Newbie question

Hello all

Another newbie from UK here

Looking to bottle my first batch tomorrow (Wed). I'm not strictly a newbies as I did a bit of brewing a few years ago - just tins of extract though - bottled and in a pressure barrel

Anyway after a clearout I 'discovered' the brewing kit and with the addition of some gear from Freecycle decided to start up again. I started with a Coopers Stout (Australian) extract kit

Main question is that a lot of the bottles I was given have fairly tight fitting plastic caps. I also have a brand new bag of them. Are these supposed to replace crown caps? I can't see that they do myself

I have a large supply of crown caps and a double lever capping machine (hammering them on last time was one of the reasons I stopped brewing, broken glass and beer all over the kitchen floor, it was just like my local ;-) and intend using those

I'm brewing in a large fermenting bin, lidded, but this time I modified it and fitted it with an airlock after reading posts on this group

One thing I have found is that the bottle carriers that you get from Sainsbury's etc. in UK are excellent for 6 x pint bottles. Just right for taking one or two 'six packs' to a friends for some quality assurance ;-)

Any constructive advice welcome

Slainte

Ian

Hey Ian, welcome back to the world of Homebrewing. Always great to know that there are more UK brewers out there (there don't seem to be all that many of us unfortunately).

The very first piece of advise I would give you is to visit

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This is a great place to ask for advise and you will normally find that your questions are answered much quicker than they are here.

My second piece of advice is to make sure that you have a blow off tube attached to your fermenting bin. On the 2 occassions that I brewed Coopers Stout I had to rush the fermenter to the bath so that I could save the carpet and my marriage.

I had a little look at your website. I see that you are in Leighton Buzzard quite often. I was there at the weekend looking for a new house (job relocation) and ended up in Bletchley since it was nearby. By chance, walking up the high street I found a Homebrew Store. So, my final piece of advice is to look for the 'Smokers' shop in Bletchley town and get all your Homebrew supplies from them (if you don't already have somewhere local)

Hope to see you on tasty brew. Need more UK brewers!!!