viewtopic.php?t=2737
I posted the recipe here and made some fine adjustments with the help of PistolPatch/jackrussel/bundy
I got home from my 28 days in the jungle and got straight into brewing !
while getting everything ready, I thought i'ld try that extract pale ale I bottle 6 weeks ago. I tried it after 10 days in the bottle and it was horse piss...I was already prepared throw it out and count my loses...poured some into a glass...lesson one learnt...bottles do get better over time. it was a nice beer and didn't last long, second lesson, I stored half the bottles upside down on a recommendation. The yeast slurry settled in the caps and that beer wasn't as clear...don't store beer upside down for future reference.
With ingredients in hand, a mum made brew bag and hop bag, new (boiling) pot, a hand crafted wort chiller, an old curtain I was ready to brew
everything was all set up in my mates man-cave and overall the brew well smooth
The temperature dropped about 2-3 degrees after about 50 mins or so in the mash, so I lifted the brew bag and raised it.
The mash was easy, and the boil went smooth as well, although a new/larger/better designed hop bag is on the cards for next time. I only took a few photos
I need to invest in a proper hose...ye ol garden hose got a bit hot.
I was surprised at how accurate the BIABacus calculations where, The O.G was spot on and the water was within about half a litre of Volume into fermenter. although I wasn't keen on sucking up the yeast slurry so I pulled the auto-siphon out early.
I bought a heat pad but there was one night about a week into the fermentation where I forgot to turn it on and there was a frost outside, the temperature dropped pretty low and I was worried that I had killed the yeast, but I bought the temperature back up, invested in an STC-1000 and wired it up to not drop below 18 C and the yeast didn't mind to much.
after two weeks I checked the O.G...and it was sitting at the required Final Gravity... bonus ! ( yes I checked a few days earlier to make sure it didn't change and FG was stable )
I bought a bucket and new tap to use as a bottling bucket...but didn't check to see if the bottle filler would fit the new tap...it didn't...I found this out when I was due to bottle, a bit of kiwi ingenuity and the problem was solved
another note. my house mate had lots of swap a crate bottle ( 750ml brown bottles) that was going to be great for bottling time...BIG MISTAKE...90% where so dirty and could not be cleaned with a bottle brush, I managed to get just enough to finish bottling, with one or two bottles I was suss about infection, the ended up being all good
After 3-4 weeks of conditioning I cracked the first beer, head was good but went away quickly, beer had a small bitter taste then went into a smooth tasting beer (dont mock my beer describing skills)
the 19 litres of beer lasted two weeks, and not to honk my own horn, I believe it was quiet a nice beer and a lot of friends commented how good it was, Next time ill do a 45 minute boil on the bittering hops instead of 75. and see how that goes. I know its not the best beer but was certainly a great start...and hopefully not beginners luck
Next on the cards will be a modified version of this recipe with less bittering hops and another using the same hops and changing the malt slightly, this will be a good comparison. Also I now have two more fermenters so two more heat pads and two more stc-1000s will need to be ordered,
Thanks again for all the help on here, I'm here to stay !
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