first in a few years

[sam.k]

So after a few years of no brewing i am dusting of the kit, firing up the bioler and getting a mash on.

i have purchased a kit from barley bottom as i have no malt, hops, yeast or anything. i have opted for my ressurection brew to be

Woolly Jumper
A well balanced easy drinking session beer hopped with Goldings & Bobek. 4.5% ABV.

This AG kit includes the following (all grains come crushed):

4kg Maris Otter
200g Crystal Malt 120L
150g Torrified Wheat
10g Roast Barley
42g Goldings, East Kent 5.8%AA 90 min Boil
12g Goldings, East Kent 5.8%AA 15 min Boil
25g Bobek 5.2%AA 1min boil
1 Protafloc Tablet 15 mins boil

1 pack of S-04 yeast.


Brew Stats:
5 gallon brew length
OG: 1045
IBUs 33.9
ABV 4.5%

it will be brewed, left to drop clear and then racked into my conrie and force carbonated.
im really lookinf foward to it :)

 

[Vossy1]

Welcome back Sam :party: Are you using tap water or bottled, the reason for asking is that if it's tap water you may wish to get some camden tablets to get rid of the chlorine/chloramines in the water...if you leave them they will react with hop compounds and give you a taste of TCP in your finished beer.

 

[sam.k]

Tap, I have some caps somewhere.

Btw I've not used roast barley before, does it serve a purpose like the TW or is it a flavouring?

 

[EskiBrew]

Tap, I have some caps somewhere.
Btw I've not used roast barley before, does it serve a purpose like the TW or is it a flavouring?

At that quantity, it is probably mostly adding colour to the brew. Welcome back and let us know how it goes :thumb:

 

[sam.k]

I will do bob, last night I started thinking I may adjust the recipe, add some flame out hops or pop some orange peel in or something of that kind.
Luckily I've managed to talk my self out of it, the first brew will be a normal one, the second one probably not :)

 

[sam.k]

Well my boiler and mash tun look horrific, I'm sure a good clean will sort them out though as they are pre cold break I'm not to concerned.
The FVs however will be going to the bin and some new ones will replace them.
The cornie is currently full of steriliser as it still had about 10 pints of something flat and stale, it didn't look to appealing. I've also dug out my old cornie bartap, there is some surface rust on the mount but i am confidant it will clean off.

 

[sam.k]

Well my morning has been unpleasant, just finished scrubbing my mash tun and boiler... I forgot how much I hate cleaning strainers lol.

I also found a stash of yeast, various enzymes and other various knickknacks, most was 2 years out of date so went in the bin.
Came across about 24 soda stream co2 bottles which was a good find.
I also spotted my king keg in the conservatory, it looks half full, not sure what's in it to be fair, the problem is that that area gets pretty hot during the summer (35-40c) so I think the kegs likely gonna be knackered, not sure how u could check it to find out.

 

[just_steve]

I guess the three major things you want out of the keg are:
1. It seals well.
2. It dispenses well.
3. No leeched out flavours from degraded plastic.

To test, fill your keg with water not to the top but to where you'd normally fill a brew. Give it a hit of CO2. Now the pressure inside will be greater than atmospheric pressure and you should be able to dispense some of the water from the spigot. Dispense no more than a pint's worth as you'd want to keep the keg pressurised enough for the next step. That satisfies point number 2.

Now you have a choice when testing for point 1. You need to leave the keg to see if it depressurises. This will happen if the seals are not up to the job around the spigot and top. If it does depressurise, I can't imagine it would take any longer than a day or so to do so. To see, you could just leave it for a day and then try to dispense some more water. If it doesn't dispense or only dispenses very slowly then the pressure has dropped significantly and you'll have a pressure leak somewhere. You could also test point 1 by making a washing-up liquid solution and wiping it over the points of the keg which have seals using a sponge. If air is leaking out you'll see bubbles (like testing for a tyre puncture). I don't know how easy this would be to do though!

To test point 3, you have to leave your water in the keg for much longer. When you get impatient, pour a sample and taste and/or smell. Of course you're expecting it to just taste of fizzy water and nothing else. If you do get a funny taste or smell, you have to be very sure that it's leeched from the keg plastic and not something else. That means you must have cleaned out the keg thoroughly before commencing these tests so that no flavours from the past are there and there is no possibility of bacterial growth after starting the tests. How long you leave the water in before you test its flavour is up to you, but bear in mind that a homebrew will be in the keg for the time it takes to prime, condition and get drunk, so really you need to leave the water in for a comparable length of time to get a true reflection on how healthy your keg is.

I think water's best because you don't want to mess up any delicious homebrew and also you're probably more likely to notice any flavour in water as water doesn't have much of a taste to start with.

 

[sam.k]

Well the ingredients have arrived, now waiting for some new equipment bits to get the brew on.
I've decided in going to keg into mini kegs in an attempt to get my friends drinking the brew, maybe I can get them to chip in for ingredients!!

 

[sam.k]

Waters heating up, mush tuns warming and I think I am prepared, now the waiting begins!

 

[Stu]

Came across about 24 soda stream co2 bottles which was a good find.

If these are the old Sodastream bottles and they're full, I believe these sell for quite a lot these days because they're impossible to get.

Then use the profit to move onto the new type (pr alternatively, you could probably afford proper gas bottles!)

 

[sam.k]

Just cooling the wort now, when I'm done a cleaned up I will post some pictures.

 

[sam.k]

Well I ended up at about 18L and with an OG if about 1.047 so I don't think that's to bad for my first attempt in a while.

Piccy time

Yeast is pitched so that's all I can say for now.

 

[sam.k]

Well everything is going well, there is quite a large trub bed and the cap hasn't dropped yet, the airlocks bubbling regularly and it's fermenting at a steady 19c
Smells amazing, I think I'm going to get 15l of usable beer so I really did cock up my measurements, due to this I'm going to corny it and save the mini kegs for the next brew.

 

[sam.k]

So 6 days in and I (as I always used to) have racked the brew off of the trub into a clean FV

Here's what was left, mmmmmmm

It's clocking in at 1.014 at the moment so it has a touch to go (if it wants to go a bit further that is)
The brew is back under airlock now and will be left for a week as it is, then it's cornie time.
Obviously I had to taste what was in the trial jar and it wasn't to bad for a 6 day old brew, still rough but it should shape up nice in a few weeks
I love the fact my kitchen is a steady 19c

 

[sam.k]

Target of 1.010, not bad methinks...

its now in the cornie, pressurised to 20psi and will be left for a week or two. the sample ive tried was nice, sweetish taste and I think in a few weeks it will be pretty quaffable.

 

[sam.k]

well I had to have a go on this today as the sun is out



still a little hazy but it tastes lovely!