Baz Chaz
Landlord.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2010
- Messages
- 1,937
- Reaction score
- 144
Hi folks,
As the title says, I'm back with a vengeance.
Brewed for many years, in fact started in the late 70's ... suppliers of kit then was Messers Heath and Robinson and anywhere I could lay my hands on whatever I needed.
Started off with kits from the local chemists and moved on to BIAB then eventually all grain. Experimented with all sorts of things including my infamous bottle bomb experiment, involving a brew where pint bottles were primed with increasing doses from zero to a silly amount of sugar. Great fun, but totally mad, luckily the bottles were stored in the den and covered with sacks in case of bursting bottles! Had quite a few fire extinguishers in the end with the heavily primed stuff.
Fast forwards a (good) few years and how things change, 3 years ago wife bought me a Brewmonk and finally recently, a nice shiny fermenter from Klarstein, still bottling all the beers, but batches are only 15 or 20 litre nowadays for ease of moving stuff around.
The experimentation continues, but for very different reasons, wife has been diagnosed as gluten intolerant (not coeliac luckily) and I had throat cancer which meant for quite some time, I couldn't manage anything bitter, so hopping was a head scratcher. But when the gear was bought it gave me the incentive and a bit of enthusiasm to get going again.
However, to date thanks to help and good advice, we're both able to enjoy beers again! Gluten free was actually quite straightforward in the end, first thing remove all wheat! I've found Brewbrite added towards the end of boil with whirlfloc, then NBS Clarity into FV with yeast, seems to work very well.
The bittering, still can't manage very bitter beers, but as long as I keep the IBU below 20 it's OK. So having great fun experimenting with late addition hops and slightly lighter beers. All in all rather satisfying, still here and brewing smaller batches, not only easier to move around, more brew days to experiment with.
As the title says, I'm back with a vengeance.
Brewed for many years, in fact started in the late 70's ... suppliers of kit then was Messers Heath and Robinson and anywhere I could lay my hands on whatever I needed.
Started off with kits from the local chemists and moved on to BIAB then eventually all grain. Experimented with all sorts of things including my infamous bottle bomb experiment, involving a brew where pint bottles were primed with increasing doses from zero to a silly amount of sugar. Great fun, but totally mad, luckily the bottles were stored in the den and covered with sacks in case of bursting bottles! Had quite a few fire extinguishers in the end with the heavily primed stuff.
Fast forwards a (good) few years and how things change, 3 years ago wife bought me a Brewmonk and finally recently, a nice shiny fermenter from Klarstein, still bottling all the beers, but batches are only 15 or 20 litre nowadays for ease of moving stuff around.
The experimentation continues, but for very different reasons, wife has been diagnosed as gluten intolerant (not coeliac luckily) and I had throat cancer which meant for quite some time, I couldn't manage anything bitter, so hopping was a head scratcher. But when the gear was bought it gave me the incentive and a bit of enthusiasm to get going again.
However, to date thanks to help and good advice, we're both able to enjoy beers again! Gluten free was actually quite straightforward in the end, first thing remove all wheat! I've found Brewbrite added towards the end of boil with whirlfloc, then NBS Clarity into FV with yeast, seems to work very well.
The bittering, still can't manage very bitter beers, but as long as I keep the IBU below 20 it's OK. So having great fun experimenting with late addition hops and slightly lighter beers. All in all rather satisfying, still here and brewing smaller batches, not only easier to move around, more brew days to experiment with.
