Home Brew Beer

[jason h]

A bit of a deviation from the norm, but do people still make home brew beer any more? I remember seeing the kits in Asda in the late 80s as a frugal way to get sloshed. I never participated on the making of but did turn up to the drinking of some home brew once (halls-of-residence in the early 90s). Did you keep the kits in the airing cupboard to ferment? This still remains a mystery to me.
Bottoms up.

[Danny]

Re: Home Brew Beer

I tried it a couple of times in late seventies - Tom Caxton home brew bitter - spent a bit of time, money and effort to produce this murky looking filth that you forced yourself to drink cos you had done all the work.Even a couple of bottles gave you a hangover but not much of a kick so it probably only produced a lowish alcohol content.

Third batch went off while it was brewing and smelled awful so I wrote off to the address on the container "Dear Mr Caxton, blah blah, not satisfied with your product etc etc"and then I waited for some freebie goodies and a letter of apology to come my way.

I eventually got a response telling me to sterilise all my kit with a bleach solution. . . that was it, nothing else!

I just gave up then and dumped all the stuff.

[Richard1978]

Re: Home Brew Beer

My Dad got into this in the 1970s but my Mum didn't like the boiled malt & hops stinking the house out. She did some wine making & we might still have some of the equipment around in the garage. I used to like looking in the Boots Beer & Wine making book, but it went in a charity bag a few years ago.

My Uncle also had a go, but managed to flood his front hall by not turning a barrel tap off fully & the pressure of the fermenting beer pushed it open.

[amethyst]

Re: Home Brew Beer

No beer brewing,but made home made wine for about 3 years or so.Used to collect elderflower that wine was nice,elderberries not too keen on red wine,went strawberry picking once in Hereford,made about 2 gallons of the stuff.Tried bananas then,in fact it turned out to be the best of the lot,cause we managed to turn it sparkling.
There was a lot of effort in making sure the equipment,was sterilised properly in fact the demi johns were kept in the airing cupboard,like everyone else you loose interest and you sell off the brewing stuff in the end,would not start up again it was a fad,been there done that lol

[kazboot]

Re: Home Brew Beer

My husband used to try making different beers over twenty years ago, but he could never really get it quite right. It seemed pretty difficult.
I don't know if kits and equipment have improved now, but I think it's too much hassle anyway, quite honestly.

[Richard1978]

Re: Home Brew Beer

There's an episode of On The Buses where Stan tries making some homebrew, with an interesting outcome, though from the way he made it I'm surprised he managed to make anything drinkable.

[branny]

Re: Home Brew Beer

My sister in law bought me a home brew kit for my 40th in 2007 because i tried Tooheys old when I went to Australia and loved it. Unfortunately you can't get it over here so she got me some Tooheys dark homebrew. It has a nice treacle like taste but there's just something about the water that doesn't taste right. I've still got half a barrel left.

[Kiop]

Re: Home Brew Beer

My mates and I went through the home brew fad (and wine making) when we were still at school. All I can remember is bad experiences of it and beer that was warm, flat, tasteless and looked like a sample from the hospital.

One of my mates bottled his beer to early and kept in his wardrobe in his very hot bedroom. Needless to say the pressure built up in the bottles and exploded, ruining his clothes. We thought it was funny though, lol.

I also remember another mate 'smuggling' out a bottle of home brew under his coat so his parents wouldn't see. We sat and drank that in the local woods.

I had the best success with wine - the one that stands out for me was the turnip wine I made. It was crystal clear and very strong, remember getting drunk on it very quickly.

Like somebody previously said, it was just a fad. I would never start up that lark again.

[glam_racket]

Re: Home Brew Beer

Memories of Mr Racket (snr) brewin' his own.

Ahhhh, the distinctive smell of Sodium Metabisulphate.
Crates of dusty brown bottles in the garage.
A foamy 8 gallon plastic bucket in the airing cupboard.
Siphoning an odd smelling brown liquid into bottles with 1 tsp sugar (for secondary fermentation)
Decanting gently into jug when ready as to not disturb the sediment.

Grumbling, swearing under breath and the ceremonial pouring said mixture down drain after 6 weeks of waiting produced a dank, cloudy, undrinkable liquid.

Fun times indeed!

[Richard1978]

Re: Home Brew Beer

One of my Dad's friends (or someone they knew) once tried making their own elderberry wine & left the bottles to ferment in a wardrobe.

One night they were awakened by the sound of popping corks & sloshing, & found their clothes covered in a purple sticky mess.

[Hooper68]

Re: Home Brew Beer

Memories of Mr Racket (snr) brewin' his own.

Ahhhh, the distinctive smell of Sodium Metabisulphate.
Crates of dusty brown bottles in the garage.
A foamy 8 gallon plastic bucket in the airing cupboard.
Siphoning an odd smelling brown liquid into bottles with 1 tsp sugar (for secondary fermentation)
Decanting gently into jug when ready as to not disturb the sediment.

Grumbling, swearing under breath and the ceremonial pouring said mixture down drain after 6 weeks of waiting produced a dank, cloudy, undrinkable liquid.

Fun times indeed!

That reminds me of my Dad helping me with my Boots home-brew kit,my god it sounded so easy and the beer was going to taste wonderful but alas to drink it would have meant almost certain death or a visit to a/e for a stomach washout.

[yelever]

Re: Home Brew Beer

My dad used to make the elderberry wine. Can still remember the taste of it to this day. YUK!!!

[Mulletino]

Re: Home Brew Beer

Home Brew is quite popular over here as we have the climate for it.

I bought a Coppers Home Brew kit a few years ago and have made quite a few different beers. The best being Alcoholic Ginger Beer - lethal!

We even bought the step-father-in-law a kit a couple of xmases ago and he loves it.

The secret is that you need to make sure everything is cleaned properly and don't use tap water for the brewing, we buy bottled water for it.

[onthebusesfan]

Re: Home Brew Beer

thats my best episode of on the buses brew it yourself reg varney plays it so well and olive and arthur having to much to drink . claasic

[Trickyvee]

Re: Home Brew Beer

A colleague of mine was very into home brewing two or three years ago and claimed the results were pretty decent.

When I was little my dad used to make wine round at my nanna's as she had a grape vine in her green house. I used to pick at the grapes but they were really small and sour. I remember playing in the pantry where he kept the fermenting bottles and watching the bubbles going through the funny bottle tops.