Hello from Newtons Shed

[Newtons Shed]

Hi all,

Thought it about time I did a proper introduction following my recent posts.

Hi I'm Andy, as a nipper aged about 6 my Dad, well my Mum, used to knock up kit beer for my Dad to drink, my brother and I were charged with task of filling his empty tanker up, of course goes without saying, I at least, used to sneak a few sips for myself. That was really my introduction into homebrew, it tasted horrible, quite flat, sharp and sugerary.

My Dad after falling out with brewing returned to buying Stones and Tetley, now a teenager I again "borrowed" a few cans for my own personal consumption as well as being given a couple at the weekend to keep me off the streets.

In late teens and going out with my mates I started on the largers Stella and Grolch, before settling down with my now wife. In my early 20s for a birthday present I was given my first homebrew kit, a woodfords wherry, it wasn't long before I was the pround owner of a couple more kegs and a boiler and attempted my first brew in the bag, squeezing the wort out at about 2am Sunday morning was a great learning experience. I set the first brewery up in the kitchen of our shared rented house, called "Morley mist" as lived on Morley St in Sheffield and the mist in the morning was quite heavey. I had a little cellar which became a lads den with stereo, dart board and of course home brew beer. Mostly kit and BIAB, I understood where my parents had gone wrong with their homebrewing and I wanted to improve and surpass them. I soon invested in a cool box mash tun from H&G and did a few full mashes. Life was good.

Time came where me and my Mrs wanted our own place, so few years later moved out of Morley St and into Worrall Rd I was also fortuantly enough to have been given by an old friend (through the Midlands CBA) 3 kegs from a closed down brewery ripe for conversion into a keggle setup. When buying the house it had to have a brew house and so I had a detached garage the only problem was it was quite a bit from the house and other properties between seperating the 2, so I had a dedicated brewing space but no power or water. I out together a very basic 3 tier gravety fed affair with gas burners to heat the hlt and boiler. Life once again was good, beers had received positive feed back and judges notes.

My Wife few later was expecting our first child and we decided to move closer to her perents so moved once again to the current house in Leicester, since moving 4 years ago, the brewery is slowly starting being rebuilt from the ground up and hopefully be my last build. I had to wait some time to be gifted another shed for house hold storage/workshop so I have a 10X6 wooden brew shed which again is some distance away from the house (25m long garden) I'm in the process of fixing the roof and getting power sorted.

When we moved I also changed jobs and now work in the insurance industry and I sitting formal exams so currently with family and study I don't get as much free time as I used to have. Come this Summer though the brewery should once again be up and runnimng. It's called Newtons Shed as we live on Newton Lane and randomly our Son is called Isaac and its a shed. The name it may change once set up to something like T'shed (as a local sheffield lad)

In summary, I'm now 30 years of age live in Leicester and I've had 10 years on/off brewing various types in different ways different methods and kit I'm more about brewing beer then equiptment though and I want once and for all just to have a half decent setup to brew consitant good quality creafted English Ales in the main with a view to brew some European ones too.

Hope didn't bore you and see you around...

Thanks Andy

 

[BrotherMalice]

Hello & welcome to the forums :)

Great place here and loads of information for newbies and people with more knowledge like yourself!

:

 

[31bb3]

Welcome to the forum nice introduction

 

[carl_saint]

Hi and welcome!

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

Are you doing the CII exams?

 

[Newtons Shed]

Thanks all for the warm welcome and already know some of the members from other forums. I'm not sure if I have that much knowledge as I say more gaps in not brewing then brewing, still rely on recipes and Graham wheelers how to brew.

Hi Joey1002
yes I'm studying the diploma in insurance through the cii how about yourself?

 

[joe1002]

I have got to Cert CII and left it there for many years. My employer now wants me to get the ACII so I will be starting again soon.

I work in Marine Claims for a Lloyd's syndicate, how about you?

 

[Newtons Shed]

Hi Joey, small world!
wow, sounds interesting you wern't covering the costa concordia were you?)
Are you based at Lloydes>?
I work for large insurer based in Leicester, as a commercial fleet underwriter, 4 years experience gained the cert in first 12 months then pushed to get the dip no funding so paying out my own pocket, eating the brewery funds! I've done the 2 compulsory papers Law and business and Fianace and now the motor (so dry and boring esp after doing it during the day) then the Property and Business Intrruption, that sort the dip out in October all being well then crack on and get the ACII

 

[Wendy1971]

HELLO AND WELCOME TO A GREAT FORUM :thumb:

 

[joe1002]

Yes, we did provide various coverage on the Costa Concordia. I was (and still am) handling the claims for this, from the cost of the ship, to the wreck removal and various liabilities.

The Law paper is the one I'm really not loking forward to. No funding, thats a bit off!

As a claims team we used to sit in Lloyd's but the underwriters needed more space in Lloyd's so we have been relegated to the office. I still have to go in there on a frequent basis though. It's great to work on the underwriting floor.