Has anyone tried homebrewing to save money

Mr_Ted

:rotfl:Wudnt say it would save money going by my F.I.L's exploits.
It always got drunk before it was mature n he had to start another one;)

Just testing he would say, usually a whole barrel tested in short shrift :rotfl:

jillie1974

my FIL makes his own wine. We usually get a bottle to try. When my husband was young, they used to pick dandelions to make dandelion wine.
Most recently, he has made Carrot, Rhubarb, Elderberry and the usual kits.
I find that I need to add a bit of lemonade for the first glass or two. Carrot was awful

cyclonebri1

mervyn11 wrote: »

I have been brewing my own beer & wine for several years now.
Always have loads on the brew.
Don't listen to anyone that tells you the kits are cr*p.......they are so good now that you can't tell the homebrew from the shop bought.

HTH

They aren't crap, they are simply unimaginative, you pay a premium for massed produced stuff, without the wait, ("pleasure") of collecting your own ingredients.

jonesjw

Draught homebrew bitter can taste a lot better than most of the bottles on offer in the supermarket.

Leif

I live round the corner from a brewery, freshly brewed draught beer is but a 10 minute walk away, and it is very good. The problem with home brewing is that I'd put on weight, there is a limit to how much one can drink.

garethgas

Leif wrote: »

I live round the corner from a brewery, freshly brewed draught beer is but a 10 minute walk away, and it is very good. The problem with home brewing is that I'd put on weight, there is a limit to how much one can drink.

No there isn't

garethgas

When I was (much) younger, I used to brew lager.
My friends would come around every weekend and 'test' it. Always served in half pints due to its strength.
We were all really good, close friends...until we'd had 2 halves!
We quarreled and argued about anything and everything with my friends crawling up the road to get home pretty much every time. This would be only about 8 in the evening!
Not one of us could remember what we talked/argued about the following day.
Oh, and it makes you want to take your clothes off for some reason!
Hic :beer:

Nordman

I make wine with the flavoured tea bags, much cheaper than the tins of syrup you can get. How much sugar do your need to add to make this work?

ilikewatch

I've recently been experimenting making cider using cartons of apple juice, off the top of my head my most recent recipe was:

24 litres tesco value apple juice
1 Kg demerara sugar
500g Honey
1 mug of extremely strong (4 teabags) tea (for tannin)
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 sachet Premier Cuvee yeast

This has just finished fermenting and will be about 10.2%, when bottling I will add a teaspoon of splenda per litre to backsweeten, and a little sugar to prime the bottle and add a slight sparkle.

brewboy_2

I've been brewing beer from kits for quite a while and have had varied success, usually don't add enough sugar at the priming stage and become disappointed that the beer lacks fizz. Seem to have sorted that since I stopped using carbonation drops and now use brewing sugar instead. I tend to buy the two can kits now and have no issue making great beer.
Looking forward to moving onto wines, bought a cellar 7 Shiraz kit from my local supplier in Northern Ireland Geterbrewed.Looking forward to trying it, apparently you get 30 bottles of wine for £29.99 so its gotta be worth a try. Has anyone had success with brewing this wine kit?