Chaps,
Following on from my brewday about this time last year (yes, really - I have been buying too much of the stuff and not drinking enough), the last batch has eventually proved to be quite drinkable. I wrote about the making of it here:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12169
.. and that which is now remaining (about 1/5th of the barrel) is now good to drink. It wasn't at first, although it has improved a lot with time.
Of course, it seems that anyone who is serious about this home brewing lark has at least fifteen barrels of the stuff maturing at any one time, and to that end my father bought me another barrel for my birthday (which was in April), and he got 'round to giving it to me a couple of weeks ago. So, thought I, it's time to brew some more beer to put in it ... !
I did an on-line order with one of the larger suppliers (I can't remember which one, which is a shame as they were very good on price and delivery). Anyway, taking on board the various recommendations I have had on here, I bought the following to try and improve future brews;
- Brewing sugar (rather than household sugar, as I used last time)
- Safale S-04 yeast (rather than the yeast that came in the brew kit)
- Thin bleach to clean with, rather than campdens tablets in hot water
I cleaned everything very carefully with washing soda and boiling water to get rid of any dirt that was on things. ("Everything" included the fermenting vessel, thermometer, hydrometer, stirring spoon and measuring jug), and when this was very very clean I put it in the bath with a dilute bleach solution. It looked like this:
I used about 200ml of this in the bathwater, to sterilise things:
I am hoping that this was enough, but the rough dilution suggested in my last thread was 10ml/gallon, and I reckoned there was about 20 gallons of water in the bath.
I left this all to soak for a good hour, and had a cup of tea ...
Next stage was to assemble the ingredients. They looked like like this:
I'm trying the Hambleton Bard Old English brew kit, bought from the on-line supplier. I bought it without researching it, which may prove foolish; it seems to have mixed reviews on here and other forums, but I guess I'll see what comes of it. To my surprise it wasn't a tin of gloop - it was a bag of sandy-coloured fine powder. Anyway, I tipped this powder into the bucket, like this:
... and added the listed amount of sugar as well - it called for 2lbs of white sugar and 1lb of brown sugar, so I added 1kg of brewing (white) sugar and 12oz of soft brown sugar (as in the picture), making it up to the required 3lb of weight.
I dissolved a campdens tablet in some boiling water, like this:
... and stirred hard until it had disappeared, and poured it over the sugar and powder. This made the powder form a sticky, cake-y mess, like this:
I added the sachet of malt extract that came with the kit, and more cold water until I had almost the right amount, and realised that while things were getting very frothy there was still large amounts of this sticky cake-y miss floating around. It was not very nice and took a LOT of stirring to dissolve it;
I topped it up with some more boiling water so that the temperature was just about 72degF and admired the foam:
I sprinkled the yeast on top, and took a hydrometer reading of about 1.040:
I put the lid on and left it in as warm a place as I could find - in my study, beside where I am now. And, judging by the quantity of gas it is producing (loads!), it is fermenting nicely ...
More updates as things progress, but is it normal that it should produce so much gas? The lid of the bucket seems to be pushed up and need the pressure releasing on an almost hourly basis. Do I have something nasty growing in my beer (my big fear)?
All comments welcome. And thanks for the advice offered on the previous thread.
Oli.
Following on from my brewday about this time last year (yes, really - I have been buying too much of the stuff and not drinking enough), the last batch has eventually proved to be quite drinkable. I wrote about the making of it here:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12169
.. and that which is now remaining (about 1/5th of the barrel) is now good to drink. It wasn't at first, although it has improved a lot with time.
Of course, it seems that anyone who is serious about this home brewing lark has at least fifteen barrels of the stuff maturing at any one time, and to that end my father bought me another barrel for my birthday (which was in April), and he got 'round to giving it to me a couple of weeks ago. So, thought I, it's time to brew some more beer to put in it ... !
I did an on-line order with one of the larger suppliers (I can't remember which one, which is a shame as they were very good on price and delivery). Anyway, taking on board the various recommendations I have had on here, I bought the following to try and improve future brews;
- Brewing sugar (rather than household sugar, as I used last time)
- Safale S-04 yeast (rather than the yeast that came in the brew kit)
- Thin bleach to clean with, rather than campdens tablets in hot water
I cleaned everything very carefully with washing soda and boiling water to get rid of any dirt that was on things. ("Everything" included the fermenting vessel, thermometer, hydrometer, stirring spoon and measuring jug), and when this was very very clean I put it in the bath with a dilute bleach solution. It looked like this:
I used about 200ml of this in the bathwater, to sterilise things:
I am hoping that this was enough, but the rough dilution suggested in my last thread was 10ml/gallon, and I reckoned there was about 20 gallons of water in the bath.
I left this all to soak for a good hour, and had a cup of tea ...
Next stage was to assemble the ingredients. They looked like like this:
I'm trying the Hambleton Bard Old English brew kit, bought from the on-line supplier. I bought it without researching it, which may prove foolish; it seems to have mixed reviews on here and other forums, but I guess I'll see what comes of it. To my surprise it wasn't a tin of gloop - it was a bag of sandy-coloured fine powder. Anyway, I tipped this powder into the bucket, like this:
... and added the listed amount of sugar as well - it called for 2lbs of white sugar and 1lb of brown sugar, so I added 1kg of brewing (white) sugar and 12oz of soft brown sugar (as in the picture), making it up to the required 3lb of weight.
I dissolved a campdens tablet in some boiling water, like this:
... and stirred hard until it had disappeared, and poured it over the sugar and powder. This made the powder form a sticky, cake-y mess, like this:
I added the sachet of malt extract that came with the kit, and more cold water until I had almost the right amount, and realised that while things were getting very frothy there was still large amounts of this sticky cake-y miss floating around. It was not very nice and took a LOT of stirring to dissolve it;
I topped it up with some more boiling water so that the temperature was just about 72degF and admired the foam:
I sprinkled the yeast on top, and took a hydrometer reading of about 1.040:
I put the lid on and left it in as warm a place as I could find - in my study, beside where I am now. And, judging by the quantity of gas it is producing (loads!), it is fermenting nicely ...
More updates as things progress, but is it normal that it should produce so much gas? The lid of the bucket seems to be pushed up and need the pressure releasing on an almost hourly basis. Do I have something nasty growing in my beer (my big fear)?
All comments welcome. And thanks for the advice offered on the previous thread.
Oli.
