Beer, beer, beer

Haven't found much time to blog lately. And when it comes to seasonal customs, this time of year was always too full of hard work for too much fun. I've already posted about our Rumtopf and now is the time for planning for and making all kinds of treats for the winter months. So it's jams, jellies, chutneys and booze that needs time to get tasty in bottle or jar. We really hope we can find a supply of quinces this year - Cambridge was full of them, we got loads via a post on the local Freecycle scheme - but we've not found a supplier so far in Newcastle...

The beer is still going surprisingly well (I always expect these kind of things to go wrong!). The latest beer (a 'clone' of Banks & Taylor Black Bat from Protz & Wheeler's book of recipes - a nice strong beer for October) is currently fermenting away quite nicely in its bucket. Fermentation is going quite well - the gravity needs to drop from 1064 to 1015. So far, after 3 and a bit days of work it's down to 1040. The yeast I'm using this time is Wyeast's London III (1318).

As that one starts off, we're tackling Brew 3, another Protz & Wheeler recipe, for Exmoor Gold. It's turned into a very clean-tasting (if a slightly *too* hoppy) golden ale, quite summery and light. The pictures below show samples at 1, 2, 3 & 4 (well, *almost* 4 - we couldn't wait any longer!) weeks. Somewhere in the 3rd week, the cloudy stuff turned into delicious golden beer...