The Beer Thread

[PowerButchi]

[SiMania]

Looks good. It's my local one too this weekend. Mainly Scottish and North West English breweries, I'll get the list at the weekend.

 

I'm usually there each day then on Monday where it goes dirt cheap, but I am recovering from a broken heel bone, I'm on crutches and Mrs SiMania is heavily pregnant so I'm not sure when I'll get to it.

[WestCoastPop619]

Anyone had any success with home brewing? Been contemplating getting it. Looking at what costs & equipment people have used in the past.

[Arch Stanton]

I made a batch last year and it was pretty successful. Been meaning to make another this year but I'm a lazy bastard. You only need a very basic set-up for starting out- if there are no specialist shops in your area then Wilkinson do all the gear at good prices, including the beer kits. You are looking at about £50 for the basic equipment and a beer kit, which should do you up to 40 pints. After that, you've already got the kit of course so future batches will be far more profitable. The first time you try it you just want to stick to a simple by-the-numbers kit and resist the temptation to try to fuck about by adding your own flavours or making hard work for yourself by starting from scratch with the raw ingredients.

 

This will easily do you for a beginner, this is pretty much exactly what I have...

 

http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/kilner-homebrew-instrument-kit/invt/0404317

[Tommy!]

I did it a lot, all from a kit. it was all passable, don't expect too much from the beer itself next to a professionally produced product, but it's great fun to do for saying you essentially just fill a bucket with water and treacle, and top having 40 pint on tap is always nice.

 

I always found wine the better quality end result, you can make it from nearly anything, kit or fruit/veg. It's a bit more involved than a beer kit but not as involved as a full mash beer so a nice next step.

 

I'm saving for some kit to try a full mash beer, it's going to be shit I'm sure but again given how much fun I had in the past with them, and again having even a passable beer on the go is always a plus.

 

Any way to brew a beer kit you need the kit, the brewing bucket, a siphon of some sort and wither a pressure barrel or bottles.

I had a fair bit knocking about the house, but piked up a second bucket, barrel and tube from wilkos or next to nothing.

As long as everything is sterile you'll be fine.

[SiMania]

Kit stuff can be good if you get the decent stuff and ferment it at the right temperature and drink it within a few months. Most of it has a funny homebrew taste which lingers.

 

I've been doing all grain for the past 6 months and despite a bit of extra equipment and longer brew days, it's cheaper per pint ingredient wise, the scope of beer you can produce is massive and the beer is much better.

 

I've done 40 pints each of plain bitter, an oatmeal stout, an american pale ale, a bavarian hefeweizen and an IPA since March and it's cost less than £70 for ingredients and they've all had good feedback from friends and family who've had them.

[Ladiesman345]

I'm going to sound like a total philistine here, but how damn tasty is McEwan's export? I know it's a mass produced ale but it's delicious!

[WestCoastPop619]

I made a batch last year and it was pretty successful. Been meaning to make another this year but I'm a lazy bastard. You only need a very basic set-up for starting out- if there are no specialist shops in your area then Wilkinson do all the gear at good prices, including the beer kits. You are looking at about £50 for the basic equipment and a beer kit, which should do you up to 40 pints. After that, you've already got the kit of course so future batches will be far more profitable. The first time you try it you just want to stick to a simple by-the-numbers kit and resist the temptation to try to fuck about by adding your own flavours or making hard work for yourself by starting from scratch with the raw ingredients.

 

This will easily do you for a beginner, this is pretty much exactly what I have...

 

http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/kilner-homebrew-instrument-kit/invt/0404317

Thanks for the informative reply! Really didn't know Wilkos dabbled in kits, so I'll be making my way there at some point. To start I have one of these brew in a bag gimmicks from Lakeland that my wife got me for Christmas. So going to fiddle around with that before I commit to buying the full kit.

[Briefcase]

Is Samuel Adams decent on draught? 

[Slapnut]

Is Samuel Adams decent on draught? 

 

Depends if it's a seasonal version.  I had one in New York called White Water IPA once and it tasted like toilet water.  Regular Samuel Adams is ok though.

[chokeout]

Is Samuel Adams decent on draught? 

 

It's not too bad. They actually brew in this country now so its changed slightly

[Gus Mears]

After a year of inactivity, I feel the need to spew large quantities of venom in the beer thread. Sorry.

 

Bath Gem is one my favourite local beers. Quality brew, readily available in the local area. Something to be proud of from the town I was born in, along with the culture and rugby team. I was getting on with my day, failing to do any real work because it's a bank holiday when I find, to my unadulterated horror, that Bath Ales has been taken over St. Austell Brewery.

 

St Austell Brewery are the goobers responsible for producing Tribute, the worst beer of all time. It's a beer that deliberately tastes like non-washed out taps at a pub, a beer that has all the heaviness of ale with none of the flavour, a beer that is as fizzy as Carling despite portraying itself as an ale. This utter bilgewater infests every cricket ground within a 50 mile radius of where I live and despite drinking too much, I am abstaining like Ann Widdicombe at the International Conference of Male Gigolo's if Tribute is the only thing available. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NEVER DRINK THIS. 

 

They also produce other beers that are terrible. I feel embarrassed that people might actually think people in the South West like this rancid turd. They don't. Anyway, St.Austell have already decided to fuck around with the two Bath Ales pubs in Bath and, because I am a sad act, I emailed them to see if they were going to shit around with Gem and I got a response so riddled with equivocation, that I imagine Alistair Campbell was responsible for it.

 

I give it a month until the gibbering hordes of mentalists responsible for Tribute break down the walls to Bath Ales and complete their manifest destiny of making all ale taste like foamy brown bathwater. I am very sad. It was the only decent beer left made locally. Now I am left with the riveting tastes of Ringwood Ales (shit), Green Man (shite), Box Steam Brewery (shMEDICOREit) and Sharps (DoomBar is shitarific nowadays, but I get a lob-on for Wolf Rock).

 

So anyway, in closing. Fuck you St. Austell Brewery, I hope all of your Directors get done for crimes against beer and get nobbed in prison.

 

RIP Gem, a fine friend to my liver.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Gus Mears

[Keith Houchen]

Sorry for your loss, Gus, it's always difficult when you lose a friend. I'm sure of dangerously420 was still around, he'd recommend a small brewery called Bulldog. Punk rock ale, like Green Day.

[Gus Mears]

I was reading back this thread before posting that and was massively enjoying dangerously's messianic fervour when it came to BrewDog. I legitimately have had Jehova's Witness' knock on the door less convinced by their wares than Tommy with his slightly above average Scottish beer.

[ElCece]

Brewdog beers are pretty poor to be honest. Its the Brewdog pubs I can't fucking stand. Was recently out with people from work so popped into one and spent the whole time granding my teeth together. I ended up arsing my pint and waiting outside