Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Homebrew => Topic started by: hayles62 on January 02, 2007, 07:52
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I puts 2 jars of malt extract (99p a jar from a health food shop) into a Young’s £4-99 kit, I made the kit to 32 pints instead of 40 and got an excellent result. Cleared beautifully and was a nice golden colour. Had some of it over Christmas and it was lovely, called it my “extra malt”
Has anyone else got any tips for making the cheaper kits better?
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Could try putting two cheapo kits together without extra sugar and cutting the volume down to 4 gallons, might be a bit hoppy but should work OK.
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ahha....a new forum section, cool 8)
I can help here. Lots of beer kits tell you that you don't need to simmer the wort. (Thats the mixture of malt extract and water and suger for anyone who doesn't know). Ignore this advice, its stupid. I think it must be a selling point as its just soooooooooo inconveniant to simmer it :roll:
Simmer for as long as possible. a few hours if possible. The longer it is done the more clear it will be. I hope no sciency person asks me to explain why because I can't. I know from experience because I have made some awful cloudy and bad tasting brews but now they are almost always good.
If you are going to make a beer kit in a 5 gallon barrel then put in about 50% more sugar in the barrel before you add the ale than the instructions tell you. I cannot be held responsible for leaky taps or lids btw :) make sure you buy a new rubber seal if the old one feels a bit rough.
I only make in bottles now though coz its more likely to be clear and fresh.
yumm, lovely beer. 8)
Oh yes I forgot, bitter is easier to make nice than lager.
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Hi Jake would a huge stainless steel pot do for the boiling and do you have to boil the whole amount (Water wise) or would it be ok to use say a gallon of water then top it up in the fermenting bin?
I ask about the stainless steel pot because it says in a lot of old brewing recipes not to use metal and I only have stainless.
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I think a 1 gallon stainless steel pot would be ok. I've asked my dad too. I use an aliuminium one which people say you shouldn't, but its the same one my granddad used and he lived to 89 and that would be fine by me.
They do say that stainless steel can discolour liquids btw but I would try it anyway.
Yes a 1 gallon pan would be great, mine only holds slightly more than that. It is said though, the larger the pan is the better.
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Probably best with a good stainless preserving pan if you can get one holds about 2 - 3 gallons. Sort of thing you might pick up at a barn sales etc. Othe thn that try a pick up a brupak boiler , custom built electric power sometimes cheap on ebay
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If you want to go really ott have a look at this beauty!
LINK (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/50-Ltr-Cooking-Pot-Saucepan-Stock-Pot-Stainless-Steel_W0QQitemZ230146188798QQihZ013QQcategoryZ25370QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
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My uncle lives in the Channel Islands where drinking is a major recreational activity. He used to take an ordinary lager kit and add a tin of Golden Syrup as well as the normal amount of sugar. I tried this and the results were very good.