Making your own beer. (Read 1,098 times)

[thewookster]

Went into town earlier on an noticed a DIY make your own beer kit thats on offer for not very much.

So I might go back and get it later on just for shits and giggles and see what concoction the wooks can come up with.

Have any of you lot tried making your own "home brew" beer and if so how did it turn out.

I'm not expecting the beer to be great, just drinkable really because when my mates come round I seem to always run out. And drink these days aint too cheap.

So I'm thinking of fobbing em off with some "home brew".

[swampy]

I did years ago.. made almost 100 5 gallon batches.. after the first 20 batches.. I stayed with a quick to ferment and drink (4 weeks) brown ale. Even had a bottle cleaner and a very nice capper.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charles Papazian was our bible back then.

If I remember by buying my malt in bulk.. It really cut down on the cost..

Also you being in England you'll have access to fresh hops.. not the dried rabbit pellets I had to use...

I would brew every sunday enough for 50 bottles. Once the first batch was drinkable..I had 3 more aging.

I worked in restaurants then.. so getting bottles was free..

The recipe I settled on was very drinkable and my cost was about 30% of buying a comparable beer.

I think there is a free app for homebrewing and keeping recipes for OSX..I'll try to find it..

[thewookster]

Oooooh I will have a look on the app store on my phone.

Yea I'm going to do a tester first with just a kit and if it's good then I will order some hops and start experimenting as there's plenty of places to buy them already dried round here.

And not too expensive either £2.00 for 500 grams.

Just waiting for the other half to get back then it's beer making equipment shopping time ;D

She don't actually know this yet so you will probably hear her whining from across the pond.

[triode]

Nope. Never tried to make beer before. Family members would make their own moonshine or wine every now and then. So, I've helped with that way back in the day, but it tastes like crap whenever I'm involved. I can't imagine beer would fair much better.

It's best if I just drink it and someone else makes it. Yup, that's the conclusion I have come to.

[thewookster]

Test 1 has started.

The kit came with everything I needed including bottles and caps.

Gotta wait about 6 days then bottle it then a couple of weeks after that it will be ready for the taste test ;D

Whenever someone mentions moonshine I always think of the dukes of hazzard ;D but that might just be because i'm english or Im just plain weird

[chudz]

Woot! You go Wook!

I've made like eight batches. The whole process is fun and the boiling wort smells great. Out of those, I've made one batch that I've absolutely loved, a Blood-Orange Hefe. I've made one batch that I liked, a cream ale. The rest were average but drinkable.

Have fun with your first bottling experience. I wrote a funny story about mine.

Modified to add this link:

www.homebrewtalk.com

I got a lot of good info there.

[thewookster]

As long as there drinkable I think that will be a success ;D

[chudz]

Jul 6, 2011 1:21:24 GMT -6 thewookster said:

As long as there drinkable I think that will be a success ;D

Amen Brothah!

[triode]

Jul 6, 2011 1:09:52 GMT -6 thewookster said:

Whenever someone mentions moonshine I always think of the dukes of hazzard ;D but that might just be because i'm english or Im just plain weird

No that's not weird. That's completely natural.

[thewookster]

Jul 6, 2011 1:19:24 GMT -6 chudz said:

Woot! You go Wook!

I've made like eight batches. The whole process is fun and the boiling wort smells great. Out of those, I've made one batch that I've absolutely loved, a Blood-Orange Hefe. I've made one batch that I liked, a cream ale. The rest were average but drinkable.

Have fun with your first bottling experience. I wrote a funny story about mine.

Modified to add this link:

www.homebrewtalk.com

I got a lot of good info there.

Excellent find Chudz, cheers for that.

[thewookster]

Jul 6, 2011 2:37:54 GMT -6 triode said:

Jul 6, 2011 1:09:52 GMT -6 thewookster said:

Whenever someone mentions moonshine I always think of the dukes of hazzard ;D but that might just be because i'm english or Im just plain weird

No that's not weird. That's completely natural.

Phew thats alright then ;D

(for some reason I clicked modify instead of quote so ignore the edited by wookster bit because it's just me being a bit of a tool ;D )

[DocP]

Being posh, I make my own Elderflower Champagne every year. Bit late to start now, cos they've finished blooming. Channel 4's recipe is pretty easy, though we had trouble getting hold of citric acid from the local chemist on account of herion addicts using it...

www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/elderflower-champagne-recipe

[chudz]

Ya know, the only other thing than beer that I really wanted to take a crack at was sake.

Once I'm fully employed again, I think I'll take a crack at it.

Note: That was "A crack at it," not a, "crack addict." *Sigh*

[thewookster]

Jul 9, 2011 15:18:18 GMT -6 DocP said:

Being posh, I make my own Elderflower Champagne every year. Bit late to start now, cos they've finished blooming. Channel 4's recipe is pretty easy, though we had trouble getting hold of citric acid from the local chemist on account of herion addicts using it...

www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/elderflower-champagne-recipe

God damn junkies

My parents use to do something like that, can't remember what though too long ago to even contemplate remembering.

But they also use to do something with champagne and I think it was Crème de cassis I could be totally and utterly wrong but I'm pretty sure it was that.

Anyways, I'm going to start bottling up my home brew this evening. Then make a different batch during this week.

Me and a few mates have got loads of recipes from chudz' recommended website and we have concocted a recipe and we are going to call it "Wookies Beard ™" ;D

[thewookster]

Had a quick taste test before bottling up.

Tasted alright wasn't unpleasent.

It was flat as this was pre bottling, but I'm quite looking forward to trying it in a few weeks time ;D

Start brewing my second batch tonight. This time it is a beer, no lager this time. Got my dried hops ready and prepped so will let you know how it goes