Why is it so much better nowadays?

[Mitchamitri]

New person here.....

I have a question – and I think it may be about yeast but I am not sure.

Somerset born and bred it’s inevitable I should make cider – and a few visits to a scrap yard, some serious diy, and a bottle jack later I pressed 120 pints last Saturday and it’s fermenting away quite nicely…and I have a supply of lots more free apples so even more coming up.


So far I have made Arkells GWR and Woodforde’s Nelsons Revenge from kits – both of which are excellent and fermented out bang on schedule. The elderberry/blackberry hedgerow wine I am making is fermenting brilliantly, and all of the cider is fermenting willingly (youngs champagne yeast) in bins and demijohns.


From memory, beer making historically was never this good, or easy, and fermentations were never this reliable and I have a hunch that the key difference must be the quality of the yeast – if you have to pick one component that has markably improved which would it be?




Anyway, it’s surprising how, once people know you are doing this stuff, how friends and friends of friends make freebie donations – from the odd fermentation bin, to boiling kit, a 1933 book on wine making at home, and packets of yeast that expired in 1987!

[Dennis King]

Everything has improved and yes the yeast is a lot better. Plus the internet we can now learn to a new level.

[jubby]

Everything has improved and yes the yeast is a lot better. Plus the internet we can now learn to a new level.

I will second that dennis.

[Madbrewer]

Although there are some great yeasts available that will improve quality. I think Education is the key. The silly little instructions you get (got) with a kit (haven't done a kit in years) didn't come close to comparing with the chapter on kit brewing in Graham Wheelers Home Brewing the Camra Guide (Sadly out of print).

due to education, My techniques are better, People now either get 3Kg kits or generally use extract instead of sugar (partly down to education), the yeast is better (as you say) & there's more info out there.

[wetdog]

some of those cheap kits are still pretty nasty even now. thankfully I've gone over to grain now so shouldn't be a problem to me but I pity anyone on a tight budget who has to buy the sub £8 kits that require 2 bags of sugar

[yashicamat]

some of those cheap kits are still pretty nasty even now. thankfully I've gone over to grain now so shouldn't be a problem to me but I pity anyone on a tight budget who has to buy the sub £8 kits that require 2 bags of sugar

That said I found a £6.95 kit a few years ago satisfying enough to get me interested. I think a lot of people enter the beer making world with the idea of making an affordable tipple, rather than trying to emulate or even surpass the beers they know and love. Making that transition is the key I think, when people realise that knowledge and effort will make all the difference.

[wetdog]

I think the trouble is that most people still have experience of bad kits from years ago either their own or other people's and so it's stigmatised the industry for years.
modern day skoda's are very good cars but there's still that 'skoda thing' people used to love to hate

[ADDLED]

modern day skoda's are very good cars but there's still that 'skoda thing' people used to love to hate

Wow, old car stereotypes. Speak to my grandad and he'll still tell you never to buy a Honda cos you'll never get parts, cos they have to get them from Japan, dont you know?

[pantsmachine]

My thoughts on this are improved kit quality. Better information available through the net. The pinnacle of course being on this here site. All kidding aside we learn from the boys across the pond and they learn from us and indeed all over the planet and there are thousands of us sharing experiences good and bad with no profit margin for any of us so the infos not biased. Imagine saying that 20 years ago people would have given you funny looks. Plus the most important reason, since 'we' are older now we don't tank the lot straight out the FV on day 2 coz 'its got to be ready like'!

[a.hoddie]

With regard to the comments about the pity expressed when someone buys an £8 quid kit ,sorry but i bought a youngs harvest pilsner kit which cost me £7.99 and it was actually better than some of the high-end kits...........maybe i should be fair and say it's down to an individual taste???

[delboy]

modern day skoda's are very good cars but there's still that 'skoda thing' people used to love to hate

Wow, old car stereotypes. Speak to my grandad and he'll still tell you never to buy a Honda cos you'll never get parts, cos they have to get them from Japan, dont you know?

Ahh that old chestnut, what scandalous is that insurance companies still use that old chestnut to wring more money out of us punters

[Kristoff]

I agree with all that's been said, but one thing which isn't better nowadays are the HBS - where have they all gone?
I live in Taunton and my nearest 'proper' HBS, not counting Wilkos, is in Minehead, an hour away, or in Exeter, The one in Bridgwater is now closed and so is the one in Wellington, so it makes buying larger items and grain expensive what with the p&p.

[sparky Paul]

I agree with all that's been said, but one thing which isn't better nowadays are the HBS - where have they all gone?
I live in Taunton and my nearest 'proper' HBS, not counting Wilkos, is in Minehead, an hour away, or in Exeter, The one in Bridgwater is now closed and so is the one in Wellington, so it makes buying larger items and grain expensive what with the p&p.

What I try to do is order less often, so that my order is big enough to qualify for free delivery. Most internet HB shops have some sort of shipping deal.

[Kristoff]

What I try to do is order less often, so that my order is big enough to qualify for free delivery. Most internet HB shops have some sort of shipping deal.

Hi Paul, I do try and do that, but there's always something I seem to need, So it's a trip to the seaside for the family for a packet of yeast!!! Can't complain, used to live in W. Midlands loads of HBS, but no seaside

[sparky Paul]

Can't complain, used to live in W. Midlands loads of HBS, but no seaside

I know which I'd rather have!