Home brew Outside UK

[Andy Hamilton]

Whenever I pick up a new homebrew book it seems to be by a UK author, well the ones that talk about country wines anyway. American books and the internet seem to focus on craft brewing and not much else. Is this the norm? Are homebrewing and wine making much more of UK thing?

Also I'm quite interested in finding out the age of people who make beers, wines and ciders. As far as I can work out it is a similar demographic to gardeners.

[Minnesota]

Andy,
I sent you a Looooooong PM on this subject.
But I would add to your question on US Homebrewers age.

Again, in the US, Homebrew is Beer.
in my Homebrew club and people in other clubs that I've met,
mostly are men in the age range of 24 to 40. College educated,
typically Doctors or Mechanical Engineers.
and their main goal is to Clone a commercial craft Beer.
Many of them are more interested in building a large
beer brewing machine than brew a Country style wine.
do a google search for "brew sculpture plans" you'll see what I mean.

signed,
your old timey friend in Minnesota.

[number6]

Whenever I pick up a new homebrew book it seems to be by a UK author, well the ones that talk about country wines anyway. American books and the internet seem to focus on craft brewing and not much else. Is this the norm? Are homebrewing and wine making much more of UK thing?

Also I'm quite interested in finding out the age of people who make beers, wines and ciders. As far as I can work out it is a similar demographic to gardeners.

I am now in my mid fifties and have been brewing since my early twenties with a short break in the middle.In the early days it was done for economic reasons low wage two children etc.Now however I brew more for the sake of interest and to buck the system just a little.The sad bit is I cant seem to convince any of my friends to take it up.though they don't seem to have any issues drinking mine.

[pelmetman]

Since finding this site I am tempted to get my wine making gear out of the loft, its been a while since I made some Elderberry it was quite good if I remember correctly

[contadino]

Here in Italy pretty much every family makes their own wine. Maybe not enough for the whole year, but a few hundred litres at the very least. It's a family operation, with the oldest male in charge. We head off each year to the vinyard with a couple of other families and spend the morning picking grapes, then go home and process them. As it gets bottled up around about May time, we swap bottles between ourselves.

Beermaking is on the rise here, and I have friends in their 20's who now regularly make up a batch. There's now a good internet site that does mail order kits from the UK and Germany, which are really popular with the young 'uns.

Some people operate stills, mainly producing fig grappa - distilled fig wine. The less I say about that the better, as it's frowned upon by the police because it's meant to be illegal.

...and of course, everyone makes Limoncello and other types of digestivo. That's made using Alcool Puro (between 92 and 97%) which you can buy in shops and in the market.

[frozenthunderbolt]

mainly producing fig grappa - distilled fig wine.

Do they make fig fine per-say as well? i struggled to find a recipe earlier this week.

Andy im in NZ. people mostly brew beer with some wine kits thrown in. a few of us make country wines.
It is on the upswing with the recession - the local (ish) brew shop i go to has had its suppliers running out of stock to supply the shop with as there has been such interest.

i started brewing at 12 - with mum and dad, but im the exception i think! most people in my local chapter of the brewers guild are 30ish plus. I'm currently 23.

[MKG]

I think Contadino hit the nail on the head - the type of struggley/I'll beat the bugger yet/wonderwhatflywinetasteslike thing we do in the UK must puzzle most central and southern Europeans and Australians etc. It's climate, I suppose - where grapes grow abundantly, winemaking is a given. In a temperate climate, winemaking is a challenge and has to be fiddled to get the best results. The big winemaking as a hobby thing began in the UK in the 70s and it's spread since then - to other temperate areas.

I think I might agree with the gardener/winemaker parallel. Ex-hippies are all gardeners and beer/wine makers. Then there's a gap - the Thatcher generation - who wouldn't be seen dead making anything when there are perfectly good products in the shops. Thank goodness that there now seems to be a more practical generation showing their heads - hence a larger number of younger winemakers to add to the pot.

I'm one of the 70s originals and am now 58.

Mike

[contadino]

mainly producing fig grappa - distilled fig wine.

Do they make fig fine per-say as well? i struggled to find a recipe earlier this week.

Nah! It's just an ingredient for the still, and would never get drank. It's too cloudy, for a start. I think I saw a recipe on Jack Keller a few years ago.

[benner]

I'm in my early 30's, I only know of one guy locally who regularly makes his own brew although I do have friends who always show great interest.
As a young child I remember my grandparents having a massive garden full of fruit & veg and a utility room full of demijohns blipping away. Grandad is a great source of knowledge for gardening and homebrewing, I tend to guague my success rate by his reaction to the taste test. Both mum and her brother were into winemaking in the 80's and I think that's what inspired me to do it. At any rate I seem to have inherited loads of kit from all of them anyway.
For me the most important thing is that I derive so much satisfaction from enjoying the fruits of my own labour. Enjoying a pint right now actually!

[theabsinthefairy]

No wine and beer homebrewing here in central France. Not in any age range.

My OH has to buy his beer kits in the UK for shipping here, but I make my own wines and champagnes from seasonal fruit.

There are a couple of liqueur recipes locally involving quince and an eau de vie from pears as well as an orange and coffee bean liqueur called 44.

There is a lot of apple pressing goes on, and they call the juice cider, but it is non alcoholic as they make it, and looked utterly horrified when I suggested that maybe an alcoholic cider would be better.

[Andy Hamilton]

I was trying to thing of why only the young and 70's generation are interested and yes MKG you have hit the nail on the head, the thatcher generation, of course. That woman!

It is interesting to see where homebrewing is taking hold, it seems that if you can grow grapes you don't home brew at least country wines anyway! The history of (grape) wine suggests the same regions as places that mainly wine was drank and the other more temporate regions, beers or other fermented drinks. So in 2000 years not much has changed.

[MKG]

mainly producing fig grappa - distilled fig wine.

Do they make fig fine per-say as well? i struggled to find a recipe earlier this week.

Nah! It's just an ingredient for the still, and would never get drank. It's too cloudy, for a start. I think I saw a recipe on Jack Keller a few years ago.

I've tried fig wine. Never again. Unless you enjoy drinking petrol.

Mike

[Odsox]

I'm pretty sure the only wine made here is potato wine .... and after a while it somehow magically turns into poteen.

[Millymollymandy]

Excuse me I am of the Thatcher generation and there are many Ishers the same age as me on this forum.

[MKG]

Excuse me I am of the Thatcher generation and there are many Ishers the same age as me on this forum.

Hmmmm. I feel a survey on Ishers ages coming up ...

Mike