Hydrometer readings

I've had to take hydrometer readings of my beer quite frequently over the past few weeks. A tip I picked up on one of the forums is to use a sanitised turkey baster to extract the beer from the fermenter and transfer it to the trial jar this saves you from dipping the entire trial jar into the beer and possible infection.

On my first attempt at using this technique I discovered that pressing the bulb whilst the tube is in the beer causes bubbles and the introduction of oxygen into the beer - a definite no no.

the next time I used the Turkey baster I squeezed and held the bulb before it was put into the beer, this resulted in no bubbles.

Fermentation problems

I was due to bottle my Brewferm Abbey kit on Christmas eve. Last Saturday I took a hydrometer reading which came out at 1022, the recommended fg is 1010, after consulting with the guys on Jim's Beer Kit the bottling has been postponed.

The fermentation has stuck probably because I've allowed the temperature of the beer to fall to 15c at the last check.

I've moved my bin to a warmer room and wrapped it up in a pretty pink dressing gown.

If this allied to a little, gentle, agitation doesn't work then I'll have to pitch some more yeast.

I'm definitely going to invest in a fish tank heater before I start my next brew, this should allow me to keep things at a decent and consistent temperature.

This is only my third brew and the first time I've had this problem - I wonder whether this is because I have 9litres in a 22 litre bin making it hard to maintain liquid temperature?

Blackford 1488 Whisky Ale

I think this may be the best bottled beer I've drunk. according to the label the ale is made using the same malted barley as goes into the Tullibardine Distillery single malt. The ale is matured in the oak casks that once held the single malt.
On reading the label I thought it was just a bit of a gimmick but it's not.
The ale has a cinnamon smell to it and when drunk has a whisky flavour and smoky aftertaste.
The label recommends drinking this ale with a whisky chaser - at 7% abv and according to my experiences last night following this advice would lead to a very short night indeed.
Overall this was light and refreshing.

Bottling

I Spent fifteen minutes the other night preparing a wine fermenter for bottling beer.

Hole saw attached to drill

The hole is cut

The tap is screwed into place

I used a hole saw to drill out the hole in the barrell then added a tap which I bought for a few pounds - the tap has a bottling stick attachment.

When I come to bottle I'll siphon the beer from the primary into the wine fermenter then I can add the priming sugar at this stage instead of each individual bottle.

Elbow Grease Works!

Just look at this!

I opened up my fermenting bin for a wee peek this morning (little more than 12 hours after pitching) and the yeast has run wild - it looks like an alien organism from a 1950's horror film.

Just goes to show - yeast starter + wort + lots of oxygen = great start

Brewferm Abbey 4

The final step is to pitch the yeast. Prior to pitching I rehydrated the yeast by putting it into a jug with 150ml of water warmed to 25c, left for 10 minutes then mixed into the wort.
At this stage it is important to give it all a good mix in order to get plenty of oxygen into the wort to aid the yeast in the fermentation process.
Some of the guys on Jim's Beer Kit Forum attach a paddle to an electric drill to aid this - again something I aim to get round to - for the moment I'm using elbow grease.

Brewferm Abbey 3

I now add the sugar to the wort - in this case 500g of Muntons Light Spray Malt (white cane and brewers sugar can be used instead) then top up with 5 litres of cold water (this is only a 9 litre/2 gallon kit). It is now a waiting game - the temperature needs to drop to 20c. The picture shows the wort awaiting the yeast.

At this point I took a Hydrometer reading - the temperature was 23c and the reading was 1.055 - well short of the reccomended 1.070 hmm I've done something wrong!

Brewferm Abbey 2

The next step is to prepare the malt can and equipment. In this case I sat the can in a pan of hot water (this loosens up the malt prior to pouring). I then boiled up 3 litres of water.

After pouring the malt into the bin I added 2 litres of hot water to it then used the remianing litre to rinse out can. This is also added to the bin.

There is now 3 litres of hot water and 1 litre of malt in the bin.

Brewferm Abbey 1

I started my latest kit last night - Brewferm Abbey. Step 1 and probably the most important step is sterilising your equipment. I use VWP (or is it WVP?) at a rate of one teaspoon per gallon of warm water. The problem with this is that it has to be rinsed thoroughly. I rinse it four times with clean, cold water. The photo is my newly cleaned and sterilised bin ready for action!

I think I'll try DaaB's method with thin bleach the next time as it is a "no rinse" method.

I find that I spend almost as much time rinsing as I do brewing.

Bottled

Managed to get the Cantina kit bottled on Saturday. After taking some advice I transferred the wine a couple of times between fermenting bins and have seen a dramatic reduction in the amount of sediment going into the bottles. I'd definitely reccomend this method to anyone making their own wine.

Wine kit update

The Cantina Pinot Grigio 5 day wine kit has turned into a 8 or 9 day kit. On Tuesday (day 4) according to the instructions I was due to add the stabiliser and finings. However the airlock was bubbling ten to the dozen so I've had to leave it until today.

I've spent the morning racking the wine into another fermenting bucket and adding the stabiliser and finings - it should be ready to bottle tomorrow which is just as well as there are only four bottles of Zinfandel and one bottle of Blackberry left.

No real reason for this except that it's great

More homebrew supplies

On Thursday I bought some more stuff from the homebrew shop, a Cantina 5 day wine kit and a Brewferm Abbey beer kit. On Friday I started of my wine kit, which is bubbling away nicely just now. I did have a bit of a blunder though - forgetting to take a hydrometer reading before pitching the yeast.

Orkney ales

I tried two bottled ales from the Orkney brewery at the weekend - Dark Island and Red MacGregor.
The Red MacGregor is light and refreshing with a fruity taste and smell - my girlfriend said it smelled of perfume! It was quite bitter and the colour was, well reddish as the name suggests.
The Dark Island is the polar opposite, and more to my taste, dark in colur and rich in flavour. it is quite heavy and almost stout like in taste.
Both beers were very good although I prefer the Dark Island

Second Brew

My second attempt at homebrewing is currently in the keg conditioning - it's been there for nearly a fortnight and I'm finding it hard not to have a wee taste but I want to leave it for at least three weeks.

This time I've made an Ironmaster Nut Brown Ale 1.8kg kit - it was born on 4th October.
I learned one or two lessons from my first attempt and from some homebrewing forums (see links for "brew it yourself" and Jim's Beer Kit").
This time I threw away the kit yeast and used a Muntons yeast - rehydrating it prior to pitching.
I saw a definite difference in the vigour of the fermentation which resulted in a beer soaked carpet!
This time instead of ordinary cane sugar I used 1kg of brewers sugar.
Once I start drinking I'll be sure to let you know how it tastes.

I'm off now to start my next batch of wine.