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Feeling needy for something meady? Our hedgerow homebrewer is here to spread a liking for the Viking I was a bit of a worry to my father. He was a man who loved sport - especially football - while I loathed the playing field with a matching zeal. (My decision to go shopping instead of watching the 1966 World Cup Final was more than he could take). Also, and this was worse in his eyes, I preferred lager to "proper" beer. I just didn't like the heavy, sickly, bitter flavour. I think my father considered me to be a little effete, though this is not the word he might have chosen. My lifelong aversion to all sport I put down to good sense, but my distaste for most beers may be due to my parents habit of providing me with a bedtime eggcupful of "Little Bricky" throughout my formative years. This noxious emanation from our local brewery - Brickwoods in Portsmouth – would, I think, be enough to put anyone off beer for life. I am still a bit of a lager drinker but have, at the behest of incredulous friends, made valiant attempts to appreciate the finer points of "proper" beers and have even started to make the stuff. I think I am finally recovering from all those Little Brickies.
Making beer is easy and quick - certainly easier and much quicker than wine-making. However you do need some more "kit", and big kit at that. With wine you are dealing with just a gallon, but beer can only, sensibly, be made in five gallon (25 litre) batches. Foremost is a saucepan capable of holding at least three gallons of liquid – I use a stockpot. You will also need a food-grade plastic fermentation bucket capable of holding 25 litres and either a 25 litre pressure barrel or an awful lot of beer bottles. In addition you will need a hydrometer and a cooking thermometer. The following recipe comes from one of the most interesting people I know. His name is Alastair Wallace (a Scot, as if you needed telling). He is a delightful and engaging expert on ancient brewing techniques and breweries who can take a bit of stopping once you set him off on his favourite topic. I asked him if he could come up with an easy recipe using wild plants. He describes the recipe he sent me as a "metheglin" (a honey wine flavoured with herbs or spices) though I would suggest it is a honey beer, albeit one quite unrelated to the modern honey beers that contain very little honey indeed. It is more, as Alastair himself says, like the stuff the Vikings would have drunk. The wild ingredients are extremely easy to find for most people. They are "common heather" – available over the whole country except for a broadish band running from Bristol to the Wash, yarrow – a very common roadside and pastureland plant found everywhere, and hop. It is possible to pick your own hops – it is commonly found as a climbing plant in hedgerows – though easier to buy some from your homebrewing supplier as I did. There is one other wild ingredient – the seaweed, carragheen, used as a fining – which, you will be pleased to hear, I actually did forage for myself, though again it is easy to buy under the name of Irish moss. The finished result is quite splendid – light, nicely honey coloured and tasting of honey. Dad would, finally, be proud. Heather beer125g heather tips (softer green parts of the plant, with the flowers if possible)
30g dry heather twigs (to provide tannin)
60g yarrow (the feathery leaves plus the flowers if possible)
30g dried hops
1.8kg honey (the nicer the better, but cheap honey will be absolutely fine)
1.3kg malt extract (Edme SFZ or similar – from a home-brew store)
500g crushed crystal malt (home-brew store)
1 tsp dried carragheen (Irish moss)
1 sachet of ale yeast
25 litres of water Steep the crystal malt grains in 10 litres of water at 65C, cover and leave for 30 to 40 minutes. Strain the grains from the "wort", as the liquor is called, remembering to throw away the used grains and not the wort (a terrible novice mistake!). Add 5 litres of hot water to the wort and bring to the boil. Add the malt extract, yarrow, heather, twigs and hops and boil for one hour. Savour the truly wonderful aroma. After one hour add the carragheen and the honey and boil for another 30 minutes, then leave to rest for further 30 minutes. Drape a large muslin cloth over a large sieve and strain your brew into a 25 litre plastic fermenting bin. Top up to 25 litres by pouring some cold water through the muslin and its aromatic contents. Cover and leave to cool to room temperature. Swish with a spoon or whisk to aerate the wort until there is a bit of a froth on the top. Allow to settle then add the yeast according to the instructions on the packet. Cover. After 24 to 36 hours a cauliflower-like head will have form on the surface. Skim this off and allow the beer to continue fermenting until the specific gravity has dropped to 1010 (this is where the hydrometer comes in). Siphon into clean beer bottles or into a 25 litre plastic pressure barrel. Check every day or so to make sure the pressure has not reached explosive potential. The beer "conditions" (carries on fermenting) in the bottle, creating more alcohol, reducing the sugar and adding fizz. It is ready to drink after one to two weeks, though I couldn't wait that long and drank a, slightly sweet, pint eight hours after bottling. John Wright
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