www.andrewwilcox.net

Did not have a pint in wetherspoons today instead poshed it up a bit and had a pint in the gleaming brewpub Zero Degrees in Cardiff.

Their delightful Oktoberfest Beer 6+%, the label was a bit hit and miss but it was a nice lager beer with something about it… hoppy maybe (I need to learn more, instead of just enjoying)

But got me thinking about some of the things I love in life, two being Sheds and Beer

So how could I improve my lot and general good karma by doing something I loved full time…

“Brew Beer in the shed” of course

but by the time I had walked back to work I realised that I would have to pay the mortgage and other things like that (thanks MrsUW for grounding me), so could not give it all up to get some brewing done.

But I could start brewing my own beer (for my own consumption) in the shed and you never know in a few years time if I not dead from liver failure, it could be something I could share with others.

But I don’t have a clue where to start, I am a good cook but my science is not my strong point and it seems at the moment you need to have a degree in brewing to progress further.

I put a few requests on twitter and sheddies/beer friends replied with some advice.

@ArfurD CAMRA used to do some good homebrew books – failing that there are plenty of old ones about

@beermerchants check out Charlie Papazian, Jamil Zanicheff (@mrmalty ) @brewingnetwork John Palmer, Brewing Classics

@workshopshed Brewing beer takes time so you will need to stagger your brews so that you don’t have a long wait between batches

@Christopher_R For brewing you need somewhere with good water supply and transport links: a business park unit in other words. Or a pub.

@christinefarmer oh, and I used to make beer from hops & malt extract (not in my shed though). Can find recipe if you like?

Thanks to Christine for pointing me in the direction of this site.

Thanks to you all.

So my mad scheme of

@Christopher_RAh, homebrewing, not ‘Sod all this I’m off to be a brewer’ (which incidentally is a great idea).

So now another new shed empire website is born www.shedbeer.co.uk It may never get further then the landing page, but you never know!

So wish me luck and let me know what you think about this idea and any tips for the established Beer consumer but very novice nay zero beer maker.