{"id":251,"date":"2022-08-04T10:15:33","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/?p=251"},"modified":"2024-01-11T15:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:07:31","slug":"adding-brewer-to-my-list-of-hobbies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/04\/adding-brewer-to-my-list-of-hobbies\/","title":{"rendered":"Adding ‘Brewer’ to my list of hobbies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ok, it’s been a couple of months since I last made a post – Long story short, I was looking for the next thing to do, then I got Covid for 2 weeks, then I started finishing off some previous projects that I had started years ago and just never managed to finalise, then I got a new Project Manager role which starts at the end of this month, then I won an award at work (yesterday) and Last night I slept for like 12 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout all of this though, I have rediscovered my love of brewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, alcohol and I have an interesting relationship: I very rarely drink and when I do it has typically been very fruity, vibrant drinks – one of my sweeties described a drink once as ‘Sugar water that has been introduced to alcohol’ – but when I tell people this, they are often shocked because I’m Irish, and… Stereotypes exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, about 2 months ago, the Celtic blood in me was demanding that I brew some alcohol so… I got to researching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Metheglyn Hydromel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It has been 4 years since I last brewed anything – the last drink I made was a coffee wine. It was surprisingly good. Like, doesn’t seem like it would be, and if I were to do it again today I have plenty of ways I would change the brew, but good none the less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well this time, I started researching meads. I found a recipe which called for lemons, ginger, spices, and a few other bits, but interestingly only 4% honey. Having never made one before, I figured I would follow the recipe and just let it do its thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it was brewing, I sat and started researching in earnest. My brain just can’t *not* obsess over these things. My specialist subjects arise and I spend months just deep diving into them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I discovered that the first brew (in the recipe just called a ‘simple mead’ is actually a metheglyn hydromel – A spiced mead, but only 3-5% ABV – and because I was following a recipe and not *the process*, I couldn’t be sure where in that 3-5% range it fell. After racking, it came out like this;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is all spice, no sweetness, and… I like it. Weird, because I usually like sweet drinks, but this is citric, tart, and *spice*, with almost no sweetness at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Acer-Methe-Cyser-Glyn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the metheglyn was done, I decided to go again with everything that I had learned during the previous fermentation: More honey, making measurements, taking notes…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next one I started was an ‘Acermethecyserglyn’:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Acer – contains maple syrup<\/li>
  • Methe – will contain spices<\/li>
  • Cyser – has apples (specifically juice)<\/li>
  • Glyn – is a mead, so at least 50% of the fermentables are honey.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    With the introduction of this one, I have started to take more detailed notes on A6 record cards – The name, the batch number, ingredients (planned and actual if there are any changes), original gravity, start date, etc etc etc. I have then been recording these on my laptop with a target rack date and bottle date…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This will allow me to make notes, adjust in the future, identify where I could completely change something up…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also, I have 400 record cards and need an excuse to use them, so…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Future plans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    So yesterday I started 2 new brews – one with mixed berries, and one with cherries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    So it would appear for all intents and purposes that this hobby is increasing in velocity. Luckily with the award I won at work, there was a \u00a350 gift voucher which I will be spending on glass bottles for storing all of these, but I think I will most likely be getting into brewing for a long time to come, and I suppose that my friends will all be getting plied with delicious meads and wines for as long as I can continue to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Anyway, watch this space, I may update as I make more brews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    -Grey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ok, it’s been a couple of months since I last made a post – Long story short, I was looking for the next thing to do, then I got Covid for 2 weeks, then I started finishing off some previous projects that I had started years ago and just never managed to finalise, then I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydoesthings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}