Home Brew

[pokethepope]

Mine worked very well too, Woodfordes Wherry using the Coopers PET plastic bottle kit. A local pub has Wherry on tap so I could do a comparison and its very difficult to detect any difference with my homebrew.

Im down to about 20 bottles so its nearly time to start brewing the next batch, anyone care to recommend a nice light, citrussy summer beer?

[Ultra Violent]

Just got a ginger beer kit ready to be bottled. I decided after a sample it needed something else so I juiced 10 limes and 3 lemons into vodka; then added to the brew.

Now I think it could do with more of a ginger kick... So I have a couple of large ginger roots peeled and chopped soaking in vodka.

Would it be ok to dump the whole lot in the FV? I.e. leave ginger root in rather than just use the ginger vodka?

[wormburner]

Jesus, I've no idea, but don't splash any on the car. It sounds potent stuff.

[wildcat45]

You all need a best mate called Dave.

He makes homebrew for me, and he is very good at it.

It started when one of his neighbours in his village was given a cider press. He and a few mates went round asking for apples, and the result was the best cider I have ever had. Now as a group of mates they make batches of beer, and Dave brings me a few to sample.

There was one batch I loved, but they all hated it so I copped for 40 pints of the stuff. I re ordered it, gave him a few quid for bottles of my own (I pass him any used glas ones I buy when empty) And I am now half way though a batch of bitter, in plastic bottles.

We discovered an unused and long forgotten barrel and bucket in my late parents house when clearing it out, so I hope by the winter to be able to go into full production soon.

Sounds like a glorious hobby.

This thread reminds me of the razor/shaving thread. A good, honest fun hobby.

[Ultra Violent]

...the vodka is only there to kill the germs - rather than boiling in syrup. I use the min amount necessary to treat the additive.

Now, do I add a few chillies...

[wormburner]

Ultra Violent said:

...the vodka is only there to kill the germs - rather than boiling in syrup. I use the min amount necessary to treat the additive.

Now, do I add a few chillies...

I see the strategy here. You're making Top Shelf, but in just one pot.

Good thinking. Saves on the washing-up. And everyone needs something in the house to use as a forfeit for losing at parlour games.

Edited by wormburner on Thursday 31st May 10:06

[LordGrover]

wildcat45 said:

We discovered an unused and long forgotten barrel and bucket in my late parents house when clearing it out, so I hope by the winter to be able to go into full production soon.

Sounds like a glorious hobby.

This thread reminds me of the razor/shaving thread. A good, honest fun hobby.

Both threads 'claim' to be money savers. Thus far they've both cost me a small fortune.
Good, innit?

[bicycleshorts]

Hoping to bottle from secondary tonight, also planning on buying another beer kit and getting that started so going to be a busy night!

I found this useful bottling guide: http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f... . I'm really hoping we haven't oxidised the beer when we moved from primary to secondary (to prime the first half before bottling, then dry hop the second half). We didn't have a length of tubing so just let the tap run... time will tell!

[big_treacle]

bicycleshorts said:

Hoping to bottle from secondary tonight, also planning on buying another beer kit and getting that started so going to be a busy night!

I found this useful bottling guide: http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f... . I'm really hoping we haven't oxidised the beer when we moved from primary to secondary (to prime the first half before bottling, then dry hop the second half). We didn't have a length of tubing so just let the tap run... time will tell!

It'll be fine. Trust in beer! That's an excellent website for learning neat beer making tricks.

[Bob the Planner]

Yesterday I bottled 23L of Pilsner style lager. Today a further 23L of Aussie lager. A batch of stout will be started at the weekend and maybe a Bishops Tipple mimic, if I can find the hops. Its getting too cold for alcoholic ginger beer this side of the planet but it should be great for a UK summer - Try Mrs Beatons Ginger Beer recipe with added raw sugar - absolutely stonking !

[anonymous-user]

Hi guys

I've got the coopers kit which keeps popping up. Is it suitable for making Belgian/German style wheat/weisse beer?

If so - anyone know of any good ingredient kits they can point me in the direction of?

Thanks

[bicycleshorts]

big_treacle said:

It'll be fine. Trust in beer! That's an excellent website for learning neat beer making tricks.

You were right, had a taste of one today and it was lovely (albeit underdeveloped).

Nyphur said:

I've got the coopers kit which keeps popping up. Is it suitable for making Belgian/German style wheat/weisse beer?

If so - anyone know of any good ingredient kits they can point me in the direction of?

You should be fine with the standard equipment. There are quite a few kits here: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Wheat... . Maybe worth checking reviews on some of them, e.g. http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=...

[wormburner]

wormburner said:

wormburner said:

wormburner said:

Well, my first adventure in wine-making has just kicked-off.

a 23l kit of Californian Sauvignon Blanc. Never done wine before so may well have already cocked things up.

What happened:

Cleaning (a lot)
Empty concentrated grape juice (7.5l) into fermenter. Looks like apple juice. Smells great.
Resist temptation to drink some of it.
Slosh out bag with spring water, add to fermenter
Add a sachet of brown dusty stuff called Bentonite, give it a good stir. No idea what this is/does.
Top-up to 23l with spring water
Add packet of toasted oak chips. Smells great. Stir.
Measure specific gravity. 1.080 - spot on. (This is a fluke).
Add yeast. Don't stir. Now looks bloody awful, but still smells great.
Put lid on. Stick airlock into lid, fill with water.
Put fermenter into big floppy plasterer's bucket.
Fill bucket with warmish water until fermenter is just about floating.
Stick aquarium heater to outside of fermenter with suction cup thingy. Set to 22 degrees.

Nothing more to do now for 7 days (4 weeks total process) so I'll keep you posted...

Just done the second stage.

Specific gravity now down to .992, so it looks like all the fermenting is done, ish. It bubbled like mad from day 2 to day 5, literally a constant popopopopop through the airlock. It also stunk out the house, but I convinced her I couldn't move it, so it better be good because it has used up all its goodwill with 3 weeks to go.

According to the calculator, with my starting gravity of 1.080, I've got around 11.5% ABV.

Siphoned the brew into a second vessel leaving the grot at the bottom, cleaned the original vessel, siphoned it back in again.

It smells fantastic. It's gone a lovely amber colour, like pale honey. Still opaque though, similar to a cloudy lemonade.

I'm very proud that I still haven't had a little try. I'm clearly growing up fast. 12 days to go until the next stage - degassing. I won't personally attempt to go 12 days without degassing.

Stage three started yesterday. Decant into another carboy, leaving the sediment behind. Add a sachet of potassium metabisulphite. Have no idea what this does.

Smells very good, and is now a pale yellow I can only describe as the colour of white wine - which is some comfort. ABV now up to 12.1%.

Over the next two days I have to shake it around 8 times in order to degas the wine. Then around a week of fining, whatever that means, and I'll be the proud owner of 30 bottles of Californian Sauvignon Blanc, of a quality I can only quake upon contemplation.

Today I've started another batch of Wherry, but instead of worrying about keeping it warm, i'm now worrying about keeping it cool. Any tips? A damp towel over the top is the best i've got so far.

Edited by wormburner on Saturday 26th May 17:46

Well, yesterday was filtering, bottling (fridging and test-drinking) and the verdict is...

WOW. Dry, crisp, sharp, and crystal clear. Totally amazing.

Cannot recommend it enough. For anyone interested, it is this stuff : http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/winekits/winekitsthi...

[bicycleshorts]

wormburner said:

Well, yesterday was filtering, bottling (fridging and test-drinking) and the verdict is...

WOW. Dry, crisp, sharp, and crystal clear. Totally amazing.

Cannot recommend it enough. For anyone interested, it is this stuff : http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/winekits/winekitsthi...

Nice one, did it only take a month? I was looking at Ribena wine to do for a laugh in a demijohn but might do a proper kit if it's this quick.

What temp is your Wherry at? Ours fermented quite happily at 21-22degrees.

[SwanJack]

Nyphur said:

Hi guys

I've got the coopers kit which keeps popping up. Is it suitable for making Belgian/German style wheat/weisse beer?

If so - anyone know of any good ingredient kits they can point me in the direction of?

Thanks

The Muntons Wheat beer is very good. I add ground coriander seed and dried orange peel when fermenting it.

[wormburner]

bicycleshorts said:

Nice one, did it only take a month? I was looking at Ribena wine to do for a laugh in a demijohn but might do a proper kit if it's this quick.

What temp is your Wherry at? Ours fermented quite happily at 21-22degrees.

Yes, 4 weeks as demanded by the instructions. I didn't stray at all, preferring to see if I can do their version properly first, to save wondering whether it was something I did or a bad kit, had anything gone wrong. I've made 28 bottles of very fine wine for £42 and about 4 hours 'work' (which I rather enjoyed). It is supposed to improve for 3 months or so, which if true will be a discovery of such magnitude I may never leave the house again.

The Wherry is at 21 degrees in the garage. When I pitched it in the middle of the heat-wave I was concerned it would get too hot. Now it's sitting in a plasterers bucket of water with an aquarium heater set to 21, and ready for racking on Saturday.

I've just got a Merlot kit from the same supplier and another Wherry, so I'll be starting the red wine as soon as the current Wherry has gone into the secondary fermenter, and then trying Saracen's tweaked wherry recipe as described here: http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/discussion-for....

My brew guru does an absolutely fantastic pint of wherry, with seemingly no diligence, so I'm hoping against hope to trump it with the tweak. (Oh, happy day that'll be )

[bicycleshorts]

wormburner said:

Yes, 4 weeks as demanded by the instructions. I didn't stray at all, preferring to see if I can do their version properly first, to save wondering whether it was something I did or a bad kit, had anything gone wrong. I've made 28 bottles of very fine wine for £42 and about 4 hours 'work' (which I rather enjoyed). It is supposed to improve for 3 months or so, which if true will be a discovery of such magnitude I may never leave the house again.

Hmm, keep us updated. I suspect the missus won't be happy with me brewing wine as well as beer (unless I can find a rosé kit similar to what she normally drinks!) but I'm tempted anyways

wormburner said:

Saracen's tweaked wherry recipe as described here: http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/discussion-for....

Nice. We split our brew:
- bottled half after primary
- moved half into secondary and dry hopped with about 10g of Goldings

I've only tried the first half, so will let you know what the dry hopped version was like!

Also got some cracking labels from: http://beerlabelizer.com



ETA: From what I tasted in the first half, I do think the extra ABV would help the Wherry. Tempted to do this kit again to Saracen's recipe! Thanks for the link.

Edited by bicycleshorts on Wednesday 6th June 15:14

[wormburner]

Splitting the brew is a good idea, I hadn't considered that.

I've got some spraymalt and goldings hops for the tweak, but since they go in early-on there isn't the opportunity to split at that point, but I could split the brew after say 2 weeks and dry hop one of the batches for say another week?

What do you reckon?

[bicycleshorts]

wormburner said:

Splitting the brew is a good idea, I hadn't considered that.

I've got some spraymalt and goldings hops for the tweak, but since they go in early-on there isn't the opportunity to split at that point, but I could split the brew after say 2 weeks and dry hop one of the batches for say another week?

What do you reckon?

We've been using a secondary fermentation tub after primary fermentation to try and weed out sediment + let us dry hop. The first went straight from primary to bottle (after about 8 days and at 1.006). The second went into the secondary (albeit very badly since we only had a tap and no syphon/tubing!), we dry hopped it there for about 4 days. The sample which came out smelt and tasted great but I've not compared them back to back.

Saracen's recipe only uses one container (less hassle) and I think the dry hopped will be better, so personally I'd only split in the future to try different hops.

This was our first brew so we didn't want to cock it up dry hopping, but it was very easy, just chuck them in mesh bag and leave it for a few days. Only other thing I'd say is once you open them, they stink so try to open in such a way that you can seal it easily afterward.

[wormburner]

Interesting stuff. When you split the brew and bottled some of it, did you have a fermenter the correct size for the remaining brew? Apart from a few 5l mineral water plastic bottles I don't, so would be worried about having too much air in there with the precious stuff.

Did you add sugar to the bottled beers?

Tupperware on standby for the stinking hops!