hail fellow brewers


Yes, I'm a self confessed masher, and sparger of my own wort - call the police!

I use Maris Otter pale malt for the bulk sugars - a low nitrogen premium barley. I also use a wide variety of hops, including some American varieties - Cascade is nice, very fruity. My favourite recipe is for a medium stout, not a dry one like Guinness, but with more body (mashed at a lower temperature makes more polysaccharides). I'm just moving onto lagering using a spare refrigerator.

Main equipment is two stainless steel 30 litre boilers, a home made wort chiller (coil of copper pipe connected to cold tapwater), and the usual plastic fermation bins. I barrel rather than bottle, except for some very strong ale batches which are best bottled. I have a couple of corny kegs for transporting beer; I allow the beer to drop clear, rack off into the kegs and force carbonate, but most of my beer gets barreled for domestic consumption.

If you haven't mashed, try it - the improvement in quality is dramatic, and you'll not go back to extract brewing. The extra hassle is not that much - it's actually fun, and I've seen all kinds of clever semi-automated backyard breweries invovling liquid pumps, filters and gas burners if you're technically minded.

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'79 280SE
'87 560SEL
'83 280CE
'01 Nissan Micra
'98 VW Passat
'83 911 turbo