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Two and a bit weeks on - its pretty much fermented out: -- Bottling in the next couple of days with a little priming sugar - its getting very dry so Ill probably add a little artifical sweetener too, although Ill leave a couple of bottles unsweetened to see what it would have been like if I...

Sounds like a cracking idea to me - one of the most interesting places I visited when I did a brewery tour in Portland (http://brewvana.com/ - well worth the effort) was the Portland U-Brew http://www.portlandubrewandpub.com/ - same sort of concept, was tempted to set up something similar myself...

Loads of crab apples this year so time for a natural fermentation experiment. Two buckets full of crab apples - wash, slice & then mince in the food processor Press in my small vigour fruit press with a certain amount of swearing yield - 8 litres of tart but quite drinkable juice & a rather...

Heres a picture of last years chilli forest in the greenhouse: -- Hottest last year was the Dorset Naga, which was mostly made into power .. stupidly hot powder - this year I decided that I wouldnt grow any of the superhots .. ended up planting Dorset Naga (again) White Ghost Pepper, Carolina...

Heres a picture of the cherry bitter I knocked up at the start of the year - about 1KG of cherries frozen then gentle boiled for about 5 mins, added to a generic bitter kit at the start - I think I used a Youngs harvest bitter & US Safe 05 yeast. -- Its pretty good now - bitter with a...

Standout kit for 2016 was probably the Youngs American Mocha Porter, closely followed by Bulldogs Bad Cat Imperial Red - both are likely to get done again this year. Surprised by how well Coopers Ginger Beer & Youngs brew buddy Pear cider turned out, all be it with a bit of tweaking so keeping...

I cant say Ive noticed any side effects at all - unfortunately I had a heart problem about 10 years ago which has left me on various pills to regulate the rhythm & control the hypertension that Ive inherited from both my parents ; those in turn make it more difficult to exercise, so I put on...

Does sound like theres something else going on as well as the Gout - from what I remember it pretty much went away & stayed away when I started taking allopurinol (2x300 for me) & Ive been on it for a couple of years now without any more attacks. They should be able to tell pretty easily if they...

Blimey - thats a lot of Citra - anything more than a couple of days dry hopped would be ample for me, any longer & its overpoweringly hoppy.

I work around the corner from Gardiner Haskins in Bristol - they reduce all the short shelf life kits towards the end of the month - always worth popping in to see if anything interesting is cheap. Infact I might pop in tomorrow if I have a chance :-) .. tomorrow arrives ... A fine haul...

At the moment Im using these fullers goblet glasses - good for something with a bit of head + they were a promo gift about 20 years ago. -- Sometimes I like to use this oldstyle glass from the Arkells brewery in Swindon - Ive had this for years & honestly dont remember where I stole it from...

Picked up a couple of cans of this discounted to £3 to sell by end of June (been sitting in the queue of things to do - yeast is in the fridge..) after a couple of weeks of 30'c+ in the kitchen its dropped to a more reasonable 25'c so started one of these off - 500g soft brown, 500g brew...

Bottled after three weeks - added the hops at about 12 days, but at two weeks I tasted it & was getting too much alcohol & not enough hoppyness for me so I added some extra citra hops & left it another week - had about the right level of hoppy power today so have high hopes for it, its going...

Ive been to a couple of American style beer festivals & have mixed feelings about them - they differ from the (proper) UK festivals in that once you have a ticket all the beer is free - but you have to drink it from the teeny-tiny plastic they supply ; so good for trying little bits of lots &...

Strangely enough, Im about half way thru a book I picked up second hand about the early history & development of the chilli pepper - The title & author escape me at the moment (will add them when I remember) but I think that he said that there are two main types of Jalapeno - the original hot...

Banger Brewing in Vegas make a rather good Jalepeno Hefeweizen - I have to admit that I had already had a couple before I did the brewery tour so its all a bit hazy but I think that they said they just roast up the peppers & add them about 1/2 way thru the boil - might be worth dropping them a...

Made up a batch as per instructions on Sunday - its certainly going for it - hopefully it wont come out the airlock, but theres 4" of head & growing..

I did however make £155 betting on Iceland to win.. does that make me a bad person ? Ive also put £10 on them to beat France. Its only fair.

Hey ! I did this brew around the end of May I think, so havent actually tried any yet - but since you've asked, Ive put a bottle in the fridge to try later - will let you know!

Hygiene was OK I think - No campden tablets & I cant find the ph test stuff (!) but I did just check the date on the yeast nutrient.. its a wee bit past it.. oh ok, I should have used it up in 2012. Given that & the possibly excessive use of cinnamon which it turns out kills yeast Ive invested...