I started with Beer so easy buy a kit open can add sugar and water wait a week bottle wait another week and drink. OK maybe a little more but very easy.
My wife bought two wine kits the Cherry was much as expected sugar, flavour, and yeast then at set time other items added and it came out quite well. However it was at first very sweet then as it was kept went drier and at first was to my wife's taste then more to mine but not that much cheaper than buying fortified wine from supermarket and decided if going into wine needed to start from scratch the kits not really worth all the hassle.
However the second was called
PROHIBITION and was Orange flavoured now this kit was completely different. Sugar yeast and Nutrient were left to produce high alcohol then all the nasty bits removed with charcoal etc and finally flavour and extra sugar added. 21% ABV and the result tasted like Cointreau now 7 bottles for £14 this was well worth the effort. I have included link to instructions together with my notes.
The problem brew was Ginger Beer. Seems odd as a kid I had a Ginger Beer plant to make Ginger pop which worked well but this was non alcoholic there were two items one was yeast but the other got rid of the alcohol so I bought a Coopers Ginger Beer kit. Three kits all together from different outlets and all three the yeast failed and I had to use yeast from Bitter beer kit.
Even with the beer yeast the fermentation was very slow. Starting a beer after 24 hours I expect a bubble every 5 seconds with Ginger Beer a bubble every 20 seconds and instead of a week in the fermentor it was a month which resulted in nearly running out of Bitter.
Yes when finished it was nice but not a beginners kit.
Anyway
this is an account to how my brewing has gone some ups and some downs. Also links to instructions and what I did wrong but with and without intending to and what results I have had.
Adding extra sugar to Bitter got it more to my taste but this is personal.
I did look at brewing forums but they are too much into brewing for me. I want a simple way to make cheap booze that tastes OK. 30p a pint is to my mind great only problem is not drinking all the stock.
Although the instructions say around 3 weeks really more like 8 weeks from start to drinking big problem is getting enough bottles. Now use plastic pop bottles for beer. The shed is full but at the temperature goes down I need to leave first week in the house 16 pop bottles do take up some room as does the 6 gallon fermentor.
*hic
I'll soon be putting on 18 litres of orange wine and 18 litres of Strawberry Ribena wine which should both be ready by Xmas. The last lot was lovely but amazing how quickly it disappears! It's strange how much better it tastes when you're not paying vat on it!!
