Over a barrel

Dare you enter the mad world of beardy beer brewing? Can you handle the heat? Alliteration allows almost all animals to be analysed! Uh... Yeah, after the line break for more.




Onward, ever onward. I have purchased and now am using a pressure barrel. Given the excruciatingly slow progress made so far due to my awful temperature control it dawned on me that bottling beer would be a long way off yet. Waiting for the airlock to cease bubbling could take a number of weeks given the vigour it was showing and so another fix was necessary. Ah, barrels. I filter out most of the yeast through the sediment trap and a handy dandy bag provided for the purpose and syphon off the liquid into a barrel that has been cleaned for the purpose.

Then one tamps down the lid and seals it off. I have used rose flavoured vaseline to do this as it was the only lubrication we had in the house suitable to make a rubber seal properly air tight. This will likely make for an interesting, if very subtle, flavour or aroma. I used the dregs to make a bottle, as a control, though I am aware that the bottle will take longer to be ready as it must be stored at a cooler temperature to prevent too much extra fermentation and thus exploding glass. Certainly I've already relieved the pressure three times since bottling and it was... vigorous to say the least when it was allowed to fizz.

And so, that's it, all my beer is now in a pressure barrel where I hope it won't become gushing beer or cause a massive explosion in the kitchen. It had two days of being heated to 20 degrees and over and is now sitting more or less stable between 17 and 19. In a few days I shall remove it to the pantry where it is 12 to 15 degrees.

Slightly shitty stag, for your pleasure!