Making your own

[Dreaming]

How many people here brew, ferment or distill their own alcohol :o? I'm interested in easier simple wine, beer and mead recipes (they need to be good though! ;) ).

[jamesq]

distillation in any way, shape, or form is still illegal in these free united states. but "natural" fermentation is legal in most localities. try http://forum.northernbrewer.com/ they cover mead and beer mostly but also wine, i think.

my favorite recipe is an all grain beer consisting of 9 lbs. pilsener malt, one ounce 9% AA Hallertauer hops, and 11.5 grams Saflager S23 yeast. Mash, boil, ferment, and lager ~28 days later you got 5 gallons of the best beer on the planet for about $2.50 a gallon.

[Dreaming]

My wife won't let me try making beer yet :-[. She says I have to fix up the basement first. She's sick of the wine and mead fermenting on the fridge and the foot of the bed ;D. Thanks for the info, I'll get right on fixing up that basement.

[AlchemyAcres]

Check out Apfelwein....called Turbo Cider in Europe....unless you have your own apple crop or other home grown or wild fermentables...it's probably the best homemade hooch bargain.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?s=f70ccdab7233a28820c72b936dd5533b& t=14860

~Martin ;D

[CarolAnn]

Dreaming,
My dad was a beer and wine maker. He didn't make GOOD hooch; it was "just right." (He'd say, "This stuff is just right. If it was any worse you couldn't drink it, and if it was any better, I wouldn't give you any!"

One year he had a stinky batch of wine going in a pickle crock in the basement and Mom's tea-totaling relatives were coming so she told him he had to throw it out. Instead, he bottled it and hid the bottles in the woods.

We couldn't play out there for months because every once in a while, one would explode like a glass hand grenade!

I don't have a recipe for you (you wouldn't want his, anyway!) - but it brought back a smile thinking about it!
;D

[Holly]

We had a good nettle beer last year, sweet, pale, fragrant and strong! Phil has the recipe, Ill try to dig it out for you. Most of what we have made tastes a bit dodgy, but does the trick. The boys seem to think the stronger the better!

I do have a book of old recipies from accross britain, but havent tried many of them-and honey is too precious to waste on a bad batch of mead! Mead appears to take about 7 years to mature in all rthe recipes Ive seen. Anyone seen any shorter ones?

Peace. Holly

[Dreaming]

My thanks for the northern brewers forum link! They have recipes and answered questions I didn't even have yet. I think I'll stick mostly to meads. They can take anywhere from 1 - 25 years to age to perfection. Most people never let them get to perfection anyways. Most meads take 1 - 5 years. P.S. I've already printed a copy of the appfelwein recipe ;)