Home Brew Triple Reviewed!

My recent light-hearted capitulation of a post turned out to be true; Big Stevie Segal was on TV last night. And I drank some Triple! The prophecy was complete. Ah, the wisdom achieved off the back of home brew.

So, finally, we see an educated review of a home brewed beer on here. I’ve been reading up, and I think some of the words are:
Very malty.
Spiced and hopped.
Light smokiness (from the sugar, I think).
Not overly, but noticeably sweet.
Above all, the eagerness of double vision so soon after the first glass makes me think I needn’t have bothered getting two bottles out of the shed.
Nice!

I’d like to reassure you of my determination to being a better beer blogger. Soon, I will buy myriad beers and sample them all, as my homework, in order that my palette be better next time I drink something I don’t think I’ve ever tried before.

Finally, a warm welcome to the person or persons responsible for the 36 hits from Norway this week, and the occasional visitor from Israel. Spying on you wasn’t as easy before Browser Cookies, what? Please, leave comments, so I can look good.

Back to the Beer

The last post had the look of a government health warning about it (and the one before that looked a lot like a Guinness ad from the 70s…). Any similarities are purely coincidental.

Now then, back to homebrew: I’ve had another, tentative taste of the Brewferm Triple with my family. It’s mellowed since the last time, and the flavour has broadened a little. It certainly does not lack body! The strength of the flavour and alcohol come from the use of less water, and candi sugar, which has its own strong flavour, common with this type of beer. And while it went down well with my dad, it didn’t go down so well with my mum or my missus (though I thank them all for trying it). Similarly, if it were ordered at a bar, neither my dad nor myself would be drinking it all night! We were definitely in connoisseur territory with the Tripple. However, if you like Leffe etc. then I think that brewing this would be right up your... um...

I'll review the Triple properly tonight, in front of some Steven Segal or something, and I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Sugar! I don't like it in my tea...

... and it turns out I’m not that fond of it in my beer!

Something I may have mentioned in the first couple of posts is the overly fruity or cidery feel to the beer I’ve been brewing. Thinking that it was the yeast that was to blame, and I’ve been looking online for different strains.

But, it turns out that the current system of one tin and one kilogram of sugar is the problem. A beer that has sugar in a ratio greater than 2 parts malt, 1 part sugar, tends towards my unwanted cidery flavour. In fact, it is recommended not to use any adjuncts to a greater extent than 20% of the fermentable sugars. For example: if I use a 1.6kg tin, I ought not add more than 400g of your ordinary everyday sugar, far less than the kilogram I've been putting in. The amount of water used would then have to be reduced, of course, to keep the intended specific gravity, but the result would be a nicer beer, I’m led to believe… though unfortunately a little less of it!

In fact, according to homebrewblog.co.uk, your everyday household sugar (sucrose) "needs to be broken down initially into fructose and dextrose [...] fructose can leave a somewhat apple-like aftertaste". Brewing sugar, which is just dextrose, doesn't. Another person, elsewhere, goes on to say the appley taste diminishes with conditioning.

I'm sure most homebrewers don't mind the taste, but this is the next step for me. Or maybe I could go further; two tins of malt, and no sugar, for 40 pints. It would push the price up to a whopping 45p per pint, but it'll be worth it.

So, there I go! I can either fork out more for my ingredients, or wait a little longer for my beer...

All this information, and so much more, can be found in Charlie Papazian’s book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

Homebrew - It's Good for You

I've been arguing this for a while now, and I feel that, being home made, Homebrew can only be good for you. And even though a lot of sugar goes in, the yeast turns it all into alcohol, and the yeast cells at the bottom can be found as a source of vitamin B in healthfood shops. In sufficient quantities, Homebrew can even help you sleep. You're doing yourself a favour, drinking Homebrew.

New Year's Resolution

An(other) update.

Shortly before christmas I did the following:

1. Tried the Triple. Nice, but definately needs more time in the shed.
2. Sniffed the cider. Looks like it can wait till spring, too. Back under the stairs with ye.
3. Finished the rest of everything else. Another local home brewer brought round some (posh) Pilsner too (in a screw top wine bottle - brave), so we had a little sample evening. It wasn't a 'home brew party' by a long way, but it's the closest I've got yet! The upshot is Pilsner will be on my next shopping list.

Father Christmas was good to me again this year. Three beery books*, and a mystery piece of brewing paraphernalia from a market in town. Of course, the mystery may unravel once I see it, but so far, all we know is it's home brew related. And in the shop. I've got my fingers crossed for a mash tun.
*I spy a link*
I'm reading about extract brewing, at the moment, *there it is!* which is giving me ideas for a summer project. I'm hoping the hop plant I got last year will flower this time, giving me a good opportunity to try something a little more like making Uncle Ben's stir fry, and less like the Bachelor's tinned soup method that I'm used to. Although I can't even do that, at the moment, as I've knackered another tin opener. I'm going to try the ones that cut in from the side next. An unexpected lesson to learn.

In the meantime, a bit more waiting. Waiting for some disposable cash for more tins, or for the two stalwarts, sitting it out under the stairs/in the shed, to mature - whichever comes first!

For now, though, I think a New Year's toast** is in order; make mine a home brew!

*The books will appear on the Reviews page soon.
I also got some Olde Worlde ale spices to put in cider, ale etc which I'm looking forward to. Hope I don't confuse them with the normal teabags. I'll throw in a review of them, too, 'coz I like your face.
**New Year's Toast = anagram = We r Oats n' Yeast!

My New Juicer:

I've just come back from, amongst other places, a 'Good as New' charity shop with a fruit juicer for only 5 euro! What a bargain. Too late for the apples, of course, but I've just made carrot and ginger and apple and shrivelled tangerine juice with it, and I can't believe how much easier it was than weilding a bit of two-by-four. Well, no, I can believe it, but the 2x4 was easier to clean.

Cider:

Making the cider reminded me of doing the first brew; checking up on it every five minutes, sniffing it, making sure it’s nice and cosy, etc. Recently I’ve been quite confident in my brewing technique, so brewing up has become routine. Now, trying something completely different, it has that sense of the unknown again. Adventure, exploration, that kind of thing.

Also, this week, I’ve opened up the second lot of IPA. It’s to coincide with a curry I made, which coincides with a book I’m reading about I.P.A. and its journey to India. The book’s called Hops and Glory, by a fellow called Pete Brown. It’s a great book, and though it only just creeps into the home brew genre, it will none the less receive a review in the appropriate section soon. Oh, and the I.P.A. was fine, thanks!

So now that the cider is fermenting away in the spare room, under a sleeping bag, a duvet and some sort of blanket, we’ve got the dining room table back. The apples were resting there for a week, as per online advice (well, they didn’t specify a dining room table), and it didn’t take long before bills, books and other day to day household gubbins were piled on top of the apples!

I won’t really know how the cider turns out until spring, but until then I’ve written up my ‘recipe’ (with pictures) in a separate page. It’s not particularly useful until then, as it might turn out not to work, but if I don’t write it now I’ll not remember what I did. Anyway, these nights are drawing in, and I need something to write about!