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In the final installment of the gripping 'first all-grain homebrew' series, we get to try it. Spolier alert: it's quite good
A stone fruit nose swirls around the olfactory glands, followed with a blast of more tropical fruits. Taking a sip on the lightly effervescent hazy, orange-hued liquid, I’m reminded of some of the lighter IPAs, and pales ales in the days when, you know, they used to be balanced. A graininess comes quickly to the fore, behind a pine blast of Simcoe. It finally gives way to a rasping liquorice bitterness and a lingering grain dryness. It’s a beer that is tailor made for summer’s evenings with mates. It’s a beer we made. We made a beer and it is, well pretty damn good.
Yep, three weeks in a bottle and it’s time to crack our BrewDog IPA is Dead Simcoe clone taken from DIY Dog, a free PDF of homebrew recipes of every beer ever made by the Scottish disruptors.
So, if you managed to pile through the introduction – most of which is true – you’ll remember the story of my first all-grain homebrew. You’ll remember that I’d persuaded my mates to part with some cash. You’ll remember, of course, that that the brewday went OK. (Of course you don’t remember, no good stories ever include the line ‘it went OK’).
So here I am with 29 Grolsch and Biere de Garde bottles filled with our homebrew. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first:
Good stuff:
That’s the key really, we made a beer, it tastes great.
And is it as good as my pretentious tasting notes at the start made out? Almost.
Every year, Beer Hawk releases a lineup of limited edition craft beer mixed cases for the holiday season. This year's lineup of festive Christmas beer gifts is guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s face.
Remember the childhood excitement of opening a new door on your advent calendar every day in the run up to Christmas? It gave each day a little sparkle of festive magic, even though those tiny chocolates behind the doors were always a bit rubbish. How would you like to recapture that childhood magic, but with bottles of delicious beer instead of powdery chocolate? Sounds amazing, right? In that case, you need to get your hands on our Craft Beer Advent Calendar.
Pairing beer and food together isn’t all rules and science. That would make for a terribly boring dinner party! Instead, it’s the art of taking a good beer, some good food and partnering them together to make something even better. It’s the adventure of discovering what works, what doesn’t and what you like. It’s you taking a bite, taking a sip and then declaring your undying love for that imperial stout and chocolate cake.
Barrel-ageing beers is not a new thing, but it is getting more and more popular, and has probably never been as inventive. Adrian Tierney-Jones explores the new wave of ageing beer in wood
While some so-called off-flavours can be appropriate in certain styles others are not and may kill a little bit of your soul. Here's a quick guide to the most common off-flavours.
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