First time brewing
As a first-time brewer with only a YouTube education, I had little idea what I was getting myself into. I went in with blind ambition, and my goal was simple, to make, drink, and enjoy some beer for as cheap as possible. Equipped with a Fermenter King Junior, Wort Kit, and a packet of yeast, I thought I was ready to go.
Setting up the Junior was easy enough out of the box, nothing too complex, especially with the help from a video from the Keg King channel to go to if I needed. I was lucky to receive some advice on which way to put the bung in (it’s from the inside) after hearing some stories of it shooting out and spilling precious beer while pressure fermenting. Once I had finished setting up my Junior, I decided maybe I don’t want to get sick… and purchased some sanitiser as well to just be extra cautious everything will be safe.
Now it was time, filled the Junior up with the Wort Kit, added a few litres of water on top, leaving a little space of head room. Sprinkled the yeast on, wrapped it in a blanket and left the Junior in a bathtub. I left it there for a week, checking up on it every day that it hadn’t spilt, exploded, or started growing something. It was almost ready, just the final step to cold crash the brew. Lucky for me I had some room in an old chest fridge in the garage. I was going to leave it in there for 3-4 days before it was time to start consuming.
During this time, it dawned on me, I don’t have a way to dispense this beer yet. I got myself a Bronco dispensing kit, which luckily came assembled and with the liquid disconnect to go on top of my Junior. During fermentation I knew the beer would have carbonated itself, how much I wasn’t sure…
With just the pressure from within the unit, which could only be 35psi at most, given the red PRV I was using that came with the Junior, I got a few mates and we got pouring. The bronco was working a charm, pouring with the perfect amount of foam.
Nothing could have prepared me what happened next, the first taste of this brew blew me away. It could be down to the fact I made it, but to my friends who enjoyed it just as much, the beer was fresher. With just the pressure inside from fermenting, we were able to dispense almost half of the brew in the Junior through the bronco. This was no issue for us, we realised the remaining pressure through the PRV and twisted open the junior and started pouring like it was a big jug (trying to avoid as much of the remaining yeast as well could).
All up the cost of this set up was $137.75 from Keg King, and to brew it again I would only need to purchase the wort kit and a packet of yest for around $50.
