Search results

I've only really brewed cider before. Wanted to try a beer but I don't have a cooking pot big enough to cook up 5 gallons. Can you boil up a concentrated wort on the stove somehow and then just top up the carbuoy with water?

Fermented a gallon with 118 for 10 days, bubbles stopped so I racked to secondary and added 1litre of fresh juice to top it up to just below bottle neck. I would have expected with the addition of a little juice that bubbles would start again for a short while but there's nothing. Worth adding a...

I'm going to press some supplies tomorrow. Have only done cider with store bought juice before. I want to make some normal apple juice and some alcoholic cider. I was going to pasteurise for the normal apple juice but for the cider should I throw in Camden tablets only and not pasteurise?

I have some hop plants and wanted to make some beer with the hops this year. How many fresh hops would I need per gallon? Haven't had time to weigh yet so are we talking a handful or much more/less than that?

I've got one if these hand corkers using 19mm nomacorks but I cannot seem to get it to work, it just squashes the cork and seems impossible to get onto a bottle. Any clues as to how they work? The instructions were in Italian! :)

I made a couple gallons of beetroot wine. It's quite dry right now, not very full bodied more like an extremely light rosé. I saw some mentions of it being a dessert wine. If so, how much sugar should I add the second gallon before bottling and sorbating?

Can I store a CO2 tank full on a garage over winter? Temps get down to around -22F sometimes. More worried about the rubber o ring than the gas I think.

just got some use corny style kegs. They need cleaning but they are holding pressure. How often must you change the o rings and do I have to completely dismantle them to clean them or can I just run fluid through them?

I've seen edwort's recipe but I fail to see how that's award winning. The award winning must be the type of juice used or the yeast? I mean the recipe is juice+loads of sugar...ferment. that's like every cider :) Any other interesting recipes to share?

I've tried this same method now for 3 batches and I'm not having much success with carbing. 1 in 10 bottles has a little carbing but the rest are flat. One... That makes me think maybe something was uneven but secondly, I'm wondering if I'm adding enough dextrose. I add: 1/8 cup dextrose per...

Can you take the faucets from a tower and convert to a wall faucet? Will I need any new parts or can all the existing ones work?

I just recently moved all my fermentation equipment to the garage. It has water supply but it's from a river. The water is kind of a yellow tinge either from sand or iron deposits. Some people drink the water straight. I'm wondering if it's okay to use this to wash bottles, etc. I'm assume the...

I've always bottle refermented for fizziness before but had mixed success. I'm kind of paranoid about bottles exploding though and thought maybe kegging would be a better option. Kegs are kind of expensive though. What's the best option and what equipment do you need at a minimum? 2 kegs 2...

I want to use the garage space to ferment my beers and ciders over winter but it gets way below freezing in there. What's the cheapest DIY way to get a fermentation temperature in there. Old fridge? Some other box I could make with a lizard heater or something?

I'm getting a fine residue / cloud in my bottles that have been sitting for 9 months. Probably yeast but it's so fine that when you move the bottle or pour, it comes out into the glass and then the drink looks messy like it has bits in it. Should I have racked a 4th time at bottling?

It gets to above 30 degrees Celsius in the summer here and minus 30 in the winter. Those fluctuations are too much for wine storage and I was hoping to get into making ice wines and apple wines. If I have a mini fridge stored in the garage or shed (no heating) will they struggle to keep...

What type of pen can I mark dark beer bottles and dark wine bottles with to say the batch and date and then remove it easily again after I've drunk it to reuse the bottles?

What containers do people use to pick up juice in bulk from the orchard or do you just take sterilised carboys and ask for a fill? Start the fermentation in the car :)

There's a local cider maker who makes a nice cider aperitif around 14%. It's sort of halfway in between a dessert wine and an ice cider. Is there anyway to make something like a dessert wine from cider via home brewing? What would i need in addition to just my normal brewing kit for basic cider?

Most of the pruning method I've seen result in a really thick trunk after a few years. However, I've also seen people talk about laying down vines on the ground in winter to be covered in snow etc. If you prune and get a thick trunk, it won't be possible to lay the vines down so is there a...