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Sounds... interesting. Normally, if I don't eat them all, I'd just dissolve them in vodka but if this works for you I might give it a try. I think giving it a good long boil to remove (destroy? denature?) the preservatives would be important here. If it does work, it makes you wonder what other...

I was doubtful about the carbon sachet clearing, too! Surprisingly it only took about half an hour for the finings to start working. Currently mine is almost completely clear, with a very light dusting of carbon on the bottom. Tastes fine when mixed with coke or energy drink!

It's almost off the scale for mine too. I happened to get mine from my dad: twenty/thirty years ago he was a home brewer too, but got rid of most of his nice equipment except for the hydrometer! Bentonite is decent for clearing and quite cheap. I find it does impart a somewhat unpleasant...

OG was 1.140. SG was 1.005 (roughly) It's not quite as strong as I'd hoped for, but the temperature was perhaps a tad high. I drank just over half a pint of the yeasty dregs last night (cleared with additional bentonite rather than superfinings) and it tastes perfectly fine with energy drink. I...

I'm currently making a batch of this (actually, as soon as I finish typing this I'm going to rack it) and so far so good. The kit comes with liquid activated carbon which I'm told effectively removes the nasty flavours leaving you with a pretty decent tasting (half strength) spirit, although I'm...

Well I finally got round to getting my package from the post office today and started the process! Here's a photo from around half way through: I apologise for the state of the kitchen! The chopsticks were there because I was having trouble retrieving my hydrometer from a batch of cider in an...

Cheers, I'll place an order on Monday :thumb:

So I recent found I had a £20 Amazon voucher left over from christmas (yay!) and I'm thinking of buying an alcotec vodka kit, specifically this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Homebrew-Winema ... ds=alcotec I'm wondering what I can expect from it, I realise it's probably not going to be taste...

I've used an On The Rocks kit before and didn't need any finings: it cleared up beautifully with time (and a bit of pectolase, though I'm not sure if this was entirely necessary) I did leave it for several months in the FV though. Tasted pretty good*, but as someone recommended above, adding a...

Thanks. I also bought some campden tablets as the potassium sorbate does say to use them (plus preserving things is probably a good idea - I've lost about 10L of cider in the last few months due to leaving it too long without preserving!)

Hi there, I made a small (half gallon) experimental batch of mead about a month ago. Currently it's been sitting on a shelf doing it's thing but a taste test showed that it's still extremely yeasty, doesn't taste of honey but it was very strong. No hydrometer reading, I really need to get into...

From what I gather there is some debate about the value of a constant in the equation (Off the top of my head it's around 7.4, but some people use 7.3 and other 7.5, for example) My advice would be to take the average of the results from different calculators. So in your case it's around 13.4%...

Instead of using the lid I'd suggest cling film (folded once or twice) and a small elastic band. I am yet to possess an airlock, and I use this method all the time. Never had problems with exploding bottles or infections by doing this. Here's an example of some of my first ever brews: The one...

In order(ish): Beer Cider (the order of beer and cider is normally dependant on which I drank most recently!) Whisky (Speyside seems to produce all of my favourites) Lemonade Gin and Tonic Tea

I had a little look the other night and I intend to follow it more accurately in the future. My experience with using tea for tannin hasn't been great so far though, so I'm somewhat hesitant to use it. Having said that, the two brews I did put tea in are starting to become less harsh after three...

Ah right, thanks for that. 7.5% will do just nicely as I'm not especially bothered about the abv, so long as it's drinkable!

To kick off the new year (and help me recover from the shock of finding my first attempt at beer didn't go well) I went and made up a batch of a tipple my housemates loved last time around. Only this time it isn't mostly water and baking yeast! 3L of sainsburys cranberry juice drink (£2.50 for...

Right, would it be better to bulk age in the FV or bottle it and age it that way? Cheers.

Around the middle of December I put on a batch of geordie bitter from a can that I know is at least 25 years old. I tried some for the first time today and it's not great. Smells very sweet, almost like treacle and is slightly carbonated, but tastes sour. I'm pretty sure everything was properly...

Mead with forest fruits? Is this (relatively) standard practice or a moment of "inspiration"? I'm thinking of making up some mead myself in a week or two, if this fruit works out for you then I'll probably give it a go with them in.