The Homebrew Thread ....

[stackmonkey]

The place for all the good and bad bits to do with homebrew wine, cider, beer etc.
I bottled 5.5 gallons of Elderflower wine today, having adapted a CJJ Berry recipe and accidentally put WAY too much sugar in...
The result is an elderflower wine of dessert sweetness, good strong elderflower taste and a calculated alcohol content of about 16.5% !!!!

[condor]

That sounds like it's going to be undrinkable to anyone other than a very sweet toothed Baldrick like person

[stackmonkey]

It's better than I've made it sound.

[Rob-C]

Buy a 5 gall chardonnay kit from http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/ and add 1/2 a gallon to of your elderflower to the brew once the kit wine is fermenting strongly.

[stackmonkey]

I would have done if I had spare fermenting capacity. I only have that now that the elderflower is bottled, ironically.

[stackmonkey]

...and this week end's bottling has been 5 gallons of pear wine, medium, approx 14% abv, delicious

[Bob the Planner]

Just been a litre of Citrus Gin and a litre of the vodka version too. Another month or so and they will be ready for sampling

[stackmonkey]

hello Bob

That citrus gin sounds nice!
I'll swap you some damson vodka!

[stackmonkey]

Now bottled,
1 gallon of apple and pear wine - dry
1 gallon of sage and mint wine - dry
4 bottles of peach 'champagne' (using proper technique, natch) - also dry.

Purchased; kit for 5 gallons of chardonnay to blend with the sweet elderflower.

[Miguel38]

anyone got any ideas about homebrew cider?

have made some beer before and it wasnt too bad but fancy trying it again with something different...

[escargot]

Someone send a link to Lord Summerisle. His thread has arrived.

[mrsxllifts]

Miguel38 said:

anyone got any ideas about homebrew cider?

have made some beer before and it wasnt too bad but fancy trying it again with something different...

We made 40 pints of cider of Le Mans last year. It came out at about 18%! First glass was terrible, after that you just didn't care!! We just used one of the brew buddy tins and 'adjusted' the amount of sugar in it!

[mrsxllifts]

At the moment we have in the X L Brewery:

6 bottles of blackcherry wine, ready to drink, but best left to mature

40 pints of bitter, maturing in the shed

40 pints of lager, still fermenting in the downstairs toilet to be bottled and primed mid week!

[stackmonkey]

Blackcherry wine sounds nice!

Cracked open the 1st peach 'champagne' at the week end!

Very dry, a slight rose colour (it IS peach, after all) but feck me it's strong!

[mrsxllifts]

stackmonkey said:

Blackcherry wine sounds nice!

Cracked open the 1st peach 'champagne' at the week end!

Very dry, a slight rose colour (it IS peach, after all) but feck me it's strong!

Black cherry wine started out as this: http://www.brew-it-yourself.co.uk/shop/catalog/pro...

Did you do the peach fizz all by yourself or with a cheats kit?

[stackmonkey]

I did it the proper way; it's not very fizzy, but has lots of very small bubbles in the glass.

I'll look out for the black cherry kit.

[mechsympathy]

stackmonkey said:

Blackcherry wine sounds nice!

Talking (typing??) of which, the last time I made homebrew I made Ribena wine It was surprisingly good.

[mrsxllifts]

Ribena wine definately sounds like a plan!

Our local Wilkinsons do most of the basic homebrew kit, and it is a bit cheaper than some of the websites as you don't pay postage etc. Most of the 'just add sugar' kits are about £4!

[big_treacle]

This is a repost from Pie & Piston where I originally asked & got pointed here....

I said:

Afternoon. Search isn't working - no doubt this has been covered before so apologies...

Right, a while (years) ago I got a homebrew kit - bucket, barrel, ingredients blah blah etc. Long story short - it got knackered, replaced some bits, lost some others & never bothered to actually brew anything.

However, I've decided to do it. I WILL MAKE BEER & am after advice on the best way to go & kit i need...

Basically, I have:
- loads of big beer bottles
- a lid-attaching-thing & loads of lids
- a hydrometer
- a tub of sterilising stuff

I think I need to get:
- a big bucket for fermenting
- a thermometer
- some hose to syphon from bucket to bottles
- some ingredients
- instructions

In terms of ingredients I'm thinking of getting a beer kit. Maybe move on to more complex stuff later if this works out.

So, those in the know - am I missing anything? Any tricks to avoid making a vat of unpalatable nastiness?

Cheers

[mechsympathy]

big_treacle said:

This is a repost from Pie & Piston where I originally asked & got pointed here....

If you're ever in Brizzle Brewer's Droop on Gloucester Road is worth a visit. (Sorry no idea about the rest...)