- This topic has 24 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by JulianA.
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tell me about homebrew…
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rob2Free Member
right I'm on leave for the week. Between some diy and bike I fancy making some homebrew.
What do I need to buy for 40pints of beer? Do I go for the hops option or buy the can stuff?
Started by beard growing already!
Cheers
Garry_LagerFull MemberI would go for the can, but make just one or two modifications. The beginner's kit will be hopped malt extract and it will instruct you to add 40 pints of cold water, throw in the yeast and that's it. Pish water ensues.
What I would do is look up a simple extract recipe online, and go and buy the directed (good quality) malt extract, hops, and yeast. You then boil the extract with the hops before hand, before cooling and adding yeast. You're not really brewing if you miss out the boil. This is still dead simple, but you'll get some decent, drinkable ale out the other end.
I do partial-mash brewing, which is the intermediate stage between the cans and the real, all-grain, McCoy. So I'm no expert, but I've got a few under my belt. Currently drinking an IPA I did a month or two back which is really quite good – going to have a crack at the legendary T Taylor Landlord next.
JulianAFree MemberCan route for me – currently drinking the Magnum Strawberry cider kit (well, not the kit, the results!)
Take one lager kit and add four or five juiced oranges and a small jar of coriander powder for a Hoegaarden taste-alike…
Take one strong bitter kit, use dark muscovado sugar and add five pounds of dark honey for a real winter brew (NOT safe for a session as it works out at about 8% abv!)
Add five pounds of clear honey to a lager kit for a very strong and tasty lager (also not safe for a session as it comes to about the same abv as the bitter!)
Just about to experiment with a couple of lites of sour cherry juice added to a standard cider kit (as soon as I can find some sour cherry juice, probably in Belgium)
Don't know where you are based, but the Homebrew shop in Aldershot is very good (The Homebrew Shop), there is a homebrew shop in Fareham, Hants and my mate is about to open one in Bath (or already has, not sure), in Widcombe.
Let us know how you go and please share any recipes you think up!
Good luck and happy cheap (~50p per pint) and tasty drinking!
NickFull MemberKinda agree with the advice above, but I'd suggest the following.
Get a kit where you don't add sugar, something like the Woodfordes range are pretty much found everywhere.
A couple of options when it comes to water, filter it and add a crushed campden tablet (it will remove any chlorine and chloramine which make your beer taste 'chemically').
Or buy Asda smartprice water and use that, it's great for brewing. and will only cost you few quid for enough.
Couple of other tips.
Get an extra packet of yeast (safale s-04) and stick it in the fridge in case the yeast that came with your kit is a bit old.
Clean and sanitise everything, the home brew shop will recommend something but no-rinse santisers are easy and won't taint the beer like bleach can.
Boiling up as much of the contents of the can with water will help the beer keep but don't boil it for too long or you'll drive off the hop flavours.
When you pour it all into your fermenting bucket give it a right good thrashing to get as much air in to the 'wort' as possible, use a sanitised plastic or metal spoon.
And probably the most important thing you can do is find somewhere where the temperature will be as stable as possible, under the stairs, ideally you want the temp around 18 deg c, but up to 23 is ok as long as it doesn't go over this your beer will be ok, stability is as important as actual temp.
My first brew was made at this time of the year, it used added sugar and the temp was about 28 deg c, it tasted a bit like cider, but not in a good way.
More good advice:
JulianAFree MemberGet an extra packet of yeast (safale s-04) and stick it in the fridge in case the yeast that came with your kit is a bit old.
Or buy a 200g tin of Allinson's dried yeast (other yeasts may be available!) from a supermarket – <£1 for 200g as opposed to ~£1 for a tiny sachet (probably not good for wine or maybe high alcohol beers – don't know, haven't tried yet).
Also, it may be worth re-activating dried yeast first – simply put the yeast into a small glass of warm (not hot) water with a teaspoonful of sugar and wait 10 – 15 minutes for it to go – you'll know when it's ready as it will fizz up a treat!
Another brew that tastes good is ginger beer. For one gallon of beer, buy one sachet of powdered ginger from somewhere like Julian Graves (no relation!), mix it into a pint or so of water, put it into a demijohn with the previously described re-activated yeast and add about 600g of sugar and wait for it to ferment (you might have to add some more yeast half way through) and then bottle when it's finished fermenting. About £2 for a gallon of beer. You can also add some coriander (or cloves or chilli powder or fivespice – take your pick and let us know how it goes!) for added zest…
My next plan is to make 5 gallons of ginger beer, using five sachets of powdered ginger and about 3 kilos of sugar (an hydrometer is really useful for checking how strong it's going to be), plus a few pence' worth of yeast – about £9 for the five gallons.
Oh, if only we could make petrol this easily!
rob2Free Membercool, cheers guys some great tips there. Looking forward to this week and about four weeks later when its ready!
JulianAFree Memberermmm – mine is drinkable after about ten days (but then I do get thirsty!)
NickFull MemberI wouldn't use bread yeast, it will ferment of course but it probably won't clear, plus every yeast has different properties and will contribute to the flavour, S-04 is a pretty neutral highly flocculating variety which will normally clear all on it's own.
It's possible to make a passable cider using Tesco value apple juice and bread yeast, when I did some with Youngs cider yeast, instead of being passable it was really really nice, worth the extra £1.75 I think.
NickFull MemberNow look what you've done, I've just been on to http://www.barleybottom.com/ and ordered £40 quids worth of stuff (enough for about 5 brews or 200 pints….)
Good luck Rob – it's a fascinating hobby, don't be discouraged if the results don't turn out how you expect them, it's definately worth perservering.
rob2Free Memberwell, got the ingredients (!) and the equipment ready to sterlise. going for a simple dark beer with an added bit of honey to see what its like.
looking forward to it man!
JulianAFree Memberrob2 – Member
well, got the ingredients (!) and the equipment ready to sterlise. going for a simple dark beer with an added bit of honey to see what its like.looking forward to it man!
Depending on how much honey you add it won't be a beer for school nights!
Honey is apparently 83% (or so) sugar, so it could get quite serious!
rob2Free Memberyeah, only going to add a little to start. Don't want to end up blind or wake up in a ditch!
JulianAFree MemberWell if you want an 8% abv beer 5 pounds of honey will do it. You won't wake up blind but you might have a headache!
You got an hydrometer? Well worth the couple of quid it will cost just to check what it's going to turn out like…
Enjoy, and let us know how it goes!
stugusFree MemberBest bit of advise I got was make sure every thing is super clean.
I like the idea of cheap bottled water to remove the taint of chlorine, might try that next time.
rob2Free Memberyep using bottled water, the irony as I work for a water company. Could leave the wayer open for a couple of hours for the chlorine to evaporate but bottled is easier!
Got the hydrometer!
UnderhillFree MemberStrangely I was thinking about doing a brew again. Haven't made any in a few years, but all the recipe suggestions are making me think I'll be at the shop this week.
Cheers (hic)
NobeerinthefridgeFree Memberfive pounds of clear honey
Unless you've got a hive out the back garden, you ain't making beer for 50p a pint using that amount of honey!.
wheeliejimFree MemberI got into homebrewing quite seriously when I was a student (some years ago now…)
The "secret" I found was to avoid dried yeast, and source a live yeast, possibly from a local micro brewery, or it is possible to propagate the yeast from a bottle conditioned beer.
Possibly a bit much effort for your first go though.
Capt.KronosFree MemberFull mash brewing for me – not done one in a while, but I have all the ingredients kicking about ready to go (hops are vacuum packed). Everything needs a good clean/really good clean/burning before hand mind!
It's a great thing to do though – I had mixed results from the kits (some good, many deeply bad), but adapting the kits can prove worthwhile!
Enjoy 🙂
secret-squirrelFree MemberWhen I was an undergrad I lived along the corridor from a natural scientist, who was quite good at what she did, apart from homebrew. God, she made herself ill, regularly and apparently without ever learning … beware!!!
rob2Free Memberho ho ho it looks like fermentation is complete.
Tastes good but has that home brew taste but not bad at all quite pleased.
Tastes flipping strong though. Not one for a school night or before a ride!
Going to decent out and bottle up that bad boy!
NickFull MemberThat home brew taste could be a couple of things, firstly the beer probably isn't ready yet, bottle/keg it and leave it for a couple of weeks (normal advice is 1 week per 10 original gravity points (so a beer that starts out at 1.040 needs 4 weeks to mature.
Another thing is did it fermented too hot? The lower the temp you ferment at the cleaner tasting the beer will taste, sometimes you want the fruity esters but you can also get solventy flavours with high fermentation temps.
The last possible cause would be if you added sugar, allegedly cane has less of a taste than beet sugar, but in my experience both can leave a 'cidery' edge to the beer.
rob2Free Memberah, cheers nick.
I think it might have been too hot as its been really hot recently and my house gets hot.
Bottling is improving it for sure. Tried one today and its much better. I think you are right in that I maybe bottled too early.
Loving the whole process though, really satisfying and cheers for the tips
JulianAFree MemberSo, Rob2, how did it all go – have you decided to make some more? (Reaches for another glass of homemade cider (from a kit) and looks forward to strawberry cider kit being ready to drink!)
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