My experience with the commoner garden kits you can buy in most hardware stores and rely on the addition of cane sugar for fermentation are that they are at best mediocre.
Muntons on the other hand follow the Reinheitsgebot, a brewing law allowing malt, hops, water and yeast as the only ingredients. The abscence of sugar, which is completely alien to the brewing process, contributes to a much more real tasting beer.
We bought two kits, the Continental pilsner and the seasonable "Santa's Winter Warmer". The production of the latter, assuming all continues to go well should be timed nicely with the arrival of The Thoughtful Scotsman in a couple of weekends time.
The Process really couldn't be simpler, first you sterelise all your equipment
then you place the 2 cans of concentrate in hot water for 5 minutes to loosen the contents
Pour this in a fermenting vessel
Add 6 litres of boiling water and make up to 20.5 litres with cold water stirring well to make sure all the concentrate is dissolved.
Measure the temperature (should be around 20C) and the Specific Gravity, 1.050 in this case.
Place in a warm place, the bathroom with its heated floor is ideal,
and leave to ferment for 4-6 days.
Inside 24 hours it had begun to ferment at pace, so everything is going to plan right now. When the fermenting stops, according to the instructions, it should be below 1.014 specific gravity. Interesting this, as according to the calculation
(start s.g - end s.g.)x129 = %alcohol
you get
(1.050 - 1.014)x129 = 4.64%
However, Muntons say that this kit should be around 5.7% which by my calculactions requires a end s.g. of 1.006. I will duly measure and report back.
3 comments:
Yes, there is definitely no stopping me now!
Another case of a chip off the old block.
Our brewing days stopped when we moved to Ireland and all we managed was something that tasted like the contents of Vegas's stud pants. I'm sure you didn't really want to know that.
Charming!
Although that same symptom didn't stop you being the only one that was prepared to try the Carrot wine I made. If I remember we decided it just needed to mature, 3 years later and it still tasted like Timmy had cocked his leg in it.....
Yes, but do you remember the cider making experiments?? It was only supposed to ferment for 2 weeks (as I remember) but two months later it was still fizzing like mad. It was a bit rough, but amazingly tasty (and a little on the strong side!). And I would add that the carrot wine didn't taste like Timmy had cocked his leg so much as he had, well, I can't really say it in words but......
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