Wild Blackberry Wine
Blackberry wine is one of the easiest and most delicious of all of the country wines you can make. If there is one wine I’d suggest you make year after year it is Blackberry wine… so...
Category: Published Articles
What is Craft Beer?
What is Craft beer? A wise wag once told me that real ale is made with four ingredients and craft beer is made with six. Real ale is made with water, hops, malt and...
Andy Hamilton’s fireweed, bramble tip and Himalayan balsam wine
I love working with other home winemakers to come up with new wines and so would like to hear from you! This month I have teamed up with Mike Griffiths from Nottinghamshire who has...
Andy Hamiton’s delicious alcoholic elderflower champagne
The fizz that characterises elderflower champagne is a result of bottling before the fermentation process has finished, normally this process is started by capturing wild yeast. This can cause problems: namely, lack of alcohol,...
How to brew by Booze for Free’s Andy Hamilton
I’m convinced that human civilisation was founded on beer and started when we first learned how to brew a beer. A far-fetched claim, perhaps, but there’s evidence to back it up. Around 16,000 years...
The Urban forager by Andy Hamilton
It often surprises people when they realise that urban environments can supply a more diverse range of foods than rural areas can. This mass delusion of the bio diverse countryside manifests itself when you...
Andy Hamilton’s delicous knotweed vodka
At this time of year Japanese knotweed Fallopia japonica is growing very quickly – 20cm a day. The top 20cm is the most tender and flavoursome so it’s best to catch it early, before...
Birch Sap Wine and how to tap a birch
One of the first signs that spring has sprung is when small, neatly wrapped parcels of leaves start to appear on the trees. These buds indicate not only the start of spring but that...
Bristol Cathedral Garden
Of all the articles I wrote for the Bristol Magazine this was my favourite. It was just a lovely way to spend a bit of time, meeting Ali Tremlet and then being shown around...
Independent Bristol
Independent Bristol was the second article in my ongoing series of articles I’ve previously published. Again this is from The Bristol Magazine and was first published in February 2010. I slightly cringe at my writing style...