Anyone brew/brewed their own beer?

[HeyWayne]

Have been toying with the idea for a while now, but not sure if it's worth it. Has onyone else had any success/failure/recommendations?

[Mikey]

I won one of those pre bagged beers once, it was really hard waiting 2 weeks for it to be drinkable, but it was a real doddle to do, add water, sit in a corner, and try not to watch it.

Couldn't get another, I'm no good a watching & waiting.

[Hilary B]

Only from a kit. When we could get it we used Edme Century Ale kit.
The recipe was for EITHER 3 gallons from 1 kit plus some sugar, OR 5 gallons from 2 kits and NO sugar. We did the second one, and it produced a reasonable approximation to Ruddles County and other 'very malty, not too hoppy' real ales, which was what we were after. Unfortunately they stopped making that one, even before we gave up on brewing, which was rather a long time ago anyway.
Try the 'juicy gossip' section. I know I have seen comments about brewing on there!

[HeyWayne]

Try the 'juicy gossip' section. I know I have seen comments about brewing on there!

You know, I didn't think to look there. D'oh!

Thanks Hilary.

[SarzWix]

OH does it quite often, but he does it with the slightly more expensive kits rather than from scratch. They turn out really well - they come with 2 big tins of wort rather than one, and no extra sugar is added - and taste a lot more like 'real ale'.
Making from scratch is a big job, and you do need more equipment than if you make up a kit. I'd try the kit first off, then if you get a taste for it you can try doing the whole mash etc later.

These have been good;
Muntons Premium Gold beers
and these;
York Brewery Beer Making Kits
and the Woodforde ones;
Brupaks & Woodfords beers

You can get all the other kit you need from Hamstead too, there service is great and they're really helpful if you have to ring them for anything

[HeyWayne]

OH does it quite often, but he does it with the slightly more expensive kits rather than from scratch. They turn out really well - they come with 2 big tins of wort rather than one, and no extra sugar is added - and taste a lot more like 'real ale'.
Making from scratch is a big job, and you do need more equipment than if you make up a kit. I'd try the kit first off, then if you get a taste for it you can try doing the whole mash etc later.

These have been good;
Muntons Premium Gold beers
and these;
York Brewery Beer Making Kits
and the Woodforde ones;
Brupaks & Woodfords beers

You can get all the other kit you need from Hamstead too, there service is great and they're really helpful if you have to ring them for anything

Fantastic! Cheers Sarz.

Guess what I'm ordering at the weekend...

[Mikey]

Fantastic! Cheers Sarz.

Guess what I'm ordering at the weekend...

Cheers Blue, mines a pint!

[SarzWix]

Mikey's right though, you do end up watching it for a few weeks with that "Are we there yet?" feeling...

I'm going to shift the thread over to Juicy Gossip shortly, you can stick all your questions on it once you get going

Oh, and a quick warning - if you do a search and come across a company called 'Easy-Brew', avoid them like the plague - they took 5 months to deliver to us (after mountains of emails & unanswered phone-calls) and they still managed to get it wrong!

[HeyWayne]

Mikey's right though, you do end up watching it for a few weeks with that "Are we there yet?" feeling...

I'm going to shift the thread over to Juicy Gossip shortly, you can stick all your questions on it once you get going

Oh, and a quick warning - if you do a search and come across a company called 'Easy-Brew', avoid them like the plague - they took 5 months to deliver to us (after mountains of emails & unanswered phone-calls) and they still managed to get it wrong!

You know you can put me where you like!

Cheers for the heads up. I generally try and avoid anything "Easy" it often tends to be quite the opposite.

Mikey's always right.

[JimmerG]

HeyWayne -

I can heartily reccomend the Microbrewery, for about £50 it comes complete with everything you need to make 40 pints of Woodford Wherry - a very drinkable ale indeed. Then once you've drunk the Woodfords stuff you can make another 40 pints of anything else for between £8 and £20 for the beer kits. I've made ales, lagers and a stout, and I've been very impressed with all of them. For approx 40p a pint - its an easy decision.

The brewing process really is very easy - if you can leave it for a few months they get even better. Once its brewed in its pressure barrel, you can bottle it all off, then get the barrel going again - so you don't have too much 'down time'

Whenever I feed homebrew to guests - they start suspiciously, but are always suprised!!

You can get the gear pretty cheaply on Ebay - there're always people finding brewing gear in their attics, and don't know what to do with it...

You know it makes sense!

J

[shirlthegirl43]

I currently have a Youngs Brew Buddy kit on the go - with a kilo of beer kit enhancer added instead of sugar. I did one of these before and it produced a perfectly drinkable light beer. Hoping this one might turn out with a little more body.

[mrdinkle]

I can concur on the youngs kits, I started with a wine one which turned out well. I then purchased the beer kit from wilkos. Defo worth doing and there are loads of beers to sample.

Also, once you have invested in the basic equipment you can of course try making other stuff. I am currently making some dandelion wine and am contemplating stinging nettle beer...! I also have my eye on an elder tree on the edge of the woods.....:P

[kirsty b]

I'm going to have a go at nettle beer soon. Got loads of stingers on the allotment so I really want to use them in some way.

Copied HFW's recipe off his website, going to have a crack at that one. Still trying to get hold of some bottles to put it in.

[terrier]

Not made homebrew for a few years now.. must get back to it. The rule is, don't make one gallon, make five! It doesn't take much more effort and lasts nearly twice as long.
As for waiting for it to mature, the best homebrewed beers I've tasted we're:
1. A pal of mine forgot he'd bottled some bitter and it got stored at the back of his garage for about two years. When we came to drink it, it was absolute nectar.
2. When I was in full flow (brewing wise) I had a cellar to store the stuff in and always had numerous barrels on the go. A 5 gallon barel of stout somehow got out of phase and I didn't start drinking it until it was 12 months old.. it was well worth the wait.
The downside is you become a Homebrew Bore just like me

[Hilary B]

Not made homebrew for a few years now.. must get back to it. The rule is, don't make one gallon, make five! It doesn't take much more effort and lasts nearly twice as long.

Did you pinch that from CJJ Berry? I seem to remember exactly that phrase in his book!


As for waiting for it to mature, the best homebrewed beers I've tasted we're:
1. A pal of mine forgot he'd bottled some bitter and it got stored at the back of his garage for about two years. When we came to drink it, it was absolute nectar.
2. When I was in full flow (brewing wise) I had a cellar to store the stuff in and always had numerous barrels on the go. A 5 gallon barel of stout somehow got out of phase and I didn't start drinking it until it was 12 months old.. it was well worth the wait.
The downside is you become a Homebrew Bore just like me

Never kept beer very long, but it stands to reason it needs to be strong for that to work... doesn't it?