Sunday, November 6, 2011

Beers and cheers



Over the years I have made plenty of homebrew beer and stout....most of it tasted like homebrewed dishwater, but of late I have had some real success. At the moment I am brewing a Coopers’ stout and I should be able to bottle it in about a week.

The very first brew my mate Dennis and I made, was a disaster. When we bought the can of malt we didn’t read the label properly and the can was Malt (and Cod Liver Oil). Back then it was illegal to brew at home and the malt was, if I remember correctly, bought at a pharmacy.
The brew kit I have has a screw lid with a port for a manometer and I have always had trouble making a good seal and the manometer has not been able to do its job properly. Ideally, when the brew is fermenting, the gas escapes through the water in the manometer indicating fermentation is still occurring. I replaced the lid and manometer with clingwrap tied down with elastic bands and the gas escapes through a pinhole in the clingwrap...simple.


Cheers!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

kev, I hope it isn't like brewing ginger beer where all the bottles start to explode all over the place, I remember Haddon brewing Apple cider and that was a really good drink.I still have the plastic container that he used to make it, Maybe I'll hacve a go. Marg

Anonymous said...

I've just chucked out the home brew kit this week which we've had for about 30 years.

Bernie said...

We use to make our own wine at home and it was really good. We never did try beer, I have had stout when I visted my sister in Scotland and again when we visited Ireland....not a real fan....Hugs