Bottlin' Day

Today was about bottling the Mild.

Mild? Hadn't I mentioned that? Ooops....

A fortnight a go I made a Mild, based upon Wheeler's clone for Banks' Mild. If there's a beer I should know enough about to compare my efforts to, this would be it. Brew day went ok, but that element thing is still bugging me. Fortunately, it all happened at the end of the boil, so this may be nearer light bitter than mild, but hey! Nice people at H&G have given me a few hints, and, suffice it to say, a DIY bodge is on its way, in the shape of a hack-sawed splatter guard!

Thought it was time to bottle this, two weeks on. Hit OG, but FG was a bit high. Cannot believe there is anything left to really ferment, and my nose told me that if I left it much longer, I would have 2 gallons of malt vinegar on my hands. Here's the result:


Although the beer needs to settle Banks' aficionados will note a good resemblance to the colour. Looking forward to the beginning of November, when it should be good to go.

On the downside, I had my first real failure. The beer was fine, but the IPA I put in a pressure barrel never recovered from his awkward birth. After purchasing a new lid for the barrel, the beer started to leak - presumably through the tap. Having noted a rather beery/vinegary smell under the stairs, and thinking this had more to do with the mild coming to the end of fermentation, I suddenly realised I couldn't see the level in the barrel....and when I looked most has seemingly 'escaped'. So, time to VAX the carpet, as the plastic I had out it on only did the job it was meant to do to some degree :-{.  A shame, as the look and taste of it were really promising, even if it didn't look as it it was going to really clear all that well!! Possibly a new tap needed, or even just get bottling each brew.