Tuesday 20 July 2010

Brewing Update


I brewed my sixth all grain beer last weekend. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster; I've brewed the best and worst brews ever on consecutive weekends.

The worst was an attempt at Brentwood Best which I think, suffered from a blip in my cleaning regimen. It didn't taste infected but it certainly tasted rank and it has been suggested to me that I may have failed to adequately rinse out the cleaner/sanitiser.

The best was a pale ale single hop beer for which I used Green Bullet at 90mins, 30 mins and flame out, 90% pale malt with 5% crystal and 5% torrefied wheat. Amazingly it was drinkable at 7 days in the bottle but at a month it is a crisp, thirst quenching pale bitter. There is a hint of aroma that doesn't actually encourage me to take a sip but, other than that, I'm well happy.

Last weekend I also put the finishing touches to my bar, I've eschewed my King Kegs in favour of four cornelius kegs, a chiller, three tap T-bar and a beer engine. Obviously I have a lot to learn about the set up (like not to leave the gas on for a start!) but it's a start and I hope to have four drinkable beers in there in a couple of weeks' time.