Lockdown Brewing

When the pubs closed in March 2020 I wanted to start up my homebrew again but as it was years since my last brew and I no longer had the brewing bucket or barrel, I still had a few bottles and some equipment so went on the internet to buy new, and wow I think everyone had the same idea, the prices were just too much or out of stock, I tried a number of times over the weeks but ended up just giving up as It looked like it wasn't meant to be, so I stuck with drinking supermarket home delivery bottles or the mini 9 pint kegs.

The idea was to reuse the mini kegs and bottles for my homebrew to store my beers, that way I only needed a fermenting bucket but I still couldn't get one.

In July 2021 before the pub closed for renovations I was told by a friend that her x had some brewing equipment that she was going to throw away unless I want it, too right I wanted it, but it wasn't until 22nd July that I could get it picked up, when I went to collect there where two fermenting buckets, three barrels and a lot of bottles, they were very dirty and there was even some beer left in the barrels but as they were a few years old I wasn't going to drink it.

It took me such a long time to clean the buckets, barrels and bottles, the buckets were easy but the barrels were a nightmare to clean but I got there, I needed new seals and I was going to get new caps as they looked just too bad to use, but ultimately I decided not to use the barrels.

It would be November 2021 before I started my first brew in 14 years.