1st brew, North Camp Lager

[Paulm1979]

Turns out Celebrity Big Brother has started so my self imposed exile from the lounge last night prompted the begining of my first brew

Box of stuff, some new toys that arrived in considerably less than 24hrs from the "Art of Brewing" website

Bottled water for the brew, and the bottles I intend to fill with the brew when its brewed !

the two cans and yeast sachet from the kit

loosening up the gunk, this stuff smells awesome, had a little taste, no wonder beer makes you fat :grin:

It all got a bit busy after this what with boiling up water to wash out the cans, stiring with my new, sterilised big spoon and pouring in the rest of the water, interestingly there was a bit of a dissagreement between Mr Tesco and the barrel as to how much was 22L, i ended up at the 22L mark with only 10 2L bottles.

took a wee bit of juice out and measured it with the Hydrometer

Annnnyway, poked it into the corner of the lounge, went to bed.

This morning it seems to be plopping away quite nicely in the corner

I'll leave it alone now for at least four or five days, see what the valve is doing and perhaps take another reading or two before bottling it up.


Thanks Chaps, this site has been very usefull thus far !

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Good Luck with the brew, hope your not disappointed
Kits today...AG soon!!

BB :thumb:

 

[Paulm1979]

Good Luck with the brew, hope your not disappointed
Kits today...AG soon!!

BB :thumb:

AG does seem to the Holy Grail (grain?) and natural progression, lets see how we get on :thumb:

 

[Duncs]

interestingly there was a bit of a dissagreement between Mr Tesco and the barrel as to how much was 22L, i ended up at the 22L mark with only 10 2L bottles.

10 bottles of water plus the 2 cans of extract should be about 22 litres

 

[aneray]

I'll leave it alone now for at least four or five days, see what the valve is doing and perhaps take another reading or two before bottling it up.

Welcome to the forum mate, I hope you enjoy your time with us :) .

I know that its your first brew and its like been a kid in a sweet shop but try and leave your fermenter alone for a couple of weeks, the instructions that came with your kit are mainly a guide. As long as you have your first hydrometer reading you will be fine until fermentation is complete. The more you take off the screw cap the higher the risk is for an infection to enter your brew. Leaving it for two weeks will be more than enough time for fermentation to complete, but it will also help those lovely yeasties finish off and your brew will be a lot clearer before you bottle.

In the future, it might be a good idea to add a tap to your fermenter. Doing this makes it a hell of a lot easier to take a sample and makes it so much easier to bottle.

Keep the pictures coming.

: Neil

 

[Paulm1979]

10 bottles of water plus the 2 cans of extract should be about 22 litres

Oh yeah! that'll be it ! the instructions must say make up to 22L not ADD 22L :thumb:

I know that its your first brew and its like been a kid in a sweet shop but try and leave your fermenter alone for a couple of weeks, the instructions that came with your kit are mainly a guide. As long as you have your first hydrometer reading you will be fine until fermentation is complete. The more you take off the screw cap the higher the risk is for an infection to enter your brew. Leaving it for two weeks will be more than enough time for fermentation to complete, but it will also help those lovely yeasties finish off and your brew will be a lot clearer before you bottle.

I was going to leave it till the valve stopped bubbling then take a reading, if you think I'm better of leaving it longer I will. I wont be pissing about taking the lid on and off as i dont want to balls this up. You're right tho, the temptation is akin to digging into the pix n mix at Woolworths :)


Thanks for your help.

 

[Paulm1979]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150563342240792

not sure if you'll be able to see that or not !

 

[Paulm1979]

right, pulled a wee bit out today, measured at about 1.012, smelled and tasted very slightly bananary which im surprised at as my house is cold and the weather has been evil this weeek, hey ho.

it's still plop plopping away all be it very slowly, if it measures tomorrow evening at 1.012 do you think ill be ok to bottle it up and will the banana smell dissapear with time in the bottle ?

next up is a summer ale kit with dry hops.

thanks chaps.

 

[Paulm1979]

Right, it's been stable for three days after 15 in the fv. Today we bottled.

Just under two teaspoons of sugar in each 2L bottle.

That little bottler is a clever bit if kit, saved loads of mess!

Here are the ten done, ready for a week or so of warm conditioning.

I ran out of bottles, but didn't miss
Much, about two pints in total at the bottom that could have been syphoned.

Now, four weeks of waiting, hopefully the banana smell will go, it's only slight ATM but is noticeable.

Everything clean and sterile and the
Kitchen smells a bit like a swimming pool :)

 

[craigite]

:thumb:
Lookin good
: