Home brewing kits ....

sigma said:
Is it possible to make Whisky?

I'm guessing it is, but it probably won't be nice?
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Making spirit is pretty straight forward. Home distillation isn't that involved and anyone with a basic understanding of chemistry and science could do it.
You can make a still relatively easily at home through salvaged parts - just make sure everything is extremely clean.
Your problem will arise when you try and mature the spirit and turn it into something that resembles whisky. Most whisky is matured in bourbon casks, and these aren't particularly cheap nor do I know where you'd get a viable example.
After some maturing, you'll have something that resembles whisky but to get anywhere close to a proper whisky it would need to stay in cask for at least 3 years (under law it can't be whisky unless it has spent these 3 years in cask).

This is of course, ignoring the illegality of producing spirit for consumption...
 
I put an alcoholic root beer on last night. I bought some root beer essence in a little bottle in Amish Country maybe 10 years ago and it has sat unused in the booze cabinet. I couldn't get the lid back off :p so I had no idea if it was ok or not, so I put a pair of grips on it and gave it a light twist. Once I'd twisted the neck of the bottle clean off :D I gave it a sniff and it was still fine!

I mixed up a gallon with 450g of sugar, which tasted fine, so pitched in some yeast and nutrient and we'll see what happens :D

The instructions say to use 1 lb of sugar per US gallon, add beer yeast and let it brew just to the desired carbonation before putting it in the fridge.

I don't know anything about beer yeasts. What is the difference between a wine and beer yeast?
 
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Different yeasts will give different tastes, different levels of carbonation, different nose, different sweetness. All sorts.

Think about making cider, you could use Red Delicious and end up with cider and you could use Granny Smith and also have cider. However they'll taste very different - the same is true when you use different yeast.
 
It's Zatarain's Root Beer Extract and looks exactly like this:



Surprised to see that it's still made if I'm honest, but I suppose this is America we're talking about, not quick-buck-brand-Britain :p
 
Jonny69 said:
Is that the one you brewed that you didn't like?
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No, that was in attempt at brewing from scratch, with roots and leaves and stuff. This time I'm trying the extract. Yours will probably be ready before mine.
I haven't tried this extract, it was cheap on the bay.

The ones from here seem to get a bit of praise from brewing forums.
http://homemadesodacompany.com/
 
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It's arrived, currently unpacking it in preparation for first brew :D

Though to be fair I was meant to be finishing this gold image.

That can wait.... Let the beer making begin :D
 
Ok, this root beer is amazing!

Exact quantities:
25g of root beer extract
4 litres water
450g sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp nutrient (probably not needed)

I started it in the demijohn and I was going to brew it out, but I decided to decant it into two 2 litre bottles and let the yeast just add fizz, before refidgerating. So it was in the demijohn not doing much for 2 days and I put it in the bottles last night with the tops screwed on tight. This morning the bottles were pressured up so I let the pressure out. It was nice and fizzy so I put them both in the fridge. I just had an ice-cold glass and it's amazing. It tastes quite a lot like A&W root beer but a lot more satisfying. It's not alcoholic from what I can detect, just nice and fizzy. I might cut the sugar down to 400g for the next batch and see how it compares.

I'm really pleased you can get the extract over here because knocking up a batch of home-made is much easier than trekking to Chinatown to buy six cans of A&W :D

The best thing is if it goes flat I'll just take it out the fridge, let the yeast wake up and it'll fizz itself back up :D :D :D
 
10-15 minutes while I bring everything else into the kitchen and clean the worktop down.
 
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