Monday 26 August 2013

Back to brewing

We're pleased to be brewing again after quite a few weeks break. Summer is not an ideal time for making beer because it's a little warm for an ideal fermentation, so it's good that we have had a break during the unusually fine English summer. (Although today is still rather hot!)

Today we are making an American Pale Ale, which will probably be the last light and summery beer we make before we descend into autumn. American pales should be crisp and light and pretty easy drinking - we're not talking an IPA here, so bitterness is usually around 40 IBUs.

We have a lot of left-over hops in the freezer which I would really like to get used up. They only last a certain amount of time, even in the freezer, and we've had these well over a year. So the beer will be bittered with Nelson Sauvin and Centennial hops and the flavour and aroma will be from the more restrained Cascade and Liberty hops. Andy is being very tolerant because I love these sort of beers but American hops are not really his cup of tea. I have promised him we'll move to a darker autumn ale next! Perhaps something like a Scottish Red Ale Andy?

IMG_3167

IMG_3168

IMG_3169

No comments:

Post a Comment