The home brew thread

[-dabz-]

Tiny pic acting the pan...

It gives the code for message board as usual but then just says image and does not display the picture.
Can try again later.

Malcolm Glazer dead by the way.
Didn't know been in the garden all day

Only done a wine kit Dabz.
Wasn't rocket science and just tipped comcentrate into bin then add stabilzers and finings and bottle.

How do you mash your own pal ?

Depends on what you're making, but basically stick fruit and sugar in a fermenting bin, give it a bit of a mashing and add water-sometimes hot, sometimes cold, depending on the fruit or veg. Pitch the yeast and various bit and bobs when cool and leave for a week, stirring every day. After a week, decant and strain into demijohns and bung an airlock on it till it stops, usually 2-3 weeks. Decant to another demijohn or bottle it till it clears. It improves if you leave it for a year or two, but to be honest, as soon as it's clear I neck it. Rice and raisin is a good one, 2lb each of rice raisins and sugar, couple of lemons...jobs a good 'en. According to the book the recipe is taken from it's ready to drink in a few weeks, I can confirm this.;O) Tastes like dry sherry, great with lemonade.
Forgot to mention-yeast nutrient, lemons for acid, and tannin are important but like I say, it depends what you're making. A strong cup of tea and a teaspoon of marmite can be used to replace the yeast nutrient and tannin powder. Some brews need pectolase,a pectin destroying enzyme. Like I say, it depends what you're making but it's really not difficult, neither is making a beer from scratch. The feeling of satisfaction from brewing your own from malt, hops ect is well worth the effort....drives the price down further too.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Cheers pal.
Will give that a go when a bin becomes empty.
I used a jubilee chianti kit and you just tipped in all the gubbins and job basically done.
Have to say the quality is superb.
Mrs sups reds for fun and she said its about the kind of quality you would expect from a £7 to £8 Jobie.
Definitely will experiment now with mashing the wine with fresh fruits ,sounds pretty good fun.
Will have to cut me toes nails though before I trample the grapes as the wife is a bit more
particular than me : (

I am just walloping down pint nos 6 of Milestones lions pride.
It really is the doggies bollocks mate for taste.
Give it a bash, you will be well happy.
Destructions R in the tin so in the manner of Kenny Everettt what could possibly go wrong !

 

[-dabz-]

Cheers pal.
Will give that a go when a bin becomes empty.
I used a jubilee chianti kit and you just tipped in all the gubbins and job basically done.
Have to say the quality is superb.
Mrs sups reds for fun and she said its about the kind of quality you would expect from a £7 to £8 Jobie.
Definitely will experiment now with mashing the wine with fresh fruits ,sounds pretty good fun.
Will have to cut me toes nails though before I trample the grapes as the wife is a bit more
particular than me : (

I am just walloping down pint nos 6 of Milestones lions pride.
It really is the doggies bollocks mate for taste.
May God bless you Milestones and keep you all safe.
Give it a bash, you will be well happy.
Destructions R in the tin so in the manner of Kenny Everettt what could possibly go wrong !

A word on bins...any food grade bins will do, mine are old jam, syrup and marshmallow buckets from a local bakery I used to work at. Ask at your local cake shop for them, most places are happy for you to take them.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Will do pal

Same with the bottles.
Our local ale house in the locality where I graft lets me take the crabbie bottles of his hand.
Brown ones at 500 ml and the labels just fall of effortlessly.

No point paying inflated prices from the brew shops for bottles as it defeats the object of quality brew at the lowest price. Watch the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

I do tend to get carried away a little mate but words fail me how happy I am tonight drinking this fine session ale lions pride .
Its the little things in life that can rock your world.

I have on in the background a fine tune from king crimson called "starless" that either Cyball or Nimrod an Aussie chap off here introduced me to.
Music goes really well with real ale, and that's coming from a lifelong pilsner lager drinker

All the best mate and thanks for your help with the wine
Fresh is always going to be better for the old system.
And with summer on its way what better way to spend it than crushing grape and berries into real love juice
Adios amigo.

 

[-dabz-]

Will do pal

Same with the bottles.
Our local ale house in the locality where I graft lets me take the crabbie bottles of his hand.
Brown ones at 500 ml and the labels just fall of effortlessly.

No point paying inflated prices from the brew shops for bottles as it defeats the object of quality brew at the lowest price. Watch the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

I do tend to get carried away a little mate but words fail me how happy I am tonight drinking this fine session ale lions pride .
Its the little things in life that can rock your world.
I have on in the background a fine tune from king crimson called "starless" that Cyball an Aussie chappie off here introduced me to.
Music goes really well with real ale, and that's coming from a lifelong pilsner lager drinker

All the best mate and thanks for your help with the wine
Fresh is always going to be better for the old system.
And with summer on its way what better way to spend it than crushing grape and berries into real love juice
Adios amigo.

Indeed! cheers ;o)

 

[TINY]

Your setup and beer looks phenomenal.

I cracked open my first bottle this evening, been in the fridge for nearly a week. Well, I was well chuffed. Really crisp taste, lovely aftertaste, light coloured and kept a good head throughout. Lovely. Can't wait for the wine and my next batch to be bottled now.

 

[TINY]

 

[nickson71]

hadn't noticed this

just doing a bit of home brew from kits at the moment
got some pear cider bottled and ageing

got a larger kit due to come out of the FV tomorrow and a turbo cider in FV

just trying to decided what to do next as I've got a mild kit and an brews choice IPA kit

 

[TINY]

Cheers for the PM mate, tried to reply but wouldn't allow me to add you to the receipient.

I have another brew in at the moment that's due to be bottled in the next couple of days. The receipe; can of Coopers lager, 1KG of brew enhancer, 500g of DMR (light) & 200g of brewing sugar, topped up to 23L. This brought an OG of 1055, and currently (steady) at 1012, so I work that out to be 5.6%?

Wondered on your opinion on the receipe itself? The first brew, which I opened tonight, came in at 3.8%. Whilst the taste is definitely there, I wanted a brew with a slightly more kick whilst maintaining the flavour. I ideally wanted a 5.2% or around that, without impacting the "lager" taste. Any opinions on this?

My next brew will be with one of the wilko's ones. I'm wanting this next one to be a super tasty ale, with a punch of malty flavour, that biscuity taste? There are so many receipes out there that call for chocolate, honey, maple syrup etc...and I want to try them all!

 

[Two Gun Bob]

No problems, can see you got the hang of how the tinypic works .
Yes pretty much the same recipe as you for my Coopers European and wilkos lagers
With the coopers your actually carrying a kilo of spray malt and 700 gram of dextrose
If we increase the ABV up over the 5% mark by just using dextrose we will likely get just a very thin unappetizing lager with little body.

Adding the DME or light spray malt just like you did should balance the brew out giving more taste depth body and lacing.

For the Wilko kits which are only a single tin I used 500 light spray malt and around 750g of brewing sugar.
You could even for the price of £7.50 just completely do away with the DME and sugar by using two tins of the malt extract for only £15.00.
Going to give that a try whilst they are still on special offer.
Most other double malt tins like the Muntons Gold Pilsner retail at £23 so two packs of the Wilkes come in very nicely at the £15 mark.
Also added sazz and hallertau hops .
Want to see if the European with the lager yeast is worth the longer wait to come good.
Time will tell but if not I will just stick with the ordinary lagers with the ale yeasts.
All we can do is brew test and taste and see what suits our own palates best.
Only learning the ropes so I am writing down absolutely every step ingredient timings and storage methods in a diary with each individual brew so I can try to improve a little with each one.
All good fun pal and well looking forward to tasting them.

Batch primed them with 120 gramme dextrose mixed with 200 ml boiling water and cooled
then emptied into fermenting vessel and siphoned of lager into it stirring gently so as not to add unwanted oxygen.
Couldn't be arsed adding sugar to each bottle as I did not have the coopers carbonation drops.
So it was easier just to batch prime to get even distribution throughout.

Still rattling away on the old milestones and good for another 20 pints yet.

Happy days ; )

Cheers for the PM mate, tried to reply but wouldn't allow me to add you to the receipient.

I have another brew in at the moment that's due to be bottled in the next couple of days. The receipe; can of Coopers lager, 1KG of brew enhancer, 500g of DMR (light) & 200g of brewing sugar, topped up to 23L. This brought an OG of 1055, and currently (steady) at 1012, so I work that out to be 5.6%?

Wondered on your opinion on the receipe itself? The first brew, which I opened tonight, came in at 3.8%. Whilst the taste is definitely there, I wanted a brew with a slightly more kick whilst maintaining the flavour. I ideally wanted a 5.2% or around that, without impacting the "lager" taste. Any opinions on this?

My next brew will be with one of the wilko's ones. I'm wanting this next one to be a super tasty ale, with a punch of malty flavour, that biscuity taste? There are so many receipes out there that call for chocolate, honey, maple syrup etc...and I want to try them all!