I have been meaning to get round to doing some home brewing and have at last reached the point where things are (more or less) tidy enough to make a start. All the brewing vats, bottles and the like were in place but you also need a certain amount of space where you can put the fermenting mixture.

I recently discovered a shop in Headington (Headington Homewares) that stocks beer kits and today popped in to pick up a tin of Geordie “Scottish Export”. It comes with yeast and, along with some sugar (and cleaning stuff to ensure everything is spotless and avoid contamination), I am now ready to make a start.

From a bit of research, I see there are all sorts of things I could be considering, such as whether to use a mixture of powdered malt and dextrose instead of cane sugar, but I will keep things simple the first time round and can build in refinements in future brews.