Best Before 1996!

[Thurston Garden]

I am a right tighty and don't like to waste anything. So, imagine my delight when I spotted a can of Boots Bitter Homebrew in my Dad's garage......

Boots aint been making HB for years, so I gingerly looked for the best before date. 28th July 1996...... Now me thinks it can only be the yeast that will be defunct, the gloop in the can will be fine!

I made it up on Friday and pitched some bread yeast from the fridge. Lo and behold, it's fermenting away nicely.

Wonder what it will taste like?

[Clara]

Hopefully won´t make you feel quite as bad as your avatar

[red]

so long as the tin was intact - should be fine. - that is.. as bad as homebrew from a tin always is

[the.fee.fairy]

Have you had a sniff? Does it smell like its good?

[Clara]

Hopefully won´t make you feel quite as bad as your avatar

Out foxed! Now that makes no sense - more tasteful though

[Thurston Garden]

Yep it smells like tinned homebrew hehe, so fingers crossed! I will be siphoning it into the pressure barrel at the weekend so will have a better idea if it's OK then.

[Thurston Garden]

Well, I siphoned it off on Sunday and it seems fine! Tasted some today - still cloudy of course, but just like the good old homebrew bitted I used to make as a teenager hehe.

Couple of weeks and no doubt it will be finished.

Sadly the nearest homebrew shop is in Edinburgh - the return bus fare is about the same as postage from buying it on the interweb. I fancy a tin of nice IPA next!

[the.fee.fairy]

Good to hear that its still going!

Can you give me more info on beer making? I've been making wines, but my dad is a beer person, and he's requested beer. I've got no idea where to start equipment wise, and stuff.

Ta

[Thurston Garden]

Sorry -I am a novice too - I only made 40 pint kits as a teenager hehe

Tins of gloop in all kinds of flavours are available online (postage is usually heafty though). There are instructions and yeast with the tin. Usually, the only other ingredient you need is a bag of sugar.

The old Boots tin I found went something like this:

Warm tin of gloop on edge of Rayburn to ensure you get all the goodness out - it can be pretty thick if it's really cold.
Dissolve the sugar in 5pints of hot water and bring to the boil - tip in can og gloop and boil for a few minutes. Pour the whole lot into a fermenting bucket and top up with water. Pitch the yeast on the top when it is about 20C.

I was then to rack off into bottles after 7 days (lil bit of sugar into each bottle for secondary fermentation) but I have a 40 pint plastic pressure barrel from the olden days so I siphoned it in there and screwed on the lid. I think as soon as it is clear, it's ready to drink.

Tins of gloop are about £8+ here......

[the.fee.fairy]

so...pressure barrels.

I think i'd rather keep it in a pressure barrel and bottle it when i'm likely to drink it (if that makes sense). Is this feasible?

And the fermenting bucket - how big is the one you use? i've got a couple of 10l ones that i use to start wines off in. Would these work? or would i need to get a bigger one (not too much of a problem - there's a wilkos near me). And that's it? Just emty to gloop, water and yeast in and leave it?

Fab!

[Stonehead]

Good to hear that its still going!

Can you give me more info on beer making? I've been making wines, but my dad is a beer person, and he's requested beer. I've got no idea where to start equipment wise, and stuff.

Ta

Buy a micro-brewery system first. They have a barrel, beer kit, steriliser etc. If you don't have suitable bucket, cleaning brush and plastic stirrer, then add a brewing bucket, barrel brush and stirrer to your order and you're away.

If you decide to produce more, then all you need is another beer kit and steriliser.

Once you've done a couple of kit beers, have a go at making a beer (or cider) from scratch. You can also use the equipment to brew other booze as well - nettle ale is a favourite of ours.

Oh, and there is a huge difference between the bottom to mid-market kit beers, and the premium ones. Or so the OH tells me (she's the beer drinker). Her choices are Brupaks' Black Moor Stout (almost as good as my stout recipe), Brupaks Almondsbury Old and Brewferm Dark Abbey.

Aside from using a quality kit (or working from scratch), two key ingredients for good brewing are thorough sterilisation of all the equipment and high quality water.

Oh, and I get my equipment, yeast, etc from Arkwrights - google to find them. It's run by a very helpful bloke.

[the.fee.fairy]

Cheers Stonehead.

The only beer brewing kits i can find here don't state microbrewery - are we talking -one of those wonder wash pressure barrel thingies and some other bits? That's whats in them, they're about £50 if that helps at all.

I'll have a look round on the net.

The only problem is that we have pretty bad water here - its really hard and highly treated (a bath smells faintly of swimming pool). We've got a water filter to filter out a lot of the chlorine and lime, but will it still be ok to use? Or would i be better off spending a few quid on some big bottles of mineral water?

[Stonehead]

Cheers Stonehead.

The only beer brewing kits i can find here don't state microbrewery - are we talking -one of those wonder wash pressure barrel thingies and some other bits? That's whats in them, they're about £50 if that helps at all.

I had a look at Arkwrights to see if they had the sort of thing I mentioned - and they have a special offer on one on the homepage!

I'd suggest getting a brewing bucket or vat to do the brewing in (as well as the kit), then rack off into the barrel. Much easier.

Be warned though, before you know it you'll end up with three or four brewing vats on the go plus assorted glass demi-johns full of concoctions.

And once you've moved on from kits, you're into serious alchemist territory...

The only problem is that we have pretty bad water here - its really hard and highly treated (a bath smells faintly of swimming pool). We've got a water filter to filter out a lot of the chlorine and lime, but will it still be ok to use? Or would i be better off spending a few quid on some big bottles of mineral water?

Yuk! Definitely find a better source of water - I suspect even cheap own brand still mineral water would be better than your tap water.

[Wombat]

I fancy a tin of nice IPA next!

Isopropyl Alcohol?

Nev

[ina]

Indian Pale Ale - obviously not available in Australia!