Well, this is the last brew from a kit I’ll be doing for a while.  They got me back in to brewing, which was good, but the quality of the end product varied considerably.  All were drinkable though.  They just lacked a bit of oomph. The Wherry, Coopers Stout and St Peters Golden Ale were the best I think.

Anyway, the Nelsons Revenge kit was easy peasy to make up and smelt nicely hoppy.  And the Chimay yeast starter soon got to work with a nice creamy head on it the next day.

The Belgian yeast going to work.

So where does my brewing path lead me now?  Well to day a nice big sack of something arrived from The Malt Miller .  30kg of it!  And it only took 4 working days to get to France from the UK.

A big bag o' malt

Excellent service from an excellent company.

Captured Chimay Yeast

I thought I’d have another go at capturing a commercial yeast from a bottle so after glugging some Chimay Red I put the dregs in a small starter.

After 24 hours it took off like a rocket!  so I’m going to step it up tonight and hopefully use it to brew my final kit brew.  A Woodfordes Nelsons Revenge.

The monk's yeast.

Coopers Ditch’s Stout

There comes a time in a kit brewers life when he will try a Coopers Stout.  And why not do it a la Ditch?

So I made the kit up to 20 litres with 1 kilo of amber spray malt and 260g of brown sugar.  That gave an approx OG of 1045.  Who knows where it will finish?  The 100mls of WLP002 slurry I pitched was chugging away nicely last time I looked…

Woodfordes Wherry Kit

Well I’ve started supping the Colne Valley Bitter so to avoid the previous lag time between brews I’m getting another brew on.  The Wherry kit has a of a ying-yang reputation in the homebrew community.  It’s the most popular and apparently flavorsome kit yet it is plagued with the reputation of sticking at 1020.  I’ll see how I get on!

I plan on just pitching slurry for this brew seeing as it is only 2 weeks old.  I’m certainly getting my moneys worth out of this vial of WLP002!

Update!

After 2 weeks the Wherry finished off at 1015 from 1046 (I’d made the kit up to 20 litres).  Not really stuck I suppose but still a bit high.  I kegged it with a big fat hop sock of this years homegrown cascades and EKG.  I plan on doing a Coopers kit next just to see if it is my poor brewing which is causing everything to finish high.

 

Brupaks Colne Valley Bitter Kit

Well I’ve nearly polished off the St Peters IPA so I thought I’d better get started on my next brew:  a Brupaks Colne Valley Bitter.  I bought a bunch of kits from the company The Thrifty Shopper who post to France at quite reasonable rates.

The main thing I’m paying attention to now is the temperature of the wort and oxygenation.  I chill my brewing water in my chest freezer before hand and use about 1.5 litres of boiling water to dissolve the extract and to rinse out the tins.  This means that after I’ve topped up the brew length it’s usually about 20 degrees C.

Anyway, the super easy brew was made up and pitched with a 1 liter starter of WLP002.

I hope it won’t stick at 1020…

Oxygenating the wort with my Pipette Boy.

Fermentation the next day. My second re-pitch from this yeast batch.

Update!

Well 2 weeks after pitching and after rousing and heating the brew from the fourth day of fermentation I’ve kegged it.  At FG 1018.

Harumph!

Behemoth Cascades!

Lordy, look at the size of these!  My Cascade hop plant has produced some real beauties in it’s first year.  A plethora of huge enormous cones.  At least three times the size of the EKG Cobb.  I guess they really do make things bigger in America!

Yeast Washing

So I’m back to brewing kits.  There, I said it.  I’m not ashamed!  At the moment I simply haven’t the time to do an all grain brew day so kits will have to suffice.

Though I’m hoping to do it properly this time.  Previously I’d pitch and ferment hot and use exclusively dried yeast.  I thought I’d pay attention to fermentation control and use and re-pitch a liquid yeast to get my moneys worth.  So I ordered a couple of St Peters kits (IPA and Golden Ale) and a vial of WLP002, English Ale yeast.  The Golden Ale fermented out great and tasted very nice indeed.  I used the slurry to make a starter for the IPA kit (which is now in my King Keg, priming), so today I’m washing the yeast and storing it for my next brews.

Yeast slurry I collected from the bottom of the fermentor.

Nice vials of yeast for the next few brews

It Lives!

Oh my god, a new post!  Yes, after nearly a year of inactivity I’ve finally got my arse into gear and typed something.  And what a year!  Redundancy, new jobs, emigration, three temporary flats and one new house purchase.  The dust after all that has settled a bit so I have time for a bit of brewing.  But I’ll fill you in on that on a later post.  Just to get me started I thought I’d post some pics of my hop plants.  They seem to be enjoying the French climate anyway.  The East Kent Golding Cobb has gone insane even though this is it’s first year of growth.  The cascade is a bit more sedate but is still pushing for the skies.  Onwards and upwards!

An American Cascade in France

EKG taking over the eastern wall

Wishaw Hop Harvest 2010

My First Gold hop plant produced a bumper crop this year.  Who know what it’ll be like next year?  I certainly won’t as I’ve just accepted a job in Switzerland so I’m emigrating.  I will be taking a root cutting of my hop plant though!

A bumper harvest of First Gold cones

Mini Mash 3: Winters Fylleth Porter

This was a serious user upper.  I’ve had a York Stonewall Bitter kit at the back of the cupboard since last Christmas as well as an odd kilo of pale malt and darker grains left over in the garage.  So I thought I’d synergistically combine the two to get a simple Autumnal ale in the King Keg.  I brewed a York Brewery Yorkshire  kit earlier on in the year and found it tasty, though a bit thin and low on the ABV (23 litres at 1036).  Mashing the grains should increase the gravity and the taste.  Here’s hoping!

Pale Malt 1200g

Crystal 240 40g

Aromatic Malt 227g

Chocolate Malt 227g

Amber Malt 113g

Liquid Malt Extract 1800g

Dry Malt Extract 1000g

All the bits of the kit with sparge underway!

The mash was super easy and and I collected about 10 litres of wort.  I boiled this for an hour with 10g of the hop pellets which came with the kit, and threw the remaining 30g in at flameout.  I then just mixed all the malt extract in the fermentor with the wort and topped it up to 23 litres.  The original gravity was 1054.  Top stuff!  Two sachets of Safale 04 finished this off at 1014 so that gives about 5.2%.