it ain’t quick this beer brewing lark.

started prep by cleaning all my gear at 12:45 this afternoon. just finished cleaning up after the brew.

anyway, it’s a chocolate stout, OG 1042, 21 litres. I was aiming at 19 litres, 1044-1048 but hey, if it tastes good (and I’ll know in about 4 weeks), it means there’s more for me to drink 🙂

Interesting…you’re pretty experienced, yes? My limited experience suggests a longer conditioning makes a difference…

not really that experienced, I switched from kits to all grain just after crimbo last year, this is AG brew #15. But, yes, the longer conditioning, the better it should get, if previous brews are anything to go by. I haven’t managed to do lager successfully yet.

1 week – 10 days in the FV.
3-5 days in secondary FV for primary clearing – not that it’ll matter that much with a stout
2 weeks in bottles in the warm for secondary fermentation
1 week minimum in the cool for conditioning. But they do tend to be drinkable, if not crystal clear after this point

Honey Ale went in on Friday. Now have a temperature controlled brew case (Old fridge with lightbulb and temp control) Honey porter came out and started drinking last week – not a session beer think, didn’t do the SG but I reckon it’s 6%+

Just got given a load of 740ml long necks and some 1.5l Grolsh bottles too.

Is all grain a few steps beyond kits? I have done a fair few kits now but don’t feel like I am properly brewing. I have heard extract brewing comes next. Is it easy?

I skipped extract & went straight to all grain – BUT I do Brew In A Bag. Needs a big Stockpot, ideally witha tap, and a mesh bag, but it’s surprisingly easy once you get into it

I’ll post a link to the method shortly

If you have the kit to do extract then you’re not far away from all-grain.

I did two extract brews to test my boiler out, was slightly better than kit beer but the big improvement came from grain. It’s well worth the extra time investment, you don’t need to be watching over it all the time.

I’ve done about 8 so far, I clearly don’t put it away as much as some on here 😉

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfi86yzhPvw[/video]

I’ve had a couple of failures. lagers. can’t control the temperature.
ales work fine for me. so from my 15 batches this year, 3 have gone down the sink 🙁

I usually do 19 litre batches, which work out at about 32-34 500ml bottles, and share my beers with my friends. I don’t buy much commercial beer, because, frankly, I prefer my own brews – tonight I’ve had 2x porters & a hoppy golden summer-ish ale