Thoughts and Opinions
5/9/2013 Stuck Fermentation
This month I have a fermentation sticking at 1020 with a ‘Muntons Premium Gold Smuggler’s Special Ale’. Strangely enough I had this very same problem last time I brewed one of these kits and curiously the same thing happened when I brewed a Midas Touch Golden Ale, also part of the Muntons Premium Gold range. This is particularly annoying because these are supposed to be the best kits Muntons make and the price reflects this. When I searched for reviews of this ale I discovered an ongoing conversation on the Home Brew Forum which was about this very subject. It would seem that these Muntons kits are prone to sticking at 1020 instead of finishing at 1010-1012, stated on the pack. The discussion lead to speculation that Muntons yeast may be of a poor quality. However this, at least to me, makes little sense. Why on earth would Muntons supply poor quality yeast with their premium kits. It may interest home breweries who are unaware, that Muntons, under licence, manufacture many of other kits for brewers like Woodforde’s and St Peter’s, using very similar yeast. So how come the yeast works for those other kits yet not for their own? I suspect it is not the quality of the yeast but rather the quantity supplied. Could it be there simply isn’t enough supplied to do all the work required of it. I have had to add more yeast on each occasion to help coax the brew along. I am yet to get to the bottom of this problem.
13/8/2013 Dealing with poor results
Yesterday evening a friend and I visited a local pub where I was drinking in turn Youngs Special, Old Golden Hen and Greene King IPA Gold. The Greene King IPA Gold is a new drink to me and it was a surprisingly delicious one, the best ale I’ve had in a long while. It was bitter while still allowing many interesting fruity flavours to come through. Just thinking about it now makes me feel like having one. It was so refreshing to experience some taste for a change. It makes me sad because by contrast I am stuck finishing off the ends of a couple of kegs containing some of the most over hopped ales I’ve made from kits this year. They are just bitter, bitter, bitter and that’s just about all I can say for them. I can’t really speak of any other flavours, only a weird sensation you’re left with between your tongue and your palette which feels like you’ve been sucking a piece of tin foil. These ales are the equivalent of excessively hot curries where one’s mouth is burning from so much chilli, all other flavours are simply trounced. I am very unhappy with all the ales I have made this year because they have all been so damned bitter it is difficult to drink them. This is not just my own opinion but all of my friends too. I have nine kits left in the house and today I have gone through all of them and removed any hop enhancement additions and binned the bloody lot. I am hoping I get better results in the forthcoming months because if things continue as they are I may abandon kits and move straight to all grain brewing. Actually that’s probably a good idea.
No Substitute for Patience
Really, if there is anything that I think is worth stressing to anyone starting into home brewing, it is to have ‘patience’. When I was younger my biggest problem was over eagerness to taste the final product. No wonder students who experiment with home brew often end up with enduring memories of foul tasting ales. In a promotional Youtube movie produced by maltster and kit manufacturer Muntons, the presenter suggests that it would take a mere two weeks to brew a kit and have it served in the glass. Preposterous! Although it might be possible under some miraculous conditions to achieve this, it is my experience that a full month in the barrel is required to get the brew to a condition where it’s properly ready to consume. The idea of a Muntons brew ready in two weeks is particularly laughable - in my experience their products really do need extra time on top of my recommended month to reach a palatable condition. The reason why companies suggest such short times is simply to encourage sales. Of course a poor young student is more likely to buy a kit if he thinks he’ll be trolleyed for just a few quid in only a fortnight!
Comparing Home Brew With Commercially Produced Ale
Immediately I began producing beer at home I began comparing my results with commercial brews, especially the ones I considered to be my favourites. Whenever Lee and I would visit a pub we would intensely scrutinise whatever we drank. Of course we would enjoy many of the brews we tasted but our overriding opinion was that our home-brewed ale was not only on a par with ales we drank in pubs but frequently much better than them. I’m sure most home brewers share our experience. There are of course occasions when we are delighted by our experiences of commercial beers which is most encouraging because frankly when our experience indicates a trend for badly made or badly kept beer in pubs, it is very disheartening. At a time when the average price of a pint in London is approaching £4 and when so many pubs are closing, those that do remain open need to ensure the quality of their ales is superb. A pub is only as good as its beer, so the beer should not simply be good it should be excellent!
Regarding Hop Powder Sachets
Home brewers Should Visit Breweries and Beer Festivals
While I was buying some home brewing kit in Somerton in Somerset I got chatting to a well informed fellow in the shop called Aiden. He recommended, as one home brewer to another, that a visit to a brewery for a tour was a most worthwhile and educational thing. Following his advice Lee and I booked a slot on a Sunday afternoon in June 2012 at the “Hogs Back Brewery” near Farnham in Surrey. A small party of enthusiasts were guided through the building where every process was explained in detail. Along the way we sampled some really fine ale, notably T.E.A. and Hop Garden Gold. The experience really focused me on the whole business of brewing and helped put into perspective our small interest at home. I’m sure because we were actually inside the brewery the flavour of the ales was guaranteed, however since the tour we continue to be impressed by “Hogs Back” ales whenever we visit a pub serving their products. Another good place to get an idea of the kinds of newcomer ales hitting the market is to visit a beer festival in your area. A visit to the Wandsworth Beer Festival in 2012 was both enlightening and enjoyable. A great atmosphere prevailed throughout the day with a wide range of visitors from all ages, nationalities, sexes and walks of life. Not at all like a pub atmosphere, more like a club. There was a vast range of ales to choose from, some familiar names but mostly unknown to me. Of course it is impossible to try more than a few ales during the day without becoming severely inebriated so try to choose wisely as there can be some quite unpleasant flavours out there.
Regarding the Use of Outlandish Names
My son Ben accompanied me to the Wandsworth Beer Festival in 2012 and on that day, he stalled me moments before I bought a beer with a strange sounding name. Ben is more experienced with beer festivals than I am, as he used to visit such places more frequently when he was a University student. He advised me that as a rule of thumb he would avoid choosing ales with silly ‘macho’ sounding names, for in his experience they mostly turned out to be horrid and difficult to drink. His reasoning, whether it be accurate or not, was that brewers seem to give their more peculiar tasting beers silly sounding macho names in order to attract young men who want to prove themselves to be up for a challenge. Ben and his friends from college days learned their lesson. My experience since then actually backs up Ben’s theory and it seems to apply to homebrew kits too.
Be Aware… REAL ALE GIVES YOU HELLISH WIND!!
Of course we all understand that alcohol can lead to anti-social behaviour but remember anti-social behaviour includes turning the atmosphere green and purple with obscene smelling guffs.
Just realised how much the weather has changed as we get into winter. Cold, cold, cold.
If like me you keep barrels of ale outside your back door