Having finally bottled the Light, I can get this Stout going. I wanted to do a stout to start giving me a real choice of ale types in the future. I chose this one as I read that it was the closest stout kit to Guinness. I doubt it will come out anything like it, [...]
Archive for March, 2008
Kicking off the John Bull Masterclass Irish Stout
Posted in Brewing, Stout on March 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Bottling the Linthwaite Light
Posted in Bottling, Linthwaite Light on March 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I finally got round to bottling my second home brewed beer. It had been about 6 weeks since I first started it going, so hopefully it will come out ok.
I started off by knocking together a new set of labels:
I wanted to make the label a little different on each brew, so while the [...]
Adding the Chitosan to the Merlot
Posted in Clearing, Merlot on March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Just a quick post to confirm that last night I did add the second part of the finings – the chitosan – to the Merlot. The sachet for this was slightly larger than for the kieselsol. I shook the contents for 10 seconds again, before replacing the airlock and returning the demijohn to the brewery [...]
Adding the Kieselsol to the Merlot
Posted in Clearing, Merlot on March 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Following the instructions, I took the gromit out of the demijohn and poured in the small sachet of clear liquid labelled kieselsol. I took the airlock out of the gromit, replaced the gromit in the demijohn and with my thumb over the hole, I shook it for 10 seconds. I then replaced the airlock and [...]
Linthwaite Light Gravity Check
Posted in Fermenting, Linthwaite Light on March 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
On Friday, I decided it was time for a quick check on the status of my second home brewed beer, before going away for the weekend. I dropped the hydrometer in and went to look for my camera to take a picture. Unfortunately, I had already packed it, and my phone doesn’t have a flash, [...]
Shaking up the wines
Posted in Clearing, Merlot, Strawberry on March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
24 hours after wracking the Strawberry, and a couple of days after wracking the Merlot, I was continuing to shake the wines as often as I remembered. This involved simply removing the airlocks and covering the hole with a cleaned thumb and shaking until it stopped fizzing when I removed my thumb (or until I [...]
Racking the Strawberry
Posted in Racking, Strawberry on March 13, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Having given the Strawberry another 11 days after it seemed to have got to the edge of its target gravity, I decided it was time to wrack it to the secondary demijohn. Like the Merlot, I decided to take a gravity reading anyway, which was again easiest from a picture:
The gravity was really hard to [...]
Sampling the Munton’s IPA Again
Posted in IPA, Tasting on March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
With Phil and another mate, Chris, round on Tuesday, I decided it was time to crack open a few more bottles of the IPA, and see how its doing at the 4 week (since bottling) stage. I seem to be swinging back and forth with my thoughts on my first brew as I’m back to [...]
Racking the Beaverdale Merlot
Posted in Merlot, Racking on March 12, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I decided the time had finally come to rack the Merlot – the first home brewed wine I had tried. I decided to take a hydrometer reading, even though I expected to see little or no movement and would wrack it anyway. I took a picture for future reference:
It was hard to get a reading [...]
Boxing up some bottled Munton’s IPA
Posted in Commentary, IPA on March 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I have decided to box up some of the Munton’s IPA, in order to ensure that at least some of it lasts for a few months. This should allow me the freedom to pinch a beer when I fancy one, but still allow me to learn how my beer tastes after a longer maturing period.
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