A long time ago (at least a couple years before my 13 year old son was born) I briefly tried my hand at home brewing. I made several batches of passable ale, trying to imitate lower alcohol, lower carbonation English Bitter. I enjoyed the process, but decided that like bread making and wine making, the craft breweries made much better beer and ale than I could achieve. I am also a purist, and was frustrated using malt syrup (or whatever it is called) rather than starting with the grain itself. However brewing starting with grain is a whole additional level of complexity. After a few batches, my brewing equipment was retired to the basement, along with a case of beer to drink 'later'. We are about to embark on a basement renovation, and needed to clean out the basement, so LATER has finally arrived. I expected to just pour out the beer, figuring it had become undrinkable, if not downright toxic. However, being curious I tried a few sips. Then a few more to be sure I was not fooling myself. The ale was not horrible. I would not have bought a second glass in a bar, but I would not have sent the first one back. It have a faint molasses flavor, not much fizz (as intended) and very mild hops. Overall it is refreshing and easy to drink, although kind of bland. I decided to clean up a six pack, and keep it around to drink. My daughters were nice enough to label the bottles, and the ale looks quite good in a proper glass!
Via iPad
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