Started another kit last night, John Bull London Porter.
Got everything clean and ready. Tin and tin opener sitting in a sink of hot water with a wee bit of cleaner/steriliser. Spare barrel, with about 5 gallons or so of tap water and a crushed campden tablet, sitting on a chair. Boiled cooled water with Windsor yeast hydrating. 800g brewers sugar, 200g soft dark brown sugar added to FV. 2 pints of boiling water added, stirred. Contents of tin added, stirred, tin washed out with another 2 pints. More stirring. FV placed under barrel of water, tap turned, water gushing in as I stirred. Stopped at just under 5 gallon mark. Hydrometer reading taken, OG1044. Shifted barrel, FV now on chair. Yeast added, good stir. Popped on lid, cracked open a wee bit (prefer to use my other fermenters as they have airlocks but this one looked all forlorn so thought I'd give it another brew) clean towel draped over and around. Done. As I've added no malt, and made it up to it's capacity, it may be lacking a bit of body, but we'll see. Should be a nice session beer for October.
John Bull London Porter
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Minus The Bear
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BlackBag
T'is done. Monday night I added some finings. Thought I'd better as I was using the Windsor yeast. Last night I bottled. Made up a sugar solution, 80g brewers sugar with boiled water, cooled then added to second fermenter. Drained primary into secondary. Gave bottles a final rinse, then joy of joys, bottled without wasting a drop. Yes folks I got me a little bottler. Now I see what all the fuss is about. For less than a fiver I can't believe I've struggled on for so long without one. The beer looked quite bright, tasted very dry, but not bad. FG1008, start was 1044, so means should be about 5.3%. Hopefully tonight I can get brewing, at the moment I've got nothing on. How shameful is that?
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Minus The Bear