Time to try a beer - this one adapted from Ian Ball's "best bitter". This is a "semi-natural" recipe, more complex than a kit, but using dried malt extract and some refined sugar. I nipped down to Mattock Lane Pharmacy to pick up the ingredients - the only thing I couldn't get was crystal malt, so substituted pale malt instead.
Into my preserving pan went Medium Spraymalt dried malt extract, Goldings hops, crushed pale malt, and a 50/50 mix of white granulated sugar and light soft brown sugar. I included some brown sugar to try and make up for the paler malt being used as an adjunct.
After boiling for half an hour, the mixture was left to cool for most of the day, then cold tea and lemon juice were added. It was strained into a brewing vessel and 2.5g of Young's Ale Yeast added.
I took a gravity sample and was a little disappointed to find that the OG was only 1025, which the hydrometer booklet said corresponded to a potential alcohol content of about 3.2%.
I took a little taste of the sample - of course it tasted very weird as it was sweet rather than dry, but it also tasted incredibly bitter. I did think that the required 1.5oz of hops seemed a lot. Maybe when there's some alcohol present this will be offset a bit, but I do wonder whether tastes have changed a bit since the 80s when that book was written.
My kind of prescription
Fresh Goldings hops
The bubbling cauldron
The sample - looks like beer, doesn't taste like beer (yet)
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