Brew Progress

So, I got home this weekend and was able to take my second sample of the Cooper's home brew. The hydrometer shows steady progress, with a reading of about 1020, taste is a little bitter but hopefully that'll mellow out over the next few weeks.

I still haven't seen any bubbles in the airlock, so I presumably have a small air leak, but as long as the beer is still fermenting I won't worry about that. I now have the barrel wrapped in a thick blanket, indoors but away from any radiators which seems to give a consistent temperature of around 22 °C.

I hope to bottle my homebrew next weekend if the readings have stabilised.

I picked up a few bottle of Grolsch on Friday night for their lovely swing-top bottles, the beer was quite nice too, even if the after-taste was a little bitter. This was washed down with plenty of Bavaria, best served in plastic pitchers, apparently.

Mickey Rourke Approves (Spotted in Odeon)

Sampling the Home Brew

Well, I was beginning to get worried by the lack of bubbles in the fermenter air-lock.

I've been monitoring the temperature and found it was dropping to around 18°C overnight so I'm now using the brew-belt, keeping it high up the barrell to avoid over-heating during the day. The Cooper's lager kit recommends a fermenting temperature between 21°C and 27°C.

It's been three days now and not a single bubble in my homebrew.

Since the fermenter has a bottom-tap I was able to take a sample without risking infection.

The liquid is now a lot cloudier than it was when I first sampled it, it also smells and tastes like beer. The hydrometer indicated a gravity of around 1037-1039. Although it was hard to get an accurate reading due to the amount of head in the sampling tube.

I'm now happy to call it beer! Looks like it's started well, now I just have to sit back and wait another 2 weeks or so for my first batch of home brew..

As for the question of "how to keep the homebrew at the correct temperature?" Unfortunately I'll only be able to check on the brew at weekends so will have to rely on my family to monitor the temperature during the week, I'm thinking the simplest thing to do would be to keep the brew-belt on and wrap the fermenter in a blanket at night.

Using a Hydrometer is the best way to measure fermentation activity

Getting Started - First Brew Day

Today I set about learning how to home brew using a beginner homebrew kit from Cooper's.

This blog will record my experiences of this brew and hopefully, many more brews to come.

The ingredients: Cooper's Lager Concentrate, Lidl Spring Water and Cooper's Brew Enhancer No. 1

I picked up 24 Litres of Spring Water in Lidl @ 49c for 2 Litres. I had hoped to find a couple of large drums of water to reuse as a secondary fermenter but had to settle for the 2 Litre bottles, this batch will have to go straight to bottle from the fermenter.

Adding the yeast to the wort, probably the most important step in any homebrew.

The wort was a lot more frothy than I had expected, I hope this isn't a bad sign.

Finshed mix, in the Cooper's fermenter

For now, I'm keeping the fermenter indoors, I have a brew belt so I could move it out to the shed if it gets smelly.

Starting Gravity reading

I recorded a starting gravity of 1040, which should hopefully give a final ABV of around 5%.

And now the waiting game.....