can kits. A generalization, but you get the gist.
You can definitely brew something of (good) pub/commercial quality, but it may not be from a kit. Kits can still be very good though!
The nice thing about brewing is that it is lots of steps, all of which can be improved with a bit of care/work. When you add up those small tweaks you get a noticeable difference in the finished product.
Bottle and cap your beer, then leave it (upright) somewhere coolish and darkish. Don't overprime (add too much sugar to the bottle) and do leave it a good while, at least a month.
I love brewing, cheese making and curing meat: you can achieve fantastic results and get to enjoy something that you can't necessarily buy. You also (perhaps!) understand and value the food and its character more somehow.
Apart from that, I only brew tin kits and I will say while you won't quiet get the quality of a decent pub/store bought beer you'll be quiet surprised at how good some of them can come out. I can recommend Woodfords Wherry as above and also John Bull IPA is a lovely kit.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
It's not just about cheaper drinking. Making you own stuff is very satisfying.
Flavoured gin and vodka are also easy. This month we are picking soft fruit: raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, black and red currants. Anything which isn't good enough to freeze or make jam with goes into the jar with gin and sugar, and comes out at Christmas.
if you really finding yourself addicted it can go out of control and the next thing you know you got a micro brewery on your hands lol
well worth buying cheap bottled water to use over the stuff that comes out the tap. it adds a few pennies to the cost but you will get a much cleaner brew
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I'd still say good temperature control and yeast are the big ones (unless you have very strange water!) but buying water/tablets might be an easier fix.
As I've said though it is lots of little steps/components so there's a ton of tweaks/improvements to be had (mash temp, water chemistry, loads of things around yeast and fermentation, racking, hops, etc)
Record what you do - grain bill, temperatures, boil times, hop additions then make tasting notes. It makes everything more repeatable and you'll forget otherwise!
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1