Beer #2 - Youngs Harvest Stout

[Ukulele Kris]

I was going to go to Leyland Homebrew today to choose a stout kit, but yesterday morning, I was pacing the living room out of boredom, and decided to pop to my closer homebrew/magic water pills (sadly they sell homoeopathy hokum) shop, to get a stout there and then so I had something to do yesterday afternoon.

I was going to get the Youngs Australian Stout, but then my eye caught the Youngs Harvest Stout, about £3 cheaper. I figured that since I was going to use a 50:50 dark spraymalt/brewing sugar mix instead of "white sugar" as the recipe said, I should be ok, and it shouldn't taste too bad at all.

I also thought I'd rather buy a cheaper kit, so if I have problems with it, like I did my previous brew, I won't feel too jipped.

Hopefully going to be *JUST* ready in time for Christmas!! Wish me luck!!

 

[mifune]

my first kit , just drank a 2 week old bottle couple of days ago and its actually alright!
look forward to another one at the month timescale.

i forgot to sterilise my caps tho, so a bit worried.

good luck and enjoy

 

[Ukulele Kris]

Just drawn a sample to check the gravity of it at 6 days.

Started at 1.040, now at 1.010, so that's a success (since my last beer stopped at 1.016, or something like that, IIRC)

Doesn't taste too bad either (had to give it a try, didn't I?). Gonna keep checking the gravity over the next three days, should be bottling on Sunday.

Going to be doing it with a syphon (with a tap). Don't have money for a little bottler or a bottle tree.

Any suggestions on how to go about sterilising everything?

 

[LeedsBrewer]

Any suggestions on how to go about sterilising everything?

use steriliser :thumb:

I use wilkinsons steriliser according to instructions and fill my bucket with around 7L of water. All of my bottles/equipment are cleaned before hand so just a quick soak in steriliser solution and then a rinse with water.

I have a bottling wand - cost me about £4 and just goes in end of my wilkinsons siphon. makes bottling a lot easier. My first bottling day still took around 3 or 4 hours to complete! :shock:

For my second batch I bought the bottle rinser. It was cheaper than the bottling tree (tree - £19, Rinser - £11) The rinser is awesome. My second bottling day only took about 1hr. It was so much easier.

 

[Ukulele Kris]

So, this is how tomorrow is looking for me...

 

[Ukulele Kris]

Done, only took a couple of hours, so quite happy with that :)

2 bottles look a bit sediment heavy. I wouldn't have filled them, myself, but my dad insisted I did, and mark them as being full of sediment, and open them last. I remain unconvinced, but very convinced about the rest :drink:

 

[pittsy]

looking good , now you have a fv free time for another trip to your local hbs

 

[Ukulele Kris]

Not doing anything until the new year, now, as I don't have anything to put the beer in (and funds need to be spent on presents for family, rather than more bottles/barrels at the moment)

 

[bottler]

So, this is how tomorrow is looking for me...

Hi U K ,i bought 2 boxes of those coopers bottles for my son with the youngs starter kit for chrimbo. Do you have to sterilise the new bottles mate ? :thumb:

 

[Ukulele Kris]

I'm a new brewer, so I could be wrong (but don't think I am), but yes.

And even if you didn't have to, I would anyway, better to be safe than sorry.

I also sterilised the mini keg, despite the fact that when breweries get them brand new, according to the fella at the homebrew shop, never sterilise them, as the dust cap thing keeps them sterilised inside and away from any airborne nasties. But, I always err on the side of caution

 

[bottler]

Thanks for that mate :thumb: