County Show

So I've entered the county summer show. Four of my brews going in.

Belgian Framboose 

Canadian Blonde

Mexican Cerveca

Irish stout.

I've never done entered anything before with the brews so any tips then get in touch @homebrewingblog on twitter it reply here.

Out in the Cold - Woodforde's Wherry

After plenty of recommendations on the Internet, Woodforde's Wherry was my next beer kit to brew up in time for Christmas.

It is described by Woodforde's as "Fresh and zesty with crisp floral flavours. A background of sweet malt and a hoppy ‘grapefruit’ bitter finish characterises this champion bitter". 

My usual approach to drinking is - mouth open - glug glug - yep that's nice - the end.

So taking a bit more notice of what I should be tasting, how to taste it and what to look out for was in order.  This sounded interesting, and more geared to the kind of drink I wanted to drink when I decided to start Homebrewing.  So why not throw it into the bucket to bubble away.

Which is where it stayed for seven days, in the garage, cuddled up to a brew belt during the night.
After seven days in the bucket I bottled it up using carbonation drops for conditioning and carbonating.

As I did with the Coopers Australian Lager, I left the bottles in the garage for two weeks.  Only, then it was summer, now its the end of November and 5 degrees celcius.  Newbie knowledge shining through.

FAIL.

I opened a bottle, expecting to taste the fruits of my labour, only to not hear the sound of gas escaping as I popped the cap off.  Disappointed. 
I thought, OK, so its not as lively as I would have expected, but maybe pouring and tasting would surprise me.

NOPE - flatter than water, thinner than Kate Middleton and duller than Nick Clegg. 

First thought was that it was a bad brew, and it was going to have to be thrown away.  I turned to my more experienced peers on Twitter and the Brew UK forum that I had been using as a great source of information.

Almost straight away my mind was put at rest.  I just needed to bring them into the house for two weeks to get it kick started.  Great, so there would be a bit of a delay, but as long as I didn't have to throw it down the drain I didn't care.

So after 10 days in the house, I put a couple of bottles into the fridge to see how it was going, and BOOM.....blummin' lovely.  The advice I got was spot on and it really did taste very nice. 

My only bit of disappointment was the amount of sediment in the bottles, it was quite a lot.

I'll be leaving future brews in the bucket for 10 - 14 days, to let it clear a bit more and reduce the sediment being transferred into the bottling bucket.

So after a bit of a hicup - and probably a valuable learning experience, I'm going to really enjoy this batch, having had to put a bit more work and tweaking to save it and make it right.

Really enjoying this and have put on a St Peter's Ruby Red Ale on a few days ago.  Ready to drink on New Years Eve - perfect.

2012 will see me move to the next stage.  I've bought the recipe ingredients for Way to Amarillo IPA  - looking forward to moving on and learning some more.

Brew Dog

A trip to The Supermarket, or for the Americans amongst you, The Store, provided the obligatory wander down the beer section. 

Crates on one side, and a surprisingly wide ranging selection of ales, bitters, ciders and lagers on the other.

I was after something I'd not tried before and straggling on the bottom shelf was a funky looking bottle which screamed PUNK at me. 

To my surprise, I saw it was a BrewDog beer.  I'd only recently become familiar with the company BrewDog through my exploits on Twitter so thought it would be good to put a taste to the name.  Sold.

There were a couple of bottles down there two by BrewDog, "Hardcore" and "5A.M Saint".

Looking at the "Hardcore" bottle, it had a whopping 9.8% ABV whacked on the side of it, which scared me.  Small steps, lets not get carried away!

Brew Dog's background

Taken from their website.

"At BrewDog we are on a mission – a mission to create some of the most extraordinary, non-conformist, craft beers known to man, or dog.

Our beers strive to be everything mass produced, mainstream beers aren't which means every BrewDog beer is 100% free of the preservatives, additives and harmful chemicals.

We've decided to replace these unnecessary nasties with ingredients like passion, determination and a touch of the obscure; and that’s all on top of brewing our beers in small, hand-crafted batches from our brewery in rugged north east Scotland.

BrewDog’s beers are the epitome of pure punk. We brew uncompromising, bold and irreverent beer, beer with a soul and a purpose.

Our approach has the same contempt of the mass beer market that the old-school punks had for pop-culture. "

Quite a refreshing mission statement, I felt inspired.  Not really to make me go out and take on the world, but to know that there is some real thought going into making new advances and breaking boundaries in our drinking habits.  Beers can get boring, and I think the people at Brew Dog have recognised this.

I'll definitely be drinking more BrewDog beers.  Really tasty and was disappointed I only bought two. 

Thanks for the new tastes and experiences.  Much Recommended.

http://www.brewdog.com/

Coopers Austrailian Lager

While I do not claim to be a beer expert, this is just my experience and how it all made me feel.  Right or wrong, I enjoyed writing it.

This was my first attempt at homebrewing after months of research, should I, shouldn't I, and hours of "craigtube" - he's a real help.

The kit came with everything i needed, clear instructions and they were easy to follow.

Everything went well, left it for 7 days, then put it into 2nd FV which had my bottling wand - great gadget, saved time and no mess. Left in the bottles for 2 weeks, tasted great, refreshing, full of flavour.

I used the carbonation drops that came with the kit, and again they saved time and no mess. ( can you tell i don't like to clean up mess, ha!)

I gave loads out to family and friends because they'd all encouraged me to get into it, and obviously wanted some free beer. I glugged about 20 bottles myself, in about 2 weeks 99% were gone, and towards the end of the 2nd week (4th week in the bottle) they were tasting nicer and nicer.

I left 4 bottles for a further 4 weeks and then opened them and the taste blew the first bottle opened out of the water. I'd recommend leaving it in the bottle at least 4 weeks before opening.

This is a light, skippy, dancing beer that actually has a great taste, nothing like the commercial lagers, much better.

go for it, especially during the summer.

(bought from http://www.brewuk.com/  )

Choosing a Beer to Brew

There was only ever going to be one type of brew for the first one.  All my friends and most of my family just drink lager, the golden gassy commercial beers. 
As I was always going to share out 70% of the beer, there's no point in giving someone something I know they wont like before they've even tasted it.
So good old Lager it was.

I ordered this from http://www.brewuk.co.uk/ where there is a wide ranging selection of all sorts of beer kits.  An easy site to navigate with a friendly forum as well which i use a lot to see if I'm on the right road.  Go check it out.

The kit contents were; the can of malt (pictured), sachet of 6G Yeast, 1kg Brewing Sugar and a bag of Coopers Carbonation Drops.  Simple. 

The instructions inside covered every angle and weren't complicated.

Although personally I wanted to brew up an ale of some sorts, I felt this was a great choice and had good reviews.

Support

I had great support from friends and family who all associated homebrew as a strong loopyjuice that just tasted a bit nasty. 
Neither the less, they all kept their empty bottles for me, all hoping to get them back at some point full of beer.
Getting everyone on board gave me the extra motivation and enthusiasm to get it right and get my beer out there for all to taste.
The bottles came in slowly, too slowly really for what I needed.  Luckily my Uncle owns a bar and I raided his bottle bin one Sunday morning.  Felt like a bit of a tramp but needs must.  It wasn't that bad really.  Funny if anything.
Most of all, support from the Wife.  I'm not sure if it was the promise of me being out in the shed in the evening while the Soap Opera's roll out their usual hostility, or the prospect of her having a banker when it came to thinking of Birthday/Christmas gifts. 

So like any new venture, having those closest to you giving their full support makes everything that bit more enjoyable and simpler.

Start Up - Equipment

Not the most exciting post,  but perhaps a helpful one for those starting out.

This is what I bought from http://www.brewsmarter.co.uk/  for about £100.
It was a reasonably priced website which had everything I had researched.  Easy to navigate etc etc.


33 Litre Fermenter, Lid and Bung for Airlock (where the beer is mixed and left in for however many days)

23 Litre Fermentation Vessel and lid fitted with drum tap (where the beer is syphoned into for bottling)

Bubbler Airlock with Cap ( to release the CO2 from the bucket without letting anything back in)

Thermometer (to ensure the beer is at the right temperate to ferment)

Hydrometer (measures the sugar content to check fermentation is complete and to figure out the alcohol %)

Auto Syphon 23 litre ( to transfer the beer quickly and without contamination)

Nylon Bottle Brush

Beer Plastic Paddle (used for mixing)

Twin Lever Capper (for capping bottles)

Crown Caps (bottle tops)

VWP Cleanser 400g (steriliser - invaluable stuff, it is your friend use it!!!)

Little Bottler / Bottling Wand (a must have for easy bottling without a mess)

Brew Belt (heats the bucket to keep it at the right temperature if you keep your beer in the garage or shed)


All you need now is the beer.

****KEEP THE SHIPPING CARDBOARD BOX YOUR ORDER COMES IN,

IT WILL COME IN HANDY****