I’ve been All grain brewing for a couple of years now and after a couple of fails and average tasting beers. I’ve now got to the point of making some bloody good pints. (Even if I say so myself) And some recipes of my own creation which are real crowd pleasers can have hilarious outcomes as some brews are well above your average abv at 7.4%. Which can leave the unsuspecting victim rather wobbly. So does anyone else have a love of making their own beer on here??
Enjoyed a lovely home made cold brew today. Missing the Cinnamon swirl you get in a Starbucks but diet wouldn’t allow that!
My partner got me a northern brewer kit at Christmas, all ingredients included in the kits and easy enough instructions to follow, just bottled it all last weekend and in the process of tasting one or two tonight. Very pleased with the results, these kits are a good starter if you haven't done anything similar before .
I remember my old man made wine once or twice, when I was fifteen or so. Luckily for me & my mates he didn't really drink much, and his wine was rank -though he wouldn't admit it. So whilst he never said as much, I'm sure he was rather pleased that I borrowed it a bottle at a time...
That’s a great starter kit. But One Word of advise is to be patient! Leave it at least couple of weeks in the bottle to condition. It will be worth the wait.
My old man made made this when I was at school flipping good shout mentioning this wonder how much it costs to make beer
We made some cack attempts in Saudi Arabia. Anything that didn’t kill us but got us all fucked up was deemed a roaring success Loads of western nurses worked nearby. I was young. Oh happy days
My most expensive recipe to date is £39. Plus postage. This will yield about 23 litres if all goes well. But bear in mind the cost of the kit to make the good stuff. I’d guess I’m £300 in to it with mash tun and boiling kettle. Kegs for draft beer on tap(danger!) Plus fermenting barrels etc. Plus many gallons of water and electricity to heat gallons of water. Then there’s the cleaning! If you thought cleaning a bike was a chore. Wait till you try brewing. But. When you make a cracking beer. It tastes bloody satisfying. And well worth it.
I would like to try this. My favourite ale is Tanglefoot but like most of the Badger ales. Can anyone recommend a nice easy starter kit that would hit the mark? Cheers!
Best bet for a tentative toe in the water first try. Is an extract brewing kit. This will take a lot of the technical side of hitting and controlling water temps within 1/2 a degree c. And the labour intensive mashing and sparging of the grains. Your friendly Wilkinson’s online shop is a great place to gather affordable brewing essentials. And have a look at https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/ here you will find an Aladdins cave of beer making goodies. As always YouTube is a beer making information gold mine.
First attempts were as a teenager .... there were kits in a tin called "Tom Caxtons " , from Boots of all places , at best you'd end up with a pint similar to Watneys .... Sometimes we would chuck in a bag of sugar , as a cheat method of getting a Carlsberg Special type of brew .... always heading for a headache .... More recently I started doing it properly , with grains .... Yes , there's definitely a learning curve , as they say ..... trying to get the strike temperature just right , conditioning the water etc. There are two books I've come to rely on ..... both available from CAMRA I think . One is a general brewing book , by Protz and Wheeler and the other is a recipe collection that aims to give you "copies" of brews that are well-known and loved
I don’t think you could use the “cheaper per pint” as a reason to make beer at home. It’s hugely labour intensive. (It’s called a Brew Day for a reason) the kit takes up a lot of space. And the cleaning and sanitising. Is a massive pain. But. Just like making your own bread. When you get it right. Oh my god. The results can epic. And the bragging rites when you share your creation with friends. Mega.
I only do kit stuff not the full mash so with all the sterilising and stuff it's about an hour getting it going, an hour barrelling half way through then it's just the drinking bit. I find I get good results as long as I stick to the expensive kits.
This is the kit I have, the recipes etc are pretty straight forward to understand. If you like a hoppy pale ale give it a try
There’s way too much snobbery about extract brewing. I feel, who care about how you get to the finished product. Just as long as that product is what we hoped for a enjoy. Just like our bikes. I track day an old 749 which I built myself. With my home build 924cc motor. And I love it. It stands me at about £3700 all in. But some guys need a V4 pani with carbon wheels and carbon body work costing £30k +. So who’s to say which is right or better??
I usually spend the best part of a three to four hours on a brew day, I enjoy it and find it quite relaxing. The end product is all that matters and as long as you are happy with it who cares
