Homebrewing

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Tue May 08, 2012 11:40 am

So, anyone else homebrew? I was going to do cider but then seeing the amount of money that needs to be spent on apples, I figured I'd give lager a go first!

Almost finished drinking our first batch, which turned out quite well

If anyone else does, share recipes! We just used a standard no-name malt and yeast and some brewing sugar last time, added 50 grams of Cascade hops about 8 days before bottling. I've got all the times/amounts etc written down, so we know just what we did to make the beer. The hops was very good. It's definitely improved as it ferments in the bottles, the later ones have a better head on the beer

Just ordered some (pretty damn expensive I thought, £6.38!) Mexican Lager Yeast, supposed to "produce a clean lager beer, with a crisp finish", as well as some Atlas hops to add along with the Cascade hops, adding 50 grams of each. Also grabbed some amber malt extract. Going to use cane sugar this time, so should hopefully get a sweet, crisp beer after all this!

The bonus is the mexican lager yeast says it works from around 10c - 13c, which is perfect under the stairs where the temperature is pretty stable.

judderod · Post by **judderod** » Tue May 08, 2012 12:41 pm

Sounds like fun. Wish I had the space for an ethanol still. Fuel and booze all in one!

littlefeller · Post by **littlefeller** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:08 pm

if you want good yeast- some bottle conditioned guiness contains yeast, pour out very carefully leaving sediment behind, then add some sugar to get it started again, havnt seen any of this guiness for some time now but must still be out there. for foamyer head use less granulated sugar, more malt. beware, homebrewing makes you fat

nitin_s1 · Post by **nitin_s1** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:17 pm

I would love to do this if I had the time or the space.

How long does it take to homebrew something? 1month? 2 months?

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:23 pm

Our first batch took 3 weeks, but you can cut it down a bit, We had to let the bottles sit for a bit to ferment and carbonate.

Chers lf

littlefeller · Post by **littlefeller** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:36 pm

3 - 4 weeks is about normal for beer plus a couple of weeks in the bottle. sometimes longer, depends when it stops fermenting. make sure it has completly stopped fermenting before bottling, they can go bang, like hand granades

you can prime the bottles with a teespoon of sugar, remember the yeast will convert the suger to alcohol and co2, 50/50 by weight. so a half teespoon of co2 by weight is a fair amount

bristol_bb4 · Post by **bristol_bb4** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:38 pm

only one kind of home brewing ive tried when i was young and stupid! it wasnt beer, it included lights and a tent and was extremely fruitful

never ever agian though!

JayJay · Post by **JayJay** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:40 pm

I can't quite remember now, but I think ours was 2 weeks, then about a week with the hops, then we added 120 grams sugar, mixed, then bottled. The 120 grams worked out perfectly for carbonating the bottles

They were bottled for about a week, and been drinking since then.

But yes, make sure it's finished fermenting before adding the sugar for bottling, too much CO2 = POP! I found adding the sugar to the beer before bottling (rather than a teaspoon to each bottle) gives a more even distribution. 120 grams did 38 500ml bottles I think, nicely carbonated.

Bio · Post by **Bio** » Tue May 08, 2012 1:42 pm

I homebrew cider but I do "Turbo" cider instead which involves using comercially bought apple juice.
Cider usually takes longer than beers, so don't let the turbo name fool you as you have to let it age to mellow out. It's more like Wine to brew than beer, and infact some of my early stuff was 12% so basically Apfelwein.

My longest batch so far took 40 days to actually brew (Primary > Secondary for yeast settling) then a further 14 days to carbonate in 2L Pepsi bottles. Now I'll have to leave it about a month to age in the fridge.
Unfortunatley I used a LITTLE too much priming sugar on the last lot, so while it bubbles great, the bottles are gushers when opened so you have to be very careful.

JayJay, sounds like you are doing partial extract brewing a dry hopping?
I've been meaning to do beer myself but have to make it in larger than 1 gallon batches really when doing full grain and I don't have the space.

I tend to have 3-4 1Gal Demijohns on the go for cider at any given time and have multiple 2L bottles in various states of ageing round the house

judderod · Post by **judderod** » Tue May 08, 2012 2:15 pm

littlefeller wrote:if you want good yeast- some bottle conditioned guiness contains yeast, pour out very carefully leaving sediment behind, then add some sugar to get it started again, havnt seen any of this guiness for some time now but must still be out there.

I think that's guiness forign extra. 7.5% ish. You can usually get it in ethnic areas (is that the right word these days?) and some corners shops. Lovely stuff, almost thick enough to spoon