Beer brewing

[Rob Graham]

I've not actually seen this as a topic here, but some years back I asked yo u's all about home bread making and got reams of advice, so I'mm fairly con fident that there are some closet brewers here too !

Here's the question - and I come from the point of extensive home-brewing 2

5 or so years ago. My SIL is coming up for a big birthday and my daughter has come up with the idea of a brewing class offered by the local brewery; for £175 a small group get to choose their own recipe and make the beer - that yields 40 litres in bottles, but for an extra £15, you get 40l in b ottles plus 40l in a returnable barrel.

There are going to be 4 of us, so how do we split, without wastage, the 40l in the barrel ? Alright - one hell of a party, but we're too old for that !! Two options I can see - get a suitable number of bottles and bottle the balance ourselves or get 4 off 2 gallon pressure barrels.

Would I be right in assuming that because the brewery is saying that the 40 l barrel would need to settle, that the beer will be live and that we will just be able to prime it to get a head after splitting the 40l up into bott les or barrels ?

Actually a thought that I should just phone the brewery and ask if they wil l fill the 2 gallon barrels if I supply them.

Rob

[TimW]

2litre green fizzy water bottles are quite a good way of keeping beer. Inexpensive from Aldi, and sterile enough without washing. As a southerner I wouldn't worry about the head but would keep the beer cool and still if I could, gently bottle it and screw the top down well.

Tim W

[John Rumm]

Many will be able to do small "barrels" like a non returnable poly pin.

[Thomas Prufer]

If you invite some people to supplement the four of you, it'll be a manageable party?

Or that.

Thomas Prufer

[newshound]

These will keep "bright" beer (like you find in a polypin) for a couple of weeks. Real ale delivered in barrels to pubs has been "fined" to help suspended solid matter to settle, but it then needs to be handed gently, and you can't get the last bit of beer out without a lot of sediment. If you put beer after fining into the PET water bottles it becomes like a barrel, or a bottle of vintage port. You should be able to get most of the beer out in a drinkable condition by decanting carefully. This is slightly easier in clear bottles than green ones.

In either case the beer is likely to continue fermenting slowly, depending on the storage temperature. PET bottles are good because the threads are designed to release the pressure before launching the top like a missile, but they also seal very well and have a high rupture pressure before bursting, so expect a mess if one fails. You can sense the buildup of pressure by squeezing the bottle gently and, like with a polypin, periodically release a bit of gas if it is building up.

[Rob Graham]

Thanks guys, useful information. I knew there would be some people here wi th a beer head!

Rob

[spuorgelgoog]

Sell it discreetly to a local pub.

Owain

[TimW]

Yes, I imagined you would let the beer clear down after moving it, then if you can pour it into the bottles keeping it cool and without getting too much air into it or releasing too much gas it should keep well if cool, still and dark. Those bottles will stretch a bit so they could be initially filled quite close to the top I think.

Tim W