Another week goes by and slowly but surely I can sense the beer as it becomes ready, it’s not long now I know that!
This was probably the biggest week in terms of brewing activity. Overall there’s not a great deal to do while you’re brewing beer it seems so for a novice like me there’s not really too much to go wrong. People will tell you that all the time when you start off it seems, and to be fair they’re right, but I’m someone that over-stresses about everything so I’m still not convinced until I try the beer.
Anyway, this week was the week I transferred my beer from the fermentor to the barrel and bottles, of course the barrel only landed the day before it was due to be moved so I’ll tell you about that first.
I decided in the end I’d go with a mixture of bottles and a barrel this way I thought I’d be able to go for the cheaper barrel I was looking at and I’ve recycled old beer bottles; you know… for the environment and that. Turns out I was looking at the bigger barrel in the end, either that or I’ve ordered it anyway because the barrel I got and, looking at the receipt, paid for is the larger one anyway.
Now I am assuming this will impact the carbonation of the barrel as I’ve opted for the secondary fermentation method for my carbonation. I adjusted the sugar to the volume of half the beer into the barrel but with more open space above the liquid level does this mean it’s going to take a bit longer? I’ve not Googled it yet but it’s on my to-do list.
The transferring of the beer was no issue. I’d not gotten to Wilko’s to buy the tube they sell (I’m going to pick one up as I’m going to grab the gravity stick too) there so I borrowed my brothers and sterilised these, the barrel and the bottles ready. If you don’t know how to siphon it’s just a case of sucking the liquid through and transferring it to a lower level once the liquid starts flowing.
The bottles were harder, you needed to move the tube upward before it filled to the top of the bottle to give it time to stop flowing out the tube… so there was a bit lost during this process but not enough to be too concerned about I think. I poured the sugar into the barrel and then transferred the beer into this on top of the sugar. I screwed the cap on and moved it to somewhere warm for two days.
Everything was successful and then I moved the bottles into the fridge and the barrel into a cold cupboard in my bedroom. This is when my first real disaster struck. The first day in the cupboard went fine but by the third day it seems the barrel has somehow leaked. I’ve lost a decent layer of beer to be honest.
I think it must have leaked from the tap section, perhaps I’d not screwed it tight enough, but I’ve tightened it again now and cleaned everything up and we’re two days no leaks so far again. There’s about a week left on it now and then I’m ready for the taste test.
The beer in one of the clear bottles looks a really nice colour, there’s a little bit of sediment in it but I think that’s partly because I held the siphon in a little too deep initially perhaps. I’m hoping the loss of beer won’t be too much to bear for now. We’ll see next week.
lockthelocks 