Saving for retirement one pint at a time...

[pauls]

Hi,
My wife and I started a bit of a household finance review last year. One surprisingly large item in our household expences was booze (wine and beer in the house and pub)...

Then just before going out for the work Christmas do, one of the guys shared some of his homebrew cider round the office... Very nice, and certainly had an effect...

Then I suggested to my missus that we could still enjoy the wine and beer while reducing the spend "simply" by brewing our own. I was most surprised when this idea was warmly received :thumb:

I later learned that the previous week she had bought a 30 bottle Pinot Grigio kit from Amazon as a Christmas present for me :clap:

Since then I have resurrected some neglected kit from the back of the store at my parents old house (unused for 10 years?) and been busy with a variety of cleaning and sanitizing products (Sainsbury's thin bleach, Soda Crystals and VWP) and been a bit carried away with non-stop brewing.

Brews so far

• Woodfordes Nog : lovely beer, started brew before Christmas. I have been less than patient and sampling bottles regularly over the last couple of weeks. Only problem with this brew is that I don't think there will be any left by the time it reaches peak condition :
  [/*:m:13lmk5rj]
• Pinot Grigio 30 bottle kit "Reseve Du Chateau" : Started 6th Jan. Currently Clearing. Worried about this one, I think the fermentation may have been too warm.. it was about 25C I think... but there was a slight smell of acetone (pear drops) and ethanoic acid (vinegar) when I came to rack it... Carrying on anyway in hope and to work though the whole process and learn lessons for next time... Probably making 30 large bottles of wine vinegar though. Also it is seriously dry... Final gravity is 0.996. Yeast was EC-1118. :wha:
  [/*:m:13lmk5rj]
• John Bull IPA + Muntons Beerkit Enhancer. This one went into primary fermentation on Friday 18th Jan.[/*:m:13lmk5rj]

Brews Planned

• Next one planned is a Woodfordes Wherry. The Nog is very good, but I want to try a range of styles before doing my next batch of Nog.[/*:m:13lmk5rj]

A slight issue that I have to resolve is that in the years between putting the brew kit away and getting it out SodaStream have changed the threads on their cylinders, so now I cannot use a sodastream CO2 cylinder to add top pressure to a barrel... apparently I can buy an adapter nut from a online shop in Germany for about £40... which is hard to swallow especially when I'm meant to be saving some money... so I'll be bottling beer for the time being, and the 2 old boots barrels will be unused. It would be good to get them in service before the summer barbecue season though.

... at the next household financial review I shall mostly be justifying our increase in alcohol spend :whistle:

Thanks for reading, and for all the advice on the forum. :

 

[Mark1964]

welcome to the forum :thumb:

 

[Dieseljockey]

Hi....if it's saving you money.. :thumb: it can't be a bad thing.. :lol: :lol:

ps.. the problem with your Soda stream, there's sure to be cheaper way of doing it. Add another post about it and see what the guys & gals can come up with.

 

[bobsbeer]

Welcome. : Check out the WOW wines. Saves on expensive kit wines. :thumb: 2 x 23lt kits vs 2 x 25lt WOW's and you've saved the £40+.

 

[PD]

welcome pauls.

Making beer from kits is a good way to save yourself money. Why not stick to bottling your beer ? bottles can be got for free with a little effort from pubs recycling depots and friends.

If you want to save REAL amounts of money, aim to go all grain brewing, where serious dosh can be saved. However there is a one time expense of getting the kit together.

Whatever, brewing is a bit more than just saving money. There's some wonderful beers out there to make, kit wise or all grain...Have fun the two of you.

 

[pauls]

Hi,
great welcome everyone, thanks.

@piddledribble: I picked up 50 empty pint bottles (cider) from my local one Saturday morning, and will be doing the same again soon I think. The all grain stuff looks interesting but I'll stick with beer kits for the next few brews I think... less hassle and I imagine more consistency! I want to make sure I am getting all the cleaning right and no off flavours using nice simple beer kits before I get too ambitious... too ambitious would be a known weakness of mine!

@bobsbeer : I had not come across the WOW wines. you mean Wurzel's Orange Wine as described : http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=10179 ... That looks great. I'll give it a go for my next wine. Thanks for the advice.

@Dieseljockey : Thanks I will start a thread on the sodastream issue.

Thanks

 

[Vossy1]

Welcome aboard :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome.

 

[Pearlfisher]

Hi and welcome , I did the PG kit you mentioned and found it came out medium dry , very drinkable but not as good as the kits containing more grape juice.

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[LeedsBrewer]

hello and welcome. As has been said, check out the WOWs. There are also plenty of other inexpensive stuff to brew. Ginger beer - there's a thread around here somewhere... also turbo ciders.

 

[prolix]

I need a thirty bottle kit, bought one for a mates retirement was very reluctant to give it him :sulk:

Oh and welcome

 

[Kyle_T]

Hello and Welcome :

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Welcome.... :thumb:

BB

 

[rich27500]

Welcome aboard. My solution would be to buy new barrel lids and get a gas canister, or economy barres start at about £15.

http://www.copperkettlehomebrewing.co.uk/home-brewing/64/welton-hurst-basic-barrels

http://www.copperkettlehomebrewing.co.uk/home-brewing/69/gas

 

[pauls]

Hi,
Just thought I'd pot an update and thinks for the great pointers. I've now got a gallon of WOW bubbling away. Looking forward to trying that. It is so easy to make! Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

I think I'll do another gallon as soon as I bottle this one but using Apple juice and some citric acid (lemon juice) instead of the Orange.

Not sure about money saving, but I think I'm hooked.

Drinking:
Woodforde's Nog. Started fermenting this one on 20th Dec. there's not much left!

Fermenting:
1 gallon "standard" WOW
40 pints John Bull IPA + Muntons BeerKit enhancer

Clearing:
30 bottle Pinot Grigio kit... still not sure how this will turn out, think it fermented too warm but I'll bottle it and see how it develops...Learning opportunity if nothing else.

Next Beer Kit:
Woodfordes Wherry. I'll start this when I bottle the IPA... I think I need to build up a good stock of beers or non if it will ever get a chance to condition properly!

Next Wine:
1 gallon WOW based but apple juice instead of orange juice

:thumb: