Mike@Lincoln
Member
Hi all !
Having retired I have dabbled with home brews before, but like anything I like doing it grows on me !
I don't like to make things too complicated so I just buy a simple bitter kit from Wilko's ( a can of concentated wort + dried yeast ) and experiment a bit. For example: the instructions say 1kg of sugar, but it seemed a bit bland so this time I used 1kg each of white and demmorara sugar + a jar of honey ! so I'll see what it turns out like.
My neighbour used 2kg white in his and it turned out far stronger than my first brew.
I was very lucky in befriending the landlord at my local and he gave me a proper hand pump for my home bar. I use a 5 gal. pressure barrel connected to the pump and find it pulls a very professional looking pint. I was delighted to find that the head stays with it and clings to the sides of the glass as you drink it, so I must have done something right !
I would be interested to hear from others with similar experiences, one thing I really would like to know about is how to tell the ABV of the finished product, the commercial breweries are able to state it on the label down to the decimal point.
Another thought that has crossed my mind is whether there would be any advantage in standing the barrell in an old fridge to keep the beer cool, any thoughts on that anyone ?
Mike@Lincoln
Having retired I have dabbled with home brews before, but like anything I like doing it grows on me !
I don't like to make things too complicated so I just buy a simple bitter kit from Wilko's ( a can of concentated wort + dried yeast ) and experiment a bit. For example: the instructions say 1kg of sugar, but it seemed a bit bland so this time I used 1kg each of white and demmorara sugar + a jar of honey ! so I'll see what it turns out like.
My neighbour used 2kg white in his and it turned out far stronger than my first brew.
I was very lucky in befriending the landlord at my local and he gave me a proper hand pump for my home bar. I use a 5 gal. pressure barrel connected to the pump and find it pulls a very professional looking pint. I was delighted to find that the head stays with it and clings to the sides of the glass as you drink it, so I must have done something right !
I would be interested to hear from others with similar experiences, one thing I really would like to know about is how to tell the ABV of the finished product, the commercial breweries are able to state it on the label down to the decimal point.
Another thought that has crossed my mind is whether there would be any advantage in standing the barrell in an old fridge to keep the beer cool, any thoughts on that anyone ?
Mike@Lincoln