MORE homebrew shoppery!

Ok, DECENT homebrew shops are becoming harder to find, here in north Manchester im spoiled for choice in that I have 3!

BUT worthy of a mention on here is this one... http://www.spitting-feathers.co.uk/ the proprietor (Steve) is as sound as a pound, and ive had a couple of success of late via advice from Steve! the most notable of which is a Burton Bridge Porter. Im not 100% keen on the Burton Bridge kit yeast, and was looking for something else!

"try this Gervin yeast" said Steve! Well bugger me, he wasnt wrong!

It took off like a rocket, fermented out in a week, very clean taste.. PERFECT!

Anyhow, thanks Steve! ill give you the full verdict when its cleared!

Cheers

B..

Anyhow, back to the brewing! :)

Back in june a brewed a Woodefordes "nelsons revenge" 2 can kit i bottled it around the 25 of June and ANNOYINGLY after 2 months in the bottle its STILL CLOUDY!
you would have thought muntons (the kits maker) would have sorted this problem out by now, as usual for a muntons 2 can, it stuck at 1.020. and now im on the 6 month wait to be able to drink it! this is somewhat of a joke IMHO, as a coopers beer is usually fermented out in 7-8 days, cleared in the bottle after a week and drinkable a week later!

soo what is the problem then? well IMHO its the yeast there using, so as an experiment my next 2 can kit will be brewed using Danstar Nottingham yeast, and im going to bin the kit yeast! ill be sure to let you know how it turns out!

anyhow, I have filled both fermenters this week, FV1 has been filled with youngs harvest pilsner lager on the recommendation of a man at work! he reckoned it was "excellent, the best I have done yet!" he proclaimed, so i made it up with 1Kg of white house sugar and 500Grms of medium spraymalt.... its fermenting like a goodun so well see in a week or 2!

FV2 however has been filled with Ditches stout. made from a coopers stout kit with 1Kg of spraymalt and a "cup" of house sugar it really needs nothing more, and is a superb pint!

cheers chaps!

B..

OH DEAR!

I have done some digging tonight on the "online homebrew company" and "brew it yourself" and made frankly SHOCKING discoveries!

for starters "the online homebrew company" IS NOT a registered company name with companies house. HOWEVER....

"brew it yourself" is! And it would seem Damon Parsons (the MD) hasn't filed any accounts for the business, and they have been declared INSOLVENT for the second time!

CLICK HERE FOR COMPANIES HOUSE REPORT

AND THE SAME FOR ANOTHER OF DAMONS BUSINESSES..

Anyhow, im yet to find a phone number for Damon, so if you have one I would appreciate it being passed my way!

Oh and while im at it, if you want to ask Damon anything here is his FACEBOOK profile.... :)

thanks chaps, keep the info coming!

B..

Homebrew shops ONLINE!

There is a plethora of choice when it comes to Online HB suppliers now (from now on referred to as OHBS) most are good, some are EXCELLENT (hop and grape and the thrifty shopper to name 2). And then there are are some that simply excel!

The store I am about name to excels in EVERY way, It excels at APPALLING CUSTOMER SERVICE, it excels at RIPPING PEOPLE OFF, they excel at LYING TO CUSTOMERS and most of all they excel at NOT BEING ABLE TO TAKE CRITICISM.

some of you will have already guessed who i am talking about, but for the benefit of those struggling i am of course talking about "brew it yourself" and its other aliases!

Brew it yourself.co.uk
the online homebrew company.co.uk

I am reading all over the internet forums how this company treats it customers. Taking money from accounts and not shipping goods. NO customer service phone number, banning CUSTOMERS from their own online forum for asking questions like "where's my order" and then what is in my opinion, possibly the biggest faux pax. Threatening blog and forum owners with legal action for criticising the company in public!

Oh and dont take my word for it, go have a look on trustpilot!

http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.brew-it-yourself.co.uk

anyhow, if you are a customer of the above shops PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch this space. things could be about to get VERY interesting!

Oh and before i go, here is some info for those looking! courtesy of who is!

Domain name:          brew-it-yourself.co.uk

Registrant:           D Parsons       

Trading as:           D Parsons       

Registrant type:      UK Individual       

Registrant's address: The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their address omitted from the WHOIS service.       

Note that brew-it-yourself.co.uk is ILLEGALLY listed as a non trading individual! im sure nominet will love to find out about this!

however his other domain is registered correctly!

Domain name:          the-online-homebrew-company.co.uk       

Registrant:           The Online Shopping Company       

Registrant type:      UK Limited Company, (Company number: 6958394)       

Registrant's address: Unit 4 Parkside        

                     Southend On Sea        

                     Essex         

                     SS2 5SJ         

                     United Kingdom       

if anyone has anything they would like to share, the contact me at bungle666@live.co.uk

and do PLEASE keep watching this space!

thanks

B..

Im sorry.. I just didnt realize!

Bloody hell, I cant beleive I haven't posted on here sine last November! sorry folks, my bad...

Anyhow, Its all been happening on the brewing front recently. after a quiet few months, i really laid back into in January doing a mix of the usual coopers stuff, with the odd "other" thrown in! only one of the "others" turned into drain cleaner :( It was a Geordie bitter (ok so no great loss) it was horrid and thin but tasted OK at bottling, but tasted worse and worse as time went on! by the time i had 20 bottles left, they were so bad I sinked them, the taste was AWFUL!

desperate times call for desperate measures, so i soaked ALL my kit in bleach overnight then rinsed and star-sanned the lot! anyhow, luckily its been all right since!

there have been some new additions to the brewery too....... I have acquired (on long term borrow) a king keg bottom tap, superb for my every day beer! saves on a load of messing around with bottles ETC..

I have also gained a second fermenter, now I can brew 80 pints at once! this now means i sohould be able to lay some stock down as well as doing specials around Christmas ETC without disturbing my regular pattern of brewing!

anyhow, there you go.... fully updated!

bye for now

Bungle666

Coopers dark ale....

Is a bloody SUPERB pint!!

In other news, the muntons old English was bottled tonight, i cant say i was that impressed with the taste straight out of the fermenter, so im hoping it clears up into a nice pint (im sure it will) but them 2 can kits seem to take an age to clear!! unlike the coopers stout done ditch styleeeeeeeeeee! fermented out in 3 days and drinkable straight out of the secondary... it too is SUPERB!! I think ill bottle it this weekend!

coopers kits cannot really be beat, there VERY hard to get wrong, will stand a bit of messing and ferment out to a good pint in an AMAZINGLY short period of time!!

coopers, we love you!!

Cheers

B..

Well, im in the bad books!!

The brewing is going well although due to a holiday and then being skint I haven't done one for a while!

Anyhow I finally got to put one in on Friday night, and showed a mate of mine how easy it is to do a kit brew as he was thinking of having a go himself! coopers dark, made with 500g of dark spraymalt and 700g of dextrose all mixed together gave me a nice SG of 1048.

Anyhow, 48 hours after the brewday i came downstairs to find this......


It seems I have had my first coopers explosion!! LOL. anyhow im in trouble as the wife had just put that tablecloth on the table the day i brewed....

ill be sure to tell you the outcome anyway, it smells SUPERB already!!

cheers!!

B..

Bloody Wherry...

The wherry i feel is a disaster, its been the bottle 3 weeks and still showing no sign of clearing :( reading between the lines on some homebrew forums it seems this is a common problem, needless to say i wont be wherrying again!!

in other news, the coopers IPA is a cracking drink, cleared in under a week and im drinking it as i type this, its bloomin SUPERB, to say it tasted shite straight out of the fermenter too I didn't hold much hope for it, but cleared and primed its VERY moreish!!

Next up a little experiment as a precursor to a bigger experiment.... My biggest critic (my dad) was complaining that i don't do a strong beer...... well that is over, as im going to do a youngs harvest Yorkshire bitter kit with 1kilo of enhancer and 1 kilo of sugar.... that should be strong enough!!

cheers

B..

Next up...

I finally bottled my wherry a few days ago, as an experiment I used a half teaspoon of sugar as opposed to the usual quarter. im just experimenting to see the affect on the head and what its like with a little more fizz in it, ill be sure to let you know the results as soon as its ready!!

This has sadly left me with an empty fermenter and nothing to put in it, leading to a few days of shall I shan't I ETC ETC.. after the disaster I had midweek breaking both my thermometer AND my hydrometer and the need to replace them AND buy a kit and enhancer busting my budget of around £20 i had to take drastic action...

I had a look on the website of "the thrifty shopper" for inspiration on my next kit, and to my surprise the coopers free enhancer offer is STILL on!! woohoo!! this meant i could replace my broken instruments with what i saved on not buying enhancer. So I opted for a coopers IPA new instruments, some bottle tops and the free enhancer add to that the P+P and the whole lot was a smidge over £21!! WINNER!! the fact the delivery is next day too makes it double win!!

So if you reading this thrifty shopper, thanks!! I will be back again for more!!

Cheers

B..

Turbo cider...

I have finally had chance to start my TC, been meaning to have a go for flipping ages!!

it really is the simplest stuff in the world, my recipe:-

5L tesco pressed apple juice, 250 gram of sugar, cup of tea (2 bags) and some high alcohol wine yeast

warm a litre of the juice up on the stove and dissolve the sugar within, add to a sanitised demijohn along with the tea and top up with the remaining juice, stir it well and chuck the a teaspoon of yeast on the top, stir again fit airlock. SIMPLES!!

I had a starting gravity of 1058 so it should produce something around 7.5%!!

WIN!!

B..

well folks.

Its good news, the coopers lager hadn't stuck and has come down to a final gravity of 1.004 giving me a lager that is around 4% ABV. WIN!!

ill most likely bottle this tomorrow, with about a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle for priming!!

I cant wait to try this one, although i cant wait to get my woodefordes wherry on next either!!

B..

Yet more success from a kit!!

Well today i finally decided to try my John bull best bitter, and its superb!! not as strong as the youngs Yorkshire bitter, but plenty of body and strong enough to be a decent pint it was well worth the £9 in tescos for the kit. as usual i have used a kilo of kit enhancer and it has produced a nice golden bitter.

im afraid its not all good news though, my coopers aussie lager has stuck in fermentation :( all i need it to do is drop 0.08 point on the hydrometer and it will be ready, im currently stuck on 1.016 so i think a good rousing of the yeast off the bottom tomorrow might help things on a bit, ill keep you all posted on this!!

anyhow, happy brewing!!

Cheers. B..

Homebrew... what do i need to start??

EVERYONE who has sampled my first brew so far has been impressed enough to want to have a go themselves. how many of them actually do remains to be seen, but the question they all ask me what they need to get going!

Well a big bucket (5 gallon), a long spoon, and a kettle is all that you really need to do a kit brew. but a thermometer and a hydrometer are bloody useful tools too! i have a smaller 2 gallon food grade bucket too that can make life a bit easyer, but ultimately this is it equipment wise!!

as for the method, I mix my fermentables (spray malt or kit enhancer) in the 2 gallon bucket with 2 kettles full of boiling water. I prep the kit can by standing it in a pan of boiling water from the kettle while i do all the other jobs and then tip this in the fermenter with a kettle full of boiling water to swill the can out then i mix this up in the fermenter REALLY vigorously and add the pre mixed fermentables. i then thrash it some more to get a good foamy head on top then top up to 23litres using the small bucket!! take the temp and a hydrometer reading and if its below 30degrees i sprinkle in the yeast and stir again, thats it!! couldnt be simpler!!

B..

Welcome to my new blog folks!!

HI im bungle, im am a neewbie homebrewer from north manchester currently on my third kit brew.

so far i have successfully brewed a youngs yorkshire bitter kit, im conditioning a john bull bitter kit and am fermenting a coopers aussie lager kit!

ill share some pics and other interesting nuggets of info as i get them on here, but for now i suggest you go meet jim at jims beer kits..... the forum is awesome and so far has taught me loads!! cheers chaps!!

B..