Home Brewing Blog

16 August 2024

Last month we made another couple of brewing kits. One was a Cabernet Sauvignon wine and the other was a cider kit with blackberry flavouring. The wine was very nice and is long gone. The cider has been a nice crisp drink and we have about half of it left.

14 May 2024

Geordie Beer and Youngs Wine were poured down the sink. That's the end of their story. Currently we have a Beaverdale Cabernet Sauvignon and a Wobblygob Cider kit on the go. Both from the localish homebrew shop in Hamstead, Birmingham. We finished the last bottle of the previous cab sav at the weekend. It was delicious. The Scotish Heavy is still drinking well with about six two litre bottles left. (Two litres is roughly about four 'pints' in old measures)

14 May 2024

There's a lot to be said for buying decent things. The cheap wine kit is undrinkable despite claims on the instructions that it would be good to drink right away. The Geordie beer kit is not much better, but is keeping the slugs away from my Pepper plants. :) In fairness, it might be okay as a shandy. The Cab Sav from earlier in the year is still great, but we only have one bottle of that left.

14 May 2024

Started another beer kit today. The last one, a Scottish 'Heavy' has been in botles for over a week now and should be ready for drinking soon. This new kit was a classic Geordie kit. It was quite nostalgic, when I added the boiling water and released the aroma of the wort, I was taken back to my dad's kitchen many years ago. It's a bit of an experiment - the home brewing shop said that Geordie kits were cheap and nasty, but maybe he was just pushing us towards the more expensive kits. Maybe just a bit of pretentiousness in the hobby. If Geordie was that bad, they wouldn't have been around for so long.

Also started a wine kit. This time a Merlot kit from youngs.

22 April 2024

Today we started a beer kit. This time it was a traditional Scottish type of ale known as 'Heavy'. Was all done and in the final tidy up, we nearly threw the yeast away. Fortunately we found it and added it to the brew.

21 April 2024

We started a wine kit this afternoon. A Cabernet Savignon this time. Hopefully it will be another nice one like the last two kits. I should start building a stock of bits and pieces so that I can make my own wine from fruit juice etc.

13 March 2024

Well, I completely forgot about this blog. That is why it has not been updated since January. Both the cider kit and the Merlot kit have been completed as well as consumed. Both were surprisingly good. Hopefully get some more on the go soon.

23 January 2024

We started a cider kit this morning. That is something that we have not tried before. Should be interesting. The wine from yesterday is bubbling away nicely.

21 October 2023

Bottled the Red Wine this morning. Got four litres out of the kit. It tastes lovely. Probably about half a litre of sediment.

29 September 2023

Had a half liter of the home made beer last night. It is maturing nicely. It's now a lot clearer and has a good head. It was supposed to be an IPA, but is more like a Scottish 'Heavy' type of beer. Also it is very tasty and moreish.

24 September 2023

Started a Red Wine kit this morning. The beer is looking nice, tempted to try one tonight, but will probably wait until the weekend.

15 September 2023

Shared a bottle of the home made beer with Andrew this evening. It was not bad, but still has a bit of maturing to go.

12 September 2023

Further to the bottling of the beer and misreading the instructions we tried a bottle on Friday night. It was still cloudy and a little bit bitter. What we had misread was that the four days were for the secondary fermentation in the bottles, then the beer was to be left to mature. Maybe it wont be so bad after all, I was quite dissapointed on Friday night.

6 September 2023

We bottled the beer kit this morning. It filled 10 x 2 litre bottles. Had a fly taste of it, it was more bitter (And stronger) than we had expected, but maybe it wil condition a bit during the secondary fermentation in the bottles. (It was quite moreish actually). It is supposed to be drinkable after a few days in the bottles, so hopefully by the end of next week it will be nice for taking on holiday and circumventing Scotland's unfair alcohol (over)pricing laws. Running bootleg over the border. LOL.

1 September 2023

White Rabbits. Made our first beer kit in ages yesterday. It is fermenting away nicely this morning. We checked it this morning expecting a white foam on top. Clearly it was fermenting, but the foam was muddy coloured. I quickly realised that it was the hops making the colour. In the old days you boiled the life out of the hops and then strained them keeping only the liquid. The hops in this kit were peletised and added to the Wort, (Beer before it is beer) This is the modern way of doing it. We followed the istructions to the letter, so it should be grand. It's a four to six days kit, so hopefully by this time next week it will be clear enough for bottling.

31 August 2023

Andrew has bought us some equipment to get back into our home brewing. He has bought a winemaking kit and a beer kit. The wine kit is a Nebbiolo. The beer is an IPA with citrus hops. We are hoping to make the Beer today or tomorrow, but plan to make the wine just before we go on holiday. If we made the wine now it would require attention when we are on holiday. The beer should be ready in time to take with us.