Batch 6

Simple, brilliant and tasteful. Brewing SMASH (Single Malt And Single Hops) was really delightful and I’ll do it again with pleasure.

My next beer was already decided to be an APA so why not enter the scene with something simple but still very tasteful. With the fridge I was determined to make this APA with not so many esters, something that I did have in my previous IPA’s for example and it does destroy the experience. Esters should be included because it adds positive things to the beer, but too many or any at all in some styles ruins it. So for anyone thinking it’s the devil in brewing beer and should be avoided at all times, please reconsider and make sure that you get enough knowledge of the style you’re trying to make. This time however, I did succeed to get a tasteful amount but it wasn’t without problems along the way. 

I used a smaller PET bottle as the first tap from the fermenter and I added sugar as I do for all the rest of the bottles but because this is made of plastic, I can squeeze the bottle to check if there’s enough carbonation. With previous batches, this have been a good representation of the actual beer, how it will taste when it’s finished so first I make sure there’s enough carbon and then I taste it. The issue here was that this tasting was really bad, it tasted earthly and not at all what I expected so I was really disappointed that this batch was ruined.

They say that brewers need patience and that’s usually what amateur brewers lack because we’re so excited and want it to be finished NOW. My patience overall is not the best and that’s something I fight everyday so adding that to brewing beer is not the best but I actually found myself thinking that I should let it rest, maybe it can fix itself if I just wait?

I waited and waited and funny enough, the beer turned out to be very best beer that I had made (not that many to compete with but anyway) and could also be the best beer I’ve ever tasted. Now, I might be biased because it’s my own beer but I did find it really, really good which was a very pleasant surprise. A good indicator that this beer turned out good and not just my biased opinion, is that all of the tasters agreed that they really enjoyed it. The only downside is that not too many got the chance to try it because.. well, it was a bit too good so bottles disappeared for some unexplainable reason.

For bottling this batch, I bought some smaller stuff to make the whole process a bit easier and less messy. For disinfecting the bottles I bought a pump with a container so I keep the fluids in the container and when I put the bottle on and start pumping it fills the whole bottle and if I let it sit for a few seconds afterwards, much of the disinfectant go back into the container so a really handy tool. It also saves me a lot of disinfectant so not only is it easier to use but also better for the environment and my wallet. I also decided to get a drying rack for the bottles, so I let most of the disinfectant go back into the container and then I move it to the rack for extra drying. Of course, the residuals from this rack is not put back but it’s still way more efficient than tapping up 5-10 liters water and adding way more disinfectant than I actually needed.