Now then!

Browntea · Jul 15, 2013

Hello from me to all of you!

I have been floating around a little reading odd posts and have now decided to start brewing!! Not sure what yet but mead sounds good as I keep bees!

I've also bought a coopers ginger beer kit... I wonder if anyone can tell me if I can start this off in a pressure barrel and leave it in that? Also carbonation tablets? How do I go about this? I've found them on fleabay if I've worked it out right I need 5 for my kit... HELP!! :)

oldbloke · Jul 15, 2013

Since you have the carb tabs you may as well use them, but most people seem to give up on them pretty quickly and just use sugar.

As you have bees, mead is obvious, but be warned, it takes a long time to ferment and even longer to mature to something drinkable.
If your bees feed on something flavourful so you have tasty honey, straight mead could be good. But if you want something drinkable faster, consider chucking in some berries for extra flavour - it can be drunk much younger than straight mead.
There are a few mead makers here but you'll probably want to look at gotmead.com as well

ohbeary · Jul 15, 2013

Browntea, forget Carbonation Tablets they are for fools and beer, if you are thinking of Mead then Fatbloke is the guy for you, he posts here regularly and is quite an expert.

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/foru ... start-here

Browntea · Jul 16, 2013

I haven't bought the tabs yet, how do I use the sugar... What quantity and when?
Heather honey is the best stuff I get from the bees and is very tasty I have another thread open asking for mead recipes so hopefully I will get some that don't take so long! I can't wait to try some of my own!!

oldbloke · Jul 16, 2013

When kegging or bottling, to make a fizzy drink, up to 1tsp ordinary granulated sugar per 500ml. 1tsp suits ciders and lagers and is pretty fizzy, use less for ales. Don't use any for still drinks, obv. Some people reckon the finer crystal size of caster sugar works better.
And of course anything fizzy must go into suitable bottles if you don't want explosions - anything that had something fizzy in it before, and undamaged.