Anyone fancy a brew? Following the austerity-inspired bread and jam-making revival, the nation is getting a bit giddy about making alcohol too.
Not only are pubs making their own cut-price beer in an attempt to save money (and customers), but the trend is really taking off at home. Young’s, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of home-brewing equipment, has seen record sales this year, and – perhaps more tellingly – Tesco, which has its own kits, is also experiencing a surge in demand.
Andy Hamilton, a long-time brewing enthusiast and founder of the Bristol Brewing Circle, runs workshops where participants forage for ingredients then learn the alchemy of alcohol. Home brewing’s “image” has been transformed, he says, since its Seventies heyday.
“Our whole lexicon of food has totally changed,” he says. “We are more aware of provenance, and prepared to experiment to make something authentic by ourselves. Making your own drinks allows you to engage with them in the same way we now engage with our food.
“The idea that brewing is really technical and scientific was off-putting,” he says. “Now, I see all kinds of people, from policemen to airline pilots, wanting to just have a go and not taking it too seriously. Booze isn’t a serious subject. It’s a subject to be passionate about, but we shouldn’t be afraid of it.”
Andy, a forager and contributor to the television programmes Countryfile and Autumnwatch, has an allotment that provides many of his raw ingredients, and he has just written a home-brewing guide, Booze for Free, designed to take the fear out of fermentation.
“People are so afraid of making mistakes with brewing,” he says. “It’s really only the same as baking a cake, except that you have to wait a few months to see how it’s turned out. The history of brewing is littered with mistakes that turned out to be 'happy accidents’, and the strange smells and odd tastes all teach you something.”
He has had his fair share of brewing hiccups, including a beer barrel that a university flatmate mistook for a seat and an exploding “elderflower fizz”, after which his girlfriend came home to find him repainting their new kitchen.
Successful brewing is, he says, about combining respect for the science (he talks about “learning to love sterilisation”) with a sense of humour.
It doesn’t have to be an expensive experiment, though. “With websites like eBay and freecycle, you can get hold of the equipment cheaply or even for free,” he says. “You can see if you enjoy it before investing in anything too specialised.”
Andy’s main motivation is self-sufficiency (he created www.selfsufficientish.com). While many of us would never think to dabble further than an elderflower cordial or blackberry wine, he works through the seasons, and sees everything from pine needles to parsnips as fair game. You can make booze from “almost anything” he says, “as long as it’s not too starchy”.
Some of his more earthy-sounding and downright quirky brews – broad bean wine, for instance – were, he admits, devised for “using up a glut of produce” (incidentally, it tastes “like a very dry white wine, better than you’d think”).
But who could turn down a snifter of perfumed quince and persimmon fizz, horseradish-infused vodka, lavender mead, damson rum or home-grown pumpkin beer? All made more irresistible, of course, by the cost-saving. Andy says he has the price of his pints down to 17p and bottles of wine down to 20-30p.
“Even beginners can have an 'I can’t believe I made that myself’ moment. Start with a beer or fizz, and as you get more confident, adjust recipes to your taste. It creates an instant celebration – and a cheap leisure activity – when people are short of money; just gather your friends to taste each new batch.”
A word of warning, though. At the start of his workshops, Andy encourages everyone to share their successes to date. One man recounted a garage “barrel tasting” where he later woke up in a phone box – in a Superman costume. Powerful stuff indeed.
“People are so afraid of making mistakes with brewing,” he says. “It’s really only the same as baking a cake, except that you have to wait a few months to see how it’s turned out. The history of brewing is littered with mistakes that turned out to be 'happy accidents’, and the strange smells and odd tastes all teach you something.”
He has had his fair share of brewing hiccups, including a beer barrel that a university flatmate mistook for a seat and an exploding “elderflower fizz”, after which his girlfriend came home to find him repainting their new kitchen.
Successful brewing is, he says, about combining respect for the science (he talks about “learning to love sterilisation”) with a sense of humour.
It doesn’t have to be an expensive experiment, though. “With websites like eBay and freecycle, you can get hold of the equipment cheaply or even for free,” he says. “You can see if you enjoy it before investing in anything too specialised.”
Andy’s main motivation is self-sufficiency (he created www.selfsufficientish.com). While many of us would never think to dabble further than an elderflower cordial or blackberry wine, he works through the seasons, and sees everything from pine needles to parsnips as fair game. You can make booze from “almost anything” he says, “as long as it’s not too starchy”.
Some of his more earthy-sounding and downright quirky brews – broad bean wine, for instance – were, he admits, devised for “using up a glut of produce” (incidentally, it tastes “like a very dry white wine, better than you’d think”).
But who could turn down a snifter of perfumed quince and persimmon fizz, horseradish-infused vodka, lavender mead, damson rum or home-grown pumpkin beer? All made more irresistible, of course, by the cost-saving. Andy says he has the price of his pints down to 17p and bottles of wine down to 20-30p.
“Even beginners can have an 'I can’t believe I made that myself’ moment. Start with a beer or fizz, and as you get more confident, adjust recipes to your taste. It creates an instant celebration – and a cheap leisure activity – when people are short of money; just gather your friends to taste each new batch.”
A word of warning, though. At the start of his workshops, Andy encourages everyone to share their successes to date. One man recounted a garage “barrel tasting” where he later woke up in a phone box – in a Superman costume. Powerful stuff indeed.
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