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 weekend when I will be bottling them.
Also, I’ve bottled the Cranberry Ale, and at first view I’m very happy. The colour is a dark bronze, and it has a fruity aroma while still giving a very 
clear beer flavour with a sweet and sour after taste. I’m sure some time in the bottle will make it great. I’ve ended up with 11.5 litres, which I added to them 80g of dextrose for priming. A little higher than usual, but I’m aiming for more carbonation, similar to IPAs.
I’ve decided to use 6×1 litre plastic soda bottles, and the rest in my regular flip-tops for the Cranberry Ale, as I want it to be drank as a dinner sharing drink, and not an individual beer. I’m curious to see how the bottles hold, as I had good experience with them making mead and elderflower beer.
Another thing that happened on the weekend is the move of the Black Ale and Coffee Porter to cooling, just to realize that I can’t store more than 13 bottles at the time in our fridge (and keep our food there….), so I will be looking to try and squeeze a small fridge just for beer storage in our flat – more to come. If you know of a small 100 litre style fridge in London for sale, get in touch.
Until I get the fridge, I will be slowing down on the brewing, as we just can’t deal with so much beer (and no, I can’t drink it all in 3 days….)