home brewing

[Cheddar George]

I brew basic ale kits ......... "Woodfordes Wherry" in the FV as i write.

 

[Vikeonabike]

I brew: Meads, .

I've won a few prizes for my Meads at County and various Smallholder shows.

Gareth, You are cordialy invited to join the Black Shield Vikings!

 

[Jerry Atrik]

I actually built and run a small microbrewery in a pub i use to run many moons ago .

 

[danphoto]

We make Merlot, Pinot Grigio and Gewurtztraminer from 5-gallon kits, and the Lady Wife makes various what I believe are called "country wines", some of which are very nice thank you. The others are disgusting.

 

[brockers]

Talking of pikey lager, does anyone remember Skol? Do they still make it? God, it was awful!

I remember Skol tasting of strawberries!

 

[Gareth]

Gareth, You are cordialy invited to join the Black Shield Vikings!

Please tell me more about the black Shield Vikings!

Here is a photo of my oranage mead on the judges bench:

This is is my interpretation of a passage from the Norse Sagas, which resulted in this possible traditional and ancient method of producing a Mead starter: nurturing and cultivating a naturally occurring Yeast found on Crab Apples in a solution of honey and water.

So far the brew from this has been fermenting for over 6 months, and a couple of recent sample tastings indicate that it is going to be a rather good and powerful Mead.

 

[brockers]

This is is my interpretation of a passage from the Norse Sagas...

I'm sure I missed that bit about crab apples and Kilner jars when Loki was slaying Ragnarok ! Then again, my Old Norse is a bit rusty.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I used to brew "from the mash", years ago. I dabbled in winemaking too, but it always seemed a bit WI for my taste. The nice thing about making beer is you can make it with exactly the same ingredients as the "real" breweries use, and with care you can make equally good beer.
I'm thinking about getting a plastic bucket and some quality beerkits and starting again. Sadly I don't get the time to mash these days.

 

[Spartak]

A quick and easy cider recipe is 'Turbo Cider !'
4.5 litres of apple juice, 1 teaspoon of yeast into a demijohn and wait 4 weeks.
Rack off into clean bottles and you have lovely 8% tradional cider !
Be warned don't drink it too quickly.

 

[Cheddar George]

Last night i bottled it ......... literally.

 

[buddha]

I watched Hugh Fernley Whats-his-name (or at least some of his River Cottage chums) make nettle beer last week. Looked pretty easy and I've got loads of them growing at the bottom of my garden. They usually get mashed up and used as plant food.

But where do you get brewer's yeast? My google search just comes up with health suppliements for farm animals And is there a particular strain more suited to beer/wine etc?

 

[Fnaar]

I used to make home brew from kits when I was student back in the early 80s... bl00dy awful it was, but we drank it anyway, when funds were low!
When I was a kid, we lived in the 'multicultural' area of town and the Italian bloke next door used to make his own wine.... he buried huge round bottles in the garden with gawd knows what in them... don't know what it was, but my dad and him used to get blotto on it now and again...

 

[brockers]

Telegraph article !

 

[Bayerd]

A quick and easy cider recipe is 'Turbo Cider !'
4.5 litres of apple juice, 1 teaspoon of yeast into a demijohn and wait 4 weeks.
Rack off into clean bottles and you have lovely 8% tradional cider !
Be warned don't drink it too quickly.

Which apple juice do you use? I do pretty much the same recipe, but tend to find that the abv is nearer 5%. Then again I do use the cheapest 100% apple juice I can find.....

 

[Klaus]

I have only just started again - currently waiting for a very dark ale to mature in the bottles (the BBE date on the can was 2006!!).

One thing I don't like is the assumption we want to replicate other beers. Whilst it would be a good job if we could the aim should be a better beer than you get in the Pub or the supermarket.