Be Excellent To Each Other

No hint of ginger at all.

really, how much did you put in?

Did you put it into the bottles, or the brew vessel?

160g in big peeled chunks into FV

surprised at that, tbh. I would have thought you'd get something. The problem may be that you put it in too early so the yeast converted the flavour as carbohydrate. I have previously thrown the ginger into the bottles. Maybe add it towards the end of the brew, so the alcohol is sufficient to extract the flavour without the yeast using it up - or add it to the bottles. Caution, makes them fizzy - implying the ginger is used by the yeast to some extent.

Rule One observed. Beer is kegged Up. Now we wait.

That looks disturbingly like you are potty training and brewing beer in two adjacent receptacles.

It's somewhat lively.

Ooh! Are the kokeshi Mrs A's? I used to have a nice collection some years back but don't have mist of them now some nice ones there, do you know where you got them.

Beer looks nice x

Yes, they are. I will ask where she got them. I found a set in a charity shop recently.

Beer still tastes slightly thin. I should have let it mature for longer. Not sure about beer enhancer kit. Might brew some more tonight.

Make up the guest room.

Man, wouldn't that be annoying?

"Come stay, we'll drink craft beer, you can stay in the guest room, it has en-suite"
...
"Right, you're on the sofa"
"What about the guest room?"
"I made it up"

This might happen tomorrow night as I am off to Saltaire Beer Festival with a friend.


Anyway, Winter Warmer kit went on just now as MrsA is at said festival.

Barrelled up. Rule One observed with a bottle of the hoppy copper with ginger experiment. Which has matured wonderfully. I will get a second barrel now and I think age one whilst finding a quick drinking brew for the other.

Leaky seal disaster! MrsA not happy. One seat cushion down. Barrel now in garage. 40 pints hang in the balance!

Back in the game! Rule One exempt due to Rugby Triumph.

Looking good.

About time I put another brew on: it's been about a year since I last did it.

Lager now laagering. I bought the Hoppy Copper tin to use as a base for some dry hopping experiments. Basically, I am going to add cascade hops to it. Lots of them.

Wilko hoppy copper tin dry hopped with 100g Cascade hops.

Have you been out hopping at all, Mali? I'm not sure how abundant hops are where you live, but Kent is practically made from hops. And apples.

No, I haven't. In the excellent book Beex secret Santa got me, I did learn that the hop fields of Kent provided jobs for swathes of the East end of London, though.

Lessons:

1) wrap hops in muslin bag
2) stick small funnel in end of syphon tube with muslin over end to use as filter
3) 100g hops takes up a lot of space
4) the smell is lovely. If you like cascade hops
5) the lager from last batch is ok.
6) might buy another pressure barrel

Lager stronger than expected. Or someting. Homebrewed lager is weirder than ale

You're confused because it probably actually tastes of something.

Heh. There was some proper research with proper sample sized and statistically significant research that said people could not tell the difference between the main premium lagers in a blind tasting test. This lead to the conclusion that the lager receipe has been perfected by lots of seperate people coming from different angles to end up i the same place. I think lager will end up being done up and revamped by smallbreweries soon, like ales have done and then a whole raft of other people can tell me I'm doing beer wrong.

Anyway, I might make this one again and see what happens if I do some hops or stuff to it.

It's already started. There are some excellent lagers out there.

Like Stella! And Red Stripe!

Sadly, there's also some gak ones like you drink

Hahaha, ok, Mr No Tastebuds.

The Pilsner lager kit from wilko is pretty good, as I come to the end if my leaky barrel of it.

Next up is their golden lager kit which I just put on. Super Cascade Hop Thing is in barrel still untouched.

As the ones you like generally taste stronger, wouldn't you be a more likely candidate for "no tastebuds"?

Are you trying to say you're some kind of super taster because you like bland, mass-produced, preservative-laden, pasteurised, flavourless beer?

To be fair, if he can find flavours in it you can't, then he has a point.

He's welcome to them.

Not really, I'm saying that if you like beer that tastes stronger, and I like beer that tastes weaker, it doesn't make much sense that I'm the one lacking taste buds.

Craft lager tends to be really weird. Really fine, tight bubbles, and an almost ale taste, but not quite.

Vienna-style lagers like Brooklyn are quite hoppy and not too far away from an American-style IPA.

First steps taken into All Grain Brewing.

3kg Maris Otter, 200g hops ordered.

Plan: 1kg Maris Otter, 5g First gold 5g Chinook hops done 3 times.

This should make 20 pints or so altogether. Cost per pint is 30p.

Method

Good luck!

Cheers. I was going to do 3 separate smaller batches and have one of gold one of Chinook and one of both but I only have one FV. Equipment for boiling is also limited.

In other brewing news, the golden lager in the FV is going into screw cap lemonade bottles and coming to the cottage. I suspect it will be more of a golden ale than lager, if reviews are to go by.

Will your blood, sweat and tears have gone into this one as well?

And whatever Shitpants has poked through the hole that she deems important in a beer. Like cheerios. Half chewed.

Bobby to taste it first.

15 litre pot ordered so that should make things easier.

The dry hopped tin has turned out ok.

All grain brewing tomorrow.

I'm worried that it defies gravity when you hold it sideways. In all other ways, it looks marvellous.

Brewing postponed until next weekend. In the meantime, I will make a mash tun from a cool box, a water but tap and some copper pipe. It should hold temp well and strain off the wort and sparge water without faffing with a colander and muslin.

As I will have half a packet of yeast left over i might try to make 10 litres of turbo cider from apple juice

You're just throwing in utterly made up words now to see if anyone notices.

All words are utterly made up, if you think about it.