Hello from Sandwich

Liomer

Hi,
After 30 years away from brewing I've decided to rejoin the community in my retirement. Years of regular up-to-2 hrs-each-way commuting, longer if Southeastern Rail decided that their passengers loved the experience so much that they would extend the journey-time for us, led me finally to retire 20 months ago. Until then, SWMBO had kindly made up a GnT to ease my troubled brow on my return, and this was followed in short order by a shared bottle or 2 of wine with dinner and a Famous Grouse or three to relax with before bedtime.
This continued after my retirement, but a bit of a family disaster last year led to the first GnT arriving earlier and earlier, until the doctor and bank balance convinced me to ease up a bit - a lot, actually! No more spirits, cut back on the vino, and restrict myself to a pint or so of beer. Then someone gave me some bottles of porter for Christmas and after 2 sips I as hooked! Deeply satisfying need for large quantities in an evening.
After several trips to the supermarket I thought "I could make this myself", dug out the odd bits of kit I still had after 4 house-moves (fermenting bins are great for marinating larger things like turkeys for BBQs!), bought others and started a Festival London Porter brew.
My first attempt may well fail - I had to negotiate an area to work in, which resulted in my having to use the conservatory for the fermentation. Given the recent weather the temperature in the conservatory has ranged between -3 and +30, and the bubbles in the airlock have virtually stopped after 5 days. Later today I'll add the hops and measure the OG, but I don't hold out much hope for the final result. We'll see.
One good thing, though - I have been so pessimistic over the last day or so that SWMBO has relented and says I can do the next one in the utility room - much better!
Got to go now, duties to perform - perhaps I'll post a photo of the thumbprint in the top of my head at some time - but it's good to see so much enthusiasm and good advice on this forum. Thanks for letting me join!

Peter

HBO_Staff

Hi Peter and welcome, we hope the brewing goes well for you. The fluctuating temperature can potentially stop the best flavours from being produced, this is not always easy to control for the home brewer though. Just to help to stop it fluctuating as much you might try wrapping the vessel to insulate it, this will slow any temperature change down and reduce the fluctuation. If you now have the go ahead to brew in the utility room then this may well solve the issue though

BUDFORCE

Welcome to the forum.