first taste

one week old, and sampled a stubby of the hoegaarden...

disappointed at first cos it appeared a bit flat, but proved to have enough mouth bubble feel.

tasted crisp and very nice. still a little yeasty, but that will improve with age. minimal cloudiness. and not a huge hint of the coriander or orangepeel, tho, it was subtly there...

Brews So Far...

After probably a 10 year hiatus from brewing, i decided to get back into it, so with a little research found that homebrew needn't taste like yeasty cidery stuff you only drink to get drunk on... so, back into it, i started out with a stout:

• Bottled 21st July 2007. Coopers Stout kit, Muntons Dark Malt. quite a dark, burnt flavour. at nearly 6 months, only 3 bottles left, and its SO delicious.
  
• Bottled 30th August 2007. Brewtec Brown Ale, Amber Malt. weird brew. never really bubbled, lid wasnt on tightenough i think, thought it'd failed. something weird about it tho i might have put too little dextrose in each bottle, cos this whole brew has proved to be quite flat. tho as its aged its pretty tasty. still quite a number left.
  
• Bottled 11 October (or was it 10th Nov?) 2007. Muntons Bock, Muntons Light Malt, Saflager yeast. This brew has proved to be very very very fizzy. it champagnes upon opening each bottle, so much care must be taken when opening and pouring. its a tasty drop thats for sure, tho still not quite what i want in a bock.
  
• Bottled 3rd Jan (yesterday) 2008. Hoegaarden style- Black Rock Whispering Wheat, dry Light malt, dextrose, orange and lemon peel, coriander, Safwheat yeast. Bottled it last night, smelled good in the barrel. very cloudy wheat / hefewiessen style.

So. Bottles, I've got about 30 or so Grolsche Pop-top bottles (473ml), and then a whole bunch of 500ml bottles of various shapes from numerous brands of beer (erdinger dunkel, emersons (courtesy John), wigram, harringtons, brewmoon, old peculiar, etc etc). i also use crate bottles (750ml) and the occasional stubby (330ml). i like the 500ml size cos they pour perfectly into a glass, whereas the 750's are good for sharing and also good cos you need less of them and the bottling takes less time, but when drinking you need to pour them into a pitcher or two glasses. Stubbies are just a bit small but are useful for just grabbing those last quantities of beer out of the bottom of the barrel. in the past i used 1.25 or 2 litre plastic (coke etc) bottles. these were good for bulk, but there's something about glass...

It seems to take me about an hour to put down a brew to start with. then around 2 hours for the bottling. i do 23litres at a time, tho the stout i think i only did 20litres. they usually bubble away for over a week. the saflager yeast required lower temperatures, prefering 11 to 15 degrees C, i think it went at about 16 to 18. whereas all the ale and wheat yeast were run at 22-25 or so. makes sense tho, you brew your lagers for the summer in the winter, and you brew your ales and stouts for winter in the summer...
i currently just use Sodium Metabisulphate for sterilising...