Be Excellent To Each Other

At the Ticket to Ride World Championships, of course. It is the Official Beverage.

*coughs but it sounds like come and get your fucking beer*

I shall try and sort it tbis weekend. Soz.

Ta.

The local brewerymaximus planted some Hop in the local park and now it reached my garden. Homebrew dreams awaken...

So just started a big adventure into home brewing. Trying to make a Xmas American pale ale.


Stupid question, done everything and got to leave it now for 4 days until I had the hops. I leave the lid clamped tight right? It won't explode?

Instructions says put the cover, but not how tightly...

What sort of lid? I have food tubs, really and they press fit on. Co2 escapes through the bubble trap. If you do this all good. If not, press fit the lid, puncture a hole in it and stick a sterilised dry sponge in the hole. And happy brewing!

It's a plastic 40 pint bucket with a lid that clips on water tight. Can't see any way to release pressure. It's from A home brewing kit.

Realised I have a pic of it.

Do you have a bubble trap? If so, make a small hole in the lid, put the bubble trap in (with some water in it), and seal with vaseline. If you don't have a bubble trap, make a small hole and cover with a clean tea towel or stick a sterile sponge in it. Tomorrow buy a bubble trap. After a couple if days, there will be enough yeast and krausen to effectively seal bad stuff out. So no great danger.

I have a length of tube as a siphon, that it?

No. Looks like this.

Right. Just ordered some of those. Will punch a hole tonight. Currently lid is just resting. Hopefully won't be ruined. Still, learn as you go.

Thanks for all the help. Totally hope to leave up my beer snobness.

Should be fine. Because you tip in so much yeast, it should out compete anything g else in a few generations (about 2 hours). It is only after a linger time infection could be a problem, but by then, there are anaerobic conditions which'll shut out most bugs, and s layer of detritus which further helps.

Mmmm. Tasty, tasty detritus.

What's the receipe?

5.5%. Got some body from the get go.

The porter tastes like a porter. Which is good. If you like porter....

I do!

I will put some in your box, then.

Yay!

And, as part of my Make Myp Shut The Fuck Up About American Style Beer range...

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I will do an amber ale with them. As I have loads of crystal malt still to use.

MOAAAAAAAAAAAR HOPS

7.1% ish. Only got 6 litres out due to shed tons of hops floating about.

Tastes better than the other porter from the barrel.

20% crystal malt and 25g each of hops. 1045 og so might run out between 4.5% to 5.2%.

4.7% in the end. All bottled up now. The honey porter was tried and it is ok. I think I can get one more on before Christmas and bottle before new year. I am running out of bottles.

1800g Maris Otter, 200g Crystal Malt is the grain bill. Will hop with citra and cascade. Mash on!

Note high tech mash tun.

Exciting sparge and hop action! 1am. Jesus.

3 weeks later and it is 4.4%. First taste is quite bitter but the hops come through nicely to balance it. A bit lighter in color than I was expecting, too.

Turbo Cider 2.

4.4 litres 11.4% sugar solution and 100ml Ribena. And 6 teabags.

I'll pass on that one.

Don't worry, he has given it a beard. Literally, where do you think his went?

George Osbourne's Hairy Cider.

Gideon's Gratifying Grog

Beer cupboard installed. Need to pop my kegs on top of it and fill it with beer to lager. Hurrah!

6%.

Not as dry as the other one. Have added sugar so it will be fizzy

Why would you do that? It was going so well - cider shouldn't be fizzy!

Not very fizzy, though. I think a little positive pressure could keep it from getting infected.

Edit: actually, if it is remotely potable unlike the last one that would be a GREAT SUCCESS and then I can put it away as ANOTHER VICTORY for me.

Brewdog have released a 'back catalogue' with details of ingredients and method for making all of their beers. And they really do mean all; they seem to have included entries for everything from their experimental short-lived concoctions right through to their core line-up. In the case of Punk IPA for instance they've even included both variation as they apparently changed the recipe in 2010. I don't know enough about this stuff to know if this really is all the info you'd need to try and make your own version or if it's somehow missing important detail but still, it would be cool to try and do your own versions of their beers to see how close you could get to the originals.

Ooh.

Are you about to turn your spare room into a brewery?

Maybe

Oops, forgot the link:

https://www.brewdog.com/diydog

Yeah, the information there is pretty good. it has the methodology as well. Thank you for that.

I was sitting at my desk drooling at the idea of making my own version of some of their sour beers but fuck knows when I'd ever have the room for such shenanigans. Even if I do move at some point in the new few months as planned I'm still only looking for a two bedroom place and I'd be a bit worried doing something involving large quantities of liquids if I've got neighbours below me...

You can scale it all down. I make 10 litres at a time on the hob. Equipment wise I use a kettle, a 15 litre saucepan, garden sieve, fermenting bin, muslin cloth, hydrometer, measuring cylinder, hop bag and a wormdo. The biggest volume of water you would use this way is 12l just before you boil it. Go for it.

What's a wormdo.... ?