Brewing alcohol

Bob Z

Apart from beer whats the easiest alcohol to brew?

oblivious

Cider is very easy, mead and wine can take time to mature

guildofevil

Beer is probably the hardest to make at home, but it matures quite quickly. Wine, mead and cider are all fairly straightforward but they do require a good bit of maturation.

Bob Z

What about peach snappes? or othere spirits?

karlog

I tried tasting my own home brew once and i still see purple squirrels.

Bob Z

karlog wrote: »

I tried tasting my own home brew once and i still see purple squirrels.

Have you still got that house between the animal sanctuary and the dye factory?

bionic.laura

Home distillation is illegal here.

Cider and wine are pretty easy to make. They do both take a while to mature. Country wines from things like elderflower etc are easy enough to do.

BeerNut

You can get liqueur kits as well.

Bob Z

bionic.laura wrote: »

Home distillation is illegal here.

Cider and wine are pretty easy to make. They do both take a while to mature. Country wines from things like elderflower etc are easy enough to do.

In The Republic? I think i seen Peach Snappes in Northern Ireland.
Is it illegal to buy or Illegal to Make?

BeerNut

Bob Z wrote: »

Is it illegal to buy or Illegal to Make?

Illegal to make, without a licence.

Bob Z

BeerNut wrote: »

Illegal to make, without a licence.

What happens if i get caught? i wasnt planning to sell any. Would it matter if its only small amounts? And why is it illegal?

BeerNut

Bob Z wrote: »

What happens if i get caught?

£1,270 fine or three months jail, and confiscation of your gear.

Bob Z wrote: »

i wasnt planning to sell any.

Doesn't matter.

Bob Z wrote: »

Would it matter if its only small amounts?

Yes, if you get caught, obviously.

Bob Z wrote: »

And why is it illegal?

the main reason is loss to the Revenue, but it's also very dangerous if done wrong.

oblivious

Bob Z wrote: »

What happens if i get caught?

I would be more worried about the long term health effects of poor distilling

ccosgrave

Cider is very easy to make, but it's hard to get the taste anywhere near something you'd buy in a shop. I just make it because it's cheap and cause of the kickass labels I made.

Mr Magnolia

Bob Z, I hope you're speaking metaphorically. Read the charter before you go any further on this forum.

oblivious

ccosgrave wrote: »

but it's hard to get the taste anywhere near something you'd buy in a shop. .

That could depend on whether you believe the like of bulmers are a true cider, an the back sweetening has any real benefit

Bob Z

Which of these cider kits should i get?
http://homebrewwest.ie/cider-kits-11-c.asp

What takes up the least amount of room Homebrew winemaking or homebrew cider making?

oblivious

Bob Z wrote: »

Which of these cider kits should i get?
http://homebrewwest.ie/cider-kits-11-c.asp

You could also just buy apple juice in your local supermarket, make great cider

Bob Z wrote: »

What takes up the least amount of room Homebrew winemaking or homebrew cider making?

If you count in the filtration that can be need for wine, my money would be on cider as you have the additional option of bottle or kegging cider

Bob Z

So what do I need to buy to start making cider?

BeerNut

Get yourself a 5 gallon fermentor (or 2) and a sachet of cider yeast from a homebrew supplier.

Then get 23 1-litre cartons of cloudy apple juice from Lidl, as well as some thin bleach and some white vinegar for sanitising.

Fill the bucket with water, measure 30ml of bleach into it, measure 30ml of vinegar into it (never mix neat bleach and vinegar). Throw in a big spoon and the bucket lid to sanitise them at the same time. After five or ten minutes, dump the sanitiser, fill the bucket with the apple juice, sprinkle on the yeast, wait 15 minutes, stir the yeast in, stick on the lid and leave it.

You can bottle any time after about two or three weeks and it'll be ready to drink after about three months. If you want to know how strong it is, you'll need to get a hydrometer and, preferably, a thermometer and trial jar as well.

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

After five or ten minutes, dump the sanitiser, fill the bucket with the apple juice,

I would boil a kettle and rinse out any remaining sanitiser too, I expect you do rinse but just forgot to mention it.

BeerNut wrote: »

Then get 23 1-litre cartons of cloudy apple juice from Lidl, as well as some thin bleach and some white vinegar for sanitising.

Too late now but that pressed juice was going for 69cent a litre on saturday. 99cent usually which is still cheap for pressed juice.

I think grape juice is on offer this week, from concentrate though.

Tesco do thin unperfumed bleach really cheap, avoid the thickened perfumed stuff.

BeerNut

rubadub wrote: »

I would boil a kettle and rinse out any remaining sanitiser too, I expect you do rinse but just forgot to mention it.

Nope. Bleach and vinegar in the quantities I mention is a no-rinse sanitiser. Works brilliantly.

rubadub wrote: »

avoid the thickened perfumed stuff.

Absolutely: it won't work for this.

oblivious

Also make sure the equipment is clean as bleach is very quickly neutralized in the presence of organic matter

BeerNut wrote: »

Nope. Bleach and vinegar in the quantities I mention is a no-rinse sanitiser. Works brilliantly.

Absolutely: it won't work for this.

its will work its just wont be a no rinse method

RDM_83 again

Sorry for not putting in homebrew mega thread but this one seems closer to what i'm going to do
Hi i'm thinking of following this plan for the cider.
question is, I want to boost the percentage a bit, think the lidl apple juice on its own would result in 5% cider with all sugar removed (need to check in the store what the sugar level is but fairly sure thats what i worked it out at), so considering adding another 50g/L of castor sugar to boost it to 8%, let it ferment till it stops.

Then bottling in 2 litre mineral water bottles and then adding 1 tablespoon of sugar then closing cap tightly and leaving for month or two.

going to use champagne yeast. main worries are the underlined things. don't want to use glass cos like fizz and also cost/tools issue. don't mind dry cider so sugar being fermented out not a problem.

ps read about adding tea on irish craft brewer opinions for this style quick ciders

BeerNut

That all sounds reasonable. You'll get closer to 6% ABV on juice alone. The type of sugar doesn't matter: just dissolve it in some water and boil briefly to sanitise. Fizzy drinks bottles are designed to withstand high pressure so should be grand. I used one for my last batch as an experiment and it remains 100% unexploded.

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

Fizzy drinks bottles are designed to withstand high pressure so should be grand.

Yes FIZZY drinks bottles. If your mineral water was not carbonated they might not be suitable. It should look like a standard 2L soft drinks bottle with smooth sides. With still water they can get away with thinner plastic, to give it strength they mould sort of ribs/indents all around them. The bottle on the far right here is still, the one next must be carbonated.



they might use the same bottles for still water but often it is a weaker bottle. If you check inside the screw on cap there should be cuts in the threads, this allows for gas to escape slowly when you screw the cap off. If you do not have these threads cut then the top can come off like bullet -I had beer in a kia ora bottle years ago and the cap ricocheted all over the room and hit a mate in the face.

Also the pressure can blow out those rib indent things, this could crack the plastic or just explode. The carbonated bottles usually have those smooth leg things at the bottom, if there is too much pressure these do not explode as they are not sharp, they just get more smooth and eventually become 1 big round bottom.

RDM_83 again

Thanks very much for the advice I'm most likely to use 2 litre bottles from the cheapest tesco carbonated water (40 cents each i think)

mel odious

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

check out the turbo cider recipes on this site.honey and strong tea and a grated bramley apple or two work wonders.cheers.