Beat Gordon Brown's Booze Tax - Brew Your Own Beer!

A couple of years ago I was introduced to Real Ale. Which in a nutshell is beer made the old way. It's had some great publicity on the TV lately (Oz and James, Morrisey and Fox) and I think that's a good thing. The only downside is that I've now been completely ruined and can't drink flavourless draft lager any more. It's the real stuff for me, and if I can't get a proper pint, then I move onto the Guinness.

It's seems the best of the brewers are small holdings called Micro Breweries and the making of the beer is as interesting to many as the drinking, so it's a natural progression from the drinking to the making.

So I was pretty chuffed when I got a Beer Making Kit as a Christmas gift. It's a Coopers Lager kit, which worried me to start with but the end results have proven to be most surprising! I ended up with was was essentially a lightly carbonated pale ale, see the pic on the left there. I've just polished off the last of the 30 bottles and enjoyed the lot! Nevertheless, I'm now moving onto a proper real ale. I've replenished my stores with a kit from Woodfordes. The kit is simply two tins of their own recipe malt and a sachet of yeast. 45 minutes later and my beer is brewing!

Home brewing is something which was rather trendy in the late 70s and early 80s, it's no so common now, but with the government talking about raising prices on alcohol I can see it becoming more popular. For me it's worth it just for the sense of reward and having some great beer on tap. But the finances are also worth mentioning : 65p per pint. Sixty five of your glorious English pence! Now there's a billy bargain!

So what kit do you need to make some homebrew? The essentials are

• Fermenting Tank - Usually a 25 litre tank holding 23 litres of brew.
• Immersion heater - To keep your brew at a stable 18-20 degress C
• Bottles - if you're bottle conditioning
• Pressure barrel - if you're cask conditioning
• Beer Kit - this contains the consumables, namely :

1. Tin (s) of Malt Extract
2. Yeast
3. Sugar (not always needed at this stage)

The process is dead easy too.

• Empty the tin(s) of malt into the fermenter along with 3 or 4 litres of boiling water, stir around till it's dissolved well.
• Top up to 23 litres mark with cold water
• Check the temperature is 18-20'c, then sprinkle the yeast on top
  
• Seal the fermenter and keep in a warm place, best to use an immersion heater
• Wait 7 days
• Transfer the brew to bottles, add a spoonful of sugar for each bottle
• Or, transfer to a pressure barrel adding a load of sugar if you want some fizz
  
• Store for 7-10 days
• DRINK! And laugh at people paying £3 a pint.
  

Initial outlay for all this gear is <£100 and it will last you for years. You can recover your costs within 3 or 4 batches.

So what are you waiting for? Get brewing!