Here’s a great step-by-step instructional video from Muntons on how to make homebrew beer from a kit. I think its an excellent demonstration for novice brewers. If you want to learn how to set up your first beer brew, then check it out!

Not content to let Trenchfoot hog the limelight, I am finally back and ready for action after my compatriot has laid down the gauntlet with his ‘turd in a jar’ mead. I’ve had some tinned strawberries in the cupboard for quite some time now, desperate to have a go at a wine from tinned fruits following Trenchfoot’s quite outstanding plum wine cracked out at the Church christmas party. I’m going for a rather simple recipe:

2 x 400g tin of strawberries
1 kilo sugar
2 medium lemons
1/2 teaspoon tannin (or leave a tea bag to soak in a little water)
Pectolase (helps to clear the wine)
Yeast nutrient
Wine yeast
Water to 1 gallon

Drain off the syrup from the strawberries, and put to one side. Mash strawberries in a bucket. Dissolve the sugar in c. 4 pints of boiling water. Add syrup and sugar to strawberries, top up water to gallon and allow to cool. Add Tannin, pectolase, yeast and yeast nutrient and cover bucket.  Stir daily for 4 days before throwing into a demijohn via a nylon sieve allowing fermentation to be completed.