First Brewday - Gotta say it was a great day..big THANK YOU to Capital Brewers for organising this event, Padraic, Declan, James, etc., great to put faces to the names, but even better to see the different styles of brewing first-hand, Declan with the kit, James with the extract, and Rossa with the AG, thank you lads. Seeing the process and methods explained, top class! Tasting the beers that were brought along was another bonus, delish... (could convert non-beleivers to AG) ;D but the sharing of knowledge (and lack of), experiences, and connections, developing the networks.. all made for a fantastic day. Thanks due to TOG also for their premises...
Hope the Liffey brewers and other groups can match this!
Is Mise,
Thanks for today gents. It was great to see a demo of the extract and all grain, takes some of the mystery out of it. Now to buy a boiler!
Paul
Really enjoyed it -
Next time - id make it less tech-y - more for begineers - great experience - like to do it a few times a year -
we have to keep converting the non-believers !
The ingredients today for the extract, can you get all of it from homebrewwest or the Homebrew company?
Paul
Big Plus One on the day out great day for both clubs.
I have put up the (low-rees) photos on my flckr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfc_photos/sets/72157632202112768/
I have also sent the "Best Shots" (for press release type puposes) to Tube who will forward them to TOG
NJoy
Will
Great Pics Will - maybe the batteries werent too bad after all !!
Very enjoyable day. Lets hope we converted a few people :)
Big thanks to the organisers, I really enjoyed the day and was sorry I had to leave a little early.
Plenty more demos and brew days in the future hopefully.
Conor.
Hi Shane,
Special mention to Thomas for sorting my hot water out, to out for helping me get stuff cleaned and moved, to James for the star san and hop bag and star san and last but not least to Brian for the lift with the fermenter to my car.
Had a great day, tasted some embarrassingly good beers (relative to my own efforts) ands made another few contacts.
Declan
QuoteI second all the above. Great day out for Capital Brewers, TOG, the NHC, and homebrew!
Well done to everyone involved, and well done to the lads that weren't technically involved but lent a hand when needed.
The flickr stats:
Yesterday 721 photo views
Today sofar 1131 photos were viewed
Way to go !!
Will
Sounds like it was a great day - I intended to go and knew i was going to be late but it just got later and later and the day had passed me by.
I was mostly looking forward to the pints afterwards :(
QuoteBig Plus One on the day out great day for both clubs.
I have put up the (low-rees) photos on my flckr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfc_photos/sets/72157632202112768/
I have also sent the "Best Shots" (for press release type puposes) to Tube who will forward them to TOG
NJoy
Will
Cheers for the pictures Will, they look great.
I'm disappointed with how the Capital Brewers roadsign tshirts didn't come through very well in the pictures!
It's the light blue and white that sort of blend in together unfortunately! (In real life the tshirts look great!)
I'm amazed no-one has updated the front page of the club yet!
QuoteQuoteI'm amazed no-one has updated the front page of the club yet!
I'm not really sure who wants to do it? Do you want to do something Will?
I'm all for a volunteer who was there on the day penning a few words! If no one volunteers I could throw something up this evening!
Finally found some time to publish a small article for the website: http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/capital-brewers-first-brewday-review/
Great Work Padraic :)
QuoteFinally found some time to publish a small article for the website: http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/capital-brewers-first-brewday-review/
Looks Great - well done
Hi there,
Just wanted to publish an update to the brewing from the 8th to all of the "Capital Brewers". I broke all of the rules on the day (dropping the spoon in to the DME mix and then taking it out again). I must admit that brewing in unfamiliar surroundings threw me somewhat. Having to figure out where things were, how to switch on and off the rings (or at least the right ring ;) was a challenge. It appears also that I miscalculated the amount of water I added to the fermenter cause I only ended up with about 20 ish litres of beer instead of the 23 litres called for by the can of extract. This should in theory make the beer a tad stronger due to the lower concentration of water. Using a bucket with no graduation mark meant that I was reduced to counting saucepans full of water from the tap in to the fermenter.
Getting the fermenter from Tog to my car in my companies car park on Pearse Street was uneventful thanks to Dempsey and his expert driving. I managed to get the fermenter home in one piece in my own car, although I had a few hairy moments driving up the hill from Blackrock to my house. Then it was out with the stanley knife to fashion a hole in the lid of the bucket. Of course i butchered the whole but being pig headed failed to admit it to myself at least initially. So after 1/2 hour it was out with the drill and the wood bit. This allowed me fashion a larger round hole. I had a spare bung that I was able to fit in to the hole so I was able to get my bubbler inserted.
if the first impression is anything to go by this batch should be nice, nicest colour beer that I have made to date and the taste was pretty nice also. I can't believe that the difference the fresh hops have made, hope this will last through in to the final beer. My guest bedroom at home has smelt really pleasant with the fermenter gurgling cascade infused C02 in to the air every so often from the hop bag (Partridge 9 will return this to you next time I see you).
Anyway last night I bottled approximately 30 bottles of the beer as it has hit an final gravity reading of 1.010. I am going to put 2 of these away for the competition in March and another batch of approximately 15 away for private consumption (help defray the cost of the kit, DME, hops etc). I hope this won't be a problem? The rest we can consume at a future tasting session. Hopefully this will be delayed till at least early February to allow these bottles to condition fully in my shed.
Padraic I have your fermentor (white bucket with the bastard of a lid that attempts to break your knuckles every time you even look at it ;-). I will return it the next time that we meet. Thanks to everybody who helped out on the day. I am determined to make a go of this brewing lark and with a bit of luck will continue to learn going forward.
Regards,
Declan
Dropping the spoon into the dme and taking it out again should be no problem,but licking it now that's a different matter :D.
Hi there,
Just a quick update on the tog Sierra Nevada Pale Clone made from the kit and DME on the 8th of December and I am sorry to say Tube that unfortunately the beer tastes great ;-)
Not a hint of contamination despite my rough and ready cleaning and miscalculation with the water (upon reflection I think the hops might have absorbed a bit of the liquid). I am hopeful that the beer will improve no end after a month in the shed but for the first attempt I am pretty happy with it.
Declan