Home brew beer.

[Bhud]

I've done it 3 or 4 times, and it was successful every time, and I think it's because I didn't get creative. I joined the home brewing forum, posted a few noob questions there and got some good advice. I use a 23-litre PET brewing bucket with a tap on the bottom. I always sterilised everything really carefully with Wilko sterilising powder (which goes a really long way), and I used an extra sachet of ale yeast every time. Gervins ale yeast is the business, and Wilko, once again, does the real one for the best value. I always proved the yeast before pitching, and apart from adding nearly double the required initial amount of yeast (in case the supplied one was dead and to speed things up) I followed the instructions exactly as per the kit.

Although I've switched to wine making now, the beer kits taught me a few things. First, that patience is absolutely essential: give it the full time for the yeast to flocculate. Second, beer in the shops is massively overpriced. Third, a lot of mass market beers are really good, underrated products in terms of quality, flavour and consistency, e.g. Hobgoblin, even some continental lagers, etc. Fourth, I can always detect syrup and maize in rubbish beers, and I find them completely unacceptable now. Fifth, beer in kits is good but not exceptional. Sixth, a lot of microbrewed stuff is overrated and they get things wrong (typically in secondary).

I switched to wine making because I found it easy to make a wine that's better than the cheapest mass-market drinkables (the ones around 5 quid a bottle), i.e. inconsistent Spanish tempraniĺlos. This is probably because there's less to get wrong if you don't have to stabilise or add finings, etc. and you have more control over the intensity of grape flavour by adding less water to the concentrate to make the must. That doesn't mean you can make exceptional wine but you can easily beat the lowest rung on the supermarket shelf.

[Ribenapigeon]

I did brew some beer from a kit and it was ok but not the cooling savoury drink I was looking for in last year's heat wave. It was interesting making it but I haven't made any this year. I might have another go but I don't think I will bothering filtering as it took the fizz out if the brew.

[ThunderGuts]

[Jmoan]

Beer and wine now has poorer quality and higher costs more so in scotland with the tools in power passing laws like minimum pricing and banning some special offers.

I wasn't sure whether to open a new thread or not to ask a few questions so I put them here.

Do people trying out homebrew kill off the yeast or sterilise before sticking it in a bottle assuming it doesn't get drunk as soon as it's made.

The whole hydroponics thing pushed better products for growing plants at a lower price compared to the old rubbish that you would find in garden centres.Has anything similar happened for brewing your own?

[MCN]

[Nobby the Bastard]

Kill off the yeast and sterilise using sodium metabysulphide.
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[Jmoan]

I saw the potassium version also works.

For an update the sugary brew half worked but smelt like alcoholic burps when it was finished so it was put away until I can find another method to see how much alcohol it made without having to use a hydrometer or still.

[ThunderGuts]

Feed yeast sugar and it will produce alcohol. In beer, cider and even bread. But the types of sugar you feed it, the type(s) of yeast and the conditions of fermentation make a massive difference to the end product (and the alcohol levels).

Simpler sugars will ferment out completely (e.g. white sugar) and basically leave an alcoholic water, but not likely to taste very nice. There's also not really any nutrition for the yeast either - contrary to common belief, for yeast to be at its best, it needs a "balanced diet", not just sugar. You can get brewer's yeast nutrient for this.

Brew with malt and you'll get some more body as there are unfermentable sugars (incidentally, this is why "lactose" beers have become popular, the lactose doesn't ferment out really so you get a lot of residual body in the beer). The malt (all grain best, but even spray malt) naturally contains some nutrients, so the yeast will be healthier. Healthier yeast = nicer flavours (goes for all fermented beverages, not just beer).

Beer yeasts will tend to top out naturally around 10%, depending on the strain. Some will go a bit further, but (with beer at least) you often need to go the extra mile will making sure there's enough oxygen in the wort before it ferments and even then, it may need gently stirring (rousing) a few times.

There are "champagne" yeasts which will ferment out much drier than beer yeasts; it just means the yeast is more capable at digesting a wider range of sugars. Then there are "turbo yeasts" - no idea what is different (I assume a specific strain for high alcohol and probably a load of nutrient in the pack) but these can ostensibly get to around 20%. That's pretty much your limit for yeast fermentation and I imagine it comes at the expense of flavour.

The other option is to fortify your drink, i.e. brew something to a high level, e.g. 12% or something, then add a stronger liquor to it to boost the abv. Not really heard of this with beer (I could imagine Islay whisky to an imperial stout could work in a measured way), but port is the obvious commercial example.

Enjoy but if your target is lots of alcohol, be aware that it's likely you'll end up with some undrinkable rubbish along the way.

Alternatively, make cider (loads of folk have apple trees covered in fruit at this time of year they don't know what to do with) and once that's fermented (should be about 7% ish), freeze-distil it. Can send you loopy though.
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