Monday - Brew Day

Made another brew today. The usual routine was followed. 3000 grams of Dried Malt Extract dissolved in 10 litres of water at 40C and put in the boiler. Topped up with another 8 litres of  water and 220 grams of crystal malt added to the mix. When this mix came started to the boil I added 42 grams of Whitbread Golding Hops. After 45 minutes I added 150 grams of caster sugar and after 80 minutes I added 14 grams of fuggle hops and 3 grams of Irish moss. This was allowed to boil for a further 10 minutes and then the boiler was switched off. The wort was then left for 90 minutes to cool and settle. At this stage I realised that a goblin had got through my defences and made me forget to refit the hop strainer. To overcome this I got two stainless steel sieves (the kind you would find in almost any kitchen). I placed each sieve into a muslin bag and ran the wort off through this.  To a sterilised fermentation vessel I added 4 litres of fridge cold bottled mineral water and ran the wort off into this. The sieves in their muslin bags seemed to to the trick very well and I may well adopt this method for future brews. I topped the fermentation vessel up to a total volume of 20 litres and pitched the yeast and placed in the fermentation cupboard. I will check later tonight to ensure that the brew is fermenting as planned.