Sam R

#22 Joyeux Noël

A Belgian quadruppel is to many the platonic ideal of a malt beverage. Unless you live on the Brixton Road, and then it's probably Supermalt... Borderline racism aside, the spicy, rich, rummy flavours and fluffy, effervescent head are the height of beery indulgence. It probably helps that for

Mead

Boil 4 pounds of honey for 10 minutes, let it cool, add some champagne yeast. What could be simpler? I made some mead in August last year, based very loosely on the recipe in Charlie Papazian's Microbrewed Adventures [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microbrewed-Adventures-More-Homebrew-Recipes/dp/0060758147] . My previous

#18 La Rapide Saison: Proper Review

It struck me that many months after brewing and bottling it, I had not done a review of my turbo saison, the subject of a 7-day "grain to glass" challenge [https://smallscaleales.ghost.io/2014/08/08/18-la-rapide-saison/]. Drinkable as it was [https://smallscaleales.ghost.io/2014/08/

#21 Trifecta var 2: Apricot Abbey Ale

The second variant on my so-called Abbey Ale benefited from two punnets of southern hemisphere apricots. Side by side, it's practically indistinguishable from its older brother, save for the fact it's had a little less time to carbonate. The apricot flavour is noticeable next to standard

#21 Trifecta var 1: Belgian Abbey Ale

Reasonably pleased with this one. In many ways it's very similar to the saison I made back in August [https://smallscaleales.ghost.io/2015/03/05/18-la-rapide-saison-proper-review/]. It has a similar straw colour, same silky mouthfeel, and same hint of tartness. This is surprising to me seeing as

One Year On - Amarillo IPA

I found another beer that had been lurking at the back of my collection of bottles on top of the fridge. This one was an Amarillo IPA that I'd bottled in December 2013. I cracked it one year on. The swingtop sounded like a bomb going off. It

Chilean Malbec - Value Challenge?

Being as only 50% of the people living under my roof enjoy beer, I thought that it would be charitable of me to whip up a batch of red wine that we could both enjoy some months hence. My go-to red is a fruity, ripe New World Malbec. The pretentious

#21 Trifecta - 3 variants on a Belgian Abbey Pale

Nano-brewing the Estate Pale Ale [https://smallscaleales.ghost.io/2014/11/11/20-backyard-ale/] was a lesson in adding a little bit of shine to a brew. Cold-crashing for 48 hours in the fridge brought a near instant clarity to the beer, and left more sediment in the DJ and therefore

Brixton Blush Turbo Cider

Here's something you probably don't need to bother with. There's a recipe floating around the internet for turbo cider. Basically, add some yeast to apple juice and you get cider. At least that's the idea. I decided to spruce it up with

#20 "Estate" Pale Ale

Like many people with more than a passing interest in brewing his own beer, I decided around this time last year that I really needed my own hop plant. This was partly motivated by my fear that the world is going to run out of hops at some point in

#19 Clipper Pale Ale (or, don't use Admiral hops)

In early September, I was scrabbling around for a beer recipe that would make something light, refreshing and quaffable - perfect for an upcoming backyard BBQ - and quickly. I dubbed the recipe I came up with "Clipper Pale Ale", in homage to the terrifically quick 19th Century

#18 La Rapide Saison: Day 14 of 7

My young saison took a recent trip to the west country for the August bank holiday weekend. In addition to having free, delicious beer in the minibar fridge (although I couldn't really knock this particular hotel's beer selection), I was also able to see whether my

#18 La Rapide Saison: Day 9 of 7

The best laid plans... La Rapide was intended to be a challenge to see how quickly I could put a drinkable beer on the table. Grain to glass, in the parlance. Wyeast 3711 got off to a roaring start. I brewed this inside of 5 hours without a hitch after

One Year On - Chinook Rye Pale Ale

This was the second and last bottle of beer brewed on my old kit, which has been hanging out on the top of the fridge for just over a year. This time it's a rye pale ale making extensive use of Chinook hops. I seem to recall naming

#18 La Rapide Saison - Speed Challenge

I'm not by nature a pessimist. Sure, like most people I have a zombie apocalypse survival plan, and I've even given some thought to the more horrifying possibility of the world running out of hops. But on the whole I like to think of myself as

#17 Squatch Watch

What a difference a few days make. I first tried a bottle of this after just 3 days of conditioning, about two weeks after it was first brewed. It was dark, hazy, and suffered from a real lack of head. But, just a few days later – 9 days of conditioning

#17 Squatch Pacific IPA

As predicted, a recent visit by zythophile family members has left me running low on Mighty Blighty, and I am officially out of Rudyard's too. In short – hoppy beer supplies are scant. Mighty Blighty was a solid, delicious IPA. Beauty in simplicity. Still, I've probably over-milked

#14 Bad Habit -v- #16 Busy B: Judgment Day

I've been saving up some Aspall's cider bottles for a special occasion. I can't find another way of accumulating them other than by keeping a steady amount of Suffolk cider in stock and quietly persuading my girlfriend to methodically keep drinking them. "This

One Year On - Centennial IPA

More by accident than by design, I ended up with one bottle of a single hop Centennial IPA I bottled on 6 July 2013. Having discovered it at the back of the top of the fridge (where most of my beer lives), I decided it would be a good experiment

#16 Busy B: Brewday & Bottling

Beer math is hard. Having recently ballsed up on a number of mathematical fronts when brewing [Bad Habit](#14 Bad Habit), my first attempt at a beer with a substantial amount of non-malt fermentables, I was determined to redeem myself with Busy B, a braggot-cum-honey tripel. Things started promisingly enough.

#15 Mighty Blighty IPA: Verdict

Citra is cheating. That much I know. This is, happily, the best beer I have made to date, and it's also the first I've made where appreciative friends and family have remarked that they prefer it not just to generally available commercial beers (a line I

#16 Busy B (Honey Tripel / Braggot)

I can't recall where I first came across braggot. By that I don't mean to imply that it's some great secret I've been sitting on for decades. I discovered it pretty recently. Maybe as recently as last week. I just can'

#15 Mighty Blighty IPA

In an era when everyone and his uncle is brewing something between a passable and a delicious India Pale Ale, brewing your own is both passé and absolutely obligatory at the same time. It's a brave brewer with trendy pretensions who eschews the hop bomb. But you shouldn&

#14 Bad Habit Belgian

People on the internet get very exercised about yeast. Well, maybe not everyone. Internet brewers get very exercised about yeast. I think it must be some unholy combination of the propensity for anonymous people on the internet to become curmudgeonly trolls, and the fastidiousness of people inclined to brew to

#13 Rudyard's Marmalade Breakfast Pale Ale: Verdict

The thing I like about brewing is it's a process of trial and error. There's plenty of received wisdom, but just as many anecdotes of that wisdom being completely wrong. But everyone slowly figures out what works for himself, and gradually improves his beer in the