Full production

So holiday beer production is in full swing round our house; a grand total of 32 pints bubbling away, hopefully enough to keep guests lubricated as different people waft in and out as we tend to do this time of year.

The line up here (left to right) is a single hop (Simcoe) strong ale (~9%) that will hopefully fend off the coldest English drizzle, a hop forward IPA flavoured with fresh orange juice (yum!), then a traditional bitter copied from the recipe of Fullers London Pride and finally a crisp, dry American pale ale (APA) made with Amarillo, Bravo and Columbus hops. Most of these will be bottled up and ready by 24th December with a bit of luck.

Four gallons (i.e. the 4 demi-john's you see here) is my productive capacity at the moment (no more cupboard space left!) I could trade up and use 5 gallon jars but TBH I prefer experimenting with different flavours and making smaller, more manageable and frequent batches, 5 gallons of beer would take me months to get through and I'd probably get bored and end up pouring most of it away. It's the learning part that I find most satisfying, it's a bit like playing around with a Chemistry set where the final litmus test is how it tastes and what other people think (most satisfying of all to get a thumbs up from guests)