Edition One - February - Australian University Sport

Money Saving Tips
PAGE
041
Nathan E Watts
23 litres of beer for $15!
Would you like 23 litres of beer for $15
Of course, if you like beer. So how can you get the equivalent of
2½ cartons for less than the cost of a six pack Simple, make it
yourself. No alcohol tax or trips to the bottle shop.
All you need is a kilo of sugar, a tin of brew mixture, bottles and a
brew kit will simplify your task from there. Follow the instructions
and you’re done. And there is the rub; the instructions specify a
wait of at least a month. Not an issue once you get organised and
have several brews going at once and other beers maturing in
storage. But, do not drink home brew without first maturing it for
at least a month, unless you like drinking warm beer, and not like
XXXX beer or Very Bad or Tooheys urine, something altogether
worse. 3 months maturing is better.
Fortunately there is a simpler method for those of you that are
reluctant to commit to the start-up cost and effort of brewing
lagers, draughts and imitations of main stream beers. Ginger
Beer.
Ginger beer is too sweet for some people, however it is much
easier to brew, and a lot quicker. The process follows.
1.Collect enough plastic bottles to hold 23 litres. I prefer 15
bottles of 1.5litres.
2.Get a ginger beer mixture (Brigalow or Coopers) available at
brew shops, Kmart or the supermarket.
3. Get a large pot, put on the stove, with the hob on medium to
high. Add a few litres of water. Add a kilo of sugar, stir and heat
until dissolved, then add the brew mixture and stir. Do not boil!
4. Once the mixture is fully liquefied ladle the mixture evenly (if
they are all the same size) into your bottles.
5. Squeeze the bottles so that they are deformed and the volume
is reduced (tolerance for gas build up).
6. Fill with water (ensure that the bottle remains deformed).
7. Add a dash of yeast to each bottle (packet provided in brew kit).
8. Put the lids on tight and gently shake.
9. Put in cool, dry, dark place, with easy access. An esky/chilli bin
may be sufficient.
10. Check every 12 hours to see if the bottles have been
pressurised; their shape will have returned to normal and they
will be very hard. If so, proceed to step 11.
11. Release the lid slightly to release the pressure. For the first
few days you may need to do this several times a day.
12. Repeat step 10 and 11 until you notice the bottles are no
longer re-pressurising (they remain squeezable). At which point
you can reduce the frequency of the inspection of the bottles. The
build-up of brewers scum from the fermentation stage is normal
and nothing to worry about.
13. Wait at least 7 days since you set the brew down (bottled it).
14. You now have a concentrated Ginger Beer!
15. Chill and dilute for drinking.
A few warnings:
1. If you do not release the pressure from your bottles enough
they will explode - wasting good beer. Fortunately the plastic
bottles distort severely before exploding, giving you plenty of time
to release the pressure.
2. This is a very sweet beer, great for summer. Be careful...
3. This is a sweet beer, so it is often enjoyed by women as much
as men. More reasons to jealously horde your stash.
4. This method does not work for lagers, draughts and the usual
beers. If you want to really get into those you should use glass
bottles. Clean them properly and follow the ‘proper’ brewing
method.
5. Recycle your bottles. However, if you do brew traditional beers
then you need to collect, save and wash your glass bottles.
6. Be careful who you give your beer too. If they like it you will
find you will be expected to supply them endlessly as it ‘costs you
nothing’, yet they probably will not shout you in return at the pub
as, ‘that’s not fair, the costs are not the same’.
The best way to deal with this is to make sure that you have
some beers on hand that you know are absolutely rank. Throw
in chillies, dead cockroaches, mouse droppings, make it flat....
anything that will put people off touching your brew. And keep
your ‘special’ edition aside for deployment when you find someone
taking advantage of your new found talent.
By releasing such an edition will ensure that home brewing
gets a bad name and the fallacy that all home brew is terrible,
disgusting and to be avoided will be carried on.
7. If you really get into your home brewing the biggest issue is you
will not be able to drink pub beers again. You will be that annoying
person that complains about every beer that is commercially
available. And that is before you’re expected to pay for it!
Happy brewing!
Dilution is necessary as you will have less than the desired/
recommended volume of beer if you had followed these
instructions (as you would have squeezed the bottles before
capping). So you must add water upon drinking so that the bottle
is actually full.
This can be a messy, fizzy process, so it is better to empty the
bottle into a jug and then add ice to achieve the desired volume
of beer. Sometimes I even allow the ice to melt fully before
drinking.....