Made from beer

Many years ago my father brewed his own beer. It was a hobby that lasted a number of years and many batches. It was something that was strangely fascinating. In those days before premixed tins of extract he'd buy the hops and malt and sugar and yeast then boil up this concoction before it departed to the garage to bubble away for a week or two. The gurgling of the airlock was captivating. We'd stand around waiting for the first signs of life from the yeast; and then we'd be back to watch it slow down and stop prior to bottling. The early batches were hand-capped which was a danger in itself and several bottle succumbed rather than being sealed. Sometime later a bench capper appeared and so one of the dangers of home brewing was averted. I don't recall too many explosions as the beer matured, but there must have been some. At least one batch went towards watering the lawn, but I recall that most were drinkable.

And so it is that 30 years later I'm doing the same thing. The process should be easier with the canned extract (a Pilsener to start off with). I've got the kit (Brewcraft) replete with bench capper. I'm working on acquiring some stubbies and I'll also use some 740ml PET bottles. For this first attempt I'll bottle half-and-half into 375ml stubbies and 740ml PET bottles.

But it all has to wait until we arrive in the New England area. Presuming I can get it started within a few days of arriving, the first bottle should be ready just in time for Christmas.

Once that's successfully under my belt, so to speak, we can try different things. The home brew shop had some red wine fermenting in one of the carboys, and I'd like to try my hand at broad bean pod wine and some fruit wines at some stage. But we need to start somewhere - and a can of Pilsener seems as good as any.