I have started brewing beer. Basic stuff my first attempt. A syrup-kit of the Woodforde Headcracker. The plan is to do a few syrup kits before going onto all-grain and hops. Thing is - I can do anything really. My Headcracker was a gift so not my choice (though it should be good) but I can choose to do any beer I want. Plan is to do a West coast IPA (heavy on the cascade hop) and a traditional English bitter (one of my top 3 types of beer). I am not too bothered with lagers as I find them rather boring, but other than that the sky's the limit. My headcracker was bottled yesterday and must be left for 2-3 weeks to settle. I also have another beer brewing - a weiss bier, which is ready for bottling on Sunday. I will keep you up to date on the proceedings and will listen to suggestions regarding what beer to brew next. Also - I am looking to get some labels made but I am absolutely crap at graphics stuff as shown here: And yes - I know I misspelled alcohol.
Sorry, slightly anglophile I know. You tend to appreciate things more when you're not stuck in the middle of them all the time. I see the beauty because the shyte is not thrust in my face all the time.
People like you make me sick. You enjoy all the good parts of our culture, but you don't want to come and live here, pay our taxes and rub shoulders with the filthy worst of British society.
I've lived in England for a year. I wouldn't moving there permanently if my kids were a little older. As for taxes - UK would be paradise compared to Denmark! As for the beer, most of it is in 1l litre plastic bottles and while they were quite plyable when they were just filled - now they're rock hard from the carbonisation in the beer. This after only two days makes me wonder if they will survive the next two weeks. It will be interesting to see. I'll keep you posted.
Good to hear. The Woodfordes kits are meant to be pretty good. I did a homebrew batch about 15 years ago and put it into plastic bottles. They also went rock hard and i chicken out and let out some of the pressure. The resulting beer was flat but drinkable. It's my intention to do a batch of Nelsons Revenge at some point after I've finished decorating. Also for people in the UK Wilkinsons are a good purveyor of homebrew stuff. At the moment they have a youngs kit for 20 quid that makes 40 pints.
You're strange. I hate this country and all the infidel population. People here are dirty, ill-mannered, badly educated, overweight and smelly. There is litter on our streets, knife crime everywhere, an overburdened welfare state and poor public transport. You can get Youngs brewing kits for £20 which make 40 pints though. I've stopped drinking alcohol, however.
The price for beer kits here are around £20 as well. You are right in your description of Brits and Britain - whoever, some redeeming qualities can be found in the rural areas where there are less of these dirty, ill-mannered, badly educated, overweight and smellypeople and therefore, less litter on our streets, knife crime everywhere, an overburdened welfare state and poor public transport. Lots of things in England are pretty bad but it's like that everywhere. It just seems the English tend to focus on the negatives more than people in other cultures
Let's get this back on track and talk about beer. Moved the bottles into the garage yesterday to have them in a cooler place for the rest of the two weeks. I wonder if they can withstand the pressure as I fear I may have bottled them a little prematurely... but we'll see. Patience is key here.
Woodfordes kits are very good. I'm sure you'll be itching to try yours out, though I'd recommend you try and leave them for 7 weeks after bottling. Don't ask me why, but the beer seems to taste better after this time. If you cannot wait that long, try one each week after 4 weeks. PET bottles can take a lot more pressure than glass bottles, so I wouldn't worry too much about them going rock hard. What was your final gravity reading? How much sugar did you put in each bottle? If you get too worried about it, put them in a fridge - this will stop the formation of any more CO2. Keep those bottles out of the sun, mind, as that could ruin your beer. I'm a fan of the Coopers kits. You get a good beer out of them, and the yeast is reliable. Brupacks, Milestone, and John Bull are also good. Brewferm specialise in Belgian beer, again highly recommended. If you want to experiment with kits, look for the Geordie brand. They are cheaper than most kits, and can be tweaked to make a good beer.
I don'øt have a hydrometer to measure gravity so don't know. I put in about a teaspoon of glucose (supposedly better than regular sugar) pr liter (the recipe said ½-a-tsp per pint). You're right - I am itching to try them. 7 weeks is a very very long time. But I won't drink all 30 odd pints in a couple of weeks so probably will have some left after 7 weeks. Gotcha - they're actually in two plastic container (I used for fermentation) with lids on so light doesn't affect them and if they do explode - the mess is inside the container. I will probably move onto all-grain kits when this batch is done. More work but greater reward - or so I've heard. Might try and combine extract-kits with hops to enhance flavours though - as a compromise.
Get a hydrometer! Without one, you will have no clear indication that the fermentation has finished, or if it is stuck. Also, by taking the original and final gravity readings, you can figure out the alcohol content. Perfect! I doubt the PETs would explode, but if the pressure is high, you might get an effect similar to a shaken coke bottle when you open it. I have overprimed a few glass bottles before - on opening, I lost 95% of the beer as it gushed out. Try a few kits first, to get used to the whole fermentation process. But yes, all-grain is far more rewarding, providing you have the time!
I may do the combo with kits and hops a few times. A mate is having a party in a couple of months. His favourite beer is Czech lagers like Urquell, Staropramen etc. and I am going to make that for the party as a surprise. Only thing is lagers need to be stored quite cool once they've been bottled and I haven't really got anywhere to put them. Any ideas?
get down the 'offie and buy some, saves months of agro and countless inane posts on foreign websites cheers...
Plus it tastes better too, and isn't really that much more expensive than brewing your own anyway. It's like baking your own bread....pointless.
The graphic is AWESOME! Don't change it! I love what you are doing, and wish to god I could taste that IPA when you finish! I may have mentioned this before, but this year I began growing Cascade hops in my side yard...next year should be a bumper crop.
I've tried adding hops to kits (Hallertau to lager, Goldings to ales), and was impressed with the improvement to the beer. After a week of priming (below 20C if possible), a cool, dark place is recommended. This is where a fridge, exclusively used for beer, comes in handy. This only applies to lager though... To those questioning the cost and quality of homebrew - £15-£20 for 40 pints, better quality than the more common brands. Cheers!
Keep in mind that 'quality' is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of people like to drink a lot of crappy drinks.
All this talk is making me thirsty. Once I've got my decorating sorted I'm going to experiment. eventually I'd like to grow my own hops.
I've found it to be pretty fun. I have several friends who home brew, so I am hoping to barter the hops supply into my favorite kind of beer of all: FREE BEER
Its even better if there are a few doing it. Can swap bottles. I'm currently collecting bottles got 8 and that's just from this morning.:]]
I can't see an argument against it apart from people trying to be a smart @rse. I think the younger generation have no patience for the satisfaction of producing something yourself and having a say in the quality and the end product. You could argue it about anything; why cook your own food when you can buy Cottage Chicken every night? Why fix up your house when you can pay cowboy builders to come in and do it for you? Why grow your own vegetables and fruit when you can buy stuff in the supermarket which has been intesively grown and shipped from the other side of the world? I prefer to do things myself because in 90% of situations, I know I'll do them better than anyone else. I have never brewed my own beer, but as I'm not drinking at the moment, I'm living vicariously through the works of those of you on this thread and it's a lovely world you're creating.
Bottled my WeissBier yesterday. Looks very good - clear and gold. The headcracker has been sitting for a week since bottling and is settling well I feel. The bottles are holding up so far I have thought of adding water to the tanks where I have the bottles stored in order to minimise the variations in temperature between day and night. Also I can slip in a little ice to lower the temperatuer if needed. Seems an interim solution to the cold storage.
Well, about time for an update. The Headcracker is still in the bottles - they haven't exploded yet - which is a good sign. The weissbier has started to get some pressure building and to be honest I'd say they are better prospects of a decent drink right now. In the bin fermenting away now is a west coast pale ale which should resemble the hoppy US west coast ales (some of my favourites). On Saturday I am going to a whisky tasting with a few friends. The whiskies on offer (we're each bringing two) are all single malt but of varied kinds. This will be the event which will see the debut of my home brew. This will be make or break for my first and second beers (the pale ale won't be ready). I feel it might be a little over the top to drink 7% barley wine along with single malts but hey - it's gotta be done. I'll get back to you once I'ved tried the beer (probably friday or so - want to make sure it's drinkable before the whisky tasting )
what a thread! we brewed some of the youngs shizzle back at uni which meant we had a basement of 80 bottles of ale at some point. it wasn't the best tasting beer in the world but knowing that we made it ourselves (or at least we made it with equiptment and ingredients made my someone else) made it a great experience. i think, providing i'm not homeless come october, that i'll start brewing again. although canada has some pretty harsh alcohol laws so i don't know where that will leave me. on the other side of things, england is **** and english people tend to be fairly **** too. moog is correct in his observations although he needs to sort his life out in regards to the not drinking attitude.
Trouble brewing Well I tried unscrewing one of the head crackers just now. Just a little as the bottles really are rock hard from the carbonisation. There's quite a bit of yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle and as the pressure was released the beer started foaming and the sediment was whirled up into the beer. So I decided to screw the lid tight again having released a little pressure. The last thing I want is all the yeast in the beer - I want to be able to pour it into a glass without al the yeast flavour in the beer. Now I don't quite know what to do really. I have released pressure from a few of the bottles and left some of the others as they are. Will I be able to open any of them without the yeast whirling up into the beer at some point? What to do...
Interesting thread, good price on the beer kits, intend to order one from the beers of europe website in the next few days for the old man's birthday. Can anybody reccoment a few beers from across the world i can order too ?
I quite like the Czech style lagers (Staropramen, Urquell etc) and US pale ales. But what type of beer does your old man like?
