Footie, Hockey, Board Games & Beer

For my next foray into the world of home brewing I chose to try a Porter which is not a beer that I've had much experience with other than drinking the odd Guiness; which was originally named Guiness Extra Superior Porter it's name only later changed from that to Guiness Extra Stout. In some ways the name Porter and Stout are interchangeable as both represent dark beers with strong malt flavours and a rich thick head. Incidentally it's name was first used in the 18th century due to it's popularity with the street and river porters of London. The recipe I used was once again one that I got from Dan's Homebrewing Supplies and their handy binder full of recipes. The one I chose was called Strathcona Porter #1 and unfortunately I've misplaced the exact ingredient list but I hope to have that available soon. Results This porter recipe used hops only in the boil with no finishing hops which should result in a beer where the flavours of the dark roasted malt are more p...

Onto batch #3...one of my favorite types of beer is the India Pale Ale or IPA. Originally brewed in the eighteenth century as a beer for the English officers stationed in India at the time. It was higher in alcohol and heavily hopped, both preservatives, to make sure that it didn't spoil on the long outward journey. I thought that since it's one of my favorite types to drink I should give brewing it a go and so I went to my local brewing supply shop, Dan's Homebrewing Supplies, and picked up the ingredients for an IPA. The recipe that I used was off of Dan's website and was for a traditional English IPA. Malt 8.5 lb Pale Malt Extract Grain 10 oz Carastan malt Hops 15 AAU - Centennial bittering hops .75 oz Willamette finishing hops .75 oz Centennial or Cascade finishing hops 1 oz Willamette/centennial or Cascade dry hops Yeast Ale yeast - Nottingham Brewing yeast (Danstar) The brewing process was exactly the same as my last batch. See the post for Batch #2, Nut Brown Al...

Onto batch #2. The basic kit that I used in my first batch was just that...basic, and so for batch number 2 I decided to move straight up to intermediate brewing. Which as I mentioned in an earlier post is unhopped malt extract plus hops and in most cases some grains. So what kind of beer to make was the next question. My local brewing supply store Dan's has a book full of recipes for all of the main beer types and I chose their Shirley's Nut Brown Ale recipe as my first venture into the world of intermediate brewing. The recipe called for the following ingredients: Malt Extract 8 lb pale Grains 8 oz British crystal malt 8 oz chocolate malt 2 oz roast barley 8 oz wheat Hops 6.3 AAU Goldings .4 oz Goldings (finishing) Yeast Ale yeast - Nottingham Brewing yeast (Danstar) ...and on to the process. First off I heated up about a litre of water in a medium saucepan to around 75 degrees C, about 170 F, and then poured in all the grains, covered the pot and set it as...

For my first batch of beer I used a Baron's Pale Ale beer kit that I got with the rest of my start up kit. This was a basic add water and stir type kit. I first filled my primary fermenter, the white plastic food grade bucket, about half full of warm water, then added the malt extract that came with the kit, and then topped up the bucket with warm water to the 23 litre mark. To this I added the yeast and a small package of hops that came with the kit, and then attached the airlock and bung and put the bucket into a cool dry place to do its thing. After about a week I transferred the beer from the primary fermenter into the glass carboy, the secondary fermenter, attached the airlock, and again set it aside. This stage is for any fermentation to finish and for the beer to start clearing as the sediment settles on the bottom of the carboy. After about two weeks I then transferred the beer back into the primary fermenter, added a cup of dextrose to create some carbonation when the ...

So to make beer there are four essential ingredients: water, fermentable sugars (traditionally malted barley), hops and yeast. These ingredients are processed and combined according to a recipe. Given the right conditions the yeast will convert the fermentable sugars to alcohol, CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), and the taste that we know as beer. The beer is then bottled and, depending on the type of beer being made, aged from a week to three months. There are three standard methods to making beer and they are ranked in order of complexity: Basic- Malt extract - a "canned" beer kit. Basically a can of pre-hopped malt extract where you add water and stir. Intermediate - Malt extract/Grain - Made with unhopped malt extract, hops, grains and yeast. The grains are steeped in warm water and this water, plus the malt extract is added to the wort which is then boiled for an hour. For most recipes both boiling and finishing hops are added. A little more work but results in a much better beer. A...

I'd asked for the beer brewing starter kit for Christmas in 2007 and after almost 3 years of it sitting and gathering dust I finally decided that it was time to brew my first batch of beer. What made me suddenly decide that the time was right? I think that it was the "are you ever going to make beer with that kit I got you for Christmas?" questions from my loving partner, and the need to get off my ass and finally do it! After all it was something that I'd asked for. So I looked at what I had...and it was an interesting array of beer making paraphernalia. The basic kit that I had came with the following items: closed primary fermenter (white plastic 30 litre food grade bucket with a 3 cm hole drilled in the lid) 23 litre glass carboy hydrometer - used to test the alcohol content of the beer test jar syphon rod hose and clamp airlock and bung sanitizing powder big spoon instructions Along with these things I also got a basic 23 litre canned beer kit...in this case it w...