Homebrew Kits

Alcohol is not cheap. Not if you buy it from shops ready made that is. An average bottle of bottom of the range wine will probably set you back a fiver, and a bottle of beer will easily cost you a couple of quid, probably more. As we approach Christmas, a season when people seem to imbibe rather more than normal, everyone is probably feeling the pinch a little more. There is another way.

I'm stocking up for christmas now; 30 bottles of wine, and 40 pints of beer. If I were to walk into my local 'offie' or Supermarket, that'd cost me maybe £100 for the wine, and £50 for the beer, as long as there were some decent offers. So lets call it £150 for the lot. I can't afford that.
What I am going to do is get the 30 bottles of wine, and 40 pints of beer and I'm going to spend less that 40 quid. And it's easy. Home Brew Kits.

I've made kits before, and while some brewers would probably turn their nose up at them I see absolutely no shame in it. After all it's basically extract or juice concentrate brewing. Don't get me wrong, without serious outlay you aren't going to get a vintage bottle of wine or an artisan crafted beer. But you do get a quite satisfactory tasting bottle of whatever you brew for a fraction of the cost of the equivalent shop bought drink. The 2 kits I am using are about as bottom of the range as I can find. The beer kit cost me £15 and the wine kit cost me £20. Add in £4 for 5kg of sugar and that's change from £40, with 500g sugar left over.

If you want to have a go and you've never brewed before, there will be another cost, which is the equipment. This isn't going to break the bank, they sell complete kits for around £20, but in fairness a barrel and spoon and a syphon are about all you need to brew from a kit, and you should be able to pick those up for between £10-£15. Add this one time outlay to your first brew total and you'll still be quids in.

The premise of both of the kits above, and in fact for any of these varieties of kits is very similar. Empty the "wet" contents of the kit into a large barrel, add boiling water and sugar, top up with cold water, add yeast and leave for 1-2 weeks. Stabilise and clear the contents of the barrel (for wine), bottle and leave for a week or so and it's ready to drink.
I'll admit that as someone who brews quite regularly I find sections of the instructions frustrating. The first 3 steps of the instructions which were INSIDE the kit told you what to do before you openened the packet. Not an issue if you don't open it before you're ready to start. I've never taken a temperature reading as they seem to think you must (probably to sell you a thermometer). In fact between a thermometer and a hydrometer I know what I'd choose. The little irks I have though are not in any way major, and the instructions are clear and concise enough for anyone to follow.

These are my 2 barrels just before the lids go on, wine on the left and beer on the right. The weird "scum" on the surface of the wine is actually wood chips. These was a new one on me for a wine kit so I'm interested to see if it adds anything extra to the flavour of the finished product.

I'll update on how these turn out just before Christmas when they're ready, but I wanted to get this post up now and throw the gauntlet down to anyone who wants to save a few pennies at Christmas. These kits come in all shapes, sizes, colours and flavours, so whatever your preference there will be a kit to match. Given that they are for sale in a lot of supermarkets nowadays you should be able to source one quickly. I'd love to hear from anyone who decides to give it a go. And if not for Christmas, maybe New Year!

Rowan Racking and a Book Review

Over the last couple of weeks the constant rains of October seems to have died down, there is a freshness in the air from the glorious sunshine mixing with a November chill, and I haven't been able to enjoy any of it as I've been ill. Joy. What I have been able to do while I've been out of action though is catch up on some reading.
And carry on with the rowan wine.

The wine (water) was strained off the must into a demijohn, sugar syrup, citric acid and yeast added and it's now bubbling away. It's also probably the nicest colour of any wine I've made at this stage, a glorious pinky peachy haze. I'm hoping it keeps some of this beauty as it clears.

As for the book, it's Booze, by John Wright, which happens to be his fourth River Cottage Handbook and the 12th in the series. I have to admit to owning the entire collection, and his Mushroom, Edible Seashore and Hedgerow books are all looking more worn in my collection than quite a few of the others.

So what of Booze? Is my copy of this one going to end up worn and dog eared from use or looking new but relegated to propping up the bookshelf? Now I've had the chance to read through it I can happily say the former. The tone of the book is exactly as I had hoped from John's previous writings. It has a steady pace throughout, and delves into considerably more detail than simply a list of recipes. The detail however, is presented in a mix of lessons, stories and good humour making it both educational, interesting and fascinating at the same time.
I have been brewing since around 2010, mainly country wines and infusions, but I have learned as much from this book as I probably did over those last 3 years. I had always known the hows, but never really known the whys. Maybe this is because I gloss over the moment I start reading a paragraph of technical terminology, or couldn't focus my attention long enough to take in all the information, but this book has remedied that. Not only this, but it's re-kindled my desire to experiment a little more with my concoctions. Not just to follow recipes but go off-piste (and occasionally off pissed) with my brews, which should be easier now I understand how each component affects the other. But I digress.

The book is broken into 5 sections; The Principles, Infusions, Wine, Cider and Beer, with a small directory in the back of links to useful sites.
The principles take a look at each stage of the general "brewing" process which covers the 4 main sections of the book, has a decent list of the terms used and a handy brewing calender. The calender seems to give a nod towards the previous Hedgerow book and nods at John's interest in foraging many of the ingredients used in the brews from the first 3 sections.

The book has plenty of images running throughout, both detailed photographs and hand drawn pictures, all of which I believe are provided by John himself. Whilst the drawings themselves won't win any art prizes, they do the job of visually explaining a task better than a "posed" photograph in my opinion. I will also admit to having a chuckle at one of them. If you get a copy of this book or have one, turn to page 182 and tell me that's not a drawing of John, by John, straining the mash.

I won't delve into each section in detail, as the actual content is pretty self explanatory from their headers. However they do all follow a similar pattern; an introduction of the general techniques which will be used, a guide on the equipment required, and a look at anything which can go wrong.
I will be revisiting these many times until I don't need to, and certainly trying a few of the recipes out from each section, some of which I'm sure will appear on this blog.

For more information on the author, John has a website at www.wild-food.net and I'm sure the book itself is available from all good retailers (or as I bought it, direct from the man himself if you're lucky enough to attend any of his walks).

Wild Chug and Rowan Wine

This post was originally going to be the first part of my acorn coffee adventure which I started yesterday, but needs must and the wild hop brew needed to be bottled today. Well yesterday actually but who's counting? This will be a short and sweet little post so I can keep track of what's starting when. And if you get some enjoyment out of it, even better.
There are loads of ways to sterilise bottles, but I tend to fill a brewing bucket with Milton Sterilising Fluid (other sterilising fluids are available) and submerge the bottles. 15 minutes later I have sterile bottles and a barrel full of sterile liquid. Rather than waste it, I siphoned it out into 3 demijohns so I could rack the scrumpy I started a few weeks back, and was left with a sterilised barrel which I decided to start my Rowan wine in. I don't make things easy for myself!

So the wild chug is bottled; I'll provide some fantastic pictures of what will amount to, um, bottles, when I finish the pumpkin beer tomorrow. I don't want people too excited at too many posts with pictures of bottles.

The 15litres of my first ever attempt at scrumpy cider is now sat in 3 demijohns to ferment out.

And the Rowan wine must is sat, smelling slightly dodgy which I've read is normal, in a barrel doing it's thing. I had these Rowan berries in my freezer waiting to be used, but there may be enough time still to pick some if you fancy giving it a go.

It doesn't matter what angles you try, a barrel with a kg of Rowan berries and some water in it just doesn't look exciting. See:

Rowan Wine

• 1kg Rowan berries
• 2 oranges
• 2 litres boiling water
• 1.5kg sugar
• 2 teaspoons dried yeast

• Pick the berries when ripe, remove stalks, wash and place in brewing bucket
• Cover wtih the boiling water and leave for 4 days, stirring daily
• Strain in to demijohn
• Make up sugar syrup with sugar and 750ml water
• Pour into demijohn with rind and juice from the oranges
• Start the yeast and add to the wine
• Leave for 4 months
• Rack and leave for another 6 months, then bottle

Apparently this wine clears quickly but needs a long time before it becomes drinkable. Lets see if it was worth it in a year!

A Ghostly Glug and a Wild Chug.......Eventually

Without so much as a fanfare or an introduction, here it begins.

Most of the home brew I have made in the last couple of years has been either country wines or infusions, with the only real dabbling in beer being from home brew kits. A few months ago however I bought a tin of malt extract from a home brew shop. I don't know why, I had no use for it back then, but I guess the "kid in a sweetshop" syndrome kicked in. And anyway, it lasts for ages.

Fast forward a few months, and the wild hops I foraged last year are completely dried and ready to use, and the pumpkins we carved for Halloween either need to be used ASAP or thrown away. As luck would have it, I found a recipe for the hops, and a separate recipe for the pumpkin, both requiring malt extract.

So tonight I got stuck in and made both together

Before I begin, here's the last pic of the pumpkins in all their ghastly, ghoulish, ghostly glory. I'm already hoping they taste as good as they look

And here they are looking less scary with the remaining ingredients required. I only had wine yeast, but what's the worst that can happen!!

I'm just going to put the recipes below and leave it at that. There is more than enough time to go through the hows, the who's, the what's and the why's when it's not half past midnight on a work day!

Ghostly Glug (Pumpkin Beer) 

• 2kg pumpkin
• 1kg malt extract
• 750g sugar
• 13 litres water
• Ale Yeast  

 

• Chop the pumpkin and roast for 20 mins at 200c/gas mark 6. Allow to cool then scoop the pulp out.
• Bring 7 litres of water to the boil, throw in the pulp and boil for 30 minutes.
• Pour the malt extract and sugar into fermentation bin and stir to mix.
• Strain the pumpkin liquid into the bin and stir to ensure sugar has dissolved.
• Pour remaining 6 litres of cold water over wort.
• When cooled to room temperature pitch the yeast.
• Seal the bin and leave for a week or until fermented.
• Siphon into bottles, leave for 10 days, then drink.

Wild Chug

• 0.5 litre hops
• 225g malt extract
• 225g sugar
• Yeast
• 4.5 litres water

• Bring 4.5 litres water to the boil, add the hops and boil for 15 minutes
• Strain into a fermentation bin and mix in the malt extract and sugar
• When cooled to room temperature pitch the yeast
• Leave for 5 days
• Siphon into bottles, leave for 10 days to 2 weeks, then drink

So hopefully by Christmas I'll be able to report back on how these brews turns out. I'll cover brewing in more detail in subsequent posts for anyone curious too.