My 5th Kit

[GTATTY]

Hi all

I decided to brew my 5th kit today. It's Sherwood Ale Best Bitter.

Here are some Piccies

I Started the Yeast Rehydrate of Safale S-04


I made up my wort and took the SG of 1.044-1.046


Wort temp is 20.5C


I added some of my final wort Liquor to my rehydrated yeast


And finally I pitched in my yeast and then added the satchet of Hops included in the kit straight away and not after 3 days as the instructions suggests!



My fermenter is now in the spare room with lid on and my 55W Aquarium heater is submerged and set at 21.5C
Just the waiting game now.

Does anyone know what the start gravity should be as it doesn't say on the box or instructions, it just suggests that the final gravity should be constant at 1.010 or below?

Cheers

Graham

[tubby_shaw]

Good pics Graham
BTW if my sums are right and thats your 5th kit since joining thats 200 pints brewed in 2 months Great work mate

[oxford brewer]

GTATTY is that a 3.6kg kit?.If it is then the gravity seems about right!

Nice pics!

[GTATTY]

The kit is a 3Kg kit OB

TS it's scary how much brew you can go through when you start.
I've drank and given away my first 2 brews(Yorkshire Terrier and Muntons Con IPA Bitter), my 3rd(Admirals Reserve) is at my parents in the Corny in Sheffield which we are going to drink this weekend(Having a little family get together!)
My 4th(Smugglers Reserve) is in the KK in my garage clearing, and now the Sherwood Best Bitter is in the Fermenter!

It amazes me that when we have friends around they all want to try my HB and they all love it and want to have a go themselves.

I must be doing something right

I can't wait to start the AG stuff but need to clear my garage first


Regards

Graham

[GTATTY]

Hi

I had a stable SG of 1.008 over 2 days so transfered into my secondary with 80g of dark spraymalt I had knocking about yesterday.

I had a sneak sip of the brew and it's tasting nice and a little darker in colour compared to all the other brews I've done.

Regards

Graham

PS Some of the hops were still in suspension when I was syphoning so I used a clean sanitised and sterilised conical sieve I had in the cupboard. I placed the bottom of the syphon inside the sieve. It worked a treat.

[GTATTY]

Hi Daab

It's approx 7 inches to the bottom of the sieve and the little filter thingy on the end of my syphon tube fits the bottom of the sieve perfectly. The bottom of the sieve is under the wort approx 6 inches. It's a little fiddly but worth it, you'd need and extra pair of hands if you were bottling this way!
Thanks for the pics comment, appreciated.

Regards

Graham

[fivetide]

Just wanted to say how great it was to see these photos! When my process isn't so amatuerish next time around, I'll do the same, and will add some digi pics to my first kit thread too, as I progress.

Looking forward to seeing more pics of the progress of this 5th batch of yours!

All the best with it.

[Garth]

good photos Graham,

if you're making ale from kits now and your mates etc want to constantly drink you out of house and brewery, then I dread to think how much you're gonna have to brew when you get onto AG, good luck

[GTATTY]

Hi all

Just thought I'd post a couple of half pint pics of the brew.

It's slightly cloudy but still nice and dark with good head and body. It's very much like a mild around these parts. Should be about ready in a couple of weeks!

Pic on windowsill


Pic outside in full sun



Cheers

Graham

[delboy]

Looks a nice brew, next time it might be good to leave the addition of the hops until the initial vigorous fermentation has died down as th large amounts of CO2 are supposed to drive off the volatile oils that are responsible for the aroma etc that these sachets are supposed to add.