Ah, O.K.

To answer your question, I don't know. I'm a complete beginner at this with no knowledge whatsoever.

I've actually posted in this thread before looking to get into home brewing and got really helpful answers but the starter kits that people linked were from U.S sites that either didn't ship to Ireland or cost a lot to ship. Sooo I never got around to buying one and am still not sure what a good starter kit should have, considering that I do see myself keeping this up as a hobby so don't want something too basic.

Hmm, looking at their website, that's exactly what it is: a plastic, pressure-rated vessel for carbing and serving. Kind of funny, but whatever.

If you've got room for that thing in your fridge somewhere, I guess you could go with that for a kit. After you ferment in the bucket from the kit, you'll rack (move the beer using a hose) the beer from the bucket into the little pressure keg thing, stick what looks like a paintball-gun size CO2 cartridge on top of it, and wait for it to carb.

Like I said, most homebrewers don't start with enough fridge space to dedicate to 5g/20L of beer sitting around in it, so they start by bottling. After fermenting in the bucket, add some priming sugar to a bottling bucket, rack the beer into the bottling bucket (you could bottle straight off the fermentor, but I still use my bottling bucket whenever I bottle), bottle it up and wait a couple weeks to carb.

Using that website, you could go with:

Beginner kit

Bottling bucket

Bottle caps

Capper to crimp the crowns on the bottles

Bottle wand
You could fill the bottles without this - you could just let the bottling hose down into the bottle and open and close the spigot on the bottling bucket yourself - but I'm a fan of bottling wands.

Any ale ingredient kit

While you wait on that stuff to show up, start saving your bottles, rinsing them out after enjoying, to reuse. Total comes to $76.72. Stuff is expensive over there.

Oh, and of course you need a pot and a way to heat it up, at a minimum. If you're sure you'll stick with the hobby go right for a 7g+ pot; if not, you can get by with anything over 3g or so.

Thanks so much for that, really helpful. I found this kit which has everything you recommended and works out a bit cheaper.http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/bee...ers-p-213.html

thanks again

Has anyone tried the Elysian Apocalypse Series? I had a sample of the Peste Chocolate Chili Ale the other day and I don't know how anyone could enjoy an entire pint of this stuff.

I'd say I have a moderate to high tolerance for heat in my food but this was a pretty solid burn that I was not expecting from a beer. Normally if I'm eating pretty spicy food I like to wash it down with some beer to help me cool off. After tasting that beer I needed another beer to wash it down, lol. Buyer beware!

I haven't had that one but Hunahpu has ancho chiles in the beer and I actually don't like it very much when it is really fresh. It's too hot for me (I have a low spicy food tolerance).

Billy's Chilies beer almost made me throw up and even though I've seen it on shelves, I don't think you could pay me to drink Ghost Face Killah

I brewed a jalapeno beer with a friend last year. Most people liked it, and it had a little kick, but I couldn't put down more than one of them, and even 12oz of it was plenty for me.

This year he wanted to make the same one again. During sampling, it wasn't as hot as we wanted it, so we added some cherry peppers he had growing in his backyard. Now, this thing packed quite a bit of heat. I actually drank one (albeit slowly) and loved it. Went very well with some tacos, but the tacos were not incredibly hot and I like a little sweat on the forehead with tacos.

I won't be brewing this on my own (moved to Colorado recently), but it has changed my mind about the spicy beers from gimmick to niche.

I also had a 3oz sample at a brewery up in Loveland, Co the other day that wasn't bad. I still think 95% of these are "I'd love a taste" to me. Could be cool to do 6oz with a 4+ course meal of beer pairings too.

It's funny when non beer people drink these too, their reactions are memorable. "Oh wow, it really does taste like jalapenos!" Similar to the imperial stouts being given to newbies We've all been there though.

While I'm on the subject, any Colorado brewers here? Could use a new brewing partner/once in awhile brew partner, etc.

I'll look at brewing clubs this winter once I'm settled in (any recs there too are appreciated). I'll be living in Arvada.

I've been brewing about 6 years now, and while I'm not an expert, I've had some good success and consider it a serious hobby.

Hey all,

I'm not sure if you have all heard of Sierra Nevada Beer Camp but basically you can enter a video and if chosen they fly you out to Chico, CA for two days and you get a full tour and then get to brew a one-off batch with the other winners, then they distribute a keg to a local bar. Anyways, I've made a video and would appreciate if any of you would vote. You can vote once a day per computer. I promise a detailed TR if I win. Vote here: http://sierrabeercamp.com/#/view-entries/299

**If this is spamming or anything, please delete, I didn't mean it to be that.

One of the home brewers from my club went last year and made Raiders of the Lost Hops.

I voted for you!

Voted also.

I voted.

Can't vote on iPhone. Anyone else?

You should be able to. No worries though, I appreciate the effort. Thanks to everyone else, I'm almost top 10!

Start whoring yourself out on reddit.com/r/homebrew

Plucked off one of the (few) cones on my first year Cascade plant. The fragrance got me in the mood so I decided to order a Nut Brown extract kit from Northern Brewer. Looks like it uses their new Marris Otter malt extract, which sounds nice.

I figure I'll throw my handful of cones in at the end of the boil and call it "harvest" or "wet hop" nut brown. Looking forward to next year when I'll hopefully have a more bountiful harvest. Also planted Nugget but no cones on that one at all, really.

You guys think Cascade will be okay mixing with fuggles in this beer? It's such a small amount (really just want to use what I have), so I figure it won't be too much of a departure in style.

ETA: nice video! LOL

Should be fine fold. I used a really tiny amount of my Centennial in a brew and there's no way anyone would ever guess it was fresh hopped.

Thanks a lot. Yeah, that's what I figured. The yield was so small I almost decided to use them for something like popcorn with fresh hop butter, but my balls aren't big enough.

From this thread to catch up. This was the first beer I brewed with and ECY culture, Bugfarm 5.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/fir...gfarm5-288800/

So a bit of a brag/trip report/update on this beer, specifically the Bugfarm batch. First of all I bottled the Bugfarm Golden Sour on 7/9/12, it finished at 1.006 and I bottled it up in some of the thick Vinnie 375ml bottles. This beer turned out amazing, all due to the yeast blend, its a big beer but the alcohol bite I was getting months ago is gone. Beer pours with a thin white head that dissipates almost immediately, its a bit hazy with a golden color and a nice amount of tiny bubbles streaming up the glass. Aroma is straight peaches with bit of lactic aromas. Tart up front, almost sweet tart like, with a smooth moderate body then finishes dry, kind of winey. I'm very happy with this beer.

Here it is in the glass.



Now to the brag. My homebrew club had Al Buck as a guest to speak, pour his farmhouse ale (100% Brett Nanus) which was extremely good, and sell some ECY at my LHBS Barry's Homebrew in Philadelphia (a 3 block walk from my house). Besides being able to pick up 2 vials, Bugfarm 6 and Saison Brasserie, I brought the Bugfarm Golden Sour for everyone to try including Al.

So I poured Al and a few other brewers a tasting glass, it was really cool to have him try the beer and give me his thoughts. I explained the recipe and how fermentation went a little bit as he took a whiff and a sip of the beer. He said something along the lines of "I dont even remember what was in Bugfarm 5 at this point". But as he drank the beer he started to remember based on the flavor profile. A few things he said was that he was surprised how full the body of the beer was with it being so dry, he asked if I used any fruit bc he was picking up Mangos, peaches etc, I said no and then he remember he used Brett Custersianus in blend 5 which is why everyone was picking up on that, he also mentioned it was a bit winey. But overall it looked like he enjoyed it, as did everyone else at the meeting, I got alot of good compliments so it was worth tearing through a 6 pack of the beer. The rest will get laid down for a while.

This thread has been quiet lately so I'll put out an update.

Coff, killer stuff man, very cool. I really want to get into some sour/wild brewing but need some more space, so maybe in the future.

The one sour I can do is a berliner weisse using the lacto from grains. I think I've talked about it before, but I rebrewed this and the sourness is a lot better this time, much less creamed corn off smell.

I will be brewing a west coast IPA this weekend.

90% 2 row
5% Carapils
5% Crystal 20

Hopped with Columbus, simcoe and centennial. WLP001 to finish. Really hoping this will turn out well.

I have also received Coff's and Wraths' SMaSH brews and I plan on drinking them this week and will post a review (better late than never).

I also have some friends coming into town next week and will be drinking: Black Butte 24, BCBCS, Bruery Otoise, Bruery Sans Pagaie, New Glarus Wisconsin Red and some more. Hopefully I'll get some reviews on those. Cheers!

Sounds like a great weekend. I really need to brew but am having trouble finding the time. I'm planning on doing a big IPA soon and then following it up with a RIS for winter time. Might try and really push stuff and do a barleywine after the RIS but we will see.

My IPA will have ahtanum, cascade, and columbus and be 95% 2row, 5% victory. Gonna aim for a 6.5% beer and will be dryhopping the **** out of it.

I bottled 10g of barleywine last weekend. It had been in kegs since last December or so, and I had been telling myself I couldn't brew until I got it bottled up, so there we go. I've now got three vintages of the same barleywine recipe: a few bottles of '09 hanging around, maybe 3-4 sixers of '10, and now the 10g of '11. I brew it at the end of the year each year.

That means its brew weekend this weekend, and I'm planning on doing a Pliny clone. I found my notes from the last time - I thought I'd lost them - and that one came out absolutely dead-on, so I'm pretty excited.

Recipe and notes or it didn't happen.

Did a search and didn't see this mentioned anywhere but, the Ruby beer from Mcmenamins in the northwest has always been my favorite. Make sure to try it if you happen to visit Portland or Seattle

If you haven't tasted Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA, do yourself a favor and seek it out. The bar I drink it at always has a great selection of about 60+ beers on tap, and I keep ordering it over, and over, and....

FW is killing it right now.