It's been a while since I had a chance to write here and last weekend my wife and I finally had a proper tasting of the Black Ale that was split on hops - each batch got dry hopping with a different hops variety: Golding vs Fuggle hops. The beer itself is my standard Black Ale from an extract. It had the right color, been boiled with Fuggles and resulted with a 3.89% ABV - a … [Read more...]
Slow weekend with some promises for tomorrow
I haven't had much time this weekend, aiming to spend more time outdoors, but I managed to get couple of things done with some excitement about tomorrow. The Black Ale BIAB has moved to the fridge to get the carbonation settled after 2 weeks of priming. Tomorrow I'm planning to try the first one with the rest waiting for next weekend - this is something I'm looking forward … [Read more...]
Some updates and a new development for the Black Ale
Last weekends was thanksgiving (my wife is American, so we do a small gathering in London), and so many beers were drunk, but non made. The much needed fridge is here too, so there is good storage and refrigeration for all the beers, resulting in every man's dream - a beer fridge! The Cranberry Ale was a great success, and managed to appeal both to the more heavy drinkers … [Read more...]
Bottling day and a good Black Ale vs a less good one standoff
Our house is now officially at full storage capacity for beers. The fridge has a quarter of it full of beers all the time, and after bottling the Cranberry ale last week and bottling the higher gravity Black Ale (more below) this week, all the storage space is in full and the need for an extra fridge becomes vital - I hope to find one by next week, and then some more beer … [Read more...]
Bottling, hopping and the lack of space
This weekend was just some of the less exciting sides of beer making - I've added dry hops (Goldings, 4.6%) to the Black Ale split batch from last week, 15g to each fermenter. The beers have been through some fermentation, with the lower gravity one seemed to have finished the fermentation (1012) and the higher gravity one still going (1019), we will see how it will be at the … [Read more...]