Brewing: Fixby Gold

So I put this brew on a few days back (Tuesday 7th) but haven't got round to blogging about it till today.  As it is a two can kit it was really easy to sling into the fermenter and get going.  I'm a bit worried as it didn't get a massive foamy head going up in the first day, but it seems to still be going quite strong.

The Terrier is building up lots of gas but is not clear enough for drinking yet.

Barrelling: Yorkshire Terrier

I finally got around to putting the Terrier in a barrel today after three weeks in the fermenter.  All seems to have gone well and the beer tastes pretty good at this point.  Just got to wait a couple of weeks now for it to build up some CO2 and probably mellow out the hop flavours a bit.

Here are just a couple of shots from the barrelling process:

Next up I'll be starting a batch of Fixby Gold, which I'll put on as soon as the boiler room is free again to get the beer stock rolling.

Thanks for reading!

Update: Yorkshire Terrier

I got back from a lovely weekend in Northern Ireland (or Norn Iron as the natives call it...), which incidentally is a total dry spot for real ale. If anyone knows of any decent breweries in the County Tyrone or County Derry areas it would be great if they could let me know.

Anyhow, I've just tested this brew and it is down to 1.014, which is showing good progress.  I guess I'll check it again in a couple of days then put it in a barrel at the weekend, all being well.  Had a cheeky taste from the test jar and it seems to be losing quite a bit of the harsh bitterness it had when it first went on.

Brewing: Yorkshire Terrier

So it's been ages since i posted anything here, because it has been ages since I brewed anything.  Various things have happened to stop me from doing anything but now they have all calmed down I figured I should get back to it, even if just to do a kit and get my beer stocks back up.

Handily, I had a kit knocking about that the old housemate (She Who Must moved in the other week...) bought me for my birthday.  It was Yorkshire Terrier by York Brewery, so I stuck that on.  It was pretty much a standard kit apart from it had a pack of hop pellets to steep first.  They didn't come in any sort of permeable bag so I whcked them in a hop bag I had knocking about so I could yank them out when the steeping was done.  Not sure if this was the right thing to do as the instructions were very vague, but I'm sure it won't change much.  Other than this the main memory I have of this brew is how much of a pain it is to dissolve spraymalt.  It took ages and all the stirring I had to do made a bit of a mess, but it got done in the end.

I pitched a pack of Safale S04 by just sprinkling it on (normally I rehydrate but actually read the packet this time which said just to sprinkle).  Checked it this morning and there's a massive head of foam in the fermenter, so it's all good I guess.  I'm a little worried as I had a taste of the wort before pitching and it was very hoppy, almost astringent, so I hope this doesn't turn out like the St Peter's brew that I did last which had such a weird after taste (probably from the hop powder) that I only drank half of it...

Anyhow, we'll see how it goes.

Update: St Peter's Ruby Red

I've been tasting small amounts of the Ruby Red every now and then since it went into the barrel and I have to say I started out disappointed.  It had a very harsh, almost astringent hop aftertaste to start with.  Tried a bit today and it seems it is starting to get better, so here's hoping for it being really nice in about two/three weeks.

New Stuff AND St Peter's goes in the barrel

So, I remember mentioning in a previous post that as well as all the swell stuff I got for Chistmas, I was due something else that hadn't arrived in time on account of stock shortage or something.  Well, it arrived and my parents brought it up to me last weekend.

These will be what I put my self-designed beers into so that I don't have to make (and drink) huge amounts of experimental beer that might taste rank.  They should also get a bit of use at parties as they're a good size and less complicated than the other kegs I have.  This is how one keg looks with the tap fitted:

The kegs themselves are pretty cheap too so I expect to buy a few more and get a good rotation going on them.  There is also a plan in the pipeline to use these kegs to deliver homemade beer to my friends and family, which I shall elabourate on further once I've worked out exactly how it will work.

Also in the news today: The St Peter's Ruby Red has been put in the barrel and is hopefully doing its secondary fermenting as we speak.  I'll let you know how it tastes in a week (I'm not going to wait for it to mature properly).

Brewing: St Peter's Ruby Red AND General updates and whinery

Hey, so it's been ages huh?  Truth be told, I kinda fell out of love with brewing after the Geordie Mild went down with the same infection as the Old Ale before it and the Wherry ended up having been left too long and gone off, then decided to leak all over my record collection (thank god MDF is so absorpent -no records were harmed!).  I've gotta be honest, I felt pretty low about the whole thing.  But this weekend it seemed about time to head back into Pop's and pick up a new kit.  I initially went for Fixby Gold until I saw that they had the new(ish) St Peter's Ruby Red kit in.  I've heard great things about both this beer and the kit, so figured I'd pull the trigger on it.

So I left the fermenting vessel sterilising all night and day, then sterilised it again with all the equipment in it when I got home from school today and set about brewing.  It's a pretty standard 2 can kit (open can, pour in contents, add water) apart from the fact that it comes with a sachet of 'hop powder'.  It seems this is maltodextrin powder (some kinda sugar) infused with hop oils.  You make up the kit as usual, then add this powder and stir it in.  The hop smell is pretty damned powerful when you open it and stirring it in made the beer smell wonderful.

So anyway, I just put this to bed in the boiler room, will maybe check on it in a few days.  Another thing I have done to avoid contamination is leave the immersion heater out (in fact, I've thrown it away in a fit of frustration) as I think that may have been harbouring germs.

As ever, thanks for reading, and I'll update you when I check on this baby...

Update: Geordie Mild

I know I should have put this in the barrel yesterday but the day ended up being too full with being hungover and playing boardgames (the crazy Tomb) so I thought I'd do it today.  Unfortunately I hadn't banked on this being the first day of term and therefor I am shattered so may not bother.  I'm just sterilising the sample jar and hydro ready to test it.  If it's the same again tomorrow, in the barrel it'll go (really can't be bothered with bottling any after the nightmare that was last time...)

Update: Geordie Mild

Just tested the mild and it's down to 1.014 from a start of 1.038 (I think).  That's not bad but I think it's still got a ways to go (still tasting quite sweet).  Will test it again Wednesday with an eye to putting it in a barrel next Sunday.

Brewing: Geordie Mild

Not wanting to let the infection-appendix disaster of 2010 put me off, I have jumped straight into making a new brew.  The only kit I had knocking about was a can Geordie Mild, which is a budget kit so I made it up with 1kg of medium spraymalt.  It all went without a hitch (as far as I can tell so far), and I deliberately made it in a different fermenting bin, to avoid cross contamination.

OG came out at 1.036, which is a bit low (suppose that suits a mild) but perfectly respectable nonetheless.

Update: Brewer's Choice Old Ale

So I've come back to my house after convalescing at my parents' place for a couple of weeks after the operation.  This means I've finally been able to check up on the Old Ale.  I wasn't too hopeful when I smelled vinegar after opening the fermenting bin.  I was even less hopeful when I saw a whiteish film on top of the beer.  Not to be put off, I took a sample and checked the SG (down to 1.010, which is good).  Just to make sure all was definitely lost I took a swig from the sample jar.  Disgusting vinegar taste.  Disaster!

Oh well, I'll tip it down the drain and start the next brew (Geordie Mild).

On a more positive side, I brought the Wherry in from the shed and have drawn off a bit to see what it looks/tastes like.  Pretty happy with it (it's a bit cloudy but I think that's just a chill haze).

Update: Old Ale

So I have yet another snow day today, thanks to overnight snowfall.  I am going to get a whole pile of work done today, but first I thought I'd test the Old Ale as it's now at the 10 day mark.  The Hydro read 1.011 at about 17C, which Beer Engine tells me is actually 1.010.  This suits me down to the ground.  Beer Engine also tells me that this gives me a roughly 4.9% ABV beer, which would have been great during these winter months, but my skewed timing means I'll be drinking it around March time, so might not be quite so good.  I've really got to get my head around when I need to be brewing different types of ale...

Update: Brewer's Choice Old Ale

I've just taken a sample of this to check the gravity after a week in the FV.  It's at 1.014, meaning it could do with dropping another couple of points.  I was planning on leaving it in for another week anyhow, which I will definitely do now.  After all, I've still got about 8 pints of Linthwaite left in the barrel.

I obviously had a sneaky taste of the sample I'd taken out, am drinking it now actually.  It's pretty dark and tastes malty rather than hoppy.  Smelling it, there is very little hop aroma.  In the mouth it has a decent amount of body and some dominant smoky/coffee flavours.  These will mellow as it matures in the cask. At the end, you get just enough hop bitterness coming through to balance the maltiness.

It's a promising start...

Brewing: Brewer's Choice Old Ale

So I'm back at school tomorrow so probably should have been finishing off lesson plans and that sort of gubbins today, but the Linthwaite is looking kinda low and I need this brew to be ready to go into that barrel when it's empty, so figured I'd stick it on now.

Only took a few photos partly because most of what I did has been charted on here already and partly because I was also cooking dinner towards the end of the brew so didn't really have time.  So let's go:

The ingredients for this brew.  This particular kit is different from the others I've done in that it's a dry kit.  In that there silvery packet are some muslin bags containing various specialty grains and hops, which get steeped in hot water for a time, then the liquid i mixed with all that Spraymalt (2kg of the stuff) and diluted to the standard 23 litres.  I liked the fact that I didn't have to open any cans.

This is the bags in the pan, ready to have boiling water poured over them.  As far as i could tell, there was one bag of hop pellets (Fuggles I think) and three different bags of grains (no idea what they were).

The bags steeping.  They give off a wonderful smell.

And finally here are the used bags, looking much like spent tea bags.  I had a good old poke and sniff of them and ascertained that one of the grain bags was quite fine, black and smoky, making me think it was black malt or something similar.  Another smelt kind of caramellish, so that could be Caramel, but I'm no expert.
After doing this process 3 times (a 20 minute steep each time), the rest of the brew was the same as ever: mixing in loads of spraymalt, adding cold water and pitching yeast.  I think it all went well, but the proof will be in the drinking in about 2 months.

I guess that's me done, thanks for reading, I'm off to bed to panic about tomorrow...

Update: Wherry

Today marked a week(ish) since I put the Wherry into the bottles and barrel and it has been in the Boiler Room to (hopefully) do its secondary fermentation for a week.  So today I moved it out to the shed for some cold conditioning.  Most kits say they are ready to drink after a week or two but this is a lie.  The minimum conditioning for kits is normally about 4 weeks but 6-8 are preferable.  I've read that this one definitely bnefits from a long conditioning and that's good because the Linthwaite is going down quite slowly (thanks to the faff of it being hugely carbonated).

Will obviously let you know how this is when I eventually try it.  The next kit brew I do will be a Brupak's Brewer's choice Old English Ale, which I'm looking forward to as its a little more involved to make the kit up...

First Bottles Labelled

So I managed to get some of Henry's labels printed off and have stuck them to the 4 bottles of Wherry I managed to get filled.  I made my own addition to the label so that I can actually tell what beer is in each bottle, hope you don't mind, Henners!

Bit of a Bottling Nightmare

So I finally got round to barrelling/bottling the Wherry today after school.  My plan was to do what I usually do to put the beer into a barrel then use the tap from the barrel with some tubing on the end to fill six bottles (I've decided I'm going to do this from now on with kits so I have some things to give to friends etc.).  A sound plan you might think?  Well, me too!

But NO!  Transferring into the barrel went fine, aided by a G clamp I bought today to hold the syphon tube in place.  However, my problems started when I realised the tubing I wanted to use didn't fit over the tap so I had to rethink my plan and ended up syphoning again out of the barrel into the bottles.  This was okay but I kept on over filling them and it was a bit hassle-ous.  The tragedy came when I tried to put the crown caps on the bottles.  Two of the bottles I had used wouldn't take the capper!  This means I've now wasted 2 pints (ish) of beer, which is pretty much a cardinal sin in my world...

That said, I now have a barrel and four bottles full of Wherry that ended up dropping to 1.010, which gives me a very rough ABV of 4.1%.  However, this is far from an accurate measurement (one calculator i found online gave me an ABV of 4.8%! Seems a little high...)

I shall post a picture once I've printed labels and stuck them on the bottles...

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...

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: