Things I've learnt after the first few days.

1. Don't fill the jar; leave a couple of inches: the cabbage rises with the air bubbles and needs pressing down every day for the first few days. I left one inch which was not enough.
2. Put some holes in the cling film! The first morning the cling film had formed a balloon, rising a few inches out of the jar.
3. Keep the weights on the cabbage to keep it down a bit as the gas tries to push it up.
4. The whole house is filled with a lovely fresh cabbage smell.

 Making Sauerkraut

1. Bought two 4.25l jars with 10cm openings, https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08P9VVSDD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2. Followed the BBC recipe https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/simple-sauerkraut but with 4tbsps salt per 2kg which seems to be the consensus across the web.
   
3. The recipe says 15g per 500g later so I should probably have done this!
4. Shredded four white cabbages, which ended up filling up one jar nicely. Worked in the salt in a mixing bowl for 7-8 minutes in three batches.
5. Pounded down with a pounder.
6. Used tinned tomatoes wrapped in cling film as a weight.
7. The liquid formed quickly. 
8. House filled with a lovely cabbage aroma

Now I just have to wait 3 to 6 weeks!

Smoked Chicken Drumsticks

I'm smoking a 1kg packet of frozen drumsticks today with my new Cameron smoker. I'm trying to find an easy recipe and am trying smoking the legs for 30 minutes (defrosted but straight from the fridge) and then leaving them to cool in the smoker. The smoker gets very hot, so I'm hoping that this will cook them through.

#4 Batch: Coopers Stout

Brewed the fourth batch today: Coopers Stout + Munton Beer Enhancer.

I'd just finished drinking the #2 Canadian Lager, so the barrel was free. I'm now drinking the #3 Woodforde's Wherry, which seems much better than the first batch, for some reason; perhaps it's the extra two weeks in the barrel before drinking.

I had a couple of problems with the #2 lager: first the syphon tube inside the barrel came off, so I had to depressurise the barrel to open it and then refit the syphon. The site I bought the barrel from were very helpful, telling me what to do. As per instructions, I added 4oz of sugar to the barrel to repressurize it and the following day, the saftey valve (a glorified elastic band) broke, the beer foaming out of the top of the barrel! A did a quick fix with some elastic bands; a quite difficult feat amongst the beer foam and the supplier sent me two replacement bands, so I'm hoping that the next batch behaves itself.

Third Batch

A second go at Woodforde's Wherry started today. The Coopers Canadian Blonde came out of the airing cupboard and into the outside store today to make room for the new batch. I tasted the Canadian Blonde and it's dry and fizzy, so I think the fermentation must be complete. The beer was cloudy but the first pint of the last batch was cloudy too. The float seems to get covered with yeast during brewing, making the first beer out of the barrel a bit cloudy.

The temperature of the new must was 25 degrees C and the O.G. was 1025, which seems a bit low. I was careful to get every drop of concentrate into the barrel, washing the cans out with the boiling water, I put the correct volumne of water in and mixed the ingredients thouroughly, so I'm not sure why the reading was so low.

Second Batch

The second batch is Coopers 40 pint Canadian Blonde with 1 Kg Munton Beer Enhancer added in place of sugar.

Initial Temperature: 24C
Original Gravity: 1030+

I had trouble reading the OG due to putting the hydrometer into the barrel and not being able to read it properly. Next time I'll have to use a glass container. The reading was at least 1030, probably about 1033. I'm not sure how well mixed the sugar was either! All in all a bit of a waste of time. Hopefully, I'll be able to do this better.

First Tasting

I tried the first batch on Friday, was impressed and promptly ordered a second starter kit, so I can have one barrel on the go while drinking from the other! I also ordered Coopers lager kit to try a different beer. All in all a good start!