Back into the Arts

As promised while a while ago, I have started to venture back into the brewing arts. It has been over 4 years since I last did brewing of any kind and as such my equipment is scattered across various parts of NSW and I had to make do with what I could find at my parents place. The fermenter you see here was covered in dust and mould but cleaned up pretty well with plenty of love from sodium percarbonate. I couldn't find a lid so I used the old cling film and elastic band trick which I believe is superior to an airlock anyhow.
As it had been a while I wanted to keep it simple and stuck to cans of goop. These things can be pretty ordinary if made up with adjuncts (or following the instructions) but passable if you use all malt extract. I used two cans in conjunction - A Coopers Pale Ale and a Coopers Dark Ale. This should afford me a robust porter, and should be balanced to style. After plenty of aeration I pitched only the yeast that came with the Pale Ale. This yeast sachet contains both a lager and a neutral ale strain so I should get a pretty clean tasting product. I didn't bother taking any gravity measurements as I couldn't find a hydrometer, but with 3.4kg of malt extract it should be about 1.045 which will leave me with a finished beer of about 4.3%. I'll leave it to ferment for two weeks and then rack it to a cube and cold condition it for a further two weeks. This specimen is going to be bottled in 375mL VB stubbies for consumption sometime in November. Luckily I have plenty of piss sitting in my phat flat to tide me over till then.