Kegging: Summer Lightning clone

I tested this brew a few times through the week and it was consistently sitting at 1.008, meaning that the beer is at about 3.5% abv -exactly what I was aiming for. So I've put it into the kegs today. I haven't freed up enough of the bottom tap mini-kegs yet, so I used some of the top tap ones that need the gas-fed tap putting into the top. This means that it keeps for longer than the bottom tap ones, because it puts a layer of gas on top of the beer.

I used a bottling bucket with a little bottler fitted to fill the kegs. It went okay, but it meant I had to hold the keg up below the bucket, and they get really bloody heavy when they fill up. I think I will have a rethink of how I do this for the next time, but it came out fine in the end. The only other issue was that I lost about 2 litres of the brew to yeast at the bottom of the fermenter -I just couldn't syphon them out through the massive yeast layer. I will not pitch a whole 11g of safale next time I do this short of a brew.

I'm drinking a bit of the brew right now and I must say it is pretty damn nice. There's a bit of a strong hop bitterness at the back of the mouth, but this should mellow off in the kegs after a while.

Testing: Summer Lightning clone

I tested this today on day 7ish of fermentation. It's down to 1.012, which is very good progress. I reckon it will be ready to go in the kegs sometime this week. I want it to be ready for my birthday party on March 24th so need to get it into the kegs asap so it can start conditioning a little.

I was surprised by how nice it tasted, very hoppy, but not aggressively so. I left some in a glass for a while to let the yeast settle out and it was much clearer than I expected, considering how slowly it cooled and the nightmare I had draining it through the hop layer.

All in all, I'm a happy brewer!

Testing: Summer Lightning clone

I just gave this its 3 day test and it's diwn to 1.022, which is pretty good going. There is a massive layer of yeastiness on the top, much more than usual. I guess it's down to putting too much yeast in for the brew length. I don't think this will be an issue. I hope it won't.

Brewing: Summer Lightning Clone

I've just finished making my second ever extract brew with the boiler She Who Must bought me for Christmas ages ago. I used the same recipe as before (a clone of Hopback's Summer Lightning from Graham Wheeler's 'Brew Your Own British Real Ale' book), but with some changes. I decided to try using liquid malt extract instead of powdered, because it's cheaper and the powder is a real ball ache. I also now have a proper set of scales so could measure the hopping more accurately. Lastly, I added more liquor so it will be weaker than it should be (the original is about 5%, which explains all of those drunken summer afternoons in the Jolly Brewmaster).

My overwhelming impression of the experience was how long it took to do. Several things lead to it taking much longer than I anticipated:

1. The boiler kept cutting out after the 1st hour of boiling. This is apparently a well known problem with my boiler, and down to the thermostat and the element having temperature cut-outs built in. I don't remember this happening last time, so I'm going to try cleaning the limescale off the element before next time.
2. I had to cool the wort using a couple of frozen coke bottles full of water. This seemed ingenious to me when I thought it up, and I imagined plunging the frozen bottles into the wort with steam flying up round my ears. It was, in reality, much less dramatic and less effective than I thought. It took well over half an hour for the wort to cool to pitching temperature, meaning I didn't get a cold break (the beer will be cloudy), and it took longer.
3. I don't have a hop filter fitted to the tap of the boiler, and couldn't find any hop bags, meaning that the tap got very clogged up with hop debris when I was running the wort out into the fermenter. This took absolutely ages, and I ended up having to blow up through the tap several times to clear it.

After this experience, I have decided that I need the following pieces of equipment:

1. An immersion chiller
2. A hop filter for the boiler (one to fit 'Electrim boilers')

It is my birthday coming up, so my family should really be reading this...

Anyhow, the beer is fermenting now (I hope), I realised after I'd opened the packet of Safale yeast that there is twice as much as such a short brew needs in that pack, so I'm hoping it should go like bajeezus. I ended up getting about 8ltr from the boiler and topped that up to 12 in the fermenter to give me a starting gravity of 1.035. it should turn out as a nice, session type ale, but very very hoppy (possibly too hoppy).

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.

Great Eastern Ale

This is starting to really frustrate me. I've tested it again and it hasn't dropped much at all ( like one point). I've given it another good rousing with a spoon and put it in front of the radiator to hopefully get it going again. If this doesn't work, I'm a bit stuck with what to do... Any ideas?

Testing: Great Eastern Ale

I was getting a bit worried because this wasn't bubbling anymore so I gave it a test after work and it was still only at 1.019 so I've given it a bit of a rouse to stir up some of the yeast from the bottom of the fermenter. I'm really hoping it picks up again...

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Don't call it a comeback

Things have been deadly quite on here for over a year, which is a real shame. Anyhow, I stopped brewing for a while thanks to a couple of brews going bad in a row and work becoming more hectic. i was also a little worried about how much beer this hobby was making me drink, so I had to think of different ways of doing it.

So, now to the present. I've moved house with my lovely fiancee (can't work out how to get the accent on the 'e') and now live in a lovely cottage. Several friends have pointed out that this house suits homebrewing so it'd be a crime not to do any, therefore: I'm starting up again. Last week I brewed up a kit for Woodforde's Great Eastern Ale and it is doing pretty well. I tested it today (about a week on) and it's down to 1.019 from 1.040, so I'm planning on leaving it in the fermenter for another week (I'm pretty sure I remember leaving things for 2 weeks before) and then whack it into some mini-kegs. That's the other thing: it's my plan to stop me drinking the stuff too much. I'll split the brew into mini kegs so that it'll keep better and I'll only have to drink it up once I've cracked into a keg. It won't last as long once opened as a standard large keg will, but that'll just stop me from tapping one on a whim on a Tuesday night.

Anyhow, I'll update here next week when I've (hopefully) put the Great Eastern in the kegs and talk about what I have planned next...

Update: Fixby Gold

Just got a chance to test this today, after roughly 2 weeks in the fermenter.  It's dropped down to 1.012, which I reckon means it has stopped.  Unfortunately, my second pressure barrel sprung a leak with the last brew I had in it so I need to buy a new one before I can barrel this.  Hopefully that should arrive by next weekend and I'll sling it in there then.  An extra week to let the yeast settle out a bit more shouldn't hurt it.

On another note, a friend and I got pretty seriously stuck into the Terrier last night and it was good.  Didn't even feel too bad this morning either...

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.

First Taste: 'I Agree With Nick' Summer ightning clone

I cracked open a bottle of this honestly not knowing what to expect last night and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't overly carbonated, which I quite like and is probably down to bottling method (the real test of this beer will be when I tap the mini keg).  The colour is a bit darker than Summer Lightning is, which I think is due to the boiling of the extract, I'm looking into ways of avoiding it next time. Taste wise, it is very light in the mouth and not overly bitter.  It has a wonderfully pleasant hop aroma and taste that is nicely balanced (I'm starting to dislike overly hopped light ales because they are everywhere, so this is a good thing).

All in all, I'm very impressed and will now forge on ahead with extract brewing, knowing that I can produce genuinely good results.

Update: 'I Agree With Nick' Summer Lightning clone.

I'm already kind of regretting the name of this brew, but don't want to change it really.  Anyway, politics aside, I put this into bottles and a mini-keg last week but forgot to blog about it.  Really, it was such a hassle I didn't want to write about it at the time, but feel like I should now.

I started off with 10litres in the fermenter, and the plan was to put half into the keg and half into bottles.  I've got a 10litre fermenting bucket with a tap on that I used as a bottling bucket of sorts.  I basically had a length of hose on the end of the tap to deliver the beer to the bottom of the bottle.  It kind of worked in theory as a crude bottling stick, but was a lot of hassle and I will therefor be getting a bottler before the next brew. By the time I had syphoned the brew into the bottling bucket, it was down to 8 litres on account of there being a whole pile of grossness at the bottom.  I guess this was mostly cold break material as this brew wasn't crash cooled.  Again, before the next brew, I need some way of cooling it quickly. Filling the keg went without incident but the bottles ended up being a pain and I only got 5 filled before I got too annoyed with holding the bottle and tipping the bucket etc.

Anyway, it's done now and I just have to wait about 4 weeks to tap the keg and see if it was all worth it.

In other news, the St Peter's Ruby Red is tasting pretty nice.

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.

Update: I Agree With Nick (Summer Lightning clone)

Gave this a test this evening.  The SG is down to 1.016, which seems a little high so might leave it another day or so.  As ever, I tasted the sample and it had a good level of sweetness and was very bitter (probably something to do with the slapdash way I measured the hops), but this should mellow after some conditioning.

My main worry is that it looks very cloudy and there were large chunks of what appear to be spraymalt floating about in it.  I guess this is down to me not mixing the extract in well enough before the boil but I don't think it will effect the beer particularly.  I really hope it clears well in the keg, or it'll be a bit disconcerting to drink.