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Five hundred years after Columbus.

your favourite tipple - wine, beer, spirits
88V8
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Five hundred years after Columbus.

#239051

Postby 88V8 » July 24th, 2019, 10:58 pm

Tom Caxton. Somehow just seems appropriate on this Boris Day.
But it was a coincidence.

What to have with venison burgers for dinner. Red wine or beer. Beer won. But then, a call over the intercom. We've no beer.
This is unusual. We rarely run out of anything, but here we were with just a bottle of chocolate porter which didn't seem quite right.

'Well', I said, 'there's...'
'Really??'
'Why not?'
'Where is it?'

Now, there's a question. A bottle untouched for the eight years we've been in situ. Brought from our previous house. The last pint bottle. In the cellar? No.
Then I remembered.
In the small drinks cupboard, along with the bottle of home-made damson vodka, the Martell, the Luxardo and the nearly empty bottle of blue Curacao I've been solo drinking ever since I was given it in 1986.

So, after four hours in the fridge, we sat down to dinner with this pint bottle. And a bottle of still cider as backup, just in case. Not that the cider was 'right', but hey it's summer.

The crucial moment. Pffft or no pffft. Go or not go.
Ye olde Corona crown-cork lifter.
Pfffft.
Tom Caxton is go !!

Long ago, OH was seriously into home alcohol. Wine, and beer. Then the beer fell away. This was the last bottle. The last of the last five gallons.
The year was memorable to me as the year that Speyhawk went bust taking over two years' net salary with it. Stuff happens. Time mellows.

And in September of that year, the 4th to be precise, this bottle was bottled. The eighteenth of the batch.

Now?
Rich. Smoking. Heady aroma.
The colour of madeira. A dark Madeira, Duke of Clarence if we're at the budget end.
A deep thick flavour, oddly enough not unlike a porter.
ABV that felt in double figures.
A slight crust.
Far far from the 'best bitter' noted on the label.

We sat on the terrace, in the 70s, home-grown side salad, plus home=grown hot new potatoes, broad beans, mange touts, and not forgetting the burger. A meal to remember. The last bottle.

Anyone else drunk a twenty seven year old home-brew beer?

V8

sg31
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Re: Five hundred years after Columbus.

#239199

Postby sg31 » July 25th, 2019, 1:06 pm

Thanks for that 88V8, I enjoyed reading that.

I regulary make wine, I have done for years and I enjoy the process. I made cider from kits up to about 5 years ago, I had to stop drinking it because it brings on reflux attacks. I know there are 3 bottles left, most of the last batch was used to cook 'Apple in Cider' (a dish that always me think of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue).

I haven't made beer at home for nearly 40 years although I do have a kit that was given to me for a present by my nephew. I might get round to making it this winter. I may leave it bottled for a decade or so if you can guarantee that it will result in a beer that is...

Rich. Smoking. Heady aroma.
The colour of madeira. A dark Madeira, Duke of Clarence if we're at the budget end.
A deep thick flavour, oddly enough not unlike a porter.
ABV that felt in double figures.
A slight crust.

Thanks again for the memories.

bungeejumper
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Re: Five hundred years after Columbus.

#239252

Postby bungeejumper » July 25th, 2019, 3:18 pm

Forty years ago, I also made beer, but I never had the OP's problem because I brewed it in pressure barrels and I didn't ever bottle the stuff. Unlike my neighbour, who nearly blew her staircase apart when a bottle turned weapons of mass destruction on her. :lol:

So longevity wasn't ever an option for any of my efforts. I didn't live in a big enough house to be able to do all the mashing and malting stuff properly, so I used kits but tweaked them with my own innovations, such as using brown sugar and adding a little hop oil.

Those were the days, not that I remember all of them. It was also the reason why I eventually stopped brewing beer. Having made forty pints, I would tend to drink forty pints. Something had to give. :|

BJ


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