Tag: brewing

A lovely day out in the woods yesterday making a beer heated entirely with stones. This is I think the fifth time we've brewed in the woods. The first 3 or so times we were direct heating over the flames, only last time my friend suggested we try the old method of using stones. They work like a dream, no nasty soot or smoke to worry about, pretty good temp control. We didn't get up to a rolling boil, but got pretty close to it.

No idea how they got here but it looks like I've got some barley randomly growing in my garden! I'm kind of wondering whether to preserve the seeds and sow them in a small patch next year, then do the same till I get enough to malt for a batch of beer. Commercial yield is about 600g/m2, so I'd need 10m2 to even think about it. Anybody got a bit of allotment space free in a few years?!

Autumn harvest time. Bit later than usual as I've been away for a few weeks. Have some now 7-8 yr old hop plants that are doing pretty well. It's a bit of a process but you basically take them down, chop them up, strip, dry, vac pack and freeze them. I get about a 1-1.5kg of dry hops from them, enough for 100 litres or so of beer.

Side by side Flemish red comparison with a yeast capture at the last homebrew meet @brewdogbrighton. Tried: Vanderghinste, Vichtenaar, Ichtegem and @struisebreweries Dark Horse (dark sour aged in Bordeaux barrels for 4 years). The Vicht had malt aroma only and quite sweet tasting, low acidity. Vand more balsamic aroma, similar sweet/sour balance. Icht more balsamic, more sweetness, more vinegar.

Blackberries and wine made by myself from Sussex dornfelder grapes. About to blend these with 2 different portions of my 2018 solera sour. Nearly wrote the dornfelder off as it had quite a musty aroma 4 months ago but that has rounded out and turned into spicy/leathery aromas. Will bottle some of the straight wine and blend the rest 1:3 with the solera.

Cheeky haul on the way back from work. Crab apples (for use in a Brett saison) and a nice big parasol mushroom.