Well I finally joined after spending many hours over quite a few years looking in here!
I started making beer from kits about 5 years ago in my flat. I had little success controlling temperature in the bathroom of the new build, rather well insulated building! So after a couple of disappointing results I gave up and got distracted with 3D printing and buying a house and stuff.
Now i'm living in a house with stairs and a garage and everything. The latter feature got me tempted to brew again. So last month I gathered a couple of buckets and the various paraphernalia... and then bought a chest freezer and Inkbird! Given my belief in temperature being the culprit of my previous bad times I decided if I would spend anywhere it should be there.
Progress so far: I got the Muntons Imperial Stout going, shorted to 19.5L because... I don't know anymore. OG was 1044 and after 15 days at 20c it stabilised at 1013. I then racked, realised that I'd forgot to check if the tap was leaking anywhere (hint: it was a bit), then panicked, primed with 60g brown sugar in 500ml boiling water. Then I bottled into a bunch of 500ml, 330ml and a couple of 2L growlers from some microbrewery in Milton Keynes I visited ages ago.
Anyway, it all got a bit panicked but I think I sterilised and sanitised everything involved so hopefully time will prove to be a good thing. In actuality it tasted great the 2 or 3 samples I took to check SG over the 25 days.
The same day I decided to go straight on and get another thing going. This was the Wilko Mexican Cerveza. Due to the aforementioned panicky panic I just went with the can plus the 1Kg brewing sugar they sell. Shorted to 19L but then had to wait (as per the first one actually) for it to cool from 30c to ... well I gave up at 23c and pitched.
My main lessons so far are:
1. Use less boiling water or ask Thames Water to pre-chill tap water for the South East.
2. I need a better workshop for cleaning equipment than the garden. Particularly I need work surfaces
Next Steps:
1. I'm really tempted by some kind of electric BIAB setup, but then i've yet to taste any of my new work so I should slow down maybe!
2. Going to put some kind of sealed flooring down (ala the costco rolled flooring stuff) so I can have a clean and sealed floor in the garage
3. Going to build the work bench I meant to, as I have a bunch of dismantled pallets and assorted wood bits. Will look to see if I can either adequately seal a wooden top or look for stainless steel.
4. Stop spending money!
5. Oh and try not to buy the dark farm or equivalent setup!
So that's my introduction :).
I started making beer from kits about 5 years ago in my flat. I had little success controlling temperature in the bathroom of the new build, rather well insulated building! So after a couple of disappointing results I gave up and got distracted with 3D printing and buying a house and stuff.
Now i'm living in a house with stairs and a garage and everything. The latter feature got me tempted to brew again. So last month I gathered a couple of buckets and the various paraphernalia... and then bought a chest freezer and Inkbird! Given my belief in temperature being the culprit of my previous bad times I decided if I would spend anywhere it should be there.
Progress so far: I got the Muntons Imperial Stout going, shorted to 19.5L because... I don't know anymore. OG was 1044 and after 15 days at 20c it stabilised at 1013. I then racked, realised that I'd forgot to check if the tap was leaking anywhere (hint: it was a bit), then panicked, primed with 60g brown sugar in 500ml boiling water. Then I bottled into a bunch of 500ml, 330ml and a couple of 2L growlers from some microbrewery in Milton Keynes I visited ages ago.
Anyway, it all got a bit panicked but I think I sterilised and sanitised everything involved so hopefully time will prove to be a good thing. In actuality it tasted great the 2 or 3 samples I took to check SG over the 25 days.
The same day I decided to go straight on and get another thing going. This was the Wilko Mexican Cerveza. Due to the aforementioned panicky panic I just went with the can plus the 1Kg brewing sugar they sell. Shorted to 19L but then had to wait (as per the first one actually) for it to cool from 30c to ... well I gave up at 23c and pitched.
My main lessons so far are:
1. Use less boiling water or ask Thames Water to pre-chill tap water for the South East.
2. I need a better workshop for cleaning equipment than the garden. Particularly I need work surfaces
Next Steps:
1. I'm really tempted by some kind of electric BIAB setup, but then i've yet to taste any of my new work so I should slow down maybe!
2. Going to put some kind of sealed flooring down (ala the costco rolled flooring stuff) so I can have a clean and sealed floor in the garage
3. Going to build the work bench I meant to, as I have a bunch of dismantled pallets and assorted wood bits. Will look to see if I can either adequately seal a wooden top or look for stainless steel.
4. Stop spending money!
5. Oh and try not to buy the dark farm or equivalent setup!
So that's my introduction :).
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