Hello from North East England

[FatDad]

Hi everyone, I’m from the North East of England and BRAND new to all of this. I saw a Youtube video on making your own mead at the weekend and it seemed pretty easy so I thought I would give it a go. So here I am a couple of days later I am now the proud father of a gallon demijohn of potential mead fermenting away in a cupboard since yesterday (see below).

Now even if my first fumblings as a home brewer fail, I find the process quite fascinating (as well as sometimes complex, contradictory and confusing). I love drinking wine so my interest lies there for the moment but beers would also be of interest possibly in the future. Anyway, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

I’ve joined to forum to pick up hints and tips as well as ideas, I would also like to get to know you all and if there is anyone else here from the North East of England and like to find reputable suppliers locally or specific local info too.

So I look forward to getting to know you all and hopefully my interest in home brewing will grow as well as my knowledge.
Looking forward to meeting you all. :

 

[advisabledata]

welcome to the forum
that looks really good I'm looking into brewing a mead in the future as I'm a ale drinker I'm more inclined to brew beer.

also what part of north east are you from

 

[FatDad]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm in Jarrow/South Shields area.

 

[ManseMasher]

Welcome aboard!

 

[advisabledata]

ahh cool I'm from Grimsby area

 

[MyQul]

Welcome to the forum.

Mrs M finished off the last of the shop bought mead yesterday and is prompting me to make some

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum, i also only make wine have a look at this thread showing you how to make great tasting wine from supermarket juice http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

 

[MyQul]

Chippy your getting as bad as Clibit!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have been spamming my thread a lot longer. :lol:

 

[FatDad]

Welcome to the forum, i also only make wine have a look at this thread showing you how to make great tasting wine from supermarket juice http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

LOL strangely enough that thread above is the one I have been reading/watching for the last hour so when I saw you mention it I smiled.

I viewed it purely because of the title and had no idea what 'WOW' was, after finding the glossary I discovered what it meant but had to view the post you quoted to actually see what Wurzel's Orange Wine was - looks interesting and I suspect this could be something I try VERY soon.

Incidentally, is it still called WOW if it doesn't use orange juice? So many recipes seem to have no orange juice but other juices instead.

 

[Tony1951]

I would also like to get to know you all and if there is anyone else here from the North East of England and like to find reputable suppliers locally or specific local info too.

Hi. There's a homebrew shop in Whitley Bay by the Metro Station. As far as I know it is the only one in Newcastle. You could easily get there on the Metro from Jarrow. It would probably be quicker than driving. They have quite a good selection of stuff, though they are more pricey than the on-line dealers. It is called Elderberry Home Brew Centre and is on Station Road, Whitley Bay. If you are lucky enough to turn up there when the owner is there, he is a mine of information and he owns a vineyard in France. I think he spends a fair bit of time there, leaving minders looking after the shop. These are usually not that knowledgeable, but you will find some very good advice here from people like Chippie Tea (for wine).

 

[FatDad]

Cheers Tony :) A shop owner with his own vineyard. I'm guessing he would know quite a bit of info.

 

[Twostage]

There's also homebrewlife in felling. Great range of stuff and the owner (like elderberry) has a lot of knowledge. There is a wilko in town that has a home brew section - kits etc.

We'll be forming a north east chapter shortly

 

[FatDad]

Yes Wilko and Ebay have been my best friends over the last couple of days. I like drinking wine so I would LOVE to be my own wine supplier. I like to drink wines 12% and above so hopefully I can produce something around that to keep me in wine.

 

[Tony1951]

There's also homebrewlife in felling. Great range of stuff and the owner (like elderberry) has a lot of knowledge. There is a wilko in town that has a home brew section - kits etc.

We'll be forming a north east chapter shortly

Yes - forgot to mention wilkos. There are several of them around the town. Also, for stuff like kits and ordinary basic, beginners brewing hardware, Tesco Direct is a good source and they have regular sales where the prices drop by about 25% making beer kits cost about ten quid and pressure barrels dropping from £25 (ordinary price) to about £18. Not to be missed if you want stuff that they sell and of course, by collecting from the local Tesco Direct, you get no delivery charges making for real bargains.

I didn't know about the Felling home brew shop.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Incidentally, is it still called WOW if it doesn't use orange juice? So many recipes seem to have no orange juice but other juices instead.

The original WOW recipe was made from orange juice and white grape juice so is orange wine, i call everything else juice wine as its made with juice drink from the supermarket hence my signature (posted as i know members can turn signatures off in settings)


Supermarket Juice Wine Recipes and Wurzels Orange Wine (WOW's) - here - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462



.

 

[Twostage]

I didn't know about the Felling home brew shop.

Stumbled across it by accident. The owner is on Facebook and does occaisional bulk buys and invites people to club together. With his last one I split two 25 kilo sacks of grain with him - Maris otter and pilsner. Turns out 25 kilos is a lot

 

[FatDad]

I have a large Tesco near to me so checking out their sales might be high on my list of things to do. Thanks for that.

 

[mickthetrick]

ye the shop in felling has a good selection of kits and grains. his prices are pretty good too. oh and welcome to the forum from a Durham brewer .

 

[deanrpwaacs01]

I made this a few months back . Its just finished . The nutrients helped alot with the fermentation otherwise the yeast struggles . View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1437501252936.jpg