os beer making does it work out cheaper ?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

now that we seriously got to cut back and budget big time......i am finding alternatives ...etc...

when hubby comes home from work he allways like to have a beer or 2 just to chill out...on average he has 2 cans of larger a night....but he did say he would have to stop that..if it means keeping to a budget....
then i thought about home brewing...i know you can buy kits to start off, and in the begining it will work out expensive, as you got to buy the barrels etc...
but does anyone make their own, and how much does it work out per pint..?

just thought it might be a bit of a compramise.. for him, rather than go without.....

any ideas or suggestions would be gratefully recieved.....thanks....:rotfl:

Jnelhams

Try Ebay for the Beer stuff. I can't say if it will be cheap to make Beer, but I make my own Wine from cordials (like Blackcurrant) and that is cheap and easy to do.

Another thing you can do is poor man's cider/apple wine. Take a 2 litre fizzy water / pop bottle. Wash it out, pour in a tablespoon of white sugar, 2 litres of Apple Juice (Cheap Carton stuff 38p Tesco) Add yeast and screw lid only a couple of turns so that the bottle is still squeezy for the gas to escape. Stand on a warm windowsill for a week or two, and the sediment will start to sink to the bottom, when clear carefully siphon off the wine into another clean pop bottle and enjoy. :beer:

Pink.

Hi COOLTRIKERCHICK,

I'm not sure if it works out cheaper or not, but there are a couple of older threads that might help you:

Beer Making Kits-How Easy????

Homemade Lager/Beer/Wine

Pink

pounds_and_pensive

My dad brewed beer from when I was five years old up until when he died when I was 29, at the staggering rate of eighty pints a week(!) Not only was it a fraction of the cost of beer in tins, but it was also much nicer (and probably stronger too). Nothing I've tasted since has come close (and I've tested extensively ) The hangover you get the next morning after home brew (and I've experienced quite a few of those, too ) is a proper 'beer' hangover, rather than a chemical one. Another side-effect of home-brewing is the gradual acquisition of dozens of friends over the years, and fond (if a bit hazy!) memories of boozed up friends, neighbours and family in beer-fuelled sing-songs.

The main downside of it all is the amount of space required. As well as forty-plus two-pint bottles needing a space to sit, my dad always had two five-gallon buckets on the go at the fermenting stage, which need to be somewhere warm (my dad always used the airing cuboard). I'm not sure all home brewers go for it on this scale though, so maybe the need for space won't be such a problem for you

It seems to require more skill than I possess. Despite being instructed in the art several times by my dad, and eventually inheriting all his bottles and equipment, I've never managed to produce a decent drop of beer (sob!). He started by using kits, then after a few years just used to buy the ingredients from a brewing shop that was near to us at the time.

One thing I do remember from growing up with a home-brewer for a dad was that I was never entirely sure if my boyfriends were *really* interested in me, or whether a far greater attraction had provided them with an ulterior motive for turning up on the doorstep. Be careful, girl - this stuff's far more effective than a whole shed-load of Impulse body spray

dazza001

I've made home made cider and it was really very nice.
The recipe is as follows.

Items needed:-

6, litre carton(plastic uncoloured, I used a 6ltr food container from asda £1.49)
2, 2litre Sparkling water bottles (17p each)
5, cartons Pure Apple Juice from concentrate (Tesco own brand 49p each)
1, packet cider yeast or champagne yeast (98p)
Some tubing for syphoning (this is not essential but you will get better results when transfering from carton to bottle rather than pouring)

pour in 5 cartons (1 litre) of pure apple juice in to the container (I used the pure juice from concentrate (tesco's own brand), make sure that there are no artificial flavours or preservatives in it.

sprinkle the yeast into the apple juice and stir.
Cover and leave in a warmish room (normal room temperature is fine).

It will start to bubble(ferment, this is where the yeast is turning the sugar in the juice into alcohol)

When this bubbling stops (after about 10 days, although this can vary depending on a lot of factors, so dont worry if it doesnt follow precisley), syphon the juice off into bottles (try not to disturb the sediment that will now be at the bottom of the container).

pour the water away from the 2 litre bottles(using pure water bottles you can be sure they are clean and the only thing that has been in them is water) and fill them with the cider.

when they are full (about 2inches from the top), put in 1 teaspoon of sugar and put the lid on. Give the bottle a shake.
The sugar will now carbonate the cider over time. (if you want flat cider then do not put the sugar in the bottle)

Leave now for about 1 month and it will become clear and it will now be ready to drink.

I made some using this recipe and I actually left mine for 2 months and I was amazed how nice it was, it was just as good if not better than the commercial stuff, and you know that it is all natural ingredients and no artificial stuff in there.

P.S., this recipe can be changed, try using raspberry or cranberry juice instead of apple, just about anything that can be juiced with no preservatives can be fermented in this way to make a wine, or a cider drink.

Just a note make sure everything is absolutley clean and sterilised, and rinsed with no residue on anything.
I use Brewclens steriliser (£1.29 from my local home brew shop), but I believe some people have used baby bottle sterilising fluid ok.
I know that some people dont bother with the sterilising part and it may be ok, but to me that seems a pointless risk, all that work and waiting only to find out you have made nothing more than vinegar.

Anyway here is a great site that you may find useful for all home brew information, although it is american so some of the terms may be a little different but otherwise its great.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com

janeawej

that sounds great dazza i will try some with cranberry juice i think, just a quick question how alcoholic is it?!!!

pollyanna24

Heard a few peeps on here saying you can buy the kits in Wilkos. Don't know many Wilkos, but have never noticed the kits in there. Is it something you have to ask for?

I live in Watford, but have lived in Luton and have not noticed in their two stores. Do not know of any others. Can anyone help? May go during the week!

Addiscomber

DH went through a spell of making beer from 40 pint kits from Boots. He enjoyed it but I lost my kitchen for the whole of Saturday :mad: It did work out cheaper per pint.

He stopped because he realised that he was drinking more simply because it was there, and starting drinking earlier and earlier in the day, particularly at weekends, he was also putting on weight.

nick_b

In my local store, they only ever have one or two kits on the shelf at a time. However, they have more of just the beer mixes (this is the malt, yeast and hop extract you add to water). They also have all the paraphernalia like hygrometers, finings and bottle cleaning brushes.

BWZN93

My OH has just started brewing and the cost for the set up kit was approx the same as buying 40 cans from Tesco, and I believe works out to approx £0.30p per pint afterwards.

Ive currently got the bucket sitting near the dryer in the kitchen!

What I really want to do soon though is make some fruity wines as xmas gifts ( I dont drink it myself) as soon as OH has finished his first batch of ale. That seems a bit harder though and i need to do some research first. If anyone has some good tips or recipe's for making a nice wine please let me know!!

Jo x

LizD_2

My dad has done home brew from the kits for years. The tin costs about £7 and makes around 40 pints, although you need about a kilogram of sugar as well. As for space, depends how much you make, but I can remember two barrels lurking in the living room for most of my childhood. The beer needs to ferment for a while. Dad had a electric heat-pad underneath, as we didn't have an airing cupboard.
You could try freecycle for barrels etc.