Well, whaddaya know! We're back in the brewery! Yeah, it's been a few days between drinks. Some of us got married, some of us didn't, and some of us got babies. All of the babies. Babies and breweries don't always get along. Unless you're baby Millie, and sleep for 3 hours while blokes BBQ pork sausages outside your window. Bless Millie! She's gonna inherit this brewery and make better beer than her old man ever did.
But Old Man Sharkey is back with his head in the hops and he's got the taste again. Time for a brew, or two. The shed's a mess. The empties are stacking up. The beers we put down to cellar -- the "Museum Selection" as Ben calls them-- are running low. Time to get our noses back over the pot and get some winter beer happening.
Winter is a great time to brew beer. It's bloody three degrees this morning and my car tells me, in no uncertain terms, that there might be ice on the roads and to be careful out there. That's all I need, a fucking motor telling me how to behave. Fuck that! I'm having a beer today at 11am.
We're brewing an Oatmeal Stout and Ben's off to Grape and Grain to get the good stuff. I had a hot tip to get some German sausages, and Millie is nowhere to be heard on the baby-monitor. It's gonna be a good brew day.
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| Hello Big-Pot my old friend! I've come to talk with you again. |
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| Brewery selfie |
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| Look at all the beer we've been drinking that we didn't make and bought at Carwyn Cellars and basically paid for their entire renovations. |
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| We sterilised these one thousand days ago. They're probably still good. |
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| The last thing in this carboy was lemonade at a kid's first birthday party. That's either awesome or really, really sad. |
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| Gear |
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| Some more tasty gear. I love gear. |
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| Michael has been drinking some beer |
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| And so the pot needs a clean |
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| With the hose |
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| Use that cloth, matey! |
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| Or try another angle |
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| Brewing on a rainy day |
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| Beer starts with water. But you need to use a food-grade hose otherwise your beer might taste like when you're seven-years-old and you drink out of the sprinkler in summer because you're thirsty and a bit of a nerd but it's hot and you don't really care that it's all rubbery. |
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| Immersion heaters are in. Got to get the water to 68 degrees. |
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| Putting the lid on will help |
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| A watched pot never boils. Or something. |
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| It's 11am. Time for a beer. Pirate Life IPA is such a bloody good beer. |
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| Ben's here. |
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| And he has more bottles |
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| And Chris has all the grain |
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| Ben is clearly sponsored by Yenda Brewery |
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| Yeah, biatch! |
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| On Fleek! |
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| So here's today's recipe. We've used this one before and it is mighty tasty. |
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| Oh, and Ben brought us some more beers to try. Red Duck is the brewery and they make some interesting beer. The Egyptian one was a bit tricky. |
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| Big hands I know you're the one |
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| Um ... |
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| So eventually the wort goes into these cubes. We have a few but we need to sterilise them first. |
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| Clearly, it's hard work |
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| And we like to have a little spray bottle full of steriliser to spray our hands with. Because we're clean freaks and we also like that tsst-tsst sound it makes |
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| You're actually thinking about having a sip, aren't you Michael? |
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| So we made a discovery today! |
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| Michael still had a whole box of the 2015 Oatmeal Stout in a box on top of his fridge. We opened one immediately. |
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| The water is almost at the right temperature |
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| Steamy |
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| The voile is in |
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| Ben can't handle the excitement of it all |
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| And in goes the grain |
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| Get it all in |
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| Every last little bean |
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| And Chris won't help because he has an insta to send and a hashtag to tag |
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| Sunshine |
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| There's our fridge in the back. |
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| We may have been drinking by this point |
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| Lid on to keep the heat in. |
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| Still loving' the paddle |
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| Might be time for another beer ... or lunch |
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| You need to boil sausages first before you BBQ them. Keeps the fat in so when you bite them they drip juices all down your chin. Yeah, I'm getting a little turned on by this, too. |
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| These relishes were made by school teachers. Guess which label was made by the PE teacher. |
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| Damn Bitey English Cheddar! |
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| BBQ |
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| Roll |
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| Lunch |
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| Done |
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| Back to the brewery |
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| Gotta get the pulley system ready for the mash-out |
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| Tie it off |
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| Easy ... easy ... |
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| And out it comes |
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| And then 'Happy Days' |
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| We found some Brown Ale from 2013. So we drank it immediately. |
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| And Chris cleaned all the mould from the conditioning fridge because he is a fucking champ and doesn't mind his hands smelling like ammonia for the next six days |
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| Sometimes we drink the beer straight from the bag. Because we are heathens with very little self respect. |
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| And this is what we look like when we do this |
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| Make good decisions, Ben |
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| Now, this is a good decision |
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| Lovely hops. Goldings! |
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| Chuck the spent grain in the bag |
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| And some sucka gets to take it home for the chooks |
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And all of the wort goes into the cubes.
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So the beer is in the cubes, waiting to cool down. We will get it on the ferment soon and then you can all come round to Michael's place for a naked beer party. Bring some sausages.
