Home Brew

[Turn7]

Wow....

When we got locked down I became rather "concerned" about Beer shortages, so grabbed a couple of kits sharpish...

I put this kit on as soon as it arrived and its been kegged for about 3 weeks ish...

Just tried some tonight - its amazing, a proper cloudy US IPA, and the taste is spot on too!

Kit includes hop pellets to dry hop with as well.

Well happy.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JDOEPAK/ref...

[Jonboy_t]

I’ve got in to making carton wine recently and it is so dead easy and cheap, I don’t know why I didn’t do it years ago!! For a 1 gallon batch;

- 1l of 100% pure juice of some kind (Tesco do all sorts, £1.10 a bottle)
- 1kg sugar
- into demijohn and top up with tap water
- add 1 sachet off wine yeast and a yeast nutrient
- after fermentation stops, siphon into another container, let it clear which takes about a week.
- bottle, put it in the fridge and it’s ready to drink within a couple of days.

Honestly, I’m making wine at the moment that is better than the cheapies from the shops! All for about £4-5 a gallon and it goes from shelf to glass in about 3 weeks. My dad is a bit of a wine snob, I poured him a glass of orange and mango carton wine and his face dropped!

Currently, I’ve got pineapple (used 2l juice rather than 1, just to try it out), Forest fruits, apple and peach, vimto (bit more involved, but easy enough), ribena (too sweet for me!) and apple and raspberry. Just about to start a tropical wine, but not sure how that’ll come out!

[sociopath]

Do lots of all grain brewing myself, and the lockdown has accelerated that, now got a leffe blonde clone, a weissbier, an IPA and now a mango cider all kegged up. Also got a tropical IPA and a Spellbinder clone ready to go, but don't have enough kegs.

I'm also waiting for a garden building to be delivered so I can build my own garden pub (should this post be in the "a bit council" thread?)

[Turn7]

sociopath said:

Do lots of all grain brewing myself, and the lockdown has accelerated that, now got a leffe blonde clone, a weissbier, an IPA and now a mango cider all kegged up. Also got a tropical IPA and a Spellbinder clone ready to go, but don't have enough kegs.

I'm also waiting for a garden building to be delivered so I can build my own garden pub (should this post be in the "a bit council" thread?)

Tell me about the Mango Cider please.....

[Turn7]

Jonboy_t said:

I’ve got in to making carton wine recently and it is so dead easy and cheap, I don’t know why I didn’t do it years ago!! For a 1 gallon batch;

- 1l of 100% pure juice of some kind (Tesco do all sorts, £1.10 a bottle)
- 1kg sugar
- into demijohn and top up with tap water
- add 1 sachet off wine yeast and a yeast nutrient
- after fermentation stops, siphon into another container, let it clear which takes about a week.
- bottle, put it in the fridge and it’s ready to drink within a couple of days.

Honestly, I’m making wine at the moment that is better than the cheapies from the shops! All for about £4-5 a gallon and it goes from shelf to glass in about 3 weeks. My dad is a bit of a wine snob, I poured him a glass of orange and mango carton wine and his face dropped!

Currently, I’ve got pineapple (used 2l juice rather than 1, just to try it out), Forest fruits, apple and peach, vimto (bit more involved, but easy enough), ribena (too sweet for me!) and apple and raspberry. Just about to start a tropical wine, but not sure how that’ll come out!

Might have to try that, Ive done a Turbo Cider before which uses the same principle. Not heard of wine being done like it before.

[sociopath]

Turn7 said:

sociopath said:

Do lots of all grain brewing myself, and the lockdown has accelerated that, now got a leffe blonde clone, a weissbier, an IPA and now a mango cider all kegged up. Also got a tropical IPA and a Spellbinder clone ready to go, but don't have enough kegs.

I'm also waiting for a garden building to be delivered so I can build my own garden pub (should this post be in the "a bit council" thread?)

Tell me about the Mango Cider please.....

It's a turbo cider so made from cheap Tesco apple juice, and then I added mango puree at the same time as I would normally dry hop so after 5 days fermentation.

I only had 1 litre so put that in (into 15 litres of apple juice), if doing it when it's not lockdown I'd have bought more.

As it is it's now carbonating, but tastes like a nice scrumpy with a fruity hint, be interesting to see what it's like in a couple of weeks. Just have to make room in the kegerator first

[Jonboy_t]

Turn7 said:

Jonboy_t said:

I’ve got in to making carton wine recently and it is so dead easy and cheap, I don’t know why I didn’t do it years ago!! For a 1 gallon batch;

- 1l of 100% pure juice of some kind (Tesco do all sorts, £1.10 a bottle)
- 1kg sugar
- into demijohn and top up with tap water
- add 1 sachet off wine yeast and a yeast nutrient
- after fermentation stops, siphon into another container, let it clear which takes about a week.
- bottle, put it in the fridge and it’s ready to drink within a couple of days.

Honestly, I’m making wine at the moment that is better than the cheapies from the shops! All for about £4-5 a gallon and it goes from shelf to glass in about 3 weeks. My dad is a bit of a wine snob, I poured him a glass of orange and mango carton wine and his face dropped!

Currently, I’ve got pineapple (used 2l juice rather than 1, just to try it out), Forest fruits, apple and peach, vimto (bit more involved, but easy enough), ribena (too sweet for me!) and apple and raspberry. Just about to start a tropical wine, but not sure how that’ll come out!

Might have to try that, Ive done a Turbo Cider before which uses the same principle. Not heard of wine being done like it before.

I’m genuinely surprised by it! I’ve just finished a bottle of apple and peach, hydrometer reading said it was about 13% - it’s definitely more!!

One thing though, it does make you fart...!

[Turn7]

The American IPA from Youngs was very nice, so much so, its all gone now.....

So today I put a Courage Directors kit into the fermenting bin.....

The Malt was very dark and smelt lovely, so fingers crossed.....

[marksx]

sociopath said:

Do lots of all grain brewing myself, and the lockdown has accelerated that, now got a leffe blonde clone, a weissbier, an IPA and now a mango cider all kegged up. Also got a tropical IPA and a Spellbinder clone ready to go, but don't have enough kegs.

I'm also waiting for a garden building to be delivered so I can build my own garden pub (should this post be in the "a bit council" thread?)

Stocking a bar you built yourself with beer you've made yourself is great. Who cares if it's council

[Salamura]

Just bottled 20 litres of strawberry cider, made from 100% strawberries. We went to a local strawberry farm a couple of months ago and picked about 20 kg of berries ourselves. Fermented them using champagne yeast to achieve a final alcohol percentage of about 6%. We also added freshly made strawberry juice prior to bottling to give it a slightly fruitier aroma, and a bit of non-fermentable sweetener to make it a bit sweeter without creating bottle bombs. Quite a lot of labour went into it in the end, but the end result is so worth it! We had a chilled bottle the other day and it was absolutely lovely, perfect summer drink.

Interestingly, once fermentation was completed and the cider aged a bit, the color changed completely, and from light reddish pink turned into a copper colour, and it looks like it is getting even more pale. I didn't expect that!

[Turn7]

Kegged up my Directors brew this weekend....

[Falconer]

Turn7 said:

Wow....

When we got locked down I became rather "concerned" about Beer shortages, so grabbed a couple of kits sharpish...

I put this kit on as soon as it arrived and its been kegged for about 3 weeks ish...

Just tried some tonight - its amazing, a proper cloudy US IPA, and the taste is spot on too!

Kit includes hop pellets to dry hop with as well.

Well happy.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JDOEPAK/ref...

That American IPA is one of the best kits I’ve come across in about 40 years of brewing.

[Falconer]

Turn7 said:

The American IPA from Youngs was very nice, so much so, its all gone now.....

So today I put a Courage Directors kit into the fermenting bin.....

The Malt was very dark and smelt lovely, so fingers crossed.....

I tried the Directors, very disappointing not at all like I remember. Maybe the different water is the reason, soft Scottish water instead of hard London water.

[PositronicRay]

Some advice from you chaps

A few yrs ago I used to brew Woodfords wherry from a kit. Results were variable, temperature control was the problem I think, first ferment was OK, I had a cupboard by a hot water tank, a constant 25c. Conditioning was more of a problem, I used an unheated West facing bedroom. Generally OK in the winter, but late sun could spoil things.

Now I have a well insulated integral garage, with boiler and hot water tank. Sits around 23c,
Ideal for the ferment, but could I condition in this temp? Would it just take a little longer?

I know a brew fridge would be ideal, but I'm unwilling to go to all the bother.

(I've still got all the kit in the attic so a few new seals and a clean and I'm good to go)

[dickymint]

Been using one of these for my cider and also kit wines...............

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FastFerment-Conical-Ferme...

Makes it so easy.

[sociopath]

PositronicRay said:

Some advice from you chaps

A few yrs ago I used to brew Woodfords wherry from a kit. Results were variable, temperature control was the problem I think, first ferment was OK, I had a cupboard by a hot water tank, a constant 25c. Conditioning was more of a problem, I used an unheated West facing bedroom. Generally OK in the winter, but late sun could spoil things.

Now I have a well insulated integral garage, with boiler and hot water tank. Sits around 23c,
Ideal for the ferment, but could I condition in this temp? Would it just take a little longer?

I know a brew fridge would be ideal, but I'm unwilling to go to all the bother.

(I've still got all the kit in the attic so a few new seals and a clean and I'm good to go)

You might not want the bother but a brew fridge would make all the difference, not just for the simple temperature control (Id say the temps your using are a little high, I try and ferment at 20), but just for the consistency of that temperature.

A second hand fridge is cheap as chips, couple that with a heat pad and an inkbird controller and you'll be amazed how much better your beer can be

[Evoluzione]

We cracked open a bottle of 2019 bramble the other night, i'd only bottled it last April. Wow what a fantastic tasting full bodied wine!
It must be about 16% though, I practically had to crawl upstairs to bed.

[PositronicRay]

sociopath said:

PositronicRay said:

Some advice from you chaps

A few yrs ago I used to brew Woodfords wherry from a kit. Results were variable, temperature control was the problem I think, first ferment was OK, I had a cupboard by a hot water tank, a constant 25c. Conditioning was more of a problem, I used an unheated West facing bedroom. Generally OK in the winter, but late sun could spoil things.

Now I have a well insulated integral garage, with boiler and hot water tank. Sits around 23c,
Ideal for the ferment, but could I condition in this temp? Would it just take a little longer?

I know a brew fridge would be ideal, but I'm unwilling to go to all the bother.

(I've still got all the kit in the attic so a few new seals and a clean and I'm good to go)

You might not want the bother but a brew fridge would make all the difference, not just for the simple temperature control (Id say the temps your using are a little high, I try and ferment at 20), but just for the consistency of that temperature.

A second hand fridge is cheap as chips, couple that with a heat pad and an inkbird controller and you'll be amazed how much better your beer can be

Yeah I know, but it's space too. I'd wind up demolishing some cabinets, and nicking some washing space from Mrs PR.

Just not sure I'm that committed.

[BenParr]

Try this one! https://kegthat.com/product/100-satisfaction/

[Jambo85]

Falconer said:

I tried the Directors, very disappointing not at all like I remember. Maybe the different water is the reason, soft Scottish water instead of hard London water.

If you're doing all grain brewing i.e. your own mash the water hardness would definitely be a factor, but I think with a kit it makes little if any difference.