Second Batch - Irish Stout (Lilphynott)

Author's note: At the time, I took the Hydrometer reading to read 3.6, whatever the hell that means. Is it any surprise that eventually, I looked up "How do use Hydrometer" on YouTube?

Pre-fermentation Hydrometer: 3.6

Well, that could have ended badly! After cleaning and sanitising, I added 3 litres of hot water to a pot I assumed (assumptions being the mother of all fuck-ups) would be big enough. Not quite! I got a bit of boilover, but hopefully nothing too damaging. Bill helped me to transfer it to a 15L stockpot, which I'll be using henceforth.

I should mention that this was my first half-assed stab at trying to do a proper boil-up, the way beer should be brewed. It wasn't exactly a raging success, but it was a step in the right direction.

The extra ingredient here is half a bar of liquorice, which I attempted to dissolve in boiling water, then the wort. I had the wort on the stove for a good 15-20 minutes, but got a good 10 minutes proper boil, which should hopefully be enough to kill any nasties.


I then transferred the wort to the fermenter, topped it up gradually to 23 litres, mixed it like buggery, then lugged it to my room. Once in my room, I sprinkled on the yeast and sealed it up, not to be opened until the 22nd.

I'm hoping nothing in the boilover chaos will come back to haunt me, but all in all, a little more 'by the book' than last time! At least I took a pre-fermentation hydrometer read this time around (for all the bloody good it did!).

I've got a feeling it'll (hopefully) come out blacker than the cover of Smell The Glove and I think it deserves the glass bottle treatment when the time comes. None of this Mr. Renfrew's Pub Pets plastic bottle shit!* The important thing is I learned from the mistakes I made last time. Next time, I'll learn from the mistakes I made this time!

* Pro tip: Although perfectly fine for your very first 'do I even want to do this?' batch, plastic bottles are some raggeddy hobo shit. You might as well distribute them with a brown paper bag. That said, they have their uses. For instance, I have a friend/sampling gineau pig who failed to return the last lot of 750ml Grolsch-style flip-top bottles I gave him. He's abused his priveleges, so it's hobo bottles for him until that trust can be rebuilt.