How brewing has come on since my student days

[Llanbrewer]

I had done some home brewing at home as a teenager, but was unable to do so at university. However, some brave souls in student flats matched home brewing with the cultivation of what I naively thought were tomato plants in the loft. Judging from the reports I had from a few friends who had attended their parties, and survived, I've worked out the historic 1970's student brewing recipe, as an object lesson in how not to brew. Sensitive brewers should read no further.

1. Get Boots kit or similar - the cheaper the better.
2. Makes 40 pints means you can stretch it to over a 100 pints by diluting it.
3. The instructions don't tell you to add enough sugar - you need at least 250 grams per litre to get the beer up to a reasonable 16% alcohol for a session beer.
4. Forget about brewing sugar - it's too expensive. Any sugar you can nick from your mum will do.
5. Get some wine yeast - some of the wimpy beer yeasts die at a piddly 7% alcohol.
6. Crank up the temperature of your brew. You don't want it to take weeks to ferment.
7. Don't worry about the frothy top to your racing ferment that looks like the scum on the toilet. Unlike the toilet scum, it's unlikely to kill you.
8. Once the ferment has died down and no longer looks like a pop bottle after a good shake, it's ready to drink. If you have a dishcloth, then you can use this as a filter to get some of the lumps out.
9. Enjoy.:mrgreen:

 

[Razor]

That sounds cheap and nasty. Almost as bad as the 3l for £3 Cider.


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[terrym]

Been there!
I don't think there was even such a thing as a beer kit when I started.
Me and several others used to brew 15 gallons at a time in a plastic dustbin.
All the stuff came from Boots in Division Street in Sheffield.
Used pot top cider bottles scrounged from the pub we used to frequent (the Raven - long since gone).
Post student days friends of ours used to brew, and if they were a bit short on stuff in bottles they would just dunk a glass into a still fermenting brew, and then carry on and drink it as normal.

 

[Hoppyland]

I do remember brewing potato "wine" at Bangor Uni in 1969.
In retrospect, I can't imagine why I bothered to add a few boiled potatoes - just sugar and water would have been much simpler :lol:
To distract from its cloudiness I recall adding some blue food colouring. I guess it both looked and smelled like toilet cleaner! :mrgreen:
Only 2 disappointments. The biggest was that nobody batted an eyelid when we marched into the JCR TV room with our glasses full of bizarre blue gunge (to watch Star Trek if my memory isn't faulty). The second was the hangover, but I guess that was anticipated! Happy, if silly, days! :)

 

[Llanbrewer]

I do remember brewing potato "wine" at Bangor Uni in 1969.
In retrospect, I can't imagine why I bothered to add a few boiled potatoes - just sugar and water would have been much simpler :lol:
To distract from its cloudiness I recall adding some blue food colouring. I guess it both looked and smelled like toilet cleaner! :mrgreen:
Only 2 disappointments. The biggest was that nobody batted an eyelid when we marched into the JCR TV room with our glasses full of bizarre blue gunge (to watch Star Trek if my memory isn't faulty). The second was the hangover, but I guess that was anticipated! Happy, if silly, days! :)

It was always rumoured that students in west Wales would ferment seaweed.

 

[Hoppyland]

It was always rumoured that students in west Wales would ferment seaweed.

Nah, that's just 'cos we smelled like seaweed - especially later in the term! :-?
That's why I did Marine Biology - so nobody would notice! :)

 

[peebee]

It was always rumoured that students in west Wales would ferment seaweed.

Seems some grew up to be a bit more sophisticated...

 

[Gunge]

A mate and me, c.1980 made a John Bull 'diabetic' kit in his mother's airing cupboard - about 35C, and added gawd knows how much sugar. Being but yoofs we couldn't handle alcohol at the best of times but this was incredible, and to us, it actually tasted alright. Well, we had precious little to compare it with. The evening ended up with the pair of us trying to climb onto the hospital roof. I got away with minor injuries, my mate ended up spending the night in the hospital. A lesson learned? Nah, it was just the start of the madness. The beer we made might have been ****, but the times were good. I hate this growing old malarkey.

 

[Sandimas]

The beer we made might have been ****, but the times were good. I hate this growing old malarkey.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Mate of mine used to do Boots lager kits when we were at school, our cross country route used to go past his house so we'd pop in for a crafty pint and take the short cut back to school :lol:

 

[Simonh82]

It was always rumoured that students in west Wales would ferment seaweed.

I seem to remember it was the mushrooms of West Wales that got me excited.

 

[Clint]

Yeah me and a mate made loads when we around 15...used to take it fishing and get hammered! Drank loads in his mams house and spewed most of it down the sink!

Such fun!

Cheers

Clint

 

[Hoppyland]

I seem to remember it was the mushrooms of West Wales that got me excited.

Ah yes! Some of the best woods for Chanterelles I've ever come across. Exquisite, delicate flavour!
But on leaving N Wales, I found some "interesting" little species growing on the grassy expanses of the Lancaster University campus. I worked there for a number of years, but at first I couldn't understand why so many students were combing the swathes. Botany was not one of Lancaster Uni's strengths. Took me a while to realise!

 

[Gunge]

'Back in the day', we discovered the ol' psilocybe's amazing ability to counter the effects of 10 pints of best bitter - but that wasn't always a good thing...

 

[Brewmarc]

I had done some home brewing at home as a teenager, but was unable to do so at university. However, some brave souls in student flats matched home brewing with the cultivation of what I naively thought were tomato plants in the loft. Judging from the reports I had from a few friends who had attended their parties, and survived, I've worked out the historic 1970's student brewing recipe, as an object lesson in how not to brew. Sensitive brewers should read no further.

1. Get Boots kit or similar - the cheaper the better.
2. Makes 40 pints means you can stretch it to over a 100 pints by diluting it.
3. The instructions don't tell you to add enough sugar - you need at least 250 grams per litre to get the beer up to a reasonable 16% alcohol for a session beer.
4. Forget about brewing sugar - it's too expensive. Any sugar you can nick from your mum will do.
5. Get some wine yeast - some of the wimpy beer yeasts die at a piddly 7% alcohol.
6. Crank up the temperature of your brew. You don't want it to take weeks to ferment.
7. Don't worry about the frothy top to your racing ferment that looks like the scum on the toilet. Unlike the toilet scum, it's unlikely to kill you.
8. Once the ferment has died down and no longer looks like a pop bottle after a good shake, it's ready to drink. If you have a dishcloth, then you can use this as a filter to get some of the lumps out.
9. Enjoy.:mrgreen:

Brilliant!
You have taken me back 30 years. Just how it was back in the day:thumb:
Oh how I remember those 16% session beers, & nicking my mums sugar or maybe I dont:mrgreen:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

1. Get Boots kit or similar - the cheaper the better.
2. Makes 40 pints means you can stretch it to over a 100 pints by diluting it.
3. The instructions don't tell you to add enough sugar - you need at least 250 grams per litre to get the beer up to a reasonable 16% alcohol for a session beer.
4. Forget about brewing sugar - it's too expensive. Any sugar you can nick from your mum will do.
5. Get some wine yeast - some of the wimpy beer yeasts die at a piddly 7% alcohol.
6. Crank up the temperature of your brew. You don't want it to take weeks to ferment.
7. Don't worry about the frothy top to your racing ferment that looks like the scum on the toilet. Unlike the toilet scum, it's unlikely to kill you.
8. Once the ferment has died down and no longer looks like a pop bottle after a good shake, it's ready to drink. If you have a dishcloth, then you can use this as a filter to get some of the lumps out.
9. Enjoy.:mrgreen:

Brilliant :thumb:

 

[Gunge]

Why did Boots pull out of homebrew?? They were the only outlet around my neck of the woods and I must have bought millions of their basic kits. When I was feeling flush I got one of their Special Bitter kits, y'know the one in the black tin with gold lettering, made with real hops and a gold sachet of 'genuine brewers' yeast. Ah how special I felt, striding out the store with that baby. Beer wasn't much cop, as I recall. I do however, still have the bottle capper I bought from them - still going strong and showing no signs of imminent demise.

 

[Brewmarc]

Why did Boots pull out of homebrew?? They were the only outlet around my neck of the woods and I must have bought millions of their basic kits. When I was feeling flush I got one of their Special Bitter kits, y'know the one in the black tin with gold lettering, made with real hops and a gold sachet of 'genuine brewers' yeast. Ah how special I felt, striding out the store with that baby. Beer wasn't much cop, as I recall. I do however, still have the bottle capper I bought from them - still going strong and showing no signs of imminent demise.

I still have & use a Boots pressure barrel with the tap in the cap that takes a sparklet bulb. It had a tube (now lost) connected to the tap in 2 sections, the idea being you used one short section while the barrel was full so tapping off the clearer beer & as the level dropped, a day later :grin:connected the next section.
The only floor in the design, it needed about 30 sparkles bulbs to empty the barrel:grin:
It still has the paint flecks on it when I sprayed my shed back in 1993

 

[suffolk]

Like a few of the old ones here I too got my kit and bits from Boots
I did my first brew when I was 15 in 1978, the problem I had was my sister worked at Boots and I had to find out if she was on a tea break before I bought anything

 

[Llanbrewer]

Like a few of the old ones here I too got my kit and bits from Boots
I did my first brew when I was 15 in 1978, the problem I had was my sister worked at Boots and I had to find out if she was on a tea break before I bought anything

You are not the first one to have to have a quick look round to see who else is there, before making a purchase at Boots. :whistle: