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Guest buster321c

I used to do a bit , it easy enough to do its just the end result , larger is ok , wine is ok , but i found that i could do a good strong cider and if i bottled it and left it a few months it was great ! get yourself a big tub and a cider kit from your nearest homebrew shop and give it a try , its cheap and cheerful and im sure you can get better stuff now than you could about 15 yrs ago :drink::drink::drink::drink:

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Guest Ditch_Shitter

I used to brew my own beer. In fact, I'm just about to start again. It's piss easy. Here's a few tips, off the top of my head:

 

1. Invest in what's these days sold as an " Electrim Bin ". These things are simply 5 gallon bins with a kettle element inside and a thermostatic controll dial on the outside. Obviously, ye could knock one up with a fish tank thermostat. But they only cost so much so it's up to ye own pocket and time. But that, set at the optimum temprature, will ferment out five gallons of beer in a few days.

 

2. Buy in as many of the plastic barrels as ye reasonably can and have room for. With the above bin ye can have half a dozen full of quietly settling beer long before the first batch is ready to drink. Then, keep it going and ye'll eventually level out so ye always have good, clear beer on tap and plenty on its way.

 

3. Buy plastic flaggons of Malt Extract. That's the syrup they sell in tins and call 'Home Brew Kits'. Just but it by the half or gallon. Decent home brew shop will guide ye on what sort to use for the taste ye seek. Cheaper that way.

 

4. DON'T fall for the old schoolboy trick of adding far more suger than any given recipe states. In fact, just don't make silly strong beer. 5% is fine. I used to make 8%+ and it was just silly. Few pints and ye were unconcious. Hard to have fun when ye unconcious.

 

5. Talk to the man in the Home Brew shop and be honest about what ye after. He'll advise ye.

 

 

Can't wait to get back into it myself. Great fun and rewarding. Best of all, I'll be able to enjoy a few pints every night and it won't even register on my household budget, once I get the plastic equipment bought up :)

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I have always fancied brewing something or the other (no jokes)

 

my problem, as such, is I dont drink, alcahol that is, think cos as a kid (and still now) have a VERY sweet tooth, and therefore as a teenager, everything I tried, tasted bloody horrible, about the only thing I can drink is those silly vodka pop bottles,

 

but

 

have always wondered, if brewing my own, I could con- cocked a cider to my taste, sweet????

what do you think ditch?, possible

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Guest Ditch_Shitter

Stubby; I've genuinely no personal experience of cider making. I used to drool over the gorgeous wood and metal Press on display in my local shop. But it was beyond my pocket and so I never got it to press apples with.

 

Not that ye need an expensive press, 'mind you. Claw hammer and a bucket serves :laugh:

 

Sweet? I'd have thought wines would have been more up your street then? I'd imagine they're more easily manipulated in that direction. However, as regards sweet cider or even a beer that'd suit ye (Ye don't like 'Malty' then? :hmm:) I can only suggest ye drop by at a Home Brew shop and have a word with the guy in there. Myself, I was doing all this over twenty years ago now, see? I can honestly only remember the basic facts. And the fact that I got rat arsed on my own product and shan't be going there again. This time I'll brew something I can drink for pleasure ~ not for oblivion.

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Ive tried the wine idea, but SWEET wine, taste's like $hite to me :wallbash:

maybe Im hoping for a miricle

have done a few searches on cider presses, found a few idea's for home made jobs, I'll give it a go, and post up any results

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Have not made any for about two years, but when i do, it is with the full mash, where you do not use extracts or sugar, it is instead done only using grain and hops, to do a full mash making 5 gallons of top quality real ale takes me about 7 hours, so you want a wet day for this job, after that it takes about 4/5 weeks of fermentation and clearing, then a couple of weeks of maturation in bottle or keg. The ingredients to make 5 gallons costs me around £10, so the equivilent of 4 pints in the pub, leaving me with the other 36 pints for nothing other than my time.

The only thing i will say though is that it really becomes a bit of a hobby in itself, you have been warned !!!!!. :drink::notworthy:

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Guest Ditch_Shitter

I tried that Wort Sparging bit, MT. Couldn't be doing with it personally. I think it's the fact that I just couldn't convince myself when I'd sparged enough. That sort of thing. Where as I knew damn well when I'd emptied a bottle of malt extract in, see what I mean?

 

Anyway, should anyone Really Deeply fancy getting involved at the higher levels, I found a Lot of discussion going on at a Home Brewers Forum. Must say though; They rather strike me as Wort Sparging snobs. Like, 'Exract is SO yesterday!'. What ever. Might do someone here some good? Jim's.

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Have not made any for about two years, but when i do, it is with the full mash, where you do not use extracts or sugar, it is instead done only using grain and hops, to do a full mash making 5 gallons of top quality real ale takes me about 7 hours, so you want a wet day for this job, after that it takes about 4/5 weeks of fermentation and clearing, then a couple of weeks of maturation in bottle or keg. The ingredients to make 5 gallons costs me around £10, so the equivilent of 4 pints in the pub, leaving me with the other 36 pints for nothing other than my time.

The only thing i will say though is that it really becomes a bit of a hobby in itself, you have been warned !!!!!. :drink::notworthy:

 

 

You kept that quiet mate, where's mine?

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I started homebrewing around the start of last summer. Have brewed a couple of lagers a pilsner a few pale ales a real ale and 30litres of red wine. The missus got jealous looking at me tearing into my lovely cheaply made booze so has started making white wine for herself too! I don't use any heaters at all, just put the plastic bins in the house as most yeasts work best between 16 and 24degrees. In fact a higher fermenting temperature will result in some pretty nasty flavours in your beer.

The first batch i made was one of the cheaper single tin kits that you add a kilo of sugar to. I have stayed away from them since preferring to use "two tin" kits that require no sugar. Would advise anyone starting out to do the same, go for better quality kits that don't need a kilo of sugar, you'll taste the differenc. The better kits are still only around the £15stg mark. Make sure you sterilise EVERYTHING right before you use it, thought "Ah yeah they have to say that b#llocks on the tins.." but ended up chucking out a bin cos it turned nasty. I now bottle everything as it is much nicer bottle-conditioned than in a plastic keg, just add about half a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle and that will give you secondary fermentation and nice head. Have 40 pints of India Pale Ale fermenting at the moment, probably bottle it on sunday after a bit of stalking. Cannot reccomend homebrew highly enough, tastes great, is cheap and great satisfaction from sitting down to meal you shot yourself accompanied by something you brewed yourself. I'm no expert but am producing stuff now that my mates go mad for and find it to be excellent bartering currency!! One disadvantage is that when you get used to its more fullsome flavour and then taste the watery sh~te served up in pubs you'll find it hard!

Any questions give me a shout.

 

 

Spud

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My uncle once drank a 2ltr bottle on home made real ale that my father had brewed 2yrs earlier. It had about a inch and a half of sediment at the bottom, but hes a bit of an animal when it comes to drinking and drank it straight down from the bottle, sediment and all. :sick: . His eyes went totally bloodshot and needless to say my mother later found him face down in the toilet comatosed. Didnt touch a drop of home brew again :D

 

 

Cheers bob

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