T58 yeast starter

Licorice Cream Porter - Brew Day

Brew day today for this next beer. Made the recipe up last week, hopefully it will be rich, have well balanced flavours and creamy.

6.6lb Pale Malt DME
6.6lb Dark Malt DME
8 oz 40EBC crystal malt
8 oz  120EBC crystal malt
12 oz chocolate malt
8 oz special B malt for that rich chocolate flavour
6 oz cara pils malt
12 oz black malt
6 oz roast barley for the coffee taste
 4 1/2 oz hops mainly challenger for the marmalade and toffee flavours but with a bit of fuggles thrown in for earthiness - added in 3 lots at -60 minutes, -30 minutes and -10 minutes
6 oz lactose for the creamy silky texture
5 inch piece of bashed licorice root to offset the roast flavour.
2 teaspoon of Irish Moss added near the end to clear the wort.
T58 yeast which has a nice peppery taste

I made sure the yeast was well bubbling in a half gallon starter before adding

I'll also add a couple of pounds of mollases sugar in two lots in around three days time when things have settled down. I'm using the large grain bin to avoid it foaming over, as happened with some of the recent brews.

Fruitcake Ale going down well

Fruit Cake Ale bottled and going down well

Finally got around to bottling the Christmas cake ale - so late I renamed it fruit cake ale. At least it was well matured. I diluted it down to 8% as the higher 11-12% ales were getting too heavy to drink much of, and consequently ended up with a lot of bottles - can't remember but 65ish.

The taste is fantastic, very rich and warm, the spices are not too prominent but it's very fruity. Getting a lot of good feedback.

Borlotti and French beans in

Leeks in May!

Broccoli doing better this year protected from the pigeons and butterflys with veggiemesh

Tomatoes in pots on soil border this year