New Brewer from South Africa

[Evochild]

Hi all.

I first saw an article on home brewing a few weeks ago in a newsletter I subscribe to. Anything that involves do it your self gets me going so I started reading up on brewing, watched every youtube video on brewing I could locate.

Ive started with 3 brews.

1. Hard Apple Cider (in South Africa we just call it "apple cider")
Got locally squeezed apple juice with no preservatives from a farm stall. Added a very generic brewers yeast and some sugar. I made a very basic airlock using the tap on the container I'm brewing in and some plastic tubing bought from my local hardware store. The first 15 hours there was no activity. I now see a bunch of bubbles on top. However still no bubbles through the airlock.

2. I found a brew shop and bought a lager kit, Got everything into the barrel supplied and 5 hours later my airlock is bubbling away every 20 - 30 seconds.


3. Hard ginger beer. This is an experiment. I like ginger drinks so I figured Ill try make an alcoholic version. Lots of ginger, water and some brown sugar. Used a bag of yeast from my wife's baking goods. My mom makes ginger ale with normal yeast and it always comes out nice so we will see what happens. This one is also bubbling away after 5 hours.


My temp is at about 26 "deg C" Which is within what the brew kit says is good.

We will see in a week how things are going.

Thanks for the great resorce, this forum is awesome!

 

[naga77777]

Howdy from Oxford, NC, USA

So I've always been a bit curious about ginger ale. I know the store-bought stuff is nonalcoholic, but if your mom's ginger ale requires yeast to make it, does that mean it's got a bit of alcohol content? I've never really researched ginger ale.

 

[Safa]

Hoe gaan dit man? Lekker om 'n ander safa te find!

Welcome to the forums!

I've had alcoholic ginger beer (you can buy it over here) and its delicious, so I'm sure yours will be great!

 

[Evochild]

Naga 77777, My moms ginger ale uses the yeast just to carb it. Its a tiny amount and Im sure it does give a bit of an alcohol rating, I dont think that its enough to be noted. Ive drunk a good few bottles and not even felt a tingle. lol. I will post when mine is bottled, carbed and chilled.


Then to safa. Hey Boet. Ek is n soutie. So Ill post in english, lol.
Your bio lists Athens as your country. You living there? It seems as if there are only a few SA peeps around on the brewing forums. Always cool to see a fellow SA person!


On a side note my ginger beer and Lager are bubbling away! Cant wait to get it all bottled.

 

[Safa]

Soutie here too I'm afraid!

Sounds like you really kicked the brewing off in high gear!

I'm in a town called Athens in the US, at university

 

[Evochild]

Ok awesome!

I dont quite know about high gear but I have 3 brews going and one or two other experiments. I keep chickens and I'm breeding rabbits and ducks in small quantities.

So we will see how the brewing goes. I have a kit beer going so I assume atleast that one will turn out good. The other two... we will see.