I’ve moved from being happy to being delighted with my February Flowers homebrew. That was a very successful recipe and, about a month after it went in the bottle, it has reached the point of being a lovely drink that would sit well alongside anything I could buy. I wonder if I’ll get a chance to taste any Flowers Original before I use up the last of my brew? The internet seems to say no (no leads on bottled versions and perfectpint only has it on tap in a few places, none very close) but I’ll keep my eyes open.
The weakness of the beer is that, while tasting great, it pours quite flat. It has a lovely colour and clarity but doesn’t produce a foamy head. Perhaps I need to carbonate it a bit more or add some adjuncts to the recipe? However, while my trusty old syringe has now broken (the rubber bung got stuck in the tube) I discovered that a few pumps with my milk frother serve equally well to whisk up a head on the glass. It was designed for frothing milk for cappuccinos but I’m happy to apply it to this purpose. There must be a certain amount of CO2 in the brew but not enough to be forced through it simply by pouring.
By comparison, my previous Winter Sail brew has turned into a bit of a gusher. I thought putting beer in the fridge was meant to limit this problem but the test I opened last night was so energetic I was left with less than half a glass to drink! Like the Flowers, the flavour has improved with extra time in the bottle but I think I need to work through this batch as a priority as I don’t want them to reach the point of becoming explosive! I wonder if my fermentation process left some of the yeast dormant? It was my first time using a brew belt and the temperature got rather high a couple of times so perhaps I killed off most of the yeast which gave the illusion it had finished and the remnants have been multiplying in the bottle?
At least there’s no need to froth up a head on this one!