Works In Progress

Well, today I couldn't control myself any longer. Having transferred the maiden brew to keg last Friday, not knowing whether what was inside was oxydised, infected, failing to undergo secondary fermentation, or just plain foul, today I drew off a small sample just to see how it was going. As you can see from the picture, it's still pretty cloudy (as you would expect with 2-3 weeks conditioning still needed), but it came out eagerly enough and was pretty lively. This seems like a good thing - that it's producing enough CO2 by itself to pressurize the keg and push it out of the tap at a fair old lick. Again, the photo shows it's got a very respectable head to it; and it had a very nice mild carbonation on the tongue.

As to the taste... Well, you know what, it wasn't bad at all. It was a little bit sweet, but there was a nice fruitiness to it and a bit of hoppiness there too. A touch of complexity on the aftertaste. If it continues to work away like it should then I'm very much looking forward to the first pint of Brampton Mild some time between the 13th & the 20th of June. A nice beer to toast Midsummer hopefully!

Flushed by this success, the plan is to get going on Brew # 2 on Tuesday. This time it's a slightly more complicated recipe: 3 malts instead of 2 and 3 varieties of hop instead of 1. All this should hopefully produce something resembling the Scottish 80 shilling or 'wee heavy' style by mid July. The beer's not the only thing conditioning away in the garage. We thought we'd have a taste to see how the quince vodka is going. We started it back in October last year with some free quinces (we must find somewhere to get them this year!) and it'll be the second time we've made it. The first time we thought it would be ready in 2 or 3 months, in time for Christmas. We tasted it and it was utterly abominable and poured one bottle away in disgust. Luckily we missed the second bottle - when we found it again in September it had changed by some beneficial alchemy into delicious golden elixir.

We tried the current batch the other day and, true to form, it was awful! You might be able to pick out the swirling grots in the bottle in the photo - I guess it's in the way these grotty bits are precipitated, along with a slight oxidation, that improves the drink so much. Something to look forward to enjoying over Christmas!