It's been an intense few weeks focusing on a project at work, I had planned to do another post on the second dry hop addition for Red Panda, but after working longer I've been spent in the evenings.

A quick summary now however was that 5 days before bottling I put the galaxy and casade hops in and the Tuesday just gone I placed the fermenter in my cool brewing bag and tried to crash cool it.

Using 4 1.5L juice containers I got it down to 10c, upon bottling I did notice the beer coming out abit clearer and also how the hops caked  together and settled more.

Unfortunately however I underestimated the amount I would loss because of the hops and trub. I did dry hop 12l with something like 60g of hops in total! 

I packaged up 7L, 3 bottles and the rest was naturally carbed in my 9.5L keg.

The initial taste from the dregs were striking. I could taste passionfruit upfront (got to love Galaxy Hops!!) with floral tones, followed by a sweet strawberry taste. Most likly from the Belma hops, finishing with some maltiness.

It faintly reminds me of Staggingerly Good's Pterodactyl.

I have to say I can't wait to properly try the test bottle in two weeks.
If the sample is any indiction this probably will be my best brew to date.

Until next time.....Happy Brewing

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Since my last post, Ive been working on improving/modifying my most successful brew (G.E.B. Pale Ale) after reading back at my notes in my brew diary and the memory I have of it the malt backbone was slightly week compared to the hops.  I like flavourful hoppy beers but it was a little one sided. So I set to work on this aspect of beer for improvement.

During this time Strong Island announced their 7th Annual Home brew Competition, I set out the plan to get this beer ready in time.

G.E.B. Pale Ale 

Fast forward a few weeks from brewday. I've been trying my allocated test bottles prior to the competition this coming week at Meat & Barrel, Portsmouth. After 2 years of brewing I am still taken aback how the bottled beers change overtime.
Over a space of a week of 'testing' the beer went from very malty to the hops coming to the forefront and being quite bitter to achieving a nice balance with a punchy tropical aroma blended with a slightly spicy malt base.

I've now had all my bottles and have 1 non competition bottle left, which I'll give to my Dad (it's named after him after all). Hopefully the taste wont change much from now till Wednesday, I may have to chill them down abit more just to be on the safe side.  The beer is certainly in the 3-4 week sweet spot - so its been perfectly timed!

In myself I am happy how this beer has turned out, really very happy, the competition if nothing else will allow me to get unbiased, expertly judged feedback. I would love to get in the prize spots (don't we all) that would just be a bonus to me.

I'll report back on how I did next week.






Until next time.......Happy Brewing

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Its being a while since my last blog post, so I thought Id write on a hot topic with homebrewers that is a long disputed and much asked question...to keg or bottle? 

Some like to bottle so they can keep track on how much they have drunk and like to just chuck a bottle or two in the fridge. Its cost effective to bottle, the equipment you need is very minimal. You will only need a capper, caps and of course the bottles which many I expect you could have from empties collected. 

When I first majorly bottled I 'minesweeper-ed' a lot of empties from a friends BBQ party. However there always is a constant rinse and clean cycle, which when it comes to sanitising and filling come bottle day some find it quite tedious which you also may run out of space in the kitchen surrounded by bottles. Bottling however is a great way to share the fruits of your labor. 

Kegging is very convenient, after a long day you get home and fancy a beer but only 1/2 having a keg is very handy for this. It also reduces alot of time come bottling day and cleaning. For carbonation and clarity kegging is the way to go. 

There are many entry levels to kegging you can get a 5l mini keg or Tap a Draft (TAD) that are seemed as a good stepping stone into the world of kegged beer.  

I have used a TAD when I first started out, I really liked using it, however after 4 kits (one which was a stove top extract kit) I quickly went into 12l BIAB batches as I didn't see the need of using these as I could easily just bottle 18 or so bottles and let them naturally carbonate over a few weeks. So I have lined this up to give to a friend who has very recently started home brewing, catching the bug very quickly however he has had problems with a leaky pressure barrel.

For me I would dearly love to do a DIY Kegerator however I know the powers that be (aka Mrs B) will not have that until I have a man shed or such area she can lock me away in.  So if I can push it to just a 9L corny keg (tucked away in a corner) with a regulated Co2 charger and chrome tap will cost in the region of £130. That's not including a cool jacket or Co2 capsules. 

You never know I might try my luck placing it on my upcoming birthday list. 




There is so many pros and cons for the two so I'll leave it here....How do you do yours? do you bottle, keg or a mix of the two? What do you prefer?

Are there any Home Brew Suppliers/companies willing for me to test/review keg products? 

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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I maybe still new to Home Brew in the grand scheme of things, but I find researching into certain aspects very interesting so probably my overall knowledge is quite high for someone who has only really brewed for 6 months. It helps with the all the established home brew forums out there.
The best one I repeatedly go back to is The Home Brew Forum, it has certainly been usefully diving into the forum & the established members are usually very swift and knowledgeable to help with any issues or the like.

As I have a background in Computing,Multimedia, Web & Graphic design I have always enjoyed designing & creating labels of some description for all the brews Ive done. 

Labels don't go on all the bottles, I usually save my nice 500ml flip top bottles for either myself, social gatherings or family so I know I'll get the bottles back and I tend not to put labels on if only I'll be drinking it. 

Front Labels of my previous brews

I do however put labels on ones that I either cap or go to friends or family as Homemade presents, as it rounds it all off into a neat presentation. It gives me a sense of pride giving something you've spent lots of time on that also looks the part. 

I originally started making labels like luggage tags (see left) that I hole punched at the top and tied them on via string to the neck of the bottles. This gave a nice handmade country shop feel to it but was quite labor intensive so I only attached the labels as and when. 

Way to Amarillo Label
(next brew to bottle)

I have recently found some avery labels (ones that are designed to fit a 3.5" floppy disk) I must have had these ages! Finding the label template on the web, I started redesigning the layout of my designs for future brews. As I use Photoshop I always either have a basic design template saved as .psd or I modify an existing brew label, if I want to save some time.  

These look a perfect size for any shaped & sized bottles (300ml or 500ml)


I also produced a back label, The luggage type had it printed on the reverse, the new avery style will be stuck on the other side of the bottle.  I needed to do this as many 'give away' bottles people were just pouring the whole bottle in, so the sediment was being disturbed and yeast sometimes going in the glass. 

Back Bottle Condition Label

So this back label was made to tell the drinker its bottled conditioned, do they read it and pour carefully......probably not all the time! 
It really does make me cringe if I see how they pour it from the bottle. 
Hopefully now, as Ive stepped up my labels to mirror a proper packaged bottle it'll be more striking to drinkers.







What do you think? Do you label your brews & how? Do you want to label your brews? 


Until next time.......Happy Brewing

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When I first started brewing I bought 2 boxes of swing top bottles from the The Range they were £9 for 12 500ml bottles, good value! Although they wont last forever they are a great style of bottle that allows the beer to carbonate very well. I love the sound they make when they open. 

Over time I've boasted my individual bottles from either the odd supermarket bought bottle or from a BBQ or house party and helped with the 'recycling' by taking a few empties home with me.  

Now I have enough bottles to probably do a complete batch in bottles if I wish (or do 3/4 bottles and 1 TAD, so I have some leftover bottles for a batch sooner than waiting another month. 

I've basically found that there's certain types of bottles that wont cap well due to the neck being a bit more dumpy, so my hand capper can't fully grip on the bottle. These I've found are Kopparberg, Wychwood and Badger bottles, some bottles like the Proper Job or 660ML Punk IPA bottles have either the label on a piece of plastic then glued onto the bottle (which stinks and leaves the bottle very sticky if you do try to remove it). Which I then have had to recycle for real. 

Really easy bottles to reuse I've found Budweiser, Rekorderlig or the standard ale bottles that you usually get in the 3 for £5 deals at the supermarket. These labels generally just soak of after some time in hot soapy water, you'll then just have to lightly scrub off any label stickiness that is left.

It's nice to have a mix of swing/flip top, standard capped bottles (that look good if you are giving them away for presents) and a larger dispensing system.

Until next time........Happy Brewing. 

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Brew Diaries/Journals//Notes I keep one, I expect you keep one but they are a great means to keep track of how the brew has gone and any unexpected outcomes during the course of the brew.

I have kept one since I first started brewing up kits, even the simplest form of brewing your can come up with noteworthy points, especially points on how well its conditioning over time and flavour development.

I also keep a track of the music I am listening to at the time, its a nice little remembrance thing like in a normal diary, a piece of history. Do you remember the study/saying that people play music to plants to encourage growth, its like in beer you wont get the same outcome playing two different styles of music. 

As a standard each entry in my Brew Diary I'll have:

• Recipe (instructions from recipe packs/kits or a list written by me and affixed to the page) 
• The name of the kit or beer I'm brewing (this could be a made up name if the recipe is my own) I usually have given a kit a nickname for the brew as it looks better on the labels I make on ones I give away and its also abit of fun
• The date of brew and bottle day OG, FG and ABV
• Any noteworthy points or observations from the start of the brew day all the way through to the drinking the beer after conditioning. Things like how well the brew day went, how long it took before fermentation started, if the temperature drops during primary fermentation, flavour development during conditioning
• Things I would do differently next time if I brewed this again - like reducing or increasing volume, making sure I strain hops better etc.

There are many forms out there, I just use a spiral binned A5 notebook, some probably buy a premade book, others use blogs.  All aimed at doing the same thing.

What do you keep in yours? How long have you kept one?  

Until next time......Happy Brewing 

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Ever had any bottle bombs due to over carbonation? 

Ever had a flat beer from under carbonation?

Branching out on creating different styles in 2016?

I have recently come across a few Priming Sugar Calculators that will help, it certainly opened my eyes to the different beers styles and amount of sugar & CO2 that is recommended.


When I first starting brewing I came across a quick and fast rule of the sugar amount, which with the beers I was brewing probably made them off style and in cases slightly over carbonated. 

The best one I found was Homebrew Dad's Priming Sugar Calculator  this calculator has both the option to input the desired CO2 level that you want to achieve (for the science boffin). If you like me find it easier to relate to the styles they have a very extensive list to select from and aims to place the carbonation at the mid range level of each style. 

A very useful tool indeed! I'll certainly be using it in the future.

Until Next time......Happy Brewing. 

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