Matsbrew Blog

AAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL GRAIN!

matsbrew — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:55:08 +0000

Ok, the decision has been made, I’m going all grain!

No more kits for me. The last 2 kits (Mexican Cerveza and Wheat Beer) are just about ready for drinking. Tomorrow night I reckon as i’m out tonight.

Started buying all the equipment required to build my AG setup. I have a 10gallon boiler from Hop & Grape, 2 cheap kettles from ASDA for the elements and some microfibre pipe for the immersion chiller. Lots more to buy yet, hoping to start my first brew before the end of the month.

I have also bought a 2 line beer chiller to run my kegs through, picked that up from Huddersfield last saturday.

Thanks go out to softlad from JimsBeerKitForum.co.uk who gave me a lesson in ‘the art of brewing’ this week.

What next??

matsbrew — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:50:42 +0000

So thats the Mexican Cerveza and Wheat beer bottled. I don’t have any spare bottles but will be trying to source some.

What I do have is an empty cornelius keg. I was planning a raspberry beer and a Milestone Crusader but think these would do better in bottles?

Who knows.

Muntons Wheat Beer

matsbrew — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:47:12 +0000

Bottled this last night. Though I had loads of bottles…………. how wrong was I!!! Ended up using about 10 275ml bottles, hope they don’t burst!

Warm conditioning for a week like the Mexican Cerveza then out into the cold.

Coopers Mexican Cerveza

matsbrew — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:50:03 +0000

Finally got round to bottling this last night. Wasn’t very organised and took me about an hour overall.

Got 38 bottles from it in all.

Currently sat in my back bedroom warm conditioning before going into the outhouse for a couple of months. If I can wait that long!

Should be bottling the Muntons Wheat Beer tonight too.

New brew

matsbrew — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:28:15 +0000

Ok after no posts for nearly 2 months, mostly because I couldn’t be bothered here is an update.

Both cornies were filled and I managed to source a CO2 bottle to carbonate them. Now one of the cornies is empty but I started brewing another 80 pints last night. 40 pints of Coopers Mexican Cerveza and 40 pints of Coopers Wheat Beer. I even managed to get SWMBO to help out!

Over xmas I had great fun emptying one cornie of its content of Cooper Canadian Blonde but don’t think i’ll be brewing that again anytime soon as it was a little bland for me. The bottled Muntons Continental Pilsner still tastes fantastic and am only drinking that on special occasions.

I have also turned my hand to cider brewing! 1 gallon of cider was brewed over xmas and it was quite dry but overcarbonated, I was still burping 30 mins after finishing the pint. I have plans for another go at cider but with an apple and cranberry twist.

I now have 3 taps but they are still freestanding as I need to build some sort of font. I have some credit at B&Q so a visit there and some bodging may be in order.

Cornelius Kegs!

matsbrew — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:36:41 +0000

Oh well i’ve taken the plunge and purchased 2 19l Cornelius Kegs, gas regulator and tap from the great man Norm!

This allows me to have draught type beer at home. They are not cheap but will definately be worth it!

Hopefully they will be here before next weekend so may have to get another brew on the go.

PS. My name is Mat, i’m an addict.

ela laer

matsbrew — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:17:09 +0000

The 3rd brew is coming along nicely!

It did try and make a run for it on and bubbled out yesterday but has settled down now.

Will check the gravity tonight and see how its going. Think it should be ready for bottling on saturday.

Bottling and another brew

matsbrew — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:36:43 +0000

Ok, so the bottling went pretty well. Only a couple of little mishaps with the tops of bottles shearing off but I still managed to get 37, 500ml+ bottles done. A week in the warm to prime then into the outhouse they go.

Also decided to start another brew!

Thats will be 120 pints conditioning before I have even tasted any!

After 2 lagers I decided to go for a Coopers Real Ale 1 can kit. I added just over 1kg of brewing enhancer and made to just under 5 gallons.

Barreled and bottled

matsbrew — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:15:27 +0000

Okay,

I barreled the Candian Blonde last week after having a nightmare with different taps on my fermenting buckets.

I also ordered some new toys! A bottle tree and rinser. Should make bottling easier

http://www.brew-it-yourself.co.uk/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=564&osCsid=c88f4ee41cb9c7585fe1527c2bc50e9f

http://www.brew-it-yourself.co.uk/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=30_118&products_id=564

Will be bottling tonight so that should be fun.

Crates

matsbrew — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:45:12 +0000

Thanks to the nice lady at my corner shop shop I now have my first milk crate ready for my bottled beer.

I’m hoping for a steady supply as I will need quite a few.