Plot 66

Does Size Matter?

2012-01-26T14:15:00.003Z

I've got massive tubers.

Honest luv, but I'm talking seed potatoes - a recent order was recently delivered and the tubers were huge.

Purchased by weight (1.5kg), the company advertised the approx number of tubers to be 20-25. Good for 4 or 5 rows in my potato bed. But such were the size of the tubers in my delivery, I had 13. Only good for 3 rows at best.

While I received 1.5kg, I was a little disgruntled that the difference in quantity was so marked (a 48% reduction on the mail-order company’s best approximation), so I thought I’d grizzle. I’m good at grizzling when the mood takes me.

It met with a swift response and a further 1.5kg delivered, gratis, free and for nothing. Thank you D.T. Brown

The downside to this generous gesture is that I now have too many tubers for the space I’ve allotted for the ‘second earlies'. Subconsciously selecting which tubers I might actually plant, my eyes were drawn to the larger ones. But why should this be?

I guess we all want big, strong, healthy plants and I guess the big tubers give the impression they would fare best. But do big tubers actually equal a better yield, bigger potatoes, or a bigger anything? If you know, please enlighten me.

I did engage in a little bit of research. Alright, about 10 mins on the internet but that was enough to suggest there isn’t a definitive answer.

There was some mention of cutting big tubers, although this leaves them more vulnerable to disease and frankly, I see no reason why anyone on a home-growing scale would really need to do this.

One reference I found stated; ‘Commercial quality is defined by uniformity and size of tubers, as well as external appearance. For normal production, a reasonable size of seed tuber or tuber pieces should be about 40 to 50 grams. Big size seed will increase cost and seed that are too small can rot before emergence.’

Other references suggested the ideal tuber was ‘The size of a hens egg’.

The most pertinent quote was probably that reference to smaller tubers being more susceptible to rot. My plot is on heavy clay and we generally have very wet winters, so soil conditions are generally cold and wet, even in early spring.

On this occasion, much like the wife deliberating over something more pleasurable than potatoes, I think I’ll opt for big.

Chit. It's That Time Of Year Again...

2012-01-23T16:24:00.000Z

Although January seems to drag on forever, the prospect of spring is brought that bit closer by the arrival of the first seed potatoes.

The first to arrive were 'Kestrel', which I'm trying in favour of 'Cara' this year. Last season's crop were decimated by wireworm and I've been told that leaving the crop in the ground late into the season increases the chance of wireworm damage. This made the (late) maincrop variety particularly susceptible, so I've switched to a second-early, which should mature up to a month earlier.

I'm not sure if the process of chitting actually benefits the crop, but the seed companies send the potatoes out so early, we have little choice but to store them in egg trays while awaiting the correct time to plant. For these little babies, that'll be around late March, weather permitting.

Seed List 2012

2012-01-09T09:29:00.000Z

CHILLIES
Rokita
Jalepeno

TOMATO
Tumbling Tom (Yellow)

CELERY
Giant Red

LETTUCE
Rouge Grenobloise (seed from France)

PARSNIP
Javelin

CARROTS
Chantenay Red Cored 2
Chamare
Early Scarlet Horn

POTATOES
Accord (first early)
Kestrel (second early)

WINTER SQUASH
Honey Bear (acorn)
Victory (butternut)
Barbara (butternut)

SWEETCORN
Honey Bantam

CABBAGE
Offenham 2 - Flower of Spring (pointy)
Bloemendsslse Gele (pointy savoy)

BEETROOT
Burpees Golden (yellow)
Albina Vereduna (white)

CUCUMBER
Vert Long Maraicher (seed picked up in France)

COURGETTES
Verte Non Coureuse des Maraichers (seed picked up in France)
Verte non coureuse d'Italie (seed picked up in France)

SUNFLOWERS
Vanilla Ice
Garden Statement

Winners & Losers 2011

2012-01-04T11:04:00.001Z

Although I did review my growing year in an earlier post, I thought I'd list the winners and losers of last year, inspired by Amy over at the Souper Allotment blog.

Winning Veg: Carrots. No problems beset the orange beauties and because of the mild winter we're still pulling them up now.

Winning Fruit: Gooseberries. Although we lost some of the harvest to the birds, these low maintenance bushes produced masses of fruit.

Best Newcomer: Cucumber. Belied expectations as I left them pretty much to their own devices and despite being neglected, the one plant which survived produced lovely fruits all summer long.

Last Chance Saloon: Sweetcorn. Not because the plants don't do well, they always produce lovely big cobs, it's the fact that something gets to them before we do. I'm not going to grow so many this year and will concentrate on trying to get the protection right. Not sure if it's rabbits, mice...

Most over-grown: Parsnips. I'm not sure why I grow so many. We like them and they always do well, but they take up quite a lot of ground and we never seem to eat them all. Getting all the old roots out of the heavy clay soil before the new season starts is always a pain in the backside too.

Sadly Missed: Cabbage. I prefer to grow cops which don't need cover as I don't like faffing about with netting, which meant there was no cabbage this year. It was sadly missed, so it's back on the agenda for 2012.

All my seeds for 2012 are ready to go and as I'm doing chilli peppers this year, sowing starts next month.

Reminiscing in late December’s frost...

2011-12-31T16:07:00.003Z

I’m pleased to say the last twelve months have certainly bettered the previous dozen which I posted about on New Year’s Eve last year.

My health took an upward curve; the dizzy spells and anxiety haven’t left me completely but they’re under control for the most part, without any form of medication.

The brewery came into its own after the steel fabricators listened to my concerns and made some alterations. When I’m on song, it makes some really good brews and it’s a breeze to clean. And my first foray into the world of home brewing competitions saw me pick up a third in the national event.

The allotment provided us well. I kept things simple in 2011 and although some crops were a little neglected, we couldn’t complain with what the plot rewarded us with.

All in all, 2011 was a solid year on which to build. And build I will, for I have plans for the new year. I have no idea if they will come to fruition, but I’ll be doing my damndest.

As far as the plot goes, I’ll be growing a bit more than last year, but not doing so much that it becomes a burden. With the brewing, I’ll be trying to perfect a handful of my favourite brews with a view to the future.

It’s become apparent over the last few years that work began to invade every hour of my life. Watching, calculating, writing. And with it my time, family time and let’s be honest, good times, suffered.

This time next year, with a bit of luck, things will have changed. Maybe not significantly, but hopefully for the better.

Love to you and yours, wherever you are.

Thai Squash Soup

2011-11-09T19:35:00.005Z

I finally got into one of the 'Ugly Squash' that has sat stored in the garage for a month or so. The smaller 'Honey Bear' squash were really sweet and have all but gone, leaving me to ponder about what to do with these ugly jobs.

The skin is really thick, so they store well, but the drawback is how to get into them. I chose to attack the smallest one with my cleaver and just about managed to slice off a few hunks and set about making one of my favourite soups.

It's based on a recipe originally posted on Allotment 2 Kitchen, so many thanks to Shaheen for sharing.

Now I'm not vegetarian, so I make mine with chicken stock and don't bother with the Tofu croutons, so if you want the proper veggie version, take a look here.

I roast the squash in the oven (not attempting to peel this blighter) for about 30 minutes until soft.

While that's on the go, make up a pint of stock and add to a deep pan, together with a can of coconut milk, plus a few dollops of Thai red curry paste. Cook this gently for about 15 minutes.

When the roasted squash is soft, scoop the flesh away from the skin and add to the coconut mixture. Cook gently for a few minutes, then blitz with a stick blender.

Still over a gentle heat, stir in a handful of baby spinnach and as soon as this wilts, it's ready to serve. I chuck a few shop bought croutons on the top and then dig in with some fresh bread. It's dead easy, very tasty and, as soups go, looks pretty special too. I've not taken a picture as it wouldn't compare to Shaheen's - go take a look.

I must admit, I found the soup much nicer with butternut squash than I did this big ugly one, but it was still good eating.

Enjoy.

Smashing Pumpkins

2011-11-02T15:03:00.000Z

A quick pumpkin post. My nipper was given the seeds for his Birthday, so we made room at the allotment and the plants provided three or four, fair size pumpkins.

And a couple were duly carved for Halloween

2011 Season Review

2011-10-19T19:53:00.007+01:00

Gooseberries – very good as usual. I had some new plants that went in in the autumn, which didn’t fruit, but the established bushes did well. The only negative this year was that we experimented with removing the netting. The early harvest for the jam was fine, but the more ripened fruit was plundered by the birds. We’ll cover them again next year.

Strawberries – ditto the above. We chose not to cover the early strawberries, the majority of which were eaten. We covered the later variety and they produced well.

Hops – the variety that had to be moved early in the season didn’t fare as well as the vines that were left in position from last year, but a decent yield was had, nevertheless. My next brew will include the home-grown hops and details will be posted on my other blog, Getting Grist.

Carrots – I grow these in tyre stacks. Some of last year’s crop were dug up (presumably by rabbits) so we increased the number of tyres in each planter to three and we had no problems this year.

Squash – The Honey Bear are fab. The ideal size for two and beautifully sweet. The early fruit didn’t set, either because they weren’t pollinated, or lack of food. I’ll remedy that next year by sowing some companion plants in the squash bed to attract the pollinators and I’ll feed the plants as soon as they are planted out. The other variety did well, but I shan’t bother with them again. The squash are huge and I’m not even sure how you get into them. Might have to invest in a new hacksaw.

Cucumbers – belied expectations as I left them to fend for themselves. I only had two plants, one withered and died due to neglect; the other produced lovely fruits all summer long. I’ll be doing more of these next year and vow to look after them.

Sweetcorn – nice early plants, but the fantastic looking cobs were raided by something, just like last year and the season before that. I’m going to put protective collars around the stems next year (by the looks of it, the stems were gnawed through and the cobs devoured once they hit the ground). This will be their last chance – if the crop fails in 2012, no more sweetcorn.

Courgettes – like all courgettes, you get plenty of bangs for your buck. Perfect.

Pumpkin – this was a one-off for our youngest. I’ll post a picture of his once it’s been carved ready for Halloween.

Potatoes – the first earlies were great. Pest free and great tasting. The maincrop, however, was a disappointment. Both types of Cara were beset by wireworm and slug damage. Not too much of a problem if you’re cutting them up for roasting/wedges etc, but we got very few perfect ones for baking. I’m ordering a different variety for next year, plus more of the first earlies.

Parsnips – We’ve only lifted one so far, but will continue to harvest from now through the winter.

I think that covers most of everything I attempted to grow this year, other than the cherry tomatoes which I kept at home in hanging baskets. The fruit tumbles over the side and we’ve been picking them up until this week. Same again next year.

I hope all your harvests have been plentiful. The next job is to peruse the internet and catalogues with ideas for next year’s varieties.

What Was The Question?

2011-10-18T19:58:00.001+01:00

The Answer

Perhaps I should choose my friends more wisely. Thinking about it, I guess you can choose your friends but not your neighbours. And it was my neighbour who dragged me out one Thursday night.

Don’t get me wrong, we have a few things in common, but I’m not convinced we’d be drinking partners if he didn’t live a couple of doors away. As far as I know, he doesn’t cook, doesn’t grow his own, or make beer. To be honest, for the most part he doesn’t even make good conversation.

But the evening in question had potential. A trip out to see a band and a few beers. Definite potential. That was until our carriage arrived.

An old co-worker of his roared up in an Audi A3 3.2 V6. I have no idea either. I can only quote the numerals as they were repeated to me on numerous occasions as we made our way to the gig. Did I mention it was a 3.2 V6?

With the dialogue on motors, the conversation then turned to an absent co-worker who was ridiculed for his choice of car. ‘I hope he at least had the decency to get the Z25 XST with the optional turbo under the hood’. WTF?

Having been baking earlier in the day, I decided now probably wasn’t a good time to ask if they preferred flapjacks made with honey or golden syrup.

As for the band, they were called ‘The Answer’. All I know is that the bass player looked a spit for Ron Weasley and the front man was a poor man’s Chris Robinson.

If the question is, were they a good rock band, I guess the answer is yes. Although seriously lacking in anything that sets them apart.

Unlike my flapjacks, which were different gear. Honey if you must know.

Free Harvest

2011-09-21T20:23:00.001+01:00

Although there’s a great deal of satisfaction to be had from harvesting crops you’ve nurtured from seed, there’s nothing quite like the pleasure of a free harvest.

Plundering the hedgerow for their bounty can be very rewarding. Especially when there’s alcohol involved.

I have to thank a friend of mine for identifying the fruit which hangs from the hedgerow at the bottom of our garden. Among the brambles and blackberries, it’s the fruit of the Hawthorn. The sloe.

A solitary sloe

So last year, armed with this knowledge and a recipe from said friend, I embarked on my first ever batch of sloe gin.

Basically, I emptied the contents of a gin bottle into a jug and filled the bottle about the third of the way up with sloes, all of which had been pricked with a needle. The gin is then returned to the bottle with sugar – about half as much sugar to the weight of the sloes.

(The remainder of the gin can either be drunk, or used to make up another bottle of sloe gin).

The bottle is then sealed and given a shake. The bottle should be gently turned and shaken every other day for a week, then once a week for a couple of months.

It was then strained through a muslin cloth into some rustic looking bottles with swing-top lids.

I guess you can drink it straight away, but it definitely improves with age. This is some of last year’s batch. Smooth, warming with a hint of almond.

Even if you’re not keen on gin, give it a go. You might be surprised. I certainly was – either drink it or pour it over ice. It goes down particularly well at Christmas. We left some out for Mr Claus last year and it was much appreciated.

Watermelon Freak Show

2011-09-18T15:10:00.005+01:00

Well, summer has certainly been and gone in Wiltshire. Strong winds and rain have been the order of the day of late. I blame the soothsayer who collared me one Saturday morning.

I’d gone to get my newspaper from one of the local shops.

To help burn some beer fueled calories, I tend to cycle each morning. In doing so, I see the same old faces, jogging, cycling, dog walking, or soothsaying. Actually, that last bit’s not true. I don’t usually see any soothsayers, she was a new face.

I wasn’t quite sure what she was about to be honest, loitering on the pavement outside the shop. At first I wondered if she was touting for business. She had quite a chest on her - a sort of watermelon freak show, but it seemed an odd place to peddle her wears. Perhaps I’d misread her completely and she was just waiting for a taxi.

In any event she caught my attention and smiled. ‘There’s a hurricane coming you know’.

I didn’t know.

‘And there’s a satellite’.

‘A Satellite?’

‘For sure, it’s going to drop out for the sky’. ‘No one knows exactly when, but it’s coming’.

I smiled politely and suggested we all better stay indoors then, before pedalling off, at a rate my body hadn’t been used to for some time.

Sure enough, the winds came. It was the tail end of hurricane Katia.

It wreaked havoc at the allotment, with my frail hop frame succumbing to the most damage, while the subsequent rains that followed prevented me from harvesting said hops.

Thankfully the elements relented for a couple of days during the week, allowing the hops to dry a little. I managed to harvest the ‘Bramling Cross’ on Thursday. They are currently sat in the loft of my house, scattered in a single layer across a piece of net curtain which is hung between the eves.

Hopefully they will dry out nicely in about a week’s time, after which I can weigh them, and bag them, for some future brews.

I do have to go back and harvest the other variety, ‘Target’. Perhaps I'll do that at some stage during this coming week, when I go to check on the potatoes that also need to come up. I’m still a bit worried about that satellite, though.

A Bit Of A Squash

2011-09-05T11:50:00.003+01:00

I've been growing two different varieties of squash this year (not including little'uns pumpkin), both new to me, and it's been interesting to see how they've done as the season's gone on.

I posted HERE about the varieties. One's an 'Acorn Squash' called Honey Bear and the other is an Italian heirloom variety 'Marina di Chioggia'. A bit of a mouthful. I'll refer to it as the ugly squash.

Both types germinated well, but it was the Honey Bear which looked most promising once transplanted into the squash bed, forming fruit nice and early.

This picture was taken in the first week in June. As you can see, the plants are very compact for squash - they don't trail everywhere, they're more bush like.

The disappointment was that these fruits did not set properly. I'm guessing they were not pollinated so the baby fruit didn't develop.

After this, the plants seemed to have a bit of set-back. They lost their vibrant green colour and sulked. It took quite a while before they picked up - lots of watering and feeding, and I honestly thought we wouldn't get a harvest.

I've read somewhere that it may be advisable to apply lime to the ground where you intend to grow squash so I'll try this next year.

In the meantime a couple of the plants have decided to bear fruit. They are very small, probably just enough to serve two.

Much will depend on the taste, but given that the small bushes do not take up much room, I'll probably give them another go next year and plant more of them.

As for the ugly squash, they didn't form fruit quite as early as the acorn type, but spent their energy in careering off all over the plot. They are very big plants, but the fruit they eventually set all grew well and we have several of these knobbly looking things swelling up a good'un.

Finally, my youngest wanted a picture of his Pumpkin.This also shot off everywhere, even through the pallets I had protecting the young sweetcorn...

He's dead chuffed and can't wait until halloween.

A Tale Of Three Hops

2011-09-01T20:34:00.002+01:00

Those that have followed the blog for a while may remember the hop frames I constructed earlier this year.

This frame on the left is supporting (in the loosest sense of the word, as the supports are beginning to give way) the variety, Bramling Cross.

This is their second year and they appear to have done remarkably well. They are just beginning to turn 'papery' so will need harvesting soon. If it stays dry, I'll try and get them in next week.

The right-hand frame is supporting the variety Target. These haven't done so well - largely because I had to reposition the plants at the start of the season to accommodate the new frame. I guess this has set them back and they've probably spent most of their energy growing the roots, just as they do in year one (these plants are also in their second season, just like the Bramling Cross).

I was worried we may not get harvest from them, but they've come along okay in the last few weeks. Not as early as the Bramling Cross, these will probably come good mid to late September.

The opening shot on this post are also the 'Target' and here's a few more.

The real disappointment this year is the First Gold. A dwarf variety, they are in their third year and scramble up the back fence.

There's probably no harvest to come from them at all. A few cones have formed, but not many and they're small. A closer look shows a few dead/diseased runners, so somethings not gone right.

I'm not too worried, but I'll keep a closer eye on them next year to see if they can do better.

So Bramling Cross is this year's winner. It's a variety I've not used in my own beer before but, judging by my friends brew which I had chance to sample earlier this week, I'm going to look forward to them.

I'll also have to address the problem of the collapsing frames over the winter. A bit of strengthening up will be required as I clearly underestimated the weight involved.

Plot 66

2011-08-30T15:24:00.000+01:00

News of this blog's demise are greatly exaggerated. Following feedback from others, I've decided to continue with my allotment record.

I'll also keep the separate blog for brewing. So, if you're after the home brewing exploits, please go to Getting Grist I'll try and keep that one as a serious record of my brews. All veggie action and occasional ramblings about life will be on here.

Perhaps it's because I've had my batteries recharged after a summer break? Or, maybe I missed having somewhere to vent my frustrations? Either way, I'm back. And ready to kick ass.

In With The New

2011-07-23T13:52:00.001+01:00

Come join me over at the new blog. I'm getting grist.

http://gettinggrist.blogspot.com

Out With The Old

2011-07-22T11:47:00.000+01:00

Over time, tastes and perceptions change. I guess that’s why so many people end up getting divorced. It isn’t good or bad. It’s just the way of things. Nothing stays the same.

I’ll continue to tend Plot 66. Fruit, vegetables and hops will be grown and harvested, just as before. But, due to the busiest period of the growing season clashing with a hectic work schedule, I’m afraid this blog has to come to an end. There are simply not enough hours in the day to keep you updated with all that’s going on.

That, plus my increasing passion for brewing beer, means that things have to change. It’s time for a new blog. A new blog, solely focussed on brewing at home.

For those that wish to migrate to the new, I’ll post with the relevant details as soon as I’ve had chance to get my thoughts together. Until then, I’ll bid you a fond farewell and wish you many happy harvests. May they all be fat ones.

Off The Wagon

2011-07-13T19:49:00.002+01:00

I've given up. Let's be perfectly honest. I was pants.

The only day I've manged to steer clear of the booze was Tuesday. And, to be fair, I did feel quite sharp the following morning. Enough for me to think about repeating the feat, as I've got a lot of work on tomorrow, but there's one problem. The other half is going out this evening, so I'm home alone, babysitting.

Now, if that's not an invite to crack open a few beers while watching a music DVD of some obscure band the squeeze doesn't like, I don't know what is.

I've also picked up a couple of bottles this week I've been itching to try. Although I failed badly with my alcohol intake, I did restrict it to homebrew only. Drinking commercial beer would have been taking the p!ss right? So, I'm going to have them tonight.

First up Chesil, billed as a traditional pilsner from the Dorest Brewing Company.

Followed by Old Slug Porter, a bottle condiitoned beer from the RCH Brewery in Weston-Super-Mare. Or just plain Weston if you're from the West Country.

I'm bound to come in for some stick for this one, as It's a dark beer and I don't usually gravitate towards the dark side, but I have a feeling this isn't a traditional porter of old. I may be mistaken, but we'll see.

I don't usually do beer reviews but I might come back and write a few words on these, depending on how I feel once I've got them down my neck. Now pass me the bottle opener.

On The Wagon - Day 3

2011-07-11T14:20:00.000+01:00

Two posts back I remember saying I rarely finish last in things I try hard at. Perhaps I'm not trying hard enough, because the beer has taken the upper hand in this 'on the wagon' lark.

Day one was Friday and I succumbed to one pint of (weak) homebrew. I managed no better on Saturday and as for Sunday; it was hell. An eleven hour stint, crunching numbers at the keyboard, while getting my copy prepared for the newspaper. And all around me, as I endeavored to do my best, the family pushed the boundaries to the limit.

I know it's their weekend, but it's my work day. Where's the respect?

Needless to say I hit the hombrew hard, once work was done. The upside was that I slept well. But that's three days and I'm yet to have an alcohol free day.

I know it's rubbish. But today is Monday and I won't be touching a drop. Promise :)

On The Wagon - Day 1

2011-07-09T19:21:00.001+01:00

‘Tis true. I’m off the booze 7 for days.

Not quite sure what brought it on, but I guess waking up every morning feeling sh!te may have something to do with it.

It’s not just the drink either. The offer of a lovely homemade scone with lashings of jam and clotted cream would normally have me drooling. The other day I turned the offer down. Just the thought of it just made me feel fat and unhealthy.

So I’m not doing anything too rash. No gym subscription, just a week off the beer to give my body a break.

Yesterday (Friday) was the first day. I did succumb to one homebrew with my dinner, but at 1036og that doesn’t really count. I’d get more of a kick from the alcohol in my mouthwash. But that’s it now, not a drop until next Friday when we have friends over for dinner. Or at least, that’s the plan.

I’ll try and post every day. A bit like therapy.

Good Sport?

2011-07-04T11:54:00.003+01:00

I’m pretty sure I’ve not finished last in anything I’ve tried hard at. That was until last Thursday.

The scene of my humiliation was the school playing field last week - my first school sports day for our youngest – and the finale was the parents’ sprint.

I rather liked the idea and joined the dad’s race. I didn’t expect to win, I just wanted my five-year-old to have someone to cheer in the final event.

So I took up my position, oblivious to the other competitors. It was only when I overheard a latecomer saying “I’ll wait to the next heat, these guys look a bit too serious” did I glance across at the other lanes.

Long legs, running vests, plus one dark guy who I swear was the spit of Usain Bolt. It also became plainly clear that I’m not a young dad. In fact, I could probably have fathered any of the guys that lined up against me. Suddenly this didn’t look the fun event I had envisaged.

My reactions had to help. I remembered the time I outgunned the fastest road production bike in the world through the first set of timing lights on my clapped-out 600 in a drag race up at Santa Pod raceway. Boy, I prayed I could get off the line as quick, with just my little legs to propel me.

I did, but reactions were not enough. As I powered forward, the guys next to me clawed at my arms as they tried to keep balance, elbows were thrown and I almost went down. Regardless of the manhandling, the truth is they would have gone past in the last 50 metres anyway, as my limitations as a 100m sprinter were ruthlessly exposed.

Despite the fact that I had twenty years on some of these guys, I had at least tried.

A courteous ‘unlucky’ missed the point completely. There was no hatchet to bury with Lady Luck, it was Mother Nature who decided the outcome this time. I consoled myself with the fact that while growing old may be mandatory, growing up remains optional.

Gooseberry Fool

2011-06-23T11:18:00.008+01:00

Apologies for two posts in the same day, but work has been busy the last couple of weeks and I haven't had chance to report on the gooseberry harvest.

We picked plenty and made several pots of jam, but saved a few to make Gooseberry and Elderflower fools, based on HFW's recipe.

The combination of sharp goosegogs and musky elderflowers combine rather well.

We set aside 500g of the fruit and put them in a stockpot, together with about ten Elderflower heads, freshly picked from nearby trees.

To this we added a chunk of lemon zest and splash of orange juice and gently stirred in 4 tablespoons of sugar until dissolved.

Then, we simmered for about 15mins until the fruit softened and began to break up.

We passed it all through a sieve into a bowl, while whipping up a tub of double cream to soft peaks in another.

We then combined the contents of the two bowls, before dishing into glasses and chilling for a couple of hours.

Quite a rich desert, best served outside in the early summer sunshine (if you can find any). It's quite amazing how the flavour of the elderflower comes through after just 15 minutes in the pan.

The downside to the gooseberries was that we left over half the fruit on the bushes - but when we returned a week later, the lot had gone to the birds, so no goosegog crumble :(

I'll get some netting sorted out for next year.

Dirty Habit - Brewday

2011-06-23T10:47:00.001+01:00

I chose Wednesday as the day to brew this week and ended up with ten gallons of lovely rich copper coloured wort. I was aiming for a starting gravity of 1047, but came in just under at 1046 and the thinking behind the recipe was outlined in this post.

It was a trouble-free brewday but I didn't take any photos, so we'll have to make do with a sample of the wort in the trial jar.

I'm a little bit worried about the yeast, mind, as I was very lazy and didn't make up a proper starter. I had previously split a vial of WLP051 and stored the yeast in the fridge. I simply brought it up to room temperature before pitching.

I didn't get to pitch until about 20.00hrs last night, so I won't worry too much until 24hrs has passed...

Having been really pleased with my last few brews, I'm hoping this will be another good'un. Time will tell.

Oh, and as for the enormous electricity bill we had, it's not the new shiny brewery. The new electricity monitor is in place and I monitored it with interest.

Two of my vessels in the brewery have heating elements and, when both were switched on, the monitor was estimating a total usage of £25 per day (not just brewery, but whole house usage). That may not sound a lot, but the quarterly bill on that basis would come in at over two grand.

However, the elements are rarely on together and in total, four hours would seem a good estimate for the entire brew. An hour maybe to heat the water for the mash, maybe another hour for the sparge, and hour for the boil and an extra hour to include the cleaning of the unit afterwards. If the monitor is accurate, at £25 per day, the total cost for four hours would be just over £4.00. And - thats based on 2 elements and includes the remainder of the house usage at the same time. So, the upshot is, it doesn't cost much to make a batch of beer. I'm off the hook!

Back in the brewing habit

2011-06-18T14:22:00.007+01:00

With Royal Ascot coming to a conclusion on Saturday, work will be easing off once I’ve done my reports on Sunday and Monday. From Tuesday onwards the week will be mine, so what better way to wind down than getting on with a new brew? I have some amber malt left over from the Simonds brew I did earlier this year. While amber’s not my favourite, I was thinking of using just a handful or two in a strongish bitter. I see from my old copy of the Real Ale Almanac that amber is listed as one of the ingredients in Abbot Ale, so something along those lines might be nice.

Most beer drinkers will be familiar with Abbot, described in the book as ‘a strong beer of enormous complexity, any tendency towards sweetness balanced by delicious hop character.’ The ingredients are listed as pale, crystal and amber malts, with challenger, northdown and target hops. Gravity 1048 with 30 units of bitterness.

I’ll have a play with those ingredients in my brewing software and see if I can get something close. I’m not looking for an absolute ‘clone’, just something along similar lines. I’ll fire up the brewery on either Wednesday or Thursday. I prefer to brew outside, rather than in the garage, so I’ll see what the weather’s doing and take it from there.

This will probably be my last brew until September. After this, work takes a nasty hold, aside from a short vacation in August. In September I might have a look at brewing some darker beers, ready for the winter ahead...

Greener Grass

2011-06-12T12:37:00.000+01:00

I guess the grass always looks greener.

Several years ago I took the decision to go freelance so I could have more control over my work. Despite this, we still have bills to pay and lives to live, and with more work available in the summer than in the winter, this time of year always gets quite stressful.

Like many, at times I feel overworked and undervalued. Underpaid is a given. But I'm doing a job in an area that I love, so from the outside it's almost as if I'm being paid to do my hobby. Someone once said, if you can find a job you like, you'll never have to do a day's work in your life. I can assure you, it doesn't quite live up to the promise. And more often than not, I'd rather be brewing.

But, there are silver linings. The biggest week in the English social calendar is upon us. Royal Ascot - five days of the very best horse flesh, ladies in their finery, and lashings of alcohol. And I have a free pass to all days. I'm essentially paid to be there.

Like most people, I hate my job vehemently at times. This week isn't one of them.

Allotment - June

2011-06-09T12:34:00.006+01:00

Earlier this week, amid all the showers I ventured up the plot to do a bit of overdue weeding.

Things weren't looking too bad and I was pleasantly surprised with the first harvest of the year just around the corner, looking at these gorgeous gooseberries.

So this weekend we'll be having gooseberry and elderflower fools.

And inspired by Paul's blog, we may even have a crack at some goose-gog jam. Gooseberry crumble is obviously a given.

I hoed the sweetcorn, which was looking nice and healthy.

Even little'uns pumpkins, which were planted out a couple of week's ago, were beginning to shoot off between the corn.

The rest of that bed is taken up with red onions and parsnips. The line of unsightly pallets protects the young corn from the stiff prevailing wind.

At the bottom of that picture you can see our wild bed to help attract pollinators. Here's a better shot, plus a close up of one of the plants that has a fantastic spherical bloom.

As for the squash, the two varieties I've planted are very different. The ugly squash are doing what I usually expect squash to do, ready to cover every inch of ground available, whereas the Honey Bear plants are looking very small and compact. They seem happy enough, though, and have even set some fruit, which is the earliest I've ever had squash on the go.

But work is pressing, so I must stop rambling and go and earn some corn. I hope your plots and patches are doing well...

Brewday

2011-06-07T10:05:00.000+01:00

So last Wednesday I fired up the brewery once more, to have a crack at a regular recipe of mine, with a few modifications.

If you've read this post, you'll be aware I was substituting carahell for the usual crystal malt. The carahell was a lot lighter in colour than the crystal I'd been using previously, so rather than my usual 95/5 split between the pale malt and crystal, for this recipe I upped the carahell to 10%.

The beer still came out lighter than I had envisaged, so I might add a handful of darker malt to aid with the colour, if I stick with carahell next time.

I'm interested to see what the carahell has done in terms of flavour, and hopefully it wont be too long before we find out as the gravity came in a bit lower than anticipated. I was playing with my mill and used a coarser crush on the malt - I clearly didn't extract quite as much sugar, so I'll try somewhere between the old setting and the new next time.

As for the brewday, everything went smoothly and I even pieced together a video of proceedings. Seven hours condensed into three minutes...

The Best Beer?

2011-06-01T11:51:00.000+01:00

Two pints of beer. The first doesn't mess about. Flavours dance on the tongue, a real explosion of summeriness that grabs you immediately by the balls and lifts you above the humdrum. And the bitterness bites, but in a nice way.

The second is perfectly balanced. And has perfect manners. It doesn't scream and shout to get attention. As it glides over the taste buds, it whispers politely, as a reminder (should you need it), that it’s good. Very good.

Some of my job entails me to write. But I don't write about beer. If I did, I'm sure I would devote more words to the first. A stunning beer, one that makes a big impression. A headline grabber.

But here comes the poser. What if I find myself subconsciously drinking a couple of pints of the second beer while I actually write the piece? Which of the two is now the better pint?

The Perfect Pint?

2011-05-24T16:24:00.000+01:00

The perfect pint? Let’s be honest, it’s impossible, with one man’s passion being another man’s poison and all that. Even personally. What I might consider a belter in the high summer, may not be what floats my boat in the autumn.

But even if there’s no perfect pint, it doesn’t stop me from wanting to craft the very best beer that I can, and I have a particular soft spot for one of mine. It was the first recipe I devised when going all-grain and it’s one I always like to brew, a few times a year.

I like to tinker with it, to make it the beer I’d always imagined and it’s next on my list to brew. There’s nothing special about it, just a simple house bitter, copper coloured, around 4%abv with a nice balance of malt and hops.Previously the grist has been made up of pale malt and crystal, but this time I’m going to replace the crystal with carahell, as the last time I brewed I found the sweetness of the crystal a bit too much. This will be my first time with carahell, so I hope I’m pleasantly surprised.

I’m keeping the hops as they’ve always been, bitterness provided by Progress and WGV, with late additions of Styrian Goldings for flavour and aroma, although I may up these late hops a little more than before, as they didn’t come through as much as I hoped in the last brew.

I was impressed with WLP051 when I tried it for the first time last month, so I’ll use that yeast again and I’ll get a starter going shortly. I found it relatively neutral in that it didn’t add much yeast character to the beer and it dropped bright very quickly.

This week’s pretty busy with work and end of year accounts to get done, but I’m cancelling some jobs next week, so after Monday, the rest of the week will be mine. I can spend some time with the wife and kids as it’s half term, and indulge in a brewday. The perfect pint? Probably not, but I’m looking forward to having a crack.

Shocking

2011-05-19T11:07:00.004+01:00

" I don't think it's the wife - most of her toys rely on batteries..."

We had the misfortune to receive a massive electricity bill this month. The biggest quarterly bill I’ve ever had in my life. It’s up 40% on the previous quarter (Oct-Jan). Don’t get me wrong, we can afford to pay it, but I want to know where all that juice has gone.

My first thought was the teenage son. With so much tech in his bedroom, he’s got to be pulling the juice big time. All that gear’s got to suck harder than a Dyson. I don’t think it’s the wife - most of her toys rely on batteries.

So, not content with having to find the cash for the bill, I’ve also splashed out and ordered an energy monitor. This unit will track every bit of power we use.

But then it dawned on me. My brewery. My big shiny brewery with its two immersion heater elements. Is it me that’s doing the damage? I did brew five times during the quarter in question...

With the new monitor, we can set weekly targets to try and curb our usage. It was briefly mentioned that if we exceeded the target then there would be no more tech/tv that week. But what if I brew that week and blow the quota? More worryingly, what if the quota is exceeded before I’ve brewed?

Perhaps the energy monitor is going to cause more grief than the bill...

Twitter

2011-05-19T10:56:00.005+01:00

Just a quick note on twitter.

I'm using it mainly to keep in touch with work colleagues, although there could be some beer related tweets. So, if you have no idea what I'm on about, don't be concerned. But if you do want to join in and tweet me, that's fine too.

Allotment - May

2011-05-12T16:09:00.000+01:00

In recent weeks work's kept me from brewing and generally getting on with things I like to do , but I simply had to get down the allotment to plant up some of the plants I'd been raising at home.

First up the sweetcorn. I'd sown these in homemade paper pots and the roots were already making their way through.

My plot is quite exposed, so I plant them quite deep and the row of unsightly pallets across the back of the bed offers some protection from the wind. They're in a block five by five, although one failed to germinate, so I'm left with 24.

Next up were the squash which were raring to go.

My Achilles heel is labelling. I have ten squash, five each of two varieties, but I have no idea which are the 'ugly' squash and which are the 'Honey Bear'. I guess it doesn't really matter as we'll soon find out when they fruit, as they are very different.

As it's been so dry, I puddled them in. Filling the hole with water and allowing it to soak in, prior to planting.

Once planted, I gave them another drink and here's the complete bed with a fair bit of chicken muck around them, to give them a kickstart.

Needless to say, this was all thirsty work, but I had the foresight to take along a bottle of homebrew. It was just the one and at 3.9% it wasn't going to do me any harm. I sat on the bench, in the sunshine and devoured it. Beer's never tasted so good.

I still have to plant out the cucumbers and weed the gooseberry bed. There's also the small matter of the overgrown grass - but I have a new petrol brushcutter coming to help me with that. Pictures soon.

Beer Festivals

2011-05-06T12:38:00.005+01:00

Beer Festivals, don’t you just love them?

It’s like the best pub in the world has been moved onto your doorstep and all they serve is proper beer. Plus or minus the odd cider I guess.

I’m fortunate enough to live within a short distance of two. The main Swindon festival comes around at the beginning of November, but there’s a small offering even closer to me in a couple of week’s time.

(down the lane...)

(wild hops)

A four minute walk soon sees the houses left behind and you’re upon a country lane, flanked by fields, with wild hops scrambling through the hedgerows. A bit further on, and a bridge will see you across a small river. And then, you’re there.

(across the river...)

The Swindon and Cricklade Railway is one of those restored Heritage lines and operates on a short stretch of line between Swindon and Cricklade, but I guess the sharp soles among you may have guessed that already.

Nestled on a small expanse of grass beside a pond will be a marquee housing fifteen local(ish) real ales. Yes, it’s a small affair, but how many festivals can you attend and say you’ve drunk the lot?

You can look around the old locomotives, sit in the sun and drink beer. The missus and the little’uns can escape for a few hours on the steam trains and later in the day music will be provided (it used to be good ol’ rock and blues, but it looks like Jazz this time around). And for the carnivorous among you, there’s a BBQ serving dog dogs and burgers.

The perfect day awaits. The Swindon and Cricklade Railway Beer Festival. Saturday May 28th – Monday May 30th.

(no marquee yet, but there will be ...)

Brew Meeting - April

2011-04-28T17:50:00.000+01:00

My work hours rarely fit in with the norm, if there is such a thing. At Easter, I had to work Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. No pottering on the plot for me. At least the Saturday was free, so I squeezed in another brew. I'll try and get up the plot tomorrow, as I have a suspicion the weeds might be taking over.

Last Tuesday I met up with my fellow brewers at the regular North Hampshire Brewers meet. I took along a few beers and all were reasonably well received.

Against my better judgement I took my Citra pale ale along, although it lacked a bit of condition and could have done with a bit longer in the bottle. I also took another pale ale from way back, one I hadn't even blogged about, along with a Winter Royal and another bottle of Simonds. All were nice clean beers, but personally, I was a bit disappointed with the Citra. From the fermenting vessel tastings were great, but since being bottled, it's lost some of its zing. It was commented on that when the yeast clears down in the bottle, it takes some of the hop flavour with it. Maybe I'll use a few more late hops next time.

With a thick head the following morning, I then headed off to Ascot racecourse. I didn't feel much like socialising after all the beer we sampled on Tuesday night, but once there, good weather and a few more beers put me right. I had hoped to get a few bottles of a new beer by Fullers, brewed to celebrate 300 years of racing at Ascot. Although I found the Fullers bar early enough, they had already sold out :(

I don't think I have too much work on tomorrow, so I'll be up the plot while the other half watches the wedding. Maybe I'll take little'un with me, to keep him out of her hair for a while. I need to get the squash bed sorted as the plants are ready to take-off in their pots at home.

Guerrilla Tactics

2011-04-19T17:29:00.001+01:00

1st May. The day to don your camouflage and go commando. Actually, underwear is probably advisable, but you know what I mean. For Sunday May 1st is, apparently, International (Sunflower) Guerrilla Gardening Day.

My profile picture may give the impression I’m some sort of house burglar and probably a dab hand with many things illicit, but I must confess, I’ve never got involved before. Apparently, guerrilla gardening is the strategic deployment of seeds, bulbs and plants - Illicit cultivation if you will, of public spaces. You can read more about it here.

There are a couple of spots close to home that could do with a bit of a spruce, so I may well venture out, under the cover of darkness and sow my seed when the time comes. I may even plant a sunflower or two...

More Citra anyone?

2011-04-17T16:12:00.006+01:00

Please, Sir, can I have some more?

I’ve taken a few steps back along the brewing road, but now it seems I’m going forward again. Finally. That Citra brew I did at the beginning of the month looks like it’s going to be a decent beer. And I want more.

I bottled 38 pints yesterday and it tasted grand. Perfect for this time of the year, when the sun is shining. It’s light, with delicious fruit flavours and rolls in at just 3.9%.

It’s taken a few brews to get to know the new gear but I think I’m just about on top of things now. With that last brew I hit the target gravity and volume, and from the initial tastings, the hop balance is bang on too. It’s not like an American in-yer-face pale ale, it’s a bit more reserved. More British.

Despite brewing 10 gallons, half of that will be going into a keg for a party at the end of the month. I don’t expect to be bringing any back home. The other half of the batch has been bottled and from that I want to put some aside for my trip to France in the summer. So yes, if you’re reading this Keith, you’ll get to try some too. I think it’s going to be a belter!

Anyhow, with so much put aside, I can see there’s not going to be a great deal left for me to drink over the coming weeks. So, only one thing to do. Brew it again!

As for the name, I’m not so sure I should call it a Citra Pale Ale. Most of the hops (by weight) are other varieties and most of the IBU’s also come from hops other than Citra, although they do pack a punch even in the small quantity I’ve used. And, perhaps, if I call it something other than Citra, my friend Jon may judge it without prejudice when he gets to try some :)

I've plenty of work on this week, including on Good Friday, so Saturday will be the first opportunity I'll get to brew it again.

Allotment - April

2011-04-13T13:38:00.005+01:00

All the seeds I'm sowing for 2011 are sown. Okay, I'll be doing some successional sowings of carrots, so there will be more to come, but other than those, everything's done. I told you things were going to be easier this year :)

Since my last allotment post I've planted the remainder of my potatoes. Four rows of cara and four rows of cara red.

I've also sown the remainder of my squash seeds. These were sown into pots at the end of March and the interesting thing is, these have already caught up with the plants which were sown at the end of February. So, there really is no point sowing too early.

The two early ones are the pair at the back of the table, while the group of four in the foreground on the right, were planted three weeks later. If anything, the later sowings look stronger.

The four smaller plants on the left were sown by my five-year-old (can't remember when) and I'll have to find room for two of these on the plot somewhere.

As well as the squash, I've also sown my sweetcorn (Honey Bantam). These go into home made paper pots, so they can be transplanted without disturbance when the times comes. I also rehydrate the seed slightly before sowing - I put some kitchen towel on a small plate, add water so the paper towel is sodden, then spread the seed on top and leave overnight before sowing the next day.

In the same paper pots I've sown a few dwarf runner beans (Hestia), which I'm going to grow in a strawberry planter at home.

One veg our little'un really loves is cucumber, so I've also sown a few of those. They're a variety I picked up in France last year, suitable for outdoor growing (I think), and I'll be interested to see how they get on.

I was going to give courgettes a miss this year, but couldn't resist as I had some spare seed - another variety I picked up in France. I'll keep a maximum of two plants and find room for them somewhere.

On the plot, the hops have also made an appearance and it wont be long before they are scaling my new hop frames. Can't wait.

Oh, and in the garden at home, we've planted a few Juneberry plants. I know nothing about them, other than the blurb in the plant catalogue (I think Juneberry is the european name - our US friends know them as Saskatoon). I don't expect too much from them this year, but we'll see...

Ten Long Days

2011-04-11T15:23:00.001+01:00

It's been 10 days since my last post. And do you know what I've been doing in those last 10 days? Well, the answer isn't drinking, that's for sure.

No, that little avenue of pleasure was closed off to me by my surgeon. I went to see him six weeks or so after my recent procedure, where he checked my sinuses and promptly informed me I had picked up an infection. With that, he prescribed some antibiotics.

I didn't think much of it until later that evening when I went to fat-neck some homebrew. I thought it prudent to check the leaflet in the box, and there it was. Not the usual 'Avoid alcohol'. I always found that statement to be a little obscure. With that sort of caveat I'd just limit my consumption. No, this time the leaflet was a bit more concise - 'do not drink alcohol'. Little margin for error in that one.

So I played by the rule book and surprised myself by sticking out the ten days. Okay, so I may have had a few samples of my own beer out of the fermenter and suchlike, but that's just quality control, not actual drinking.

Then a friend of mine, who's in a position to know a great deal about these things, suggested I was being a muppet, and of course I could drink. Apparently there are no weird and wonderful problems in taking doxycycline and alcohol together but "plasma levels of doxycycline are reduced by the ingestion of alcohol or the administration of barbiturates, anticonvulsants (phenytoin, carbamazepine), disodium hydrogen edetate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium lactate, acetazolamide and ethoxzolamide" so there's the possibility of a reduction in effect, but in all likelihood, the effect would be pretty small unless I had a skinful.

I wish I had known, as the ten days included a fourtieth birthday party, for the duration of which I quietly sipped on tonic water.

It also goes to show you can't trust the mighty Wikipedia that states; "Doxycycline can have hazardous effects on health when mixed with various types of alcohol, and even when mixed with other pills. There have been reports of convulsing, rectal bleeding, and even death. There have even been kidney, visual, and aural failures"

The death bit would have worried me a little.

Brewday - Citra Pale Ale

2011-04-01T14:06:00.004+01:00

Because I've been brewing strong IPA's and suchlike, I've plenty of beer swilling around in my garage, but very little that's actually ready to drink.

In order to remedy this mini-crisis I've decided to brew a low gravity pale ale today. Something that's not going to take too long to mature, so I can get in the keg, as soon as.

I've copied the recipe from Beersmith below, for anyone interested in the finer details. I''ve also been waiting to use some Citra hops, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to try them.

The only picture I took today was of the wort entering the copper from the mash tun. As you can see, it should be a nice pale/golden colour.

Living in an extremely hard water area, I do some water treatment to the liquor using Brupaks CRS and DLS. But, as the adjustment depends very much on the alkalinity of your own water, there's not much point me detailing the exact rate I use.

As I'm still getting used to the new gear, there's still a lot of trial and error involved and I often fail to achive what the software suggests, but on this occasion it looks like I was just about bang on, with two 5 gallon fermenters full @ 1.044 OG

Recipe Specifications
------------------------
Batch Size: 50.00 L
Boil Size: 63.19 L
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 13.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 32.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
--------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9300.00 gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 96.67 %
150.00 gm Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 1.56 %
150.00 gm Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 1.56 %
20.00 gm Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 0.21 %

20.00 gm Progress [6.25 %] (75 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
50.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00 %] (75 min) Hops 8.1 IBU
40.00 gm Aurora [4.90 %] (75 min) Hops 10.6 IBU
15.00 gm Citra [13.80 %] (15 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
35.00 gm Citra [13.80 %] (1 min) Hops 1.1 IBU

1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc

1 Pkgs California Ale V (White Labs #WLP051) Yeast-Ale

Parsnip and Cumin Soup

2011-03-31T19:06:00.002+01:00

Having dug up the last of last year's parsnips, I thought it best to put them to good use. Money's a bit tight at the moment, so I'll save a few bob tonight and do the family parsnip and cumin soup for tea.

This is an old recipe I've done many times. I think it originally came from a supermarket magazine and it's good, if you like parsnips. Clearly, if you don't, this might not be the soup for you.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
700g parsnips, chopped
300g floury potatoes, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
2tsp cumin seeds, lightly crushed
1.3ltr veg stock
Pinch of white pepper
142ml double cream
Salt and pepper to season

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and gently cook for about 5 mins, or until softened. Add the parsnips, potatoes, garlic and cumin and cook for a further 5 mins. Then add the stock, a pinch of white pepper (or more if you like), bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 mins, until the vegetables are tender.

2. Pour into a food processor and whizz until thickened but still textured (or use a hand/stick blender).

3. Stick it back into the pan, add the cream and return to the heat before seasoning and serving with loads of fesh bread or crusty rolls.

If you wish to be a bit fancy, cut a peeled parsnip into ribbons with a vegetable peeler and fry in sunflower oil until golden. Drain on kitchen paper, season and scatter over the soup before serving.

I'm hoping there might be a bit left for tomorrow's lunch, as I'm intending to brew, and having something already made up would be a bonus.

Brew Meeting - March

2011-03-27T13:57:00.005+01:00

Members of the North Hampshire Brewers get together once each month and this Tuesday will be the March meeting.

Every other month there's a particular style, so there should be a few of us that have attempted to brew the Simonds Bitter (1880). I'll be interested to see how mine compares to a few others. I'll also be taking along the last remaining bottle of my Best Bitter, to see how that goes down.

I reviewed the kegged version of the Best Bitter here. It's a nice clean beer, and to be honest, it's gone up in my estimation since writing that review. I think I was trying to compare it to a beer it wasn't trying to be. It's not overly hoppy, nor malty, just a nicely balanced session beer that's gone down very well, more so since the sun has been shining. What a difference that makes.

The Simonds is a completely different animal. Much more body, plenty of flavour, with a particular sweetness from the amber malt. Towards the end you also get a hint of the alcohol, which probably isn't surprising from a 6.7% beer. To my mind, it's one of the better beers I've brewed. I only hope the rest of the group agree.

EDIT: well, what do you know? You think you've brewed a good'un and then someone urinates over your fireworks and brings you back down to earth. The Simonds did not go down well. I used the wrong amber malt (it was meant to have diastatic amber malt, not the regular amber malt we get over here), although there was no mention of this on the web site offering the recipe. So the taste and aroma were wrong. I also boiled hard, (having over-sparged), which meant it was a tad more bitter than it should have been too. On the other hand, the best bitter, which I also took, went down very well. I received a degree of solace from that.

Allotment - March

2011-03-25T13:15:00.005Z

It's been a while since I did some hard graft up the allotment. I know this because my body is telling me. My back is screaming.

Little and often is probably the best approach, but being self-employed, I have to make the most of any quiet days. That said, the weather being as it is, I made sure there were a couple of quiet days this week.

Aside from the general tidying and weeding, it was time to sow parsnips. In fact, the white pointy buggers have come full circle. I still had a couple of rows left from last year, so I dug a few up. Parsnip soup will be on the menu shortly;

Although thought of as difficult, I've never had a problem with parsnips germinating. I follow the good book and sow three seeds per station. If I'm lucky enough to have more than one come up, I simply thin them out.

Previously I've sown the variety 'White Gem' , but this year I've gone for Javelin. I'm not sure why I've changed, they've always done well for me. Perhaps it's mans' desire to crave something new. My wife can probably confirm this.

Now parsnips weren't the only root vegetable to be sown. My little'un loves pulling up carrots, so I sowed some Chamare and Chantenay Red Cored 2. Both Chantenay types (short and stocky) and we do these in our tyre stacks.

The height thwarts the carrot fly, and will hopefully deter the rabbits. The furry ones manged to dig some up last year when the stack was just a two deep. Let's see if they can manage three...

Elsewhere on the plot, the garlic was looking healthy. A friend of mine gave me some bulbs before he returned to Australia, but I forgot to label them, so I'm not sure which are which, but I'm sure they will be nice all the same. Thanks Scott.

I also put in a row of first early potatoes - Accord. The missus isn't overly keen on new potatoes (note to self: must trade her in for a different model soon), so as a result, I'm just having the one row. The remainder of the bed will be given up to maincrop, Cara.

In behind, you can see the outline of the hop frames. I did need to do some remedial work to one of these, as a few canes had worked loose in strong winds over the winter.

Then beneath the frames, I have a few rows of strawberries which I've transplanted from home. They were originallyly in pots but didn't produce much, so I'm hoping the allotment will see them to better effect.

Elsewhere, the new gooseberries were budding up. I planted another nine during the winter, to add to our more established bushes. And our solitary blackcurrant was also looking healthy.

And in among the nettle patch up the back, was one of these...

Back at home, the tomatoes cared not whether they were in a fancy propagator or a Flora tub, for they germinated quickly and are due for potting on, while the two squash I sowed ridiculously early have also come up.

The downside to all this green-fingered activity is that I've not had chance to prepare for a brew today. That, and the fact and my back wouldn't let me, even if I had.

Time, I believe, to crack open a cold beer and to head for the hot tub, on the basis of a job well done. Don't tell the wife, she thinks I'm working today...

Drought

2011-03-21T14:49:00.001Z

Dark times at home.My homebrew haven is no longer the retreat it should be. Unbelievably, there’s nowt to drink. Or next to nowt.

An unbelievable state of affairs I know, and I’m doing my best to get my house in order, but last night I had to resort to commercial ale. Actually, it’s no hardship, and while some brews remind me why I like to brew my own, others simply inspire me.

And it’s not a complete homebrew drought, it’s just that I don’t have much ready; I have half a keg of the something I’m saving that to take to friends at the end of the month. I also have 5 gallons of an IPA conditioning, 5 Gallons of Schwarzbier lagering and 10 gallons of another IPA fermenting. So plenty of beer, just nothing ready. Well, nothing other than the Simonds, and that’s not really a quaffing ale.

So I cracked open a couple of wheat beers. Not my usual poison of choice, but unless you try these things you never know. I only brewed 5 gallons of the Simonds because I convinced myself it wasn’t my type of beer, and how wrong I was. So I’m not about to dismiss the wheat beer, just because it’s something I wouldn’t normally pick.

I was impressed with the clear wheat beer. Not because of the clarity, but it genuinely tasted nicer. A fresh, well carbonated beer with banana up front and definite hints of clove in the finish.

I didn't think much of the other, and while neither will become regulars in my shopping trolley, I probably would buy the Kristall again, most probably at some stage during the summer.

So, what I need to do now is get another brew on PDQ. A lowish gravity ale that I can get ready quickly, to restore some order and plug the gap I currently have. If things go well this week, maybe I'll fire up the brewgear again on Friday. Until then I have jobs to do up the allotment. It's going to be a busy week and work will simply have to wait until the weekend.

Expect an allotment post real soon.

Brewday - Black Canyon IPA

2011-03-15T11:07:00.004Z

Brewday was last Friday, March 11th, the same day work started on the Hoover Dam in Black Canyon, Colorado, back in 1931. In 2011 Black Canyon I.P.A. is born.

For those unfamiliar with the brewing process, I've labelled up the three vessels on my kit below;

The HLT is where the water for the entire brew is heated.

Some of this liquor is passed into the Mash Tun where it's mixed with malted barley and kept at a constant temperature, to relase the sugars from the malt.

As temperature is critical, before mashing in I heated some water in the copper and pumped this into the mash tun to warm the vessel beforehand.

The malts used in this IPA were;
96.5% Pale
2.50% Crystal
0.70% Flaked Maize

0.30% Chocolate Malt

After the 'mash' I slowly pump the wort into the copper, whilst rinsing the grains at the same time. This is known as 'sparging'. My kit has a rotating arm beneath the mash tun lid which showers hot water from the HLT all over the malt.

Once the wort is in the copper, it's brought to the boil and hops are added. In this 10 gallon brew I added a massive 750g of hops. The majority of these were put in late - the schedule was as follows;

50g Challenger @ 75mins
100g Challenger @ 10mins
100g EKG @ 10mins
150g Challenger@ 5mins
150g EKG @ 5mins
100g Challenger @ 1 min
100g EKG @ 1min

Not for the first time, gravity came in higher than expected at 1064, so I must look at increasing my efficiency in the Beersmith software, as the new kit and home-ground malt appears to have made a big difference. It should still be balanced enough, with masses of flavour and aroma coming from those hops.

I boiled for 75mins then pumped the wort through the cooler into two 5 gallon fermenters. The wort was a stunnning gold colour and it promsies to be a cracking looking beer.

I had two liquid yeasts that were both out of date and badly stored. Nevertheless, I made up starters last Monday to see if they were viable. One was Fullers and the other was a Californian Ale yeast, but neither sprung to life, so I ended up pitching a dry yeast (US-05) in both.

The two fermenters were then nestled into the fermenting fridge, with the temperature controlled at 20c +/- 1 deg.

I'll leave it for 10 days on the yeast before racking and conditioning, and I'll update on it's progress as time goes by. Can't wait to sample this one.

Homebrew Review

2011-03-07T08:05:00.004Z

I find it difficult to express flavours with much finesse, but I like to keep a record of my own beers, so I can look back and decide whether I'd consider doing them again. Here's the last three brews I did in 2010;

WINTER ROYAL

Malt: 95% Pale, 5% Crystal
Hops: Target, plus late addition of Styrian Goldings.
OG 1054
FG 1012
IBU’s: 39

This beer was brewed in November and was bottle conditioned. A nice copper colour, with muted ruby hints, and has a soft white head that soon dissipates.

It has a nice soft mouthfeel , with the emphasis on malts rather than hops. Maybe a tad sweet – I think that’s my taste changing as I’m beginning to find crystal malt a little too sweet and cloying these days.

A nice enough beer, but it needs something to help the head retention. Would I brew this again? Probably not – I’d like to increase the hop presence, add some wheat to help the head and cut back, or replace, the crystal malt with something else. I guess that makes it a completely different beer :)

SINGLES NIGHT

Malt: 100% Pilsner
Hops: 100% Challenger
OG 1043
FG 1010
IBU’s: 31

I made this beer for one of our club nights, where the purpose was to brew a beer with a single malt and a single hop. Again, this was bottle conditioned.

This was a disappointing beer. The body was a bit thin - I probably could have done with mashing at a slightly higher temperature. It didn't clear as well as it might, although with just pilsner malt, there really was no hiding place. A few more hops wouldn’t have gone amiss either.

I have some of this left in the keg, and to give it a boost, I’ve added some dry hops, which I’m hoping will give it a bit more zing. It’s a nice clean beer, no off-flavours, just nothing special.

BEST

Malt: 95% Pale, 5% Crystal
Hops: Progress, WGV & Styrian Goldings
OG 1047
FG 1012
IBU’s: 32

This is a recipe I used to make all the time as my regular house beer. I managed to mess this one up though, as the intended gravity was only meant to be 1043.

As it’s not a hoppy beer to start with, the fact I ended up with a much stronger beer meant the hop ratio was knocked back. It would definitely benefit from a few more hops, but it’s still a nice easy-drinking beer. This one came out of the keg and had a nice, tight, white head.

The malt bill is exactly the same proportions as for the Winter Royal, but this one didn’t seem to have the same sweetness from the crystal malt. Perhaps that’s because this is a weaker beer? I’ll do this one again at some stage this year as it’s such an easy-drinker, but I must try to get the hop balance sorted out.

Dragon Stout Fudge Brownies

2011-03-05T14:28:00.005Z

This was inspired by a recipe I found on a blog somewhere, but I’ve lost the link so apologies to the original poster. I’ve adapted it to suit the ingredients I had and changed some of the amounts to more familiar UK measurements (although I do like cup measurements and have kept those).

INGREDIENTS

125g unsalted butter
120g chopped dark chocolate
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Dragon Stout
2 tablespoons Dark Rum
¾ cup sifted flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 160c, line a baking tin with baking paper and set aside.

2. Use the heat from the pre-heating oven to melt the broken chocolate and butter in an ovenproof dish. Once melted, stir and leave to cool before adding the sugars, mixing well to combine.

3. In a small bowl beat together 2 eggs, yolks, vanilla, stout and rum until smooth.

4. Sift flour with salt into a separate bowl.

5. Stir stout mixture into the chocolate mixture in thirds, alternating with flour by 1/3 cupfuls, and stirring after each addition until batter is just blended. Stir in nuts if desired. Do not overbeat.

6. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven about 1 hour. Let cool to lukewarm before slicing.

As you see, my nuts sunk, but let's not get personal.

Black Canyon IPA

2011-03-04T10:37:00.007Z

Next week is going to see another brew underway. And it’s another IPA.

I only brewed 5 gallons of the last one, which is currently being dry hopped. I just know it’s going to be a belter and 5 gallons simply isn’t going to last, so to save disappointment, I thought I’d get another on the go. It will also give me two different beers to take to our IPA meeting in July.

As it happens, It’s my birthday on March 13th, and while it would be great to step up to the mash tun on Sunday, I have to work, so brewing will be out of the question. Friday is my nearest free day, so the 11th it will be.

I like to name my beers, so for inspiration for this one I searched for events that went down on the 11th March, sometime in history. I was gobsmacked – Hoover Dam USA - not only did work commence on March 11th (1931), but it was completed 5 years later on March 13th.

Surely no coincidence with the dates, so, I give you my Black Canyon IPA.

I’m intending to brew 52l and the malts will be made up of 96.5% Pale, 2.5% Carahell, with a little bit of flaked maize and chocolate, thrown in for good measure.

As for the hops, there will be monster additions. A total of 750g, that’s over 14g per litre. But to keep things balanced, only 50g are going in for the full boil, the remainder will be shoved in late for masses of aroma and flavour.

According to Beersmith, my recipe should yield a gravity of 1057, with 48 IBU’s, making a bitterness ratio of 0.84%, which is far from over the top. I’ll be using Challenger and East Kent Goldings.

I’ll post the full recipe on the brew day. Until then, I need to find time to give some feedback on some of my earlier beers. I’ll get some notes together and post when I can.

I'm also making Fudge Stout Brownies for the weekend. Recipe and pics for that will follow when I get a mo...

Winter Squash

2011-03-01T14:42:00.003Z

Just to expand on my previous post, I'm growing two varieties of winter squash this year. I've haven't done either before, so I'll be interested to see how they compare to those I've tried in the past.

For this early sowing I've only sown two seeds of each and will select the strongest plants of the pair, with the intention of having just one early plant of each variety. I'll sow the remainder later this month.

To give them the best possible start, I simply sow the seed in large pots (seeds on their ends, as they can rot on their flat sides before having chance to germinate), then cover the pot with a plastic freezer bag, stretched tightly across, before sitting them on a warm windowsill. The plastic bag acts like a propagator, keeping the temperature and humidity up.

To be honest, I've struggled a little with squash in the past, as I find the fruits set quite late and then struggle to fully ripen in our short summers. I've given up with Butternut varieties completely - the most prolific harvest I've had before came from a 'Hubbard' type - Uchiki Kuri, and I'll probably include that one again next year, depending on how this year's come along.

The one I'm most looking forward to this year is Honey Bear, an 'Acorn' type squash.

They're a relatively small squash, ideal for two, and have won awards in America where they were bred. Of exceptional eating quality (always a bonus) and under ideal growing conditions, sowing to harvest can be as short as 100 days. I guess it will be longer on this side of the pond, but well worth a go.

The second variety I chose simply because they look so damn ugly. 'Marina di Chioggia'. Apparently an Italian heirloom variety, with very sweet flesh and good keeping qualities. I think with squash, when it says 'exceptional keeping', you can read 'exceptionally difficult to get into', but that's half the fun.
If nothing else, this one will make a great Halloween lantern for the kids - a damn sight more ugly than your average orange one, that's for sure.

'Lead us not into temptation'

2011-02-27T17:15:00.000Z

I’m a weak man. I guess some would say men generally are. I have morals and standards, but I’m honest enough to admit that sometimes they slip.

It troubles me when they do, and I always vow to start over with more conviction. I know right from wrong and must stop myself from straying from the path.

Just because others around me might be indulging, it doesn’t make it right. It’s wrong. I know it’s wrong, because I have tried it before.

That doesn’t make it any easier though. I still get the urge, and temptation came calling today. Like the weak man I am, I opened the door and embraced it with open arms, because it felt good.

I am unclean. I deserve no respect and should be cast aside, for I have sinned. My hands have caressed the filth that is compost, and sown unto it, seeds of the squash plant. In February.

If you are without seed, some super cheap seeds can currently be found here. But have some decency and sow them at the correct time.

Allotment - February

2011-02-23T12:40:00.000Z

It feels like I've abandoned the allotment for a while, but to be honest, there's not been a lot for me to be getting on with. Not to mention the fact it's so wet down here. The plot's on heavy clay and, when it's this soggy, there's no point setting foot on it.

I've got the seed potatoes chitting at home. As the maincrop I've got Cara, and Red Cara (not tried before) plus a handful of Accord for a row of first earlies.

Today I've sown some tomatoes too, the only seed I bother with in February.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not growing tomatoes up the allotment this year, as they tend to fruit while we are away in the summer and I'm not happy nursing plants from February, only to lose the bulk of the harvest - simply no point.

Homegrown tomatoes are completely different gear to the shop bought ones though, so it would be churlish to ignore them completely. So, I've decided to grow some Tumbling Tom (Yellow) in hanging baskets at home.

I grew these last year, along with Tumbling Tom Red. The fact our fussy four-year-old, who claims not to like tomatoes, actually ate the yellow ones, means they're the obvious choice this year.

No fancy propagators for me. I'll grow them on the windowsill in an old Flora tub.

For one, I don't need many plants - I only intend to pot on four, and I'll choose the two strongest for the hanging baskets. Secondly, the Flora tub is less precarious on the sill, especially with out little'un who tends to knock into everything.

The long range weather forecast currently suggests March will be a more settled month, with below average rainfall here in the south. If they've got it right, that should enable me to get my backside in gear and get the plot tidied up. I'll have Parsnips and Carrots on the agenda, plus the eary spuds to get in. But for Feb, I'll be content with my toms on the windowsill.

Schwarzbier - brewday

2011-02-20T16:46:00.060Z

Despite undergoing a 3 hour operation earlier in the week, I was anxious to get the Schwarzbier brewed, so I set to the task on Saturday. I took things quietly, didn't drink, and it resulted in one of the most trouble-free brews I've done for a long time.

The malts were as follows;
40% Pilsner
29% Munich
19% Vienna
4% Carafa II
4 % Crystal
4 % Chocolate

Mashed for 60 mins and boiled for 75, for an original gravity of 1052,
with hop additions;

Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 75 mins
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 20 mins
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 5 mins
to 28 IBU's

I hit the target gravity and volume exactly, and the wort was a stunning black, with ruby hints.

The yeast (WLP830) was pitched at 19C (66F for our US friends), just to get things moving along, and to make sure fermentation kicks off.

I've just checked it 24hrs in, and it's started nicely, and smells great, so I've now set my ATC-800 to control my fridge at 10C (50F), where it will now sit for 17 days to ferment out completely. Once done, I'll rack it off and lager it around 2C (36F) for another month.

I'll update, once bottled and ready for tasting.

The Big Pull

2011-02-17T12:07:00.004Z

It’s amazing what we agree to sometimes.

Chatting to the surgeon before sticking some sharp implements up my nose, he warns me about the possibility of damage to my eyes, and also the base plate of my brain. After which, he shoved the consent form in front of me to sign.

"What the hell, let’s go for it". What else could I say? How many people actually turn around and say, "now that you mention it, I’m not so sure. I’ll think I’ll go home?"

Perhaps I should have done. I thought the sinus procedure would be a local anaesthetic and a quick in and out job. Not a bit of it. When reviewing the scans he also saw a bit of crooked bone that was in the way and suggested we take that out too.

At 09.30hrs my eyes stared at the clock as they put me under, "are you feeling drowsy yet?" The last thing I remember saying was ‘no’.

12.30hrs and I’m coming around. 3 hours. 3 bloody hours. Literally. And now I’m sat in recovery with packs up my nose. I’m not sure why they call them packs – imagine a tampon shoved up each nostril. The tails are taped to my nose, ready for the big pull. Oh yeah, there’s going to be a big pull. That wasn’t mentioned on the consent form.

Still, the pull wasn’t for another 4 hours. I had to sit and refrain from moving my head much, and was limited to breathing through my mouth, the throat already sore from whatever pipe they shoved down there in theatre.

Next came the ice for the bridge of the nose. In a very resourceful manner, a latex glove had been filled with water and frozen. Then, the fingers you use for the two-fingered salute were put either side of my nose, and there it rested.

Then the time came. Packs out. "It will feel funny for a moment or two, but will soon pass. Oh, and there might be a bit of bleeding. Some people dribble, others don’t."

I wasn’t one of the others. And it wasn’t a dribble.

The young nurse called politely for help. A head appeared around the curtain and said, "oh, that is rather a lot isn’t it", and went to fetch a third person, doing nothing for my rising anxiety.

I also needed to spit. The blood was running into my throat and I was about to gag. The young girl gently rested a bowl beneath my chin, unaware that it wasn’t a polite dribble that was about to emerge. Like a scene from the exorcist I spat. Suffice to say the bedding needed changing.

But all mopped up, and with the second nostril unplugged a few minutes later, I was done and dusted. A few hours after, I was chauffeured home.

Surprisingly I have no pain. I’m very much blocked up with clotted blood, but other than that minor discomfort, I’m fine.

I even coughed, and spat something up that wasn’t blood a few moments ago, so I must be on the mend. Now where's the bottle opener?

Black Friday

2011-02-11T15:55:00.002Z

Right, I’m outa here for a few days. I’m working over the weekend and on Tuesday, I go into hospital. I won’t be posting for about a week, but when I get out, I have to get on and brew that Black Lager.

I would have liked to have done it today, but my fermenting fridge still has the IPA on the go. The fridge can accommodate two fermenters, but the IPA is at 20deg, whereas the Black Lager needs to ferment at a much lower temperature, so I need the IPA out of the way before I crack on.

All being well, and I return from hospital in the mood, I’m intending to brew on Thursday 17^th.

The grain bill for the Schwarzbier will consist of the following malts; Pilsner, Munich, Vienna, Carafa II, Crystal and Chocolate. Original Gravity estimate is 1052.

Hops will be Hallertauer Hersbrucker to about 28 IBU’s and I’ll be fermenting this little baby at 10deg for 17 days and then another month at 7deg, using White Labs yeast WLP830.

Until then, adieus and farewell my friends. Let’s hope the British NHS don’t mess things up and I get back to the mash tun with all my faculties intact.

Monday's Musings

2011-02-07T10:41:00.011Z

There’s something about Mondays.

After the weekend with everyone about, the house is empty. Of course, it shouldn’t be an issue as I’m here to work, but that doesn’t stop me hearing the silence. Even outside, the houses visible from my office window are quiet and still.

My work is patchy at this time of the year, and having put in a couple of hours graft at the keyboard this morning, I’ve now got a break until midday.

To break the calm, I’ll turn the radio up and spend a few moments catching up with my virtual friends in blog land, to see what everyone allotmenty, beery, or just plain wacky (yes, that’s you Julia Gulia), have been up to.

I’ve also got some coffee to stimulate me. It would usually be decaf during the week, but I’ve pushed the boat out and gone for the fresh-ground caffeine this morning. My body needs it. It was a late night.

I’m not sure what brought it on, but I found myself watching very old episodes of Sex And The City on Comedy Central, while chewing on copious amounts of beer. What on earth am I poisoning my body for? I don’t even like SATC.

Still, it’s a new dawn, a new day, a new life... I just haven’t got to the feelin’ good bit yet.

Oh, and I’ve decided. I’m off the sauce for the rest of the week. I’m going into hospital a week on Tuesday - just a routine procedure, but I understand they’re going to use a general aesthetic. I thought it might be prudent to back off the booze, so my body’s in top shape for the recovery. I’m using the phrase 'top-shape' in its loosest sense, of course.

The downside to all of this, is that I’ll have nothing to soften the edges of reality for the next seven days or so. No medication and no alcohol -
Mother, if you’re reading this, I know you will feel my pain.

Old Punk IPA

2011-02-03T18:35:00.007Z

'From 1977, I've got a safety-pin stuck through my soul,
A badge pinned to my heart, that says I can't be bought or sold...'

Back in the summer of last year, after a brewery tour with friends, we descended on a curry house to round off the evening. It was only when ensconced in said establishment, did it come to light they didn't have my favourite dish on the menu. I made them aware of their omission before being seated and asked whether it would be too much trouble to rustle one up. Apparently it was.

This didn't sit particularly well with me. As we had requested a table for 10, one might have thought they would have been a little more accommodating. I tried to rally the troops to cause a bit of a stir, but I was shot down and told not to make a fuss. 'your really just an old punk, aren't you?'

Well, this made me think. It was true, that's exactly what I am. So, for that reason, (and with no connection to BrewDog), I give you Old Punk IPA. I've been hanging on to that name since the summer, and the fact that BrewDog have changed their recipe and essentially now have an old, and a new Punk IPA, is purely coincidental. Honest.

So, Saturday will be the brewday, and I'll be brewing an IPA. I'll be using my new kit for the first time this year and, as it's a strong one, I'll be doing half a batch (5 gallons).

Here's a picture of the malts I got together in readiness this evening; mainly pale malt with a handful of crystal, chocolate and flaked maize. I don't know if this grist is traditional, but this is my beer and I'll decide what goes in it.

Instead of using the traditional hops of Fuggles and Goldings, I'm using Progress and WGV.

WGV hops have a more robust flavour than the original Goldings. I'll be using these in the copper and as a dry hop.

Progress hops are similar to a Fuggle, but slightly sweeter, with a softer bitterness. I believe they are a daughter of the WGV, so this combination is a bit incestuous.

As far as blogging goes, I've decided to post on my brews in two parts from heron in. The first post, like this one, will be about the brewday and the recipe. The second post will follow-up the brew, when the beer is ready for tasting.

This particular brew will need time to mature, as I'm aiming for a beer with a gravity around 1067 so you, (and I), will have to wait a while. Let's hope it's worth it.

All together now, 'from 1977...

Back In Business

2011-01-31T14:17:00.006Z

I've yet to brew on my new brew gear this year as the pump failed on me just before Christmas, but I'm please to say I've repaired it, and reassembled everything last week.

A quick test saw it burst into life and perform as it should, leak free, so the brewery is ready for action again. Having had to do the last two brews on my old gear, I can't wait to fire up the new kit.

I've two recipes in mind, one of which I should get time to do this week. Either a traditional IPA, or a Black Lager. I remember reading somewhere that sales of black lager are massively on the up (as much as 40%) in the last year, or so, and even Guinness are trying to get in the act.

What comes first, though, depends on a courier - I have all the ingredients to do the IPA but I've ordered some speciality malts and yeast for the lager. I'll see if they get here before Saturday, which is when I'd like to crack on with one or the other.

Both beers are needed for the beer club later in the year. I thought the current cold spell would help with the black lager, while the IPA could do with some time to mature, so getting it done soon sounds like a plan.

And just to round off the Simonds Bitter, the gravity reading has stayed constant at 1014, so I'll be bottling that one tomorrow, which leaves the fermenting fridge free for the weekend.

Simonds 1880 Bitter (2)

2011-01-29T14:54:00.005Z

Just a quick update on this beer. The inclusion of amber malt made me a little cautious, and I only really brewed it as it's on the schedule of brews for the North Hants Brewers, of whom I'm one.

The good thing about brewing beers outside of your usual comfort zone, is that you might come across an ingredient, or style, that your really like, but wouldn't have normally tried.

Well, this beer's been in the fermenter for nine days and is down to 1014 from an original gravity of 1065. I'd consider that to be done, although I'll take another reading after another 48 hours just to make sure. I make that about 6.6% alcohol. It's a big beer, but the biggest surprise is that it tastes really good. Even with all that amber.

I'm wondering whether crushing the amber malt myself has made a difference, as previous attemps with amber malt have proved disappointing - beer not to my taste.

I'm guessing here, but with amber unlikley to be one of the most popular malts at the local homebrew shop, the pre-crushed bags may not have seen the ingredient at it's best. On this occasion, I milled the malt the day prior to brewing - my first brew with freshly milled malt - and it's possible this has made all the difference.

It's early days with this beer, but if the flavour remains as it is, once bottled and conditioned, it's going to be a belter. I have various malts left to use up that have been pre-crushed, but I'm looking forward to milling more of my own, if this brew is anything to go by.

Allotment Plan 2011

2011-01-24T14:50:00.003Z

Lilly,Dandelion & Burdock

Other than taking sack after sack of chicken muck up the allotment, there’s not much to do up there at present. And what on earth do other chicken owners do with their muck? Our girls seem to generate a shedload and if I didn’t have the allotment, I’m not sure what would become of it.

Anyhow, enough of me talking shite and on to things more pleasant. If there’s nowt to do up the plot, I can at least get planning. And for 2011 I do have a plan. I’m going to be lazy.

Let me explain. In addition to the allotment, I have to work, and I have a family to amuse.

My workload tends to be light in the autumn/winter (hence lots of blogging and brewing beer), but gets very busy in the spring and summer. This doesn’t fit in very well with Mother Nature – just as I’m getting snowed under with work, the plot needs attention, and plenty of it.

As for the family, well, they need a holiday in the summer - just at the time when the plot also needs my full attention, for harvesting and weeding.

So you can see my problem. In past years we’ve wasted bucket loads of tomatoes, courgettes, beans etc, as we’re not here to pick them. So this year I’m going to be lazy. I’m predominantly going to grow things that need little attention and rely on veg that can stay in the ground until later in the year, when my work eases up. I have divided the plot into six beds, and this is the plan.

Bed 1: Gooseberries

I love gooseberries. They taste great, need little attention and fruit early enough in the season that it’s not a problem finding time to pick them. We had half a bed (9 plants) last year and have doubled that to 18 for 2011.

Bed 2: Potatoes

I’ll only put in one row of earlies (Accord) and the rest of the bed will be given over to maincrop (Cara). The good thing with maincrop potatoes is that I can plant them before works gets busy and they will stay in the ground until September, when work eases up. Ideal.

Bed 3: Hops & Strawberries

This is where my new hop frames are. Hops pretty much look after themselves, and again, harvesting time is when the worst of my workload is over. Beneath the hop frames we’ll have strawberry plants. The wife and little’un will ~~look after~~ eat these.

Bed 4: Squash

My favourite. We all love to eat squash and they are easy to grow, trailing everywhere, smothering any weeds in their path. And the big plus is that they don’t need harvesting until later in the year.

Bed 5: Parsnips & Sweetcorn

Parsnips – sowed in March and lifted in November. There couldn’t be a more perfect vegetable to fit in with my lifestyle/workload. And the sweetcorn aren’t usually ready until late August, when we’re back off holiday, so they also fit in ideally.

Bed 6:

I’m not using the front bed for veg anymore. We have planted an apple tree and intend to sow the rest of the bed with wild flower seeds, to attract pollinators for the rest of the plot. There’s also a few bulbs in there, to give a bit of colour at the start of the year when little else is growing.

I appreciate we’re missing out on a few staples. I’ll miss tomatoes and green beans the most, but I’ll probably do some cherry toms in the hanging baskets at home, so we can pick them when we need them.

So, self-sufficient not, but there will be less stress, less wastage and we’re only growing things we like to eat, rather than finding room for everything in the seed catalogue. I’m rather looking forward to it.

It's Friday - Make Mine A Fuller's

2011-01-21T15:25:00.000Z

I've finally got around to sorting out the pump on the new brewery. I spent this morning trying to reassemble everything, but it took a bit longer than planned, 1) because I'm a muppet when it come to this sort of thing, and 2) because despite being careful, undoing everything slowly and keeping a note as to the order of all the parts, none of it matters when you're kack-handed and knock everything on the floor.

But it's finally back together - I'm just hoping everything is back as it should be. I've poured some water into the ports, and the body no longer leaks. Whether the pump actually works is another matter though. I'm too scared to try it. I think I'll wait for a warmer spell before reconnecting to the brewery and having a brew.

As a reward I'm going to dip into some Fuller's ale tonight. A friend of mine works at the Chiswick brewery and he gave me a nice selection of bottled beers at Christmas. I'll likely start with a couple of home-brews, before indulging in the bottle conditioned Bengal Lancer IPA, followed by the Golden Pride.

I've not had either before. I'm particularly looking forward to the Golden Pride, weighing in at a lofty 8.5%. I remember this being on the menu at the White Horse in Parsons Green when I went up for the Winter Ale Festival, but I wasn't at my best health-wise, so never got to try. We'll remedy that tonight.

Simonds 1880 Bitter

2011-01-20T10:59:00.009Z

The broken pump means I'm on my gravity based stockpot brewery in the kitchen today. This recipe will push my mash tun to the max, so I've restricted the brew length to 20 litres.

My back's killing me before we start. I blame position 10 of that book my wife got for Christmas. Not a good idea at my age, but hell, beer needs to be brewed so I'll pop a few anti-inflammatory's and soldier on for the cause.

The recipe is very simple. 84% Pale Malt, the balance made up of Amber Malt with an expected gravity of 1062. Bittered with Fuggles and late hopped with Goldings, then a handful of dry hops and left to mature for 3 months.

While I have a sack of pre-crushed pale malt to use up, I purchased the amber malt whole, so I could try out my new mill...

Although I've not liked the beers I've brewed with amber in the past, the smell of the malt being crushed was divine. A bit like a ground coffee aroma.

I'll update this post as the brewday unfolds....

Oh, and as well as brewing the beer, I'm having a crack at making some scotch eggs, inspired by This Post. I've got plenty of eggs laid by our girls and I've just de-skinned some Piri-Piri sausages. A spicy, hot, scotch egg with a bit of homebrew, as today's beer gets on the boil - what could be better?

I'm just starting the sparge, and here's a picture of the wort going into the copper.

With nearly all my beers, I like to use 50% of the bittering hops as First Wort Hops (FWH), so they're the green blits you can see floating about. I'll add the other half once I put the heating elements on and the wort reaches the boil.

Damn. First mistake - I forgot to adjust the sparge liqour for the smaller batch size. I've ended up with too much wort at too low a gravity, so I'm going to have to boil the bejeezus out of it...

The boil is ongoing, but I think I'm going to get there. In the meantime, I've been making my scotch eggs, and it's time to eat.

I might have overdone the sausage meat, as they're huge. And VERY spicy. Still, there's plenty of beer to wash them down.

Todays beer all finished. Overdid the boil in the end, the kitchen was swamped in condensation and ended up with 18 litres at 1065. I couldn't be bothered to liquor back any further, as everyone else has returned from school/work by then, and I just wanted to put it to bed. It's now in the fermenting fridge at 20deg.

Pump It Up

2011-01-14T16:41:00.001Z

As there's little to be getting on with up the plot right now, I guess it's time my attention returned to brewing beer. We're 14 days into the new year and I've yet to get my mashing paddle wet.

I've got several beers lined up to brew, a Mild, and Old Ale, and a proper IPA to name but three. But, needless to say, a brewday for me wouldn't be a brewday without a problem, and I have one. My pump's broken :(

I'm guessing the cold weather was to blame as part of the body fractured and the spindle has sheared completely. Okay, maybe the fault doesn't lie with the cold weather. It lies with me, as it was I who pushed the button to start the pump without considering there may be some ice trapped.

Anyhow, I think I've correctly identified the parts that have failed and have ordered the necessary replacements. They should be with me sometime next week, but I'd like time to put the pump back together and thoroughly test it prior to brewing, so I'll probably dig out the old equipment again and use gravity and brute strength to get me through the first brewday of the year.

The first brew? A historic ale from the Simonds Brewery. Others know far more than me about this sort of thing, but I do know they were based in Reading (the current site of the Oracle shopping centre). I understand the brewery started up sometime in the 1700's and the beer I'll be brewing was their bitter from 1880, deciphered from their old brewing logs.

So what goes in a beer from a hundred and thirty years ago? Pale and Amber malts, plus Fuggles and Goldings hops. I'm told they mashed the grains for 3 hours, as apposed to the 60 or 90 minutes I tend to do with my beers, and I 've used amber malt in two previous beers and didn't like either, so it will certainly be intersting to see how this one comes along.

I'll do a seperate post on the brewday, which is likely to be Thursday next week.

My Twelve Inch Probe

2011-01-13T12:34:00.060Z

I'm very pleased. My probe has increased in size from 5 1/2" to 12". Oh yes baby, I've got a big one.

I'm talking thermometer probes. When making beer, temperature is king and my new brewery has well designed tuns with cavities, into which you can stick your probe. Here's a picture of the Copper, with said probe hole. (give it a click)

Here's a picture of the digital thermometer I'd usually use.

As you can see from the following shots, it's nicely situated to poke into both the Hot Liquor Tun and the Copper, to monitor the temperature.

Trouble is, there isn't a probe hole in the Mash Tun - this is the vessel in which the liquor (hot water) and the malted barley are combined - as I need to remove the false bottom (don't ask) for cleaning, and the enclosure for the probe hole wouldn't enable me to do this.

Until now, I've just been sticking my thermometer into the mash from the top. All well and good, but now I'm brewing 10 gallon batches, the mash is quite deep and my five and a half inch probe is, well, distinctly inadequate. Put simply, it's not man enough for the job.

Hence, the need for a big'un, a full twelve inches.

I can shove this in the top of the Mash Tun and get a more accurate reading as it penetrates deeper into the mash. I'll look forward to playing with it, next time I brew...

Hopes and Hops for the New Year

2011-01-12T19:13:00.001Z

January should be a depressing month, and usually it doesn't disappoint.

The excitement and indulgences of Christmas have long since faded, the credit card bills drop on the mat, people drop like flies with a dose of the flu - combine that with the dark mornings and miserable weather and it's easy to see why misery peaks during this month.

Not on my turf, though. Not in 2011. I'm feeling good.

It must be the medication. I was on on Venlafaxine for most of last year. It took the edge off things and calmed me down. Now the stress and anxiety have gone, I'm ready to return. I spent the previous two months on the very lowest dose, and I've now been medication-free for nearly two weeks.

I had a few dizzy days as the last of the drugs worked out of my system, but now I'm feeling REALLY good, razor sharp, back to my old self. It's like all the softened edges have gone and the world's back in focus. And it better watch out, 'cos I'm ready to kick ass.

Oh, and I finished the second hop frame.

Can You See What It Is Yet?

2011-01-05T15:16:00.003Z

Do you remember the days when ice lolly sticks had jokes and riddles on them? "What gets wetter the more it dries" was one that has remained imprinted on my mind all these years.

I'm not sure why I bring that up, although I've just returned from the allotment, having got a good deal wetter than I planned. The wet stuff wasn't supposed to hit until about 15.00hrs so I spent the morning trying to get the first hop frame finished.

The pictures aren't great, as it was a bit grey and murky and it decided to rain within a few minutes of my arrival, but hopefully you can see the frame taking shape.

It's a bit Heath Robinson, but the plan is for the hops to grow up the short vertical and then continue along the incline, so that I'll be able to harvest the cones from beneath. The bed below the frame will be planted up with strawberries.

A second frame will be positioned to the left of this one, for the other hop variety. I'll hopefully be able to get that one made up next week, while things are quiet on the work front.

Oh, and the answer to that riddle was a towel. I'll get my coat.

Have A Drink With Me

2010-12-31T20:00:00.005Z

Well, there you have it. 2010. I hope it was better for you than it was for me.

Health was the main issue, ruthlessly struck down in January. A tad dramatic, maybe, but I didn't even get the chance to attend the Salisbury Beer Festival.

I've not been properly unwell before and the dizzy spells continued long into the year. Some medication and a bit of counselling later, and I'm still justabout hanging in there.

It meant I didn't drink as much, which also meant I didn't brew as much. To make myself feel better I invested in some smart (read expensive) brewing equipment.

Trouble was, when i finally wanted to brew, that little avenue of pleasure was closed off to me too. The new gear had several shortcomings that took a while to get to the bottom of.

Even the last few days of 2010 couldn't pass by without another dig in the ribs. This time, the pump started to leak on the new brewery. I wasn't going to abort my final brew of the year, so I dusted off my old stockpots and brewed with my old gear.

Okay, so I don't lose any limbs, or any family members - apart from Pickle, but she was a chicken and probably doesn't count. There's plenty worse off than me, that's for sure, but I'd rather not have another year like 2010 thank you.

So tonight, I'll sup quietly on my home brew as the last few minutes of the year pass by. And once we've seen the lousy year out, I've got a bottle of Fullers Vintage Ale (2007) I've been saving to see the new one in.

Slightly sozzled, maybe even a little teary eyed, I'll raise a drink to you all. 2011 - may we all have a good'un. If you feel like it, have a drink with me...

Singles Night

2010-12-30T13:21:00.006Z

The final brew of 2010 will be done on New Year's Eve.

It's slightly later than I would have liked, as the beer needs to be ready for the January meeting of the North Hants Brewers. It's singles night. One malt, one hop.

I'm going to use 100% Pilsner Malt. The hop proved a bit of a quandry. I was going to use the First Gold hops I harvested from the allotment three months ago. Then, I received a nice bottle of beer from my stepson at Christmas. According to the label it was 100% Challenger. All I know, it was 100% loverly. I know it's not summer, but I like to brew what I like to drink, and if my beer comes out anything like Skew, I'll be happy. So Challenger it is.

As it's one hop, I've decided to experirment with the additions - I'm going to try to obtain an equal level of IBU's from each of three hop additions.

I'll use Beersmith to help me with that part of the exercise. It will mean small quantities at the start of the boil and much bigger additions at 15mins and 1min from the end.

Being New Year's Eve it will be a boozy brewday with the music cranked up as a loud farewell, and a two fingered salute, to a miserable 2010.

2010-12-15T12:22:00.001Z

The ground wasn't too bad up the allotment (although very muddy) so I got on with as much as I could while the frost had abated.

Apple tree, strawberries and gooseberries all planted. A shedload of chicken muck spread over most beds and construction on one of the new hop frames kicked off...

It doesn't look much at present, but there's still plenty to do. Having got the groundwork done on this one, means I can carry on with the rest of the work even when the frosts are here. The second frame will have to wait until the new year though.

I'll post some more pictures as and when the frame takes further shape.

Back To The Allotment

2010-12-13T15:01:00.000Z

The cold has relented for a few days down here in Wiltshire, so I might make a fleeting visit to the plot tomorrow, to see how much frost has come out of the ground.

I've got loads to be getting on with. A delivery arrived recently, including a new apple tree, nine more gooseberry plants, plus some strawberries. With the ground frozen, I've put them all in a trough with fresh compost and stuck them in the garage. Being dormant, they should be fine, but I'd like to get them in the ground as soon as it's possible. I'm guessing the surface of the soil on the plot will be unfrozen, but it will be interesting to see if I can get a spade in.

Also on the agenda is a new frame for my hop plants. I've got the timber sorted but, again, I won't be able to get any construction done until the soil is workable. If it's not looking good tomorrow, it will probably have to wait until after Christmas as it looks like another cold snap is due at the end of this week, with temperatures predicted to be falling again to minus 5.

If I can't get on, it will be back to brewing. I've a single hop recipe to devise for the January meeting of the North Hants Brewers. I'll need to plunder the freezer to see what I've got.

House Bitter 10/12/10

2010-12-10T09:13:00.009Z

I'll update this post as the brewday unfolds.

0900: I've overdone the hot liquor by 10 degrees. Serves me right for going on the school run and getting distracted in conversation with the yummy mums. I'll be mashing in by about 9.30 hopefully.

09.40: Mashed in, pH strip looks good at 5.2 and temperature at 66C. Mashing for 75mins.

11.35: Start the sparge. Unbelievably the run-off came clear after a short time recirculating. Success at last! Unfortunately the wireless network isn't very strong in the garage, so apologies to those trying to view the webcam, as it keeps freezing.

12.55: Boil starting to roll. Bittering hops and some DLS added.

14.00: Late hops added.

14.05: Whirlfloc added.

14.15: Boil finished. I'll leave it for 40mins or so, to settle and for the temperature to drop so I can run it via the pump to the chiller. I think the pump is good for 85deg.

17.15: Finished clearing up. I'll have to look at my figures as it looks like the new kit was more efficient than I thought. It was meant to be 10 gallons at 1043, ended up at 1047, but just shy on volume, about 9.5 gallons.

It wasn't going to be overly hoppy beer to start with, so it's going to be less so now. The more I use the gear, the more I'll get used to it, so hopefully I can adjust things for the next brew. Anyhow, I split it into two 5 gallon fermenters and pitched one with Nottingham and one with Muntons yeast. Both in the fridge now fermenting at 20deg.

All Systems Go

2010-12-09T13:22:00.002Z

Brewday bang on schedule for Friday.

Temperatures have risen above freezing today, the outside water supply is not frozen and although we're not expected to get down below freezing tonight, I'll bring the hosepipe indoors just to make sure.

The mash tun is now in full working order. Mark at Elite Stainless Fabrications came over this morning to sort out the pipework issue. I think he probably thought (and not wide of the mark with my usual DIY prowess) that it would be something simple, and the problem was just me being a muppet.

Not this time. He struggled for an hour, then decided to take the whole unit back to the workshop. As he knew I was planning to brew tomorrow morning, he got straight on it and delivered it back within an hour or so.

The pipework no longer weeps and the tun is back on the frame where it should be, so my earlier concerns over the asthetics proved unfounded. Thanks Mark.

Tomorrow I plan to turn the page. The first brew on the kit how it was originally designed. It's going to be a belter.

Mash Tun Woes Continue

2010-12-08T16:59:00.001Z

Brewing has been delayed another day. Not just because of the weather either. I have to wait for the guy who manufactured the kit to come around and sort another issue.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I had an immediate problem with the flat botttomed mash tun as the outlet was now at a different height to the original (conical) tun. As a result, the outlet doesn't line up with the remainder of the pipework on the brewery.

I did manage to raise the pipework and secure it to the mash tun, but today was the first opportunity I had to test it with water, as the water supply finally thawed. Because the pipe is now angled, it's not a great fit and it leaks.

So, nothing I can do until Mark arrives with some new pipework, tomorrow morning. To brew would mean a late start and it's likely the boil would be starting just as the temperature starts to dip again, so I've decided not to bother.

Friday also promises to be much milder down here. We might even get 5deg, which would be a massive bonus, so Friday it is.

I'll use tomorrow to get the brewery back into a servicable state. Water ready and the unit all plugged in with timers on, so the water can start heating on Friday morning whilst I'm having breakfast. I'll then, hopefully, be able to mash in around 9.00hrs GMT.

Brewday 09/12/10

2010-12-04T13:04:00.008Z

I've pencilled it in my diary. The first brew with the new flat-bottomed mash tun will be on ~~Wednesday~~. THURSDAY

The temperature here looks like it will be just above freezing, so I'm hopeful that the outside water supply will be available.

The brew? My regular house bitter. Although, in recent months, it's not been that regular to be honest. Due to a bit of illness, the schedule for the North Hants Brewers , plus the fact I've been brewing some higher gravity stuff for Winter, it's been largely forgotten.

95% pale malt, the balance made up of crystal and bittered with Progress and WGV, with some Styrians in at switch off. Gravity about 1043. The sort of beer I switch to when I just want to fat neck a few, rather than sipping on something strong and dark.

The voyeurs among you can tune in again via the brewcam. I'll be mashing in, hopefully, around 09.00/09.30 hrs GMT.

The first brew on my new gear without a headache from the mash? Let's hope so.

EDIT: Due to the likelihood of freezing temperatures on Wednesday, I've put the brewday back until Thursday, when there shouldn't be so much doubt about the outside water supply being frozen. The extra few degress will also be a big help to the brewing process.

New Mash Tun

2010-12-02T14:36:00.012Z

The good news is I've picked it up.

A picture from above, showing the central drain hole.

From beneath, showing the outlet.

And back on the frame.

Now the bad news. There had to be some, as nothing has gone smoothly with this project from the start.

The observant among you may have seen in the final shot that the support brackets on the mash tun have not lined up properly on the frame. The obvious mistake, moving from a conical to a flat bottom, was that the outlet from the mash tun no longer lines up with the pipework to the pump, as it's now that bit higher.
Removing one of the supports on the pipework meant that I was able to connect it up, the downside being that the tun is now in a different position to the original. The brackets on the tun are riveted on - I guess I can cut them off if need be. For now, it's just resting on the frame.

To be honest, I'll be happy if the damn thing just works properly. If I can make beer without any headaches, sorting out the aesthetics will be a breeze.

Next brewday? Next week. I'll keep you posted.

Curved or Flat Bottoms?

2010-12-01T14:40:00.000Z

Now there's a question. Usually I'd be a curvy man, through and through.

When it comes to mash tuns, though, I'm hoping flat is king. I'll find out soon, as I've just received a call to say my new tun is ready. I'll pick it up tomorrow. I may even take a picture.

Brewday follow-up and Post

2010-11-18T11:51:00.001Z

Following on from the last post, I indeed had to settle for one of the two. Well enough to brew, but it wasn't stress free.

I had grain getting under the false bottom again and ended up having to filter the wort through a fine straining bag as it went into the copper, to hold back as many particles as possible.

The rest of the day went well enough, gravity was just about spot on at 1054, and by using the straining bag, the clean up of the gear wasn't too bad afterwards, either. I split the wort between two five gallon fermenters, pitched the yeast and the beer is now in the fermenting fridge at 21deg.

As a result of the continuing problems with the false bottom, I got on to the manufacturer who has agreed to replace the mash tun with a flat bottomed vessel, rather than the conical I currently have. it should be ready in two weeks, so hopefully I'll have it installed and ready for the next brewday.

Wednesday's aggro didn't stop there. The Royal Mail attempted to deliver a parcel. I know this as I saw the van drive off. Quite why he couldn't see me, I'm at a loss to fathom.

I phoned to complain and was told 'it's not the drivers responsibility to come and find me'.

Indeed, but surely a bit of common sense wouldn't be too much to ask? No answer at the door - but look, the gates are open and there's a lot of noise coming from that direction. Do you think it would be out of the way for the driver to muster the energy and take four paces from the front door just to check I wasn't standing on the driveway?

Jeez, this country drives me crazy.

Brewday 17/11/10

2010-11-16T19:04:00.002Z

Wednesday will see me fire up the brewery again.

To be honest I feel a little shi##y at the moment. Man flu. The last thing I feel like is standing out in the cold, brewing ten gallons of beer on kit that just causes me grief. It's a dirty job, as someone once said, and someone has to do it. I'm also short on beer, so I guess that man has to be me, flu or no flu.

If I can actually get up and brew, without falling over, I guess it's not actually flu. But my throat is raw, by nose is blocked and the central heating in the house makes me feel awful. Perhaps the garage tomorrow will help sort me out.

The brew? A simple ale. 95% pale malt and 5% crystal. Bittering hops are Target and I'll chuck in a few Styrians near the death, for aroma. Should be a copper coloured ale, hoping for about 1055 gravity, so about a 5.5% beer, once all is said and done.

If you have voyeuristic tendencies, the action will stream live to your PC HERE

Be warned, though, a seven hour brewcam can be a little tedious. I'll be mashing in about 07.00hrs GMT if all goes to plan. I'm not sure what the lighting will be like in the garage at that time of day, so I'll apologise in adavance if things are a little dark.

I hope I'm well enough to make a good fist of it. And I hope my gear will finally give me my first stress-free brewday. Maybe I'll settle for one of the two.

A Surprising Post

2010-11-08T19:27:00.003Z

Very little surprises me these days. As a result, it's surprising when I'm surprised.

And I was. At the weekend.

I've been brewing on my new equipment since September. I know it's only a couple of months, but I've managed five brews, with the sixth pencilled in for this week. That's quite a lot of beer at either five gallons or ten gallons a time. In truth, quite a lot of mediocre beer.

Regular readers will know I've had problems with the new brewery, and that's where most of the problems lie. That and being forced to brew with brown malt which, let's be quite frank about this, is never going to make a decent pint of beer. At least not to me.

On Saturday, whilst overseeing things in the kitchen, (three bean and wild mushroom stew if you must know) I was sipping on some home brew. As well as the one I had been quaffing all week (which had the misfortune of having a hint of brown), I'd run off a sample of another beer which was conditioning in a keg. I left the sample on the side to get to room temperature while pottering with the mushrooms for the stew.

Without thinking which, to be honest, could have been at any stage during the evening, I picked up the sample brew by mistake and took a good glug. And I thought to myself, 'Bloody hell. That's fantastic'. A stern look from the other half who was sat with our four-year-old made me realise I hadn't thought that at all. I had said it. Loudly.

I regained my composure, realising I had drunk from the wrong glass. But it was clearly so right - a dark beer, with hints of caramel and chocolate all coating my tongue. Immediately I paced off to get my brewing notes to see how I had crafted this particular beast. I prayed this was a ten gallon batch, not five. Surely there would be a second keg?

The good Lord had indeed blessed me with a decent beer. But not so blessed to give me eighty pints. Just forty. Oh well, at least I'd been surprised.

I guess people who craft good beers all the time don't get shocked like this. The fact my ales had been so damned poor of late made this recent brew thoroughly outstanding. Without the lows, you don't get to experience the highs. I think Will Young said that somewhere, and my wife is clearly responsible for me knowing something like that. So, before I ramble on any further it's time to get to the moral.

Don't be disheartened with mediocrity. So long as you strive to do better, when you finally get it right, the good stuff will taste so much better.

Autumn Dreams

2010-11-02T13:47:00.001Z

It's that time of year when things begin to wind down on plot 66.

I don't carry much veg through the winter. Mostly because I don't like to cover plants. The hassle of moving netting to get in and hoe gets on my chest. One year the weight of snow lowered the netting so much that, when it thawed, the pigeons ate all the broccoli anyway.

Last year my leeks were eaten. Now, if it can't grow uncovered, it doesn't get grown.

So the only veg still to reap are my parsnips. We've had one or two, but planted loads. Oh, and there's a few carrots left too.

The rest of the beds have been turned over and will wait until spring for the next flurry of activity. In between most will get a covering of chicken poo thanks to Lillie, Dandelion and Burdock who excel in that department.

So, it's time to peruse the seed catalogs for next year, imagining the delights of fruit and veg to come. This year's disasters nothing but a distant memory. The hard work, weeds and general untidiness, all forgotten.

Next year will be a cracker. It always promises to be. Looking at the glossy pictures in the catalogues and transposing them onto the plot, like Picasso preparing to paint a blank canvas.

Plot 66. The year 2011. Masterpiece. Just call me Pablo.

All That Glitters....

2010-10-20T12:31:00.007+01:00

There have been times over the last few weeks when I've questioned if I made the right decision in buying the new brewery equipment.

I was happy enough with the old set-up. It produced beer, on occasions very nice beer. I was so familiar with it that brewdays were a pleasure. No dramas, and I could generally hit my target gravity within a point or so each and every time.

The new gear has been plagued by a problem with the mash tun. Grain has been escaping past the false bottom, clogging up the pump and heat exchanger, producing mediocre beer in the process. In all, it's been a bit of a nightmare. The clear-up took as long as the brewday. Always a chore, never a pleasure.

Hopefully, though, the tide is about to turn. I have at last identified the problem and am pretty sure I can now get around it for future brews. I've simulated two small mashes and both have produced clear wort.

To date I've produced four brews with the new kit;

1. Moondance - the inaugural brew. This turned out not too bad. It cleared down okay but was a tad bitter - my fault for messing with the recipe.

2. Pale Ale - This tasted fantastic in the fermenter but has subsequently lost some of its zing. In fact, the kegged brew is very bland and hasn't cleared well. Disappointing. I bottled about twenty pints - I've sampled one and there's definitely more flavour than the kegged version - and it's clearer, so there's some promise to be had.

3. A brew with 'Brown Malt' - not my favourite malt it has to be said. I've probably underdone it though, as early samples tasted okay :) This is currently in a secondary fermenter, hoping a bit more yeast will drop out prior to bottling at the weekend.

4. Winter Ale - Not sure what happened to this one. I ended up down on gravity and down on volume. It's a recipe I've done on my old equipment a few times before, and this one even looks a different colour. It's currently fermenting, so I'll reserve judgement for now.

Next week I'll try again. My first attempt at something with the equipment working correctly. I'm hoping this one may convince me it was money well spent...

Potato Head

2010-10-13T11:50:00.001+01:00

I make no apologies for this next post. Or, perhaps I should, seeing as a few of you reading this don't actually know me.

Suffice to say, if there was a dicitionary definition of a 'normal' person, my name probably wouldn't follow alongside. Close friends may even say there's no 'probably' about it.

But, much like many other allotment folk, I dug up our spuds last weekend. I also have kids. Hence, Mr Potato Head.

I'll think I'll leave now. ..

It's Good To Talk

2010-10-11T11:56:00.009+01:00

Well, it's been more than two weeks and I'm still the tenant of Plot 66

I didn't have time to write the sarcastic letter I intended to, but I did make a phone call to the council. Several in fact, but none were answered. I finally gave in and left a message on the Park Officer's voice mail. Did I get a reply? No.

But, what I did get in the post last week was an invitation to renew my tenancy, so I'm assuming all is now well with the misguided souls at the council.

The rent has gone up more than 15% though. I guess that's to cover the increased cost of admin. Oh no, my mistake. They don't even bother to return calls.

The Aroma Of Sweet Success...

2010-09-29T14:18:00.000+01:00

has left me.

My hops, lovingly cared for on the allotment since February, and picked just recently, have had to be thrown. Nothing more than fodder for the compost bin.

My attempt at drying such a quantity failed. I had them in net bags, stored in the loft where I expected the warmth to penetrate and dry them. Unfortunately, the hops in the centre of the bags didn't dry quickly enough and they started to smell damp and musty. Not in my beer thank you.

While it's a damn shame to chuck a decent harvest, it would have been worse if I failed to learn anything from it. So, Ive decided to rig up an old duvet cover in the loft, with the idea of spreading the hops in a single layer, so they dry much easier.

I still have some First Gold hops to harvest, so I'll see how they get on with this new set-up.

Hop Picking

2010-09-21T20:59:00.002+01:00

The fair weather over the last few days meant we've been able to harvest the hops from the allotment. These were the hops planted in February - we weren't expecting much as they are meant to grow the roots in year one, but they did remarkably well.

Target

Bramling Cross

A bag full each of 'Target' and 'Bramling Cross'. I'll take them home to dry before bagging them up and freezing.

I've also got the 'First Gold' climbing over the fence. They are ready too and I'll go down and pick them later this week - maybe interspersed with a little weeding to keep the council bods happy too. :)

14 Days Notice

2010-09-20T12:14:00.005+01:00

"Having recently inspected your allotment site, it appears your plot is not being cultivated to the required standard'. So say the Council anyway.

Have they got the wrong plot? Mine is divided into six equal size beds, currently containing;

Bed 1: Maincrop Potatoes & Sweetcorn
Bed 2: Leeks & Onions
Bed 3: Parsnips & Beetroot (admittedly the beet are finished).
Bed 4: Tomatoes & Hops (again the toms are finished and do need dealing with).
Bed 5: Winter Squash
Bed 6: Gooseberries & other soft fruit.

The very back of the plot is a little overgrown, near the pond. I leave it like this to encourage natural wildlife. We have grass snakes living around there, and being a protected species, I wouldn't be allowed to disturb their natural habitat anyway.

The paths between the beds did get a bit weedy whilst I was away on holiday (as per a previous post) and I have cleared half the plot's paths since returning. Is this really not to an acceptable standard?

I will endeavour to speek to the Parks Officer to see what planet she is on.

Incidently, my neighbouring plot (67) has been overgrown for ages. No sign of them for over two years and no sign of a new tenant. They grew stuff in 2008 (I last saw them in about July of that year). They did nothing for the remainder of 2008, nothing at all in 2009 and nothing again in 2010. I still have spinnach sprouting up all over the place where their's went to seed, not to mention the weeds from all the seedheads which are carried by the prevailing winds on to mine.

Right now I'm seething. I have 14 days to bring mine up to an "appropriate standard". Appropriate standard my arse. I'm reaching for the phone as I write....

Moondance Mayhem

2010-09-10T15:46:00.004+01:00

If you haven't guessed, this is a brewery post. The very first brew in the new, very shiny, brewing equipment. I knew that the new gear wouldn't necessarily make my beers any better, but boy, I wasn't aware that brewing beer could be quite so difficult...

I was fortunate enough to have the recipe for 'Moondance', an extremely nice beer brewed by Triple fff

In fact, this was a project for members of the North Hants Brewers, as the guys (and girl) from the brewery were going to come down and sample our attempts and judge who had got closest to the commercial ale. What better way to christen my new brewery?

Well, things didn't go right from the start. The temperature drop from the hot liquor to the mash tun was huge. Not helped as I just let the water fall from one to the other, without using a hose. It was subsequently made aware to me that a hose was provided with said gear - it's just that I didn't have the common sense to attach it.

We managed to get the temperature up a bit by adding kettles of boiling water, but the time it took meant the resultant beer would lack a bit in the body department. Perfect for me then.

That was just the start though. Next to fail was my false bottom. During the sparge, the grain managed to find its way underneath the false bottom, so the run-off was not just cloudy, more porridge-like.

We soldiered on by recirculating for a bit, before I decided enough was enough and we ought to get on and stick it in the copper regardless. So we did.

Needless to say, plenty of husks etc were transferred across, so I'm guessing I may get a protein problem by boiling them all up with the wort, but hey-ho, we were at least making a beer of sorts.

Next issue was cooling. The hop bed in the copper wasn't great at filtering out the husks and all sorts of crud was being sent through the plate chiller. You can guess by now that the final clean-up took some time. But the upshot was, I made beer. But only through the enormous help and encouragement offered to me by my friends who had come along for the day to help out.

I ended up with 20L of wort at 1048og that smelt wonderful thanks to all the cascade hops which had filled the garage with their magical perfume.

I very much doubt my beer will be 'Moondance', but it will most definitely be beer. It will lack body, be very dry and most probably have a protein haze.

Will it stop me drinking it? If you don't know the answer to that, you don't know me very well. Roll on brew #2

Neglected

2010-08-29T17:36:00.002+01:00

The allotment that is. We only went away for ten days, but in readiness for departure I had to work damn hard, which meant the allotment was put on the back burner for several days before we left. And having had to catch up with things upon our return, the plot has been absent of care for another two weeks or so.

This means it's been left to its own devices for over four weeks. No, what it actually means is weeds...

courgettes that have turned into marrows...

and fledgling pigeons eyeing up anything and everything they can devour...

It's not all bad though. The new apple tree still has its apples....

And the hops are going crazy. I have First Gold growing up the council's new (but rather bland and brutal) fence at the end of the plot, softening it from this...

to this...

And my new hops have taken off quite well in year one...

In Antcipation Of Brewing

2010-08-20T10:57:00.001+01:00

It's been a while. Holidays you see. But I'm back, back and eager to brew. Eager like never before.

My new equipment has been collecting dust while I've been away, so I dusted it down and thought I'd better get prepared for brew #1.

Work prevents me from diving straight in, but there's a few things to get sorted beforehand, anyhow.

Conveniently, the other half disappeared for a couple of days, so after work I had the opportunity to crack on. I filled the HLT with water, heated it a bit to check the element was working, played with valves and pumps to get the liquor circulating in the system, and checked the element in the copper was working also.

I worked out a crude form of calibration on the sight tube on the HLT, so I know the relevant volumes and did something similar in the copper so I know how much wort is being collected.

Those that don't brew probably wouldn't believe how much anticipation all this playing creates. Me, I couldn't believe how much water ended up on the floor.

But nothing was an issue and even the tatty old cd player that was destined for the dump managed to spark into life. The garage was somehow magical; there was no one to interrupt me, tunes from AC/DC, Van Halen and the like, filled my world as I twisted valves and drank beer. I even ate my curry in the garage that evening.

Like a churlish schoolboy hiding in his den with ill-gotten gains, it felt good. The sort of feeling you get when you know what you're doing is wrong, but you're actually loving every second.

More of the same

2010-07-29T14:04:00.000+01:00

Yet again, I forgot the camera when I went down to the plot this morning. But this time I did remember to take a picture before eating everything. So yes, we really do have outdoor tomatoes ready to go...

And the winner is...

2010-07-23T11:48:00.002+01:00

A while back (February to be precise) I was sowing my tomatoes. One Russian variety and one bred in Latah County, Idaho USA. Both are outdoor varieties, bred for short growing seasons and I was interested to see which of the two performed best.

It's too early to call an overall winner, but we've been having lovely juicy red tomatoes for a couple of weeks now. It's the earliest I've ever had outdoor tomatoes ripe - and they've all come from the one variety. The Latah.

The Russian Urbikany has set plenty of fruit, but they have yet to ripen to any degree, whereas the Latah are falling over with fruit, lovely and red.

We've also got an absolute glut of courgettes (zucchini) and green beans.

Much to the horror of our four-year-old, it's beans with everything at the moment. I'll probably have to whip up a chocolate courgette cake to erode the mountain of courgettes. Our three chickens (Lilly, Dandelion and Burdock) are all partial to courgette too, so they've been taking care of the oversized fruits.

Unfortunately I've forgotten the camera on the last few visits to the plot, so there's no pretty pictures to accompany this post.

There will be more on the new brewery soon, as the electrician is coming over next week to get the power sorted. Can't wait.

New Brewery

2010-07-13T15:12:00.004+01:00

It's arrived!

Trouble is, I can't use it just yet, as I'm waiting for the electrics to be sorted out. I guess I could have got that sorted while I was awaiting delivery but, to be honest, I wasn't sure if the unit was going to fit where I had planned for it to go. As it happens, there's just enough clearance from the garage door (you can just see it in the top of the photo), so it would have been fine.

It looks pretty good on that awful floor. I'm itching to get some water in there so I can start playing with the pump so I can get used to all the valves and stuff. At the moment I'm thinking the plastic bucket routine I'm familiar with is far simpler, but I guess it will be fine once I've got used to it.

I'm not expecting to make better beer, but it will save me taking over the kitchen for seven hours and also save my back from lots of lifting. I'm also hoping my efficiency will improve slightly as it was pretty poor using the grain bag and plastic bucket method.

As promised, in return for her consideration, I'm going to have to buy the wife a new bag. Now, do I do that before the electrics are done, or make her wait until I'm up and running?

The Good Life

2010-07-12T10:38:00.001+01:00

It's that time of year at the allotment when all the hard work starts to bring its rewards.

I've forgotten to take my camera on the last few visits but we've been busy eating all the gooseberries. We made Gooseberry & Elderflower Fool as per HFW's first book, and at the weekend we had a lovely Gooseberry Crumble. The remainder I'm going to make into a sweet syrup to go on on ice-cream over the summer.

You don't seem to get gooseberries in the supermarkets. I guess they're just not popular anymore. I can't remember what variety I planted but they're sweet enough to eat off the bush (just) and they get an attractive pink hue to them if you leave them on long enough. People don't know what they are missing.

We've also had beetroot and spring onions, and when I went up to water on Friday I was delighted to find the first courgettes ready to pick, along with a handful of French climbing beans and a few carrots. I added the carrots and courgettes to a roasted vegetable lasagna and served it with the green beans and crusty bread rolls. Delicious.

To round it off, friends came over to enjoy it with us (one of whom works for Fullers brewery in Chiswick) and he brought along a case of London Pride for me. Great food, great company and a few beers in the sun. Life's good.

The People's Pint

2010-07-09T12:59:00.007+01:00

Despite all my enthusiasm and drive, I failed. I have beer, but not quite as expected. Let me explain.

CAMRA (campaign for real ale) launched a campaign last year for zero duty on all beers at 2.8% and below. The idea was to get people back into pubs, with cheap pints, whilst promoting responsible drinking. Some may argue a beer with such little alcohol is not worth having.

So, as an experiment, those of us at North Hampshire Brewers decided to have a crack at brewing a beer up to 2.8% abv. Any style, any ingredients, to see if it was possible to create a beer, within the limits, that was worth coming back for more.

Sadly, my yeast over performed and my brew has come in at 3.1% abv

My plan was to produce a wort with a high initial gravity and then use a low attenuating yeast so less of the sugars were turned to alcohol. The yeast I chose was Windsor, which I've never had finish lower than 1015 in the past (albeit in higher gravity beers). On this occasion it stopped at 1012, which still leaves a bit of body, but as the original gravity was 1036 I make the final alcohol content 3.1%

To be honest, I was a little scared of starting too low and ending up with forty pints of water. At least I'll have a beer that's drinkable, although sadly, no good for our experiment.

For what it's worth, my recipe was as follows;

91% Lager Malt
9% Belgian Aromatic Malt
Mashed at 68deg
Hopped with First Gold and Aurora

I was hoping the aromatic malt would deliver quite a bit of maltiness, beneath the zingy, sunshine hops.

I've bottled it today and it will be tasted at the next meeting of the North Hampshire Brewers at the end of this month.

If a job's worth doing...

2010-06-30T09:27:00.007+01:00

This might be a lengthy post. I've never been overly good with apologies, so I wont offer any.

Today I'm going to brew beer. It's a problematic brew. No more than 2.8% abv and the task is to make it more than just drinkable. It's to be a 2.8% beer that's good enough to grab you by the bo***cks and get you back for another.

I like a challenge because I'm a grafter. No half measures - if somebody pays me to do a job, I hit it hard and don't just get it done. I get it done properly. It's how I was brought up and it's what makes me tick. I have no time for inefficiency and incompetence.

Those that don't know me well probably see me as the quiet chap, a man of few words. That couldn't be further from the truth. I have plenty to say. Most of it stays in my head these days, I soak up everything and give away little. I don't like hurting people's feelings but, by the same token, I don't always say what people expect to hear. That leaves me in a tricky position - shoot from the hip and ruffle some feathers, or keep my opinions to myself?

My oldest friends expect me to do the former. Mark wont just rock the boat, he'll bloody sink it. Perhaps I've mellowed with age.

Anyhow, I'm rambling. I think the point I'm trying to get across is that I prefer to have my own ideas rather than follow the crowd. I've always been a bit different to the mainstream. If you think about people who have made a real difference to the world over the generations, most of them have done so by going against convention. By challenging the rules. You don't get great without thinking differently.

That's why my brew today is going to be different. I'm going to approach it from a different angle. There's every chance I will fail, but failure is not one of the things I fear. Can a 2.8% beer be any good. Can it really drag you back, kicking and screaming for more? Hell yeah, just you wait..

The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind

2010-06-21T10:19:00.001+01:00

Blimey, mid-June and I've not posted all month. There have been reasons. Mainly bad.

Work is that awful critter that gets in the way of everything. Health took another downturn this month too, which hasn't helped but I guess I better update on what's been going on.

Beer: I did mnanage to squeeze in a couple of brews. One's a World Cup Beer for my chums to indulge in when they come and watch the football. Trouble is, the way England are going, I'll have most of it left over if they don't qualify on Wednesday.

I also did a Best Bitter. It's a regular recipe I do, one of my favourite everyday sort of beers. Pale malt with a bit of crystal, hopped with WGV, Progress and some Styrian Goldings for aroma. I've bottled half the batch in preperation for my holiday. Good beer is hard to find in France so I'll be taking a few of my own.

Health: June started badly with many more dizzy spells and headaches. I got the results of my MRI scan, which was positive news. They were checking for anything nasty like a tumor and it came back with no abnomalities. The doc reckons it must still be an inner-ear issue and it may not be helping that I'm getting more anxious about it (but come on, it's been going on since January). Anyhow, he's put me on some medication to ease my nerves, which will hopefully help.

Allotment: I must admit, it's been left to it's own devices for a few weeks. Everything's in now; the sweetcorn, courgettes and squash were all planted out some time ago. I'll have a bit of free time at the end of this week so I'll get down there and sort out the weeds and see how everything's doing.

Whoever and wherever you are, I hope all is well with you and yours.

First Harvest

2010-05-28T14:39:00.005+01:00

I don't grow rhubarb (although I may get some crowns for next year), so my first harvest of 2010 are my pickling onions.

I picked up the seed in France last summer, but can't remember exactly when I sowed them. I guess it would be either late August or early Spetember. I thinned them out in November and left them to over winter, before transplanting to their final positions in February.

To be honest, they've got a bit bigger than I was hoping for (last week's hot spell was to blame). They must have come on a bundle while I was busy at home sorting out that garage floor. Anyhow, I've soaked them in brine and I'll get them in the vinegar later today...

I guess many of you will be busy at the plot this weekend. I have a beer festival to attend on Saturday and will be working on Sunday/Monday, so I wont be able to get anything more done until later next week.

Seeing Red

2010-05-24T13:46:00.003+01:00

The new brewery equipment has been ordered, so a thorough sort-out of the garage is overdue. The concrete floor has never been sealed or painted, so dust levels were high.

Shocked at the price of garage floor paint, I turned to the internet. I found a specailist paint company with just the product - THE garage floor paint. The clever use of capial letters had me hooked. This was clearly going to be THE garage floor paint I needed.

It wasn't. In my haste, I failed to read all the info. It was a water based paint, albeit 'the toughest water based garage floor paint avaialble'. All I can say, is that the other stuff on the market must be worse than useless. After 24 hours the first coat came peeling and flaking away. I rubbed it down, removed the dust and tried again. Same result.

By now I was hot, sweaty, and a little pis*ed off. Although it irked me, I had to concede that I had made a mistake and it was time to go down to B&Q and buy the forty quid tin of Ronseal and try coat number three.

No flaking, no peeling. Blimey, it did exactly what it said on the tin. Nearly.

The colour claimed to be red. Now my eyesight isn't what it was, but I know that ladybirds are red and sh*t is brown. You could take a dump on my garage floor and not notice, so I think we know what colour it really is. It's browner than Gandhi in a bloody heatwave.

Love Hope And Strength

2010-05-20T15:13:00.001+01:00

I've not been right in the head for some time. Friends, and those who have been with my blog for a while, will know I've been diagnosed with labyrinthitus by my GP. Trouble is, symptoms normally last 3-6 weeks and I've been suffering with dizziness, nausea, anxiety, (all extremely severe at times), for over four months now.

I've become quiet and less outgoing, almost to the point where I feel I'm beginning to lose basic social skills. My wife tells me it's like living with a completely different person and that my sense of humor died the same day the dizziness took over.

Because it's gone on so long, my GP wants a second opinion, so I'm going for an MRI scan on my head, tomorrow (Friday). Part of me is hoping they find something. Then I'll know what I'm dealing with. On the other hand, I also need to be careful for what I wish for.

I'm not sure if I get the results the same day. Probably not, But it will be a relief to know someone is finally taking a closer look at me and that I could soon be on the road to recovery. Let's hope so anyway.

Pants

2010-05-16T10:44:00.010+01:00

Everything, including the British weather. It's pants.

We're in the middle of May and it's still cold. Really cold.

Some of my potatoes have been hit by the frost, my early sowings of squash and courgettes look a bit bedraggled and my cucumbers have died.

I say cucumbers in the plural, but that may not be entirely correct. One is dead and I'm not sure about the other - I seem to have got them mixed up with the courgettes and I failed to label them, so they all look the same.

Work's been really busy for me this last couple of weeks but I did manage to get a quick visit to the allotment in and found that the Marsh marigold beside the pond had decided to flower. Probably the least productive plant on the plot, but at least it's added some colour.

Oh, and continuing the theme of bad news, somethings dug up my carrots too. Rabbits I'm assuming. My beetroot are also in danger - not from animals, but from some bl***dy potaotes I must have missed in the bed from last year. The tiny beetroot seedlings are now being pushed out by these rogue monstrosities as they power their way upwards.

So there you have it. Life is offically pants. And if you still don't believe me, it's just started to rain.

Sweetcorn And Desperate Parsnips

2010-05-02T10:24:00.001+01:00

Back with the veggies, I've finally got around to sowing my sweetcorn.

I know I'm later than some, but I tend to find that early sowings slow up once they are transplanted. Mine may go in the ground later, but they take off straight away and usually catch up the early birds. The other drawback of getting them in the ground too early, is that they are more vulnerable to slug and snail attacks while they sit there in the (usually) wetter part of spring.

Mine are sown in my homemade paper pots (as used for my French climbing beans) so that the roots don't get disturbed when transplanting later in the season.

To help with germination I rehydrate the seed overnight. I simply get an old Flora tub (other buttery spreads are available), line it with some doubled-up kitchen roll, and pour some water in. Not so that it's swilling about, just so that the paper becomes totally saturated. I then place the seeds on the wet paper and leave for 24hrs before sowing.

This is the only seed I treat in this way. I've read about people germinating their parsnip seed prior to sowing, but I've never had a problem with parsnips. I stick mine staright in the ground - this year they went in on April 8 and they were coming up quite nicely when I was down the allotment last week.

Sometimes I think we can make things too complicated. At the end of the day, seeds are desperate to grow. It's what they do. Only the poorest of conditions will stop them.

Radley Bag v New Brewery

2010-04-30T14:04:00.002+01:00

Something strange happened yesterday. A chance meeting presented an opportunity on the brewing front.

Not that that's stange in itself. But having run the idea of some shiny new brewing equipment past the wife, I expected a full frontal verbal explosion. What I actually got was, 'if you like it and it's what you need, why not get it?'

I then explained that such things were quite expensive. 'I dare say' came the reply. 'I know your kegs aren't cheap, so the actual brew gear must be really expensive. About a couple of grand?'

In fact, it was much less than a couple of grand. I now dared to think she might actually have meant what she said.

'You'd be alright with that then?'

'If it means I can have a new Radley Bag, then yes'.

WTF is a Radley Bag? How expensive can a bag be. Whatever, it can't look as good as this, surely.

Nettle Plant Food

2010-04-28T13:29:00.004+01:00

I'm guessing that the majority of allotment holders have tried their hand at making their own plant food at one time or another. If you haven't, here's how I do mine with nettles and now's a great time to get some going....

You'll need; a bucket (preferably with a lid), nettles, water, a house brick and a peg.

I use an empty fertiliser bucket with lid - this one contained fish blood and bone.

It's best to use the youngest, juciest nettles you can find. I tend to pick off just the tops, leaving the old woody bits behind (think PG Tips). The leaves are best 'bruised'. You can tear them with your hands (gloves may be useful) or, the easiest way is to run them over with the lawnmower. Then shove all the bits into your bucket.

All you need to do now is fill the bucket with water. Rainwater would be best - I just shove it under the water butt and fill it up. Then, stick the brick on top, to keep the nettle leaves submerged(ish).

Put the lid on and place the bucket in a nice sunny spot to ferment. It's probably best to take it to the allotment at this stage. Leave it for 3-4 weeks and it's done.

I then strain off the liquid through a riddle into another bucket. The peg comes in handy here as it really REALLY hums.

The pulp can go onto the compost heap. The liquid is your feed. Add a small scoop to your watering can full of water when ready to feed (I use those small plastic scoops that often come with the fertiliser bucket).

I was a bit sceptical when I first tried this but I had some cabbages one year that looked a bit tired and yellow. Within 3 days of feeding with the nettle food they looked strong, heallthy and green. Now, there wasn't a control (maybe I should have just fed half) but I believe it worked. You can use it around the stems, or over the plant leaves.

Good luck if you give it a go!