New brewing area

The new house doesn't have a handy place to keep my brewing out of the way like the boiler room in the last place. The only place that is suitable is the porch as it has a stone floor and isn't being used for anything. With that in mind, I've put in some shelves from Ikea to store things like ingredients and mini-kegs that are conditioning. I made the bottom shelf tall enough to store a fermenting vessel so that brews can sit in there whilst fermenting (it's raised off the ground too, so it'll stop the cold getting in). The upper shelves are the height of mini-kegs.

The only problem is that the porch is pretty cold, so not ideal for fermenting (great for conditioning though!) I'm planning on getting an immersible heater to keep the brews warm, but for now I'll probably still be keeping the fermenter in the dining room.

The photo is crap because it's from my phone...

Kegging: Great Eastern Ale

I've just put the labels on the kegs. Lookinh pretty good!

Kegging: Great Eastern Ale

I've just finished putting this into the mini kegs and it went pretty well as far as I can tell.  I used a bottling wand to make it easier to get the stuff into the kegs and it was very useful. What I didn't think about when planning this all was how to get the priming sugar into the kegs. They require 3g of sugar per litre so I planned on just weighing the sugar and spooning it in. Turns out the hole at the top is a bit tiny and was a bit of a faff. Next time I think I'll put a priming solution into a seperate bucket and do it that way.

Anyhow, here are some pics...

Testing: Great Eastern Ale

I've just tested the Great Eastern Ale and it has finally dropped to an acceptable level. It tastes a littke funny, but I think it's just harsh hop flavours that will mellow with time. I'll try and get it into some mini kegs this evening.