trivial things that make you smile,or make you feel good

[fatbasher]

My work mate follows Suggs on Twitter. Someone tweeted him on Saturday, "Just like 1973, Utd are shit and Cloughs been sacked by Derby!"

[chunky monkey]

My work mate follows Suggs on Twitter. Someone tweeted him on Saturday, "Just like 1973, Utd are shit and Cloughs been sacked by Derby!"

Let's not forget Bruce Forsythe on the tele

[Ardiles]

Today I have finally got around to kicking off my first batch of home brew.  Just had a sneaky look at the fermenting barrel and there's an interesting foamy layer forming on the surface of the wort.  Good sign, I think.  The yeast must be starting to do something, and this makes me very happy.

Fingers crossed.  If all goes well over the next 5 or 6 days, I'm going to keg it and let it condition in the garage ready for Christmas.

[fatbasher]

Today I have finally got around to kicking off my first batch of home brew.  Just had a sneaky look at the fermenting barrel and there's an interesting foamy layer forming on the surface of the wort.  Good sign, I think.  The yeast must be starting to do something, and this makes me very happy.

Fingers crossed.  If all goes well over the next 5 or 6 days, I'm going to keg it and let it condition in the garage ready for

You might find it's past it's best at Christmas. Been a while since I did home brew but if your garage is cold you might get away with it.

[Ardiles]

Thanks mate.  Both people I spoke to today (one at a large online retailer and another at a home brew centre a few miles up the road from here in Aldershot) thought that leaving until Christmas would work well.  But I've also read that lighter, hoppier beers may start to deteriorate more quickly and lose flavour.  I'll keep a close eye on it...and do the necessary before Christmas if I have to!  Thanks for the advice.

[Reg Smeeton]

Thanks mate.  Both people I spoke to today (one at a large online retailer and another at a home brew centre a few miles up the road from here in Aldershot) thought that leaving until Christmas would work well.  But I've also read that lighter, hoppier beers may start to deteriorate more quickly and lose flavour.  I'll keep a close eye on it...and do the necessary before Christmas if I have to!  Thanks for the advice.

I used to do homebrew when my lads were tiny, which meant going to the pub was restricted to maybe 3 nights a week, like anything practice makes perfect, although sometimes you'd end up with a rancid batch for no apparent reason having done the same for when you got a decent batch.  Around this time Sainsburys opened out in West Swindon, and you could get big old bottles of Ruddles, for not very much, so gave up.

[ghanimah]

I used to do homebrew when my lads were tiny, which meant going to the pub was restricted to maybe 3 nights a week, like anything practice makes perfect, although sometimes you'd end up with a rancid batch for no apparent reason having done the same for when you got a decent batch.  Around this time Sainsburys opened out in West Swindon, and you could get big old bottles of Ruddles, for not very much, so gave up.

My god how did you cope...?

[fatbasher]

Cleanliness is the key. Remember beer is a live culture that uses yeast to ferment the sugar into alcohol. If you use like I did a pressureised barrel then when the yeasts live culture was killed off any other bacteria inside would use the sugars and proteins to start some unsavoury cultures. If all was sterilised satisfactorily then the gas going into the special metal valve would push the beer out without any air geting back in through the tap. At some point it will but by then you'll have drunk most of it from the barrel and will lose the remainder quickly dependant on room temp. Same with bottles they really need to be squeaky clean. My tip is to put them upside down in a dish washer. Tip to get the beer to sparkle. When you have stopped the fermenting process and cleared the ale so it is ready to be stored in bottles. Get a sachet of beer yeast and disolve in luke warm sugar water 8oz should do it! Enough liquid for 5ml per 500ml bottle (Grolsh bottles are ace) decant 5ml of mixture  (kiddies calpol syring is a good tool) into each bottle then top up with beer. Seal flip top lid and leave for a few weeks somewhere at room temp. You shouldn't get to much sediment and I suggest you chill said beer first just in case, you don't want to take your head off when you flip the top  , trust me a worth while exercise. Any sediment should be minimal and if you add some when pouring it adds an authentic real ale touch. If there is so much cloud you can see lightening then you're fucked and you'll have to start again.

[4D]

Leave poor batch alone 

[Flashheart]

Cleanliness is the key. Remember beer is a live culture that uses yeast to ferment the sugar into alcohol. If you use like I did a pressureised barrel then when the yeasts live culture was killed off any other bacteria inside would use the sugars and proteins to start some unsavoury cultures. If all was sterilised satisfactorily then the gas going into the special metal valve would push the beer out without any air geting back in through the tap. At some point it will but by then you'll have drunk most of it from the barrel and will lose the remainder quickly dependant on room temp. Same with bottles they really need to be squeaky clean. My tip is to put them upside down in a dish washer. Tip to get the beer to sparkle. When you have stopped the fermenting process and cleared the ale so it is ready to be stored in bottles. Get a sachet of beer yeast and disolve in luke warm sugar water 8oz should do it! Enough liquid for 5ml per 500ml bottle (Grolsh bottles are ace) decant 5ml of mixture  (kiddies calpol syring is a good tool) into each bottle then top up with beer. Seal flip top lid and leave for a few weeks somewhere at room temp. You shouldn't get to much sediment and I suggest you chill said beer first just in case, you don't want to take your head off when you flip the top  , trust me a worth while exercise. Any sediment should be minimal and if you add some when pouring it adds an authentic real ale touch. If there is so much cloud you can see lightening then you're fucked and you'll have to start again.

Or one could just buy some beer at the offy 

[Leggett]

http://www.footballshirtculture.com/kit-design/bristol-city-2014-15-home-kit-to-be-designed-with-fan-input.html

Who's gonna photoshop some dog shit onto a kit for them?

[Ardiles]

Cleanliness is the key. Remember beer is a live culture that uses yeast to ferment the sugar into alcohol. If you use like I did a pressureised barrel then when the yeasts live culture was killed off any other bacteria inside would use the sugars and proteins to start some unsavoury cultures. If all was sterilised satisfactorily then the gas going into the special metal valve would push the beer out without any air geting back in through the tap. At some point it will but by then you'll have drunk most of it from the barrel and will lose the remainder quickly dependant on room temp. Same with bottles they really need to be squeaky clean. My tip is to put them upside down in a dish washer. Tip to get the beer to sparkle. When you have stopped the fermenting process and cleared the ale so it is ready to be stored in bottles. Get a sachet of beer yeast and disolve in luke warm sugar water 8oz should do it! Enough liquid for 5ml per 500ml bottle (Grolsh bottles are ace) decant 5ml of mixture  (kiddies calpol syring is a good tool) into each bottle then top up with beer. Seal flip top lid and leave for a few weeks somewhere at room temp. You shouldn't get to much sediment and I suggest you chill said beer first just in case, you don't want to take your head off when you flip the top  , trust me a worth while exercise. Any sediment should be minimal and if you add some when pouring it adds an authentic real ale touch. If there is so much cloud you can see lightening then you're fucked and you'll have to start again.

Thanks again.  (Only just saw this post from a few days ago.)

My plan at the moment is to syphon the beer following fermentation directly in to the pressure barrel and allow it to condition there.  Even though I have a full set of bottles & caps as well, I don't think I'm going to bother using them this time around...primarily because of the relative difficulty in sterilising them all that you allude to.  We are having a party in early December at the house and then a very full house for Christmas a few weeks later, so I'm fairly sure that the beer will go quickly on which ever of those two occasions I decide to 'crack it open', so the pressure barrel approach should work well.

One question though.  I'm two days in to the fermentation now and bubbles are still rising through the airlock.  This should stop some time between Friday and Sunday when the fermentation is complete.  Advice I have seen written is that you need a steady hydrometer reading on three consecutive days to ensure that the fermentation process has finished.  Would you wait until the bubbles have stopped rising through the airlock before taking the first reading?  Thanks.

[Saxondale]

http://toys.usvsth3m.com/are-you-hated-by-the-daily-mail/

[Nemo]

Took me right up until the last question, was getting nervous that I may only have been loathed...

[Bogus Dave]

go to vogue.co.uk and do the konami cheat code, but press a repeatedly instead of start