The brewing year and how it's going

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Riddo

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As many on here will soon be brewing the last drinks of the year, how about letting everyone know how it's gone - what's worked, what's not etc.A beer blog if you like. I do kits (as they are) plus adapted kits and also extract (maybe biab next year in addition!) This is how this year's turned out for me. Beer wise...bloody good....

The last of the London pride clone is now bottled and conditioning in the pubshed! With it sees the start of a self imposed exile from beer making for just over two months. It's not what I WANT to do, but something I have to do. Why? There are a couple of reasons. For one, on moving the bottles to the shed i ran out of room and had to store many bottles under my 'dry' ingredients ottoman. I have to admit, that is a bloody good problem to have though! In addition, my wife would like the kitchen to look like a kitchen and not a micro brewery over the festive season. Lastly, thanks to a heart attack last year, my beer consumption for this one is down. The non-alcoholic days in the year has risen from what in all likelihood was around 10 last year to around 100 in this, with two days off a week ringing true most of the time. My love for the world's greatest drink hasn't diminished any though. In fact, if anything, it's increased! I never imagined the first brew of the year, 'Landlords finest' to be the biggest let-down, but it was. For the price it had to be marked a two out of five brew. Even my wife Jenny didn't like the 'tang'. A lesson to be learned with these beers is in cases like these, forget about it and go on to other beers as in September i found a last 'stray' bottle and the tang, well, it wasn't there, and 20 minutes later, nor was the brew!
After successive disappointments of one description or the other, harking back into the latter stages of 2013, things went uphill with Hopped up and Guvnor', two 'original' light beers brewed using tinned extract and grain, both at 3.2%, with IPA 'To victory' sandwiched in-between (Betterbrew IPA base kit). Taste aplenty. Festival 'summer glory' wasn't bad, but again for the price, another festival brew, Golden stag beats it every time. With a 6% lager I named 'Sozzled citizen' came a break from brewing. A week shy of two years of my Dads death, my wife lost hers. Shortly after his passing, i was asked by my Brother in law if i could produce a beer in his memory. The Galloping peck was brewed in June and after having supped a couple at the weekend, I can say this is a top beer, using coopers ever reliable 'real ale' kit as a base. I'd been holding on to a Cider kit courtesy of the reduced aisle in Wilkos since the summer of 2013. I found time to make this and it's bloody good (only change being non-fermentable sweetener added) Summer was in full swing at this time, July was a scorcher but the warnings i'd read about brewing during high temperatures didn't upset what i was doing. A double hopped IPA that weighed in at a hefty 7% was next up in the form of 'Evil dog' - a kit that i adjusted none. It's been a while, and i have to say it is something of a favourite among friends, though i'm getting more sweetness than expected, and less citrus. For me, this is more reminiscent of a Belgian beer. Very nice, but i won't re-visit it, not least because i don't want to brew too many strong brews. While in Norfolk in May and again courtesy of Wilkos, i'd picked up a Wherry for £14 in their sales. With a noticeable change of yeast, i chose 'Nottingham' and a late addition of cascade hops, i had high hopes. Half bottled, half kegged, all cloudy - after two months! Not a problem, another thing i picked up education wise this year revolved around cloudy brews and the fact they really won't give you the two bobs. It's very flavoursome and quaffable without me wanting to go out and make another. Last year i made a Halloween brew i called Swamp juice. It was made using a base kit of simply brown ale. It was, frankly, one of the best beers i've made. This year i changed the recipe. Idiot! I couldn't emulate it, let alone better it. Still, it is a bloody good beer, and i did keep the recipe i followed last year so all is not lost! Beer wise, i was on a roll, no sooner was one brew bottled than another was started. Next up, another Woodfordes, namely, Nog! Now, a bit of a strange one. I calculated this brew to be around 3.6%, a lot lower than expected. Again, it was as per instructions. I imagined a LONG conditioning time for this with December in mind before i was drinking and enjoying it. The brew was bottled one month ago and it really is a fantastic winter beer. It's not quite a porter but still has the characteristics of one. A depth of flavour, dark roast coffee coming through - hell, who cares if it really is only 3.6%, this is Amazing! Late September was upon us and the pub shed was looking well stocked. Two more brews to make, i told my wife, then a break. No more sticky kitchen floors, no more the smell of a malt house, nor brewing apparatus hidden behind the kitchen bar. No, this year, we'd be able to get behind it and serve our guests! Ahh, the smile i got....i can see it now!
My wife Jenny has become a good 'beer taster' over the years. Okay, you may not get the descriptive qualities of someone like Oz Clarke for instance, but you get honesty (and no bald head)! This is in the form of a reaction. Examples being 'Mm, that's nice', or 'that's not bad', and occasionally 'Hot damn boy, i'm solid gawn!!' (okay, i made that last one up) but you get the idea. I have to say, spending the morning making up the main Christmas brew this year (the all extract kit 'wreck the halls') there was some excitement. This was because of the spices boiling in the pan. There was cinnamon bark, star anise and even nutmeg, though this in powder form. When this combination is put together in a brew pot with malt extract, even i admit, it's hard to not stick holiday inn on the DVD while putting up the tinsel. Jenny loves Christmas, and when fermentation was complete, she entered the kitchen at the bottling stage to 'see if it tastes as good as it smells' the good news...it did. The better news.... just a week conditioning (and clear as a Spanish summer) i tried one, and it was (can i use this word?) Awesome! I was a fan of the Young's 'Christmas pudding ales', sadly now no more. Commercially, i've tried many 'Christmas' ales but none have come close - till now! I got the best description from Jenny on this 'It's Christmas in a glass'. The good news if you're reading this, there's still time to order and make it. One difference from the instructions was the ABV. They said 7+% mine was 5.3% but I'm actually happier with that! And so to the London Pride clone beer (as with Wreck the halls, another extract kit from Brew UK) this is already made and was bottled two short days ago. I can't comment on this for a little while but the taste on bottling was promising so i hope for good things! Chin chin!
 

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