First home brew here

Our first brewing up here: Damson wine x 10 litres / White wine x 30 bottles and ale x 30 bottles.
 I'm drinking the Ale as I write and its pretty good, especially considering it would be better to have left it for a few more weeks to improve. Heres the recipe for this easy to make ale:


Ale For All


900g Malt extract / 50g Golding hops / 350g Sugar / 8 litres water / Beer yeast / 50g Castor sugar (for priming)


Place all but a handfull of the hops in a large pan, add 1.2 litres of water and squeeze the hops in your hand until they are thoroughly wet. Place a cover on the pan and boil vigorously for 15 mins.


Meanwhile pour 575ml of warm water into a brewing bin and stir into it the malt extract and sugar. A trace of malt may be left in the jar and disolved in a cup of tepid water. The yeast should then be added t this thin malt solution to become activated. Cover and leave it until required.


strain the hop water into the brewing bin,. add another 1.2 litres of water to the hops and boil them for a further 15 minutes. Again, strain the liquid into the bin, add another 1.2 litres of water to the hops and boil again for a final 15 minues. Strain the liquid into the brewing bin and discard the hops.


Top up the bin with cold water to the 9 litre mark and when the temperature of the wort has fallen to 21 c pitch the activated yeast. Cover the bin for 24 hours then skim off the dirty froth. Stir the wort well, cover and leave for another 24 hours. Skim off the newfroth and add the handfull of hops saved from the outset. Wet them thoroughly in the wort, replace the cover and leave for three days, pressing the hops below the surface twice each day.


Siphen the clearing beer into a jar, fit an airlock and leave in a cool place for three days while the beer clears and throws a fairly heavy sediment.  Rack the now just hazy beer into a clean jar , stir in the castor sugar  and as soon as it is dissolved siphon the beer into sterilised bottles. Fill each one leaving a gap off 2" from the top and tightly crimp on new sterilised crown caps. Leave the bottles in a warm place for one week and then move them to a cooler place for a further two weeks. The beer is ready to drink. Serve cool and take care not to disturb sediment when pouring.




* I kept the hops and threw them onto one of our raised beds, its meant to be good as an improver
* Theres more recipes on my website: www.thegreenphoenix.co.uk (Self sufficiency page)

Well thats that then, I'm off to enjoy some more off this ale :)

P.s. only had a pic of wine, need to add one of the boiling hops really