Brew One - Mangrove Jack's Munich Lager

Here we go....

After doing a bit of reading I decided to take action... as the title of the blog says how hard can it be?  I guess the proof will be in the taste of the beer but for now I'll summarise the start of the process:

Cleaning and Sterilisation:

It appears to me that the cleaning step is actually more sterilising than the sterilising step since it helps remove any bacteria from previous brews.  It's comforting to know that since this is a brand new kit there isn't a lot that can go wrong with this part of the process.

I filled the Fermenter with 6 litres of water and six teaspoons of the cleaner, put the lid on and swirled it around to ensure all surfaces were covered.  I then rinsed the other utensils and refilled the fermenter again with the same amount of water, this time with 6 teaspoons of the steriliser powder.  With the lid on, you leave the Fermenter for 15 minutes to allow the gas to build up inside to aid the sterilisation process.  Once complete, again rinse the utensils and drain but do not rinse the fermenter.

While I was waiting for the steriliser to work it magic I removed the lid of the Malt to get the yeast and placed can in some hot water.  The malt has a similar viscosity to golden syrup so warming it up helps with pouring it into the fermenter.

Brew Making:

Here is a slightly blurry photo of the Mangrove Jack's Munich Lager kit being poured into the Fermenter:

Once I poured the majority of the content out I used some warm water to wash around the tin to get the remainder into the fermenter.   I added more cold water (approx 6 L) to it before pouring in the Brew Enhancer and gave it a good stir.  

Once well mixed I topped the fermenter up to the 23 litre mark and this is what is looked like:

Before adding the yeast I took a couple of measurements with the Hydrometer - not sure what it was supposed to read other than both readings should be the same to show that the brew is well mixed.  I need to do some more reading to understand some of the science behind the hydrometer readings. 

The final step in the process was to add the yeast and put the airlock on the lid before closing her up.  

Job done.