Smaller scale wax melting

[Swarm]

I moved within the same village, probably half a mile as the bee flies, the water went from nice to disgusting.
Best water I've ever tasted is at Pentref Bowmen, Glyncornel. Supplied by a natural spring, it's probably the only water I would happily drink from the tap.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Wasn't beer or gin preferred as a drink because London water was unsafe in previous centuries?

In the eighteenth century gin was easily and cheaply produced in local mini stills until it was banned by the 1751 gin act. Beer was encouraged as it was safe and less likely to lead to drunkenness as depicted in Hogarth's "Gin Lane" cartoon.
The act was not repealed until 1965 which has lead to smaller Gin distilleries emerging.

 

[Beesnaturally]

no, spent enough time working the Thames estuary from our base in Gravesend to know it's vile stuff - awful to make tea from (almost as bad as Yorkshire water) - the scum which used to come to the top was really offputting as well, terrible to shower and shave in, and as for drinking neat, I've heard that the SAS used to use it to get them used to drinking their own urine if stranded in the desert

I live on the chalk downs, as hard as it gets. Every time you boil a kettle you have drill out the solid mass of mineral that has half-filled it.

 

[JamezF]

Two of my current favourites

I am partial to the occasional pint of Timmy Taylor's Landlord, but I have no objection to some London beers either (from Fuller's Brewery, for instance).

Of course these days it's not always obvious where beers are actually made. I believe that if you buy Sharp's Doom Bar from the cask it will be produced in their brewery in Rock. If you buy it in bottles or cans then it comes from the Molson Coors industrial plant in Burton-on-Trent.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sharp's Doom Bar

I tried that once

 

[Ian123]

Jenkins, stop taking the piss! Our water in London is OK to drink. It’s not really very hard either compared to water in Yorkshire for example.

All regular forum attendees will be aware he’s a miserable sod!!…. Nothing compares to Welsh beer Welsh men and Women Welsh grass. In fact anything with the word Welsh in front. I think he did admit to once having an English girlfriend!
However on this occasion he may be correct. I once new a young lady who’s father was senior in Thames water……They only had bottled water for drinking in the house…No joke!!

 

[Bryang]

I moved within the same village, probably half a mile as the bee flies, the water went from nice to disgusting.
Best water I've ever tasted is at Pentref Bowmen, Glyncornel. Supplied by a natural spring, it's probably the only water I would happily drink from the tap.

That spring is "issued" from Rhondda No. 2 (rider) coal seam.. The same coal seam in Tylorstown also has spring "issue".. I designed a fish farm (trout) that was fed from the "issue" The temperature of the water was near constant all year. Above the seam there is a layer of sandstone. The old Fernvale Brewery in Pontygwaith. used the same source.. When I had the water analyzed in '71 at the brewery water storage tanks it was classed as "contaminated by human remains".. Penrhys cemetery was over part of the catchment area.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That spring is "issued" from Rhondda No. 2 (rider) coal seam.. The same coal seam in Tylorstown also has spring "issue".. I designed a fish farm (trout) that was fed from the "issue" The temperature of the water was near constant all year. Above the seam there is a layer of sandstone. The old Fernvale Brewery in Pontygwaith. used the same source.. When I had the water analyzed in '71 at the brewery water storage tanks it was classed as "contaminated by human remains".. Penrhys cemetery was over part of the catchment area.

nothing like a bit of body in a pint

 

[JamezF]

Wasn't beer or gin preferred as a drink because London water was unsafe in previous centuries?

I suspect that has been true (particularly as regards beer) in many places. The boiling and/or distillation process probably kills off most bacteria that might have been present in the water supply.

When brewing I believe that it wasn't uncommon at one time to carry out a second mash with the spent grain from the first and ferment the wort produced from that to make "small beer", which had a sufficiently low alcohol content that it could be drunk throughout the day by children and adults alike without getting drunk. I've never tried it myself, but my son and I have a batch of Tanglefoot-alike to make this Christmas, so perhaps we should give it a whirl.

In cider-producing areas I think a similar process occurred where the spent pomace from the initial pressing of the apples was mixed with a little water and then re-pressed to produce a weaker cider for "thirst-quenching" purposes

James

 

[JamezF]

When brewing I believe that it wasn't uncommon at one time to carry out a second mash with the spent grain from the first and ferment the wort produced from that to make "small beer", which had a sufficiently low alcohol content that it could be drunk throughout the day by children and adults alike without getting drunk. I've never tried it myself, but my son and I have a batch of Tanglefoot-alike to make this Christmas, so perhaps we should give it a whirl.

We've done this over the last couple of days. The main Tanglefoot run produced about nine gallons of wort at about 1046 OG against a target of 1048, so I wasn't displeased with that. The "small beer" version (which I think I might have to name "Tangletoes") gave me about eight gallons out of the boiler and I'm hoping that it will be around 1020 OG, so perhaps 2%-ish ABV after fermentation, but I can't measure the gravity until it has cooled.

My son wants to have a go at Brewdog's Punk IPA next. At 5.6% ABV that would probably work for a batch of small beer too. Not sure I have enough of the right hops at the moment though, so we might try a different Brewdog beer or perhaps a (non-Brewdog) stout.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

We've done this over the last couple of days. The main Tanglefoot run produced about nine gallons of wort at about 1046 OG against a target of 1048, so I wasn't displeased with that. The "small beer" version (which I think I might have to name "Tangletoes") gave me about eight gallons out of the boiler and I'm hoping that it will be around 1020 OG, so perhaps 2%-ish ABV after fermentation, but I can't measure the gravity until it has cooled.

My son wants to have a go at Brewdog's Punk IPA next. At 5.6% ABV that would probably work for a batch of small beer too. Not sure I have enough of the right hops at the moment though, so we might try a different Brewdog beer or perhaps a (non-Brewdog) stout.

James

James, I’m in awe.
I used to brew beer as a student and it was disgusting but not enough to stop us drinking it unfortunately.
Maybe I should try again?

 

[JamezF]

James, I’m in awe.
I used to brew beer as a student and it was disgusting but not enough to stop us drinking it unfortunately.
Maybe I should try again?

It's pretty much a requirement that beer made as a student tastes disgusting, isn't it?

I certainly think it's worth having another go if you're interested. I've been doing all-grain mashes rather than buying the concentrates for well over twenty years now and for quite a while I've been buying whole malt and milling it myself, but before any of that I'd started buying ready-milled malt and doing a sort of mash in the boiler with the grains in a bag and using vacuum-packed whole hops. That was probably the biggest step up in quality from the basic kits. And a benefit of being a beekeeper is that a suitable size honey warming cabinet may well serve equally well as a temperature-controlled environment for fermentation which also improves the end product. Using bottles rather than barrels was also a big step forward for me, but it's a bit of a nightmare from a storage point of view.

This is old, but a nice book to work from for some familiar beers and explains how to make them various different ways from straight malt extract to all-grain mash:

Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home (CAMRA Guides): Amazon.co.uk: Wheeler, Graham, Protz, Roger: 9781852491130: Books

I used that quite a bit until it fell apart, then bought a copy of this (nowhere near the quoted price at the time -- I assume it must be out of print) which is now rather dog-eared as well:

Brew Your Own British Real Ale at Home: Amazon.co.uk: Wheeler, Graham, Protz, Roger: 9781852491383: Books

These days I still use it sometimes because I do enjoy some of the beers in it, but other times I get a bit more experimental, particularly when I have ingredients to use up Brewdog's beers are a bit "marmitey", but if you do like them they publish recipes for every one they've ever made (they claim) online.

At the moment I'm looking for recipes for beers made with honey so I can try one or two to see what I think.

James