MISSING going to the pub? Creating your own microbrewery is a lot easier than you think.
I have been making my own beer ever since I moved out of my parents’ house as a teen.
Back then all department stores sold beginners’ beer-making kits.
And today you can get yourself up and running in no time at all thanks to the net selling all the equipment you need.
With home brewing, a big part of the satisfaction is discovering not just how easy — but also how cheap booze is to make.
Beer, especially, costs next to nothing, although I’d recommend starting with cider, simply because it is much easier.
Here, I show you how to make both and recommend three home brewing kits. Bottoms up!
Beer recipe
WE have never really been as clever at shouting about our national drink as the French have about plonk.
But brewing is actually a much more sophisticated process than winemaking, which leads to beer containing more flavour components than wine does.
It also has the added advantage that you could live off it – at a push.
It’s got just about everything you need – although you might want to throw in the odd bag of crisps for energy and pork scratchings for fat and, er, vitamins.
The key with making beer at home is sanitising all your equipment, but basically you’re looking at the following procedure.
- Put 1.5kg pre-hopped malt extract in seven litres of boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add 750g sugar. When it has dissolved, mix with ten litres of cold water in a large, food-grade plastic container.
- Top up with cold water until the temperature reaches 13C. Then add 1 tsp of brewer’s yeast, stir and cover.
- Allow the fermentation process to take place. It should take six to ten days. Temperature should be 18C for ales or 10C for lagers.
- Bottle, with a spoonful of sugar so that fermentation continues and gives the drink a bit of fizz.
- Chill and serve in a glass, preferably one that has been kept in a freezer compartment.
Scrumpy recipe
CIDER is the easiest drink to make of all and my absolute favourite.
There are countless different recipes but all you really need is apples.
You can’t go wrong because the juice ferments all on its own through naturally occurring yeasts on the apple skins and in the air.
Orchards are enchanting places.
The apple trees on my farm are just coming in to blossom, traditionally the signal that the cider from last year’s apple crop is ready.
But if you can get your hands on apples, you can start whenever you like – and as long as everything is scrupulously clean it is drinkable at all stages of the fermentation process.
I really like it at about two weeks, when it’s just starting to go fizzy but before the alcohol has had time to develop.
- Gather your apples (or order online).
- Extract the juice. Traditionally this is a two-stage process, first using a device called a scratter to mash the apples to a pulp, followed by compressing the mash to get the juice. But you can just use a juicer.
- Transfer the juice to a container.
- Simply wait until fermentation has occurred. This depends on several factors, how warm it is, how much sugar the apples contained and ambient yeast conditions.
- Pour into aunt Mable’s best glassware.
- Say “Mud in your eye!”, “Cheers” or “Give us a kiss” and enjoy.
Kits to try
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