After a wee break in home brewing, I'm back at it!
I got a voucher for Craft Beer Kitchen for my birthday, so brewed a Red IPA, which is really quite tasty & got me thinking about brewing again!
http://www.stewartbrewing.co.uk/craft-beer-kitchen/
View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422911315.477973.jpg
I sorted through my bottles and gave a few hundred away (still got plenty for my own purposes!)
I had a Betterbrew IPA kit, a kilo of dark spray malt & 250g of Carafa special malt, so I bought some fresh hops, Cacase & Columbus from my LHBS, www.Brewstore.co.uk
The kit was past it's BBE date, as was the spray malt, but I figured if the yeast came to life, it would all be OK.
I steeped the Carafa in cold water for a few hours, then strained it into a pan, brought it to the boil and then added 35g of Cascade and 25g of Columbus. I boiled for a few minutes, as I really just wanted to add a bit of flavour & aroma. I left it steeping for about 15 mins after flameout, while I got the rest of the gear ready.
Mixed the kit and spray malt up, then added the black water and squeezed the hop sack in too.
The yeast was rehydrated in 800ml of 25 degrees water & it stated bubbling, so I lobbed it in the FV at 1042.
Temp was just under 25, so I was concerned when nothing appeared to be happening on Sunday morning (15 hours after pitching), but by Sunday evening it showed signs of activity. This morning there was a nice Krausen.
My fermentation temp is controlled with an aquarium heater in the FV, and According to the thermometer, it's happily sitting around 20 degrees.
Smells lovely, nice hop aroma overpowering the Co2 kick when snuffing the FV!
Anyway, hello again :)
I got a voucher for Craft Beer Kitchen for my birthday, so brewed a Red IPA, which is really quite tasty & got me thinking about brewing again!
http://www.stewartbrewing.co.uk/craft-beer-kitchen/
View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422911315.477973.jpg
I sorted through my bottles and gave a few hundred away (still got plenty for my own purposes!)
I had a Betterbrew IPA kit, a kilo of dark spray malt & 250g of Carafa special malt, so I bought some fresh hops, Cacase & Columbus from my LHBS, www.Brewstore.co.uk
The kit was past it's BBE date, as was the spray malt, but I figured if the yeast came to life, it would all be OK.
I steeped the Carafa in cold water for a few hours, then strained it into a pan, brought it to the boil and then added 35g of Cascade and 25g of Columbus. I boiled for a few minutes, as I really just wanted to add a bit of flavour & aroma. I left it steeping for about 15 mins after flameout, while I got the rest of the gear ready.
Mixed the kit and spray malt up, then added the black water and squeezed the hop sack in too.
The yeast was rehydrated in 800ml of 25 degrees water & it stated bubbling, so I lobbed it in the FV at 1042.
Temp was just under 25, so I was concerned when nothing appeared to be happening on Sunday morning (15 hours after pitching), but by Sunday evening it showed signs of activity. This morning there was a nice Krausen.
My fermentation temp is controlled with an aquarium heater in the FV, and According to the thermometer, it's happily sitting around 20 degrees.
Smells lovely, nice hop aroma overpowering the Co2 kick when snuffing the FV!
Anyway, hello again :)
