Beer Brewday with Robsta

The Chilston Brewers


Seeing as Rob has never brewed beer before(but drank plenty) i thought id give him a crash course in brewing.

We are hoping to put the final beer into the competition, depending on the final taste!

We both enjoyed my clone of Old speckled hen that I did for TST13 so decided to do our own version of it(my version was lost when my pc crashed)


What we used were:

4kg Maris Otter Malt
200g Crystal 150
100g Wheat malt

Brewsize was 18L with a target gravity of 1053 giving us a ABV of approx 5.2%

Mash was for around 70 mins

Boil was 65 min

We added 28g Northern Brewer @ 60 min
14g East Kent Goldings @ 15 min
450g Golden Syrup @ 5 min
1 whirfloc Tablet @ 5 min
12g East kent golding @ 5 min

Fermenting @ 20c with Nottingham Yeast

What we ended up with was 17L @ post boil 1056 which should give us a ABV of 5.6% so are extremely happy with our attempt :

As it was Robs first time i decided we would do a Kit aswell so he could compare the 2 methods. The kit we chose was Wilkos Sweet newkie brown(down to £8!!) brewed short to 20L and Beer enhancer used instead of sugar.

We are also going to add hops to this in the secondary, 10g williamette and 12g EKG. Target SG was 1040, we hit 1040!

Here are some photos


Crystal weighed out


Hops weighed out


The Mash



Super Grandad(Rob) helping filter the mash


Rob Sparging


The wort getting to the boil


Boiling away


First hops going in


2nd lot going in


Golden syrup being added


Wort chiller added


The finished product


Video of a good rolling boil


And here's a few from the kit



Kit contents going in



Stirring the mix



And finally the 'Super' Team


: : :

Hope we have a convert Ryan.

Well enjoyed first day of brewing as you can see he showed me the quick kit way for Newcastle Brown, Then the Hard way from the wheat,Hops and yeast,for our Old speckled Hen.
Got to say i think i will get hooked on making home brew.
And we will let you try the outcome at TST 2014