Something Brewing

[Moley]

It occurs to me that we’ve got a section for recipes but although sloe gin and other fruit/spirit infusions have been mentioned, I don’t think there’s been anything on winemaking or brewing.

 

It has been a very long time since I’ve done any of either, but while trying to find something recently I came across some of my wine & beer bits and bobs, and with this supposed ‘credit crunch’ I figured I should perhaps start to make my own again for around 30p a pint.

 

Although I have brewed from dry ingredients in the dim and distant past, until I can find a decent homebrew suppliers I have started back in with wet kits from tins. For anyone who doesn’t know, boil 6 pints of water and 1kg of sugar, add the concentrated wort, mix it all together, chuck it in a bucket, add cold water to 5 gallons, pitch in the yeast and let it get on with it.

 

My first brew (Edme Bitter) is already bottled and approaching drinkability and a 39 pint Stout brew is on the go. (Tip: do NOT stir a brewing bin once fermentation is established, it WILL froth over!)

 

Glossary (for those who don’t already understand these things):

S.G. = Specific Gravity, that’s relative to water (1.000), sugar sends it up and alcohol brings it down.

A clever little fungus called Saccharomyces (yeast) quite happily converts sugar to alcohol + CO2 until it dies of alcohol poisoning - what a noble microorganism.

O.G. = Original Gravity, F.G. = Final Gravity

Let’s say O.G. = 1.045 and F.G. = 1.005

If you discard the decimal point and drop the thousand that’s an O.G. of 45 and an F.G. of 5

45 - 5 gives a ‘drop’ of 40, divide that by (from memory) 7.36 and you get ABV (Alcohol By Volume) of 5.43%

 

Now then, never mind voltage drop and all that nonsense, here’s something far more serious for the mathematicians:

I couldn’t measure the O.G. of my first brew as, when I managed to locate my hydrometer, it was broken and I couldn’t replace it until the following day.

My Stout kit says O.G. should be 1.043 - 1.047 but I only measured 1.036

However, I measured that at 25°C, so would that be corrected around 38 or 39 giving Potential ABV around 4.5% ?

That doesn't seem high enough, so am I right in thinking that 2oz sugar to the gallon gives a rise of 5 so I would need to ‘feed’ the fermentation at 3oz/gal to increase ABV by 1% ?

 

If anyone has any favourite wine or beer recipes, or useful tips, please fire away

[canalbabe]

I do quite a bit of home brewed wine making on my boat. Love this time of the year as not long to go till the elderflowers are out and boy do they make a fab wine. I have some old wine making books that don't bother with all this pectic enzyme and extra additive gobble de gook. The old recipes are the best. Most of my wine comes from the hedgerow, its good fun mixing various fruits n berries to make up your own flavours etc and the best thing of all its free! I have a storage hole under my front step which makes an ideal celler, whilst the edge running down my floor line makes for an excellent perch for my demi johns. I never bother with a hydrometer either, just because i can't be arsed! Never had a failure yet.

[Bullfrog]

If anyone has any favourite wine or beer recipes, or useful tips, please fire away

 

We used to do a lot of this until I found the beer always sent me to sleep , and the old "White Lightning" 3-week wine kits would promote huge Saturday night rows between me and Mrs Bullfrog which are not really in character at all!

 

I reckon the alc. content was much more than we were expecting.

 

My advice - stick to shop bought

 

regards

 

David

[Mac49]

I've just done a kit called "Coopers dark ale" which turned out great (but I would say so!) especially at about 25p a pint. I was wondering where people find cool enough on a boat in summer for beer/cider to clear? The engine room's cold enough at this time of year but soon heats up with the sun out. I was pretty surprised how good cider shop bought apple juice makes!

Rick

[canalbabe]

Yeh - that's all well and good but where's the fun in buying? So what if it sends you to sleep that's part of the deal.......much more satisfaction making your own! Of course buying wine does mean you don't have to wait for it to mature.

[Mac of Cygnet]

45 - 5 gives a ‘drop’ of 40, divide that by (from memory) 7.36 and you get ABV (Alcohol By Volume) of 5.43%

 

Now then, never mind voltage drop and all that nonsense, here’s something far more serious for the mathematicians:

I couldn’t measure the O.G. of my first brew as, when I managed to locate my hydrometer, it was broken and I couldn’t replace it until the following day.

My Stout kit says O.G. should be 1.043 - 1.047 but I only measured 1.036

However, I measured that at 25°C, so would that be corrected around 38 or 39 giving Potential ABV around 4.5% ?

That doesn't seem high enough, so am I right in thinking that 2oz sugar to the gallon gives a rise of 5 so I would need to ‘feed’ the fermentation at 3oz/gal to increase ABV by 1% ?

 

You might find this clicky useful for your calculations, except that it's all metric, and you appear to be living in a more traditional imperial world.

 

Cheers

 

Mac

[sociable_hermit]

I still have a bottle of Homebase Dave's DIY Merlot on board. I've kept it for 6 months as the original colour was quite pale and it was apparently about 16%. I was hoping it might mature a little but I dunno really. His advice was to mix it with lemonade

[twocvbloke]

I still have a bottle of Homebase Dave's DIY Merlot on board. I've kept it for 6 months as the original colour was quite pale and it was apparently about 16%. I was hoping it might mature a little but I dunno really. His advice was to mix it with lemonade

 

It's a myth about leaving wines in the bottle to "mature", they need to be in wood barrels to mature, as that is where the flavour comes from...

[tillergirl]

most white wines are best drunk within 6 months of bottling, red within 9-12 months bottling. So if you've still got a bottle or two of white thats says 2005 on the label pour it down the sink = it makes a good drain cleaner

[Moley]

You might find this clicky useful for your calculations, except that it's all metric, and you appear to be living in a more traditional imperial world.

Thanks Mac, some good stuff there.

 

I tend to mix my measurements and use whatever scale is most convenient, which generally tends to be metric for length but Imperial for volume.

 

If anyone else is using Mac's chart, I've worked out a grams/litre to oz/gal conversion factor of x 0.16

i.e. 10 g/l = 1.6 oz/gal.

[Moley]

I've just done a kit called "Coopers dark ale" which turned out great (but I would say so!) especially at about 25p a pint. I was wondering where people find cool enough on a boat in summer for beer/cider to clear? The engine room's cold enough at this time of year but soon heats up with the sun out. I was pretty surprised how good cider shop bought apple juice makes!

Rick

Well I'm properly into this brewing lark now, I'm half-way through (drinking) my first batch of Bitter, the Stout is conditioning but I think I may have bottled too late or under-primed (not flat but could do wit a bit more fizz) and I've got 3 different wines on-the-go.

 

I started one of those Cooper's Dark Ale kits off last night (although mine will be closer to 30p a pint as I've used half-and-half sugar and spraymalt). I'm not sure how much the Aussies know about making what we'd class as beer, but a B.I.Y. website said that Cooper's Dark was similar to Hobgoblin, so it's got to be worth a try.

 

I've also got 2 gallons of “Turbo Cider” from shop bought apple juice fizzing away like crazy, so I'll be interested to see how good a drink that makes. Do you allow yours to ferment out or try to stop it and retain some sweetness?

 

Where to store or condition on the boat is another matter, although we've got a storage space under a fixed double bed which should stay fairly cool.

[Yoda]

You could keep it cool in the bilges!

[blueprince]

Blackberries and damsons, my two favorites, beer and wine, though you have to watch the acidity.

[bridgit]

I like free hedge grow wines and the first for this month is dandelions, makes a reasonable white to drink young.

[Mac49]

Well I'm properly into this brewing lark now, I'm half-way through (drinking) my first batch of Bitter, the Stout is conditioning but I think I may have bottled too late or under-primed (not flat but could do wit a bit more fizz) and I've got 3 different wines on-the-go.

 

I started one of those Cooper's Dark Ale kits off last night (although mine will be closer to 30p a pint as I've used half-and-half sugar and spraymalt). I'm not sure how much the Aussies know about making what we'd class as beer, but a B.I.Y. website said that Cooper's Dark was similar to Hobgoblin, so it's got to be worth a try.

 

I've also got 2 gallons of “Turbo Cider” from shop bought apple juice fizzing away like crazy, so I'll be interested to see how good a drink that makes. Do you allow yours to ferment out or try to stop it and retain some sweetness?

 

Where to store or condition on the boat is another matter, although we've got a storage space under a fixed double bed which should stay fairly cool.

 

I got the Dark Ale kit because i'd read somewhere it was a bit like Hobgoblin too, which is one of my favourite beers. I was very impressed with it, very dark red colour with a caramel taste. I measured it a 4.7% allowing for priming but i've a feeling it's a bit stronger! Not exactly like Hobgoblin but if you like that I reckon you'll like the dark ale (remember reading if you make the kit for 36 pints instead of 40 it's closer but never tried it myself). I bottled about half of it in 2litre pop bottles which I kept in the dark which seemed to work fine.

As for the "Turbo Cider" i let it ferment for 6 days it was a still fermenting like mad, primed the bottles using 1 plastic one as a guide to how 'primed' it was, when it was hard to squeeze the bottle I put it outside to clear( it was 8 degrees at the time). I'm not too keen on very dry cider so was pleased it still had some sweetness and i've certainly had much worse bought cider which wasn't cheap. (edit: I added 4oz of sugar per gal to make it about 15% sugar I think) By the time I got to the last bottle it was a bit dry for me as it must carry on fermenting in the bottle but thats just an excuse to not leave it hanging around too long

 

You could keep it cool in the bilges!

Thanks, i might be able to fit a small batch in the bilge round my water tank or in the engine room.

Rick

Edited April 9, 2009 by Mac49

[Moley]

I got the Dark Ale kit because i'd read somewhere it was a bit like Hobgoblin too, which is one of my favourite beers. I was very impressed with it, very dark red colour with a caramel taste. I measured it a 4.7% allowing for priming but i've a feeling it's a bit stronger! Not exactly like Hobgoblin but if you like that I reckon you'll like the dark ale (remember reading if you make the kit for 36 pints instead of 40 it's closer but never tried it myself). I bottled about half of it in 2litre pop bottles which I kept in the dark which seemed to work fine.

Ok, I take back everything I thought about the Aussies with their XXXX and F*st*rs.

 

I only bottled some of that Cooper's on Tuesday but racked the last 2 gallons off to a Secondary to see if that makes any improvement.

 

It has dropped fairly clear already and a couple of plastic Coke bottles I'd filled are firm to the squeeze so I just thought I'd better 'test' a bottle. I reckon if I can possibly bear to leave the rest for a month or so that is going to be bl99dy lovely. Must start another brew ASAP. I measured mine at 4.9% but might increase the OG next time around.

 

I like free hedge grow wines and the first for this month is dandelions, makes a reasonable white to drink young.

Now this seems fair enough, a base of an orange, a couple of lemons and a litre of grape juice...

 

 

... but are you seriously expecting me to believe I can get a decent drink out of this?

 

[Sven_8t4]

Don't know if anyone else is brewing at the minute but i've got Gooseberry wine and Cider demijohn'd up bubbling away nicely!

Sven

[Moley]

Oh my Lord, did I really post that stuff way back in March/April

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Sven.

 

Things have moved on a little, I did 2 more beer kit brews and yesterday I did my third All Grain.

 

That Dandelion dropped crystal clear after stabilising and fining

and has since been bottled. Turned out ok in the end but probably needs leaving down the cellar and forgetting about until Christmas.

 

4 gallons of wine already bottled, another 4 ready for bottling, 6 gallons of Peach, 2.5 gallons of Elderflower Shampagne, 1 gallon Elderflower & Gooseberry, 2 gallons of supermarket juice wines and 2 gallons of Waste Not Want Not all happily bubbling away:

 

 

And tonight after work I will be collecting 9 more demijohns off a local Freecycler.

[Nickhlx]

There was another thread on brewing a few weeks back, so more tips may be found in that..

 

When I used to make beer in my earlier years, I used a Champagne yeast as it had a higher tolerance to alcohol - I don't think alcohol kills the yeast - more suppresses its activity.

 

......and I used to make it considerably stronger, mainly because it got boring making a batch too often, so I made it strong enough to not want more than a pint at a time.... and I also made the 40 pint kits up to about 36 as I preferred a heavier taste..

 

Must get a batch going

 

Nick

Edited June 29, 2009 by Nickhlx

[Kate and James]

most white wines are best drunk within 6 months of bottling, red within 9-12 months bottling. So if you've still got a bottle or two of white thats says 2005 on the label pour it down the sink = it makes a good drain cleaner

 

 

Could this be a solution to another post, 'Bad smell'?

Just a thought!!