Home Brew Questions

[Chilli.s]

Anyone got a tried and tested ginger ale recipe?

Chilli's ginger beer recipe:

Get a clean 2l plastic pop bottle. peel and grate up 2 inch of ginger root. Put the ginger in the bottle with half a cup of sugar and a quarter teaspoonful of yeast. Any old yeast, baking stuff out of a packet is ok. Add juice from one lemon and about a pint of warm water. Shake up well till all dissolved. Put in some more warm, not hot water. Leave a two or three inch gap at the top between the cap and the liquid. Put the lid on tight and stand it in a warm place. After a day or so the bottle should be rock hard. Move it to the fridge and chill it for a couple of days. You will need a tea strainer or something to prevent bits going in the glass. Leave the sediment in the bottle and discard. Looks like bought ginger beer, tastes better.

Vary the amounts according to taste.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I think beesonthewhatnow brewed mead. Well he mentioned it on here about 12 year ago.

Some friends made lots of it.

All I can remember is that it was very nice.

 

[TopCat]

Chilli's ginger beer recipe:

Get a clean 2l plastic pop bottle. peel and grate up 2 inch of ginger root. Put the ginger in the bottle with half a cup of sugar and a quarter teaspoonful of yeast. Any old yeast, baking stuff out of a packet is ok. Add juice from one lemon and about a pint of warm water. Shake up well till all dissolved. Put in some more warm, not hot water. Leave a two or three inch gap at the top between the cap and the liquid. Put the lid on tight and stand it in a warm place. After a day or so the bottle should be rock hard. Move it to the fridge and chill it for a couple of days. You will need a tea strainer or something to prevent bits going in the glass. Leave the sediment in the bottle and discard. Looks like bought ginger beer, tastes better.

Vary the amounts according to taste.

That's lovely. I might start that tomorrow.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I did that a couple of times. Then did a big batch in a 10L container and used a bit more yeast and sugar. It was pretty fucking potent stuff. Went down well at a party i took it to!

 

[TopCat]

Yeah is there a recipe for say five percent ginger beer?

 

[TopCat]

Bottled up the flat cider into demijohns. Am in the midst of cleaning bottles for the fizzy. Pissed with myself for leaving the bottles outside for months.

 

[TopCat]

Cider is lethal.

 

[TopCat]

I never finished the bottle cleaning. So I had a big bucket half full of cider. I siphoned it out by the litre and necked it.

 

[campanula]

My cider making fell at the first hurdle, last year (getting the juice out of the apples)...but not without much (futile) arsing about with spin dryers. Anyway, youngest has made me a proper apple press (and promised a scratter(?) an essential bit of kit I was lacking last year. Pounding apples in a bloody garden trug with a landscaping bar was not fun.
To be fair, I don't really love cider...but since my toothless state has rendered actually eating apples a memory (and there are only so many pies to be made and eaten) cider is the best use of the insane quantities of allotment apples (6 trees)

 

[klang]

I dreaded autumns when I was a boy as this was my dad's cider making time. collecting apples from the surrounding area was the easy part. pressing out the juice was hard. my dad had this ancient apple mill and press the entire family had to operate. every drop of apple juice cost 100 drops of sweat and 100 tears. blisters were part of autumn.
the chopped and pressed apples were fed to the cows. to carry the sacks from the press to the cows was back breaking work.
we'd drink nothing but freshly pressed apple juice all day / week / month. the acid fucked with our stomachs.
the smell of the juice was gorgeous: it smelled of summer and autumn, of wood and soil and mold and forests and meadows. i loved it.
it was a very bonding experience for my family.
eventually my dad wanted to install a little engine into the mill (off a lawn mower, i think i remember). he dropped it and squeezed off his right index finger.

we produced about 1000 litres of cider and a few hundred litres of apple juice per season. enough to give plenty away to friends, neighbours and family, and enough to keep my dad pissed for the year.

 

[klang]

not far off this one:

 

[klang]

for chopping the apples down we had an old grape mill, similar to this one:

that thing cost my dad his finger.

 

[TopCat]

I dreaded autumns when I was a boy as this was my dad's cider making time. collecting apples from the surrounding area was the easy part. pressing out the juice was hard. my dad had this ancient apple mill and press the entire family had to operate. every drop of apple juice cost 100 drops of sweat and 100 tears. blisters were part of autumn.
the chopped and pressed apples were fed to the cows. to carry the sacks from the press to the cows was back breaking work.
we'd drink nothing but freshly pressed apple juice all day / week / month. the acid fucked with our stomachs.
the smell of the juice was gorgeous: it smelled of summer and autumn, of wood and soil and mold and forests and meadows. i loved it.
it was a very bonding experience for my family.
eventually my dad wanted to install a little engine into the mill (off a lawn mower, i think i remember). he dropped it and squeezed off his right index finger.

we produced about 1000 litres of cider and a few hundred litres of apple juice per season. enough to give plenty away to friends, neighbours and family, and enough to keep my dad pissed for the year.

What a lovely picture you paint.

 

[campanula]

I braved the filthy rain to take a picture of the press my youngest made for me. There is a treadle lathe just poking out under the blue tarp. Handy to have offspring who can do useful stuff (such as metal fabricating).

 

[klang]

I braved the filthy rain to take a picture of the press my youngest made for me. There is a treadle lathe just poking out under the blue tarp. Handy to have offspring who can do useful stuff (such as metal fabricating).

oooh, very nice!!

 

[Sasaferrato]

Cider is lethal.

I once made apple wine, with a 40 pint cider kit split into two demijohns, and a kilo of sugar slowly added to each. It was about 15%.

 

[friedaweed]

I once made apple wine, with a 40 pint cider kit split into two demijohns, and a kilo of sugar slowly added to each. It was They call that turbo cider now mate. Champagne yeast, it'll strip the chrome off a bumper

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yep, it was indeed champagne yeast. It took about two months of slow fermentation.

I used to use the out of date 50% dextrose bags in my lager, turbo fermentation.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I dreaded autumns when I was a boy as this was my dad's cider making time. collecting apples from the surrounding area was the easy part. pressing out the juice was hard. my dad had this ancient apple mill and press the entire family had to operate. every drop of apple juice cost 100 drops of sweat and 100 tears. blisters were part of autumn.
the chopped and pressed apples were fed to the cows. to carry the sacks from the press to the cows was back breaking work.
we'd drink nothing but freshly pressed apple juice all day / week / month. the acid fucked with our stomachs.
the smell of the juice was gorgeous: it smelled of summer and autumn, of wood and soil and mold and forests and meadows. i loved it.
it was a very bonding experience for my family.
eventually my dad wanted to install a little engine into the mill (off a lawn mower, i think i remember). he dropped it and squeezed off his right index finger.

we produced about 1000 litres of cider and a few hundred litres of apple juice per season. enough to give plenty away to friends, neighbours and family, and enough to keep my dad pissed for the year.

When we lived in North Camp near Aldershot, there was an off licence called the Bottle and Basket. Prop T Banaghan, lovely lovely man (and alcoholic ).

Tommy used to drive down into the West Country at cider time and buy a few barrels, which he sold at 20p a pint. You took along your demijohn and got it filled up. I don't know what strength it was, but we couldn't drink a gallon between us in an evening. Very good for keeping the innards in working order, if it had pips you could have hired out as a pebble dasher.

 

[friedaweed]

Yep, it was indeed champagne yeast. It took about two months of slow fermentation.

I used to use the out of date 50% dextrose bags in my lager, turbo fermentation.

I only made it once, I don't like cider myself but it was for as BBQ and I wanted to try it so I threw a bottle of low sugar vimto in the end to back sweeten it a bit with the sweetners in the vimto. It was absolutely lush.

Do you still brew Sass?

 

[Sasaferrato]

I only made it once, I don't like cider myself but it was for as BBQ and I wanted to try it so I threw a bottle of low sugar vimto in the end to back sweeten it a bit with the sweetners in the vimto. It was absolutely lush.

Do you still brew Sass?

No, in fact I lobbed the kit out a few months ago when we cleared 29 years worth of crap out of the loft.

 

[TopCat]

No, in fact I lobbed the kit out a few months ago when we cleared 29 years worth of crap out of the loft.

Threw it away? You heathen.

 

[Sasaferrato]

Threw it away? You heathen.

No one round about wanted it.

 

[kenny g]

Used to make gorgeous IPA's as well as apple honey and home grown chomomile cider/wine when living in Japan. Wife stopped me as it was getting out of control. Think last session I drank 7 x 680ml bottles of a super hopped IPA in one sitting and was still walking around like a zombie. Had to admit defeat in the self control department. Still miss the whole process though.

 

[badseed]

I was supposed to go and stay on training camp in Thailand, which is an annual treat for me, but injury has forced me to cancel.
So I spent the money on GrainFather. Here is my first shot at an All Grain Brew, and my first brew in around two years.
All Shite and Briney - Bright Ale

Can't wait to get into it

 

[seeformiles]

I set a 5 gallon batch of mead going just before last X-mas and, as it was taking so long to ferment out I forgot about it completely. Today, I was setting up the cider press in readiness for the “squeezin’ season” when I noticed it in a corner of the garage. I siphoned off a few pints and Mrs SFM and I are currently in a fine state of inebriation. It tastes great - with the honey, rosemary and ginger nicely balanced and checking in at about 8% abv. I should forget about some home-brewing projects a bit more often.

Partying like it’s 999!

 

[ViolentPanda]

They call that turbo cider now mate. Champagne yeast, it'll strip the chrome off a bumper

I'm contemplating brewing up some turbo cider with high-alcohol yeast, then putting it through a still, get some of what Terry Pratchett called "suicider".

 

[ViolentPanda]

I set a 5 gallon batch of mead going just before last X-mas and, as it was taking so long to ferment out I forgot about it completely. Today, I was setting up the cider press in readiness for the “squeezin’ season” when I noticed it in a corner of the garage. I siphoned off a few pints and Mrs SFM and I are currently in a fine state of inebriation. It tastes great - with the honey, rosemary and ginger nicely balanced and checking in at about 8% abv. I should forget about some home-brewing projects a bit more often.

Partying like it’s 999!

Anglo-Saxon booze for the win!

 

[seeformiles]

Anglo-Saxon booze for the win!

Indeed! Crikey this stuff is mental...

 

[ViolentPanda]

Indeed! Crikey this stuff is mental...

We used to make mead and sometimes heather ale. Very easy drinking. Almost TOO easy!