Topic: Homebrew thread

[FerriswheelBueller]

One of my very first beers was a treacle stout. Quite an odd beer, but that’s because it was my second or third batch and I did all sorts of things wrong. Lots of unfermentable sugar so it’s probably quite nice if done correctly.

A friend of mine bought a pico brew (a grainfather equivalent). It was shit, no fun, broke regularly, had a load of proprietary parts, and is now no longer supported. Avoid with a passion. It’s like cooking something nice versus throwing a rustlers in the microwave. They’re both technically food, but one is much more satisfying to have made and will likely be much, much better unless you really made a mess of your recipe.

I actually want to have a crack at pruno.

A friend has a Polish father in law and for Christmas he just used to chuck a load of berries and sugar in the massive pickle/saurkraut jars they get over there. Got banned from it in the end as he was just spending 2 weeks twatted.

I actually want to have a crack at pruno.

A friend has a Polish father in law and for Christmas he just used to chuck a load of berries and sugar in the massive pickle/saurkraut jars they get over there. Got banned from it in the end as he was just spending 2 weeks twatted.

Looking up pruno now. This sounds fucking mega to be honest, love a bit of no nonsense brewing.

[TrenterPercenter]

Anyone seen/used these new fangled hipster brewing machines?

https://thegreatergood.co.uk

[Blue Jam]

£75 for the kit and £13 for the refills seems pretty cheap. A one-step fermentation process but for much less than the cost of a Grainfather, I could be tempted.

This however:

Fresh Beer is better beer, it's that simple.

Beer in bottles and cans is very often packaged months before being sold. Much of the flavour degrades over time

...is bollocks.

[sirhenry]

£75 for the kit and £13 for the refills seems pretty cheap. A one-step fermentation process but for much less than the cost of a Grainfather, I could be tempted.

This however:

...is bollocks.

Even they admit that on the site: the packaging says 'Brew: 4 days, Condition 3 days' but the site says

Fermenting Public House IPA for an extra day, (5 days in total), and conditioning for up to 7 days in total will increase clarity and dryness and produce a more rounded flavour.

So "In just 7 days!" or 12 if you want it drinkable.

[Blue Jam]

Also £13 for ten pints may be cheaper than going to the pub but it's not that cheap. Buying your beer from Lidl would be cheaper- and the beer would probably be better too.

[FerriswheelBueller]

It’s a small extract kit, with a pressure barrel and a lot of slick marketing.

Back of envelope calculations, it is ~4x more expensive than regular homebrewing (and more so if you were thrifty with your homebrew ingredient buying), and I suspect the beer is not great - you’re diluting and brewing a concentrate. You’re also up the creek when the company making the cartridges goes under.

All that said, I’m sure at that price point it’ll find a market, and it looks very straightforward which is to its credit. It must be using some turbo yeast (my money on kveik) to ferment and condition within 7 days and without a boil (ie so quick that bad stuff doesn’t have time to grow so it is consistently safe). Fair play to them, but not for me.

[Blue Jam]

I'm being reminded of that Bruce Robinson anecdote about the time he and Vivian "The Real Withnail" McKerrel went to a pub that was closing down and asked the landlord if he had any wine in. He ran down to the cellar and came back with a dusty bottle of Margeaux or something and charged them a stupidly tiny amount for it. They then asked if they could buy up the entire stock and the landlord said: "Are you sure? It's very old wine..."

I'm keeping some of my Xmas ale "packaged for months in the bottle" and I don't think I'm making a mistake here.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Does anyone know anything about the Philips Perfectdraft system? It seems to be a chiller that takes 6litre kegs.

It seems the kegs actually have a foil bag of beer inside them, a bit like a box of wine and it dispenses by pumping air between the bag and the keg. It seems some homebrew people have had success with refilling them by rinsing/sterilising them and refilling them with their own brews by using their own air pumps to empty/refill the bags.

Seems like it could be a good system as it refrigerates it.

[Blue Jam]

That's very interesting. All I know is that BeerHawk often have offers on them:

https://www.beerhawk.co.uk/perfect-draft-range/perfect-draft-kegs

Could be good for cold-crashing. I would try this if I had a bigger fridge.