what home brew have you got on the go at the mo?

[bogit & legit]

blackberry wine
rose wine

[Stonehead]

It's my next one that should be interesting.

Mangel ale. I've dug out a 1700s recipe and intend to give it a whirl.

Take 35 pounds of cleaned and sliced mangels, and boil in six gallons of water for "a turn and a half of the hour glass". Drain the liquor into a fresh vessel, then press the mangels to extract any remaing liquor and add this to the vessel.

Add three ounces of "Kent hops" to the liquor and bring back to the boil, boiling for a further "turn and a half of the hour glass". Cool the liquor quickly to blood temperature, strain the liquor through fine cloth, and then pitch six ounces of yeast.

Stir well and cover for 24 hours. If the yeast is well risen, barrel the beer and fill the bung hole with a wad of linen. When fermentation ceases after three days, bung the barrel and age for at least a month. To obtain a stronger beer, add a further 10 pounds of mangels.

I'm thinking 10 gallons of this should be interesting...

[glenniedragon]

I've been looking for ancient ale recipies too stoney- Iron age/roamano-british stuff, no hops then so I'm not sure how they taste.
In demijohns now I have
Mead
Elderflowerx2
blackberry
elderberry
damson
plum

kind thoughts
Deb

[Stonehead]

I've been looking for ancient ale recipies too stoney- Iron age/roamano-british stuff, no hops then so I'm not sure how they taste.

You can use heather flowers instead of hops. Ale made with heather instead is apparently quite good - I'll make ales and beers from barley, but don't drink it. That's the OH's job!!

I've come across mentions of wood sage being used in Ireland, broom being used in Scotland and England, bracken fronds being used in Scotland, trì-bhileach (bogbean) being used in the Highlands, and alehoof/tunhoof (glechoma) being used by the Saxons.

I should add that I've recalcuated the mangel ale recipe so it can be used with a modern 5-gallon brewing vat, while still using some of the original description of the actual process. The original recipe was to make a kilderkin of ale (16 gallons).

[glenniedragon]

Heather flowers sound interesting- certainly an area for research, cheers stoney!

kind thoughts
Deb

[red]

so added apple and elderberry wine to the queue of demijohns bubbling away....
one more empty demijohn to go... and still saving plastic bottles before i start beer...

[Cheezy]

Heather flowers sound interesting- certainly an area for research, cheers stoney!

Heather beer is commercially available "Fraoch" (just googled it for the spelling and it's got a great historical beer section :www.fraoch.com, spruce beer,kelp beer,elderberry beer)

When this was first launched in the early 90's I used to be the sec. of Darlington CAMRA, and beer festival manager. (hard job someone had to tap and spile and test all the beers. to check if they we're OK.)
We ordered a barrel of Fraoch. It came a day late (Tuesday) with instructions to leave to settle for a day in final position, then tap and spile then leave for two day before tasting. Well the fest opened on Thursday night, so before opening the bar we tasted all the beers . THe Froach was nice except it took the enamel off your teeth, I can't tell you how understated that is, it was soooooo astringent. So we left til Friday. Of course it being a new beer people really wanted to try it. It was a little better by Friday and anyone who asked for it we gave a taster to to see if they wanted it. By Saturday it was fantastic no astringency at all.


Edit Oh back to the thread I've still got going from last November a gallon of sloe wine, it's been very "sloe" and is still quietly bubbling away. and it's not dry enough for me yet.

[hoomin_erra]

Just added the following to the list

10 Gallons Cider
Elderberry Wine
Bramble Wine
Plum Wine
Plum Brandy
Blackberry Brandy
Sloe Gin

[red]

decided to start a new tradition in this family... on michaelmas (today) start brewing beer for that winter celebration thingy

yes i realise it will be early.. have to test it.. and maybe make a different one too....

[frozenthunderbolt]

Brewing-
- fejoa 3?4?5? gal
fejoa and ginger/ginger and fejoa - a demijohn

maturing
- elderberry
-elderflour and jasmine
-dandylion
- mead
- grapefruit - 3 years on it tastes like mead - undrinkabel first year
- plum and plumcott
- blackberry

upcoming
- damson gin
- plum wine
maybe more grapefruit
Ginger - i LOVE Stones Green Ginger Wine and want to make my very own "bastard juice" as it is localy known

[thefriarandme]

5 gallons exotic fruit juice
2 gallons rhubarb
2 gallons peach
2 gallons gooseberry
2 gallons elderflower
1 gallon nettle
1 gallon Christmas; apple, cinnamon, orange, lemon, rosehips, hibiscus, blackcurrant and pomegranate mix
1 gallon lemon
1 gallon rose hip and hibiscus
1 gallon blackcurrant
1 gallon pomegranate
1 gallon apple and cinnamon

Hope to start 5 gallons of Mild today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[pskipper]

2 gallons plum and blueberry
1 gallon bramble and elder
1 gallon garlic and red grape
1 ginger beer plant which should give 14 pints a week if I want

Hoping to go round the back roads this weekend gathering apples for hedgerow cider!

[Super.Niki]

The others will be left as long as i can, but madam keeps wanting to taste them...

I resent that... I'm not a madam! The mead tastes nice (my drinking crew at uni all agree!) but the mystery wine's still a bit acidy... kinda tasted fizzy but it's not actually fizzy... if you get what I mean? Anyone??

Not allowed home-brew equipment in halls although I've got the thumbs up form next years' housemate(s) to start brewing as soon as we move in!

[Cheezy]

Spent the whole weekend crushing,milling and pressing the apples I have managed to scrump. Resulting in 5 gallons of balanced (pH 3.4)but not too high sugar (1050 OG) juice. Used a small amount of campden tablets ( one per gallon) in the first 3 gallon which I pressed on Saturday. To keep right over night until I could press the remaining 2 gallon.
Then pitched Gervin no.5 yeast. (meant to be able to brew down to 8'C... useful in my garage.)

I'm hopeful to get more apples to make a second 5 gal. batch.

[the.fee.fairy]

ooooh...that gives me ideas!
i've got loads of apples that i was going to turn to cider, and apple wine, but i picked up a load of ginger at the weekend, so...does anyone have a tried and tested ginger wine recipe?

I'm thinking apple and ginger too...that would work, right?