I’ve never tried my own home brew before and I’ve been sitting on two kits for years now (got them sitting the pandemic but never found the time) and I wanted to try to start something
The original juice and hops are probably toast by now so I’ll have to purchase some new, but I’ve got two of those jugs and the other bits that come with them.
I also have a small orchard in my back yard and wanted to try to use the thousands of plums in get every year to make some kind of lambic ale.
Any advice is appreciated!
In my experience, keeping your equipment clean and sanitized is the most important step.
- Sanitation
- Oxidisation
The two major things to tackle. My advice would be to just start making beer. The more you make, the better you will get at it. Join a forum to get advice. Don’t be put off if it doesn’t come out right at first.
Depends on a kit, the malt sirup is shelf stable but hops and yeast is definitely bad. Just try something, follow the instructions for start and you will see if you like it.
I don’t know much about plums other than distillat so can’t suggest much on that.
On top of what other said, there is a trick to plum: they usually ferment quite nicely (I recommend Lalvin RC212 yeast) but the trick is to bottle condition them for 5 years minimum. It is absolutely worth it.
Don’t go for lambics though, they are tricky and until you understand exactly why, I don’t recommend it. They are totally not newbie stuff. But aim for plum christmas ale, that’s very easy and just in time to try!
Actually, I remember how I started: I’ve got a kit and waited for a while with it. Then dumped all of it and just bought fullgrain ingredients, no regrets at all. Starting with a kit seems like harder path with less sure result from my current experience. Maybe it’s a way you should consider too?
Alright so just go talk to my local brewer supply for what I need 👍🏼
If you have a brewer supply locally, totally just invade them. The job is usually quite boring, they LOVE initiating neophytes.
