Homebrewing - Part 3



First ever brew using grain last night - just a bag of steeped grains along with 2.5kg of malt, but still - its a start.
Added too much "top up" water at 50mins and ended up with about 2L of liquid in the boiler that wouldn't fit in the FV - so lost beer and 5 points of OG. Damn. Oh well, I won't make that mistake again.

Car battery seemed fine - light and fans working away nicely. As soon as I fired up the submersible pump, everything went pitch black. Had to disconnect the lights entirely and open the garage door for light while the pump worked very slowly. Managed to get the wort down to about 25-27C before moving it over to the FV - pitched onto the foam, so hopefully it was about 22-25C by that point and not too high.

Haven't used the water bath as it was 12C and would have sucked the life out of the fermentation - and the forecasts are terrible, nothing over 15C for the next week. So its simply been left on the bench.
Sat or Sun I should be back round to put my Dead Pony Club on. Need to get that battery charged first though - hoping it just died over the winter, and the solar panel doesn't provide enough current to charge it beyond a certain drop. Otherwise one or other is knackered.
 
PTR said:
First ever brew using grain last night - just a bag of steeped grains along with 2.5kg of malt, but still - its a start.
Added too much "top up" water at 50mins and ended up with about 2L of liquid in the boiler that wouldn't fit in the FV - so lost beer and 5 points of OG. Damn. Oh well, I won't make that mistake again.

Car battery seemed fine - light and fans working away nicely. As soon as I fired up the submersible pump, everything went pitch black. Had to disconnect the lights entirely and open the garage door for light while the pump worked very slowly. Managed to get the wort down to about 25-27C before moving it over to the FV - pitched onto the foam, so hopefully it was about 22-25C by that point and not too high.

Haven't used the water bath as it was 12C and would have sucked the life out of the fermentation - and the forecasts are terrible, nothing over 15C for the next week. So its simply been left on the bench.
Sat or Sun I should be back round to put my Dead Pony Club on. Need to get that battery charged first though - hoping it just died over the winter, and the solar panel doesn't provide enough current to charge it beyond a certain drop. Otherwise one or other is knackered.
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I really do admire your determination like, if I had the same restrictions you do I'd have give up ages ago.
 
I've utilised the cherry trees out the back, and attempted my 1st cherry gin and cherry vodka. They only take 2 weeks to be ready, so worth giving it a go without having the 6 month wait some recipes recommend.
 
DoctorMick said:
I really do admire your determination like, if I had the same restrictions you do I'd have give up ages ago.
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Meh, its mostly sorted. I only have to trolley water from 40 yards away into 25L bottles. I have electric for pumping water via the battery, I have lights and extractor fans. Setting it all up was the hard bit. Now its just a quick bit of maintenance now and then.

Hoping to move house this year and I'll have my own garage. Then the fun can really start.

"The years subsequent to the Vitaminwater purchase saw Coca-Cola's marketing team do wonders; Vitaminwater went from annual sales of $350 million to more than $1 billion. The sweetened water beverage entered new markets and, by nearly any measure, performed very well. Many touted it as Coca-Cola's most ambitious and successful purchase to date."

Two words:

VitaminBeer.
 
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Just noticed you can get the Grainfather Connect for £607.50 from BeerHawk with a discount code. Sorely tempted to flog some bits and pieces to put towards it.
 
Must stop putting too much water in the boiler.

Ended with 25l both the last two batches, which is nerfing the og.
 

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