Home brewing

[Paul]

I have been known to brew the odd barrel, many of which made an appearance at the annual meet of another forum at Ranworth each year, when I used to attend and before too much official presence meant that risking the wrath of HMRC made it "unwise".

I haven't brewed for several years but have a 1/4 barrel (9 gallon) brewery in the shed, currently covered in cobwebs. I focus on ales and stouts as that is what I drink and brew from grain, mashing, sparging, boiling, breaking, fermenting then barrelling my brews using the homebrewers trusty cornelius kegs, cylinders once used by the soda industry for supplying soft drinks syrups but now replaced by bag in box disposable systems. There are thousands of these unwanted kegs, mostly in the USA (pepsico alone are reported to have over twenty million in storage) and in there "unconverted" form they can be had for a few dollars each. Once imported to the UK and fitted with a beer tap and new seals homebrew shops sell them for anywhere up to three hundred quid.

There are a number of very good online homebrew shops but the town where we used to live had an excellent shop on the high street which not only provided all of the material needs but that all important expert advice. Sadly the shop changed hands and subsequently closed, although the last owners still run a micro brewery and I met up with them at a local festival only last weekend and they have agreed to start supplying me with crushed grains and fresh hops to start brewing again.

Like many homebrewers I started with kits, many of which are excellent nowadays - a far call from the yeasty, often cloudy rubbish pedalled in the 70's. Muntons, in my opinion make the best kits, including the Woodfordes range and they can be had from Wilko's, though they tend to have Wherry mostly you might occasionally see Nelson's Revenge which is an excellent kit. If brewing from kit spend that little extra for a "two can" kit which require no extra sugar to be added. The extra cost equates to a few pence per pint but the difference in quality of the finished product is immense. There are a number of all in one systems around at present, one such being brew buddy. These are best avoided too, in my opinion. You really only need a fermenting bucket, large spoon, thermometer and hydrometer, syphon tube and of course something to put the finished brew in, once primary fermentation is complete. Many homebrew shops sell this as a starter kit for around £20. Add a kit of your choice and the appropriate amount of water and around six weeks later you can be drinking your own beer for about £1 a pint, including the cost of the equipment which of course you can reuse. The beer will continue to improve the longer you keep it, as long as you keep the air and light out.

Plastic pop bottles are the cheapest way of storing your brew, but if they are clear plastic keep them in a cardboard box lined with a couple of black bin liners to ensure light is excluded. The homebrewers two biggest enemies are wild yeast and light, either of which can spoil a brew. Keep your equipment spotlessley clean and sanitise it with a proper homebrew sanitiser before use, and once fermented keep the beer in the dark. For me barreling is the only way to go, the beer will have a far superior finish if settled and conditioned in a keg rather than a bottle, something true even for commercial brewers. Buy a bottle of Nelson's Revenge from the Woodforde's shop, drink it then go and buy a pint from the cask in the Fur & Feather next door, there is a world of difference (do it that way around or you will spit the bottle conditioned beer out and you've wasted two quid). Simple barrels with a tap and pressure relief valve start at twenty quid and save you constantly sterilising all those bottles. Another tenner gets you a keg with a pin valve allowing you to add CO2 if your beer turns out a bit flat, or loses condition whilst you are drinking it.

[MostlyAfloat]

What Paul says above x 2, I never got into the hops, boiling, sparging etc keep it simple was my motto, even some of the kit beer can be frankensteined by adding other hops to modify the taste, on the whole I found the woodfordes two can kits pretty much foolproof, warm up the cans, pour into the fermenting vessel, add the water and then the yeast stick on the lid and leave it alone for a couple of weeks, even just using the supplied bits you will get something drinkable (unless you missed out the clean with a proper sterilising solution) leave it longer in bottles and in a dark place and as each week passes it become more settled and drinkable. It's well worth the little effort needed imho 

just found a pic of one of my lager brews.... That was a coopers Canadian blonde kit beer.

Ray

 

[HemsbyPie]

 

that's fairly impressive - did it taste as good as it looked?!

[MostlyAfloat]

that's fairly impressive - did it taste as good as it looked?!

As they say... Hell Yeah.... It was very drinkable, quite difficult to put down, it's called Canadian blonde but reminded me of a Spanish type holiday beer, in the garden, sunshine and a BBQ, it's my goto kit for the summer.

Ray

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