Damn this weak immune system...

So I was planning on barrelling and bottling the Wherry this week but I feel rather a lot like someone has bricked me in the forehead then poured snot into all of my sinuses.  I had yesterday off work and am off again today but don;t feel up to doing anything (also, don't like the idea of sneezing into the brew).  This is frustrating, but at least it gives the beer some more time to do some preliminary clearing (I've read that this kit can take a while to clear...)

You can be sure that when I do get round to doing this you'll know, committed readers!

Update: Wherry

At 7 days in the FV I figured it was time to check up on this little guy.  Took a hydro reading which came out at 1.012, which I'm pretty sure means it has stopped.  Tipped the sample into a glass (through a tea strainer) and had a taste: it is lovely!  I can see why it has a good reputation as a kit.  My only concern is that it is looking very cloudy.  I plan to leave it until at least Friday before bottling/barrelling to try and get it to clear a bit more.  To aid this I have turned the immersion heater off, hoping that the colder temp will make some of the whateveritis settle out.  Here's a picture how cloudy it is:

First Taste: Linthwaite Light

 The Linthwaite should be ready on Monday but I'm an impatient man so I've (tried at least) to pour myself a pint tonight.  It seems that I may have over primed it slightly as the pint I just drew off was actually only a half of beer with a half of head on top.  Hopefully this will settle down a little because it is a cracking beer.  Will definitely be trying another of these Brupaks Pride of Yorkshire kits...

Bottle Label

So the amazing Henry Ireland has made me an awesome label to put on bottles.  This is it and I love it, there will be plenty of bottles of beer coming your way soon Henry!

Wherry progress

Again, progress as in how it's going, not as in the hops (I think I'll start using the word 'update' instead).

Just check on the Wherry at teh 24 hour point and it's got a healthy frothy head up top, which is encouraging.  Look:

Brewing Woodforde's Wherry

Got home from school earlier than usual tonight (because there are parents evenings this week so I try and get away as early as possible on the other days to make up for it), so I decided that it was finally time to put this Wherry on.  And I took pictures! So here we go:

Started off by cleaning the sink area throughly

Threw all the equipment into the fermenting bucket, added sanitiser powder and filled with hot water

While waiting for the stuff to sanitise, I started getting the yeast ready.  Here it is in the packet: Safale S04, a good substitute for kit yeast, which is normally rubbish.

I poured some boiled water into a sterilised mug and let it cool to 20C or so, then sprinkled the packet onto the top of the water.  Covered the mug with a plate and put it to one side.

At this point I figured I'd get the kit out and start sorting it out.  This is what I'm brewing: Woodforde's Wherry (based on a commercial brew, although I've never tried it).

Put the 2 massive cans into hot water to soften the wort inside

Meanwhile, back in the bathroom...the FV is full of sanitising fluid.

When all the stuff had been in the fluid for 15 minutes, I took it out, rinsed it and left it on the side.

Finally it was time to open the cans up.  This is the first one, after an epic struggle with the tin opener...

Wort being poured into the bucket, the smell that comes off it is heavenly.

Filled each can up with boiled water and stirred to dissolve any wort left on the sides of the can

This is the mixture after both cans and two cans of boiling water were put in.  I normally give it a good stir at this point to dissolve all the wort and stop large globs of it sticking to the bottom and not dissolving properly.

Topping it all up with cold water, note my handy, improvised 2 litre jug...

Hydrometer reading after it's topped up to 23 litres.  You'll have to believe me that it is 1.040

Here we return to our friend S04, who has rehydrated nicely.  Now I just have to pour this into the brew, drop the heater in, plug it in and pop the lid on and we are...

...DONE!

Thanks for reading, hopefully this will show some people how easy this whole business is and make them want to try it...

Appreciation: Cooper's Sparkling Ale

So I figure I might do some 'appreciations' of beers that I drink if it occurs to me to do so.  Tonight, SWMBO has gone for dinner with 'the girls' leaving me at her place with nobody to play with.  I walked her down to the restaurant and called into Oddbins on the way to pick up something to drink.  They had a reasonable selection including this Antipodean offering that I fancied trying because there is a kit version avilable.  So here goes:

As I kind of expected, this isn't really an 'ale' as we in Britain would think of it.  To me, it's much more like a Wheat Beer, which I think of as a lager.  That said, it is nice.  It is pretty fizzy, which is what hits you first, followed by a reasonably high level of bitterness.  The mouthfeel is somewhat thin, but this is made up for by the pretty large aromas coming through the nose.

As you can see, I'm not very good at writing about beer, I'm better at drinking it.  But maybe I'll get better...

Wouldn't it be luverly?

Was 'busy' whiling away some time today when I should really have been doing something else and I found Brewlab's website and details of their 3 day brewing course, which looks awesome to me...

Maybe I'll have to start saving towards this...

Future Plans

So I'm feeling in a speculative mood (looking to accumulate, y'see) so thought I'd put some of my ideas for developing the Boiler Room into more than a glorified bucket...

For Christmas, I have various relatives and significant others coordinated to hopefully furnish me with some lovely new kit so that I can move to the next level.(Extract brewing).

First up, SWMBO (the light of my life) will hopefully be getting me one of these bad boys which, while it calls itself a mash bin, is a boiler with an electric element and a thermostat thingy. This is what I will use to boil the malt extract and hops up together so that they can do their mgical stuff.  It's a 25 litre capacity, so should just about be able to manage a 23l boil (40 pints) without too much risk of boil over but I intend to start off with just very small batches of about 10 litres.  My thinking is that this will enable me to hone my skills more and try out more different things without ending up with huge amounts of beer to drink (I've heard that the stuff's not overly good for you in large amounts...)

And from my parents I'm hoping to receive one of these nifty starter sets.  This is because 10litres is nowhere near enough to put in a big pressure keg like the 2 I have atm, it would risk infection or something.  So the plan is to put half of each 10l batch into one of these, then bottle the other half, giving me a stock of bottles for comparisons and gifts, then a mini keg of each brew to crack open when desired, or take to parties.  The tap system on these is also simpler than the S30, meaning that the flatmate might feel better about drinking my brews.

As I said, my plan is to get a good few extract brews under my belt, then move on to all gain brewing, probably doing small batches to start off with again, but after I'm used to how to do it, who knows!

Plans for the more immediate future are to get the Woodforde's Wherry kit I have on my shelf going at some point this week to give it plenty of time to stop fermenting and start clearing before the budget barrel is available...