I had the Blue Boar a couple more times. After the very disappointing test (a week early) I was pretty glum. It smelt right but the taste was off.
I had another bottle a few days ago, and that was much better.
Today was beyond the 3 week period it has to mature and it was amazingly good. I’m very happy with the results and somewhat fuzzy about the ears.
Patience is my problem. The Blue Boar should sit for three weeks before drinking, but I thought that there would be no harm in trying it after two.
It looked perfect, which was very satisfying. It also smelt right. But the flavour was not as good as I was expecting, with it being a little lacking in flavour. I hope that age will improve it.
I’ll just have to be patient.
My wonderful wife had secretly purchased some bottles, caps and a capper to give ot me at Christmas. But the Blue Boar was ready to bottle so out they came to be put in to use. The gravity of the beer had fallen to 1009, which was exactly what I would have expected given the sugar/spraymalt combination and my careful reading of the instructions.
I sterilised carefully and used a new barrel with tap and bottling attachment. I only had 24 bottles so recycled some and used some of my left over PET ones. I also bought some new PET ones yesterday for the perry, which needs bottling.
I love the carbon dioxide bubbling. It is mesmerising and a wonderful indicator of nature doing its job. But does sound a bit weird. My wife finds the bubbling disconcerting when in an empty house. She says it induces nausea because it sounds like someone’s bad indigestion!
You can make up your own mind.
My local home brew shop, May and Brett make their own beer kits. I bought one the other day, together with 500g dark spraymalt based on the detailed instructions above. The till didn’t say anything, but when I got to making the beer the instructions (on the back of the label) said I needed 1kg of the spray malt. It did say I could make it up with everyday sugar though – but it won’t be as dark as it might be.
The process was exactly the same as the Christmas Ale, but this makes three times the volume (23 litres rather than 7 litres). I hope I (and anyone I share it with!) like it – that is 40 pints or about 46 bottles of beer.
I didn’t check the OG since this was not mentioned in the instructions – they say just wait until the bubbling stops, then check that the SG is stable.
