Tuesday, 7 February 2017

Would you drink this?

Well, obviously you wouldn't.  Even I wouldn't and I bloody love hops, but this is more foliage than beer for even me to drink!

You may be wondering just why I've got a glass (or a polycarb, much safer in a brewery!) of what looks like grass cuttings swimming in... let's not go there.  Well, this is what us brewing types call a "tank sample" and is the first beer out of the conditioning tank, taken as a sample from the "racking wand" (contraption used to fill casks) because you don't want to be wasting time filling nicely washed and sterilised casks with beer which is only fit to tip down the drain.... no, you want to taste and smell the finished beer first, the final QC checks if you will, before it gets passed for packaging, so this is a very important job.

So, this is me QC'ing Waen Lemon Drizzle for casking.... obviously you can't take a mouthful, so you have to smell it first then strain some through your teeth!  Or, wait 5 minutes until the hops have settled and it's then a lot easier.... but who's got 5 minutes to spare, no us that's for sure!

All the hop debris and yeast settles out in the cask (aided by finings) so what you see at the bar - hopefully - doesn't resemble a tank sample, unless you're in a craft beer bar in London then it might look pretty similar to this...


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