Booze for Free

Home brewing and wine-making is fun, easy and hugely satisfying. If you garden or forage, can follow a recipe or make jam, and you enjoy a drink, this is the book for you. Andy's no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide will enable the beginner and inspire the expert with over 100 recipes including beer made from hops and also yarrow, mugwort, elder and other foraged plants, great tasting wines from fruit, vegetables and the hedgerows, cider and perry from apples and pears, cordials from the leaves of a range of trees, and teas and fizzy drinks from herbs and wayside flowers. This title helps you to: discover the secret language of home brewing and drinks making; make cheap, wholesome drinks, to your preferred taste and strength in little time, with minimum fuss and no need for expensive equipment; turn your garden into a drinkers' paradise; find where and how to forage for success; and, impress your friends with the weird, wonderful and just plain tasty. Try Carrot Whisky, Sloe and Damson Rum, Parsnip Sherry, Elderberry and Blackberry Wine, Pumpkin Beer, Broom Tonic, Meadowsweet tea as well as classics such as Elderflower champagne, sloe gin, prison brew...Cheers!

Author Biography

Andy Hamilton lives in Bristol where he is founder of the Bristol Brewing Circle and runs brewing workshops and an allotment. He forages and regularly takes groups on wild food walks, sharing his extensive knowledge of edible wild foods, plant folklore and herbal medicine. Andy is a co-creator of the hugely successful website: selfsufficientish.com (winner Nigel's Eco Awards 2009) and writes a wild drinks blog for Guardian.co.uk. He also writes a foraging column for Home Farmer magazine, writes the brewing and foraging features for the BBC's Countryfile magazine and writes features for the Guardian, the Ecologist, Tow Path Talk, Kitchen Garden magazine, selfsufficientish.com and the New York based website Civil Eats. He has also written a survivalist column for Wired.co.uk. He has been a consultant survival/wild food expert for various TV Shows and makes regular TV and Radio appearances both in the UK and abroad on shows which include the BBC's 'Countryfile' and 'Autumnwatch'. Andy isco-author of The Self-Sufficientish Bible.