Brew It Yourself: Make your own beer, wine, cider and other concoctions

177 Pages·2015·18.13 MB·English

by  Nick Moyle

NICK MOYLE & RICHARD HOOD
For Roscoe and Tilly
Brew It Yourself
A CIP record for this book is available from the
Nick Moyle and Richard Hood British Library
First published in the United Kingdom and Ireland ISBN: 978-1-84899-227-6
in 2015 by Nourish, an imprint of
Watkins Media Limited 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 Cecil Court
London WC2N 4HE Typeset in Aller and LunchBox
Colour reproduction by PDQ, UK
[email protected] Printed in China
Copyright © Watkins Media Limited 2015
Notes on the Recipes
Design copyright © Watkins Media Limited 2015
Text copyright © Richard Hood and Nick Moyle 2015 Unless otherwise stated:
Photography copyright © Richard Hood and Nick • Use medium eggs, fruit and vegetables
Moyle 2015 • Use fresh ingredients, including herbs and spices
The right of Nick Moyle and Richard Hood to be identified • Do not mix metric and imperial measurements
as the Authors of this text has been asserted in accordance • 1 tsp = 5ml 1 tbsp = 15ml 1 cup = 250ml
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
Publisher’s Note
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, While every care has been taken in compiling the recipes
including information storage and retrieval systems, for this book, Watkins Media Limited, or any other persons
without permission in writing from the publisher, except by who have been involved in working on this publication,
a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions,
inadvertent or not, that may be found in the recipes or text,
Publisher: Grace Cheetham nor for any problems that may arise as a result of preparing
Project Manager: Rebecca Woods one of these recipes. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding
Editor: Liz Jones or have any special dietary requirements or medical
Head of Design: Georgina Hewitt conditions, it is advisable to consult a medical professional
Designers & Food Stylists: Nick Moyle and Richard Hood before following any of the recipes contained in this book.
Production: Uzma Taj
Cover Illustration: Jade Wheaton nourishbooks.com
CONTENTS
6 Foreword
8 The Basics
12 Wine & Mead
Ingredient Guides
18 rhubarb wine | 20 elderberry wine | 22 second-run elderberry &
plum wine | 23 elderflower wine | 24 crab apple wine | 26 fragrant 34 roots
fig wine | 28 pineapple wine | 29 grapefruit wine | 30 lemon & lime 42honey
wine | 32 parsnip wine | 36 mint wine | 38 oak leaf wine | 40 easy 60apples
mead | 44 rhodomel | 45 winter mead 80hops
106 flowers
46 C ider
126 berries
52 farmhouse cider | 53 cyser | 54 pear & ginger cider | 56 slider 162 herbs & spices
58 bramble cider | 59 scrumpleflower | 62 rosehip cider
64 hopped cider | 65 Rich’s hot cider toddy | 66 lambswool
68 Beer, Ale & Lager
74 basic beer | 76 London porter | 78 India pale ale | 79 wheat beer
82 lager | 84 honey ale | 86 Nick’s liquorice stout | 87 raspberry ale
88 Viking ale | 90 pumpkin ale | 92 English brown ale | 93 ginger ale
94 Sparkling Drinks
98 sima (Finnish spring mead) | 100 tepache | 102 fruit tin fizz | 104 fizzy
iced tea | 105 elderflower sparkle | 108 lavender sparkle | 110 boozy
dandelion soda | 112 chilli ginger beer | 113 nettle beer
114 Liqueurs

118 sloe gin | 119 second-run sloe whisky | 120 raspberry & thyme
whisky | 122 damson & fennel vodka | 124 wild brandy | 128 crème de
cassis & Kir Royale | 129 rhubarb & vanilla liqueur | 130 Julia’s orange
whisky | 132 limoncello | 134 rucolino | 136 mint, lime & lemongrass
liqueur | 138 beech leaf & honey liqueur | 140 mayflower brandy
142 Irish cream liqueur | 143 coconut liqueur
144 Classic Cocktails & Curios
148 summer cup | 149 cherry fortified wine | 150 Rich’s sangri-ahhhhhh
152 bloody Mary | 154 rumtopf | 155 orange bitters | 156 spruce bitters &
spruce martini | 158 vermouth | 159 chilli tequila & mango margarita
160 absinthe | 164 horseradish vodka | 165 spiced rum | 166 marrow rum
168 Ilze’s beetroot kvass | 170 egg-nog | 172 glÖgg
174 Index
FOREWORD

THE BREW-IT-YOURSELF
MANIFESTO
For too long, the making of ‘homebrew’ has been a pastime more
commonly associated with folk of a certain age: those that favour
sandal/sock combinations, hairy jumpers and caravan holidays. You don’t have to be a boffin of
science or a Michelin-starred, fancy-
Seen as a seventies throwback, this genteel pastime has long
dan chef to get fantastic results
been mocked by the ignorant and uninformed.
through making your own booze, but
we do try to follow a few guidelines
This is all about to change… to maximize the merriment.
Here is our simple manifesto, which
We have bravely taken it upon ourselves to brew, ferment and we have nailed to the door of our
infuse vast amounts of drinks from ingredients foraged, grown brewing shed to keep us on the
straight and narrow.
and scavenged in our gardens, on our allotment and sometimes –
whisper it – from the shops. l Experiment! Swap ingredients to
invent recipes, change base spirits
in your liqueurs and add herbs and
Along the way, we have created gastronomic disasters too horrid
spices to just about anything. Try
to recount, but that has all been part of the learning process. And fermenting unusual produce... that
we did it for you. unwanted vegetable lurking in the
corner? It might just work!
This book contains a selection of our very best recipes, designed l Make copious notes, and keep
for a new generation of home brewers. It will provide inspiration them safe. All of your experimenting
for you to turn your own surplus harvest into tasty alcoholic will go to waste if they accidentally
end up in the recycling bin, riding on
beverages, explain how foraged ingredients can transform
the back of a cornflake packet.
ordinary drinks into something wonderful, and demonstrate how
anyone can create their own uniquely flavoured booze. This book l Taste is subjective. Remember,
one person’s Chablis is another
will debunk myths, celebrate experimentation and take the fear
person’s sink cleaner.
out of the science of fermentation.
l Don’t get hung up over quantities.
Treat measurements as a rough
With ingredients varying from parsnips to pears and dandelions
guide. Slightly more or less is rarely
to damsons, we’ll be furiously fermenting, boldly brewing and a problem.
magically mixing a weird and wonderful array of alcoholic drinks.
l Homegrown or foraged
ingredients are best, but shops offer
Rise up, embrace the demijohn and join us on our homebrew alternatives. There is no shame in
odyssey… it’s going to be one garden party you won’t want to miss! purchasing produce in the pursuit of
boozy beverages.
l Sometimes being patient will
reward you with improved drinks,
but if it tastes good, enjoy it early.
l Be generous and share your
drinks. Receive feedback and take
criticism graciously, no matter how
misguided it may be.
l ALWAYS treat alcohol with
The Two Thirsty Gardeners respect. Your hard work deserves it.

8 The Basics
BREW-IT-YOURSELF:
THE BASICS
To make decent booze you need decent chance they’ll soon be scouring car boot sales
ingredients. The freshest, most flavoursome for their first demijohn.
produce will always reward you with a
higher quality of drink. We go into more Turning homegrown produce into tasty
detail about some of our favourite ingredients beverages is a hugely rewarding experience.
later, but here we’ll deal with the three main And unlike most forms of cooking, where your
ways of acquiring them: grow them yourself, hard-grown food is cooked and gobbled within
track them down when foraging… or buy them. hours, a bottle of booze will keep those flavours
preserved for weeks, months and even years.
GROWING YOUR OWN
A lot of people begin their brewing journeys WHAT TO GROW
when they realize that surplus homegrown What you’re able to grow will depend largely on
produce can be converted into alcohol. We where you live and how much space you have.
know plenty of gardeners with substantial But even people without a garden can often
rhubarb plants who are harvesting stalks long manage a few pots of herbs on a windowsill,
after they’ve tired of crumbles, but don’t know which can go into any number of drinks.
what else to do with them. Point out how easy
rhubarb wine is to make and there’s a fair If you’ve got more space outdoors, you have a
few more choices. Among the considerations for
plant selection might be the following:
• What will save me money?
• What can I grow that’s hard to buy?
• What’s the most versatile?
• How much cost and effort will it take to grow?
• What will give me the biggest harvest?
These answers will be different from person to
person, but we’re certain that whatever criteria
you base your decision on you’ll enjoy the
resulting booze just that little bit more.
FORAGING
Growing your own ingredients is rewarding, but
foraging for them can be even better. Nature
has done all the hard graft of sowing and
nurturing, leaving you to grab the spoils for free.
9
Foraging puts you back at one with nature WHERE TO LOOK
and takes you down seasonal brewing paths If you’re after a specific ingredient, it’s worth
that have been followed by generations of finding out what kind of environment best suits
home brewers. For us, few sights are more that particular plant before heading off into the
exciting than the mass arrival of elderflowers, wild. If you prefer to wander in a more aimless
signalling the start of summer and a long manner and leave your harvest to chance,
season of increased fermenting and infusing then the edges of thoroughfares – particularly
activities. When autumn arrives, a whole new railways, rivers and abandoned paths – can be
selection of fruit and berry flavours will send the most rewarding. The thin natural boundaries
brewing addicts into a giddy spin – we struggle between routeway and cultivated land have
to complete any car journey without emitting often been left untouched for decades,
excitable yelps every time we drive past a meaning that any forageable goods will be
previously undetected apple tree. well established. They’re also zones in which
discarded fruit seeds (apple cores hurled from
WHAT TO FORAGE trains) lie undisturbed to germinate and grow,
It’s obvious, but worth reinforcing, that many creating mini orchards ready to be plundered.
wild plants are poisonous, so only pick what
you’re 100% certain is edible. Fortunately some SHOPPING
of the most abundant forageable goods are There are numerous ingredients you’ll have to
easy to identify, making them worthy of a boozy buy, including essentials such as sugar, yeast
dabble – leaves from mighty oak and beech and spirits for infusing, plus most of the basic
trees, spruce needles and the common weeds grains used in our beer recipes. And despite
dandelion and nettle all fall into this category. our advocacy of homegrown or foraged foods,
there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use shop-
Many wild flowers are edible and make bought ingredients for everything you make.
interesting flavours for wines and infusions. If
you want to test to see if you like a particular Not even the very best horticulturalist is likely
flower in a boozy context, start with quick to have access to an all-year-round harvest for
sparkling drinks before progressing to wine. all drink types, and shops can fill in the seasonal
growing gaps. For us that means imported citrus
Some roots, such as dandelion and burdock, fruits, dried fruit and even tinned food in the
are worth looking out for – although you should winter months.
seek permission from landowners if you’re
considering taking the garden fork with you. It’s also worth tracking down your nearest
Berries can often be harder to identify, as many homebrew shop or a suitable online equivalent.
species have poisonous lookalikes, so take extra Besides selling essential equipment, a range of
care. However blackberries, elderberries, sloes sterilizing chemicals, yeast and other specialist
and damsons should be familiar to most people. brewing ingredients, you might be lucky enough
to find that they stock other treats such as dried
GOOD FORAGING PRACTICE fruit and flowers (including elder and rose) and
It’s important to look after nature and, in return, an interesting array of fresh hops.
she’ll continue to provide you with bountiful
brewing goods. Try not to damage plants when Beyond these specialist stores and
picking, and don’t strip bare the first tree or supermarkets you should also get yourself
bush you see – many birds and mammals rely acquainted with local farm shops, apothecaries,
on these same fruits for survival, so make sure herbalists and health food stores for as wide a
to leave enough to go around. range of buying choices as possible.