Homebrewing

[Bitter Ashes]

Without having to buy a kit or any special equipment, how easy is this to do?

Like, could I just get a bucket, some yeast and some apples and make cider by mixing them together and leaving it for a fortnight or something? All the guides online keep going on about using specialist equipment and stuff. I just want to go back to basics like how it used to be done.

Help? :)

[danielson]

Difficulty level:Extremely hard. (with out basic equipment)

Just get yourself a starter kit,the cheapest one is like 90$.That's the one i bought and it works great. oh and you wanna make cider? :laugh:

[Bitter Ashes]

I figured that apples are easier to get hold of than barley.
I mean, how hard could it be? The yeast does all the work for you doesnt it?

[Jazzratt]

Ah. Now this is one of my favourite subjects. If you're doing a cider, then yeah you don't need much kit at all; you just need to crush/press the apples sling the juice into a milk jug [free of milk] with a bit of water, some yeast, possibly extra sugar if you want a bit more fermentation (and therefore eventual alcoholic content) and then shake it up. Once you've done that put a baloon over the top of the container and poke a (small) hole in the baloon, this serves two purposes; first it allows gasses from fermentation to leave the container without letting in foriegn contaminants and secondly it allows an easy gauge for how your fermentation is going by seeing how inflated it is. After a few weeks (when the balloon is near enough limp) you should have a liquid that tastes a bit like apples and makes you fall over. That method, substituing apples for honey (and adding a few more fruits, if desired) works well with making mead or wine as well.

Beer, on the other hand, is something I've not done "from scratch" but the kits are still relatively cheap you can get about 40 pints of bitter or lager for £6-8 and 30 of stout for about the same. Also if you get a barell designed for brewing they have a little doodad on them that bubbles the gases away and gives a bit more of an accurate picture of how primary fermentation is going. For secondary fermentation both cask conditioning and bottle conditioning are relatively cheap; although the initial investment is slightly less for bottle conditioning you still need to get new tops for old bottles and so on.

I had a load of links and stuff in my old bookmarks folder on this subject but I recently drew a cock all over my computer's hard drive so I've forgotten them.

[Dr Mindbender]

doesnt homemade booze generally tend to taste like piss?

[al8]

doesnt homemade booze generally tend to taste like piss?

Actually its the best thing I have ever tasted. Where I live conventional bears tend to go for quantity over quality, for profit reasons. Time, care and ingredients are cut down on. It's a bit like food. There are good chefs and bad chefs. If you've gotten something bad from a home brewer - it's just like as if you'd have gotten an unsavory meal at a dinner party because of an unskilled cook.

[ellipsis]

I would go with mead for simplicity. Water, Yeast, Honey or Maple Syrup and a five gallon bucket with a lid should do the trick.

[Jazzratt]

doesnt homemade booze generally tend to taste like piss?

Only the first few times or if you do something horribly wrong. The learning curve is pretty forgiving anyway.

[Bitter Ashes]

It'll tastes all the better knowing that it'll piss off the brain catapillars that control Alister Darling. :)

[revolution inaction]

I do a bit of brewing, here's some of my bookmarks

methods, focused on minimum cost and effort

http://www.thewinepages.org.uk/

wine recipies

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

beer and mead

http://www.brewery.org/

[entfaltend]

doesnt homemade booze generally tend to taste like piss?

Not at all! I've only turned out one batch with a friend of mine, but it was delicious (and very potent). It was a mead made with fireweed honey, all in all was about a hundred for the start up supplies, a hundred or so more for the materials for a couple of batches of beer (I wasn't in town to help make or consume subsequent creations though :( )

[ZombieGrits]

I've got some "fast-rising" baking yeast, will that work for home brewing?

[ChrisK]

Ah. Now this is one of my favourite subjects. If you're doing a cider, then yeah you don't need much kit at all; you just need to crush/press the apples sling the juice into a milk jug [free of milk] with a bit of water, some yeast, possibly extra sugar if you want a bit more fermentation (and therefore eventual alcoholic content) and then shake it up. Once you've done that put a baloon over the top of the container and poke a (small) hole in the baloon, this serves two purposes; first it allows gasses from fermentation to leave the container without letting in foriegn contaminants and secondly it allows an easy gauge for how your fermentation is going by seeing how inflated it is. After a few weeks (when the balloon is near enough limp) you should have a liquid that tastes a bit like apples and makes you fall over. That method, substituing apples for honey (and adding a few more fruits, if desired) works well with making mead or wine as well.

Beer, on the other hand, is something I've not done "from scratch" but the kits are still relatively cheap you can get about 40 pints of bitter or lager for £6-8 and 30 of stout for about the same. Also if you get a barell designed for brewing they have a little doodad on them that bubbles the gases away and gives a bit more of an accurate picture of how primary fermentation is going. For secondary fermentation both cask conditioning and bottle conditioning are relatively cheap; although the initial investment is slightly less for bottle conditioning you still need to get new tops for old bottles and so on.

I had a load of links and stuff in my old bookmarks folder on this subject but I recently drew a cock all over my computer's hard drive so I've forgotten them.

For mead, about how much hunny to water and yeast?

[Bitter Ashes]

Right then! Jazzrat gets a cookie! He also gets to "suffer" one of these bottles of cider if he emails me lol. I'm going with his idea.

Now, the big debate for me is whether to go buy some apples now, or whether to wait until they're in season. Descions descions.

[Jazzratt]

For mead, about how much hunny to water and yeast?

2/3 honey, 1/3 water. When I did it the yeast was a sachet but I have no idea how much yeast that amounts to in real terms, I'm afraid.

[ChrisK]

2/3 honey, 1/3 water. When I did it the yeast was a sachet but I have no idea how much yeast that amounts to in real terms, I'm afraid.

Thanks!

[Bitter Ashes]

yeast finds its own equilibrium I would have thought. It's a living organism that relies on the food (the apples or honey) to survive. Once it's eaten all the food and made the booze, then I assume whatever's left over just dies.

I'll defer to an expert though if they offer an opinon

[ZombieGrits]

I've got some "fast-rising" baking yeast, will that work for home brewing?

Also, once the yeast stops growing is it possible to add more sugar to stimulate higher alcohol content?

[ellipsis]

I've got some "fast-rising" baking yeast, will that work for home brewing?

I'm no expert but i don't think so, special yeasts are usually needed, for beer definitely for mead I'm not sure.

Also if you want to do the super low tech, low cost version there is another way. So you buy a gallon of regular apple cider in a plastic jug, open it and let it ferment, on the counter or in the fridge. After a while it will have spoiled and you can drink it then or put it in your freezer. the water freezes but the alcohol doesn't so you can just take it out and pour out the booze, leaving the water behind. It may not taste like magners but it will do the trick.

[revolution inaction]

I've got some "fast-rising" baking yeast, will that work for home brewing?
yes but it will be much slower and may not produce as much alcohol, itbay also tast less good

[Bitter Ashes]

Okay then. Today I have bought:
- 7 British Braeburn apples. I can only assume that they're only in season because they must be pumped full of hormones, so if I grow a beard after drinking this cider we'll know why.
- Some bread yeast sachets. I'm aware these are not ideal, however I chose them for thier readiness of availablity
I also have:
- Some 2lt plastic bottles
- A knife
- A (sterilised) hammer
- A large plastic mixing bowl
- A new clean dishcloth
- two thick wooden breadboards
- A homemade funnel

What I'm intending to do is dice the apples and put them in the bowl and start thumping them with the hammer until they're pulped. I'm then going to put small ammounts of the pulp inside the dishcloth and squeeze it between the breadboards, allowing the juice to drain into the now empty bowl.

Once all the juice is collected from all the pulp, I will put it in a bottles using the funnel. I am NOT sure how much juice to put in (help there would be appreciated), but after that I'll add some hot water until it's lukewarm and throw in a sachet of yeast. I'll then screw the top onto the bottle and give it a good old shake, remove the top and put that baloon with the pinhole on the end.

I'll then leave it until the baloon deflates and it's all stopped bubling.

Wish me luck and please let me know if you know anything baout how much juice to put in.

[Bitter Ashes]

Okay. Apples are pulped, pressed and the juice is filling about 1/5th of two 2lt bottles. I think I'm going to need more apples, which presents the problem of this actualy being more expensive than the bottled cider.

I do have a new best friend though. THE CHEESE GRATER! It demolishes apples in seconds and has them all nicely pulped and ready. Far better than me faffing around with a knife and a hammer.

I've put the yeast in the bottles, maybe I should put more water in, I dont know. Curerntly there's a tiny bit of water in there so that I could wash out the bowl and rescue as much juice as possible.

In future I may want to use bigger apples than Braeburn too.

Should I put more water and/or apples in yet?

I couldnt find the fucking baloons I thought I had, so the caps are just lightly screwed onto the bottles so that it doesnt explode or something, but still preventing any cat hairs or something ending up in there.

The whole mucking about with boards didnt work well in the end, so I instead got a canvas, reusable shopping bag that had just come out of the wash, threw my pulp into one corner (one apple at a time) and squeezed the life out it. Then I started twisting the bag to squeeze out the rest. Lots of juice came out this way and if you do it over a bowl then it catches it all, instead of it escaping like it was with the boards.

My landlord also thinks I'm mad.

The leftover pulp, which I'd squeezed as much juice as possible from, has been put outside for the birds. I'll let you know if they like it.

Anyway, the end result is that there's two bottles sat nearby, 1/5th filled with apple juice and a little water, two teaspoons of sugar and yeast. It looks awful if I'm honest. It's brown and murkey and there's foamy froth on top. In short, it looks like the runoff from a sewage pipe, fortuantly, it doesnt smell like one, but I'm sure that'll change lol.

[revolution inaction]

as an cheaper alternative to buying more apples you could add water with half a kilo of sugar in it so the yeast has some thing to turn into alcohol,

[Bitter Ashes]

as an cheaper alternative to buying more apples you could add water with half a kilo of sugar in it so the yeast has some thing to turn into alcohol,
Good thinking!

Just done that, thanks. It looks even more undesirable lol and it's no longer smelling of apples at all, but I'm hoping it'll get me hammered ^^

Maybe it's just because there's 5 times more fluid in there now, but do you think I should be worried that it's not as frorthy as it once was? Have I killed the yeast? :S

[revolution inaction]

it could be because there is more liqued, and also because water probably doesn't froth as well as apple juice, also i find, the fermentation usually drops for a bit after some thing is added or if the mixture is mover to another container, hopfully its picked up again by now?

[Chambered Word]

Interesting. I'm not educated on this subject. Where does the risk of going blind come into this?

[ZombieGrits]

Interesting. I'm not educated on this subject. Where does the risk of going blind come into this?

:lol: Thats just because of the impurities and stuff that the feds always find in backwoods stills. Bootleggers are still capitalists; profit still comes before consumer safety. This one time on a tv show I saw them pull like three dead birds out of this bootlegger's fermenting mash. :scared:

[Bitter Ashes]

METHanal will make you blind. ETHanol will not.

Fruits and grains will produce Ethanol. Methanol is wood alchohol. In small quantities it will zap the optic nerve leaving you permantly blind, but usualy it just kills you outright of massive caridac arrest. The two are sometimes mixed together to produce meths, which is less likely to kill you, but will probably make you blind and it's just bad news generaly. Of course, drinking large quantities of ethanol, especially pure industrial stuff that's been used in the German space rockets and runs a lot of Brazalian cars will kill you too. We humans like to play with poison it seems.

My cider did make a little more foam over the evening. I think it's going to be ok :)

[Chambered Word]

Ah, alright then. Thanks all.


This one time on a tv show I saw them pull like three dead birds out of this bootlegger's fermenting mash. :scared:

:laugh:

[Bitter Ashes]

Okaydokie. It's not been long at all. Not even two weeks, but it's all stopped bubbling. Maybe I didnt put enough sugar/apples in. Does that mean it's ready to drink?

[Bitter Ashes]

Oh jesus christ! I just tried some! That was a baaaaad idea. I should have listened to my nose and avoided it.

It was really watery in taste. Can I just put more sugar in and add some more yeast and it'll fix itself?

[El Rojo]

It'll tastes all the better knowing that it'll piss off the brain catapillars that control Alister Darling.

lolz. those two black catapillars on his forehead are the cause of all our economic troubles.

viz homebrewing, don't homebrewed alcoholic breverages make one blind at some point. im sure i heard that somewhere

[Jazzratt]

Oh jesus christ! I just tried some! That was a baaaaad idea. I should have listened to my nose and avoided it.

It was really watery in taste. Can I just put more sugar in and add some more yeast and it'll fix itself?

This one's never happened before, I guess the yeast is your culprit. In your position I'd trying adding more yeast (and possibly sugar) on the logic that it couldn't really get any worse.


viz homebrewing, don't homebrewed alcoholic breverages make one blind at some point. im sure i heard that somewhere

No. It's stuff you distill at home (moonshine and so on) that can lead to this because unless you're very careful making and maintaining your still all kinds of fun contaminents can get in some of these can turn you blind or worse - one of the most popular ones is mercury. Also Ranma pointed out earlier in the thread it's methyl alcohol that does you in, although large amounts of the ethyl stuff isn't going to do you any favours.

I guess the rumours like this really got a big boost in depression era america. The dangers of things generally get blown up to hilarious degrees when the state wants to ban them - just see how everyone in britain is going nuts over mephedrone for an example.

[Fullmetal Anarchist]

Don't make stout if your going to home brew. I did and instead of tasting like guiness it tasted a bit off...like highly alcoholic vinegar. Did the job tho...:D

[revolution inaction]

This one's never happened before, I guess the yeast is your culprit. In your position I'd trying adding more yeast (and possibly sugar) on the logic that it couldn't really get any worse.

it would probably be wroth getting some wine or beer yeast to.




I guess the rumours like this really got a big boost in depression era america. The dangers of things generally get blown up to hilarious degrees when the state wants to ban them - just see how everyone in britain is going nuts over mephedrone for an example.

and methyl alcohol was added to industrial alcohol during prohibition to http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/

[Bitter Ashes]

As now stated numerous times, METHanol makes you go blind, which is WOOD alchohol, not grain/fruit.

I'm going to try more yeast and sugar. I did skimp on the sugar last time.

[Jazzratt]

Don't make stout if your going to home brew. I did and instead of tasting like guiness it tasted a bit off...like highly alcoholic vinegar. Did the job tho...:D

Really? My stout comes out great - perhaps you went wrong somewhere or it was just a bad batch?

[revolution inaction]

i think alcohol turns to vinegar if it is left exposed to oxygen? thats one of the reasons you need a air lock or a balloon.

[ZombieGrits]

Right, so after a week, I now have a gallon jug of cider. Thing is, it's all milky and tastes a bit strange... should I run it through some kind of filter or something before consuming large quantities?

[Bitter Ashes]

Now there's something I do know! The cloudiness is natural. You can add ground up horse hooves I believe to make it clearer, but is it really worth it for just the appearance?

As for the taste I dunno. Is there like a wierd sediment on the bottom of the jug too on yours?

[ev]

Can we sticky this? and help each other make moonshine in the spirit of comradery?

[Bitter Ashes]

Hmmm. Maybe some kind of step by step confirmed successful recipes for disaster would be good for stickying. Right now, I think this is more of our exploration thread ^^

[ellipsis]

An MUCH older thread on this topic:http://www.revleft.com/vb/home-brewing-t37177/index.html?t=37177 (http://www.revleft.com/vb/../home-brewing-t37177/index.html?t=37177)

[ZombieGrits]

As for the taste I dunno. Is there like a wierd sediment on the bottom of the jug too on yours?

on further consideration, i think it just tasted weird cuz it was lukewarm....

there was some sediment in the container, but i just put the cider in a different jug

[JazzRemington]

Check this out for cheap, possibly dirty, beer.

http://www.mrbeer.com/

There's also kits you can buy from stores online that contain everything you need.

[Jazzratt]

There's always free beer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Beer) the open source beer :lol:

[ZombieGrits]

comrades, if your beer/cider/mead turns out a bit weaker than you might have liked, here's a little trick: put your beverage in the freezer, and after 3-4 hours, scoop out the ice that has formed around the edges. They call it "freeze distillation." It'll give the drink a little more kick (but if you mucked yours up as bad as i did it won't do anything for the taste :()

[Bitter Ashes]

That is really quite clever and I can definatly see how that'd work!

[Bitter Ashes]

okay. Now this IS intresting. I added some sugar today and it's started fizzing again immediatly. I screwed the caps back on and then I've come back later with my yeast and found that the bottle was very firm. I reluctantly loosened the cap again and it's made a big fizz of gas like a shaken cola bottle. I think the yeast must still be alive! O.o

[Steve_j]

Hannah, its a little tricky to work it out now, but what you want to do is work out your sugar ratio before you start, that way when the yeast drinks itself to death (which is at 10% for bakers yeast ;) it will have use up all the sugars and converted them to ethanol leaving no unfermented sugars in the wash.

Given the situation your at now, it might be best to just keep adding a little sugar every time it stops bubbling, when i wont bubble no more your good to go.

But i must be honest, from personal experience, bakers yeast tastes pretty rank in brew, but you can always distil it afterwards :thumbup1:

[Steve_j]

oh and a little tip... put a hole in the lid.... prick a small hole in the end of a condom of a ballon ect,,,, and stick that over the opening, when the device deflates try a little more sugar and repeat untill no more gass.

[Bitter Ashes]

Anyone who was in Bradford today will testify that my homebrew works wonderfully lol

[Foldered]

A friend and I made two batches from a kit; it was cheap, the instructions were easy to look up, and the beer turned out really well.

[Bitter Ashes]

mine worked out 15p per pint and was far nicer (and stronger) than White Lightning :)

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Hannah's homebrew is pretty fucking scary. Don't do homebrew unless you want people to find pictures of you passed out in a field with half of Yorkshire anarchy, plus Makhno, posing with you.

[Bitter Ashes]

Yeah. The montage that a certain Yorkshire AF member has put up of me, asleep in a field and draped in a red and black flag, on Facebook, is not very flattering lol.

I took a 2 ltr bottle with me. Lots of people had a sip. Some went back for more, but I reckon I still drank about 3 pints of it and it's like rocket fuel and resulted in me having silly conversations with the police, falling asleep and not bieng able to walk in a straight line. 24 hours later and my wee still smells of booze and I remember very little of Mayday. lol. Also think I must have been keeping the bakery across the road singlehandily in buisness with the sheer ammount of naan bread I bought. I doubt I will ever live it down :P

Powerful stuff!

[ellipsis]

Glad it worked out so well comrade.

[Steve_j]

Nice one Hannah!:thumbup1: I have White wine, a red and a peach mead of sorts on the go (Am using wine yeast though, bread yeast makes me a bit queezy). Will see how they turn out and post recipies if they taste alright.

[Lord Testicles]

Okay, a severe shortage of cider has roused my interest in this topic.

So, two questions:

1) If baking yeast isn't ideal, what is and were do I find it?

2) What is a good ratio of yeast to sugar?

[Bitter Ashes]

I think you're supposed to use wine yeast, which you can get from brewers. Bread yeast seemed to work fine for me though and it's in all the supermarkets.

As for the ratio, I dunno. I just put half a sachet of yeast in each 2ltr bottle and then added about 2-3 tablespoons of sugar each day until I could add it without it fizzling.

[rednordman]

mine worked out 15p per pint and was far nicer (and stronger) than White Lightning :):blink:flippin heck. What sort of percentage are we talking about here? I dont like cider, but am familiar with the myseriously prowess of white lightning. Infact it holds the magnificant acollade of being the only brew that i'v puked on. And that was only a measly four cans aswell. At least it was a long time ago.haha.

[Bitter Ashes]

:blink:flippin heck. What sort of percentage are we talking about here? I dont like cider, but am familiar with the myseriously prowess of white lightning. Infact it holds the magnificant acollade of being the only brew that i'v puked on. And that was only a measly four cans aswell. At least it was a long time ago.haha.
Well, I can drink a 3ltr bottle of White Lightning and I'll slur a little and maybe be a bit wobbly. I had half that much on Saturday and passed out. Totaly took me by suprise.

When I was tasting it though it had the burniness like wine, but I assumed that was just the yeast or something.

[Bitter Ashes]

And let this be a warning to anyone who underestimates the power of the cider

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2001/drunks.th.jpg (http://img232.imageshack.us/i/drunks.jpg/)


And here's the recipe
http://rebelcleaners.blogspot.com/2010/05/homebrew-cider-easy-peasy.html

[revolution inaction]

Well, I can drink a 3ltr bottle of White Lightning and I'll slur a little and maybe be a bit wobbly. I had half that much on Saturday and passed out. Totaly took me by suprise.

When I was tasting it though it had the burniness like wine, but I assumed that was just the yeast or something.

from you description of how you did it you probably got it to 10 to 15 percent, i think i'll give that a try, i havent brewed any thing for a while, and i was thinking of doing somr cider

[rednordman]

from you description of how you did it you probably got it to 10 to 15 percent, i think i'll give that a try, i havent brewed any thing for a while, and i was thinking of doing somr ciderWow:lol: Mind you, you have to be carefull with these things, i'v heard stories of people blinding themelves trying to make wisky.

HannaKay - If you was capitalist than I would advice you to bottle and sell it. CAMRC would definitly be interested.;)

[Bitter Ashes]

Haha. Nah. It's public domain now. If you go out scrumping for the apples yourself, then it's even cheaper.

Nobody should have ever tried to put a pricetag on food, water, medical care, education, or booze :P

[rednordman]

Haha. Nah. It's public domain now. If you go out scrumping for the apples yourself, then it's even cheaper.

Nobody should have ever tried to put a pricetag on food, water, medical care, education, or booze :P:)of course not, just when it comes to stuff like CAMRA and CAMRC it doesnt really matter how good it tastes, just how strong it is. Fullars 1845 being the best example (fucking horrible, but because its 6.5% it gets loads of awards).

[Mumbles]

Excellent thread guys.

Two questions though,
how do you keep the bottles you do this in clean?
And how much water takes part in the fermentation process?

[Buddha Samurai Cadre]

For Dedicated homebrewers.

Join my usergroup.

[Bitter Ashes]

Excellent thread guys.

Two questions though,
how do you keep the bottles you do this in clean?
And how much water takes part in the fermentation process?
Erm, well, I just rinsed out the cola bottles and gave them a wipe if anything spilled on the outside.

As for water, I was using 4 parts (80%) water to 1 part (20%) apple juice. There was a lot of sugar in there though to make sure the alchohol content reached its maximum potential.

[Foldered]

I'm pretty excited to try this out some day soon.