brewing 2ne1
A log on homebrewing by a band of merry persons.
Mini-kegging some Nog
Just put 8.5 pints of Woodfordes Nog (fizzy from the pressure barrel) into a mini-keg with 24g of glucose.
Dylski
Cemecherry 2010
Racked the wine, got 17 good bottles, 1 for cooking (sediment).
The wine tastes good, strong kirsh taste at the moment. A little harsh. But as I remember last year it mellowed out really well.
I have decided to brand the wine Cemecherry as most of the cherries did come from the Mill Road Cemetery.
My eldest daughter Tabatha created the labels on photoshop!
SG still 1000 started at 1080
calc 80 / 7.36 = 10.86%
Marcus
Beer brewing is the delicate and dedicated blending of art and science. Finding the perfect balance of grains, hops, malt, adding just the right flavoring agents, boiling for exactly enough time to release the tannins, starches, humic acids from you wort, activating enzymes to break down those starches, forging the perfect mash from the ether of sobriety to give birth to that most glorious pint, these are skills that take a lifetime to master. Perfect beer is meticulously planned and carefully crafted.
Screw that.You’re six days into a 2 month expedition, and if you were lucky enough to not be on a dry ship, it’s de facto dry by now anyway. You’re eying the ethanol stores, the crew is eying each other, and all hell will break loose if y’all don’t get some sweet water soon. This is no time for artistry.
Andrew of Southern Fried Science has some tips about how to make a passable beverage using only ingredients and tools you would find on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel; such as a coffee maker, cereal, and fruits and nuts for flavour.
(via Makezine)
Damson Gin
Not really brewing but logged here just the same.
- A few damsons over a 1lb
- One 70cl bottle of 37.5% Gordon’s gin with a good glug (~100cl) of Blue Saphire Export 47%
- 168g of caster sugar
Pricked the damsons and threw the lot into a jar. Agitated until all dissolved. Will visit in a year’s time if I can hold out that long.
Dylski
Mini-kegs A Go-Go
Finally got to test fruits of my mini-keg re-use investigations; having previously prepared, tested and filled a mini-keg that I had previously bought full of Adnam’s Explorer.
I can happily say that it all worked fine!
Initially I used the bottom tap without releasing to pressure valve at the top. It comes out under pressure and if you let it out really slowly the result is still rather frothy and not too fizzy. The advantage is that you can probably do this a good few times over a long period of time without the beer going off because no air gets in.
The best results are when you push the centre part of the bung into the keg to release the pressure completely. It pours better and is a lot fizzier. I found that stuffing a wine bottle stopper into the hole in the bung kept the pressure up between sessions. The only downside to this approach is that oxygen gets it. Nevertheless, I think the beer still stays good for at least four days once opened.
Dylski
Cherry Adventures #5
Wild Cherry Wine
Bottled it. A fair bit less bitter and less sour than when last racked. Bodes well for drinking next year.
Cemecherry Wine
Racked it. Less sour now and slightly sweet. A sort of vanilla aroma. Promising.
Cherry Beer
Bottled it. It’s still very cherry and fairly strong. Might call it Very Cherry Merry Beer.
Dylski
Elderberry Wine 2010
Strained and squeezed into two demijohns and added 1/4 lbs sugar in each.
ElderBerry 2010 Stripped off berries into a Bucket, Richard, Ella and the twins helped. Which made short work of a long job. And left to soak for an hour in cold water to kill off bugs and allow green berries and floaty bits to float to the top. Seived those off. Filled up to one galleon of Boiled water in the fermentation bucket. Tomorrow I will add 2.5lbs of Sugar and the yeast Marcus
Collected just over 4lbs of Berries (1 carrybag full Weighed with stalks on) from the fields around the back of Trumpington. The berries varied in size and ripeness from tree to tree.
Mashed the berries in small quantities with a potatoe masher in a saucepan, then added them to the fermentation bucket.
Then added the following
8 oz of chopped raisins.
Juice of 1 lemon and 1 Orange.
A crushed vitamin B tablet
Yeast nutrient
I tasted it this year. And it tasted fruity but not sweet, almost savoury with no acidity. Still has the strange Elderberry after taste.
After reading last years attempt, and knowing that it came out a little dry. I think I will add the full amount of sugar and follow the recipe more closely, making 2 demijons rather than just the one.
Wild Cherry 2010
Racked the wine last week 8th August, a lot of sediment but just topped up with water.
Tastes like a rosé but with a kirsh background and getting stronger.
SG is now 1000 started at 1080
calc 80 / 7.36 = 10.86%
Next racking is in 3 months.
Isn’t the web wonderful?
I quite literally stumbled across this:-
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=110283288865222744836.000474c7ac367669eacbb
Could be quite useful for brewing purposes!
/Mikey
