With it being Emma's third birthday, and there being a quorum of beer drinkers present, it seemed appropriate to crack open the first 2L bottle of the bitter - two months after bottling. My thoughts were as follows:
Head - surprisingly good, foamy. Head retention not bad.
Flavour - a little bitter but not too bad. Better than expected.
Strength - weak, as expected from the OG measurement.
Texture - poor. I think this is partly due to the low alcohol content. I also noticed that the bottles didn't feel over-pressurised (they still had some give when squeezed) so maybe next time I'll increase the priming sugar to increase the natural carbonation.
Colour - a bit pale for a bitter. To be expected, because I used pale malt instead of crystal. Also I didn't make any effort to avoid the sediment, so the pint was cloudy. Next time I'll use 500 ml bottles, which should be easier to pour without dislodging the solids.
Overall - 6/10. It would be a rather disappointing pint to be served in a pub, but still a not unpleasant bevvie.
Onwards and upwards!
There are some lessons here, plus I have proved I can make something drinkable from the the basic bitter recipe. So I can now use that as the starting point for experimenting. And I can confidently brew several different 1-gallon batches at the same time without waiting for the results of the previous effort.
But first up will be a couple of different efforts:
- Emma's birthday marks 4 months to Christmas. Time to get a seasonal ale started.
- Our pear tree is groaning with fruit, and our neighbour has more windfall apples than he can do anything with. Cider time! Fortunately, the Ian Ball book has cider recipes.
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