31 articles in this section.
Had my third Christmas dinner of the season last night at the Scoutmaster’s. It was the homegroup festive shindig and I was keen to inflict some of my latest concoctions on them, so I took along a bottle each of my 2012 Strawberry…
I know it sounds minging, and it probably is. But I thought I would give it a go. This recipe is adapted from one found on Jack Keller’s website . Jack is an elder statesman of winemaking and although his site is in desperate need of a…
Right… needed to clear out the fridge today – otherwise, some of the stuff in there was going to be able walk out on its own soon. Amongst the stuff that had to go was a bowl of strawberries and a bowl of raspberries (both homegrown,…
Not content to let Trenchfoot hog the limelight, I am finally back and ready for action after my compatriot has laid down the gauntlet with his ‘turd in a jar’ mead. I’ve had some tinned strawberries in the cupboard for quite some time…
I’m still sore that Fendog stole my idea of making mead. So whilst he’s busy preparing his Leviticus sermon, I thought I would get one on the go this weekend so we can have a good old fashioned brew-off.
My mead has proven to be someone stubborn in its clearing, but having added finings on 3rd March, today I finally bottled it with the aid of a fine young filly. It tasted foul before it was cleared properly (Trenchfoot will testify to…
Using cartons, bottles or tins of fruit juice is probably the easier way to make wine. With the variety on offer these days, you can make some really interesting wines with very little effort. There is no need for straining, mashing,…
Check this out! In what these days is a rare flash of inspiration, I’ve come up with an awesome name for my barleywine: “The Audacity of Hops”. I think that suits it well as it is hopped through the roof, and has vast pretentions of…
If you’ve been following us on Twitter, you know I’ve been trying to recreate my legendary Parsnip wine which put North Wales to sleep in 2006. You’ll also have read that it hasn’t been plain sailing…
Woah! Returned home to find the walls and ceiling of the utility room completely splattered like an explosion in a sewage plant. And the fermenter was invisible inside a four foot high seeting pile of brown foam. It took ages to clean…
Another Brewday that took far longer than I was anticipating. The main reason: Fendog bailed on me. Some excuse about getting his nostrils plucked – a likely story. I courageously pressed on on alone. I racked the Windsor Knot into a…
In these times of austerity, and being a tight-arse as well as lazy, I am thinking about reusing the yeast from our current brew (the Windsor Knot IPA) in the next brew that I do.
A university in the North Carolina is aiming to sell its own beer and offer a degree in brewing after a class in the subject last year proved extremely successful.
Whilst clearing out the shed the other day, I unearthed some long lost treasures – boxes and boxes of homemade wine that a packaged up when we moved house last year and promptly forgot about. What a delight to pull out bottle after…
Last week we had our wine tasing evening to finally crack open some of the mystery wines that have been tucked away my shed for the last few years. The usual suspects turned up – Fendog, the Geek, Ginger Gibbon, Face-ache, Ding Dong,…
Summer is here and knowing that it will will only last a few days at most, I invited a bunch of friends over for a barbeque. Summer just isn’t summer without spending at least one evening defiantly trying to cook sausages in the…
As I have mentioned in a previous post, we are getting ready move house and today’s job was to clear out the cupboard under the stairs. Since getting into beer brewing, I have not only given up on the wine-making but also lost track of…
With Trenchfoot ministering to the good folk of Banbury today, as in our former ministerial days, I shall be walking in his footsteps in a couple of weeks, so am getting in some prep this afternoon, with the carboy of ale fermenting on…
I was disappointed with the Headcracker Barleywine at the Bad Shirt Party as it clearly had not been given long enough to condition. However, I cracked open a bottle tonight and it was a different story altogether!
It was WebMonkey’s wedding today. I was only invited to the ceremony and the evening do, but not the afternoon reception, but as an usher Fendog got to go to the whole thing.
Got a few of the lads together at the Dandy’s to help us get through some of our vast reserves of homebrew beer. It was also a good chance to get people’s opinion on the Otter’s Pocket and to unveil the Padded Jacket IPA and the…
Racked my Tesco Value pineapple wine which has had plenty of time to ferment but was stubbornly bubbling through one blip every few hours. I added a campden tablet, half a teaspoon of fermentation stopper and also sweetened it with…
Dispatched a bottle of my recent Banana effort up to Birmingham for the Green Cushion (an old housemate). Although it still needed several months in the bottle to mature, the plonker couldn’t resist opening it for a sample. He then had…
Fendog and I have been preaching a series on the book of Leviticus. This Sunday its Lev 15 – Bodily Discharges. And owing to his experience in this area, Fendog volunteered to do this passage. So while he’s busy preparing for that, I…
Now… having been away in Germany, and leaving the ginger unattended, I was pleased to come home to find the Ginger on fire. Wopped my head inside the bucket for a good noseful, and it certainly put me in a happy place, and singed most…
Finally got round to bottling the banana wine thats been knocking around in a demijohn for goodness knows how long. Fendog was unavailable to help with the siphoning as he was getting his nostrils plucked. As a result, I disturbed the…
To while away the evenings at New Word Alive, I also took a bottle of my untried parsnip wine. Whilst the less discerning went off to hear some naff christian band each night, the rest of us piled into our chalet to crack open the homebrew.
I’ve been excited about doing a mint wine for some time now, although response to this has been mixed. Finally got started, but immediately felt this may be an error. Still, you’ve got to try these things, even if it does end up…
I can’t believe Fendog beat me to setting up a mead must! Still, I feel much better about the situation after tasting it. It officially mings.
In a stroke of ungentlemanly conduct, I stole the idea that trenchfoot had been speaking of for weeks by starting my own mead, my first non-kit wine. Simple: no need for a bucket, boil it all up and add yeast. This beast is going to be…
Making wine from tinned fruit is a easy way to make some interesting wines – especially as it is so easy to buy a wide variety of tinned fruit in supermarkets these days.