Just joined

Aquacom · Jul 10, 2006

Hi All

I have just joined up to this website, some great info!

I thought I'd share a little about me;

I live in Reading UK. I have been making wine (mostly from kits) for about 5 years. I have had varied success from exceptional to drinkable. One of my best results was when I made a wine from strawberries, pears, blueberries and grapes. This went down very well with all! I have also made a 17.5% wine that doesn't go down so well with the mother in law, especially when me and the father in law start drinking it! Although I prefer making country wine from fruit, I find the cost of fruit so expensive that I only do it every so often. The rest of the time I use kits. My favourite kits are "Wine Art", especially for their reds!

This year I have started making beer from kits. I started with an all in one kit but now I have my own barrel so I can make 40 pints in one go. I am not having much success at the moment, mostly down to the beer not clearing but its all fun (except when you spill 5 pints on the kitchen floor just as your other half walks in, so not only do you feel like you've wasted good beer but you get an ear full too!)!

Apart from home brew my other big hobby is fishkeeping. I have 2 tropical tanks and a pond. I also run a fish keeping forum (www.fishkeepingforum.co.uk) if any of you fellow fish keepers wanted to pop along and say hi!

Anyway, I hope to chat soon.

RichBrewer · Jul 10, 2006

Welcome to the forum! It's always nice to have members from the UK.
I bet we can help you clarify your beers. There are a lot of experienced home brewers here who are glad to help. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
I might be asking you questions when I start making wine here some day. :mug:

EDIT: Where is Reading UK?

Cap'n Jewbeard · Jul 10, 2006

Welcome, it will be a pleasure to have you around.

Aquacom · Jul 10, 2006

RichBrewer said:
Welcome to the forum! It's always nice to have members from the UK.
I bet we can help you clarify your beers. There are a lot of experienced home brewers here who are glad to help. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
I might be asking you questions when I start making wine here some day.

EDIT: Where is Reading UK?

Thanks! After reading loads of posts here, I think that the problem with my beer not clearing is that I kept stiring it in priamry and haven't given it enough time in secondary. I guess thats my wine making habits coming out. Reading is about 30 miles to the west of London.

P funky said:
Welcome, it will be a pleasure to have you around.

Thanks!

Darth Konvel · Jul 10, 2006

Greetings and welcome aboard!

With the stirring you've been doing to the beer, how have your terminal gravities been? Noticeably on the dry side at all?

Aquacom · Jul 12, 2006

Yes definatly dry! I like that though and you can always add some sugar to sweeten it up a bit. Again I think this is a habit from my wine making. So should I not be stirring it at all? With the wine making, stirring helps remove the CO2 which helps it to clear quicker.

Darth Konvel · Jul 12, 2006

The only function for stirring beer that I know of is to keep the yeast in suspension, helping it to ferment out. I've personally never stirred my beer and never missed my FG by much, so I figure routine stirring might land you on the dry side.