The great home brew adventure.

I started homebrewing last year –its not something I had really thought about much before but after speaking to a few folk who had done it I decided I wanted to give it a go. I had absolutely no interest in getting a “just add water” kit like the ones you get in tesco but didnt fancy going the whole hog with all the equipment and learning curve needed for all grain.

So I ended up going for something in between. I found brewuk's recipe packs. They basically consist of packs of malt extract, hops, yeast and instructions. I liked the fact that it was a recipe and if I wanted more hops or different yeast it was just a case of ordering some more and changing the recipe.

The first one I did was their “rocker apa” - light malt extract plus cascade and nelson sauvin hops. I went for half a batch to begin with which resulted in just under 10 litres. It took quite a while to start fermenting – was a good few days before any signs of life. Took about a month for it to finish fermenting and I bottled it with mixture of 2litre coke bottles and wine bottles. I had a few sneaky tastes over the next few weeks and it was definitely improving. After a few weeks in bottles it was probably at its best. It was cloudy – looked like a blue moon, it smelled amazingly hoppy, had a bit of a strange after taste to it but on the whole was quite drinkable.

My next brew was their “Amarillo” recipe pack – pretty similar to the rocker but with Amarillo hops. This brew seemed to go a lot better – it started fermenting within a few hours and finished quite a bit quicker. I had now invested in a capper plus crown caps and had been hoarding glass bottles for weeks. Almost had enough to do the full batch but a few wine bottles were needed too. I patiently waited for a few weeks then cracked one open. It was amazing. Not cloudy, nice level of carbonation, nice head, amazing hop smell and a fantastic taste. The timing of it was perfect – just in time for Christmas and new year. Plenty of people got them for presents and plenty of others got to try it at the house over the festive period. Giving them to people gave me the excuse to do some nice labels for the bottles – with some folk not even realising they were home made. Having them in bottles with the proper caps really adds something to them – its a great feeling hearing that noise and pouring it out whilst thinking “I made that”.

I've worked my way through the batch and there are now only 8 bottles left – what I've found interesting is they are all slightly different, all with a slightly different character. There hasn't really been a bad one but there are some that are so much better. This has made me appreciate well made beer that is consistent and how hard it must be to do it from batch to batch as well as bottle to bottle.

So now my 3^rd brew is sitting in the fv with a nice thick Krausen head. This time I decided to brew to my own recipe wth a little help from beer engine. I love hoppy bitter west coast US beers and wanted something with a bit more kick than my first 2 attempts. So played about with Beer Engine to come up with a 7% beer that should if I've done it all right come in at around 70 IBUS. I had a few bits and pieces left over from 1^st half batch but ordered some more malt extract, cascade hops and US-05 yeast. Maybe it will be a disaster but I'm excited about how it will turn out and its all a learning curve.

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested

Hop Variety	Type	Alpha	Time	lb: oz	grams	Ratio
Cascade	Whole	6.8 %	60 mins	0 lbs. 2.1 oz	60 grams	48%
Cascade	Whole	6.8 %	15 mins	0 lbs. 0.7 oz	20 grams	16%
Cascade	Whole	6.8 %	5 mins	0 lbs. 0.7 oz	20 grams	16%
Cascade	Whole	5.7 %	60 mins	0 lbs. 0.9 oz	25 grams	20%

(ended up with two varities of cascade - 2011 @ 6.8% and another at 5.7%)

Final Volume:	18	Litres
Original Gravity:	1.068
Final Gravity:	1.015
Alcohol Content:	7%	ABV
Bitterness:	70	EBU
Colour:	19	EBC

– just don't tell me it won't work!