Homebrew beer

[ezapf]

Is it worth the effort, either economically or for quality, or is it just a hobby?

[New Forester]

Get a good-quality kit, keep your equipment clean, follow the instructions and you'll get excellent beer.  Cheap kits aren't worth having unless you're sentimental about Watney's Red Barrel.

 

You need a bit of practice and good ingredients to make beer consistently as good as a really good draught real ale, but it's quite easy to get better than good bottled beer.  It doesn't take too long once you're used to it -- an hour to start it off, a couple of hours for bottling ten days later.

 

Most kits use about 2 kg of malt (and hop) extract plus a kilo of sugar to make 40 pints of about 5% alcohol.  If you leave the sugar out you can make 20 pints of even better beer.  Extra sugar gives more alcohol, but stronger beer is much harder to get right (the commonest homebrew mistake is to be macho about strength).  I've even made 2% beer (for my then wife when pregnant) which tasted exactly the same as usual -- 40 pints, no sugar, ferment for only five days.

 

You can cut down on sediment in the bottles by racking the beer.  When two-thirds fermented (about 7 days) decant the whole brew into a second clean bin, leaving most of the yeast behind.  Bottle a little earlier than usual.

cont...

[New Forester]

...cont

Bottle in bottles, not a barrel, unless you are going to drink the lot in under three days.  I use old-fashioned heavy quart bottles -- the ones with the screw-in bakelite corks (anyone got any spare...?).  But 2 litre plastic bottles are fine -- it's essential to use something designed for fizz though.

 

If you go the whole hog and use malt and hops (rather than a malt-extract-based kit) you do get a better result, but it's much more messy and you need more equipment.  And some chooks (or indeed a hog) to eat the grains afterwards.

 

All that applies to bitter-style beers.  Stouts are a bit harder, but personally I've never been able to make a good lager.  But then I've not tried that much.

 

In terms of price it's certainly cheaper -- a kit costing under a tenner gives you 40 pints.  The only trouble is you drink more.

[Quizmonster]

I'm sure you're perfectly correct, NF, in what you say above, but my own experiences are somewhat different. I once received, as a birthday gift, every item of home-brewing equipment a man could possibly desire. I used it all on a variety of occasions, but failed to produce anything I could call much better than 'drinkable', despite following instructions to the letter. (Mind you, that applies to more than one of the standard pub beers!)

 

And it's not just me...enthusiastic home-brewing friends have often said: "You must come around and taste my latest effort...it's wonderful!" But, when one tastes it, sometimes only politeness prevents one from gagging!

 

My personal conclusion, Ezapf, is that it's no more than a hobby that certainly gets you plastered on the cheap but not worth the effort. Give it a go, however. Maybe your results will be better than anything I've ever tasted. Cheers.

[New Forester]

Well, perhaps there's more practice in it than I thought....

 

All I can say is that I'm fussy about good beer, and I am very pleased with a good proportion of my brews.

 

One thing I didn't mention is that it's important to be patient after bottling -- it needs to sit for at least two weeks, or preferably a month or so.  If you drink it too early you will have similar experiences to QM's.  What kit did you use, QM?  Sometimes an iffy brew will actually improve in the bottle -- my current one is like that -- only just drinkable when bottled, but after a month or so really rather good.

 

It's also important to get at least a little fermentation in the bottle, as the CO2 has a strong preservative effect.  Either put a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle, or if you time it right, bottle a day before the fermentation has stopped.  Too much fizz, however, and you'll get fountains of foam when you open it.

 

[Quizmonster]

As I said earlier, NF, I did things 'to the letter', so it wasn't a case of drinking it too early...though it has to be said that I'm not the most patient of men! This was all so long ago, that I have no idea what various kits, ingredients etc I used. All the barrels, tubes, thermometers and what-not are in my attic to this day. Who knows? I may yet get them down again.

Thing is...given that I don't much enjoy 'solitary' drinking at home...why bother, when I can get a wonderful selection of cheap real ales nearby in pleasant company? Each to his own, I suppose.

[LordyGeordie]

i got bought a homebrew kit which i had not asked for and to be honest wasn't anticipating a great result. when i did taste what i had made i was more than pleasntly surprised. it tasted great and was made for very cheap - less than a tenner. the only downsides i found was that a) you tended to drink more b) it was much stronger than you thought, and didn't taste strong, so be careful if driving c) although it tasted fine, it tended to give me much worse hangovers than commercial beer. only a relatively small amount such as three pints would give me a thick head in the morning