Now that we’re brewing our second batch of beer, we’ve sealed our first 23 bottles of wine and cut our teeth – rather successfully – on making ginger beer, we’ve gathered together our top 5 tips for successful beer and wine making for future reference.
1. Let your fermenter breathe.
This is vitally important. The process of fermentation produces a lot of carbon dioxide that will quickly fill your fermenter, blowing off the lid if it’s not firmly clipped on. Worse, if you’re brewing in a demijohn, if there’s no way for the carbon dioxide to escape it could cause the glass to explode.
2. Use a proper airlock.
The first time we made beer, we didn’t have a vent or an airlock in our fermenter, so we had to keep on lifting up the edge of the lid to release the pressure. This is dangerous, as it means you could get the outside air seeping in and contaminating your beer. Instead, use an airlock, which lets the carbon dioxide out without letting the outside air in.
3. Keep it warm.
We don’t have a heater in our kitchen. That’s fine in the summer, and not a problem when you’re cooking as that raises the temperature, but at all other times it gets cold. Beer and wine brews best when kept at between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius; any lower, and it will take longer. We put a cheap oil-filled radiator beside our fermenter, set to a low heat to help things along and were ready to bottle our wine after just six days.
4. Check the gravity.
You could just wait until the airlock stops burping and bottle your beer or wine right then, but you have no way of knowing whether it really is ready or not. Buy a hydrometer so you can measure the specific gravity to make sure the fermentation process has completed and the alcohol content reached its proper level. This will make for a better brew, and safer bottling.
5. Be patient.
You can’t rush brewing. It all relies on working with the yeast, which is a living organism. Let it do its work in its own good time and it will reward you with delicious, pure results.
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Why not use the type of heater that gardeners use for germinating seeds. I have one with a thermostat included so that I can maintain a good temp. for brewing. (Am an old hand at the game of home brewing-made my first batch about 65 years ago. Now stick to making wine but still use the thermo controlled heater under the 6 gallon bucket.
Ex York now in the USA. (learned my “brewing” from the brewmaster at Tadcaster Ales).