Not in the supermarket

Khannie

From reading around a bit, it seems clear to me that people home brew stuff that you wouldn't otherwise find in the supermarket very often. Mead for example. I also just discovered that ginger beer has nothing to do with beer and so I kicked off a batch yesterday. I've never noticed it in the supermarket before (though brands of it do exist), but it seems to be a home brew favourite.

What stuff do you brew that you wouldn't normally find available in the supermarket?

Stick up a recipe too. (I'll add my ginger beer one now in a mo).

Khannie

I went with a variation of this recipe.

400g ginger (2.40 in lidl)
450g honey (2.00 in lidl also)
800g table sugar (I think)
3 tsp dried ginger
3 lemons, squeezed into saucepan and cut into chunks.
about 10L filtered water
cider yeast (because I had it).

Grated the ginger. Simmered everything in about 2L of water (except the yeast of course). Into brew bucket. Added water. Waited for temperature to drop a bit and pitched the yeast. Smelled and tasted absolutely delicious. Fermenting away now. OG 1.042 but water was warm so probably slightly higher. Can't wait to bottle.

scrapsmac

Sounds great khannie! how long will you keep it in primary for? What sort of conditioning period are you looking at also?

Keep us updated

Khannie

I'll check the gravity after 10 days. It was vigorously fermenting when I checked yesterday so I think 10 days should be enough. I don't think ginger beer benefits as much from conditioning as other drinks, so I'll be giving it a lash after I think it's carbonated (2 weeks).


So who else is doing non-supermarket-ey brews?

sharingan

Nearly everything I brew, is non-supermarkety. Record some of it on an FB page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sum-of-all-Beers/118163454951949) - I mean to get more sophisticated down the road, and put a lot of this in more detail.

Honey wines were the latest craze, made with primarily ginger, but also beetroot, hibiscus, banana & coffee as well as whatever fruit was around the house (clementines, plums, grapes, raisins).

In a few cases I made wines with whatever spraymalt was around the house, some raisins and ginger.

I make elderflower wines every year, that I can find them, and I want to branch out into making dandelions wines (both plain sugar and honey wines), and also make dandelion beer, using the whole plant.

My plan for the weekend is to make some tea wine as well as to get some mead (melomel strictly speaking) on the go with a view of having it nice and tasty for Christmas! First time giving both a shot. Once I get a crappy exam out of the way on Saturday that is.

scrapsmac

I've got a batch of Vimto cider brewing in a 5litre water bottle.

Very basic (and probably very stomach churning haha) It smells great though. I will be moving it to a secondary soon. Expected abv of 7%... ish..

Khannie

Had to google vimto. sounds interesting.

lordstilton

Don't know if your up to all grain or extract but if you are I've used this recipe many times and it makes a fantastic ginger beer...really good with food..its from an american site so just convert...I never put any ginger into secondary as I found it too much when I did

Ingredients for Mashing
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 48.48 %
1.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 15.15 %


Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge

Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 7.88 qt of water at 164.0 F 154.0 F

Drain Mash Tun
Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 5.33 gal of 175.0 F water

Boil Wort

Add water to achieve boil volume of 6.42 gal

Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.040 (note this estimate includes honey)

Boil Ingredients

Boil Amount Item Type
60 min 1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops
60 min 3.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar
30 min 2.00 items Lemon Juice (per lemon) (Boil 30.0 min) Misc
30 min 6.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 30.0 min) Misc
15 min 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
10 min 2.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
10 min 2.00 items Lemon Zest (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2 min 1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (2 min) Hops

Cool and Prepare Fermentation

Cool wort to fermentation temperature

Transfer wort to fermenter
Add water to achieve final volume of 5.00 gal

Ingredients for Fermentation
Amount Item Type % or IBU
1 Pkgs Safale (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale

Fermentation

Primary fermentation (14 days at 68.0 F)
Secondary fermentation (7 days at 68.0 F)
Add to Secondary

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.50 oz Ginger Root (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc

Mr Benevolent

Yep, mead and ginger beer (just ready now). The GB is surprisingly tasty, but the minimal amount of yeast in the bottles is churned when then bottle is opened, so goes it from clear to cloudy in a few seconds. It's good enough that my girlfriend will actually drink it.

Recipe is:

600g ginger
2kg unrefined cane sugar
12tsp honey
Juice of 6 lemons & 3 limes
1 cinnamon stick
3 small chillies, deseeded
1 packet of bread yeast

Came to a total of 15 x 500ml bottles, 5.6% ABV and not very sweet, just what I wanted. Nice burn to it too. There was a bit too much honey, so fermentation was very slow. I'll halve the honey next time. Next up will probably be gorse wine and possibly barley wine.

smithcity

I make cider, wine, mead and have tried ginger beer too.

One idea which has worked out well is that I bought some fresh chillis in aldi and made an incredibly hot wine that I use for cooking with. Goes great in a goulash!

Khannie

Confab wrote: »

There was a bit too much honey, so fermentation was very slow.

Interesting. Didn't know honey slowed fermentation. I have a full jar in my one that's fermenting away at the moment (450g). That's a lot of lemon and lime you have in yours. All the recipes I saw called for very few, but I stuck in an extra one (50%) with mine. I may go with more the next time. Didn't have limes handy so they didn't make it in.

Mr Benevolent

Khannie wrote: »

Interesting. Didn't know honey slowed fermentation. .

Well what it really means is that it takes a long time to mature. Mead, which is mostly honey, is notorious for taking up to a year to mature fully. My GB took a month to stop actively bubbling.

sharingan

Confab wrote: »

Came to a total of 15 x 500ml bottles, 5.6% ABV and not very sweet, just what I wanted. Nice burn to it too. There was a bit too much honey, so fermentation was very slow. I'll halve the honey next time. Next up will probably be gorse wine and possibly barley wine.

I make my ginger beer with spraymalt. It comes out very different, but still good. Will be slightly sweet, paulaner sweet (which it resembles) and it has a nice ginger kick. GB is a great novices beer to start out on.

Gorse wine I mean to try, then I move to London where there is nothing wild at all (except dandelions around building sites). Its another great flower wine, as they flower all season, and apparently have a great flavour if the river cottage episode is anything to go by.

sharingan

Confab wrote: »

Well what it really means is that it takes a long time to mature. Mead, which is mostly honey, is notorious for taking up to a year to mature fully. My GB took a month to stop actively bubbling.

I have some honey wines that are still bubbling in DJs for the last 4 weeks.

I do note that honey wine is usually quite drinkable straight from the fermenter (unusually so), but it would probably taste fab if I let it age.

Mr Benevolent

sharingan wrote: »

I make my ginger beer with spraymalt. It comes out very different, but still good. Will be slightly sweet, paulaner sweet (which it resembles) and it has a nice ginger kick. GB is a great novices beer to start out on.

Yeah, spraymalt is probably better, more character than straight cane sugar.