Just fancy making some after tasted some Elderflower wine last week a mate made, The kits available to make wine/beer,etc start at £69.00 inc beer and barrels etc.
I would make lager and cider & wine and just got several bags of apples and going to make a press for the juices, but who makes it and is it worth the bother or not?
Second hand prices for demijohns are stupid almost the same as new ones at £7.00 each, barrels are not far off so might as well buy new.
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M's family back in Poland are into it. Sweet little old grannies sipping rocket fuel. I'd like to try something done properly though. You'll need to let us know how it goes :-)
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I used to make beer and cider. Wine is trickier and takes a lot longer to mature. To make proper lager it has to be cold fermented with a bottom fermenting yeast so I would start with a conventional bitter or similar. If you are using a tin you should have drinkable beer in a a few weeks. Wouldn't spend £69 on a kit. You can get a plastic bin for a few quid and if you want demijohns go to a car boot sale - there are always lots and you can pick them up for 50p or so.
Rough cider is dead easy - just crush the fruit - don't worry about quality and the more varieties of apples the merrier. You don't even need to add yeast - there will be wild yeast on the apples. Leave to ferment and strain and there you go - oblivion!
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I've not made wine for years but I do make beer regularly.
I use Woodforde's two can kits...about £15 now, I think. I'm not anal about the process.
Ferment in a big enough bucket with a lid. Syphon off when SG correct into bottles with half a teaspoon of sugar.
I use 2 litre plastic bottles...lemonade, fizzy water or whatever you like. I just screw the tops on when they're empty and save until the beer is ready to go in...I don't even bother washing them out, just a quick rinse.
Half fill the bucket with water and a few Milton tablets and leave the syphon gear in it until the next time.
Found some bottles, about 10 litres, in a cupboard in the workshop. I'd forgotten them.
The beer's been made over a year now and it's still really good.
As an aside, Aldi have half a dozen bitters on at 99p...500ml bottles. Lidl have 'Up & Under ' bitter at 8 for £8. Bought 30 various ones at Aldi yesterday.
Ted
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I used to brew beer years ago.Got a hydrometer and temp gauge from work and made good quality bitter.
My second job at BP was distiller started in fermenting shed and to process distillation of alcohol from molasses.The alcohol was used for making wodka and gin.Great job did it for ten years the plant shut down due to competition.
Ferment the beer for a few days in a container stir it regulary.A couple of equal readings and the beer is ready for syphoning.I used glass bottles and left it for about a month beer has got to be clear as glass if its bitter.My late father in law used to got fed up waiting he liked my beer.;)
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Also take the scum of the top in the buckett and get writ, once the readings are equal.
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Rough cider is dead easy - just crush the fruit - don't worry about quality and the more varieties of apples the merrier. You don't even need to add yeast - there will be wild yeast on the apples. Leave to ferment and strain and there you go - oblivion!
So if making for 23ltrs do i add water as there won't be enough apple juice for this much , of course the more water the weaker it gets right?
And sugar's already in apples so no need for that, how long do you leave it to ferment then drain into a keg?
Off to carboot this sunday hoping to find some gear there, as for fermenting bins what else can you use, like a large bucket all it is where would you get one from?
I have a 20ltr water carrier i use for camping with a tap on was going to put cider in this and shove rest in a plastic bottle.?
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Iam trying to remember what I did over thirty years ago now.Inportant is the fermentation in the container,make sure everything is clean don't use to much sugar go by the instructions on the tin.I used to experiment with different brews for a few years.Like I said it was my job surrounded by alcohol.:)
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For best results don't add any water - use pure apple juice. Put juice in bucket and leave in a warm place. - you can either trust to natural yeas or add some brewers yeast for a more certain result. The stuff should start fermenting fairly quickly and will form a foamy head. After a couple of day the fementation will subside. Siphon off the liquid and transfer to a demijohn with a fermentation lock. It will continued to ferment but a lot more slowly for a week or two. when finished siphon off into bottles and leave for a few weeks
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For a good quality beer don't rush it take your time.After fermentation and syphoned the beer into bottles I left them in the garage to settle.I used brewer yeast from work.
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I used to make beer in my youth - used cheap kits from Boots, and it was always at least drinkable, and sometimes actually quite good.
I've never made cider though - I'm just a couple of miles down the road from Thatchers so never a problem to get hold of a gallon of rough stuff :)
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Edit - double post - and not had a drop honestly.
Last edited by: AshT on Thu 1 Sep 11 at 19:45
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A good tip is to use a white bucket, less chance of taint than from a coloured one.
Still needs to be clean, as mentioned above.
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Agree I used a white bucket,like I said before after fermentation scoop the scum or froth from the container.Also don't fill the bottles right to the top leave room for expansion.
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Interesting this should come up here, an old cyclechat thread onthe same subject has recently been resucitated www.cyclechat.net/topic/82554-home-brewing/
You can do it as a serious hobby trying to imitate decent beer/wine either from bought ingredients or raiding hedgerows and the vegetable patch. Or you can use tinned/bottled kits to get quaffable drink cheaper than in the supermarket.
Did the latter for quite a bit b4 kidz - and even up to the second one being mobile. Two fermentation buckets and two beer spheres meant we could just about match demand. Primary ferment took about 5 days. Another week in a float fed beer sphere and it was clear and drinkable. Did a bit of wine but found it too easy to be permanently pickled; Larsen kits gave adequate results taste wise.
The 'Kwoffit' brand we found most satisfactory (bitter) seems to have gone as do most of the homebrew shops. Do any of the supermarkets sell kits? I think our first few came from WHSmith Do it All!!.
Prospective redundancy (albeit as early retirement) has got me thinking about re-starting production. Slight lack of space but might be able to re-arrange the utility to fit and as Bromp junior's acquiring a taste for beer he can help save me from crocking my back lifting stuff up to syphon it!!
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 1 Sep 11 at 20:21
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i used to have one batch in fermenting bucket one batch in a plastic barrel clearing and another plastic barrel full for consumption, rotation on a weekly basis...25 ltrs a week, dont touch the stuff at all now
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.25 ltrs a
>> week, dont touch the stuff at all now
Not surprising, I should think the annual liver transplant a bit of a chore!
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>> i used to have one batch in fermenting bucket one batch in a plastic barrel
>> clearing and another plastic barrel full for consumption, rotation on a weekly basis...25 ltrs a
>> week, dont touch the stuff at all now
>>
Yes that's the way - as soon as the fermenting bucket is emptied refill it to ensure continuos production.
I used to make it big time until 15 years ago when my job took me away from home and I couldn't be around to attend to it.
Some tips
1) simple- but the best tip to improve your beer when brewing from kits is - when the fermentation is complete , don't syphon off into a barrel or bottles - syphon off into a second clean 40 pint bucket and leave for 2 days and then syphon into your barrel/bottle, most of the sediment will be dumped during this secondary racking and the beer will clear very quickly and taste much better.
2) use a float system (available from Home Brew shops) attached to the inside of the tap when using a barrel and you can drink clear beer within 3-5 days of barreling
3) For bittters use brown sugar (not white) and 2 teaspoons of hop extract added at mixing stage to give a pronounced "English bitter" taste.
4) When you've syphoned off your brew into the barrel you will be left with some cloudy beer at the bottom of the bucket - don't throw this away, leave it 2-3 hours then manually pour into a jug leaving the sediment behind and repour into a plastic pop bottle with sugar. leave and forget. You will build up a collection of these bottles which will mature and, in summer , you can fridge these bottles and then mix with your normal barrel output to give a cool summer evening brew.
I used to consume a 40 pint barrel every week! and worked with 5 or 6 guys who also brewed and we used to each bring in a bottle every day and have a tasting session every lucnhtime to accompany our sandwiches - happy days!!!
Jacks
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I used to consume a 40 pint barrel every week!
Thats the idea. :-)
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Morrisons certainly still sell the beer kits. Not sure about other supermarkets.
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Local to me there is 6 specialist home brew shops plus the other outlets like Wilkinsons and supermarkets that stock it, must be the price of beer in pubs and supermarkets thats pushed up the demand.
It's that " what goes around comes around" seems to be popular again.
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Home Brew is it worth it? - Skoda
