# G'day All - Newby Dropping In



## El_Freddo (16/7/11)

G'day all

Bennie here. I was looking for a place on the forum to introduce myself so thought I would do it here because I'm into cider brewing rather than beer brewing - I'm not a beer drinker due to a bodily reaction that is not good...

I'm currently enjoying the fruits of my labour - a lemon cider. I stumbled across this forum when looking for a recipe for a lemon cider as I couldn't find one that was passed on from a good friend. So I made it up and it seems to have turned out tops. ~5% alcohol, crisp/dry taste but not too dry. Is going down very well.

Since starting this brew I've collected 2 more brew kits - plan was to have a rotation going but due to lack of space up here sharing with 7 others and the lack of bottles (collecting is taking way too long) I've only got one on at a time, but that'll change once I'm back at home home 

So I've got the lemon cider at the 2 week mark after the secondary ferment, a ginger beer at the end of its secondary ferment ready to be chilled and sit for at least another two weeks (but will be "sampling" a bottle tonight because I can) and the last brew is an Irish stout for mother inlaw, this brew is currently ready to bottle... Then I'll be out of plastic bottles for now 

I've book marked a page with some recipes for ginger beer - this is about as close as I can get to a full beer. I'm looking forward to expanding on my ginger beer recipe rather than just following instructions on the side of a brew can like I've done with this one...

Good times ahead, I do enjoy cleaning and getting a brew on as much as I find cleaning a chore in general.

Other things about me, long time member over on ausubaru and a few other subaru sites - love playing around with cars in general + 4wd'n and using my head and hands together...

I hope to learn a lot from the members here and one day be able to return the favour to others as well.

Cheers

Bennie


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## pk.sax (16/7/11)

Someone on here does a mean chilli Ginger beer. Probably Citymorgue will know...


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## grantsglutenfreehomebrew (17/7/11)

Hi Bennie and welcome to the forum. 

I love my cider as well but I use store bought juice (plus other stuff) to make my ciders. There are plenty of cider makers on here so just keep checking out the site regularly.

As to your bottle dilema I keep my old soft drink PET bottles. Any thing that has had carbonated drink in it is strong enough. I use stubbies when I'm going out. Drink from the 1.25 and 2 litres bottles at home. 1.25's work out to just under two pints of cider. I can never just have one.

Onto your beer dilema. There are a few punters on here that make gluten free beer and I make gluten free beer as well as beer from honey and I also make a beer from treacle. Just go through some of the archive chats and you wil find plenty of stuff. Millet man on the forum is a good bloke to talk to.

Or you could check out my website. www.grantsglutenfreehomebrew.webs.com

Good luck with it all.

I hope to see you around here.

Grant


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## Newbee(r) (17/7/11)

Benny 

If you have some experience making Perry (pear cider), would love to hear about them. 

J


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## brettprevans (17/7/11)

practicalfool said:


> Someone on here does a mean chilli Ginger beer. Probably Citymorgue will know...


My chilli ginger beer senses are tingling!
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=656285

Read the whole thread. Lots of good advice and variations of recipes. 

Quantumbrewer dies a gun powder ginger beer which will blow ur socks off. It's in tge recipe database
Lots of cider recipes in tge non beer brewing section also Including a 100% brettC cider I did.

Welcome to the forum, read lots and have fun


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## El_Freddo (18/7/11)

Thanks guys!

Yeah I've noticed there's loads of reading to be done on here. I have bookmarked the page I found with the gingerbeer recipes on it. I did like the sound of the one with the chilli in it... My wife didn't think much of it at the sound of the chilli though - hopefully she'll come around.

As for the bottles - we just don't drink enough softies to get the PET bottle collection up quick enough  I had a fair stab at emptying more bottles on saturday night before I blew out some candles but didn't get very far... I did tee up our local bar for their PET bottles from mixers so hopefully the punters will start drinking dry and drys to get through their ginger ale...

I'll probably focus on doing some reading on here rather than posting while I a) get my head around it all and B) wait to get back down off the mountain to a place where I actually have some space!

One question I do have though - in terms of getting rid of the sediment, how long can you leave the wort to sit before you bottle? I'm thinking that I could let it sit for another week if that's ok for it, then bottle and just increase the time for the secondary ferment that would then hopefully result in less yeast on the bottom of the bottle. Yes, no, don't do it??

Or my other thinking was to literally bottle it twice to get rid of the yeast that way, but don't know if all that effort would be worth it. Maybe I should just look into bottling upside down and do what I've read they do with champaign to get rid of the sediment when they bottle ferment... Ideas, ideas.

Cheers

Bennie


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## Tanga (18/7/11)

Yeah, the only prob bottling in clear PET is that you can see the sediment. Is it that much of a problem? I mean it might look a bit manky, but shouldn't effect flavour or anything. Any of those rebottling techniques risks infection, though the upside-down idea does sound interesting.

PS. Welcome to the forums. =). I love the non-beer brewing section.


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## brettprevans (18/7/11)

Depending on rhe yeast u use and if u cold condition and how carefully u bottle, sediment should be minimal.


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