The home brew thread

[Two Gun Bob]

Would have come on here a little earlier but far too absorbed in watching the Pulis masterclass of football comebacks for beginners.

Mods delete if necessary but it appears we have a smashing gardening thread but no home brew thread to accompany it.

Always fancied having a pap around with home brew but always thought it was too technical too bothersome and to time consuming to warrant the interest. Also I was under the illusion that home brew was inferior to ordinary ales bought and ingested through the shops and pubs.
If its cheaper it cant be better or can it ?

Sat on the rank and wandered across a thread deep in cyber land all about home brewing and that was it I was hooked and destined to become a master masher and brewer.
Read and sponged in as much information as possible and decided to take the plunge..

But what do I brew and where does a mere mortal start.

Decided I wanted to brew real ale lagers and wine
Not arsed about the stouts and heavy stuff
Would sooner set fire to my toes than glug them down.

Only way to do this after taking down so much info was to go out and torture a home brew shop owner to near death with 1001 questions and answers.
And what better day to piss a man off than to do it than a bank holiday Monday ; )

Set of to the big City and ended up at Burnley home brew.
What a cracking amenable character old Charlie was.
The more questions I batted out to him the more happy he became.
Excitable at times but understandable.

Wine was first choice for the missus.
Red wines always blow our heads away rocking our world and in particular Merlot and Shiraz .
Like palatable full bodied fruity wines that don't make you feel like your sucking a lemon.
We went for Rosso classico or chianto from the Jubilee stable.;

Now here the thing.
I always thought wine was hard to brew.
Effectively in kit form it is just basically a concentrate that you add water to.
A bit like a bottle of vimto eh.
A piece of pish that makes 30 bottles for £30
Happy days and coming in at 13% ABV

And then I went for a real ale by the name of Milestone
A real ale starter kit which included a king keg barrel with 4inch cap taking co2 pellets and a top tap with float. Also a fermenting tub and ancillary components for a miserly £79.99

Thing is home brew shops are expanding rapidly and also producing high quality produce.

If you could have tasted the cheeky red we bought it would have made you weep far more with happiness than Suarez could ever have pissed out in desolate despair.

Hands and feet over any £8-£10 plus bottles we have ever bought.
Enough to make the equivalent of over £200 worth just on the wine alone.

I'm waffling and I don't normally do that so I will quickly conclude.

We went to our brew shop and in under two hours we had under way our brand new hobby.

Initial reading on the wine of 1080 hydrometer and temperature of 26c
Ale coming in at 1040 hydrometer and temperature of 22c

Intention with the ale is to rack it twice to decrease sediment and then barrel in top tap keg
Wine will be bottled in under two weeks
Amazing new hobby,hope it works out ok.

Feel free to give advice or recipes if you mash your own but I am a newbie just tampering with kits at the mo but eager to learn and absorb
If its not you bag then I will update anyway of my progress to date

Plan on brewing lagers for the world cup but prefer European or Pilsner with strength.
Under no illusion as to the difficulties in getting it A1 as opposed to ale or wine.
Different bag of fish but my poison of choice.

Hope it works out well and with no runny arseholes !

Adios and thank you so much Mr Pulis
Your so much better than Mr Coppall was.

That is all.

 

[Bill Walker]

I brewed Mexican Cervasa and Euro lagers for about 10 years before I quit drinking last year, its a good thing to do and dirt cheap, the crappy Oz beers made me try it initially.

I have a big beer fridge in the garage (which you need really) if anybody wants it for $100

Id say its well worth what little effort it entails.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Yep I saw the Mexican Cervasa and the European lager offered in the Coopers kits.
Interested in giving the European Coopers a bash next as this one has the correct lager yeast as opposed to ordinary ale yeast metered out with a lot of the others.
Much lower temperatures and more time to brew than the beer but worth it as I do indeed anticipate a 1976 summer coming our away anytime soon.
Logging off now as I need to check the reading s on our red Chianti for the 23rd time.
Looking good and no change from 45 minutes ago ;
Dedication dedication !

 

[BimboBob]

I brewed Mexican Cervasa and Euro lagers for about 10 years before I quit drinking last year, its a good thing to do and dirt cheap, the crappy Oz beers made me try it initially.

I have a big beer fridge in the garage (which you need really) if anybody wants it for $100

Id say its well worth what little effort it entails.

I'll have the beer fridge. I'll pm my address...

Where do I send the 100 quid to?

 

[BlueBearBoots]

Right seriously thinking of having a go at the wine, does it have to be kept at a certain temperature whilst it's fermenting?

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Right seriously thinking of having a go at the wine, does it have to be kept at a certain temperature whilst it's fermenting?

It needs to be kept within a range. Temperature is not critical that it has to be exact. In my brewing days I built a 'warm' insulated cupboard in the garage with a couple of wine brewers warming plates. Yer set up doesn't need to resemble an EU approved brewery or vineyard. It also helps with the wine making if yer have a ready supply of cheap fruit!

I made wine and beer many moons ago, 99% of which was very palatable and sufficiently alcoholic.

 

[RP2]

Excellent choice of topic taxi-man!!

I, too, started brewing nearly a year ago - started with something similar to your Milestone (although I forget what it's called) - I bottled half of it, and kegged the other half. I actually found the bottled beers better.

I've also done an exceptional strawberry cider, and ginger beer too. I've not brewed for a couple of months, but this thread means I will be buying a kit this week.

I want to move onto mashing eventually but sticking to the kits for now (as they are really good!)

Not yet done wine, but will be starting that very shortly - my idea was to do a white wine, then if I mess it up, or it doesn't taste great, at least I can mix it with lemonade or something.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Good morning.
Sorry good afternoon.

Yep do have a whirl with the wine Blue bear .
Its probably the most simplest operation to perform in all the kits.

And Rp2 the kits have lots to offer and enable us to learn and progress
Also the home brew buff at the shop informed us you could alter the characteristics of the kits in many ways experimenting with your palate by the addition of different yeasts and especially hops.

Charlie took us on a magical tour of home brewing through the decades offering us a pit stop at every nook and cranny.
With complimentary trials and taste tests along the way.
He had lots of his produce already brewed and on proper bar taps.

The wine I can praise immensely being superb to the palate.
I am led to believe like all Chiantis coming from the Tuscany region of France

Floral, cherry notes are the characteristic aromas with the wines expressing more notes on the mid-palate and finish than at the front of the mouth
I copied that off the box ; )

We usually buy wines in the price range of £8-£10 and a particular favorite of ours was from The Andrew Peace stable.
A magnificent small vineyard from south eastern Australia
A great website available too.
The wine I am brewing is of a very comparable quality.

Here is a very brisk run through of the brewing process to assist anyone think of giving it a try.
The full process took under 60 minutes.
Open box and remove large plastic bag of liquid
Also in box was yeast and stabilizing sachets and a packet of fining.
After sterilizing everything coming into contact with the product we began
A quick note
The three most important parts of any home brewing are sterilization sterilization and yes sterilization.
Very easy to achieve with products available

Empty concentrate into 25 litre plastic fermenting bin
These are available for around the £10 mark
Stir and add yeast by sprinkling on top and stirring in.
Like to go into much more detail but really that is it.
Put on lid attach bubble airlock on top of lid to dissipate the co2 and keep out the air and sit back and wait for a week
The stabilizing sachets and fining still to be added but wine ready to sup in under 10 days
Simply transfer to bottles

Charlie did let us taste many wines around the £40-£50 per box which really were exceptional smooth and full bodied.
But even when you break down the most expensive boxes and divide by thirty bottles is equates to pennies.

Dave mentioned temperature brewing ranges
The temperature range for the wine I am brewing is between 25-30 c and is perfectly happy and at home in my office come playroom.


I have to go shopping now so will explain the process of brewing the milestone real ale I aquired later
A little more papping about than the wine but really looking forward to the end result.
Also bought a woodfords werry that reviewers say tastes very similar to a speckled hen or old peculiar.

Few sites here to mull over to give an idea of the range and price involved

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.burnleyhomebrew.co.uk/home.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.burnleyhomebrew.co.uk/home.html</a>

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.home-brew-online.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.home-brew-online.com/</a>

Might grab a few colourful jumpers and some new loafers whilst out allowing myself to get completely into character as I take more scientific hydrometer and temperature readings
Adios


By the way I found the Woodfords Werry on an unbelievable deal from Wilkinson's
Normal price £22.99 but usually sold for £19
Wilkinson's rip the pant of these prices with an introductory sale of £14 for 40 pints
Wow !

 

[tom]

i started brewing from kits last October never done it before always fancied it glad i did really surprised how good it tastes
wine red and white larger too oh and cider

 

[Two Gun Bob]

What beer or lager has most impressed you Tom.
Regards to strength body and quality clarity and also downright supp-ability.

Just started off the Woodfords werry tonight.
Really looking forward to trying this one due to good reviews.

Do you secondary ferment in to a fresh bin and then onto a keg or do you personally just bottle after fermentation is finished.
Whats worked best for you ?

Going to start off a few lagers on Monday if my head allows from Sunday's frolicks.
Coopers European and a Muntons gold continental pilsner

The Muntons gold it says embodies the full character of European lager style beers – light and delicate, yet richly satisfying. This beer preserves the delicate balance of natural hop bitterness with the sweetness of malt and is best served cold at about 5C or 41F
This comes recommended from the home brew chappie we just dealt with who has brewed this with additional hops to enhance the pilsner even further saying it was extremely palatable and refreshing.

Little more patience required with the lagers but do prefer them in the summer months