Home brew? Homebrew? Winemaking

Malt miller, think you can order by weight now

Thanks, just need to decide what to brew now. What's the most forgiving style for a first all grain? I'd guess something with some quite punchy hops?

Hoppy pale ale, wit beers also quite simple

Have a look at http://www.geterbrewed.com
They have a recipe builder where you can buy the exact amount of grain,hops,yeast etc you require.

Fermentation fridge takes shape, testing for next few days then it should be ready to roll. I hope better control over fermentation temps will be a big step forward, certainly as far as consistent brewing goes.

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Got a Gamma Ray clone on the brew today, just cooled the wort and whirlpooled. Obviously excited to get the fermentation fridge on the go :)

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Does anyone have a good alcoholic ginger beer recipe? Something spicy and not too sweet

Bottled some 1gal experiments today. My bees helped with these ones :)
Tasting promising but need some bottle time to mellow.

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I've been using one of those stc 1000s in my cool room. It's connected to a fan heater and portable a/c unit . It managed to keep the temp around 19 degrees even in that recent heat wave. You're definitely on the right track .

cool room

Want.

I have now added a 60w bulb as heater too. Seems to work a treat.

It's a partitioned off part of the shed, cost around £100 to build including s/h a/c unit.

Some of you may remember me asking about my mead which was still bubbly a long time after fermentation should have stopped... Well over the weekend I tidied up my cupboard a bit and noticed I had things growing in a couple of airlocks so removed them to rinse out and replace the water only to see a hole on the wrong side of the (brand new at time of use) airlock in the one that came from the mead. So that explains why fermentation was still happening as oxygen will have been getting in.
I have replaced the airlock and hoping for the best but I may just end up with 4.5l of honey vinegar :(

Bottling time.

A BrewDog Elvis Juice copy, a bit stronger, however.

Ran out of bottles so go 4L to drink tonight...

^ how was it? Hangover?

Bottled my 2017 cider brewing last couple nights. First 5l batch is great, 2nd 5l which included some cookers and lower starting sg seems to be suffering from a but of autolysis, also had a small film on surface but I siphoned from under that carefully. Not undrinkable but nowhere near as tasty and at least 4 possible causes. I won't let the cider sit on its lees so long this year before racking it, which could help.

How's this working out?

Not as grapefruity as real Elvis Juice. I'll see, after a couple of months in the shed, what it's really like.

And, yes, the next morning was 'difficult' ...

Any watch-outs on the cider, apart from what you’ve mentioned here? Getting my first brew on tomorrow. Done a few beers previously with good results, quite looking forward to what seems to be a simpler process.

the next morning was 'difficult'

Lol. Not a surprise if you drank all 4l that's about 7 pints yeah?

Not really much to worry about, has been simple process. I haven't dabbled with sweetening it, as I enjoy it dry & sharp. If I was brewing more often & higher volume then i'd tinker more.

Craft Cider Making by Andrew Lea is a good resource if you want to read around.

Basic question as I'm new to home brewing and only bottled my first 1Gal home brew this weekend.

Without bottling how did you carbonate the 4L extra you had to drink?

(sorry, late reply)

I haven't checked on it but it's not too long until it should hopefully be ready for bottling so I was just going to leave it and hope for the best.

Of course I'll have to sample some when I'm bottling anyway so should get an idea if it's drinkable going into the bottles, so if it's ok it should only improve with age.

Without bottling how did you carbonate the 4L extra you had to drink?

I didn't, just drank it flat.

2018 Pressing complete. Thought sugar would be higher 'cos sunshine, looks like 15l of assorted 6%ers on the way, s.g's 1.045, 1.046 & 1.048.

Oddly I split a batch of foraged apples (1.046 sg) with a buddy which he got 1.055 sg when pressing 3 wks back. It's 21deg on the thermostat in here today so my reading should be close to spot on.

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I'd missed this. Hope it has turned out ok. I might have a crack at making some in future.

I checked on it over the weekend - STILL bubbling! I don't think this one had properly got fermenting when I put the airlock in, so it's a real slow burn. I think it might be a case of forget about it at the back of the cupboard for a few more months and then it'll either be amazing or undrinkable.

Good news is both the ginger champagne and elderberry wine look ready for bottling and racking respectively so the bubbly will be ready for xmas.