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Homebrewers

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 Ramblin dave 15 May 2016
Since the topic came up in the "what are your plans for the weekend" thread...

How many homebrewers are there on here? How long have you been at it? Kit, extract or all grain? Do you have masses of shiny kit, or more of a stock pot and a plastic bucket setup? And are you into pushing the boundaries of craft beer, or are you happy just cranking out a cheap and reliable bitter?

I've been at it for a bit over a year now - started off with extract and then went all grain. My setup is fairly shonky - doing small batches in a stock pot on an electric hob that can only boil about 11 litres at once. I dream of having a proper boiler plus a brew-fridge. And I'm mostly into producing fairly easy drinking stuff - the sort of thing that you actually want a couple of gallons of rather than a couple of bottles - although I have reasonably eclectic tastes, so "fairly easy-drinking" includes a lot of pale n hoppy, the odd saison, US IPAs, possibly some bretty farmhouse type things if I get around to it.

This weekend's brew was a pale rye ale with Australian Galaxy hops. I have high hopes for it, but then, don't you always...
 d_b 15 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

I do a bit. Been doing it on and off (mostly off) for about 20 years.

Currently have some mead on the go but the fermentation seems to have stuck so I need to try and remember the restart procedure, which I haven't done for at least 5 years.
 marsbar 15 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

I've not tried home brew, but I have made sloe gin and blackberry vodka etc.
 jkarran 16 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Haven't brewed for a couple of years since moving house. I really must get around to putting an outside tap in for cleaning buckets and pots.

I've done a bit of everything, kits, malt syrup grain and hops and an all grain effort that was a lot of work for mediocre results. Mostly I make drinking beer, hoppy mild, pale ale and occasionally something more interesting. I think my best was a cherry imperial stout.

My kit is very much cobbled together: a big stock pot, some buckets, a cheap plastic carboy, straining bag, some pipe from work as a heat exchanger. The only decent kit I have is the bottle capper because I hate breaking full bottles after the work I've put into them.
jk
 philhilo 16 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Been brewing wine, cider, and champagne and making infusions (sloe/damson etc gin/vodka/whisky etc) for 5+ years or so. Pushing the boundaries - I try a few of the more interesting country wines such as elderberry and runner bean which is grand. Doing all the brew for my wedding later in the year so pretty focused on some big numbers, and need to get into beer to.
Kit - lots of bought and acquired kit but built a cider press from scratch.
 Cú Chullain 16 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

More of a distiller then a brewer! Especially gin!
Gilad N 16 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Been brewing for a few years now, using BIAB and love experimenting with stuff, but live in a two bed in London with 2 kids and a wife: so the setup is simple and quick to get out and quick to store.

Been writing about it for a couple of years on a site, mainly for sharing recipes with friends (http://www.minimalistbrewing.com ).

I'm playing with recipes all the time, making my own (and yes, dreaming about my own brewery). At the moment I have a milk stout and a biscuit wheat beer fermenting. I usually also have my regular beers running: an hoppy pale ale (my wife's favourite) and my black ale that is still getting new variations at times.
OP Ramblin dave 16 May 2016
In reply to Gilad N:

Nice blog - great pictures! And I can empathize with your space constraints - I've got a bit more stuff (15 litre fermenting bin, 15 litre stockpot, picnic cooler to mash in) but that's about all that we can fit in.

It's interesting that a lot of your recipes have loads of hop additions between 60 and 15 mins and then nothing until flameout - is there a reason for that? I've always got the impression that the opposite (bittering charge at 60 and then all your flavour and aroma hops at 10 / 5 / 0) was more common.
OP Ramblin dave 16 May 2016
In reply to marsbar:

Mmmm - sloe gin!
 marsbar 16 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Sloe whisky is good too but it needs to be kept forfeited a while.
OP Ramblin dave 16 May 2016
In reply to jkarran:

> My kit is very much cobbled together: a big stock pot, some buckets, a cheap plastic carboy, straining bag, some pipe from work as a heat exchanger. The only decent kit I have is the bottle capper because I hate breaking full bottles after the work I've put into them.

You know, after reading the stuff on homebrew forums where Dead Serious American go on about their purpose-built boilers and re-circulating mash tuns and brew-fridges and so on, I'm finding it quite nice to hear from people whose setups are about as shonky as mine...
 nastyned 16 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

I started home brewing over 20 years ago. I now work as a professional brewer, but my home brew kit is pretty basic. I'm on my third mash tun, which is made from an insulated stock pot and have a 10 gallon burco boiler for a copper with a smaller one for the hot liquor tank. Still haven't got round to sorting out anything for fermentation temperature control, so looking to brew a Saison now it's getting warmer.
 Baron Weasel 17 May 2016
In reply to Cú Chullain:

Is that gin flavour 'fuel' or are you licensed to distill?
 Baron Weasel 17 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

I brew and am planning to start a brewery at the pub my mate has bought and is currently renovating. For home brewing I have a 100l pan and a 220l open top keg which works as mash tun and fermenter if I do a double brew. Last brew I made was a Belgian style brew. Deep red in colour from crystal and chocolate malt and fortified with honey. I then double fermented with a Belgian yeast and then with a Brett culture I got from an Orval bottle. Next beer is probably going to be a banana bread beer with Amarillo.
 Pids 17 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Just starting along the path - have been making infusions of sloe gin/vodka and damson gin/vodka etc. for the last few years, took the plunge early this year and now on my 3rd batch of kit wine, once this is bottled I am going to take the next plunge and try make some country wines - once all the fruit is here.
Will start off small quants (5l or so) to see how it goes, no doubt there will be some major howlers but all part of the learning process - how bad can rhubarb wine be?
 Cú Chullain 17 May 2016
In reply to Baron Weasel:

Mrs Cú Chullain needs nail varnish remover and I need solvent for when I am working on my truck.
 jonnie3430 17 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

I brew a bit, holding off a bit at the moment after producing a lovely strong stout that was so nice it didn't last long...

Beer was mainly kits with tweaks, but I really liked proper ginger beer, turbo cider with tweaks and wines made of anything I could get hold of.

Am in an overflowing flat so kit is just 5 gal plastic tubs and 1 gal demi johns, definitely want to try all grain when we get more space and try for some really hoppy ipas and rich chocolate stout.
Gilad N 17 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Usually I'll do some form of dry hopping so not really a dire need for lots of hops at the end. i have been experimenting with more hops at the end, mainly on the 15, 10 and 5 minutes. The idea is to also get as much bittering from them as possible, but it is probably due to laziness.
 edunn 17 May 2016
In reply to Cú Chullain:

Have the laws changed on this recently? Making it more acceptable (legal in small amounts) for home distillers?

My father does the same but was always under the impression it was illegal?
In reply to Ramblin dave:

Have been brewing for about 10 years, started at Uni as it was cheap and you could get well on your way with the stuff. I've refined and added kit as I've gone along the way, tried everything from wilko kits to all grain with 7/8 types in the grain bill. Don't do anything mad or out there, usually just strong and full of flavour!

Have my own brew shed, keggarator (2/3 beers on tap at any one time), temp controlled fermenting chamber (old under counter fridge) and in the (very slow) process of building a HERMs systems. Moved to kegging as so much easier and quicker than bottling!

Although it doesn't always go so well with trying to climb lots too, so the through put has reduced recently as we've had some decent weather!
 jkarran 17 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

> You know, after reading the stuff on homebrew forums where Dead Serious American go on about their purpose-built boilers and re-circulating mash tuns and brew-fridges and so on, I'm finding it quite nice to hear from people whose setups are about as shonky as mine...

In fairness to the folk that have all the 'right kit', I really do need to improve my mashing and sparging kit (basically a holey bucket in a bucket onto which I splash boiling water with a kettle while lifting the inner bucket) that bit doesn't work too well and is nasty to use. If I do it'll be simple bodges, a spacer to keep the buckets separated, a tap and a watering can head to sprinkle the hot water better. Mashing in a cool-box (or an insulated pan) looks like less work than manually driving the hob to control temperature! Pretty much everything else can be done perfectly well in pans and lidded-buckets.

I did buy a fridge specifically for making lager (I was living without electrical refrigeration) but life got in the way and my girlfriend misappropriated it for storing food. Winter in the shed works just as well
jk
OP Ramblin dave 17 May 2016
In reply to jkarran:

Oh yeah, I mean I'd love to have loads more kit, but it's reassuring that I'm not the only person doing what I can with what I can bodge together.

My current ambitions are to get a proper boiler so I can do full-volume boils, and to rig together better fermentation temperature control - I've got a heat pad, a raspberry pi and a remote-control plug thingy as the basis of a plan, but need to sort out a low-hassle way of getting a waterproof temperature sensor inside the fermenter. I'm also thinking about getting a small glass carboy so I can do small batches of stronger and/or weirder stuff in parallel with my main brews.
 Cú Chullain 17 May 2016
In reply to edunn:

You need a license, although the chaps at customs and excise have softened their approach somewhat over the years given the gin revolution that is currently underway. It was the boys at the Sipsmith distillery that spent two years fight through the courts to get their license and since then hundreds have been issued. It used to be that you had to have still capable of distilling over 18 hectolitres to get a license, which is an absurd amount and only really available to the likes of Diageo. Now smaller cottage industry distilleries are fairly common place. You still need to demonstrate that you have a secure premises, accurate book keeping and demonstrate a plan of how you are going to make your product (i.e. pot still/vapour infused etc) but the authorities are a bit more enlightened these days.

Yes I have a license.
 danm 17 May 2016
In reply to Ramblin dave:

I've got an 18 pint setup I got from a friend for all grain brewing. Have made some amazing dry hopped pale ales, saison and some chocolate stout using it. The kit all stores in a box (I live in a small flat) and my electric hob just about boils the required amount. I mainly brew in the winter, for temp control when fermenting I use a larger bucket filled with water as a jacket and drop a fish tank heater into the gap.

 edunn 17 May 2016
In reply to Cú Chullain:

Nice one, thanks for the summary. Good to know.

Just out of interest, how much do you produce, say annually? I would have thought that even a sizeable personal consumption would be too small for a license . . . but then again I'm not a particularly big gin drinker.

If I'm asking too many questions then just tell me to bugger off and do some proper research!


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