Anyone do home brewing?

[swee'pea99]

Been thinking about having a go, but from a bit of googling it all sounds much more difficult and complicated than I'd imagined. I'm particularly daunted by all the stuff about sterilisation and cleanliness. Not that I'm dirty...but I am a bit slapdash rather than precise. Anyone out there do it? Is it hard? Is it worth it? Do you end up with nice beer? Any tips and advice much appreciated.

 

[Octet]

I don't do it, but I can imagine the reason you need to have extreme cleanliness is because otherwise your going to be cultivating the wrong sort of bacteria, especially when you think that it would be multiplying hundreds of times an hour.
My mother used to ferment fruit in a big pot but apart from that I have no idea, let me know how it goes though?

Good luck!

 

[classic33]

Forget googling, get a couple of books from your local library, sit down & read them.

Last time I did it, brewing my own, I ended up with demijohns that had to be treated as though they had nitro in them. One exploded in a lift at work. The two in the lift ignored the warning about not shaking it. Still got just under a gallon made in 1985, if you want to try it!

Cleaning & sterilizing is easy enough to do & it prevents you having to throw it, homebrew, out because of contamination, or worse still end up poisoning yourself. You might poison the right person with it though.

 

[The Brewer]

I do a little....okay alot

THESE guys know there stuff....that's not a fob off link, I'll happily answer questions, but maybe they'd do it better.

 

[swee'pea99]

I do a little....okay alot

THESE guys know there stuff....that's not a fob off link, I'll happily answer questions, but maybe they'd do it better.

Thanks a lot. The "The "OMG I don't want to screw up my first brew" how to" guide is the best intro I've seen by a long chalk. I'll be going back for a bit more poking around for sure. (I would read books, but they take so long, and I already have too many on my list!)

 

[vernon]

It's easy of you follow the instruction. It can be a bit messy. I've not made anything for a long time but have some great 1984 elderberry port left for special occasions.

 

[berty bassett]

i used to brew lager but to be honest the price of the kits are going up , sometimes its a little hit or miss , and you can end up drinking a whole lot more i done a few of the wicked strength ciders and when you start drinking them in volume the cycling tends to get a tad harder , i just go out and buy something nice now with no faffing about - but brewing lager, beer or cider is easy , sterilizing is easy and you can use plastic lemonade bottles to cut down on cost - but not coke or stuff like that

 

[Andrew_Culture]

The Wodefords kits are remarkable, you just add warm water and a sachet of yeast! As a previous poster said, you will drink more!

Just like with cycling, don't get too hung up on kit, I'm making some ginger beef in an ASDA smart price water bottle at the mo!

 

[tadpole]

I home brew wine, and make all kinds of spirit drinks from sloe gin to Raspberry whisky, It's simple really, if you can follow instructions you can make wine, without using kits. "Clean" is good enough for nearly all of the processes.

 

[Berties]

we normally do a few bottles of elderflower champagne,but this year we had had a few bottles explode(save proper champagne bottles for the job)easy to do and a nice quaff for the ladies

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I've just remembered that I made an instructional video!

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYVp7bffr-c&

 

[User169]

The book by Charlie Papazian is a good one for starters. His motto - "relax and have a brew!" - is as good as any.

Don't get too hung up infection - some of the grooviest beer is made by exposing wort to the elements.

Beware though, you might find yourself angling after one of these..

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Beware though, you might find yourself angling after one of these..

The cost of that must be enough to buy beer for a few years.

 

[User169]

The cost of that must be enough to buy beer for a few years.

About 25k pounds for the 100l version! When I showed the brochure to Mrs DP she started crying - the subject's never been discussed again...

 

[swee'pea99]

That's a time machine isn't it?