This page is designed to help all those people who would like to be connoisseurs of home brewed products as well as the commercial offerings.
The short definition of a connoisseur is ' A critical judge ' that being so, all home brewers are connoisseurs as they keep experimenting either with different ingredients, if they are brewing from scratch or varieties of brew packs or brew packs and additional ingredients.

For those people who have never been confident enough to attempt to brew their own or have heard horror stories about home brew here is the place to start.

The ingredients:
The basic ingredients required to produce an alcoholic beverage are water, sugar and yeast.
To add flavour and color Hops are used in most beers along with Malt.

Wine can be produced by using fruit juice, sugar and yeast.

Liqueurs can also be brewed by fermenting large amounts of sugar in water and adding flavours to produce the required taste.

The sites listed below will give you an idea of what is available in the home brew range for a few countries, later on we will supply some tipson home brewing.

Wort: This is the mixture of malt, hops, sugar/dextrose, water and any other additives that you use to create the initial brew.
Top fermenting: The process of brewing in an open container, if using this method the froth must be skimmed daily and the top of the container cannot be sealed.
Bottom fermenting: In this process the lid of the container is fitted with an airlock and sealed, no skimming is required.
Inversion: This process involves boiling cane sugar in water with a little citric acid to split it into simple sugars, yeast does the same thing so this is not a necessary step although some brewers do it before adding the sugar to the wort.
Airlock: A glass or plastic tube ubend or cylinder that contains sterilised water and allows the CO2 that is generated during the fermentation process to escape from the container whilst blocking the entry of bugs especially wild yeasts which can contaminate your home brew and produce an undrinkable result.
Hydrometer: An instrument to measure the density of the wort to determine when fermentation has finished and also to calculate the percentage of alcohol in the finished product.
Crown seals: Bottle tops.
Crown sealer: Bottle top putter onner.
Drunkedness: A state achieved by drinking home brew.

HOL∞ Open Source Beer

DEN∞ More Open Source Beer

1. Sterlise all equipment before starting to brew, this includes the container that you intend to brew in and all the utensils that you use during the creation of the wort as well as the bottles.
Sodium metabisulphate is the best sterilising agent but you can use bleach (diluted with water) or boiling water.
Remember the home brewers credo is "Sterilise, Sterilise, Sterilise".
2. Ensure that the wort has cooled to room temperature before adding the yeast or you run the risk of killing the yeast.
3. If using a sealed container and airlock use a little sodium metabisulphate in the water that is added to the airlock.
4. To maintain a constant temperature I have found that an old refrigerator is the ideal thing, in winter I put one or two low wattage light bulbs inside and monitor the temp with a thermometer.
5. Do not try to make high alcohol beer as the beer yeast will die, high levels require wine yeasts and nutrients and can cause double vision and temporary blindness ( as in 'blind drunk' ).
6. To add flavour try adding about 125gm of dark dried malt to 5gals of brew.
7. If you find that the head is not to your satisfaction you can add heading fluid which can be purchased from most brew shops.
8. Some people like to add a small amount of glycerine to their wort.

QBrew-0.3.5∞ Here is a neat program especially for Puppy users.
Thanks Dougal.

Gekkeikan: A Sake from Koyoto
Morris Tawny Port: From Victoria
Pottsville Cellars Bubbly: A really nice sparkling wine from Pottsville NSW
Australian Bush Cabernet Shiraz: This from Leon in Ribnica, Slovenia ' An excellent Australian red wine that I found in a new store near my home.'

Fast track to a fine vintage: ∞ This is quite interesting, is he the answer to a wino's prayer or just another crank.