Getting More Out Of Your Brewing

We received this email from one of our customers today and thought the information would be useful for potential brewers

Hi, I have just completed my first home brew kit. It was a Youngs bitter kit. I am now interested on doing a second batch but I want to get a bit more involved in the process rather than tipping a tin of beer syrup in, adding sugar and waiting. I don't know how possible it is to work with the raw ingredients (hops and malts etc) at home rather than using the tins in the kits. Would you have information on this and suggestions of what I would need to get a bit more involved in the process.

We're delighted to hear you've enjoyed your first brew. To answer your question there are three ways you can get more involved in the brewing process.

Kit Tweaking

You can improve the flavour and aroma of the kit by adding a hopped tea or dry hopping the wort. Body can be improved by replacing brewing sugar with spraymalt whilst replacing the yeast can also effect the flavour. To make a hopped tea, simply take a sterilised cafetiere add 10-15g of your favourite hops and pour a kettle full of boiling water over them. Steep for 10 minutes then plunge and add to the wort.

Dry hopping is simply adding 10-15g of hops into the beer after the initial vigorous fermentation. Many brewers just chuck them in loose but we prefer to use a sterilised stocking and weigh it down with a couple of stones or marbles. If you use a bottling bucket for secondary fermentation, you can also add the hop stocking to that.

Extract Brewing

Extract is a bit of a half way house approach between kit brewing and all grain brewing. You'll need to invest in a pretty big stock pot - at least 30 litres if you want to make a 23L brew. You add water and boil, using hops to flavour and steeping grains to add colour and flavour.

All Grain Brewing

This is "proper" brewing where you extract the sugars directly from the malt, boil it and add hops for bittering and flavour/aroma and then rapidly chill it to get the wort down to yeast pitching temperature. Do do this you'll need a Boiler/Hot Liquor tank, mash tun and immersion chiller. Although they are not on the website yet, we can supply all of these items for you. Some brewers have made their own equipment. The main advantages of All Grain brewing are that the beer tastes a lot better, is ready to drink sooner and, (not including equipment) is cheaper to brew per pint.You also have control over what you are brewing and, as long as you keep notes, you'll be able to brew it time and again with pretty consistent results.

On the minus side, there is a not insignificant investment in equipment, the brewing process takes 6 hours or so (although there is a lot of downtime where you could be doing something else). It is not absolutely necessary but we would recommend investing in an all grain brewing book and some recipe software like Beer Smith.

I hope this helps, if you live near the shop (Ashford, Kent) arrange a time to pop in and check out one of our demonstrations in the New Year.

More Hops On The Site

Great news. Due to popular demand we've increased our range of vacuum packed hops to include the following:

Amarillo (US)

Aurora (Slovenia)

Fuggles (UK)

Galena (US)

Hallertauer Aroma (NZ)

Magnum (Germany)

Mount Hood (US)

Perle (Germany)

Sovereign (UK)

Spalt Select (Germany)

Willamette (US)

All are available, in stock and ready to order from our site.

Tell Us What You Want

We need your help, home brewers and wine makers. You've seen our site and, maybe, you've visited our shop. We need to know what you would like to see on our site and what you think about the products that are already on there. Please use the comments section below to tell us what you think.

Hops Now Available on our Site

Great news hop lovers. We now have a selection of hops to buy on our site. We expect to increase this selection in the near future but, for the meantime, we have the following in stock.

Saaz

The classic Pilsner hop from the Czech Republic is used in many of the world's finest beers, including the exceptional Pilsner Urquell. It'sbeautiful aroma and delicate bitterness make it suitable for many styles. The Altbier brewers of Düsseldorf use vast quantities of Saaz to achieve the very high bitterness levels required for this style.

WGV

Originally bred by Whitbread's Brewery, this variety displays both Goldings and Fuggles characteristics. Although very fine ales can be made using WGV exclusively, they are usually used in combination with other varieties.

Target

Target is by far the most widely grown variety in Britain due to its heavy cropping, excellent resistance to disease and high alpha acid content. It now takes up almost a third of the total acreage although this is sure to decrease as the new dwarf varieties become more popular. Although recognised by some brewers as an aroma hop, Target is at its best in the copper for the production of beers with a low bitterness. Commercially, Target is used extensively in keg beers for economical reasons. Its powerful flavour would be overwhelming in more assertive brews. Used with discretion in combination with fine aroma hops, however, excellent Bitters and Pale Ales can be produced.

Progress

Originally grown as a Fuggles replacement, Progress is a very versatile hop that combines fine aroma properties with a respectable alpha acid content. It seems to be at its best when combined with Goldings in high class Bitters and Pale Ales.

Northern Brewer

Although originally developed in Britain, Northern Brewer is now grown almost exclusively in Germany . It is very versatile in that it can be used to provide bitterness in both Ales and Lagers. Its low aroma requires it to be used with other, more flavourful hops for the best results.

Northdown

Northdown is a seedling of Northern Brewer, which is no longer grown in Britain. It retains much of its parent's fine bittering properties but has a much-improved aroma.. Although Northdown can be used on its own to good effect, especially in darker styles of beer, it is the ideal accompaniment to aroma hops such as Fuggles or Progress. It is particularly suited to Irish Stout

Challenger

Originally developed as a Goldings replacement, Challenger is a very versatile variety. Many brewers have found that excellent beers can be brewed from Challenger alone. It has fine bittering properties and a respectable aroma. More commonly, though, it is combined with a dedicated aroma variety. Challenger is gradually commanding less and less acreage these days as it gives way to more disease resistant varieties, such as the dwarf Pioneer.

Hallertau

Grown in the Hersbruck district of the Hallertau, the largest hop-growing region in the world, this is the classic Lager hop.Its fine aroma properties are world renowned, ideally suited to all Lagers and can even be used to good effect in Bitters.

Bramling Cross

Originally bred from the Bramling Golding and a wild American hop, Bramling Cross is a low yielding variety grown in Kent and Sussex. Although an easy hop to grow, it is very low yielding so not an attractive proposition to the farmer. It has a very distinctive aroma, which is best suited to stronger, darker styles of beer. Although its popularity has been declining over the past 20 years or so, it is now making a comeback amongst the new breed of microbrewers

Thanks to Brupaks Guide to Hops for the information.

Calling Lager Brewers

Great news, lager drinkers. Coopers European Lager is now on the site. If we were to say it was "probably the best lager kit in the world" it would give you a clue as to what the finished product tastes like.

We've brewed this one before and it tastes great served cold on a warm summer's day. However, a word of warning, this kit does take a full 12 weeks to condition so best brew it now, bottle it and leave it in the shed or garage until spring. You'll need brewing sugar to brew this product and bottles, caps and a capping device to bottle it. Many lager drinkers prefer their beer bottled as it fits in the fridge better and allows for higher carbonation than would otherwise be achieved when kegging.

Extended Opening Hours

At Easy Home Brew we think that arriving home on a Friday night to find you've been carded by a courier company is not exactly the best way to start your brewing weekend. You've either got to rearrange delivery or trudge over to collect the package on Saturday morning.

Being ideally situated, just a couple of minutes' drive from junction 10 of the M20, we have decided to remain open until 6pm on Friday evenings so the brewers and wine makers of East Kent can pop in on the way home to pick up those essentials. Initially we're trialling this in the run up to Christmas but, if it proves successful, we will continue into the New Year.

We thought you'd like to know.

Brewing Demonstrations

Once again, we're proud to present our very own resident beer geek Sean Ayling who will again be performing one of his highly popular brewing demonstrations at Easy Home Brew tomorrow (Saturday 20th November) at 2pm.

Our tame brewer will be demonstrating bottling and kegging the Coopers IPA kit with Amarillo hops that he made at our last event as well as brewing a Woodforde's Nelson's Revenge kit.

Sean brewed his first kit at the tender age of 15 and, following a 25 year hiatus, took brewing up again a couple of years ago. You can find him on his own blog (The South Street Shed Brewery) or on Twitter.

To celebrate the demonstration we will be offering a 10% discount on the Nelson's Revenge kits to anyone present for the demonstration.