Homebrew - The Bear and Badger

davyK

Sounds like a bottle of poteen/poitin or equivalent.

Can be dodgy. If the distiller doesnt know what he is doing the drink can end up containing methanol (drinkable alchohol is ethanol). Drink enough of that and it can kill you or blind you (blind drunk).

I have several bottles of the rare oul stuff. It usually comes out at a party when people are feeling brave. It can be very good but it will put your lights out.

JonB

davyK wrote:

There are entry level kits one can buy. Everything is in a can. Empty it into a bucket and you add water , yeast (usually supplied in a sachet in the kit) and sugar - then put a close fitting lid on the bucket and let nature take its course. Some kits come with the bucket.

A housemate at uni got given something like that for Xmas one year and brought it back with him. The results were... yeasty. Not a pleasant drinking experience but it got us pissed. Think we just put it all in plastic water bottles.

davyK

You're meant to ensure that the sediment remains in the bucket which can be tricky when siphoning into the bottles. Even then, the bottles will have some settlement in them too and you have to be careful when pouring/drinking.

cockbeard

finings are mainly to clarify the beer. If you want to be veggie/vegan friendsly or just don't like the idea if finings, then in my experience a tiuny amount of tonic water will massively speed up the settling process to give you clearer beer

davyK

Good info. Didn't know that.

cockbeard

If we were late racking a new beer or the previous one moved faster than we expected we'd do it and rather than waiting three days for the keg to settle could serve in around 4-5 hours (tiny amount as well, third to a half a baby mixer bottle in a 22). Did a little homebrew a few summers back with a couple of mates, and the same trick worked then. Though the thing about siphoning is you can do it without disturbing the beer so you shouldn't get a huge amount of sediment. Forward planning is good there though, have positioned barrels in the airing cupboard (hot press as you called it) the wrong way round so had to move it to check it or siphon some off which kinda defeats the object

dynamiteReady

Siphon? Filter?

This topic really did belong in the game thread...

cockbeard

Also, even in pubs, lots of glass is no longer on deposits, so you could ask your local if you can have you pick of the glass bin at the end of the night

Then grab a capping machine and blanks

http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-twin-lever-bottle-capper/invt/0191082

http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-beer-bottle-metal-caps-50pk/invt/0022566

Maybe I drink in pubs far too often, but I always found the landlady more than amenable to this

davyK

I think hot press might be a Northern Ireland term

So I took the liberty of describing it. It gets airing cupboard here as well - hot press may be more old school.

Kow

Hot press is from the republic. In fact, any cupboard is called a press. You must be a southerner at heart.

davyK

Heh.

Was a phrase used by my parents who were born in the 30s so the vernacular was probably more island-wide then.

nick_md

I was confused as fuck the day my Irish mate Des asked, 'pass me the yoke from the press'

er... the what from the where now?

davyK

yoke is any object of use in the current context. Have heard that one used in the North by out-of-town folk.

Diluted Dante

That still probably wouldn't have helped.

Pass me the thingamajigwhatsnameadoodle.

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