Jun 08 2007
The Best Beer!
Even if you’re not a big beer drinker, as long as you appreciate good beer, there’s no way you’ll not love the red ale from The Brew House. It is the best beer I’ve ever tasted. There may be one or two factory-bottled beers that come close, but for quality and flavour, this stuff can’t be beat. I’m not kidding. In the summer, I drink probably no more than two or three beers a week, if that. But drinking Brew House red ale when I do drink beer transforms it into something that doesn’t only provide refreshment and a pleasant buzz — it’s an experience.
The Brew House makes the simplest and the best home brew kits I’ve ever come across. Yes, I’m talking about home brew, but don’t let that turn you off. The kits consists of a big bag full of liquid wort, none of the syrupy canned gunk you have to boil and water down. You just pour the liquid wort into a big bucket, add two bottles of spring water (8 litres), sprinkle some yeast on top, put a cover on the bucket with a place for gas to escape, and that’s pretty much it. Just add water. How much easier can it get?
Of course you’ll then have to transfer the fermented beer into a carboy and let it sit for awhile. Then you’ll have to bottle it. But plastic screw-off pint bottles make the process dead easy. You don’t have to collect glass bottles or buy a capper or any of that crap. You will have to sanitize everything, but just use household bleach and rinse it off with warm water. It’s much easier than measuring and dissolving that pink powdered stuff, and it works much better. If you have a basement sink (which I don’t), then you’ve got it made. You have no reason then not to make this beer.
I don’t enjoy making home brew, but plastic bottles and these Brew House kits make the process a hell of a lot easier than it was back in the day when me and Tommy’s Brudder used to brew it in his brother’s closest, having to boil the syrup over a stove and cap all the bottles and so on. I have no desire to get involved with brewing beer again, especially to that degree. But these Brew House kits are the way to go. I’ve made three kits since the winter. I have over 120 pints of beer in my house, and it cost me — I’m not sure what it cost me. Probably less than a dollar per bottle — and I’m talking pint bottles. I’m happy. (The price of the gear and plastic bottles quickly pays for itself. It only gets cheaper with each kit you make.)
If you buy one of these kits and get the gear this weekend (I’ll list all the gear in the comments), your first batch should be ready to drink by August. What are you waiting for?
A record of my adventures in home brewing can be found under the Home Brew category at Mud Songs. Cheers!
You can get what’s called a “starter kit” at most home brewing stores, but they often contain hyrometers and “taste” beakers and other junk you don’t need unless you’re really serious about brewing (which I’m not), or unless you want to get heavy into making wine. But if you just want to make good beer and not fart around with stuff, all you’ll need is following:
— 26 litre bucket (the kits make 23 litres, though usually a bit less).
— An air tight cover for the bucket, preferably with a hole in the middle that allows you to insert a water bung (one of those bubbly things that lets gas escape but maintains the air tight seal). (If you don’t have a cover with a hole for the water bung, just seal the cover and then crack the seal a bit so gas can come out.)
— A water bung (that may not be the correct terminology).
— A big plastic or stainless steel spoon (at least 2 feet long).
— A syphoning hose with a detachable bottling apparatus (I don’t know what it’s called, but it allows you to stop the flow of the beer during the bottling process as you switch between bottles).
— 26 litre carboy (the light weight plastic ones are nice).
— 48 plastic pint bottles with screw-on (or screw-off) caps. (You won’t bottle 48 pints from one kit, but it doesn’t hurt to have extras.)
— A bottle of household bleach.
All this stuff except the household bleach can be bought at most brewing stores. When you buy the bucket, it usually comes with the proper cover. The syphoning hose usually comes with the extra bottling apparatus attached too.
You can buy smaller bottles, but you’ll have to do the math yourself. Enough to bottle up to 23 litres of beer.
The Brew House has plenty of other kits, and apparently they’re all really good, though I don’t think anything beats the Red Ale.
I use Cooper’s kits from Australia. After messing around back twenty years ago and getting sick of the making of it, I’ve simplified.
I use a primary fermenter only. A small white “kitchen catcher” garbage bag covers the tub, and a combination string/elastic holds it in place. When the pressure builds up to the point it has to go somewhere, it does all by itself.
I get maybe 21 litres from 23 but that’s okay because most of what I’m throwing away is yeast.
After brewing, I let it sit for a week before bottling. After that, if I’m really thirsty, three days will give me a reasonably good beer without much fizz. A couple days more, and it’s awesome! So, less than two weeks from start to finish. Can’t complain about that.
My friends love it.