More beer

I finally got round to keeping some of our second brew in the glass long enough to get a picture of it. We've been drinking it for a few weeks now and there are probably only about 5 or 6 pints of it left! One thing I've found out is that if the keg (this one's been living in a King Keg bottom tap) is used a lot over a short period of time, it can lose a fair bit of its CO2 pressure, making the beer reluctant to come out and lose a bit of its sparkle. It's not a huge problem, as it's still coming out and tasting delicious, but might be more of an issue when I'm using my 'top tap' keg that relies more on barrel pressure to dispense the beer.

One way around this would be to top up with carbon dioxide from a soda stream cylinder (art of brewing sell an adapter for the top of the keg) and re-pressurize the keg that way. Or to take less beer from it at each visit. Difficult when it tastes so nice!

Anyway, having finally posted a picture of the finished article, it's pretty much time to transfer the latest brew (a golden ale using Protz & Wheeler's recipe for Exmoor Gold) into its keg to mature. We're hoping there won't be too big a beer-less gap between the two batches. But then there's always the great new beer shop in Burslem - last night we opened bottles of Aventinus & Duchesse de Bourgogne courtesy of The Beer Emporium on Market Street. I'll do a proper post about this excellent shop soon.