First Brew

Finally we have brewed our first batch of beer - Redemption Pale Ale. The brew went relatively well apart from one of the heaters on the copper not operating at full strength due to a fuse blowing, but we still managed to achieve a decent roiling boil, just not as quickly as we would have liked. We got a slightly lower extract from our malt than we hoped for, but should be able to improve on that with the next brew as we manage the runoff a little better and avoid keeping our malt in the coldest part of the brewery! The wort took three and a half days to ferment and is presently cooling until it will be moved into conditioning tank later today. The yeast took a bit of time to get going but then went into overdrive so it will no doubt take a few more brews to manage our fermentation more smoothly. We easily skimmed off 20lbs of yeast to be repitched with next weeks brew.

The big question now is whether the beer will be up to scratch. So many variables can have subtle impacts on both the flavour and the quality of the beer and I imagine it will take a good few brews before the whole process is running as smoothly as it should do. Technically it should be a decent beer but the proof will be in the tasting.