Bottled the Eastern Ale

The weekend before last I finally got round to bottling the Woodforde's Eastern Ale. I didn't realise I hadn't blogged the bottling until someone added a comment asking how it went, so here are the details...

Before statring anything I took a gravity reading, and confirmed the reading hadn't shifted from its 1.010 position a few days ago, so the bottling was good to go... I measured out the 60 grams (I think) of sugar and mixed it with a small amount of freshly boiled hot water in a jug. I then microwaved the jug to get it back to boiling and then placed the jug in the fridge to cool down asap.

I decided to use the dishwasher to prepare my bottles again. I think the lazy patr of me is prepared to keep doing this until it goes wrong... Although some of the bottles were quite old, I decided that I would first fill each bottle with boiling water and leave it for 15 minutes. If after a quick shake and rinse, the bottle still looked dirty to the eye, the bottle was put in the recycling. If it looked clean, I put it in the dishwasher. I eventually ended up with 48 (hopefully) clean bottles).

I soaked the tube, and bottle tops in hot water with sanitizing powder, and rinsed them ready to go. Once the sugar was cool, I gently mixed it into the beer and left it for another 20 minutes. I laid out the caps, capper, the labels I had prepared, and some milk along with the pastry brush and I was set.



I connected the tube up and started to fill the first bottle. The process flowed nicely, and here are a few action shots:







Less than an hour later, I had 43 bottles of beer ready to put in the 'Brewery'.



I am looking forward to this one. I have wanted to do a nice summer ale for ages. In fact this was supposed to be for this summer, but my enforced absence from brewing means it might now turn out to be a relaxing Xmas ale ;-)

Woodforde's Eastern Ale down to 1.010

I am intending to bottle the Woodforde's Easterne Ale this coming weekend, so I thought I would check how its doing...



I took this reading to be 1.010, which I think is as low as I have had a beer go, so I am very pleased. This is the first summer time brewing I have done, so I suspect that explains this success. I will check on the brew again later in the week, and then before bottling - probably on Saturday.

Eastern Ale fermenting well, perhaps too well...

After cleaning the brewing bucket and lid yesterday, I had mishaped the lid by forcing it inside the bucket while it soaked. I therefore snapped the lid on tight with the intention of releasing it after an hour or so, once it had gone back into shape. However, one day later I realised I had forgotten when I opened the brewery door. There was a strong smell of beer, and I was surprised to find the towel I still throw over the bucket was soaked, as was the floor around the bucket. I don't know how much the closed lid was to blame, but it had definitely overflowed.



I'm afraid there isn't much mess to see in the photo (not least as I had done most of the clearing up before thinking to take a picture). However, you can see that the beer has an amazing head on it, which I know is from the fermentation as the original head had gone by the time I finally got the temperature down yesterday and pitched the yeast. This is definitely the first time I have had a fermenting head as big as this, perhaps because of the warmer temperature of the wort.

Hopefully the beer hasn't been contaminated from the spill, and judging by the head, it shouldn't be too long before the beer is ready for bottling. This was supposed to be my summer tipple, so it would be nice if it was drinkable before all trace of summer has gone.

Tasting the Forest Bitter

Partly as a reward for kicking off the Eastern Ale, and partly to test out the brew before using it in a beef burger recipe tonight, I have just popped open a Forest Bitter.



I am very pleased with how this brew has matured. Checking the label, it is now just over 3 months since it was bottled. Sadly it has very little head, and zero head retention. However, it does actually have enough fizz. Its got a very matured taste, which as always I struggle to describe but I would say it is a wissened old beer. It also leaves a different but pleasant aftertaste on the pallet.

It is going to be absolutely perfect for my beef burger recipe I think, so I better get in the kitchen and churn out some burgers while I finish my pint :-)

Woodforde's Eastern Ale - Brewing again at last

At last, after a long long break, I am brewing again. After finally getting the credit card company to get my money back from EasyBrew after filling in a bunch of forms, what should arrive through the post - the Woodforde's Great Eastern Ale pack...

Anyway, onto the brewing. I filled the brewing bucket with hot water and sanitizing powder and left it to soak for about an hour. I rinsed it out, and found despite my scrubbing, there were still a few subtle signs of the previous brew around the top - hopefully this will be ok.

I put the two tins into the washing up bowl and poured a little boiling water over them to loosen the contents.



I then poured the two tins into the cleaned bucket and added two full kettles of boiling water - about 3.5 litres. I filled the rest of the bucket with cold water, again dropping the water in from a great height to mix in as much air as possible. I don't recall a brew ever having such a big head at this stage before...



Unfortunately I did not learn from my previous mistakes and filled it right up to the fill level before checking the temperature. The instructions didn't mention temperature at all, but I knew better and should have checked earlier. Sadly the temperature was around 28 degrees C - far to warm to pitch the yeast. It took me a good 30 minutes of mixing, and sitting the bucket in cold water (and eventually ice) to bring it down to around 22/23 degrees.

I finally added the yeast (hopefully this isn't too warm still) and gave it all a good stir. I was surprised to see the yeast all dissolved very well (after initially appearing to almost congeal on the surface).

I placed the top on the bucket and tucked it away in the brewery for a week or so. I will check on it carefully over the next couple of days to confirm that all is well. I have been waiting for this brew for a long time so hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Sorry for the enforced break

Hi folks,

Sorry to those of you who regularly check out my blog - I have not done any brewing recently, though not out of choice. I'm afraid the fault lies squarely at easybrew.co.uk. To cut a long story short, I spoke to them about possible affiliate links through my site, and after promising initial talks, I though I ought to order through them myself to see what they were like to deal with

I placed two separate orders, for Fruit beer kits and for Woodford's Eastern Ale. Despite the money being taken straight away, I received e-mails for both orders saying they were out of stock and it would take 10-14 days. I accepted this was fair enough really, and decided I could wait a couple of weeks, but after 3 weeks I had heard nothing, so e-mailed them, and was told the orders would be another 10 days. After this time I gave up and e-mailed back (as instructed) to request the orders be cancelled and my money refunded - I have since heard nothing.

I am not impressed. I am currently out of pocket, and my beer supply is dwindling. I will soon be back to the local home brew shop I think.

Tasting the Forest Bitter

It has been about a week since I bottled the Sherwood's Forest Bitter. I decided to give one a go to see how it is progressing.



As you can see, there isn't much head at the moment. It is also not very fizzy currently, which may be a good thing as it is also very sweet. Hopefully some of the sweetness will go as the sugar is converted to CO2.

I am not especially good at describing beers. It has a very similar smell to the wort at the moment. The taste is definitely very green. That said, it is not at all unpleasant, just a little sweet. Under the sweetness it has a very smooth, malty taste, with a nice bitter after taste.

All in all, I'm pretty happy, I just really hope the sweetness subsides. The final gravity of the brew was 1.013, which was a little above the target, again, so Im not that confident all the sweetness will go. Time will tell.