Brew 2 - Woodfordes Wherry

Right. Here we go with brew number two. This time it's a bitter, Woodfordes Wherry, and my mate is helping me as he's interested in what I'm up to.

We sanitize the King Keg pressure barrel, including its float system, with the supplied sterilizing solution. Unfortunately whilst tipping the water away down the toilet* the float system follows it and lands in the loo. Ah. Not too sterile then? I start again with a new bowl of sanitizing solution to clean the float system.

I follow the brewing instructions and add the extract and water in a similar way to the last brew. This time though there's nothing said about adding any sugar. Apparently it's already in the extract which is probably why there's two cans of it supplied.

Once again I add the yeast before I take the gravity reading just as I did with my first brew. Muppet. I quickly take a reading. The Original Gravity (OG) is 1034 which I think is pretty low but what do I know?

The barrel temperature reads 27 degrees. The ambient temperature in the garage is 20. I wrap my brewbelt around the barrel to try and maintain a steady temperature of around 24.

And that's it for brew number two. Fingers crossed.

*Yes, I have a toilet in the garage. Look. I didn't put it there and it's not used for number 1's or 2's anymore anyway. Still, it is pretty weird I agree. Useful though.

Muntons Micro Brewery System

Now I've been bitten by the brewing bug I thought I'd try another kit and this one was an easy decision. You may remember that my first brew was a choice between the lager-based Coopers Micro-Brew Kit and the bitter-based Muntons Micro Brewery System where I eventually chose the former. Now it's time to check out the latter.






I noticed that the homebrew section in my local market house hardware store had one of the Muntons Micro Brewery Systems for sale with an extra tenner off so I handed over my £49.99 and walked out of the store with my second everything-you-need-to-brew-tasty-beer-at-home-in-a-box-job.

Here's a quick run-down on what's in the box:

1 x 5 gallon "top tap" King Keg pressure barrel with dispenser tap

1 x screwtop barrel lid (with pressure release valve)

1 x top float plus tube

2 x tins premium hopped brewers malt extract (Woodforde's Wherry Bitter)

1 x steriliser powder

1 x Co2 bulb

1 x Co2 dispensing unit

Here's a photo of the kit borrowed from Muntons site, complete with blonde woman. Sadly my kit did not include this woman. I intend to complain to Muntons about this. I know my rights.

The full article for the kit's launch can be found here.

Unlike the Coopers offering this kit does not come with any bottles as everything is brewed and dispensed in the pressure barrel so you can just pull a pint ready for drinking straight from the tap.

What I did notice is that the instructions provided (an A4 sheet supplied along with a badly photocopied diagram or two) were no way near as professional and comprehensive as the Coopers kit. It's quite obvious that this kit is "badged" by Muntons by adding the Woodforde's Wherry and that you could probably buy this exact kit around the world supplied with identical components but with a different extract. That said, it certainly has no bearing on the quality of it and it shouldn't have any affect on the beer produced.

Well, hopefully not. I'll soon see.

First Taste!

It's my daughter's birthday so what better excuse to try the new beer out with my friends at the evening's BBQ?

I'm worried because there are no bubbles in the bottle. Have I brewed 30 bottles of lager-flavoured still water? The bottles feel solid so there's pressure but for some reason I expect to see bubbles. There's a little sediment in the bottom of the bottles which, I'm assured, is normal but the beer seems pretty clear.

I open a bottle and realise that I really shouldn't have worried about the carbonation not working as it makes a very satisfying PSSSHHT! sound. I poor the beer slowly into a tall German lager glass and it looks great, quite golden and reasonably clear. And the taste? Well, not as I expected really. I guess I was expecting a pub/shop lager taste (in other words not much!) but it tasted a lot, er, "fuller" if you know what I mean. But it also has a slight taste I can't explain. My friends says it's OK which puts my mind at rest a little. I think it's just a "young" taste. It needs time I reckon.

Relocation Relocation Relocation

Actually, I've just realised that the bedroom has exactly the same temperature as the airing cupboard so I pack up the bottles into a large, sturdy cardboard box (thank you Dell) and store them in the corner of the bedroom for another week.

The Week's SG Readings

Original Gravity (OG)
19/5/2008: 1052 or maybe 1042!

Specific Gravity (SG)
20/5/2008: 1032
21/5/2008: 1020
22/5/2008: 1010
23/5/2008: 1006
24/5/2008: 1006

Final Gravity (FG)
25/5/2008: 1006 - Time to bottle!

Bottling Day

The Coopers kit comes with 30 740ml PET (plastic) brown bottles with screw tops. Actually, they're better quality than they look and not too flimsy. I prime the bottles each with 2 of the supplied "carbonation drops" (sugar tablets basically) and fill each bottle with the beer from the fermenter using the supplied "little bottler" which is really easy to use. I leave about an inch of headspace at the top of each bottle as recommended to help with the carbonation that the sugar will create.

After the bottles are filled I store all 30 of them on a spare shelf in the airing cupboard which has a small heater in the bottom so I can maintain a constant temperature over 18 degrees Celsius.

Did I read that wrong?

Hang on a minute. Yesterday I measured the OG and it read 1052. That can't be right surely? It says here in the little Coopers instruction booklet that Microbrew worts tend to have an OG of between 1021 and 1040 so mine seems rather high. Ah well, maybe I read it wrong. Maybe it was 1042? It was my first time with a hydrometer after all. No matter. I'll measure it everyday to see what's happening with the fermentation. Today's SG reading is 1032.