Adventures in Homebrewland (image heavy - you have been warned!)

System

Wow, i'm impressed at all the effort you are going to to lure me along on a frugal date

You had better invite me on date no.1 and nyk on date no.2 through, as she will probably down the lot......

Bongedone

MrDT wrote: »

Hi 2cats1kid, I was lucky enough to be given my demi-johns for free, but a good place to look would probably be car boot sales and maybe even freecycle. They cost about £15 new, but I bet you can get some tatty old ones from a car boot for a couple of quid

Elderflower wine sounds good, I'll see how my supposedly idiotproof cider turns out first though lol My grandad used to make carrot and beetroot wine, sounds disgusting, but apparently was very tasty

Good luck finding your kit, but remember for the sake of the cider above a large 5l plastic squash bottle should work

edit: thanks for the tip bongedone! ( ps - recipe for ginger beer wouldn't go astray i know, i can be pretty cheeky at times )

I used this one but I upped the sugar as I wanted more alcohol. The recipe as it stands makes the soft version. I left it to ferment for 4-5 days for the hard version. Make sure you release the pressure often or you will have an explosion. I imagine you could use the balloon method above. When you are about to suspend the fermentation leave the lid on till the bottle till its hard then put it in the fridge, this will carbonate it. Also read the comments as I left a tip at the bottom for preparing the ginger.

Edit: The link http://www.vurt.co.uk/2005/06/15/GingerBeer/

Edit again: You can actually skip the yeast altogether for a quick ginger drink. Just lower the sugar a bit.

Penelope_Penguin

MrDT wrote: »

Hi Penelope and Gangstabird, yes it's cider Well, it should be cider... Let's see how it turns out lol

So strictly it's fermentation rather than brewing :beer:

Good luck, and I'm following with interest!

Penny. x

MrDT

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

So strictly it's fermentation rather than brewing :beer:

Good luck, and I'm following with interest!

Penny. x

Lol, that's me told then huh

I've already started meddling... Added a couple of extra teaspoons of sugar Hopefully I'll manage to leave it alone now for a week or so. I can't help myself can I? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the link Bongedone, that might well be experiment #2

Oh, and Jumble, I'm wondering what kind of frugal meal the cheapskate cider should accompany, any requests?

Bongedone

You may be interested in getting these for future use. They stop the fermentation so that you can leave some of the sweetness in the drink. They are also used for cleaning the apparatus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablets

I used to make beer when I was a teenager. The OH won't let me now as we live in a flat and the smell of the fermentation is strong.

mossstar

he he he he - brilliant!

CoD_2

turbo cider is delicious, i've also made it with super expensive (reduced to 10p) apple juice which was on it's use by date.

I would just say that i poured boiling water into a demi john while making wine and there was a MASSIVE crack noise and that demi john is now being used as a plant cloche, never again to be reunited with it's bottom. you can sterilise with specific powders, or campden tabs, or things meant for babies bottles.

loulou88

I made some home made cider (well i used a kit) I didn't have proper demi johns so I used 5 liter water bottles plastic ones They worked fine and cost just over a pound filled with nice water.
I will be having a go at this after I go shopping can't wait THANKS

kazwookie

I'm taking cover!!

I just hope you don't live near me!!!!

Good luck

Chuzzle

MrDT brill I shall be following this with interest as my uncle introduced me to scrumpy at the age of 11 - I'm now 35!! DH bought some home brewed carrot whiskey home from a work colleague a few years ago, we left it in our wine rack, forgot about it until the cork exploded out of the bottle and the whiskey spilled out over the floor!