Brewing your own dark ale or stout

SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

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My question is quite simple, how?

I don't want pale ale or lager etc, I want stout (not milk stout) and or dark ales. I've never brewed anything before but have reached the very definite conclusion that our new home for the next 3-4 years lacks decent dark ale and stouts which is really all I like!
 
There was an article on yesterday's Steve Wright show on Radio 2 featuring a Bake Off finalist who is the supposedly the latest breadmaking and brewing phenomenon. He was saying that you can make most beers at home quite easily apart from American lagers because they contain weird ingredients. He has just released a book on home brewing. I think this is the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03yfct9
 
Check out any of the books on home brewing [see amazon if there aren’t any local to you]. Or try a kit but again not sure on the availability of kits down there.
 
sidevalve said:
Check out any of the books on home brewing [see amazon if there aren’t any local to you]. Or try a kit but again not sure on the availability of kits down there.
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Sadly neither am I and the Amazon concept does not exist here. I think it is booktopia or something similar but until we move (again) I can't really order anything and don't want ebooks because it might take me a while to get internet with the place we are moving to... Or at least hoping to move to.
 
Can you get plain malt extract [no cod liver oil !] and hops ? If so brewing is fairly straightforward - I am sure I have a recipe somewhere if you can find the ingredients
 
Those ingredients seem fine to get hold of. Some of the stout and porter recipes I looked at at the weekend in a bookshop I'm not so certain about the ingredients for, but once i have a permanent address here I can dig a touch further online and see what can be sourced... Amazon not existing leaves me at a loss currently but I've had little time ironically to search the internet for alteratives.
 
Try the following recipe - it is a very basic dark beer but is easily adapted to suit
1lb malt extract
1oz hops
1 gallon water
yeast
boil water and add malt and hops - simmer for about an hour - top up to 1 full gallon and strain - allow to cool and add yeast - leave to ferment for about four/five days - bottle [in genuine beer bottles, no thin glass here !] and add a cube of sugar to each bottle. put to store somewhere cool and drink in about a week.
You can alter the flavour by increasing the hops or adding a little oatmeal and strength by adding a little sugar. It is as I said a VERY basic recipe but simple to experiment with and once you find something you like you can easily up the quantities.
TBH couldn't get much simpler
 
I'm hoping to start brewing in a couple of weeks time when we are up and running in our new home which we move into a week today!

We have finally found a couple of dark ales (though one is not called that, it is called a black ale) which are semi decent and not too expensive either, being brewed in Australia. Just trying to think of the company names again. I know where they are in which shop (liquor stores...) luckily so that is not a problem.
 
I don't know if you can get it in Oz, but Monteith's brewery from New Zealand do a lovely black beer. It's called, um, Monteith's Black Beer.

I've bought it in Edinburgh, so it gets around.
 
:whistling:

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:giggle:

One of two bottles of it that didn't last very long on Sunday night. They found a spot and well I rather enjoyed it. I was obviously mistaken about its origin. The other bottle was Coopers Dark Ale which is Australian owned and not as nice.
 
Delftse Post said:
Have you tried brewing already?

This US magazine has a great website with thousands of recipes (you can select on basis of style)..

http://byo.com/

Turns out there's a homebrew store in Canberra - why not call in and have a chat with them?

http://www.brewyourown.com.au/
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I haven't yet tried home brewing but am collecting the bottles from the beer we drink that is brewed in the bottle. We have a suitable safe place to brew where any accidents won't come close to humans!

I wasn't aware of the place you have found its quite some distance from the city centre but I will try to get there in the next month or two. I have literally only just started by sourdough starter going again (first batch of sourdough preferment is brewing as we speak). We've only been on the new place 6 weeks and I'm fighting to get the place clean and the garden ready for spring. It has a good veg plot with raised beds in, but they need the tree roots digging out (seriously bad) and some fresh soil adding to get them raised again. I have an old chook house full of suitable compost (complete with own worms and long since anywhere near chooks!) plus scarification soil at the bottom of the hill where it had all run off to!

Oh and I'm seeing up to make my own soap but that's another thread.

I do know there is another brewers shop nearer the centre and i think there is one where I live (well roughly where I live given in 12km from the nearest shop) so I will try to check that out in the next few weeks...
 
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