Be Excellent To Each Other

Do any of you 'orrible lot have any experience of making beer at home?

My housemate and I want to brew our own ale.

Do the 'off the shelf' homebrew kits really work?

I am keen to make it special by adding extra flavours to the recipe, but not sure what the scope is for this. Presumably you can't just start throwing in stuff and expect it to turn out drinkable.

You need Sir Chewbury Gubbins to come and visit - he knows a thing or two about brewing ale. Personally, from being raised on homebrew (I don't remember much, but my grandfather was very good at it) the off the shelf kits are pretty good but I would stick with the recipe for your first attempt and make sure you're extremely methodical with regard to keeping your brewing equipment clean.

My grandfather did make all his own beer and wine using all his own ingredients eventually, but I remember him starting with kits.

I agree with DB, I made some ale a few years ago usinga kit - but like all good recipes I tinkered. The result was a tasty brew that was completely flat!

I think that it's one of those things that once you've got a good handle on the method and recipe, then it's time to tinker.

Oh yeah, by the time we added in the cost of buying all of the kit our bottles of beer cost about 4 quid.

Best of luck chap!

We had a thread about this a while ago, I think.

Ah yes, here we go. Hope this helps.

my dad was a homebrew fanatic, helped by having a homebrew shop on the end of our road. He used to make wine primarily (his potato wine was legendary, had the kick of vodka but with a nice sweet taste) but would on occasion whip up a few gallons of ale. No shortcuts though, he had a boatload of equipment and ingredients and it took AGES to my pre-teen mind before you could drink it. /blog, again, sorry

I really must get some done over Christmas hols, thanks for the reminder!
Follow Myoptika's blue link road for my previous comments.

The off the shelf kits work fine. Best bet, find a brewing shop near you and chat to the staff, you don't run a homebrew shop without a bit of enthusiasm for the topic!

I remember at Shunt that Bobby said he was going to brew me my own myoptikale. I wonder how that's getting along?

I think you are making that up!
(Aren't you?)

Yes.

From the genus myoptiakalus, a mastadon form the Jurrassic age, wiped out by a shortage of mashmallows in the region now known as the Russian Steppes. Noted for it's face fur and stripy coat.

FTFY.