Bottling the Black Ale, which actually is not an Ale Finally got the time to bottle the Black Ale I've made a couple of weeks ago, and the results are both good and disappointing. Bottling was pretty straight forward, but quantities were higher than I used to at 10L vs the usual 8.5L-9L, and as expected from the low OG, the FG was 1013 (adjusted), so a total of 3% ABV. This … [Read more...]
Supplies from a new store
Supplies from a new store Having done some more research into beer supplies, I've tried the services of a new retailer - Home Brew Online (pretty simple domain...), and I must say I'm impressed. On the weekend I planned on bottling the Black Ale (that might be a bitter), but found on Friday that I'm all out of Dextrose, such a stupid mistake! Went online to try to find … [Read more...]
Going back to basics to understand beer
In my haste to make beer (and probably arrogance), I haven't made a full attempt to understand the ways that beer is measured, classified and categorized. I know things by hunch, and from drinking experience (like the difference between lager and ale, of what make an IPA as such), but I can't really put a finger on what I know, so here start a little research that I'm doing for … [Read more...]
The beer mile of Bermondsey
I want to keep this blog about beer, so only makes sense to also look at places I can learn from, drink at, and enjoy their environment as well. On Saturday we went on a round of breweries located along a mile under the renovated rail arches at Bermondsey. The Bermondsey brewery mile has become quite a phenomena is south east London, and it offers the chance to try and buy … [Read more...]
Brewing my Black Ale for the second time – single hop, first process
After almost 3 months of not brewing, I finally managed to get my extract in, clear some time, and just brew. I've mentioned that I want to focus more on hops, and use my Black Ale for it, so step one is to actually perfect the basic recipe. The main work here is to have a better log, and run a couple of identical rounds of brewing. Due to the more exact logging, I can … [Read more...]