Home brew? Homebrew? Winemaking

Got the malt extract today so the brew is defo on.

Also got this easy kit:

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/St-Peters-honey-porter-Beer-Kit.html

Picked the garden hops, should have a huge 7g when dried.

2 Attachments

Nice. I was thinking about starting a vine. Probably at the allotment.

1st batch of plum wine bottled finally. Actually starting to taste ok. Hopefully it'll be alright after 6 months ageing.

1 Attachment

Anyone want to buy some hops? I have just finished vacuum packing a bin bag each of Cascade and East Kent Goldings. £5 for 100g?

1 Attachment

Brewzilla first brew was a great success btw. It’s an Amarillo single hop pale. Ended up about 6% which was stronger than we were aiming for. Only thing was we ended up with way less liquor than expected. Brewy twoey is in the fermenter now. Gonna try some dry hopping on this one.

Scenes

3 Attachments

Bottling beer on a carpet and near a child.

You are a brave man...

Anyone nitrokegged a beer in a corny?

I did an air conditioning job the other day and you need a bottle of Nitrogen to flush the pipework. I only use a little bit but work doesn't like us hanging on to the bottles so it got returned.

Just seems like a good way to gas up a corny keg for free before taking the bottle back.

Wouldn't you need to keep the gas on to serve ?

Had a custom grain kit arrive recently from geterbrewed. Unfortunately it's light by approx 10kg, I've spoken to them and they are going to send a new kit no problems.
Obviously I don't really know what's in this one, there should be Maris Otter, chocolate , roasted barley, dark crystal and torrified wheat. I think it's short 10kg Maris Otter.
My recipe is for a 6.8 % coffee stout with lactose.
Anyone got any ideas ? My fermenter is 63L but I could use a bucket .
Or does anyone want to take it and brew pot luck ?
There is approximately 7.5kg crushed grain in the sack .

1 Attachment

@cagimaha made me do it

1 Attachment

Ordered this kit on Sunday and it arrived today: https://www.geterbrewed.com/stove-top-brewing-starter-kit/

Also ordered ingredients for 2 batches of @cagimaha ipa, but found out today that the kit shipped with a german blonde ingredients kit. Much bargain for 30 quid!

Blonde currently going through the hop additions. Have learned that rolling boil is not max heat. I think I've lost a few litres of wort.

1 Attachment

If you download the beer Smith app there's a feature to workout how much water to dump in to hit your OG

Glad to see this thread come to life, I've got an imperial best bitter in the fermenter.

Next brew lined up is a raspberry, lemon and thyme saison, I've been freezing raspberries all summer from my allotment and have about 4kg.

As Colm says I've been getting into brewing small batches this year, so far however I've only done IPAs. Thinking of doing a stout or porter next now the weather has turned, anyone got any recommendations for a recipe suited to minimal equipment/bottle conditioning?

If you want a silky smooth stout add lactose towards the end of the boil, Oats will give a decent body. Brewdog have put all their recipes online I often look through them for inspiration. There's no reason why they wouldn't work bottle conditioned, might improve some of them maybe.

2nd batch of plum wine initial racking. Couldn't find my mesh bag but ended up with 16.5l including 1.5 for topping up. Added Campden tablets before year this time (24hrs+ in between). Fermenting seems more sluggish but hopefully that's just due to the lower temps.

1 Attachment

Heating up for a smash Pilsner this morning. After nearly 5 years brewing I've just realised that if I use the kettle to heat water to warm up the mash tun at the same time as heating up the mash liquor i can save about an hour on my brewday .🤦‍♂️

Sounds like a good hack but how does this work exactly? You heat some water in the mash tun and also add kettle loads of water to it? Then do a mash?

Not exactly, the mash tun needs pre heating like a thermos flask otherwise your mash temperatures will be wrong.
So I now preheat the water for that in the kettle at the same time as filling the boiler with filtered water and heating that at the same time. The cartridge filter is slow so it probably takes the best part of an hour to fill and heat 80 litres to mash temp

1 Attachment

Been looking for a cheap second hand fridge to use as a fermenting fridge.

This Miele popped up on FB Marketplace today for £30. I've got the Inkbird controller, the 1' tube heater arrives on Thursday.

My lockdown weekend will be mostly fiddling and waiting for the Malt Miller delivery.

1 Attachment

Got some chocolate malt and East Kent goldings (hopefully) coming at the weekend so I can get a porter on. Wish I had room for a dedicated brewing/fermenting area.

Wish I had room for a dedicated brewing/fermenting area.

Me too, I'm looking to move at the moment and garage/workshop is a must. Fed up of having to drag everything out of the cupboard every time and brew in the back garden in all weathers!

I've ordered enough for another couple of brews in the next lockdown, ahead of everything potentially running out again.

The dream, although I don't mind so much brewing outside but having to lug the fermenting bucket upstairs to the only tiny cupboard free in house can do one.

Wish I had room for a dedicated brewing/fermenting area.

I'm getting rid of the dining table to make a brewing corner in the kitchen.

To be honest, all the table is used for is to dump stuff on as I eat in front of the TV.

Yeah, I know. It's bad for you and blah, blah, blah...