Ten days on and our brew is in the bottle. I was planning to take a note of how much it has cost so far but I’ve already blown the budget on a heat pad to keep the brew fermenting at a constant temperature and a new hydrometer to replace the one I dropped. This first batch was always going to be expensive.
The Boatshed Brew was supposed to be a collaborative effort but my son Jimmy has departed for a fortnight, leaving me to check the ferment, record the hydrometer readings, add the finings and clean and fill the bottles. Also, daughter Maddie hasn’t even started to design the label so I’m thinking of re-naming my brew after the Little Red Hen in the children’s fable. (‘Who will help me bake the bread?’ said the little red hen. ‘Not I’, said the dog/cat/pig etc.) Like the lazy farmyard animals in the story, I expect my family will suddenly reappear when it’s time to drink the beer. And like the little red hen I might just drink it ‘all by myself’.
I have tasted it already and although it has a fabulous aroma I think it’s a bit too hoppy. It’s also quite cloudy, despite the fining powder that was supposed to clarify it. I’m hoping it will develop in the bottle. My instructions say it will be ready to drink in three weeks.
Pass the Salt 
I’ve just started down the home brew path myself, the newtown brew shop is amazing, but you’re right it’s a pricey hobby. I’m just in the planning stages of my second brew, and it’s going to cost just as much as buying the kit again, as I have to buy new bottles, and I’m also trying a partial mash, so all and all grain, malt, dextrose, sugar, yeast, bittering hops, finishing hops, bottles, fining etc is about $130.
I’m pretty sure that the cloudy appearance should settle out over time, the finings that come with the Copper Tun kit are a bit misleading when it comes to the instructions, they say add before bottling, but should say add and wait 48 hours then bottle.
Can’t wait to hear how it turns out, the only bad thing about home brew is the wait!
And I’m interested to hear how you get on with your partial mash. I thought I would try that for my next brew. Which malts and hops are you using?
I’ve also heard there is a nano kit that is soon to be on sale at the brew shop, priced under $1000, which will make it a lot easier to do the mashing and sparging. I’d like to work my way up to that one! Let’s keep in touch.
I’m going to use Golden promise grains, Amber liquid malt, Columbus pellets for bittering, Goldings finishing hops, Wyeast – American Ale 1056.
I used this websites calculator to help figure out all the quantities and timings, it’s quite good, you plug in the style and then add what ingredients and method your using and can adjust amounts to get it right
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/
Thank you for the link. I love the names of all the malts and hops – it’s tempting just to pick the ingredients for the names but I’ve tried that at the races and it doesn’t work!
I’ve just bottled mine (21 days in fermenter + 2 days after adding finings), it hit a stable gravity about 11 days in but decided, after much web research, to leave it a bit longer to allow the flavours to develop. Cleaning, sterilising, priming and bottling 30 bottles is tedious, but worth it I hope!
I only had 11 days in fermenter; I’ll be interested to know if the extra time helped your brew. Did you use a heat pad? I think that really helped keep mine at a stable 18-20°C. I left mine for 2 days after fining too. We are going to open a couple of bottles of Boatshed Brew this week to see how it’s developing. I’ll let you know.
I had a pretty stable 18-20°C without a heat pad. I could of bottled after 11 days, maybe I’ve been reading too many brewing forums, there seems to be a lot of advice to leave it in the primary fermenter for at least 3-4 weeks, and then again 3-4 weeks in the bottle. I’m not sure I can be that patient, and will be testing a bottle or 3 during those 3-4weeks. Will let you know the results. Looking forward to hearing about your brew.
Boatshed Brew had its opening yet?
Not yet! 3 things to do for council consent and then I’ll consider boatshed finished and ready to party. Coming down?