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Lib Dems and their Booze
 
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Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in Lib Dem brewing's LiveJournal:

    Monday, August 11th, 2008
    10:17 am
    [miss_s_b]
    Hello!
    I can't believe I didn't find this community before! I only got here because I always look at people's user info when they add me, so you can thank/blame exmoor_cat.

    I'm Jennie, my blog at theyorkshergob has been getting some attention on Lib Dem Blogs recently, and I'm a barmaid in a real ale pub with attached brewery and theoretical webmistress for both the pub and the brewery too (i.e. when I can be bothered designing the websites, I will be a webmistress).

    Current exciting brewing thing that I am involved with is a project to create a drinkable gluten-free beer for one of our regular customers, that other people might buy too. Any of you guys got any experience or ideas in that regard?

    (also, psst, come and nominate people for my not-taking-the-mickey-out-of-Iain-Dale-at-all Blog Awards)

    Current Mood: cheerful
    Thursday, October 27th, 2005
    9:39 am
    [exmoor_cat]
    LDYS
    Anyone on this community under 30? If so, are you a member of LDYS, the Youth and Student wing? I'm currently puttng an idea together to get an affiliation of LDYS to CAMRA.
    Tuesday, June 28th, 2005
    4:51 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    Update
    My latest mead batch has been successful. Started at the end of February. Using Gerin yeast, I brewed a couple of one gallon batches.

    The first one I left alone and has turned out to be a nice medium mead. It brewed out in about six weeks, and I left it in the demijohn until the beginning of June.

    The second one also took six weeks to brew out, but I chopped up some fresh ginger into it and left it for the same time.

    The medium mead is drinkable but still needs some time in bottle to help let the flavours settle, at the moment it is still a bit raw with prominent alcohol at the fore.

    THe ginger mead on the other hand has to be one of my best brews so far. THe flavour has completely mellowed out, with the ginger and the honey complimenting each other to produce a marm-flavoured drink that has no edge to it, but a full palate.

    PS I have set up a local exchange trading scheme on Livejournal for those in the North London area. It's early days, but hopefully things will develop.

    london_lets
    Sunday, May 8th, 2005
    6:34 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    LDYS are planning a trip to the Great British Beer Festival on Saturday 7th August. It's at Kensington Olympia, which is a great vanue for this sort of thing. www.camra.org
    Monday, February 14th, 2005
    7:09 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    Prague
    myself and friends have just returned from visiting Prague. We had plenty of beers and came across several interesting local brews as well as the ubiquitous Staropramen, Pilsner Urquell and Budvar Budweiser. There was even a beer called Bernad - which was actually quite excellent and a good example of modern brewing. It was also organic.

    Anyone else into bottom-fermenting lagers?? Hows it go in a small scale??
    Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
    1:50 pm
    [tritium]
    Hi! What an interesting community. I recently got deeply into homebrewing (beer only), and I'm an American liberal democrat, so why not? Hello!

    I have some recent beer reports on my personal journal. Maybe, with your support, I'll post future ones here? Unfortunately, my lastest batch (an American pale ale) is my first experiment with two-stage fermentation, and I kind of broke my equipment a little, and I'm 90% sure I contaminated it. Well, you win some, you lose some. My next one will be an agave ale, since it turns out my local farmer's market sells agave nectar, and I'm eager to experiment!
    Sunday, January 9th, 2005
    12:03 am
    [lost_wishes]
    Hey Everyone..

    I'm stuck at home with a broken ankle. I thought I'd have a rummage round lj, see what I could find.. but I never, ever thought I'd find a community for Real Ale-loving Lib Dems. Thankyou for existing. :)

    Hope you're all still here.. I have a habit of stumbling into great communities that died a while back...

    Right. Booze issues. I have a broken ankle, and can't get to the pub. Even if I could, my painkillers mean I would have to drink lemonade. These are very real issues. Help me.

    Favourite brew - Double Dagger. One day I will find it again.

    Anyway, thought I'd say hello. :)

    Current Mood: okay
    Sunday, December 5th, 2004
    6:47 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    Mead Brew batch 4
    Is not in fact the mega 5 gallon one, but another 1 gallon brew. This time I have added several extra ingredients, switching to what is termed a melomel. Recipe below -

    I used Gervin GV26 yeast, prepared with a sugar and water solution with some lemon juice added.

    Spiced pear and apple mead
    4 pears peeled
    4 litres of apple juice (I couldn't find any pear) (I used normal juice from Waitrose as it was on special offer) It is vital to get it with no added stuff, E300 is okay - its extra vitamin C!!
    3 lb of honey
    2 sticks of cinnamon
    3 cloves
    pinch of nutmeg (it's strong and you need less than you think!!)

    Slice up the pears and put in your pan on the stove. Pour in half a carton of apple juice and one jar of honey. Add the spices. Simmer for 20 minutes until you get a decent syrup going.

    Remove the fruit and place in your demijohn. I added my usual raisins for nutient value the other half of the opened carton and the yeast mix. This was left to settle whislt I did the next bit.

    Pour in the other two jars of honey and two of the cartons of apple juice into the pan and bring to simmer, skimming off any crud that surfaces. Ocne no more crud appears and is skimmed off. Remove from the heat and cool down.

    Once cool, pour it into the demijohn. Top off the demijohn, leaving some room for the impending foam, with the remaining apple juice. Take a sample to read the Specific Gravity. Seal with a bung and airlock.

    Mine was a reading of 1.140-50, which should provide a really nice 16%+ drink in the new year.

    Bibendum!

    Current Mood: productive
    Saturday, November 27th, 2004
    3:59 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    Calling any winemakers!!
    My flatmate is interested in brewing some wine. Anyone had experience of this?? (he hasn't!!!)
    3:59 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    Useful Gizmo over at gotmead.com
    Vicky has added a member's map to gotmead.com, where you can geographically place your lcoation and see who else is in the neighbourhood so to speak. Being a geographer, I find it pretty darned useful!!!

    go visit! http://gotmead.com
    Thursday, November 25th, 2004
    2:47 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    Brew mk3
    Just to mention I've kicked off mead brew 3, this is only one gallon, as I'd like to wait a bit before producing another 25 bottles - they've got to age first!!!

    Here ist der recipe -

    3lb of clear honey
    water topped off to 1 gallon of mix
    1 teabag
    lemonjuice
    sultanas (ain't got no raisins)
    1 packet of EC1118 yeast from Pitfield Brewshop, Old Street

    one demijohn

    Cost of brew = £2.99 for the demijohn, and £5.10 for three pots of honey from safeways.
    1 gallon = 4.4 litres, so you can expect 5-6 winebottles-worth of brew = circa £1 a bottle

    Specific gravity is 1.060 for the mix, with the above sugar concentraton, we should get about 15-18% strength mead.

    Method - Activate your yeast as per packet instructions. Simmer the mix of the honey, lemon juice, teabag and water in a large pot, and skim off the foam. Put your sultanas/raisins into the demijohn. Allow the mix to cool off, you don't want to boil your yeast!! I'm diluting my yeast mix with some of the mix and putting it in first. Then I am pouring the mix into the demijohn. This is then stoppered with a rubber bung and an airlock to allow the CO2 to escape. Leave for about two weeks.
    Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
    9:09 am
    [exmoor_cat]
    Anyone else brewed before?
    Anyone actually attempted their own beer, wine, mead, etc? I'm not experienced, just over-enthusiastic in the subject and would like to know what other experiences members have had.

    For London members, the place I get my kit from is Pitfield Brewery, which has its own website http://www.pitfieldbeershop.co.uk

    The hobby is in fact relatively cheap. For example my 5 gallons of mead brewing cost me about £1 for the yeast, and £17.00 for the honey. THis will eventually generate about 20-24 wine bottles-worth.

    For some people room is an issue. A 5 gallon bucket (common as a beer brew bin) or aglass bottle demijohn is about the same size as a large office paper bin. A 1 gallon glass demijohn (the most common for wine)is tiny!

    Hope this helps.
    9:39 am
    [exmoor_cat]
    Setting out
    What experiences have you had with hombrewing? I'm not experienced, just overenthusiastic :D

    Just to outline my own background. I'm personally into Mead. Imay expand to wine and beer later on, however, I was attracted to the ideas of brewing as I'm a student in mentality so cheap booze was appealing. (preferably booze that tasted nice).

    The current brews have been so far so good, the first batch was drunk very quickly at a party, despite being bottled too early and low alcohol content.

    My tuppence on costs - it is CHEAP! For five gallons (40 pints), it cost me £18. ie cheaper than even a student bar.

    Equipment is reasonable and also fits in. The brew bucket is in a niche by the desk. Equipment cost is also fairly low too.

    My flatmate mrsneeze is into making homemade liquers, by taking a base alcohol (gin, rum, vodka, brandy) and infusing it with sugar and fruits. These also turn out very nice and pleasant - the trick is to be patient and not nail them before they're ready!
    Monday, November 15th, 2004
    12:18 pm
    [exmoor_cat]
    If you like mead
    this website is the nuts! - http://gotmead.com
    11:47 am
    [exmoor_cat]
    Welcome!
    I set up this community to help add to the information overload sweeping through UK politics. Alcohol is a keystone in society, and here we candiscuss it to our hearts content. Part social part campaigning, and hopefully a whole lot of fun and games and of course drinking. Fire away!
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