Homebrew - A Dying Art?

Vern1961

Vern1961

Vern1961

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Swindon UK
Back in the 80's and early 90's I used to brew my own beer on a regular basis. Just over 10 years ago I lapsed, partly due to equiment failure (leaking pressure barrel) and difficulty getting supplies (we moved to an area with no homebrew shop). Hasten to add I used to really brew, with the malted grain and hops not the canned "kits" which required their own weight in sugar (and tasted like it too). Dave Line's "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" was akin to a bible to me.

Been thinking recently about getting back into it but whereas back in the day, every town seemed to have a homebrew supply shop or even two, they seem a bit thin on the ground. Actually there is one quite close to Swindon (Highworth) but before investing £60 plus in equipment (and that excludes something in which to boil the wort) I need to be convinced it won't be a waste of money. Not much point setting up if in a year or two's time supplies become even harder to find than they are now.

Any home beer makers on here who can offer an opinion?

Would just add I'm not an alchie - my average beer consumption is 2 - 4 bottles a week. The beer is intended for legal home consumption "as is" and not for illegal re-sale or (very) illegal and health damaging distillation into spirits!
 
I wouldn't know anything about doing it properly but my sister bought me a canned kit and a big bucket for Christmas. I accidentally forgot to look how long it takes, though :/
 
theres a big homebrew thread here somewhere, do a search, seemed quite informative
 
Vern1961 said:
Back in the 80's and early 90's I used to brew my own beer on a regular basis. Just over 10 years ago I lapsed, partly due to equiment failure (leaking pressure barrel) and difficulty getting supplies (we moved to an area with no homebrew shop). Hasten to add I used to really brew, with the malted grain and hops not the canned "kits" which required their own weight in sugar (and tasted like it too). Dave Line's "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" was akin to a bible to me.

Been thinking recently about getting back into it but whereas back in the day, every town seemed to have a homebrew supply shop or even two, they seem a bit thin on the ground. Actually there is one quite close to Swindon (Highworth) but before investing £60 plus in equipment (and that excludes something in which to boil the wort) I need to be convinced it won't be a waste of money. Not much point setting up if in a year or two's time supplies become even harder to find than they are now.

Any home beer makers on here who can offer an opinion?

Would just add I'm not an alchie - my average beer consumption is 2 - 4 bottles a week. The beer is intended for legal home consumption "as is" and not for illegal re-sale or (very) illegal and health damaging distillation into spirits!
Click to expand...

On the practice of beer brewing I cannot comment - but 'Good on y'eh'. Hope it work out well.

Ahh.. the health & safety addendum. Glad you got that in.
We can all sleep safe in our beds.
 
Get all my ingredients from www.barleybottom.com. Oh and look at the link in my signature! ;)

It's generally a fair bit cheaper to get ingredients online or straight from a brewery as HBS have a big mark up
 
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We replaced much of our old equipment at Wilkos recently and also got some stuff from the local car boot sales.

We mostly make wine as it's easier to make from ingredients found in markets or growing wild in hedgerows.
 
Thanks for the links and tips re Wilkies.

Though I was never a fan of kits and their "homebrew" taste (one of the reasons I switched to grain) buying the basic equipment and a decent kit sounds like a good way to get back into it.

One tip I remember reading is to reduce the sugar (and possibly brew volume) as it was the high proportion of sugar to malt that gave some of the cheaper kits that slightly mawkish taste.

That will give me time to track down a Burco and the other bits needed for the grain brew.
 
I use the same shop in highworth every year to get supplies to make my home brew cider. The guy who works there is pretty knowledgeable on the whole brewing thing. Go and have a chat with him he will direct you in the right direction. :)
 
There was a report I remember hearing on the radio a few months back when the price of food and drink was going through the roof that said sales of homebrewing kits/gear were on the up - just one of the the ways people were looking to save a bit of cash. By most accounts, 2009 is going to be as bad if not worse, so I can only see the trend continuing. There's certainly never been so many threads on OcUK on the subject ...

Just before Xmas, we bottled some wine we made with red grapes - it's absolutely fantastic and in terms of taste is like a wine/port hybrid with the colour of Ribena. Was quite an unusual recipe - just about the only thing we needed to add was sugar as it used the natural yeast from the grapes themselves.
 
its not a dying art, but considering you can by lager as cheap as you like from supermarkets and decent bitters and ales for about £1 a pint in off licences there seems little incentive to many.
 
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