Secret to good home brew
- Thread starter WabbitPoo
- Start date
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G
GasBod
Bottling it is a must in my opinion.
We used to make our own wine in Saudi Arabia, despite alcohol being illegal.
Funny really. You'd go to the local Indian shop (yes, they have them there as well) and ask for:
fruit juice,
sugar...
"Yes sir, and the yeast is right over there."
Everybody did it.
(And it tasted like crap.)
Funny really. You'd go to the local Indian shop (yes, they have them there as well) and ask for:
fruit juice,
sugar...
"Yes sir, and the yeast is right over there."
Everybody did it.
(And it tasted like crap.)
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i used to use cider or lemonade bottles [3 and 2L] to store it in after decanting from the bottles to leave the sediment behind
would last for several weeks and finish crystal clear without any finings
i used the beer kits gordie from boots
i added 3 kg off sugar for 30 pints 4kg for 40 pints
no secondary fermentation starting gravity 1120 finished up at 13% tastes like barley wine 1/3 the strength off whisky or in other words drink 3 pints you've drunk a pint off whisky
i used to drink it 50% with lemonade to give a manageable 6-7%
would last for several weeks and finish crystal clear without any finings
i used the beer kits gordie from boots
i added 3 kg off sugar for 30 pints 4kg for 40 pints
no secondary fermentation starting gravity 1120 finished up at 13% tastes like barley wine 1/3 the strength off whisky or in other words drink 3 pints you've drunk a pint off whisky
i used to drink it 50% with lemonade to give a manageable 6-7%
E
EddieM
My dad is a home brew legend (in his opinion).
He would say "clean" is the biggest secret.
Other than that, you get what you pay for. Cheap kits- bad brew.
I expect there are many forums on it...
Happy brewing.
He would say "clean" is the biggest secret.
Other than that, you get what you pay for. Cheap kits- bad brew.
I expect there are many forums on it...
Happy brewing.
Six pints of the stuff, then make a start on it
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Surely bottling a must leads to wine, not beer?
The secret to making good beer is to use malt and grains only. Sugar is a poor substitute, unless you're making barley wine in which case you can get away with using some glucose. To make the very best beer you should start with grain malt but that's a right clart (Geordie technical term ) so it's probably not the best way to start. "Learn to walk before you run," as they say. You can make perfectly good beer from malt extract (although I've never had any luck making lager that way). The easiest way of all is to use a kit.
Kits vary, and the rule is "get the most malt for your money". Geordie kits are not particularly good in this respect. When I used to use kits, I favoured Edme and I think you can still get them.
If you're using extract, I wouldn't use less than a pound per gallon (100gms per litre) and this will make a beer of about 4% alcohol by volume with no sugar required. I generally prefer to make 5% beer (125gms per litre), not so much for the extra strength but because it tastes better too. A 6% beer will have a very full flavour. After that, I add up to 100gms/l glucose (not ordinary cane sugar, which is sucrose) to make barley wine.
The next ingredient to consider is the hops. These might have changed since I last made beer but East Kent Goldings were generally regarded as the best. To make bitter, you'll want about 6 gms per litre. I've also made perfectly good beer with hop extract.
Oddly enough, the most important ingredient in beer is water. In times gone by, breweries made beer to suit the water they had. This is why Burton on Trent became famous for its bitter; the water there is high in sulphates. London water is loaded with carbonates and chlorides and is more suited to milds and stouts. Modern breweries modify their water to suit the beer they want to make. You can do this yourself up to a point by adding stuff that your water lacks: calcium sulphate for bitter, sodium chloride for brown ale or sodium bicarbonate for Irish stout. The water up here in Geordieland is lacking in sulphates so I put two level teaspoons of calcium sulphate and a half of magnesium sulphate in four gallons to make bitter. This is where kits fall down because they take no account of the water in your area. If you're using a bitter kit in London, it wouldn't hurt to add some sulphate to your water.
To get back to basics, this is almost guaranteed to make an excellent bitter:
Four gallons of water, five pounds of pale malt extract and four ounces of EKG hops. (That's 20 litres, 2.5 kgms and 125 gms in new money). Unless you happen to live in or around Burton on Trent, add sulphate to your water. Malt extract is raw, in the sense that it hasn't been boiled, so do boil it with the hops. Don't just boil the hops in water then use this to dilute the malt. And do use proper brewer's yeast. Dried is fine but beware of 'all-purpose' yeast that claims to be good for wine, beer or bread. Baker's yeast is fast-breeding stuff and this is not what you want.
Happy brewing!
Sugar is a poor substitute, unless you're making barley wine in which case you can get away with using some glucose. To make the very best beer you should start with grain malt but that's a right clart (Geordie technical term ) so it's probably not the best way to start. "Learn to walk before you run," as they say. You can make perfectly good beer from malt extract (although I've never had any luck making lager that way). The easiest way of all is to use a kit.Kits vary, and the rule is "get the most malt for your money". Geordie kits are not particularly good in this respect.
When I used to use kits, I favoured Edme and I think you can still get them.If you're using extract, I wouldn't use less than a pound per gallon (100gms per litre) and this will make a beer of about 4% alcohol by volume with no sugar required.
I generally prefer to make 5% beer (125gms per litre), not so much for the extra strength but because it tastes better too. A 6% beer will have a very full flavour. After that, I add up to 100gms/l glucose (not ordinary cane sugar, which is sucrose) to make barley wine.The next ingredient to consider is the hops. These might have changed since I last made beer but East Kent Goldings were generally regarded as the best. To make bitter, you'll want about 6 gms per litre. I've also made perfectly good beer with hop extract.
Oddly enough, the most important ingredient in beer is water.
In times gone by, breweries made beer to suit the water they had. This is why Burton on Trent became famous for its bitter; the water there is high in sulphates. London water is loaded with carbonates and chlorides and is more suited to milds and stouts. Modern breweries modify their water to suit the beer they want to make. You can do this yourself up to a point by adding stuff that your water lacks: calcium sulphate for bitter, sodium chloride for brown ale or sodium bicarbonate for Irish stout. The water up here in Geordieland is lacking in sulphates so I put two level teaspoons of calcium sulphate and a half of magnesium sulphate in four gallons to make bitter. This is where kits fall down because they take no account of the water in your area. If you're using a bitter kit in London, it wouldn't hurt to add some sulphate to your water.To get back to basics, this is almost guaranteed to make an excellent bitter:
Four gallons of water, five pounds of pale malt extract and four ounces of EKG hops. (That's 20 litres, 2.5 kgms and 125 gms in new money). Unless you happen to live in or around Burton on Trent, add sulphate to your water. Malt extract is raw, in the sense that it hasn't been boiled, so do boil it with the hops. Don't just boil the hops in water then use this to dilute the malt. And do use proper brewer's yeast. Dried is fine but beware of 'all-purpose' yeast that claims to be good for wine, beer or bread. Baker's yeast is fast-breeding stuff and this is not what you want.
Happy brewing!
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