• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Greetings from hop country, and comments/criticisms please.

beercheez

Apprentice
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Hello everyone,
                          First of all let me say how delighted I am to have discovered ‘Brewsmith’ I think it’s a really great website and demonstrates all that is truly good about the internet.
    My name is Chuck, I live in Kent England, and I'd like some advice please:
  I am about to make my fisrt batch of proper beer made from malted barley and thought I’d describe my intended process and recipe to see if anyone has any criticism or advice.

1) I am using a stainless steel dixie to boil 5 gallons of well water ( taken from a friend's farm in Kent) which I will then let cool to 66 degrees centigrade. I will then add 6.5 Kilos of (Maris Otter Pale) malted barley. I will stir this and add some more boiling water to bring the temperature back to 66 degrees centigrade, then I will put the lid on the dixie, cover it in a winter quilt and leave it over night.

2) In the morning I will strain out the wort, put the grains in a muslin bag on a large jelly stand and sparge them with kettles of boiling water untill I have a total of 5 gallons of wort.

3) I will then boil the wort in the dixie with 4ozs of (goldings) hops for 1 hour. I will then remove the hops, transfer the wort to a plastic fermentation bin and add 1 litre blocks of frozen water until until the temperature is 16 degrees centigrade.(At this stage I will take a reading with a hydrometer) I will then add a packet of preprepared ‘Gervin English ale yeast’, stir, cover and leave in a warm place.

4) After 3 days I will skim off any thing floating on top, syphon the beer into another fermentation bin, put the plastic lid on and leave it 7 days to ‘fall bright’

5) After 7 days I will syphon off the beer into some nice old 26oz glass beer bottles ( with stone caps, rubber seals and large sediment traps) and leave these another 7 days in a cool cellar.

6) I will then start drinking the stuff and take another hydrometer reading to establish alcoholic volume.

I am keeping everything clean using a ‘Boots’ brand (an English pharmacy) sterilising solution for babies. The sort of beer I like is fairly weak (3.8%) English bitter which isn’t too hoppy. (eg ‘Black Sheep’ , ‘Everards Beacon’ , ‘Hook Norton’ etc.) If anyone has any comments or criticisms on my process or recipe I would be gratefull to hear them.

                                                      Many thanks, Chuck.


 
Welcome aboard Chuck. 

Please see my reply to this post in Brewing Discussions

Fred
 
Back
Top