Binning the Linthwaite Light.

With my latest brew just about ready to bottle, I decided it was finally make or break time for the Linthwaite Light. If you remember, this was the brew that I unfortunately left in the fermenting bucket for around 6 weeks before bottling, and as a result it was suffering from autolysis - where the yeast cells start to break down, leaving the associated burnt rubber smell and taste.

Tests of the brew over the few weeks following bottling showed the unpleasant flavour to be slowly reducing, though the smell was as strong and unpleasant as ever. Even with the slow subsiding of the undesirable flavour, the tastes left behind were not especially enjoyable.

Given I wasn't expecting the taste to ever become a good brew, I decided to bite the bullet and pour it all away, freeing up space in 'The Brewery' as well as bottles for my next brew. It also put an end to the constant chore of trying another bottle, only to gag on the smell, and the suffer the disappointment of tasting the beer.

So remember, get it bottled asap - don't be lazy.
Sometime in the future I will avenge these ghosts and brew a Linthwaite Light properly :-)

Another Sunday lunch, another bottle of Merlot

As we sat down for Sunday lunch the Sunday before last, we decided to treat ourselves to another bottle of my Beaverdale Merlot. Thanks to the excellent idea of bottling it into half sized bottles, I feel able to dip into the supply when the occasion arises.



Once again I was very pleased with the product of my hard work. The flavour has clearly deepened a little further, and the overall finish is a little smoother and better balanced. I must make the effort to leave some bottles for a few months time, when it really will be a delight to drink.

Sherwood's Forest Bitter Gravity Check

As it approached the second weekend after starting the Forest Bitter off I took a gravity reading to see whether it would likely be ready to bottle over the weekend.



The reading was 1.013, slightly short of the 1.010 target. From this I deduced that it could use a little longer fermenting, so I gave it a stir with a sanitised stirrer and left it, with the intention of bottling the following weekend instead.

First taste of John Bull Irish Stout

A week last Friday, a week and a half after after bottling it, I decided to take my first taste of the John Bull Irish Stout.



It certainly looked the part, all be it without tremendous head retention. My primary concern was whether it had kept the deep, delicious coffee flavour I had so much enjoyed when I sampled some during bottling. Sadly, the answer to this was no, at least not with such depth. I would say there was a very subtle coffee undertone. That said, I certainly enjoyed my still very green pint of stout. It was very mild, most likely as a result of the extra water I added when I kicked off fermentation, but this made for a very relaxed and easy to drink stout. I rather suspect the flavours are going to grow and develop in the bottle, meaning that in a month or so, I will likely have a really enjoyable beverage - that is, if I can keep my hands off it that long :-)

Welcome to the new Bell's Beer Blog

If you have made it here, you are now viewing the new Bells Beer Home Brew Blog. I have just finished moving this blog, which was not without incident, so if you spot any problems I would be really grateful if you could add a comment to the post in question to let me know. Thanks.

With the move complete, I can now get back to the process of brewing my beer and wine, and reporting on it here. I already have a number of posts backed up, so expect them to appear in the next day or so.

Thanks for reading.

Ooops, overflowing Rose

I stated in my post 3 days ago, about kicking off the rose (Chablis Blush), that I made a silly mistake and filled it too high in the demijohn. I left it as it was, rather than pouring away the extra, as there was still an air gap, and it felt wrong to pour away some of what would be lovely wine in the not too distant future.



As you can see, pouring away the excess looks like it would have been a very good idea. I stupidly didn't check in on the wine until the strawberry wine needed topping up, so it may have had a couple of days like this before I realised. If I am honest, I also didn't sanitise the airlock given the wine wouldn't come in contact with that - would it ;-). All I can do now is hope that I have got away with it and the wine has not been contaminated. At least I know know you really shouldn't fill the demijohns above the 4.5 litre mark with these kits.

Topping up the Plum wine.

Three days after starting the plum wine going, it was time to top it up to the full 4.5 litres. The instructions simply stated it should be 'tepid' water. I took this to mean basically the same temperature as we wanted the wine to be fermenting in, so 20-25 degrees. I tried pouring just a little boiled water in the bottom of a 1litre jug and topping up the rest with cold tap water. I measured this and found it to be about 23 degrees so I added this and another 3 jugs to take the level up to the 4.5 litre sticker. I replaced the airlock and the job was done.