My Fuggles/Citra-based golden ale. Smells good, looks good, tastes great!
Have you tried your hand at home brewing? I’m not talking about kit stuff here; I’m talking proper full grain mashing, hop boiling and all that jazz. It’s massive in the US – I urge anyone to look up the many podcasts and vodcasts available on iTunes (for free) – and we all know how microbreweries are springing up all across the UK (800 plus). See below for some recommended resources.
Speaking personally, I’m 15 months into a Stalinesque five-year plan to set up a microbrewery and aim to chronicle my progress here at TheGuestAle.com. The most recent step was attending the excellent Brewlab course up in Sunderland recently, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone keen to brew beer.
After several failed brews and following a recipe in a book I found closely, I finally struck gold this week with a breakthrough beer which I swear tastes a little like Summer Lightning from Salisbury’s Hop Back Brewery. It was also clear as day – something I’d never achieved in previous brews, there was always some cloudiness. And that was after one week’s fermentation. I cannot wait to taste it in a few weeks’ time after some bottled fermentation.
I will be using this breakthrough recipe (pale and crystal malt base, Fuggles in the bitter, Citra and Fuggles in the aroma) again to see if I can repeat it. Oh, and I forgot to measure the ABV, but I reckon that’d be around 4%.
I’d love to hear your experiences in home brewing. How are you getting on? Let us know here or on our Facebook or Twitter feeds.
Recommended reading
Brew Your Own British Real Ale (Graham Wheeler)
Home Brewing (Kevin Forbes)
Recommended podcasts
