Home brewers

[stuey]

Another school of thought on the cider duty exemption is that small scale cider production is an integral part of rural culture and thus needed to be protected....

Now why small scale beer production is not afforded the same exemption given its rich and long history as being a safer drink than water escapes me but hey ho!

 

[stuey]

Liking the sound of all of that. Have had a Bramling cross hop bine growing this year... it did ok but struggled as it was its first year growing and didn't get quite enough sunshine.

I brew my own beer and wine when I manage to get round to it. Also grow my own hops and have a few young cider trees planted for the future.

Must try and brew some more this year.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Any home brewers on here ?

Built my own 10Gallon brewery, make a selection of fruit wines, and sloe gin. Am experimenting with Mead.

Grow my own hops, and also a couple of cider trees in the Garden.

J

 

[Mandos]

Anybody got any neat recipes they want to share ill put one well known up now;

BLACK BEARDS RUM

Two pounds of brown sugar per one gallon of water and one cup of honey for every ten gallon batch. Starting hydrometer reading of about 90. Do not exceed 100. Add 1 to 3 ozs of yeast per 10 gallons of mash.

Heat one fourth of your water to 120 or 130 degrees only hot enough to melt the sugar, then stir in your sugar and then the honey last. Pour it into your fermenter and finish filling with cool water to cool it down to 80 degrees. Take a hydrometer reading and adjust as needed. The add your yeast. 6 to 14 days to ferment.

 

[slowworm]

Liking the sound of all of that. Have had a Bramling cross hop bine growing this year... it did ok but struggled as it was its first year growing and didn't get quite enough sunshine.

I've grown Fuggles and two cultivars of Goldings for 10 years or so in various places. If you want a really rampant, good cropping beast then Fuggles is your plant, although I've struggle a bit to get a good tasting beer from the hops.

 

[Seadog]

Hi can I pick peoples brains on here?

Just got back into home brewing (used to help my father when I was young a long long time ago)

Brewing my first kit Festival London Pride Porter

OG was 1.048 on 1/3/14
been bubbling away at pretty constant 20 degrees
added hops as per instructions last week (7 days ago)

the fermentation has slowed but not completely stopped
just checked the SG have 1.012
the kit instructions recommend 1.009

I am planning to glass bottle - can I leave it too long before bottling? should I keep waiting until down to 1.009 or just until constant SG?

any thought and advice would be good
thanks

 

[nitrambur]

if the SG remains stable over 3 days it's finished

 

[British Red]

You are talking really tiny differences here between 1.012 and 1.009. Bear in mind that the charging sugar in the bottle will change it by more than that amount. Stability is the key(as nitrambur says), not a specific reading.


Oh and in aswer to the OP, yeas we brew


Booze cellar by British Red, on Flickr

My current favourite is to make mead and melomels from our own honey and fruit


Labels by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Seadog]

thanks both = that is what I suspected

 

[georann]

As ever jealous of Red's set up!
I homebrew with the cider tins (like the coopers kits) and turbo-cider. Usually find the cider tins are quite sharp and take a good few months to mellow in to something drinkable. Can't seem to find a tin to make a medium sweetness fruity cider though, only dry ciders...
On the student note, you may not be able to sell it to a pub, but you can sure make some good deals/trades with your mates!

 

[Floyd Soul]

Another one here - sloe gin, elderberry wine, apple wine and my favourite - hawthornberry wine.. will try find some pictures when I can..

I am currently eagerly awaiting the flow of birch sap to try my first attempt at this wine..

 

[rich59]

I make elderberry wines and have been working on this for about 30 years so far.. Red and White. I make single bush/ variety wines. Each bush gives different characters.

The recipe is something like 4lb fruit, 2lb sugar made up to 1 gallon.

i start by fermenting just the crushed fruit till dry (less time for white varieties), then press the juice off the fruit before adding the sugar and water. There are a lot of issues about keeping out oxygen, stabilising etc but that is the basics.

Anyone else got favourite elderberry bushes to make wine from?

Anyone up for starting to make single variety elderberry wines?

Richard

 

[British Red]

I don't know about single bush, but I do find the vintage makes a huge difference. Last year was not a great year - 2012 was a belter though. Fuller sweeter berries with a better juice / tannin ratio.

 

[rich59]

That makes sense, or... was it just a smidgeon different bushes? How can one know?

My first ever gallon (stunned some grape wine buffs) was a random mixture of different bushes, so I could never make it again the same. I resolved make the best wine I could by keeping as much as possible the same each year and only varying single factors.

One thing I can struggle to control is the air temperature during fermentation. I've had some positively abhorrent reds when the temperature went to 25 degrees C + during fermentation on the fruit. Learning to throw a wet towel over the jars on hot days now.

I don't know about single bush, but I do find the vintage makes a huge difference. Last year was not a great year - 2012 was a belter though. Fuller sweeter berries with a better juice / tannin ratio.

 

[British Red]

I only pick from the same four trees each year Rich (my trees) so whilst the proportions may change a small amount, its generally pretty consistent. But I do get a large year to year variation. Not bad - but different.

 

[rich59]

How many years have you been using those 4 bushes Red?

What do you think makes a vintage year? I can imagine many factors like the average summer temperatures, rain, cloudiness, pruning history, soil nutrition, the size of the crop (maybe small crops being better?), the sweetness of the finished wine, the recipe........


What is your basic recipe?

How do you describe/ rate your elderberry wines?

I only pick from the same four trees each year Rich (my trees) so whilst the proportions may change a small amount, its generally pretty consistent. But I do get a large year to year variation. Not bad - but different.

 

[British Red]

This will be year 5 Rich - although I have heavily pruned one tree this year so it won't fruit (they are mine )

My full recipe is here

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60997

I think its weather that makes the difference - both in the quality of the berries (plumpness, sugars, tannins) and the rate of ripening. I've had years where odd bunches ripened one day and were "over" by the next - or even berries in a bunch. I'm convinced you need a spell of sustained warmth as they ripen to bring the bulk of the fruit ready together.

I now do a 5 gallon batch each year - but I may do 10 next "vintage" year and lay it down

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

You are talking really tiny differences here between 1.012 and 1.009. Bear in mind that the charging sugar in the bottle will change it by more than that amount. Stability is the key(as nitrambur says), not a specific reading.


Oh and in aswer to the OP, yeas we brew


Booze cellar by British Red, on Flickr

My current favourite is to make mead and melomels from our own honey and fruit


Labels by British Red, on Flickr

Holy cow red yer just seem too have everything I want.any spare rooms at yours n I'll just move in ha

 

[Adam_the_Flatulent]

Mando's, have you tried this recipe book?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1D6R37DDFD570D5BD51Y
I've tried a few of the recipes and they're really good!
I've only tried beer and cider myself, but a friend of mine has played around with some mead. That was fantastic stuff!!
Although, an old friend of my dad's was distilling in his locker where he used to work.... Today's lesson, is don't leave a still sat in your locker and go on holiday, they tend to go pop.