Home Brew Forum

One of my friends was none too keen on my kit beers but, he's heard me banging on so much about the AG phenomenon that it's got him slightly interested. He lives a distance away so we don't get to meet up and share a beer that often anymore but, tomorrow, he's agreed to take a day off to join me for a brewday. He's finally going to sample some of my AG beers and see how it's made. Let's hope I can get him converted.

The recipe we are going to do is one I made up using the Real Ale Almanac and Beersmith to get something close to Archers Village. I made it in January and it was a cracker, a really nice session ale;

Pale Malt 4350g (95%)
Crystal Malt 230g (5%)
Mash: 75min @ 66deg

Boil: 90min
20g Progress (8.3%) 90mins
15g Whitbread Goldings (7.2%) 90mins
20g Styrian Goldings(4.1%) 15mins
Whirlifloc 15 mins
Yeast: MPG

Hoping for 23L around 1038. I'll be sparging a bit hotter than normal and will be interested to see if my efficiency improves. That said, I probably don't want it to improve massively on this sort of ale but I'll see how it goes.

I should think I could end up quite drunk with a brewing buddy in tow so, I'll apologise in advance if photos get forgotten, but I'll try.

Sounds like it's going to be a good day. Good luck.
Oh.. and n'oubliez pas le whirlfloc

Have a good day, Buzz!

Have a gooden recruiting and brewing Buzz

looks great have a good un

Hope it goes well

11.20 and brew buddy still not arrived

Looks like we will be finishing later than I planned but, hey ho. I won't worry. Time to relax and have a home brew.

Malt and hops ready to go

Have a good one mate

Sorry, finally got there in the end. As expected, the beer began to take it's toll throughout the afternoon so the camera got forgotten for the most part. Managed to get a shot of the chiller doing its thing



I left a sample in the trial jar overnight and took this this morning.



MPG got to work pretty quick


I ended up with 22L @ 1040. I make that about 65% efficiency, up 5% on my last brew. If I can hit 65% regularly I'll be happy enough.

I think I may have overdone it with my brew buddy. I tried to explain each step to him so he understood why we were doing what we were doing, rather than just doing it (if that makes sense). If he was in any doubt I was getting a bit nerdy with my beer making, he's not now. I think the last straw came when I corrected him about Mild Ale having nothing to do with the alcoholic strength of the beer. I should have just shut up and left him to believe what he believed...

Anyhow, the beer making went well, and we enjoyed a nice crusty loaf and cheese in the sunshine whilst the boil was on, washed down with plenty of Townes IPA and a good dose of Winter Royal for good measure.

I enjoyed it and hopefully he'll think it was worth it when the brew is kegged and taken to his house later in the summer...

An excellent day by the sounds of it then

I've tried getting a couple of mates round when I brew but when I tell them it's a full day (including cleaning etc) they for some reason don't want to know.

They'll drink the end result though...

stevezx7r wrote:An excellent day by the sounds of it then
I've tried getting a couple of mates round when I brew but when I tell them it's a full day (including cleaning etc) they for some reason don't want to know.
They'll drink the end result though...

Exactly. I'd worked on this fellow for months before he caved in and said he would come over He missed out on all the routine stuff too - I sanitised everything before he got here and I left the clear-up until today so he didn't have to get his hands dirty. I'm just too kind sometimes...