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Home Brew Questions

Annoying things like employment have got in the way of my brewing for many many months but I'm pleased to say that this thread is being bumped. Just starting sterilising all my old equipment for a 40 pint brew of this stuff:

woodfordes_nog.gif


:)
 
Mmmmmm... beer. 5 gallons of ale gone on to ferment just now. Been so long since I did this I'd almost forgotten what you do.
 
Some cracking homebrew porn on that thread, Addy. :cool:

Primary ferment looks to have gone well with me Norfolk Nog. :) Gonna get it off the yeast and into another fermenter today - let it sit there for a week or so before bottling. Amazing how quickly I'd forgotten what you do with all this - I've had to check this thread a few times to see what to do next.
 
Having neglected my brewing for about a year I have jumped back in today.
European style Pilsner, heavy on the Saaz, s23 SafLager yeast. Sitting at a constant 11 degrees now.

I love the smell of hops in the morning.
 
badseed said:
Having neglected my brewing for about a year I have jumped back in today.
Click to expand...
Good stuff. I'm enjoying getting back into it too. My Norfolk ale's on its secondary ferment now due to be bottled at the weekend.

Addy -he's got a fridge with a temp control set up for it iirc.
 
Here you are.....

badseed said:
I have on old fridge with one of these attached for temp control. http://mashmaster.com.au/p/365439/fridgemate-mkii-digital-temperature-controller-kit.html

It makes the fridge operate at higher temperatures so I set it to the temperature I need and tape the probe onto the side of the fermenter.

When fridges break and start to freeze everything then it is a perfect way to recycle them.
I am a homebrew geek :eek:
Click to expand...

Using an old fridge, if you can, also stops the eggy fart smell emanating from lager yeast.

Awesome thread is still awesome.
 
As soon as I have moved my shed in the garden i'll be after a couple of old fridges to convert in to fermenting boxes.

Then soon after i'm looking at going all grain, brew in a bag method.
 
Addy said:
As soon as I have moved my shed in the garden i'll be after a couple of old fridges to convert in to fermenting boxes.

Then soon after i'm looking at going all grain, brew in a bag method.
Click to expand...

You can also attach the fridgemate to a heatpad for ales with a warmer temperature.
The old fridge is just an insulated box then, hopefully with a constant temp.
Temperature control and good yeast are the easiest things to improve for better results.

I thought about going all grain, but looked at all the stuff I had already and (for once) showed some restraint and stuck with what I do now.
 
I currently use fishtank heaters in a waterbath during the cold months for brewing, but I have a couple of these in preperation for when I set up my temperature controled enviroment.
I'll be getting one of these to control it all.
 
I started some plum wine the other day. The recipe was for a gallon so I doubled it. It said to pour it in a demijon and top up to a gallon with cooled boiled water... but I seem to have made 2.5 gallons already. It's in a fermenting bucket at the moment but I'll need that soon for more brewing so I'm going to put it into djs soon. There was a lot of fruit used so I've decided to top it up to three gallons rather than having half a dj.
It's bubbling away nicely at the moment, but I just wanted to check that adding a couple of pints of water isn't going to mess up the fermentation. Would I be ok just to pour it in or should I add it over a few days?
 
Great to see this thread still going. A few months back I searched and found this as I remembered NVP's experience's and at the time throught one day I'll do that.

So when I finally got the Woodfordes kits I found this thread really useful. Thanks to it I now have:

IMAG0222.jpg


And some Admirals Reserve:

IMAG0221.jpg


And plenty of these to sup:

IMAG0229.jpg


So thanks all for the advice and help.
 
I've brewed both of those with good results, ptg. The Admiral's Reserve was particularly nice if memory serves. Glad the thread was useful.

Got all my Norfolk Nog bottled up and conditioning now. Should be ready in time for when the dark nights draw in.
 
mr steev said:
It's bubbling away nicely at the moment, but I just wanted to check that adding a couple of pints of water isn't going to mess up the fermentation. Would I be ok just to pour it in or should I add it over a few days?
Click to expand...

Should be fine I reckon if it's just a couple of pints, but you might want to add a spot more sugar too it too to compensate.
 
mr steev said:
I started some plum wine the other day. The recipe was for a gallon so I doubled it. It said to pour it in a demijon and top up to a gallon with cooled boiled water... but I seem to have made 2.5 gallons already. It's in a fermenting bucket at the moment but I'll need that soon for more brewing so I'm going to put it into djs soon. There was a lot of fruit used so I've decided to top it up to three gallons rather than having half a dj.
It's bubbling away nicely at the moment, but I just wanted to check that adding a couple of pints of water isn't going to mess up the fermentation. Would I be ok just to pour it in or should I add it over a few days?
Click to expand...

If your gonna add water, try to pour it down the side of the demijohn so as not to introduce air in to the wine.

I have just this minute started a plum wine.
9lbs plums halved and stoned, 125g raisins, crushed campden tablet, 1/4oz root ginger, 4 cloves, 1/2tsp citric, 1/2tsp tartaric, gallon boiling water
covered and leave for 4.5hrs
Add a gallon cold water, 5g pectolase, cover and leave for 55 hours
strain, boil and pour over 5lbs sugar, then split it across 3 demijohns.
 
cheers.

I used a simple recipe - 12lb plums, 3 kilo of sugar, 4 pints of water.
Dissolved the sugar into boiling water then poured over the fruit and mashed it up a bit. When it was cool I added some pectalose and left for 2 days.
Strained, pitched and airlocked.

I've made a similar one with damsons for the last couple of years, but using 3lb of fruit per gallon and it has turned out fantastic. The first years didn't last that long so last year we made 10 gallons so that we'd have some left by the time it had matured properly. Which was obviously the right thing to do as we've already got through about half of it. It's a nice feeling when friends have specifically asked me to open another bottle as it's very drinkable :cool:
 
NVP said:
Home brewed wine, eh? :hmm:
Click to expand...

yeah, but beware that brewing off fruit takes a year or more to mature. Drinking it early is wastefull.
Elderberries will be ripening soon, so make sure you take advantage as they make an awesome wine.

If you want to try a cheap and easy wine thats drinkable as soon as its cleared try this...

1 5l bottle of water (under a quid from Asda/Lidl/etc)
tip out / drink 2.5 litres and then boil up 1 litre and add it back to the bottle along with 700g of sugar.
Shake it until the sugar desolves.
Add 1 litre of white grape juice
Add 1 litre of orange juice
Add 1 tsp of pectolase, 1 tsp of yeast nutrient, 1 tsp of wine tannin (or a mug of strong black tea) and 1 tsp of wine yeast.
let it ferment out, and then keep racking it until it clears.
Once cleared add a tsp of potasium sorbate (fermentation stopper) and back sweeten to desired taste with sugar and water (100g for med dry 200g for med sweet 300g for sweet)
 
A current peach wine brewing in a plastic water bottle...

IMG_20110819_162812.jpg


And a keg of stout and several mini kegs of cider :oops:

Ever thought of getting a beehive mr steev?

p.s. I'm in wolves too if ever you fancy swapping a bottle or need any help.
 
Addy said:
Ever thought of getting a beehive mr steev?
Click to expand...

I have, half-heartedly. I don't think it would be suitable at home though, and I'm not sure what the rules are up the allotment. I have a friend from years ago on fb who's just got herself a couple of hives, but she lives out in the sticks by Kinver so has the space. One day :)

The idea of swapping a few bottles at some point sounds good.
 
NVP you can make wine from cartons of fruit juice - I can recommend Welch's grape stuff - same as you make the cider :)

It's a bit insanely drinkable and takes slightly longer but not much :D
 
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