Me First Brew! Getting the Nog on! (w/images)

[polypusher]

Evening everyone.

Hope your all well and just glad its now friday! :drink:


Having been interested in homebrew for some time but with nowhere to get started was a pain, i ended up just reading pretty much everything around here.......
move on a while and me and the missus have bought our first home! So its time to get cracking i rekon!

I went ahead and purchased a microbrewery starter set with a woodfordes Nog and a Festival Godlen Stag. Really fancied having a go at a dark ale and everyone seems to regard the Nog as a decent pint. (Something vaguely similar to hobgoblin) Same goes for the Golden Stag, wanted something for summer really and no ones said a bad word against it! In fact having watched numerous youtube vids of beerlover1983' Stag (top bloke aswell, bought a keg off him recently on here), everyones stunned at the quality of this kit. The festival kits do seem to be the top dog!

Anyway enough babbling...i took a few images along the way of my first go at homebrew. :

All StarSan sanitized up


The old Nog


Warming Up the good stuff - seemed to have taken a reet knock in transit.


Everything good to go


Clean tins


Smells brilliant!


Seems about reet to pitch i rekon


Measured 21L - FV is a wee bit out.


Never seen a airlock like this before?? (Apologies for poor pic)


Keep it like this and i'll be happy.


Home for a couple of weeks (Under stairs)


Reward for all my (not so hard) work - London Pride & Steak Pie!


My phone died mid-brew so i missed the Hydrometer reading pic - came out at 1.040. think it could have been stirred a bit more i guess.
Drank the wort after taking reading, and as a teaser as to what it could end up like i was well impressed! Did not expect that at all.
Smells bloody lovely aswell when tipping into FV :thumb:


Well thanks for reading and apologies if anyones on 56K still


Cheers

J

 

[Duxuk]

It's a slippery slope, mate. It starts with a kit, then..............so many possibilities. Just don't wait to get another going. I have only 2 FVs but only ever buy the odd bottle for research purposes. :

 

[polypusher]

Aye, it is seeming that way.

Will be buying another FV next month i rekon, get a bench capper aswell for all these hobgoblin bottles ive got.

I said to myself i'd carry on doing kits for a year, just to get the basics of brewing spot on then go for AG when i (hopefully) should be more knowledgebale about it all.
There are far too many kits i want to try in the meantime though, i think my list has gone from 'Get one on the go' to 'bloodyhell i need to buy another 4 FV's' :shock:

Plan is to slowly build some kit up over the months, but another FV (or two) is definitely top of the list at the minute.


Cheers

J :

 

[dennisking]

Great photos, the pie looks nice.

 

[polypusher]

Thanks :thumb:

It certainly was, i do love a good pie!

Now for the waiting game.....

 

[pabzki]

Good looking brew day mate. God I could just bite that pie man !

 

[polypusher]

Thanks.
Seemed to go pretty well, just hoping i sanitized everything properly.

I bought the missus a pie aswell, but....well....i was hungry :whistle:

 

[polypusher]

Just a quick update.
Been just over 43hours in the FV now, temp dropped to 18 after the first couple of hours and is now staying there.
No activity except for a bulging lid yesterday, and today...well, the air locks going nuts.
So alls going well I would say :thumb:

Would you say keeping the FV at a constant 18 is well within decent fermenting temps or should I put it somewhere else to raise the temp a wee bit to say 20-23?
Just that I have read that fermenting at to high a temp can produce fusel alcohol and too low the yeasties pretty much go to sleep and take an age to do their job.
Any recommendations or just keep it where it is?

Cheers

 

[mickthetrick]

18 is spot on i would say :thumb:
you could let it ferment like that for 4 or 5 days then up the temp to 20/21 the let the yeast chew the sugar that left. you wont get any bad tastes doing it this way.

 

[polypusher]

Aye, sounds good.
Thanks for that fella :thumb:

 

[polypusher]

Just a wee update on day 3.
Air locks still going nuts, tops blown off a couple of times so reduced the water level so the top hat just sits on it now.


Krausen getting started.....


FV has a reet bulge on now :shock:


Keeping temp as close to 18 as I can for two weeks. Will take a gravity reading on day 12, then again on day 14. If it doesn't drop further it'll get kegged up on day 14. (Thinking priming with 85g, any thoughts on that?)
Then the 2 weeks inside at 20, followed by a minimum of four weeks in the outhouse :whistle: