Still Smart

To my mind, in the last few years nobody has done more for the home brewing market in the UK than Richard at Wineworks. By championing the Still Spirits products and bringing distillation to the high street he has helped many people develop a new and rewarding interest.

I know many people on the forums have either visited Wineworks or used their mail order services, and now Richard has a new venture in Liverpool, called Love Brewing. This is the largest home brew shop in the UK, and is the only one in the area. This is such a monumental event that soon Wineworks will be changing its name to Love Brewing to reflect the fact that this hobby is about so much more than wine these days.

So, I hope you will all join me in wishing Richard all the best for his new venture and make sure you check out the website and if you’re in the area then pop in and get shopping!

Love Brewing, 591 West Derby Road, Liverpool, L13 8AE – Tel 0151 228 8377

StillCooker is a site about building your own still and producing your own alcohol. It has some great pictures of various types of still, information about building your own, how to make a moonshine wash, safety tips, and lots more useful information – check it out!

StillCooker

Here you’ll find liquor and liqueur essences, candy shots, turbo yeasts and supplies for distilleries, home distillers and home brewers. Our goal is to produce the worlds best essences and turbo yeasts and to sell only top quality. Our assortment of essences is the world’s largest and the same top quality we sell to distilleries. You can also get the best activated carbons, Rashig rings, supplies and German glass instruments here.

We gladly share our 27 years of knowledge. Many inventions in this field (like Turbo Yeast) originate with us. Read about Turbo Yeast. Learn more than some competing turbo yeast manufacturers. Learn our new method for using activated carbon with 100-150% better results – only by knowing how and why to use the activated carbon in this new way. Learn everything about the hydrometer – with illustrations.

UPDATE JAN 2012 – As pointed out by David in the comments, the ‘Recipes’ section of the site mentioned below is currently being flagged as malicious by Google. This may change, or may be a mistake but still – proceed with caution!

In their own words :

Infusions of Grandeur is a blog of vodka infusions and mad science. Your hosts, renowned mad scienticians Brendan and Wayland, begin an experiment each week, infusing vodka with a new flavor. We began this blog in December 2006, and before that point, we had never attempted to create an infused vodka before.

We are learning about infusions through experiments, research, and the kind suggestions of our readers. By blogging every step of the process, we hope to teach others to create their own infusions (and hopefully entertain them in the process).

In my words :

Two silly men make lots of drinks with vodka, some good and some bad. Great attention to detail, loads of pictures and a suitably scientific style mean that this is both an amusing and useful resource.

The daddy of distillation websites, Tony Ackland’s Home Distillation of Alcohol pages are a goldmine of useful information. There’s theory, still designs, wash preparation, distilling, flavouring, aging… pretty much anything you can want is here. The downside is that there is so much information that it’s sometimes hard to find an answer quickly. Also, much of the material is submitted by others and their views can differ dramatically – sometimes you have to just go with your own instinct and hope for the best.

Overall then, it’s an excellent site and it should be essential reading for anyone who is even considering distilling at home. I would urge everyone to read through as much as they can before getting involved, so that they understand the theory and the different options available.

Home Distiller

Here is a website that I stumbled upon which contains some great detailed information about making Amaretto, Almond Liqueur, several other fruit liqueurs and uniquely also includes recipes for pies and pastries you can make using your left-over macerated fruit! Well worth checking out, doesn’t have as many liqueurs as some sites but the detailed instructions are superb.

Homebrew Underground