Home Brew Questions

[badseed]

You could dig a cellar

Sorry...

 

[butcher]

Just transferred my Brewferm Diablo to a fresh FV for their two week cool conditioning phase prior to bottling, Admirals Revenge goes on Monday, then to set about a Ditchs Stout,

BTW check out the adapted recipes on the Coopers web page, they have one for a 10-12% Imperial Russian Stout using two kits plus two cans of malt

 

[badseed]

I kegged a pale ale last night (heavy on the galaxy hops) and have just taken an Urquell yeast out of the fridge for tomorrows Czech Pilsner.
I am thinking about a fruit beer for xmas, maybe a blonde with a KG of mixed berries in the secondary.

 

[friedaweed]

Just had a taster of my Muntons Old English Bitter. Fackin gorgeous

A bit early yet but I was concerned there'd be too much pressure in the barrel. Honest

 

[badseed]

Just had a taster of my Muntons Old English Bitter. Fackin gorgeous
A bit early yet but I was concerned there'd be too much pressure in the barrel. Honest

I had about 4 pints of my new Pale Ale, just to get rid of any sediment that may have settled in the bottom of the keg.

 

[friedaweed]

That's the Chocolate Biscuit Brown Ale bottled

 

[friedaweed]

Wherry @ 15 sovs in wilkinson's

You can order online and have it delivered to the store of your choice for freeeeee :S

 

[ExtraRefined]

Did a double brew yesterday - 10 gallons of wort partigyled into a 1080 barley wine and a 1040 bitter. Was brewing from 9am to 7pm, far too much like hard work for a Saturday.

 

[og ogilby]

I've just finished drinking the last few bottles from my first ever brew, a Richie's Simply Bitter. The beer didn't get long enough to properly condition, but, you know what it's like with your first one.

Of the forty odd bottles, two of them overflowed with foam when I opened them, but the rest were fine. I'm thinking I must have double sugared those two, or is there any other explanation why two would be like that?

 

[Addy]

A 'Ditch's' Coopers stout 20 days from starting the kit...

Propper session beer...

 

[og ogilby]

Wherry @ 15 sovs in wilkinson's

You can order online and have it delivered to the store of your choice for freeeeee :S

They've been out of stock since the weekend, but it's back in stock today.

I just ordered 4 kits. £60 plus £3.50 delivery.

 

[friedaweed]

I've just finished drinking the last few bottles from my first ever brew, a Richie's Simply Bitter. The beer didn't get long enough to properly condition, but, you know what it's like with your first one.

Of the forty odd bottles, two of them overflowed with foam when I opened them, but the rest were fine. I'm thinking I must have double sugared those two, or is there any other explanation why two would be like that?

Maybe they were last out the barrel and had a bit more yeast in them. Who knows but 40 bottles of home made beer is grand innit

 

[friedaweed]

A 'Ditch's' Coopers stout 20 days from starting the kit...

Propper session beer...

Looks fab.

I've done a stout called "Wheel in the Ditch"
Followed ditches recipe but added a steeped wort of
200g of malted oats
200g Biscuit Malt
100g Chocolate malt.
I'm sure he'd approve

The volcano kept my kids happy for two nights

They've been out of stock since the weekend, but it's back in stock today.

I just ordered 4 kits. £60 plus £3.50 delivery.

I have 3 in the cupboard

 

[butcher]

Ditchs is next o the list, finishing the Nog, Admirals Reserve brewed to 40 pints ready for transfer, Better Brew IPA conditioned and ready to drink, Brewferm diablo bottled, planning a Imperial Russian Stout in Jan for next Christmas using the recipe on the Coopers recipe page....

It's a great little hooby

 

[og ogilby]

Even though I've only just started brewing I've already got loads of bottles stored outside, and the numbers are growing and growing. So, I'm thinking about how much trouble it's going to be bringing them all indoors if we get a really cold snap of weather.

What if I store all my beer in the house? Will the quality suffer much?

 

[mattyjc]

Well, I ordered my kit on Friday, then today I discover this thread! Sounds great and Im looking forward to the experimenting (and the drinking) Im also on the HBForum and learning a lot, if not getting confused a lot too

 

[Addy]

Even though I've only just started brewing I've already got loads of bottles stored outside, and the numbers are growing and growing. So, I'm thinking about how much trouble it's going to be bringing them all indoors if we get a really cold snap of weather.

What if I store all my beer in the house? Will the quality suffer much?

once the bottles have had a week or so warm, then a couple of weeks cool to create and absorb the co2, then storage anywhere shouldn't be an issue providing its not VERY warm or below feezing point.

 

[Dovydaitis]

those of you who have ordered off biggerjugs, does it come in plain packaging?

 

[seeformiles]

Anybody doing cider? We tried out our new press last night - presses 3-4 stone of apples at a time - got 8 gallons of juice (v.proud!):

 

[Dovydaitis]

so i have finally gotten my starter kit and using a cheap tin to see how it goes

 

[badseed]

Time to embrace my inner hillbilly.
I have just purchased a still...

I am fermenting 10 litres of water and dextrose which will give me 1.6l of spirit. You then top that up to 2l with water.
It's remarkably simple to do compared to beer, no hops and bitterness levels to think about.

So I am in to the moonshine caper now.

"Although small distillation units are available and legal for the purpose of water purification and essential oil manufacture, turning your alcobase/turbo yeast fermentations into spirit via distillation is illegal under Australian law" Australian Customs Notice No. 97/98 (Section 10/11/11a).

 

[Addy]

Just do some reading about losing the heads and tails off your runs so as not to take on too much Methanol.

 

[friedaweed]

Oh my fucking god. I can not believe that I actually made this myself.

This is my bastardised Oatmeal Ditch recipe I did. 12 days from pitch.

It's fucking goooooorgeous The mouth feel from the oats is amazing. It's like a liquid meal. This one is definately being done again.

 

[Addy]

Coopers stout is like 1 of my 5 a day

It never fails to deliver.

 

[butcher]

My Better Brew IPA + LME is 5 weeks in the keg and just a damn fine pint

I am doing a ditch Stout for xmass, what is the oat variation?

 

[badseed]

Just do some reading about losing the heads and tails off your runs so as not to take on too much Methanol.

yes, I have been reading about that. I think it will go something like
Ditch the first 50 ml, keep the second 800ml and ditch the rest.

 

[friedaweed]

My Better Brew IPA + LME is 5 weeks in the keg and just a damn fine pint

I am doing a ditch Stout for xmass, what is the oat variation?

It was my own butcher. I'm rather fond of Oatmeal stout so I beefed up the ditch with some malted oats (200g), some chocolate (100g) and biscuit malts (200g). Just steeped them in the oven for 45 mins. I added a tin of treacle to it as well. Other than that I did the full ditch including plasterers whisk and fish tank heater. The fish tank heaters currently bubbling a double batch diablo

I couldn't believe how quickly the coopers fermented out. I went from 1048 to 1010 in four days. That's some mighty hungry yeast

It's my best brew thus far. In fact I would go as far as to say it is outstanding and I've had that confirmed by a Dubliner

 

[og ogilby]

Has anyone tried the Barons Premium Beer Kits?

They were selling at £29 a pop but when I went into my local HB shop yesterday they had them on at £14.99 as they were being discontinued. Apparently they were being shipped in from Canada which accounted for some of the high price, but I was told they are still top of the range.

I bought 5 kits.

 

[badseed]

2 litres of grog
I distilled 2 batches of 4 litres which gave me 2x700ml at 60%. It didn't have much taste, maybe a slight sweetness and a bit of heat.
I threw away the first 50ml from each run (nail varnish remover/poppers smell)

The final spirit I dilluted to make 2 litres at 46% but it smelled really bad, apparently this is a common problem with the kit yeast I used to make the wash. I had to filter it 4 times to get rid of the smell, but I did get rid of it.
I have added a vodka essence to one and a coconut rum (Malibu) to the other me and the Mrs hit them pretty hard last night. Great stuff.

I have now made a 25 litre wash using 5 kg sugar, 200g tomato paste, a bit of citric acid and pitched bakers yeast. This is apparently a tried and tested recipe for a great neutral spirit, no bad smell.
I should end up with 5 litres of proper ghetto hooch .
I might get some oak chips and have a go at a bourbon.

 

[butcher]

Just pitched my first Ditches stout, so it is t- 20 days untill the first little tasting