This week, I 'ave mostly been eating...

Here's a short but happy update on 'the craic' this week.

• Homebrewed Smithish went down spectacularly well for my first extract brew. Sweet, malty, great looking head (about 4 inches every time... so not quite a pint) and it was appreciated by everyone, including non-Smithwicks drinkers. I'm thrilled at how well it turned out. Recipe and critique will follow soon.


• Also, fantastically, the home made cider recieved some positive feedback. The words 'ripped my insides out' were thrown around a little, in a lighthearted kind of way.


• Birds have pushed a home advantage and are now 2 - 0 up in the barley stakes, but I've sown a third lot, and I've put a big net over it. This isn't to catch the birds, but to keep them off. Though if I catch one in there, I'm not sure I can be held accountable for my actions. Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the making of this beer, but some jackdaws did recieve a stream of verbal abuse and a shook fist.


• I got a some malty ingredients (wheat malt, whole pale malt and some Magnum hops) and Burton Water salts for my birthday, and I'm on the hunt for a 3-4 gallon tin to cook it in. My aim is to make an American IPA (with English hops... ooh, I am naughty).


• I turned 25, and recieved plenty of bottles of ale to sample (6 with the word OLD secreted in somewhere! Very clever, Richard! Cheers!). Having tried a few, I'm keen to try and make a Golden Ale (Badgers'), and the Hopping Hare was very interesting.


• And finally, I'm reading Ray Daniel's Designing Great Beers which I got from ma & pa. Surely I'll know everything now?

So, with that busy week over, and only about 10 pints left in the fountain, sorry, beer barrel, I'll settle down tonight with a beer, a book and a shotgun across my lap. Is that a jackdaw cackling or some community gardeners laughing at me from behind the cabbages?