Home Brewing

[The_Craws]

Basically, I took up home brewing a couple of months ago and was wondering if anyone else does it here. I only make it with extracts at the moment but eventually I want to start with all grain ingredients.

 

I dont see the point in spending nearly £10 on 24 bottles of Tennents when you can make 5 gallons of a better quality home brew for the same amount of money. Not to say that I'd ever buy Tennents!

[Staffs-Shooter]

I used to brew beer (from kits) years ago then progressed to wine (when one got posh ). Only brewing i do now is shed loads of damon gin. Trees are now in bloom - can't wait

[Devilishdave]

I had a few trys with the home brew but never produced much worth drinking :*)

 

Dave

[The_Craws]

Wine, an other good beverage! The problem with making wine is that to do it properly you need to press the grapes as soon as they get taken off the vine, when they are imported into this country they are already at least 2 days old by which time they can get infected with fungus giving the wine a bad taste or has this just been my experience?

 

Devilishdave, what was wrong with it? I can try and give you some pointers.

[Devilishdave]

Thanks any way m8 but I think I have done with the Home brew it was a bit too much sediment and tasted like ****.

 

Dave

[The_Craws]

Yeh sediment is one of the main problems with Homebrew. The way in which to reduce the sediment is to do a two stage fermentation process where after about 3 or 4 days transfer all the fermenting wort into a second container leaving the sediment behind in the initial container. Or what some people do it brew in an inverted glass demi-john so all the sediment can be taken out by the way of a special cork called a Brewcap and this enables the fermentation process to take place in only one container. As for the taste, cant help you there!

[Sergeant]

My old man used to brew from all the raw ingredients but hes now using Geordie scottish export. He only stopped brewing from scratch as mum kept moaning about the smell.

The beer he makes isnt very strong but it is nice.

He brews wine as well.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

http://www.howtobrew.com/

 

 

all the best yis yp

[henry d]

I do a bit of `ome brew.Rule 1 don`t use kits that need sugar,use the one`s that have 2 cans of concentrate they taste like top grade gold medal beers!Don`t use bottles use pressure barrels(not 2nd hand you don`t know wots been in them )If you can afford them get 2 as you can be drinking one and the others fermenting.Final rule STERILISE EVERYTHING !!!!!!any probs PM me

[woodyfirst]

stick to the IPA

[longnetter]

The Craws was talking about tennents, here's a thought, 'how come the most popular drink for homeless people is tennents?' next time you see one drinking, check it out! another good one, go up to a big issue seller and say 'KNOCK, KNOCK!' when he say's 'who's there?' your reply is, 'See, you'r e not homeless at all!'

B)

[plexer]

Agree with Henry D there the first kit I brewed was an el cheapo one that needed sugar. I drunk hardly any of it as it tasted **** wasn't sure if it was beer or just sour water.

 

I got a woodfordes wherry kit for chrimbo and this is a no sugar 2 can jobby. Much better tastes just like it outa.

 

So for the intial outlay of kit once I've drunk this lot I'll be ok

 

I use a fermentor and a pressure barrel no point in messing with bottles.

 

Cheers,

 

Ben

[Pike]

Tried making Elderflower champagne last year and managed to poison the whole Ranger service office - thought the bits floating in it looked a bit suspect but it tasted alright at the time!!!

[henry d]

I agree with Plexer,I`ve just started a batch of german pilsner and when thats in the pressure barrel I`ll start the Woodfordes wherry best and that goes in the other barrel.I intend to bottle condition a few pints into the old style grolsh bottles as they are now empty of last autumns cider

[SNAKEBITE]

I have been doing my own for acouple of months.

I get the "add sugar" kits from the local wilkinsons. I allways get the real ale one as it seems the best. I don't touch the lagers because I think they are harder to get right.

 

I used to do a lot of wine but the wife got miffed with all the demijohns sitting around. That and the little'un couldn't leave them alone! I will get back to it though.

[Zapp]

Yeah, I do quite a bit, but only from the kits at the moment.

 

Henryd, you say not to use the kits which require sugar. Why is this? Is it because of the slight "artificial" saccharine like taste these kits all seem to get? Could you reccomend a brand of "no sugar required" kit?

 

For the record, I tend to brew IPA in summer and Stout and dark ale in winter.

 

Pete

[plexer]

Pete: Last one I did was a Woodfords Wherry no sugar required. The no sugar ones are best because it's hard to get all the sugar disolved in the ones that need it adding.

 

Ben

[henry d]

I also use Woodforde`s Wherry Best and the Muntons gold kits,Woodforde`s also do one called Norfolk Nog and that was a nice kit too,Nelsons revenge is also in their range but I`ve not tried it.I don`t like the kits that use sugar as they don`t taste very good,however if you are brewing for a party or just for effect then use one of those and up the sugar.I have to say for safety sake get a hydrometer and use a pressure barrel,few books from the library help too.

[Country_est]

As a lager drinker I tried all this years ago but found that as I like mine very cold I couldn't use the pressure barrel as it didnt fit in the fridge.

 

Also found a great difference between brewing in the winter to summer time for the heat and speed of fermentation in the summer was so much better than in the winter. Also the clart on with all of the sterilizing and cleaning and filtering and all I wanted to do was drink the bloody stuff.

 

Even tried doing the booze cruises to france for a couple of years till they stopped the cheap £10 crossings.

 

So now just buy wine @£2 - 4 a bottle and £9.99 for a crate of lager.

[Evilv]

For the record, I tend to brew IPA in summer and Stout and dark ale in winter.

 

Pete

I had a brewing phase about twenty years ago. Pressure barrels are great and the only beer I ever made that tasted just like pub beer was the stout. That was really great. I stopped because I realised I was ****** far too often for my own good. It was costing buttons and was a bit tempting having ten gallons on tap in the kitchen. For winter time, I had a heated belt thing that went around the fermenting vessel. It worked well.

 

I might start again only since I chucked all the kit, I'll have to invest a bit.

[ochre]

As an upstanding member of the community I love my beer and would like to know how to brew some amber nectar myself. Any fool proof methods you know of would be much appreciated.

[ridgeback]

did some scottish export from wilko's....fearsome stuff after 4 pints of it i couldnt feel my front teeth, not complaining tho, what we didnt drink we used to strip the paint off the living room door

[tenbears10]

My mate is a bit of a brewer and I help out, mostly with the drinking part of the process

 

We have a nice batch of Porter just about ready to drink and the next 2 lots we are going to brew are all grain. A couple of buckets and a power drill were all we needed to filter the grain (I don't know the tecnical term).

 

Only one batch so far has been **** and that was just because it was totally flat. The rest have been very nice. Equipment has pushed the price of the first few batches up a bit but that gets less and less with time.

 

It's also a good excuse to buy bottles of ale from the offie so we can reuse the bottles ( at least that's what I tell the wife)

[ridgeback]

As an upstanding member of the community I love my beer and would like to know how to brew some amber nectar myself. Any fool proof methods you know of would be much appreciated.

the biggest prob is the damn chlorine in the tap water, im to tight ***** to invest in a water filter so i just boil my 5 galls or let it stand for 48 hurs before adding the wort, after doing this theres no tcp taste and its equal to pub drink, .

[Highlander]

and you lot are worried about bird flu...if that don't get yer the (homemade) drink will B)

 

How the hell do you ever hit anything surely that stuff makes you go blind