AG #1 - Northdown

[mdex]

Wow,

What a long day

It started with me going to see a friend of a friend who owns a microbrewery http://www.bradfieldbrewery.com/ to pickup some empty bottles, also picked up a couple of full ones while I was there. Would have been rude not to

So the brewing began, 3:30pm.

5kg Pale
150g crystal

30g Northdown 90mins
15g Northdown 15mins

Rehydrated S04 yeast

Had a few issues along the way mash temp ended up being too low about 62/3 degrees and also only finished with 4 gallons instead of 5!

SG is 1060 so will be a pretty strong beer. Not sure what to expect of it!

Oh well guess i'll know in 5 weeks time!

Learnt a little with my first AG brew and will probably start another on saturday. Lots of bottles and kegs to fill ready for what I hope will be a good summer.

PS. Sorry for the lack of pics but I was a little rushed.

[softlad]

So you finally got the kit together and working.

Bring a couple of bottles over when its ready - we could blow the froth off a few.

[mdex]

So you finally got the kit together and working.

Bring a couple of bottles over when its ready - we could blow the froth off a few.

Will do mate.

Need a slight modification of my mash tun but other than that it all worked as expected.

I must have done something right as its started fermenting overnight. Fingers crossed

[mdex]

Here it is 20 hours on fermenting nicely.

[DarloDave]

I've got pretty much the same beer fermenting away right now!

[mdex]

Took a reading of this last night and its down to about 1020 in 4 days which isn't bad.

Only problem is its so cloudy! I can see so many little specks of something floting around in it i'm a little worried

Not sure if any break material came through after boiling. The sample tasted ok though

[Alton_Bee]

You certain those "little specks" are not the yeasties doing their dance ??

[mdex]

You certain those "little specks" are not the yeasties doing their dance ??

Quite possibly as i've never taken a sample before. I used to just dip my hydrometer in the wort.

Didn't expect to see so much floating in the sample though.

We'll have to wait and see.

[mdex]

Bottled this tonight. It had got down to 1012 in 7 days.

Ended up with 29 bottles.

Roll on n5 weeks time!

[mctoon]

Bottled this tonight. It had got down to 1012 in 7 days.

Ended up with 29 bottles.

Roll on n5 weeks time!

Me thinks in 5 weeks time there wont be 29 bottle left ,,,

i sold a few packs of Northdowns to the fellas on here, I got hold of 10Kg of them when i bought my Ag gear,,, hindsight is a funny thing,,, all gone now,, wish i still had a few left,, as a newbie AG brewer the nicest beer i have done was with Northdowns,, Oh well,, Paul sells em at BB

[mdex]

Bottled this tonight. It had got down to 1012 in 7 days.

Ended up with 29 bottles.

Roll on n5 weeks time!

Me thinks in 5 weeks time there wont be 29 bottle left ,,,

i sold a few packs of Northdowns to the fellas on here, I got hold of 10Kg of them when i bought my Ag gear,,, hindsight is a funny thing,,, all gone now,, wish i still had a few left,, as a newbie AG brewer the nicest beer i have done was with Northdowns,, Oh well,, Paul sells em at BB

I reckon I can manage it. I'm not drinking for 3 weeks until I go away, then a week away. Only have 1 week to wait when I get back. Might have to try one for quality control purposes obviously! The fact that I don't currently have anything to drink helps too.

I also bought mine from www.Barleybottom.com. When I first tried softlads version of Northdown Wonder I made my mind up that it would be my first brew.