Another Brewday that took far longer than I was anticipating. The main reason: Fendog bailed on me. Some excuse about getting his nostrils plucked – a likely story. I courageously pressed on on alone. I racked the Windsor Knot into a keg (which, due to my equipment shortage is doubling as a bottling bucket). Bottling, I have decided, is a two-man job. It takes ages on your own and I am seriously thinking of only ever kegging from now on. But then you lose the portability… Oh for a cornie keg…
Anyhoo, things took extra long as the bottles had been lying unused in my shed for ages and were filthy. Also, Fendog ran off with the counter-top capper, leaving me with the two-lever jobby that the Communard gave us. I’d never actually used it before and I quickly realised it didn’t work. Nightmare – I had to resort to the old hammer capper. It was about as useful as a wet fart on a cold day, and I have no idea if these caps will even stay on.
Whilst all this was going on, I was also trying to brew a barleywine. That, at least, seemed to go ok, although the boiler did play up again a bit. Went for a very simple recipe – loads of fermentables to ensure a high alcohol content, a bit of crystal malt, and mahoosive amounts of hops. Nigh on cleared out my supplies. This one is going to be huge!