Tum ti tum...

I seem to be doing a lot of waiting at the moment. I've bottled so much beer, and none of it is ready. I'm also waiting for a parcel of homebrew stuff, namely crushed malts, some new hops and yeast, in order to start making some all grain brews. I don't really need to make any more, but I'm going to anyway.

First up will be a 5 gallon barrel full of Lorna Light Bitter, from Ken Shales' Advanced Home Brewing, which is mainly Pale Malt Barley and Wheat Malt, shortly followed by a Tiger Beer copy from Dave Line's Brewing Beers Like Those You [pay through the nose for], which I'll bottle.

I did my first partial mash the other day, and as far as I can tell it worked OK, but it was with whole malt, which I had to crush myself. This time I've opted for bags of crushed malt, so that I don't have to spend an hour with a hammer before I even start the brewing process.

Also, I've finally bought batteries for my camera, so hopefulyl the remaining posts for the rest of my life will be illustrated in some way. For now, have a picture of my very modern lagering facility.

Lately, I've noticed the hammer has been more involved in my brewing; for crushing things and for capping glass bottles. It seems counter intuitive to hit glass bottles with a hammer, but so far, after a few frustrating first, second and third attempts, I've got the hang of it. But I really do hate bottling. And hitting glass bottles with hammers ought to release frustration, but instead, with every overflowing bottle, every bit of sucked up yeast, every square foot of kitchen covered in puddles of booze just drives me further up the wall! It really will drive me to drink.