Canterbury Tales Camp Site Brewing

[Donald]

This is an awe inspiring tale, well done!

[barneey]

As I intend to brew again on a campsite, I have started making a new smaller mash tun see the equipment thread.

[An Ankoù]

That's an amazing tale. Well done. I take my hat off to you.
The closest I've ever got to this is when I made a batch of beer at home and pitched the yeast on camp. Not very close really!

[barneey]

That's an amazing tale. Well done. I take my hat off to you.
The closest I've ever got to this is when I made a batch of beer at home and pitched the yeast on camp. Not very close really!

I would say you also have an amazing tale, not too sure I would be brave enough to try and ferment a beer whilst on a campsite without some sort of temperature control. The only way I would attempted to ferment the beer would have been using a kveik style yeast or wait until the colder weather and brew a larger (although that might be a very long camp visit

I often look back in wonder of my early brewing days (1990's) admittedly lots of white sugar was involved but the general guidance at the time was to either wrap the FV in boiler jacket or place in the airing cupboard crossing all fingers and toes that something vaguely drinkable came out the other side.

Come think about it didn't James May & Oz C brew in caravan on Drink to Britain

[An Ankoù]

I don't remember it being a truly great beer, but we managed to finish it off. This was also in the early 90s, in the days long before kveik was even heard of this side of the Skagerrak. It would have been about this time of year at Tom's Field on the Purbecks. Hot days and cold nights as I recall. Happy days, but we didn't repeat the experiment, opting to take a PB of fully-made stuff out with us instead. None of this stopped us going to the pub though. I particularly recall my 1980s brewing days where I had a couple of FVs on a work surface next to the hot water pipes in the kitchen. For some reason that I don't remember, these always had a good layer of hops floating on the surface (late hops, dry hops, a mixture of the two- my records have disappeared from those days) It was not uncommon to dip a (clean(-ish)) half-pint mug into the FV a couple of times after a late session, just to check on how the beer was coming on. I don't recall a batch ever going off.
Temperature control in the 80s amounted to: is it warm enough to ferment? is it cool enough to drink?

How times have changed.

Philosophical question: Do I enjoy my well made, bright, perfectly-carbonated, true-to-style beer of today any more than a half-pint mug of my scrumpy beer of yesteryear, straining the hops through my teeth?

[barneey]

Nearly finished, the what maybe the new old 70's brew tent, despite trying to whether the cloth naturally it still leaks so time to cheat and waterproof with chemicals. Also have my eye on a "proper" 1950 army tarps on ebay which should at least provide some protection against the weather + being heavy duty cotton it shouldn't melt at every opportunity when the sparks fly. At this rate I'll be buying a quad or the very least a powered barrow to transport all this gear about . There is also quite a nice Bakers Tent that (Simon a bloke in the woods) made from scratch on Youtube which would make an excellent brew tent but unfortunately my sawing are mostly non existent + don't have a powerful enough machine to sew heavy weight cotton.

The beer originally brewed will be tasted this weekend with any luck it will be drinkable + the MT should be finished. Busy weekend, greenhop brew planned, bottle 2 dozen bottles for a swap, waterproof the tent and finish the Mash Tun build.

[barneey]

Small update.

I plan to brew again on a campsite last week in October, weather permitting as I don't own either a hot tent or stove so it could be a cold experience. 1950's tent is all finished although I will take the new tent along as a back up or main sleeping tent.

The brewing equipment is coming along nicely, still thinking about a silicone hose Valentine arm attachment for the MT and if anyone knows of a "food grade" shower hose camping bag that could be suspended from a tree for sparging purposes please let me know. I suppose a plastic water carrier suspended from a tree wouldn't look to out of place?

Come to think of it are there any experienced wild campers on JBK?

[f00b4r]

Polypin shower?

[barneey]

Might have to think about a Poly Pin shower which with the aid of an overhanging branch could just work.

Small update on the beer, I was due to enter this one into a localised beerswap unfortunately after bottling enough bottles of another beer a couple of weeks ago. I rang into the aged old problem of running out of CO2. Finally got around to hooking the replacement CO2 bottle this evening to pour a pint.

If I say so myself its not a bad beer at all, I feared I had over done the hopes but everything has now mellowed out & its a pretty fine beer (although I might be slightly bias )

Cheers

[barneey]

Beer Camp Brew No.2 is in the planning, Mrs D at https://www.abushelofhops.co.uk/shop/ released this years harvest of normal + heritage hops. I went with the Pride of Kent, (some proper) Bullion (lovely hop) & a packet of Janus. As the original Oatmeal brew last time around turned out well I will more than likely go for the same recipe and use the Bullion.

I have to pick my days carefully as the weather in SE isnt going to be great next week water wise but the weekend is looking good. So far the agenda is to Brew / Bake Bread / Cook some proper old school jacket potatoes (been a while since I've had a campfire spud) / Bake a cake / Make some cookies / Make some more char cloth and finally some metal detecting as the campsite was used during WW2 as some sort of training facility so there should be plenty of interesting bits about, so should be a grand 2 or 3 days mini break. Fortunately / unfortunately I wont be taking my 50 year old canvas tent as its rather tight to fit 3 people + gear. So a last minute Millets elcheapo bin liner has been purchased, it arrives in time + doesn't leak although I do have a supply of seam sealant in case of emergency's.

It will also be interesting to visit the local shop again as it tends to stock a few unusual EU beers ( being close to France they seem to make their way over here quite easily )

to another great brewday + a golden bake + fluffy spud + a few bits of metal.

[barneey]

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Managed to get the bread part done today

[barneey]

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And currently sitting around a campfire. No one else about apart from me and the two eldest

[barneey]

Tomorrow it’s cake baking and a onetigris ROCUBOID zebra bake.

[orlando]

onetigris ROCUBOID zebra bake.

What is that?

[barneey]

It’s a twig burning wood stove. Very useful for a quick brew if you run out of gas.