Home brewers.

[pplpilot]

Anyone into home brew be it wine or beer? I move house soon and have a ton of space that id like to utilise in a useful way I've always fancied a stab at home brew. Worth the hassle?

 

[User6179]

I looked into it once and was cheaper just buying from supermarket, think you have to aim big to bring the costs down per pint .

 

[byegad]

In my younger days, I made wines and beers using a variety of ingredients from ready to brew kits to the basic ingredients, I had all of the gear. I have to boast that I made some decent stuff, although every attempt a Rice wine was a complete and utter flop, and would be banned these days as a weapon of mass destruction. The best were a Tea wine and an India Pale Ale. My Coffee wine was very strong both in alcohol and caffeine making it a potent brew liable to induce palpitations if drunk in any quantity.

I stopped because it was just too easy* to sit every evening and get pissed.

*No will power!

 

[User169]

On cost, I think it depends what you want to make: you're not going to compete on cost with supermarket eurofizz, but you could probably beat the prices that some craft brewers charge.

 

[SquareDaff]

I brew - I don't know where others on here have got their prices from but yes it's much cheaper. How much depends on the price of the kits you buy. It's usually a case of the more expensive the kit the better the quality (although not always) and your 1st "batch" won't be that much cheaper due to the startup costs.

I brew cider and white and rose wines. The wines are really cheap. A decent £25-30 kit will make around 20-21 litres. Ciders and beers will be more expensive as you've have the outlay for bottles too - but you can normally count on half supermarket price.

The latter are quite a bit more time consuming as you have all the individual bottle to steralise after use. If I was you I'd start with a wine which you can normally complete in 7-10 days. You'll need a kit to start - a couple of containers that'll hold 25+ litres of which one needs to be airtight (so you might need an airlock) You'll also need a siphon tube and either a funnel and filter paper or one of the special tools to get rid of the sediment when you get rid of the CO2.

Any questions then just ask!!

 

[Tommy2]

Does anybody make hedgerow brews, as in stuff foraged such as berries or even ciders?

I would love to have a go at making a cider but the problem is pulping and pressing them without special equipment, unless someone has any other way. Also finding a nice apple worthy of making into a cider in the wild may be a problem.

 

[swee'pea99]

Does anybody make hedgerow brews, as in stuff foraged such as berries or even ciders?

I would love to have a go at making a cider but the problem is pulping and pressing them without special equipment, unless someone has any other way. Also finding a nice apple worthy of making into a cider in the wild may be a problem.

When I were nobbut a lad, we used to get dragged out on brambling expeditions. We wouldn't have minded, but it all ended up as bramble wine. I guess it must have been ok, because my mum made it every year - gallons and gallons of the stuff, burbling away on top of the boiler....

 

[The Brewer]

THESE guys are the gems to ask.......be warned though it can get addictive

Lots of hedgerow stuff out there at the moment, but they take time to age well. Red country wines like blackberry and damson aren't really drinkable for 12-18 months, but paler fruits such as gooseberry and white grape can be ready within 3-6months.
Some wine kits are good and some crap, read the reviews on above website. There's also fruit juice wines which can be unbelievably good, THIS is a guide to wurzels orange wine that may sound odd, but excellent and its drinkable in 5-6weeks.

Beer is my thing and I brew from grains and hops, beer-kits though are now fantastic compared to those of years ago and drinkable within 5-6weeks.

Patience is the main ingredient you'll need, it is a great hobby with lots of friendly helpful people out there

Happy brewing..................hic

 

[hopless500]

I make wine. In the cupboard at the minute - dandelion, rice, plum, sloe, apple, blackberry, raspberry, parsnip, mandarin, cabbage, pear, crabapple. Got 2 x raspberry and 1 x peapod about ready to be bottled, and plum bubbling away nicely in a demijohn. If it's in season, and I can pick it, I make wine out of it. (obviously bought the mandarins ).
Used to make beer (Boots kits were brilliant) but not found one as good since they stopped making them, and on the whole, beer isn't worth it.
Edit/ meant to say there are some very good home-made wine books out there. Get yourself one and get brewing

 

[hopless500]

Does anybody make hedgerow brews, as in stuff foraged such as berries or even ciders?

I would love to have a go at making a cider but the problem is pulping and pressing them without special equipment, unless someone has any other way. Also finding a nice apple worthy of making into a cider in the wild may be a problem.

Had a go, but not successfully. A friend has also tried unsuccessfully and we are considering buying an apple press between us.

 

[Arch]

Where I work is a nature reserve with lots of apple trees and every year we have Apple Day, where we do loads of apple juicing, and save some for making cider - just decanting it into demijohns with airlocks, maybe add some yeast, maybe rely on the natural yeasts in the apples. We rarely differentiate between the various varieties of apples, so it's a bit pot luck, but we've had some nice brews that way. NT and I are thinking of having a couple of demijohns saved for having at our wedding party there in the summer.