My Second Brew

Had a good one? Tell us about it here - and don't forget - we like pictures!
maxashton

Post by maxashton » Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:48 pm

What shop did you order from?

matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:50 am

Easybrew.co.uk

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:22 am

Probably won't ever turn up. You might want cancel your order.
Loads of people been haivng problems with easybrew. The favorites at the moment seem to be barleybottom (who are bloody cheap for yeast incidentally), and Hop and Grape.

matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:40 pm

maxashton. Your right yet another phone call to them and it turns out they do even have my item in stock!

They have given me a full refund and a free kit, they say it will be with me tomorrow but I'm not counting on it.

what a let down! With the refund I will go to thehomer brew shop in northcamp and get myself a cople of kits.

Watch this space.

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Jymbo
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Post by Jymbo » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:44 pm

A freind of mine placed a £70 order with these cowboys a couple of months ago and still hasn't received anything - every time he rings they just spin him a pack of lies.
Kegged: 'Nowt
Bottled: Summer Lightning, Belfast Ale, JPA, Guinness Foreign Export
http://www.hopandgrain.com

matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:52 pm

I did get to my tethers end with them yesterday and wrote a very strong letter to them.

Hoping for a reply soon, will have to post in on here.

I did demand a full refund. the items to be sent FOC, 2x400g of sterilizing powder (I had clean everything the night before ready, twice) and a minimum 20% discount on my next order (Yea! right I would order again but it’s nice to feel the power)

Time will tell, probably won’t even get back to me.

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Jim
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Location: Washington, UK

Post by Jim » Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:32 pm

Looks like their recent promise to mend their ways was just bullsh*t then. :x
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:59 pm

total bull Jim, total bull!


This being my first online brewing purchase does not fill me with confordence.

Have found the same kits at the shop so going to pick them up on Saturday. Got to get down the allotment that day but hopfuly I weill have time in the eve to get them going in the FV. I have dusted off the 30L FV I have to ferment the kit that Not-so easybrew.co.uk are aparantly sending me. This will be done tomorrow, I'll get some pictures up for all.

Regards to all

matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:33 pm

Well the kit did arrive on the Friday as prosiest; at least they got that right.

Friday was a busy day for me so early Saturday morning when awoken by the kids I got on with the brew.

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This is the FOC kit I was sent, I have only used the 1.8Kg kits so it’s nice to be able to use a 3Kgs one. Might sway me toward the 3Kg kits altogether, saying that doing some reading and might go straight to extract steeping.

Anyway………………

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Kits in some hot water to loosen the container, mean while the FV was washed sterilized and rinsed.

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The tin opener was sterilized and rinsed then sat it in some boiling water. My yeast pack was rehydrated and is sitting ready.

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The tins are opened and put into the FV

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They are then refilled and a bag of hop pellets put in to one of them for 15 minutes.

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This is added to the FV and topped with cold water to volume.

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Check the temp is ok and then the yeast can go in.

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In goes the yeast and this is mixed for about 20 minits.

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This is moved into the airing cupboard for 5-7 days along with the sterilized bottles ready for bottle conditioning.

I’ll let everyone know how this turned out.

I have also done another brew as did third one early and the return from easybrew.co.uk gave me some spare cash.

This I went a little more down the experimental route with, using a Young’s harvest mild kit, I did a part boil with 30g of Goldings hops for 20 mins.

Went like this:

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Tin was heated as before and the last bits wash out with boiling water into a sauce pan.

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Two 500g bags of Dextrose were dissolved into 2 l of boiled water left to cool for a while.

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This was added to the FV

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30g boiled for 20 minutes
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The sweet hoppy wort was drained through the sieve and the result was very nice.

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This was added to the FV and topped with cold water to 28l

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The temp was a bit too high so I have to leave it to cool by 3 DegC before pitching the yeast.

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This is now in the cupboard next to the other one. Waiting for the bubbling to stop or the FG to be stable for 24h before bottling.

I’ll update when the bottling comes.

EasyBrew

Post by EasyBrew » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:48 pm

Jim wrote:Looks like their recent promise to mend their ways was just bullsh*t then. :x
HI All

No it wasn't.

We are getting there. In fact from tomorrow morning we another person starting in the warehouse to help catch up even more quickly.

I am in the process of contacting everyone who still has an outstanding order. For those who wish to proceed with their orders, by way of apology for the delay we are including free brewing stuff which hopefully will go someway towards making up for the inconvenience.

In fact a certain member who received a free kit, received one which costs twice what his original kit cost.

Regards
Annette
EasyBrew

Vossy1

Post by Vossy1 » Sun Aug 17, 2008 11:16 pm

Gr8 pics on your brew days M 8)

Annette, it's actually refreshing to see a company accept it's had problems, and address them in such a positive way.
Good on you :wink:

fivetide

Post by fivetide » Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:12 am

Nice brew day pics - all looks very clinical - no infections here then!

What a good response from Annette / EasyBrew too. Really nice to see.

matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:14 pm

Yes thanks Annette for the Kit! I did not expect one as good as this.

Thanks for the responses Vossy1 and fivetide.

The reason for the clinical approach is that all the books articles I have read states in the first paragraph that clean and sterilize everything, so I do.

I was concerned that the second batch did not cool very quickly. Because of the addition of the hop wort to the FV with the hot extract water, when topped up with cold was 28-29 DegC. This took about 3 hours to cool, which I have read is a bad thing. The wort should be cooled as quickly as possible?

Please advice.

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:29 pm

Whyen brewing all grain it's essential to cool quickly to achieve the cold break. You're brewing kit, so this isn't really an issue.

matthew5664

Post by matthew5664 » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:40 pm

Many thanks maxashton for clearing that up.

I suppose the same would go if I went over to extract brewing?

Reason I ask is I have found a Old Speckled Hen extract clone and this is one of my all time favourites, the spicy notes get me going every time, and I would like to try and make this.

That and the Badger breweries Golden Glory, or as I call it 'sunshine in a glass'. While on the subject does anyone have the extract recipe for it?

Back on topic, the brew are doing well, bit of lag with fermentation but this seem to be moving along now. Can wait till friday/saturday/sunday for bottling. Is it wrong to try some of the first ferment? It always looks so nice, I want it, I want it!

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