tell the truth....

[Cheezy]

the thing I've never worked out is how people can drink lager - if you've ever tasted it warm (pure cat pee!) - it's probably why you have to drink it cold - to numb the taste buds!

Thats exactly why you have to drink English lager cold. However thats becasue we have an inferior product.
THe term lager comes from the German for storage. Because in decent brewing places it takes 4 to 8 weeks to make lager in cooler storage vessels,and with only 4 ingredients allowed (hops,malt,barley and water) due to the worlds oldest food law (the reinheitgebot or purity law) started some time in the 1500's.
While in Blighty even under license we get away with adding all sort of chemicals and adjuncts, brewing at elivated temps with specialist yeasts. The result is dreadful, but the process can take as little as 5 days!!!and as any homebrewer/microbiologist will tell you if you push yeast to produce an alcohol it will start to make methanol. THis being a major poison results in splitting headaches. The methanol % is reduced the longer and lower the fermintation time/ temp. Hence why German and Czech lagers tend to make you dehydrated, but not with a splitting headache.
Back to the origianal quote, I have drunk warm Czech lager (due to a lack of fridge but not thurst!) and it tastes like warm Czech lager, slightly more hoppy and fruity, but not like cats pish, which most UK lagers would.
I say most as Meantime brewery do an excellent Kolsch, which is possibly better than the Cologne origianal!. You can get this in Sainsbury's it's one of their own brands,and definitly one to try especially cold Hedgy!.

[lizzymahoney]

I homebrew, and I've made wine. I've ruined very little brew, but maybe 10% of the wine. All of the tossed stuff could be attributed to less than stellar quality control in the process.

If everything is squeaky clean, and you use all the tools available to modern home brewers and winemakers, you should be able to make a decent beverage. Cleanliness is probably the foundation of a superior product. That's why wine is chancier at times. With natural fruits there are more opportunities for the introduction of wild yeasts or bad tasting bacteria.

There's a snobbishness to some homebrewers that dismisses the dilettante. People who use kits sneer at people who just mash stuff up and stick it in a big crock to work. People who grind their own barley sneer at people who use kits. People who graft their own hops sneer at people who merely roast their own grain. I'm sure there are chemists who sneer at people who graft their own hops.

I don't care how you made it. If it's good, it's good. The absolute worst of my ales were still drinkable.

[Peggy Sue]

What a giggle this thread is! It's the only thing that has ever inspired me to make home brew- it will be my mission for next year!

[mrsflibble]

My mum made some fab elderflower wine about 15 years ago; but then the novelty of her wine equipment wore off and she got rid of it and my grandad's alcoholic ginger beer is fab- but a little scary.


you might be better trying to make a fruit and vodka based liqueur. takes less space and equipment.

[Peggy Sue]

Done gallons of fruit liquers, never appealed to em to take the risk of all the complicated stuff, but ow I'm intrigued by the cats pee thing...

[Cheezy]

Got 9 carrier bags of a cooking apple from some friends yesterday. Not as sour as a Bramley, They should go with the 2 carrier bags of Bramleys, and 25Kg sack of wild apples from work which are nice bitter sweet., just need to nail some dessert's (there's a tree at the back of our house laden,which I'm waiting to see the owner.) and we should be on for a decent amount of pure juice no yeast cider!.

[QuakerBear]

A percentage of the stuff Mr. QuakerBear has done has been awful, rank, disgusting stuff.

Another percentage never got drunk becuase it looked and smelt like it might be poisinous.

Still another percentage has been fine, drinkable but nothing to write home about.

And then there was the good stuff. I think the best was the elderberry. Simply divine, warming, gentle, rich, so flavoursome. Really wonderful. You would be really hard put to buy something as good. More of this type please Mr. QuakerBear

[frozenthunderbolt]

Just bottled my Fejoa and Ginger Wine today! its in the good-verygood range of what ive made so far, slightly too sweet and i would have prefered it a bit more gingery but still very nice, by taste ther is enough sugar still in it to continue fermentation slowly in my cellar to make it a bit dryer and nicely effervecent (bubbly) when i start drinking it (cut with soda as a long drink maybe) in a month or so's time.
All in all quite happy - 6 bottles from the Demi-John

What is slightly more daunting is the 20-25 odd bottles of straight fejoa i have in my carbouy that smells and tastes (as of a moonth ago) absolutly fine, but it still hasn't DAMN well cleared!

Especialy anoying as all my previous fejoa wine be it sublime, or be it drain cleaner, has cleared absolutly perfectly! *sigh* i may have to try fining it . .

[porkchop]

home brew is grate its not hard to beat the stuff you buy and when its good (which is most of the time) it knocks the socks of it

[Mainer in Exile]

The only homemade wine I've ever tried is my father-in-laws, which is excellent, about the best I've had. Of course, they've been practicing now for several generations, as has about half the rest of the village. We are right in the middle of Franconian wine country, so it's understandable.

[MKG]

I have to say that (being honest, which is where this thread opened) I do the homebrew thing principally because it's cheap alcohol and my taste buds are such that I enjoy even the rough stuff. Even so, quality depends upon what you're aiming for.

If you REALLY want to imitate grape wine without using grapes, then you can do it with a bit of effort and thought coupled with a bit of luck. But if you're looking to make a pleasant-tasting alcoholic drink which is not (necessarily) like grape wine but where you get all the benefits instead of swelling tax coffers, then there are thousands of ways to achieve your ends without worrying overmuch about body, bouquet and maturability.

What have you got to lose? If it does taste like cat's pee, leave it a couple of months and try it again. Try sweetening it just before you drink it. Try blending it it a batch which is also cat's pee but in a different way (if you see what I mean). If it all fails, chuck it away, giggle and open the next demijohn. That's the real point - there IS a next demijohn, and another next to that, and another ...

[MrFalafel]

How I learned to make wine is to cheat and buy those kits where its all pretty much pre-measured for you and the grape juice is provided etc. Its a good way to learn the mechanics of winemaking at home and still produce drinkable wine. The kits make very passable wine as good as the cheap plonk at the supermarket, but it costs about £1.50 per bottle, which is not a bad price. One can then go on and try to make wine from found materials in the old fashioned way.

[mrsflibble]

my mum's elderberry wine a few years ago was lovely.

[Cheezy]

Home brew cider update, well it's not my favourite (which is Westons Vintage Reserve...whoohoo 8.2% of loverlyness), but it is drinkable, and its clear, it's VERY dry, and not very appley,(due to me not being able to get hold of those dessert apples my neighbour had, becasue they had plans for them...which turned out to be: let them fall onto the ground and rot )

It is VERY strong, and seems to effect me more than the above Westons. I plan to bottle and add a little sugar to get a bit of fizz to liven things up.

But it is about 40 pints of FREE booze (apart from my time,yeast, crown caps,sterilising solution and campden tablets so lets say 13p per pint!)

[red]

I found my cider improved with a little time.. so be interesting to see if yours does too.

as for strength.. well i drink it by the wine glass, still headclutching stuff...