More Bitter Bitte! (This is getting silly now)

43p per pint

I thought it might be a good idea to make a second batch of Young's Harvest Yorkshire Bitter, but this time using medium Spraymalt instead of Beer Enhancer.  This raises the cost by £5.01 for 40 pints, so it will be interesting to see if there's any real difference in taste.

Look out for a taste comparison soon!!

Bitter Bitte! (Part 2)

It's been a week since the beer was left to ferment, and now

 looks this this ======>

It smells good, has kind of a flowery aroma to it.  If I was going to bottle this beer, I would check that fermentation has finished using a Hydrometer, thus avoiding burst bottles.  Seeing as I'm going to barrel the beer, it's not really necessary as the barrel has a pressure release  valve. 

The Hydrometer can also be used to define the strength of the finished beer but:

 a) I don't really care, it's usually strong enough to do the job and

b) it's a whole heap of sterilising and grief to use. 

I have got one, can use it, I just choose not to for most of the time.

It is now time to siphon the beer from the fermenting bucket into the barrel.

 

Warm up a cupful of water and add to it 2oz of sugar, stirring until dissolved.

This is for priming the barrel ie adding pressure.  Basically, the still active yeast in the beer will ferment on the new sugar (secondary fermentation), which creates Carbon Dioxide, which will build up pressure in the sealed barrel,  allowing the beer to flow through the tap under pressure, giving the beer a good head in the glass and also a bit of fizz on the tongue. 

Add the sugar to the sterilised barrel, then, using a sterilised siphon tube, siphon the beer off the sediment.  Note clever use of a clothes peg in the top of the picture.

Once all the beer is in the barrel, stick a bit of Vaseline round the O-ring of the lid, and screw up tight, sealing the barrel.  Give it a bit of a shake and put in a warm place for about a week, checking periodically that no beer is leaking from either the lid or tap.

This Is A Picture Of My New Float

It connects to the tap on my barrel, and the float stays on top of the beer,

so waiting time is reduced, as it's drawing cleared beer from the top (rather than waiting for all the barrel to clear, as bottom tap barrels do).  A word of warning : Be very careful when rinsing out your barrel.  See the little see-through plastic thing on the far right? That has a habit of coming loose, and if you empty the sediment from the barrel down the toilet, as I do, and don't realise that it's not attached anymore, well, bye bye, it's through the water and over the bend before you know it!!

A Handy Tip

It's a lot easier to have a straight piece of plastic tube in the beer when siphoning off, so well worth trying to get hold of one.  They are usually available from Homebrew suppliers.  A floppy tube in the beer is a right pain as it often curls round in a 'U' shape, comes out the top of the liquid and starts to siphon air, which means having to start the process over again.  The straight pipe stays put, making the whole process a lot easier, and a lot less messy.

Bitter Bitte! (Part 1)

(36p a pint)

Well, not German, but Yorkshire Bitter.  Young's Harvest Yorkshire Bitter to be precise.  I haven't tried this kit before and, in addition to this, I am also substituting my usual Spray Malt for some Geordie Beer Enhancer.  A 1kg bag of enhancer costs £4.49, instead of £4.75 for 500g of Spray Malt (of which I would need 2), thus a saving £5.01. The beer kit cost £9.99.

Boil up about a gallon of water.

Put beer kit and beer enhancer into a sterilised fermenting bin.

Add boiling water, using part of it to rinse out the beer kit tin.

Give the mixture a good stir.

Fill up with cold water to the 5 gallon (40 pint) mark.

Rehydrate the yeast in lukewarm water for a few minutes.

Pitch the yeast and give the liquid a good stir, adding some air to aid fermentation.

It should now look something like this =====>

Put the lid on, leaving one part cracked open to allow

Co2 to escape (or cover with a large towel).

Leave for roughly 5 days in a warm place to ferment.

Some people recommend you scrape off the layer of 'scum'

that appears on the top after a couple of days.  I have never bothered,

and don't really think it will make any difference to the beer's taste.  

I could be wrong though.

TBC..........



How To Make Rhubarb Wine

(approx 20p per bottle)

Yesterday, I was kindly given some Rhubarb.

After weighing it, I discovered there was 30lb of Rhubarb, which is enough to make 10 gallons of wine.

Although I am making 2 x 5 gallon batches, the method is the same as for making 1 gallon. 

The basic recipe is 3lb of Rhubarb & 3lb of sugar per gallon, water, yeast & yeast nutrient.

Sterilise a fermenting bucket, rinsing thoroughly. 

Wipe the Rhubarb, or rinse it under the tap.

Cut or slice the sticks into smallish chunks and put them in the fermenting bin.

Cover with all the sugar and leave for 24 hours.

It should now resemble this picture ====>

It's worth getting your (clean) hand in and making sure all the sugar is off the sides of the bin and there are no lumps underneath the Rhubarb. 

Give it all a quick mush round and leave for a few hours longer if necessary.

Once all the sugar has dissolved, strain off the juice into (sterilised) demijohns or a larger fermenting vessel, depending on what volume you have made.  You don't actually have to strain the juice, just try not to let any Rhubarb into the fermentation vessel.

Once all the juice is strained off, add some water to the Rhubarb , swill it round and strain again.  Do this until you have filled your fermentation vessel with the desired amount.

Add all purpose wine yeast and nutrient to a small amount of lukewarm water, and leave for a few minutes to rehydrate.  Add this to the juice and stir.

After about 3 months, the wine will have finished fermenting.

At this stage it should be racked off into a fresh vessel, and again a couple of months later once clear.

It can then be bottled. It will be ready to drink when 9 months old but will improve if kept for a year or so.



Start Up Costs For Making Beer

Having been quite surprised by the final figures for starting up in wine making, I thought it only right that I should find the cost for making 40 pints of beer.

Again, my figures are based on buying everything from new.  I use King Keg barrels, which are more expensive than other barrels, but I have read that they are one of the best barrels for homebrew.  You can, of course, buy a cheaper barrel, or even a secondhand one.  Also, the price of beers kits can range from £8 to £22 or more, but most kits are around the £12 mark.

I use Spray Malt, as it gives a better flavour and more body, but if you are on a budget you can use 1kg of sugar instead.

King Keg Pressure barrel  £45.99

Fermenting Bin  £8

Beer Kit (incl yeast)  £12

Spray Malt  (1kg)  £9.50

Sterilising Powder  £2.75

So, that’s £78.24 for the lot, which is £1.95 a pint!  Still as cheap as buying a bottle of beer from the supermarket.  Subsequent brews will cost 53p per pint. 

It certainly beats paying the government MORE money, surely?

Equipment

It’s strange where bits & pieces come from.  I have picked up demijohns from charity shops and free ad papers.  I saw a pressure barrel in a charity shop once, but decided against buying it as the seals looked dry and cracked and it may be difficult (or impossible) to get more.  It’s always worth keeping your eyes open though.

I recently got the offer of a fridge, that a friend knew of which was going to be thrown out.  I said I’d take it, with the intention of using it as a fridge (what else?)  But, by the time it came into my possession, it was no longer working. So, I decided it would be a great place to store bottles of wine.  It now stands in the garage, keeping all my bottled wine at a near-constant temperature.  Wine (apparently) tastes better if kept constant, so this is ideal.

It is well worth putting the word about to friends and family if you start up this hobby.  I have received countless offers for free fruit that people are glad to see put to a good use rather than rotting.  It’s always appreciated if you hand over a bottle of wine made with the fruit once it’s ready!  And often, people will notice demijohns etc in the charity shops that I don’t look in.  Just the other day, I got 2 free demijohns given to me.  I always appreciate this, and you can never have too many as you don’t know when one may break, or you need another one for that bumper crop of Apples.

Starting Up Costs For Wine Making

I was wondering earlier, how much would it cost to actually start wine making, starting from scratch and buying everything from new?  It seems like an expensive hobby to start, but the figures below suggest otherwise.

What you will need to produce 1 gallon of Rhubarb wine (not including wine bottles which you can save instead of recycle, and not including the cost of Rhubarb, which a kind neighbour gave you for free)

Fermenting Bin    £8

Glass Demijohn    £6

Sterilising Powder    £2.75

All Purpose Wine Yeast    £1.99

Yeast Nutrient    £1.09

3lbs of Sugar    £1.48

Bung & Airlock    £2

TOTAL           £23.31

So, you'll get 6 bottles out of 1 gallon.  This means a grand total of £3.88 a bottle!! 

This means that if you don't enjoy it, and you never touch the equipment again, you've still only paid £3.88 for a bottle of wine.  This is comparable to a cheap bottle of plonk from the supermarket (to which your Rhubarb wine will be far superior, of course).  If you were to compare this to a commercial bottle of Rhubarb wine, you'd be saving roughly £2.12 on each bottle.

Also, bear in mind that you will have plenty of yeast, nutrient and sterilising powder for later use.  You'll even have over half a bag of sugar left for making the tea.  The equipment, obviously, can be used again and again and again.

Your second batch of Rhubarb wine will only cost you the price of just over 1 bag of sugar (if you don't have some left over from last time).  This gives a rough total, per bottle, of 20p, as will all subsequent batches until you need to buy more yeast, nutrient or sterilising powder (they should give you around 20 gallons from a pot)

Don't forget that demijohns can often be found for free (try Freecycle etc) or for a pound or so at your local charity shop.  Most of mine have come from this source.  Those that have been bought from other sources have cost maybe £2.50, try your local free ad paper. Always check that they haven't been used for cleaning paintbrushes, and they are not cracked.  A chip on the top edge is not usually a problem.  I have never paid for a new demijohn, and never will!  Of course, fermenting bins can also be found from sources other than new, again, make sure they are in good order and don't smell dodgy.

So, it begs the question, WHAT'S STOPPING YOU???!!!