Category Archives: Beer-making

Arkell’s Kingsdown #2

[21st June] With the wort cooled down I could pitch the yeast, but first I measured the original gravity with my hydrometer. Not quite as high as I was hoping for, but I’m happy with that. Then the fermenter went … Continue reading

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Return to the beer shack! Arkell’s Kingsdown #1

[20th June] Brewing is another thing that has taken a back seat of late whilst I tried to get other things finished, but today I finally managed to find some time to start of a brew — a nine gallon … Continue reading

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Blobservatory Bitter is ready!

Back in August I posted about making my first batch of beer in some time as a celebration of getting the observatory into a usable state. After a little time to condition, here it is: First impressions? It’s quite drinkable. … Continue reading

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We have fermentation!

A day or so after adding the yeast to my Blobservatory Bitter, it looks like they’re hard at work. A nice raft of top-fermenting yeasty beasties…

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Blobservatory Bitter

Having spent so much time over the last *mumble* months building the observatory, my brewery (which stands right next door) has been sadly neglected. We have even reached the scandalous situation where my wife has occasionally had to actually buy … Continue reading

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A comparison of bottle cappers

For many years now my favoured bottle-capping tool has been this two-handed capper that I bought longer ago than I can remember: It can be a little awkward and isn’t ideally suited to employment by a handy young assistant, but … Continue reading

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Checking on M’aidez brew

After a week in the fermenter I checked my recent brew. Fermentation still looks to be going on at a reasonable rate: And a quick check with the hydrometer shows it’s got a bit of a way go to yet: … Continue reading

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“May Day” brew

I’ve been meaning to get back out to the beer shack for a while but there have been so many other things going on of late that time has escaped me. This bank holiday weekend however I put aside a … Continue reading

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Old Speckled Hen bottled

Much of this evening was spent in the beer shack, bottling the “Old Speckled Hen” that I started the weekend before last. It wasn’t ready to bottle last weekend, so I left it a couple more days and got it … Continue reading

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First brew in a while

I’ve not had the opportunity to spend a day in the beer shack brewing for a while and stocks are running low (for some values of “low” 🙂 so last weekend I decided it was time to get some more … Continue reading

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