Topic: Brewing beers like those you buy

[Geezah]

I make my own wines, ciders and ales.




Not quite got the space to go all grain yet, but I do malt extract recipes.
1 of my favourites is:
2kg extra light dried malt + 200g Cyrstal malt
25g Challenger & 15g EKG @ 60 minute boil
25g Challenger & 25g EKG @ 20 minutes
30g EKG at flame out & 25g of fresh elderflowers - steep for 20-30 minutes
add 1lb of honey and crytstal to 4l of water and mash at 65-70c for 30 mins
SA-04 ale yeast

Prime with 80g of honey

My very own Waggledance clone

[madeinbeats]

I one day wish to start making my own ales and want to come up with my own recipes... I would absolutely love to do that and a dream would be to make something that grabs people's attention and wins an award and gets put in a few pubs. I seriously doubt there is much money in making ale these days with all the tax the snidey government keep on wacking on it year on year, but I would just do it for the love of it and the love of fine ale.

[Micky Tikka]

Dont wish do it 

[Geezah]

For the easy quick win Coopers beer kits.

From those learn and explore and adapt.

[JerryM]

beachbum,

2 words you've written have made me an instant fan.

please tell us more on how to start. the book too.

[loveitspicy]

It would be fantastic to make my own out here - it would have to be kept secret - even homebrew is illegal
and i dont know if i could find the ingredients or all the bits and bobs to make it
what could be better a pint of real ale and a curry
awesome -

best, Rich

[beachbum]

beachbum,
2 words you've written have made me an instant fan.

please tell us more on how to start. the book too.

Just like cooking, probably the best way to start is by doing a heap of reading to get your head round the subject first.

Beer has been made the same way for centuries and even today many breweries in the UK still operate the same as they did in Victorian times, some even have all the original equipment, for example Hook Norton 
So there's plenty of literature out there.

Basically beer is made from barley, which is sprouted then dried (malt). The malt is then crushed and steeped in hot water at around 65 degrees for an hour or so (mashed) to provide a sweet liquid (wort). The wort is drained off and typically boiled with hops to give much of the flavour and bitterness. Think of hops as being methi or coriander leaves  ;D ;D.
The resulting liquid (hopped wort) is strained off and allowed to cool, then fermented with yeast in a special vessel for around a week or so, then allowed to clear and condition. You end up with typically 20 litres of a clear alcoholic sparkling liquid called BEER. woot.

Now you can do the entire process yourself (best) or you can buy concentrated wort in the form of malt extract and boil your hops with that (not quite as good) or buy concentrated hopped wort in the form of a beer kit from the home brew shop or many supermarkets (most basic method).

Now the concentrated forms have been put through basically the identical process to making tins of condensed milk. As you will appreciate that can never be reconstituted to give the flavour of fresh milk, similarly with malt, so it's always a compromise between convenience and quality. However whatever method you will still end up with a drinkable hooch, provided you follow the all important sanitary procedures.

Good starter is the free e book "how to brew" by John Palmer http://www.howtobrew.com/although there's a lot of technical detail that you can probably skip first time around.

That English book "Brewing Beers Like those you buy" is good, but it's a sequel to an earlier book "the big book of brewing" by Dave Line - which is a good intro to all grain brewing. It's very old but much of the equipment is identical to what we use today so it's still current. Poor old Dave is long deceased. The book should be available for peanuts at the Book Depository online.

cheers
Michael

[Unclebuck]

Wow, what a set up BB! there was some talk of brewing a little while ago
what you recon on these thingys?
http://www.beermachineuk.com/acatalog/Beer_Machines.html

[beachbum]

Oh dear that spoiled my day 


haha, sorry but seriously for over a hundred quid you could set yourself up nicely with a fermenter and some equipment and a couple of kits - have a word with your local home brew shop, they should advise and maybe have a couple of samples etc.

By the way for bottling beer, 1.25L pop bottles are perfectly adequate, I mainly used them until I went to kegging. The bottling side of things often puts new brewers off.

[JerryM]

beachbum,

many thanks for additional info.

had a good read through the website you suggested - top notch - that sorts a great deal. the vast amount of information could be off putting but i know to take things one step at a time and if you don't start then you will never arrive.

would appreciate more on the total cost picture if possible "rough guide" and where to purchase. DIY would be my route as i see this as part of the fun. in short total cost for equipment and ingredient "per pint" costs. from my past experience i would aim to keg.