Last year my love of good beer was reawakened when I tried some of the Dungarvan Brewing Company's products and realised that I did not have to wait until I was abroad to taste good beer. My journey through craft beer since has been a steep learning curve, I didn't realise there were so many craft beers produced in Ireland, knowing of only a couple of brew pubs that were a long way from my home.
As a consequence of all this taste-full beer I took up home brewing last year and have done 3 brews now. These have all been kits although the last 2 were slightly tweaked in that instead of the kit and kilo of sugar I used a mixture of brewing sugar and dry malt extract. My next project is a 3 kilo kit IPA (so no extra sugars required) which will be dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings when fermented.
All these beers have been well received although the lager and wheat beers have not inspired me. However I made a stout tweaked with dark dry malt extract and brewing sugar ( a little light in fermentables hence the name "Small Stout") and I have to say it tastes great. It is 3 and a half months in the bottle now and it just gets better as it ages. It had a sharp bitterness that has mellowed out to a smooth roasty bitterness that I find really pleasing. I am chuffed to find that I have made a beer that I really like and have passed a bottle on to a proper brewer to see what he thinks.
Hopefully I have not been deluding myself. I'll keep you posted!
Well folks, I have tasted both the stout and the wheat beer and admit that both tasted like more.... The stout has a lovely, silky smooth taste, with a hint of roast coffee on the pallet. The wheat beer was a very refreshing one with no bitter aftertaste. This one brought me back to the better Weissbiers to be foun d on the continent. Well done Ciddytourist, looking forward to the IPA
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