Home brew? Homebrew? Winemaking

The order arrived for a Flanders style ale arrived today. First time I will use liquid yeast (although it's a smack pack) and it's about a year in bottles to condition apparently.

Fair do's, impressive sacrifice in the name of beer!

I took a punt in this book from Welsh Mountain Cider, it's more like an old campaigning-zine with hints of Shrigley. Entertaining.

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Also hit local freecycle jackpot. Will allow doubling up of cider & wine production for post brexit hard times.

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Racked my Raspberry and Lemon Saison this morning, really pleased, it's tasting great out of the FV.

Fermentation was a but laggy due to temperatures, but i ordered a heatpad which seemed to do the job well enough.

So far it's had about 4kg of raspberries from my allotment and some lemon peel in the boil, will add lemon juice when bottling.

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Fermenting fridge built and being commissioned with a bucket of water.

Anyone want a IKEA dining table? 😉

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Looking good. A saison is on my list of things to brew.

Tempted to try a double mash and make a imperial stout for xmas beer this year.

I'm doing a Christmas pudding stout this year. Only going to do a small batch due to using up a order of grain that was wrong. There is around 600g of dried mixed fruit, Muscovado sugar, chocolate, rum and spices blitzed and frozen that I'll ferment on. The sugar will probably raise the abv a little!

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Ohh, that sounds interesting. I might look into something like that.

I've bought the micro pipework for the Grainfather as 20L of high ABV beer is a bit too much to drink. 10L seems more sensible to drink over the holidays.

Now you can regulate temperature for fermenting it should be easy to do a good Saison

Bretted black IPA has turned out well. Used brett c which brings out forest fruit type flavours which pair well with the Pacific Gem hops I used.

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This is something I've realised the more I read. Making wort is relatively easy, the choice of yeast and making sure its happy seems to be crucial thing for a good brew.

Excellent glassware.

I've subscribed to your blog for a while and learn much as a beginner.

Aw that's lovely to hear.

Looks delicious.

You'll find you have no end of friends when they find out you have too much beer !

https://youtu.be/Iz-8CSa9xj8

Porter bubbling away nicely, yesterday was a lovely day for it.

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😂😂

Meh. Sparging on a compacted grain bed can do one. Don't want to rush this one but 0.5L every 30 minutes is a pain in the arse.

Well the brew is bubbling. The long sparge knocked 3L off the final predicted volume but I do have a OG at 1.070 now, so should be potent.

Bit annoyed with the Wyeast smack pack. Smacked it and it really didn't do any swelling over 4 hours. Pitched it anyway but took 36 hours to start any action.

Should I take it out of the fridge a day in advance to let it get back to room temperature?

Mayday mayday!

Anyone in North or East London have a packet of dried yeast I can collect tomorrow (Sunday), or know where I can find some for sale? I think my yeast tonight has failed.

Wilko have an ale yeast.
I've got some Safale S-04 but I'm Worcester Park KT4 you're welcome to use if you are desperate.

I used to use them , some swelled up some didn't.
I use dried yeast now and I think they are much better value for money with very similar results.

I also find the smack packs infuriating