Great 'How to start home brewing' Hunt

awalker

NaomiJane wrote: »

Simple simple simple recipe that even I have made with success. you end up with something like small beer but its very drinkable.

one lb of hops.
7 pints of water.
one jar of malt extract.
a tablespoon of yeast (i used easy bake sachets)

one lb of hops or 450 grams does sound a lot, it does depend on the Alpha acid of your hops and how long you boil them.
Depending on the beer I use between 20 and 50 grams depending how bitter I want, but that is quite bitter.
Also that is in 23 litres of beer when I make mine.

Adam

The_Grim_Reaper

N9eav wrote: »

...Waiting for it to mature or finding it does not taste as good as John Smith's can be a disappointment

Now that really would be a disappointment - and a clear indication to leave brewing well alone :rotfl:

yorkiebar

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk seconded ! A very active forum on there and lots of people willing to help brewers of all standards, from complete novices to all grain brewers.

vivmerc

hi ! once you start brewing you will find that there are lots of options and cheap fixes , a good way to sterilise bottles equipment is to use the tablets used to sterilise baby bottles etc ( cheap from boots ) after clean washing a tablet will sterilise up to 3-4 demijohns with no taste or residue and you can then flush the rest of your equipment with it. for drier beer try brewers sugar ( from homebrew shop ) or experiment with various types of cane sugar. yeast dies when it reaches its alchohol tolerance or when its used up its sugar , you can buy different types of brewing yeast from hb shops that can crank the alchohol level up to 14%, don't try to do this in one hit,use a couple of different yeasts in stages (done this way the packs will service many brews ) don't add the yeast direct, use a starter( a small sterilised bottle with a cotton wool stopper with some warm boiled water and sugar ) and let it ferment for a day or so.. you'll see it start to froth, before adding. in wine the more sugar converted means drier sharper wine, to sweeten ( according to your palate ) use saccharin/sweeteners ( not sugar ) , decant a little wine dissolve the tablets and add to taste. to improve wine filters are amazing they clear and make the wine sparkle ! any wine that doesn't agree with your taste if you add some cheap vodka and coconut essence you have a well known coconut flavoured drink for about £1 a bottle OR if you add coffee essence ( camp coffee works well ) you get a well known coffee flavoured alchohol for the same price if you do it well and with the original bottles no one will ever know the difference... . cheers !

mervyn67

I've been brewing a while and have found several tricks.
1 boil sugar with some lemon juice (Lidl ready squeezed) it splits the fermentable and unfermentable up so yeast gets started quicker
2 Sterilize with boiling water (they didn't have handy bags of sterilizer in the middle ages!)
3 Cover demijohns if you use them with cling film (not a bubbler)
4 Cut a hole and put a plastic tap in your fermenting bin to make bottling easier
5 I've always used plastic lemonade or cider bottles (free when you've finished original contents)
6 Do get a hydrometer to test when fermenting is done I also put my head in bin (not fluid) to check fermentation but watch out for the CO2 (once you've smelt it you'll know what I mean)

mervyn67

2 in previous That was only for plastic! For glass I agrre with vivmerc but also check out supermarkets own Milton type sterilizer

on_a_money_mission

NaomiJane: re the small beer recipe.

Have you any idea whether this is low alcohol? I'm looking for a 'low'ish (2.5%) strength home brew recipe, as I can't drink strong or even normal strength beer, and resent paying £2 a bottle for the Harvest Gold 2.5% bottled beer Tesco do.

Any suggestions anyone? I did wonder whether you could just water down the strong stuff, or would it affect taste/keeping qualities?

Thanks

awalker

on_a_money_mission wrote: »

NaomiJane: re the small beer recipe.

Have you any idea whether this is low alcohol? I'm looking for a 'low'ish (2.5%) strength home brew recipe, as I can't drink strong or even normal strength beer, and resent paying £2 a bottle for the Harvest Gold 2.5% bottled beer Tesco do.

Any suggestions anyone? I did wonder whether you could just water down the strong stuff, or would it affect taste/keeping qualities?

Thanks

The easiest way would be to get a 40 pint 5% ish kit let it ferment out and then dilute it with water which has been previously been boiled.
Then you will have 80 pints, the flavour will obviously change a little due to the balance of ingredients being changed.
As long as you bottle it in well cleaned/sterilised PET bottles it should store for a long time easily many months, but possibly not years as stronger alcohol does help storage.

I some times brew a beer just like this from all grain, it works out very cheap and I really like to have a nice 2.8% ish beer on occasionly, very refreshing.

Hope that helps

Adam

digitig

sphrp2 wrote: »

1) cleanliness - absolutely essential for both taste and, more importantly, your health

Absolutely.

2) time - the first time we used a kit we followed their instructions on time and it was WAY too short. We now let the mixture brew for about a month and then bottle it and keep those for a minimum of 5-6 months.

Ideally, measure the specific gravity, which will tell you when fermentation is pretty much finished. The time depends very much on the temperature, so if you don't have a warm airing cupboard or a heater on the fermentation vessel then fermentation will take longer than it says on the pack (and if you do have a warm airing cupboard, why isn't your hot water tank properly lagged? This is supposed to be a money saving forum!)

And yes, after bottling do let the beer age.

I'd also definitely recommend using secondary fermentation to add fizz to your beer rather than CO2 in a pressure barrel.

I'd never come across adding CO2 to homebrew! Secondary fermentation for me!

Our friends and family think our lager compares favourably with the stuff from the pub (maybe that's just cos its free to them?! )

I'm a bitter drinker. I've never been able to match a good real ale, but if a batch isn't a lot better than a pub keg bitter then I throw it away and try again.

One thing to watch out for -- there are "just add water" kits, where the fermentation vessel has a tap for serving. These will never deliver a good pint; the beer will be yeasty and is only drinkable for a very short time. They may be ok if you don't want something very easy for the sort of party where people won't mind much what they're drinking, though.

kevanf1

I have been brewing beer for about 27 yrs now. My personal recommendation for kits is to go to your local Wilkinsons store and look for the 'Youngs' brand home brew kits. They also do the 'Geordie' kits which I started with all those years ago. At around £6 plus the cost of 2lb of sugar you have a very good and highly quaffable 40 pints of beer. In all the time I have been brewing I have never made a pint that was NOT better than any I have bought or drunk in pubs. Maybe I am just lucky or maybe it is because I am scrupulous about sterilising and then allowing the beer to mature properly.