Home Brew Beer - Est. 2006

As mentioned previously I have had this Sherwood Ale Best Bitter Kit to do and I finally got round to it last night. The kit consists of approx. 3kg of liquid malt extract in 2 tins, a packet of dried ale yeast, and a 0.5oz packet of dried hop pellets. Having recently accquired the “homebrewers bible” I thought I would follow the advice from there and treat this kit to a partial boil type process.

After the usual round of cleaning/sterilizing everything I put 20 pints of cold water into the fermenter and 11 pints into my 3 (UK) gallon boil kettle. The LME was then added and and heat applied. After about 30mins the wort was boiling so I added about half the hop pellets and timed the boil for 45mins, adding the rest of the hops with 10mins to go. After 45 mins the heat was turned off and the hot wort was syphoned into the waiting fermentor. The fermentor was then topped up to a suitable level and a hydrometer reading taken (1.030).

Meanwhile, the yeast was added to some lukewarm water with about 1 teaspoon of sugar. This was then added to the waiting wort (about 10pm) and then the fermentor lid and airlock were fitted.

By this morning (8:30am) the airlock is bubbling every few seconds and a foamy krausen appears to have formed on the top of the fermentor.

Yay for beer making!

Since the last post I’ve been enjoying working my way through the Norfolk Nog. It improved considerably after the first tasting to a sweet dark beer with a good coffee-like aftertaste. It’s definitely a great improvement over my first brew. The bottled examples were not as tasty as the barreled stuff though, I think that this is probably due to lack of carbonation due to the bottle priming method I used.

Next up is a Sherwood Ale Best Bitter Kit which consists of LME and separate hops. Ive started reading “The complete joy of homebrewing” by Charles Papazian (Amazon.co.uk link) whcih suggests even kits can be boiled. I’ve accquired a 3 gallon boil pot for this purpose and might do it this weekend.

Ok, so I cracked open a bottle of the Norfolk Nog last night. Very dark looking with minimal head. Appears red when held up to the light. Taste is good and dark with hints of chocolate and coffee in the after taste.

I drank the bottle and then tapped a little off the beer sphere to “check” on its clearing. It appeared clear, exactly like the bottled stuff. The taste is much better and fuller with more bitterness. Seems a little stronger too.

Will post more details after further tasting testing, along with some pictures.