Monday 19 October 2009

Barrelling Linthwaite Light


So, true to my word, I came home and checked the Gravity of this and found it was at 1.012 like yesterday.  Because I didn't think I'd be able to do anything with it later in the week and am heading to Paris for a week after that I figured I should go for it and whack it in the barrel.  I may regret this choice as when I got down to the bottom of the FV, I noticed a few bubbles still going, which suggests that the yeast was still a little active...Oh well...

So here's how it all went down:

I santised the barrel in question (the syphon tube, thermometre and other gubbins are in there too)








While that was going on, I set up the 'area' and boiled ~80g of Brewer's sugar in 200ml of water and left it to cool.








Moved the FV to the table.









Opened it up and had a look.  The bubbles up top should've told me not to do it really, but I'm tired and impatient...








Temperature probe and the aquariam heater.









Barrel done with sanitising and all rinsed out, we're ready to go.









Little suck on the end of the hose and we're in business.









Arty shot of the barrel filling up.









When it's all full up, it goes back to the trusty boiler room to do some secondary fermenting.







And I get a treat for a job well done:

This is the Coopers Stout I wrote about the other day, and it is lovely (this picture does not do it justice...)

Cheers!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Linthwaite Light progress

That's progress as in how well it's going, not as in the hops...

Just took a sample of this and SG was at 1.012, which is normally what a 2 can kit will go down to with S04. Will check it again tomorrow and if it's constant I'll probably wack it in the barrel (will try and take pictures to put up). Was thinking about bottling a few of these in the glass bottles I've been collecting but will see if I can be arsed to go buy a crown capper and caps after school.

I obviously took a swig from the sample I took and it's tasting luverly...

Saturday 17 October 2009

Temperature Issues

So I've got a Brupaks Linthwaite Light fermenting at the moment but thanks to my latest gadget I have noticed that the temperature has been getting a bit high during the days. The max temp has been up near 30 for the past couple of days...

I'm putting it down to the aquarium heater I hang in the brew being on the fritz possibly. Guess I'll have to check it out in some water after this brew is bottled. This will no longer be a problem after I've sorted my temperature control cupboard (a fridge with a heater in it and one of these). There will be more on this in the future...

Milestone Lion's Pride

Chris and I just drank the last couple of pints of this darkish session ale last night. It's the third Milestone kit I have done, and the only one to get down to its target gravity of 1.009 (from 1.040) which I put down to me getting the yeast (a pack of Safale S04 that I substituted) going in a bottle of the wort before pouring it in, and using Yeast Vit.

It was a good, drinkable beer. Being quite sweet and not particularly hoppy, some might say too sweet and not hoppy enough, made it the sort of beer one could knock three or four of which back before noticing how many you'd drunk. One problem was a slight after taste of banana (more so than in the stout that I'm currently drinking) which I think was down to fermenting it a little bit too high.

Friday 16 October 2009

Cooper's Stout

So I had the first couple of pints of this last night and I must say it is brilliant. I made the kit up with Medium Spraymalt (dry malt extract) and reduced the brewlength to 20l (most kits are 23l as standard). Reducing the length tends to give the brew more body, and this is certainly the case for this beer.

I'd describe the taste as a little more malty than Guinness, but a similar level of hop flavour and bitterness. I overprimed the barrel a little (not deliberately) which means it's quite lively out of the tap. To poor a pint you have to open the tap very very slightly and let it trickle out slowly until the last bit when ou can open the tap up more to get a good head on the top. This is the first of my brews that retains its head for a substantial amount of time, but I don't really care about the sort of thing much.

The only taste problems are that the overpriming has left it a little more carbonated than I would like and there is still a slight 'chemically' after taste to it. For the next brew, I'll try treating the water with a campden tablet to get rid of any nasty chloramines. There is also a hint of a fruity aftertaste (banana?) which I've read can be caused by fermenting too hot, so I'll watch that in the future.

Photo to follow...

Sunday 11 October 2009

Slow Starter

Hi, and welcome to the Boiler Room Brewery Blog.

I started brewing beer a few months back and so far have 4 successful (and 1 unsuccessful) kit brews under my belt. By kit brews I mean the sort of kit that you can buy which contains a can or two of malt extract and some yeast. You basically pour the cans into your bucket, add water then sprinkle the yeast on and hey presto you're brewing! Kit brewing is easy and creates drinkable (some very nice) results. But it is a little boring.

I intend to move towards Extract, and then All Grain, brewing over the next few months, and will write about what I do and how I do it here. As well as what kits I've been up to and what equipment I use.

For now, if you are looking to get into brewing, you could do a lot worse than heading over to Jim's Beer Kit to find out what you want to know.