Home Brew Questions

[Voley]

Bloody hell, badseed! Impressive stuff. I don't feel *quite* as obsessed now.

 

[rich!]

Blimey.

That beats my plastic bucket and tube system by a long chalk.

People keep going on about these cornelius kegs, are they really worth it? What are the advantages?

And shall I start pestering rich! to get a beer fridge installed in the house?

We've got a beer fridge.

Occasionally we put a vegetable or a jar of pickle in it.

 

[Voley]

Just put my first batch of cider on. Yeast's doing some fairly explosive things at the bottom of the demijohn but no glugging from the airlock as yet ...

1. Is it about to explode?

2. WILL I DIE ?

 

[Voley]

Ooh. It's glugging now all right.

 

[AnnaKarpik]

You're going to keep visiting it, aren't you, just to witness the magic that is fermentation. I find that stroking the sides of the fermentation vessel helps.*

*I am not claiming this helps with fermentation, just ...well...it helps the brewer, I feel.

 

[Voley]

Keep visiting it? I can't leave it.

 

[Voley]

Home Brew Porn. Oh yes.

My brew.

From left to right:

8 pints of cider (it's not that red IRL, the camera flash made it a bit odd-looking). Behind that, 40 pints of Wherry on it's secondary ferment. To the right in the foreground 24 pints of Headcracker with added hops also on it's secondary ferment.

This is my life. This is what I've become.

 

[berniedicters]

My brew.

From left to right:

8 pints of cider (it's not that red IRL, the camera flash made it a bit odd-looking). Behind that, 40 pints of Wherry on it's secondary ferment. To the right in the foreground 24 pints of Headcracker with added hops also on it's secondary ferment.

This is my life. This is what I've become.

I like it! Is that Headcracker going on in an old watercooler bottle, by any chance? (I think they're usually just over 21L - almost exactly the right size for a batch of beer!

And you've got a good krausen going on that, too!

 

[Voley]

No it's one made specifically for fermentation. A tenner off Ebay. Those water cooler bottles would be ideal though, thinking about it.

 

[Voley]

I
And you've got a good krausen going on that, too!

I have?! What's one of them, then?

 

[berniedicters]

No it's one made specifically for fermentation. A tenner off Ebay. Those water cooler bottles would be ideal though, thinking about it.

Yeah, I tried to blag one from one of my workplaces (well, they were just sitting there, empty), but got caught, oops

I have?! What's one of them, then?

It's the foam on the top of an enthusiastically fermenting brew...

 

[berniedicters]

I have a half-built wort chiller up in the shed, plus a Baby Burco water boiler I'm in the process of converting to a wort boiler. I need to get these projects to some state of photogenicness and do some homebrew pr0n of my own...

 

[Voley]

Ahhh, right. Well, that's mainly because I'd just transferred it across from the first fermenter so it got a bit churned up. It does look good, though - it's a lovely colour. I got a bit of a mouthful when I was doing the siphoning and it tastes pretty good already.

 

[berniedicters]

Ahhh, right. Well, that's mainly because I'd just transferred it across from the first fermenter so it got a bit churned up. It does look good, though - it's a lovely colour. I got a bit of a mouthful when I was doing the siphoning and it tastes pretty good already.

Well, if it tastes good now, you have a very nice surprise coming to you a couple of months down the line...

 

[Voley]

I can't see it surviving untouched for a couple of months, tbh.

 

[Stig]

This is my life. This is what I've become.

Looking good NVP

I'm starting to feel competitive now.

I'd get my hop collection out for photos, but I'm going down the pub straight after work so the chances of getting a photo sorted out this evening are slim to none, frankly.
(the reason I am going is to drop my bottles of beer off at the pub early to give it a chance to settle before the Amateur Brewers meet next week. Slighty cheaty, but I need all the help I can get.)

I got my red malt and amber malt! I have a fine malt and hop collection going on now.
Just spent a fruitful lunchtime ordering a sparge arm, a bottling stick, a bench capper and a copper cooling spiral thingy. woohoo!

 

[Voley]

Stig - just having a look at that pic of yours again. Am I right in saying you've even made your own bottle labels?

 

[badseed]

even made your own bottle labels?

 

[Voley]

Heh heh! That looks like a nice drop, badseed. Lovely colour.

 

[rich!]

Stig - just having a look at that pic of yours again. Am I right in saying you've even made your own bottle labels?

guess who gets castigated for cutting them out not-neatly-enough?

 

[MightyAphrodite]

the tags on this thread are fabulicious.

thats all really

 

[Voley]

guess who gets castigated for cutting them out not-neatly-enough?

Quite right, too!

Another quick question. Does it matter if you make turbo cider in a fermenting bin rather than a demijohn? I'd like to make a colossal batch of a good few gallons.

 

[aqua]

doesn't make a difference no

 

[Voley]

Splendid.

<heads off to Lidl>

 

[Stig]

Stig - just having a look at that pic of yours again. Am I right in saying you've even made your own bottle labels?

We have a huge xerox at work just laying about, and all these packs of a4 stickers - it would be rude not to, really.


I've even named my brewery. Well everyone else on Jim's Beer Kit seemed to have a brewery name, like Mouse Hole Brewery or Leaky Shed Brewery. I felt I ought to get down with the, er, kids*.



*Worryingly, everyone on there seems to be exactly my age group. Is this brewing a mid-late 30s thing?

 

[Voley]

Midlife crisis, innit?

Well that's what I'm blaming mine on. It's better than saying 'chronic alcoholism'.

First brew of Wherry goes into the keg today. I couldn't resist and gave it a taste last night. Not at all bad for a first attempt. Still got a way to go (it's a bit gassy atm) but a couple of weeks in the keg should sort that, I reckon.

 

[Stig]

Midlife crisis, innit?

Well that's what I'm blaming mine on. It's better than saying 'chronic alcoholism'.

Have you named your brewery yet, NVP?

 

[Voley]

I've even named my brewery.

I live in Brea Farm (pronounced 'bray') so mine's got to be 'Brea Brewery' really. Nice bit of alliteration.

My sister has been casting aspersions on my cleaning/sterilising technique, alleging that I use the incorrect tools for the job so the first batch has been duly named 'Bog Brush Beer'.

 

[berniedicters]

I've even named my brewery. Well everyone else on Jim's Beer Kit seemed to have a brewery name, like Mouse Hole Brewery or Leaky Shed Brewery. I felt I ought to get down with the, er, kids*.



*Worryingly, everyone on there seems to be exactly my age group. Is this brewing a mid-late 30s thing?

I think it might be.

I do my own beer labels, too. Alarmingly, quite a few people I've given beer to as presents have thought it was commercial, though I think that's more down to their gullibility than anything else...

(brewery name b0rked to protect the innocent)

 

[Voley]

I toyed with 'Lands End Ale' for a bit, too, but EVERYTHING's called Lands End-something or First And Last-something-or-other down here so that got ditched.

Also, we're not on the mains water here - we've got our own well - so the beer's been made with Cornish spring water. I was trying to find a way of getting that into the title somehow but drew a blank.

Quite why the fuck I've wasted any time whatsoever on this futile gesture is another, deeply impenetrable question.