One-off Challenge 28: Brew Beer


Normally, I don't write up these one-off challenges until they're fully completed, but most of my challenge time this week has gone on this one, so I'm doing a main post about it now and will drop a short update later to report on the final outcome
This challenge is courtesy of...

Beer brewing badass Logan Bartlett.
 
The challenge

Brew beer. 

There's a lot of options for this.  I could (if I happened to have a bunch of spare cash) go to one of our local breweries and take advantage of their self-brew option.  That's the route Logan, this week's challenger, usually goes down and it always results in some excellent brews.  At the other end, I could be roasting my own barley and gathering hops from... wherever the hell hops grow.  As I'm not overly flush with either money or time, however, I'm going for a middle ground and choosing to use a home brewing malt kit. As both Renae and I are very (very) fond of dark Belgian beers, I'm going with a Abby style dark beer kit that should work out at about 8% ABV.

A tin of malt, a bucket and some very tiny type instructions.

It has to be said that the very first thing I did was break my sister-in-law's hydrometer.  For some reason I just dropped it onto a nice, hard, tiled floor, where it exploded into a million tiny shards. Not a great start.

After sourcing a replacement hydrometer, a couple of buckets and various other random bits of brewing equipment, I was ready to start.

Looks like treacle, smells like Marmite, tastes like fuck-no-I'm-not-tasting-that.

Firstly, I warmed my malt gloop and mixed it with 8 litres of water and a bloody great whack of sugar.  This took a lot longer than expected, particularly the step involving dissolving the sugar.  Then I had to add yeast (while also making sure the water wasn't cold, but wasn't so hot it would kill the yeast - a step I wasn't sure I'd managed properly).
Looks like beer, smells like marmite, tastes like still-not-tasting-that

Then it's a case of sealing the bucket and popping it into a warm place for two weeks to ferment.

Warm/messy.

The instructions suggest that it'll take about 24 to 48 hours for the airlock (a funny little gas trap with water in it) to start bubbling and after 2 weeks or so it'll stop and be fully brewed.

After one day, no bubbles.

After two days, no bubbles.

After a week, no bubbles.

After two weeks, Logan happened to pop round with his latest beery creations.  I took the opportunity to quiz him on the beer.  He suggested just opening it up and having a look, so we did.
Looks like manky beer, smells like beer, tastes like a-whole-lot-of-not-tasting-that-yet.

Turns out it had been brewing just fine.  Phew!

A couple more days and the hydrometer readings were nicely stable, meaning that all the fermenting that was going to happen had happened already.  Following advice from Logan, I then moved on to the "dry hopping" stage.  This is the point where you add (traditionally) more hops to help preserve and flavour the beer or (less traditionally) any other flavours you think might be nice.  I went with dark rum infused black cherries and some dark chocolate.
Looks like... well.. you finish this caption off yourself.

Two more weeks in the airing cupboard for the flavours to infuse and then it was bottling time.

Of course, that requires some bottles.  Fortunately, Donna was able to provide me with a whole pile of... lightly used bottles. They had been stored outside, though, so they needed a little bit of cleaning...
And by "a little", I mean a full bath...

...followed by a dishwash set on "nuke the site from orbit"...

...followed by a sterilise than hand wash.
Then it was time to bottle!

Looks like scummy beer, smells like beer, tastes like beer with a slightly chemically aftertaste.

Ready to mature.

Add a little sugar to create carbonation, fill the bottles (I got 18 500ml bottles out of my kit in the end) and put them back in the airing cupboard for another two weeks.  Then it's 6-8 weeks of maturing somewhere cool.

Challenge... to be continued...
 
Will I be doing it again?

Well, yes, because it's not finished, but in the long term?  Maybe.  I'll be honest, it's a lot of pretty faffy work.  If I'm going to brew again, I think it would be at the Stewart's brewery self-brew.
 
Long-term updates

French words "learned" (according to the memrise app):680.

Daily photos taken? Yes.

Swordfighting learnt: None due to continued illness

I am currently reading: The Oracle by Catherine Fisher, a young adult fantasy novel.  Not made much progress yet.
 
"Cheat" days on food since last week: None.

"Cheat" days on exercise: ALL THE DAYS!

 This week's favourite drawing:
Flowing - Although it's not totally successful I was experimenting with this one and it didn't fail totally either. Might not be the best drawing of the week, but it's my favourite because of that.

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