Category Archives: Smallholding

Super pleased

Posted on May 1, 2017 by admin

After a number of false starts I finally got supers on the last of my hives today. It was my intention to do this a while back but then the weather turned quite cold (we went from shorts weather to … Continue reading →

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A different sort of MOAB

Posted on April 23, 2017 by james

Over the winter we had a few trees in our hedges decide that they couldn’t stand life any longer and fell into part of the orchard. Over the last week or so I’ve been out there with the chainsaw, removing … Continue reading →

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A new tray for the cider press

Posted on March 1, 2017 by james

Fresh from my success wrangling stainless steel for brewing, I thought I’d make up a new press tray for the cider press also from stainless steel. The starting point was one of those stainless industrial catering trays you see on … Continue reading →

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Time to crack on with the mash tun

Posted on February 8, 2017 by james

My new stainless mash tun is made from an insulated stock pot, the tricky bit being to fit a tap to allow it to be drained. I opted to go for a tap fitted to the bottom of the pot … Continue reading →

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The mash tun can wait

Posted on February 4, 2017 by james

Time for a brew. Have to have something to drink to celebrate getting the mash tun made after all, so I put as much of my old kit back into service as I needed. This brew was a beer called … Continue reading →

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The postman hates it when I order brewing ingredients

Posted on January 22, 2017 by james

Can’t really blame him, to be honest. It’s very decent of him to carry this little lot all the way from the drive to the front door…

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100l stockpot HLT conversion

Posted on January 22, 2017 by james

Starting with the easier one first. The first part of the plan was to fit a 2.4kW heating element: It needs a big hole, obviously and stainless isn’t the easiest of stuff to work with, so I used a Q-Max … Continue reading →

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The Man Who Picked The Hornet’s Nest

Posted on January 22, 2017 by james

I had some empty hives stacked up in the apiary and when I was working there one day noticed a hornet flying about. It disappeared inside one of the empty hives where it had been knocked aside slightly (probably by … Continue reading →

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Chicks Away!

Posted on January 22, 2017 by james

Most years I put some chicken eggs into an incubator to add to our flock that provide us with eggs and meat. This year I might try to set up a “chick cam” (somehow I feel that’s not going to … Continue reading →

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First batch fermenting nicely

Posted on January 22, 2017 by james

Just a quick photo of the first batch of beer made in the beer shack fermenting away nicely in my fermentation cabinet despite the cold temperatures outside.

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