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Author Topic: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing  (Read 9716 times)

desertmum

  • Joined Mar 2016
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #15 on: September 04, 2016, 11:52:43 am »
Living in Saudi we were dependant on our home brew - we made it with Ceres Grape juice (red or white depending on choice), sugar, water and yeast.  It was ready to drink in about 4=6 weeks - not hugely alcoholic but pretty yummy.  We used large Oasis water bottles instead of demijohns (the large kind that go on water coolers), and sandwich bags with elastic bands as airlocks (although for others the airlock of choice was a condom).  All very Heath Robinson but it worked and was cheap as chips.

I have also made 'gin' using grapefruit and lemons which was pretty good with 7Up.  Others converted water purifiers into homemade stills - not advisable for many reasons!




GribinIsaf

  • Joined Aug 2015
  • Montgomeryshire
    • Gribin Isaf
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #16 on: September 05, 2016, 08:39:23 pm »
Many thanks for all the specific recommendations that have been given above,  I am sure once we get into it we will branch off in many interesting directions but in such a wide subject we just need somewhere to start when I guess there is a lot of useless stuff out there.

So we have already received a copy of John Wright's River Cottage Booze book which, as mentioned, looks an entertaining read even before we make anything.

A copy of Wine Making the Natural Way, the Wilko 30 Merlot Wine Kit and associated bits and pieces are on the way.

Just one more question - recommend me a good beer making kit to start off with...

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #17 on: October 24, 2016, 02:31:47 am »
You can make a fantastic light hock from just using grape vine leaves as you thin the vine leaves  in early June , Yes you add sugar but the vinified taste is still there.

 I used a five gallon bucket rammed packed full with freshly stripped off vine leaves . Poured on 12 or more pints of boiling water to fill the bucket to wwithin half an inch of the brim ,slipped the lid on & left it to brew , stirred it on day two & day three . Drained the elixer off  on day four and then used a standard country wine recipe to bring th must up to a light wine density for a 40 pint bucket .
 I used a light white yeast with a suggested tollerance of 12.5 % ABV, decanted it into a five gallon brewing container set in a simple cup inside a cup air lock in th screw top 7 left it to gurgle away  in the shed .
 It was made in the June & stopped with Campden tablets when the s.g. was reached , racked off at the end of July & again at the end of August then bottled in early October  .

On the 10 th of Dec we had a big family & friends  party , most of them thought we'd purchased in quite a nice agreeable light not too sweet grape wine .

 They also loved the ten gallons of 14.6 abv ,  strong red elderberry we'd made the year previously and smoothed  with a bottle of decent  brandy plus , 1/4 a bottle of glycerin after the second racking on mid august .
It then sat in the two five gallon  containers with water in the air traps ( checked then on the first of each month & topped up as needed ) in the roof void for I was wanting to use the heat of the summer in the roof void the  next year to turn the wine into a fortified port style wine  ....it worked well .
 I also had to make a pulley system with a ratchet & handle  device to haul the containers up through the trap door whilst I was in the roof void as they only just went through the opening  .
 Other sources of fruit are jars of home made jams , frozen fruits .

 brewing beer ,  once you have read the basics & made a small kit up & got everything perfect try going to th bigger home brew packs ..some are on line some are in Wilkinsons  stores .
 An 80 pinter has a more rounded flavour than a 20 or 40 pint one .

 I'd say it is essential that you get the correct hydrometers and a decent digital thermometer with a long water proof probe to start with &  perhaps super long plastic spoons , a 2 litre plastic jug , a set of reliable digital scales with a plastic bowl .
You'll also need at least one five gallon food grade bucket with a close fitting lid & two or more five gallon food grade screw top containers that you can fit a wine makers air lock into , Finally a clear plastic tube that you can fit a small stop cock into so you can syphon from one container to another  & stop the flow of liquid either when you are decanting between vessels or you are bottling up .
 
You use the syphon tube to decant & bottle fill because the less air you get in your drinks the less"  bruised " they taste

 Milton baby bottle sterilizer is usually good enough to sterilize all you equipment but never store used or unused sterilization fluid for more than a week or less  as it soon goes off. 
« Last Edit: October 24, 2016, 02:45:38 am by cloddopper »
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

farmershort

  • Joined Nov 2010
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #18 on: October 24, 2016, 10:14:09 am »
I'd second a lot of the advice here...

Beer: start with a kit which contains the cans of malt extract - then you'll get an idea of the process. Once you've got that nailed, invest in a mash-tun and a boiler, and you can mash your own malts (to produce for yourself what is in the cans in a kit). This is often called all-grain brewing (AG). you need to soak the malted grains in hot water (temperature determines how much sugar comes out, amongst other things), and then after a 2-3 hours, you can run off the resulting sugary liquer, and rinse the malted grains through (Sparging).

It's all very possible, but it does need an investment of kit (less than £100).

Wine: I'm now an advocate of starting with something like apple wine - it's not too tricky to make a really drinkable white-wine, and it's easy then to balance the dry/sweet to your taste. If you try and make several versions of 1 wine, then you'll get an idea of the variables. We used the following this year as a bit of an experiment:

1 Gallon Dry white apple wine: 90% brambley apples (juiced), 10% eating aples (juiced), 2lb of sugar.

1 Gallon Sweet white apple wine: Same apple ratios as above, but 2.5lb of sugar.

I was very impressed with the dry this year... I don't know if it was down to increasing the amount of cooking apples, or just a fluke, but it was grand! We could happily drink that instead of shop-bough white.

Ghdp

  • Joined Aug 2014
  • Conwy
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #19 on: October 24, 2016, 01:02:15 pm »
And I have just bought my 1p wine making book too.  :excited:

Olly398

  • Joined Mar 2010
  • Herts
    • Brixton's Bounty
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #20 on: November 14, 2016, 04:07:13 pm »
I've tried brewing all sorts of things and decided:


to stick with All-Grain beer brewing, in 5-gallon batches. I can actually brew better beer than I can buy in the chops for about 50p a pint (can be even cheaper but I don't skimp on quality hops or malt). Look out for books by Graham Wheeler in charity shops or just get googling.


I've done cider and I'd do it again as its free and very little can go wrong.


CBA doing country wines any more. I tried parsnip, rhubarb and blackberry/elderberry and the results were not good enough to make it worthwhile. That said, I really like grape wine, so I'm probably too conditioned
also blogging at...

      Brixton's Bounty

big soft moose

  • Joined Oct 2016
Re: Looking for advice on the easiest way to start with home brewing
« Reply #21 on: December 18, 2016, 05:41:25 pm »
Grab it for a penny: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wine-Making-Natural-Way-Ball/dp/0716020998

None left for a penny, but i just got a copy for 2.53  (plus 2.80 postage)

 

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