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.