Brewdog Being C@nts

[Getintaethem]

I made my own cider 3 month ago when I was home, bottled it the day before I left for a month. When I got home I had some and its f@cking lethal. Tasted alright. A dry cider as I let the apple juice ferment for more than two weeks(cut off for sweet cider) I think 22 days, cloudy enough not to see the other side of the glass. Anyway, twice I woke up on the sofa as it knocked me out. Still got 20 odd bottles too

Did you make this from a kit or from apple juice you bought or from apples? It the last one, did you squeeze the juice yourself?

I have a plum tree and there is only so much plum jam and chutney you can give away so decided to make wine using a strong wine recipe last year. All very simple and have got just under 30 bottles of plum wine maturing. Had one bottle to myself last month and although pretty so-so tasting it did the job nicely. A day later my eyesight had even returned to normal. Not even been slightly tempted to open another one - will wait for a few more months or a year.

[Pacman1903]

Juiced the f@ckers myself.

Gonna do it again when im home again bit experiment with spices and stuff.

Also gonna make a dent in my first batch

[Getintaethem]

Juiced the f@ckers myself.

Gonna do it again when im home again bit experiment with spices and stuff.

Also gonna make a dent in my first batch

Did you use an apple juice press? This could be a reason why it was cloudy. You could also try syphoning it off into a secondary fermentation bucket half way through fermentation and leave most of the sediment at the bottom of the first fermentation bucket and once bottled put it in the fridge for a couple weeks. You could also try a clarifying agent.

Note: I have not done any of the above but I have read about it on the home brew forums. In my wine, I ran the juice and the fruit through a muslim cloth to get most of the sediment out before fermentation.

How much apples did you use and where did you get them from? I was thinking of doing cider using apples from an apple tree in my garden but they look pretty crap so decided against. I saw some people have used pure apple juice to make cider and others that have done natural fermentation with no added yeast.

[Pacman1903]

Did you use an apple juice press? This could be a reason why it was cloudy. You could also try syphoning it off into a secondary fermentation bucket half way through fermentation and leave most of the sediment at the bottom of the first fermentation bucket and once bottled put it in the fridge for a couple weeks. You could also try a clarifying agent.

Note: I have not done any of the above but I have read about it on the home brew forums. In my wine, I ran the juice and the fruit through a muslim cloth to get most of the sediment out before fermentation.

How much apples did you use and where did you get them from? I was thinking of doing cider using apples from an apple tree in my garden but they look pretty crap so decided against. I saw some people have used pure apple juice to make cider and others that have done natural fermentation with no added yeast.

30 kilo. Bought them fro Tesco. Looking forward to summer as ill be heading to Pitmedden Gardens and filling my whole car on their apple and pear picking day.

I like it cloudy. I liked the cider in general. It was apples,yeast and sweetner only. A good dryness and tasty but something was missing. Hence why im going to experiment when im home. Canna wait. (21 days to go though)

[ragnarok]

The spiel on their website is unbelievably ****y. Thought it was a parody at first.

[ILikeJam]

sure. I am no expert but if you can make tea you can home brew with one of these kits.

I started with Coopers... I would advise not to use it. It is OK, but not the best.

the last one I did was this one. It's a new world IPA. All new world means is that they use American hops which gives it that californian IPA taste. It is more expensive than Coopers but everything you need is in the kit and it is better quality.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Festival-Pr.../dp/B00E99POZ4

I find it is probably cheaper to get it at your local brew store. It comes with dried hops and dextrose sugar for bottling. dextrose carbonates the beer (you can use normal sugar but dextrose is better for the finished taste I think). There is no need to add any other ingredients than what is in the kit other than water. There are some good videos on youtube to tell you what to do. All the videos are the same cos it is pretty easy. You will find that you make changes between brews and perhaps change kits to see how others work but really you cannot go too wrong.

I have changed things such as the hops and (depending on the kit) the yeast. I find the better quality kits have good yeasts. I experiment with the hops - perhaps adding another new world hops. If, for example, I am using grapefruit (I have tried lemon and lime also) peel along with the hops I have used Simcoe hops as it has a fruity taste.) You will probably do this on your second brew.

Your first brew is a bit more expensive because you need to buy the kit.

What you need is:
1) 5 gallon fermenting bucket 9.99 on Amazon
2) Syphon Tubing - get in either a DIY store or home brew store - a couple quid probably
3) Sterilising Fluid - I started with using Milton but found you need to rinse the bottles 2-3 times which was a pain. Moved to using Star San which the brewers seem to mostly use and there is no need to rinse the bottles. There is also VWP Cleaner & Steriliser which is a couple pounds (not used this one)
4) a Long spoon - not totally necessary
5) An airlock and plug - couple quid
6) 1 x Hyrdrometer - hmm.. you are supposed to use this to measure alcohol content but I have found home brew from kits are pretty stable in terms of ABV... between 5 and 6% (i.e. it does the job!)
7) Thermometer (should come with the fermenting bucket)
8) Bottle Washer brush - £3 or £4
9) Beer bottles (I use coopers 750ml with screw on caps that I got from the home brew shop. For one batch you need 2 of these boxes at around a £5 each).
10) a funnel

What I recommend is just going to the local home brew shop with a list and getting it all at the one time. They are also happy to help and give advice. Your first brew will probably cost around £1.25 to £1.50 per pint (including all the equipment). So if you do not ever do it again - you will have pretty good beer cheaper than you can buy the equivalent quality from the supermarket. Now, I think it works out for me at around 50p a pint.

What you want is 2 weeks fermenting (for the IPA I usually do 3 - although for your first brew trust me you wont wait 3 weeks), the 2 weeks in the bottle and 2 weeks in the fridge (I never last 2 weeks in the fridge - 48 hours maximum).

Just found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6yboBve8FU

From the same manufacturer - not an IPA but brewing is the same.

edit: different to the video. I put the Hopes into the little bag that comes in the kit. Just means you do not have hops floating in your beer. also made a mistake above, dextrose is used for food for the yeast, it is priming sugar that is used to make the beer carbonated. Ach - I said I wisnae an expert. Also noticed it is 6.5% ABV... no wonder after three 750ml bottles I am three sheets to the wind!

Good luck. Any questions, throw them at me. Happy to help.

Post of the decade

[ILikeJam]

I ran the juice and the fruit through a muslim cloth

Not sure they'd be entirely happy if they knew it was for booze though!

[Getintaethem]

Not sure they'd be entirely happy if they knew it was for booze though!

ha ha... muslem!

[Getintaethem]

Post of the decade

I just know what it is like and wanted to put down my thoughts (as much as I could remember) to give you a head start on it.

On the package it says to ferment for 5 days and bottle for 5 but all the advice I have seen is that you should ferment for 14 and bottle for 14 (at least).

Also, I usually cover my fermenter when the yeast is working with a black bin bag. There is 2 reasons for this. Firstly, it keeps the temperature more even (you want to place the fermenter somewhere not too hot and not too cold - between 20 and no more than 25 degrees) and secondly it keeps sunlight off the beer. Sunlight can "skunk" the beer... That is why never drink beer in clear bottles... they usually have a skunky taste (like corona). There is a reason they put the lime in it! Don't put the fermenter on carpet though as you could get overspill.

Oh and an interesting fact (completely useless but I did not know it) I learned along the way. Beer in the UK and America is bottled in brown bottles for the above reason. Brown bottles prevents too much sunlight in the beer to skunk it. Continental beers are bottled in green bottles. The reason was that after WW1 (or 2) there was a shortage of brown glass and therefore the beer producers started using recycled green wine bottles.

Just bought another Festival IPA and the Festival New Zealand lager.

Enjoy!

[vasilyrats86]

Went on a camping holiday in Southerness with my folks when I was just a loon. Their friends came down for a couple of days bringing with them a stash of Home Brew scrumpy. Never witnessed carnage like it in my life !

Southerness is that the place near the Solway Firth???

That is the land that time forgot. I thought the place was like Dismaland that Banksy made utterly weird
Brewdog GTF hipster guff