#02 First Brew

Brewing our own...

Our first experience of brewing was using the Coopers DIY Home Brew Beer Kit. With pre-made recipes of liquid malt extracts in cans, it was as easy as making hot chocolate! Whilst it can produce a half decent beer, there wasn't any room left for experimentation. The quality of the equipment (mainly constructed from plastic) meant proper cleaning and sanitation was a little tricky. Not to mention having to prime each bottle individually with carbonation drops - over carbonation, need I say more!

The next obvious step in brewing for us was to move to an all grain beer system. A system that would enable us to practice brewing from scratch, create our own beer recipes and grow our knowledge as we go. The all grain setup would also enable us to experiment with different hops, yeasts, grains and water chemistry. There was much to learn!    

Our first port of call was to get our hands on John J Palmer’s book ‘How to Brew’, the bible for any brewer. The book was an overload of information; how to adjust water chemistry to suit different beer styles, how to work with yeast, and calculating the possible yield from different grains. With some careful reading and a LOT of post-it notes we completed our first step in our brewing education. To further familiarise ourselves with the vast number of beer styles out there we also got hold of ‘The Beer Bible’ by Jeff Alworth.

With a good theoretical knowledge in hand, our next important move was to get an all-grain kit! Having spent a lot of time scanning various reviews of different kits online and on YouTube channels we settled on the Grainfather G30 all-in-one system and the Grainfather Conical Fermenter. The kit and fermenter are dead easy to use and with the benefit of connecting it seamlessly to the Grainfather app we were able to crack-on with different beer recipes.

All we need to do now is to create some exciting new beer recipes! Something we would enjoy drinking ourselves of course!

Doughing in

Mashing