Great 'How to start home brewing' Hunt

SMeeMaw

Just wanted to add another option of saving money in the run up to Christmas and New Year. This is a simple way of having a home-made equivalent of Baileys that is quite yummy!

You'll need :

1 cup of whisky
1 tin of condensed milk
1 carton single cream (long life)
1 teaspoon of instant coffee (or more, to taste)
1 teaspoon of runny honey (or more, to taste)

Give a 15-ish seconds swizz in blender, taste, adjust and add more of some of what you prefer from the above, another 15-ish seconds in blender, bottle (sterilised of course) and refrigerate. Immediately repeat the above, because the first one wont last very long!

You can try variations by changing the base to brandy or other spirits, using cocoa instead of coffee, and including different flavourings like orange, mint, etc.

Yes, the ingredients are a wee bit sinful, but it's nearly Christmas, and you're worth it! ENJOY.

rhodes1968

Brewing forty years. -there's got to be a moral there, somewhere.

I now get my beer kits from Wilkinsons, add 1 3/4 lbs sugar, dissolve the lot in two kettles of boiling water, but first of all make a yeast starter out of the supplied yeast, a teaspoon of sugar, & nearly half a pint of tepid water.
Top up the barrel with cold water, once you've dissolved your sugar & the can contents. Add the yeast starter when it's frothy. Every morning, for four days, stir the contents & skim any dead yeast off the top. After about seven days, if it's been in a warm enough place, the top of the liquid will be clearing. Now, you can barrel it, & last thing, add a heaped dessertspoon of sugar & quickly fasten the top on. You can start drinking in about three days, but when the gas gives out, you can recharge it from a gas cylinder. If you're a canny drinker, the gas you've generated with that heaped dessertspoon of sugar will last well over halfway down the barrel.

doraexplorer

theres a really good link here step by step . even i managed it . hth someone.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=948049

thanks to mr DT

on_a_money_mission

awalker wrote: »

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.

Thanks Adam - although 80 pints would be impressive consumption for me, I'm sure my dh would help out by supping some of the pre-diluted beer!

I'm popping down to the homebrew shop tomorrow so I can get cracking this weekend.

Jackie

christhemoaner

Why bother going to all that trouble when the big supermarkets have always got some good offer on. Tesco have 2 cases for £12. Thats 30 cans = over 23 pints = 52p per pint.

Boulders_2

I agree the supermarket deals can be so good that brewing your own is only going to save yourself a few pence. However, as the original post mentioned beer in pubs, I wondered how many people sought out their local brewery as an "inbetweener"?
My local brewery sells a selection of quality ales for around £3 a litre, and you get to try before you buy. Cheers...

big_gay_kirk

couple of tips... not for your first kit/attempt.. but orth trying as you go..
1 get your sunday roast chicken, put the remains in a muslin bag, hit several times with a rolling pin, hang in the beer as it ferments.. sounds foul (lol!!!!) but tastes great...
2 try replacing some of the sugar with honey... or even golden syrup...
3 stcick som home grown herbs in while it ferments...
4 have a go at mixing the stuff in the tins.. youll be amazed what you ge!!

5 don't expect it to taste like john smiths.. it costs less than a quarter as much, and taste just over half as good.. so thats a bargain!!!

barginbuster2008

i thought i would give home brewing a try for the first time to save some cash this christmas and did a seach on eBay for a kit for new comers. I bought a complete starter kit from a shop called Home Brew Online, it had everything included and looked the business.

I'm brewing now with a york brewery beer kit and it smells great, roll on christmas!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Home-Brew-Online-Shop

kingkano

awalker wrote: »

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

It won't change it a little. It will change it LOADS. It will taste like very weak watered down thin beer, thats been watered down some more! :rotfl:

Better bet is to get a regular kit but DON'T add the sugar called for. Sugar adds nothing in body - just alcohol. So you'll get the same beer with less alcohol - but not a watered down so much taste. :beer:

sheltond

I have found Jack Keller's website to be by far the best place on the web for info on wine making: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

The layout of the site is a bit odd, but there is a huge amount of information there, from a basic step by step guide (http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/basics.asp), advanced discussion of things like acidity and different yeast types, plus recipes for making wine from pretty much everything:

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request.asp
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipes.asp
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipe2.asp
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipe3.asp

This site guides you through from first steps through to the point where you understand why things work the way they do, and so that you can customise recipes to your own taste and work out your own recipes.