Stonehelm is our nearest homebrew supplier (apart from a couple of hardware stores that stock a few things). Although you can get things cheaper elsewhere on the internet, I thought I would support them by making an order. Plus, since they are just five minutes down the road from my house, I can go an collect it myself and save on delivery costs. Bonus.
They just operate out of a house in Toot Baldon. The downstairs of the house is pretty much like mine would be if it wasn’t for the Queen– boxes of homebrew supplies piled up everywhere, 5 gallon carboys bubbling away everywhere, and the dubious smell of fermenting beer filling the entire building.
Anyway, keen to take the next step in beer brewing, I ordered my first packs of speciality grain. So far we have just used malt and hop extracts but far superior results can be achieved by using a quantity of grain. This requires a more complex methof including boiling the wort, but its about time we took the step up. So I ordered some flaked barley, roasted barley, and crystal malt as well as four different varieties of hops – East Kent Goldings, Target, Willamette and Amarillo. The intention is to make an IPA and a stout. I can’t wait to get started.