Category Archives: Beer-making

Memory Lane, 23rd August 2023: Pendle Witches Brew

Posted on June 3, 2024 by james

As he’s at university in Lancaster and knows The Pendle Witch pub, he wanted to try to make this beer before he went back. I took the recipe from Graham Wheeler’s “Brew your own real ales at home” and then … Continue reading →

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Arkell’s Kingsdown #2

Posted on October 2, 2020 by james

[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

Posted on October 2, 2020 by james

[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!

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

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!

Posted on August 20, 2019 by james

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

Posted on August 20, 2019 by james

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

Posted on May 14, 2018 by james

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

Posted on May 14, 2018 by james

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

Posted on May 8, 2018 by james

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

Posted on August 16, 2017 by james

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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