Brew Day.

The first step of the day was to make sure all the equipment I was going to use was cleaned using a steriliser called Bruclens. Once everything had been cleaned it was time to begin.

Into my boiler I added 15 litres of water and then brought this to the boil. To the hot water I added the 3kg of pale malt extract then stirred till it had completely dissolved. To the boiler I attached my grain bag; this is to keep the grains and hops from blocking the tap at the bottom of the boiler.

Then I added the 500 grams of crushed crystal malt and the 50 grams of Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops then boiled this for 45 minutes. 15 minutes before the end of the boil I pitched in the irish moss.

Once the boil had finished I transferred the wort into a large fermentation bin. I opened the tap on the boiler to allow this to drain and poured hot water over the grains and hops to collect more wort. To this I then added cold water till I had 20 litres worth of liquid.

Once the wort has cooled to room temperature (21c) I took a gravity reading to show the amount of sugar and therefore the potential alcohol content for the beer. It gave a reading of only 1030, but this needed to be 1045. So to the wort I added golden syrup (a liquid form of inverted sugar) I dissolved small amounts in hot water and kept adding more till I got a reading of 1045.

I then moved the fermentation bin to under my stairs. This is a good place to keep it, as the temperature here doesn’t fluctuate a lot. A constant temperature of around 20c is ideal for termination. The last step was to add the yeast and stir well, then wait for the magic to happen.