Brewferm Gallia.....

I'd definitely brew it again. Even if I over-carbonated the last batch (or because it's been sitting there for 4 months...), it's still a tasty beer. I do like the Brewferm kits, because to be honest, they're in small enough batches (about 10-13 litres, generally) that you don't have too much bottling to do, or to find bottles for. And they mostly taste nice!

Gallia went well with the first Barbecue of the year, though we ate indoors - it got cold a bit quickly this evening...just finishing roast banana with meringue...mmm..

I missed the Irish Craft Brewer's Brew It Yourself day today, (as advertised here, and here, and other places too) in Franciscan Well in Cork. I had half-thought about making it down, but the guilt of looking at the garden, and the state of the shed meant I had to stay home.

Oh, and the Bulmers Pear stuff, it's quite nice aswell - a can is being emptied as we speak. Decanted, from the glass, to the person. I babble. Onwards, and upwards. Bizarre to be thinking of lighting a fire after the spectacular weather and temperature we had today, but it's gone quite cool and Met Éireann promise frost, so there's excuse enough.....

Homebrew score!

I opened one of my Gallias last evening - and it didn't foam out of the bottle and glass all over the kitchen sink! So I got to taste it, and I found it to be not unpleasant. I think this is the best of the 3 homebrews I've tried so far, and was actually quite a nice beer. Puts me almost back in the humour to do another one - though I've lots of Gallia to get through (and I'm afraid to share it because 75% of it is really over-fizzy and it'll either put sharees off or ruin their trousers....) so it'll be a while. Plus, I definitely think kegging's the way to go.

Ambiorix gets tastier

Hey all, just a random update. Opened (carefully) another of my ambiorix beers tonight. I got most of this one, though it took about 15 minutes to settle down in the glass - half in the glass half in the bottle meant I got to save most of it! It's quite tasty now, there's still a homebrew twang from it, but it's not as sour as it used to be. That said I'm wondering if every bottle is slightly different, because of different amounts of beer/sugar in each one, as in the mixture i bottled mightn't have been fully homogenous....hmm. I haven't had any feedback yet.

I bottled some of my second brew tonight. A Fixby Gold, which looks nice. I ran out of bottles, some of the ones I had weren't clean enough to use tonight so I'll have to find myself about 8 litres' worth of bottles in the next couple of days. Hopefully it'll be ok in the bucket for a couple of days yet!

And isn't it a great winter we're having? We had been thinking of holidaying in Ireland this year, but seriously, with weather like this? C'mon Bord Fáilte, get something done about it.

Topical Thinking Point for today - The return of college fees would surely be A Bad Thing? Aren't we sposed to be a knowledge economy? If the economics of gaining knowledge are personally punitive, we will not achieve that. Is the tax return on a higher-qualified population not sufficient to cover the costs? I'd have thought it is, but might be wrong. The current system, while not perfect, at least allows equal access to all on a monetary footing. If fees of 3-4k a year were introduced, attendance at courses would be dramatically cut, surely?

Beer Again

Maybe I was complacent, but this morning's brew didn't go easily at all. Well, it did up until when I tried to open the cans. The opener I'd bought was a piece of junk, and is now in the bin. It really wasn't up to it - don't anyone buy a "butterfly" style of can opener!

Then after all that, I forgot to stir the beer, so there was a layer of thick viscous wort in the bottom of the bucket, though I've swirled it around a few times and it seems to have disappeared. A starting gravity of 1.044, with an expected final gravity of 1.010 means I might get 4% ale out of this kit - it's a Fixby Gold.

Fingers crossed it's all worked out. Exasperation hopefully doesn't lead to contamination!

What weather we're having

Isn't it wonderful? How in July you can go for a walk and get soaked, then come back and need a nice wintry dinner of bacon and spuds? Grr. Time to rediscover Scrabble methinks!

The beer is like a scab. I can't leave it alone. A week after bottling, I opened the runt-bottle, which was the last when I was filling, and it was only half full. Delighted, I was, to hear the "kish" of carbon dioxide escaping from the beer - it's fizzy! Taste-wise, I hope it improves. It's not the worst thing I ever tasted, but it's kinda sweet. Maybe that's why we've to leave it for 6-8 weeks....Patience, grasshopper.

A serious day - bottling, strawberries, and sausages

So, with the weather being well, ok, and us both having the day off, it being a Sunday, we headed off. Enniscorthy is the target, being the venue for the Enniscorthy Strawberry Festival. Subdue your excitement.

There was an All-Ireland Farmer's Market - consisting of about 17 stalls, not even one per county! Some of these sold strawberries (2), other sold preserves, cheeses, meats and vegetables. So that was ok - we had a sausage roll there made from sausage about 40mm diameter (verging on the too-thick side of cookability I think) which was tasty.

As there was little else happening, bar a cookery demonstration (and neither M or I were interested) we decided to seaside it, and ended up in Rosslare watching the Irish Sea do what it did. We stopped for grub on the way home in the Ramada resort near Tullow - this cannot be recommended as a course of action to anybody and we should have come home and barbecued, though we were absolutely ravenous at this stage.

Decided to bottle the beer tonight. This is a messy operation, and the following were noted:

1: Count your bottles, make sure you have enough. Add about 6 bottles to the "enough" number, because you mightn't actually fill the bottles as much as they claim to hold.

2: Get a no-rinse steriliser/sanitiser for your bottles. This will save on water and time. I had to rinse each bottle a couple of times - wasting water. This is A Bad Thing.

3: Grow some more arms, or else ask a helper to pass by. Someone to hold the siphon in the bucket whilst you're at the other end filling bottles is very brilliant.

4: Check the top of all bottles that you're proposing to use, as some fancy bottles (Wychwood ales for example) won't take a crown cap with the capper I've got.

5: Have a towel or 2 handy. Just in Case.

Beers....

Last night, I indulged in some old engine oil, or should I say Old Engine Oil - a "dark beer" from Scotland. Apparently, the original master brewer of the brewery had worked for Ford in his previous life, and this beer reminded him of the engine oil.....Now, not having ever drank engine oil (5W40, or even 10W40) I can't say it tastes like it, but it has the colour alright!

It's not as viscous as you'd think - with a name like that you'd expect something gloopy, but it's black and more like stout than a beer. Chocolate certainly does live somewhere in it, but it's bitter too. This would probably be an acquired taste, but you can certainly see there's quality in it. At 6% ABV, you shouldn't knock them back either!

As for my own, it's bubbling away. Had a little taster earlier today, and checked the specific gravity - down to 1.02 from 1.052 last week, so maybe halfway there? Taste still isn't great, but it's a little more beery than it was last week! More on that as it comes along.

Day 1 Fermentation Report

So, I measured the specific gravity again this evening using a hydrometer, we seem to have 1% alcohol or thereabouts - so something's happening! The stuff - I'm sure there's a proper name for half-fermented worts - tastes a lot less sweet than it did yesterday, and there's a little bit of fizz in it. There's no real taste as yet. It's a dark caramel in colour, and doesn't taste of TCP or anything nasty, so hopefully it's gonna turn out drinkable.

Cat-win, I never thought of asking at all!

Pressure

Positive pressure being exerted by fermentation vessel means that there's definitely something happening. I think I killed the yeast yesterday by exposing it to temperatures that are incompatible with life, but I got another batch of yeast today and threw it into the mixture - it's just about to start bubbling!

The Initial Gravity read at 1.052, which is a little lower than it said on the tin, but that'll hopefully just mean a little less alcohol in the final product rather than taste. Well it's working away now, whatever will be will be.

Incidentally, I got a Logitech Cordless Laser mouse MX620 for my laptop yesterday - a fantastically comfortable piece of input device - I heartily recommend for anyone who's looking for the ball-less, tail-less mouse of their dreams.

Referendum - Vote for Beer.

Isn't it interesting, how referenda seem to get so much coverage, but so little attention? Approximately 40% of the electorage voiced their opinion, and it's considered a high turnout. Sheesh!

I wonder what's going to happen to Europe, now that we've tried to put the brakes on it. Will the Irish non-ratification of the Lisbon Treaty be the base of a bandwagon, upon which other slightly relieved countries will jump? Or will the Irish be kicked out, or more likely sent to the corner to consider what we've done...

If we have a chance to vote on a slightly revised Lisbon Treay, I hope that these things happen:

The Yes side explains why they think we should vote yes - and not just tell us it's good for us . We are all able to make our own minds up given the facts.

The No side explains why they think we should vote no - and not just tell us it's bad for us (based on whatever falsehood is sensational and convenient) We are all able to make our own minds up given the facts.

Campaigning, it seemed to me (and I came late to Lisbon thanks to some exams) was based on one of 2 premises - cajole the electorate into siding with you whilst telling them they don't need to know why they should, or scare the living colours out of them by bringing up the bogey issues (abortion, euthanasia and commissioners) that aren't even part of the Treaty under discussion!

How will our politicians develop the Treaty on our behalf? How will they find out what it is we were concerned about, if they didn't even give us a benchmark by which to decide? How will they know for instance that the electorate are concerned about the possibility of unanimity issues becoming Majority issues in the future on the whim of the Government?

Anyway, I've made up some beer, hope it ferments and might taste drinkable. Fingers crossed. Vote Yes for Beer. It's nice, and it helps you sleep. Just like the EU.