I've started brewing my own beer. I'm trying to brew a 'Leffe Bruin' clone. This seems quite a difficult style to start with, so I might call it 'Hair Shirt'...
My interest was piqued when I was staying in a friend's house - one of the other house-mates was brewing Cider. I have an aversion to apples so this was quite difficult - but I did taste a maple syrup version and it was good.
I'd also been drinking a lot of beer recently, not excessive amounts, but I wide variety. Mostly Belgian, which doesn't come cheap. It's Sainsburys' fault really - they had a 2 for £5 on the 750Ml bottles of Leffe Blond and Bruin - they really help shorten the A303. Then the other supermarkets sort of followed suite. Moving town, and not having a regular supermarket, has led me to stray off the beaten track looking for beers as interesting and as cheap as the Leffe deal...
Lidl do a remarkable little lager called Finkbräu - this says it's brewed to the reinheitsgebot, it's £3.80 or something for 6. Still not as interesting as a Leffe. I wandered through the Bitters, the odd Hoegaarden, I'm partial to Samuel Adams or Blue Moon which I discovered in the US, but they are quite pricey - and Samuel Adams disappeared completely for about 9 months...
So I thought I'd have a go myself. I found a brewing supplies place near me, bought a barrel etc I bought an extract kit from Brewferm - a Belgian kit supplier - it's been 4 days now and she's been bubbling like a good'n...nothing really innovative yet, I'm just making sure I understand the process.
Along the way I discovered this guy on youtube - fantastic viewing, I'm gonna send him some beer:
Mike's Ultrarad Beer Reviews
