homebrewandbeer.com

What a thought - my wife keeps buying this really good cheap wine. I only drink beer but judging by her reactions it really is good cheap wine.
They call them "clean skins", no brand name, just a lable that says something like "02 shiraz etc", I reckon just leftover wine or maybe "seconds" from winereries around Australia.

Ok, says I, if she can get clean skin wine, I should be able to find clean skin beer, no says she, they don't make clean skin beer. Why? Says I.
Don't know says she...

Anyone ever heard of this - (half serious) - on the other hand if everyone on this forum wants to send me a sample - I could begin to map the best clean skins in Australia and report back.

There is a huge glut of wine grapes at the moment. So much so that some growers are forced to dump their crops. Clean Skin outlets are trying to sell the excess production. Good if you like cheaper wine.

Unlike the barley in beer, wine grapes need to be made into wine ASAP after harvest. So I don't think there will be any cheap clean skin beer.

Make homebrew instead.

Yeah

I made wine for the first time this year and bought 34 x 18kg boxes of grapes for $12 each. That's enough for 400 litres... so effectively costing me about $500 to make 400 litres including some of the equipment and stuffing around (borrowed the rest from my mate).

Sorry I've digressed from beer a bit. Though it is pretty interesting to see the simularities and differences between the two.

I don't know what came over me. I'd better go have a homebrew to get back on track!

traditionally a clean skin is "no label" but now you legally have to have something on there regarding the alchol content.

What a clean skin actually is depends upon where you get it. velophile is correct that clean skin outlets are generally outlets for the excess production.

However some of my favourite wineries sell clean skins at the cellar door. These cleans skins are the unlabelled pallet or two they found in the back corner of the warehouse. They can't sell it labelled because they don't know what it is. These are usually very well aged premium products and have been some of the best wines I've had.

They can't sell it labelled because they don't know what it is.

RP,

I hope they don't think its beer.




Dogger

I guess the other thing is that there are fewer variables in beer making, so it's unlikely that you'd be in a situation like winemakers where you end up with a beer that you didn't want to put your name to.

Look at VB for instance: It's very easy to make a consistently shit product by using a consistent process. Likewise, some breweries find it very easy to make a consistently good product using a consistent process.

The weather (temperature, rainfall) and other factors (when grapes are picked) affect wine production in ways that are greater than the same factors affect beer production.

Sure, weather affects hop and barley production, but the finished beer is not as affected by these factors as a winemaker would be by the same factors.

Oliver