A Crook Brew

From time to time for what appears to be no clear reason a batch of home brew just doesn't come out right.  If a few bottles in the brew seem to be off, then the bottle cleaning method needs to be checked.  But if they are all off then something went wrong with the process or with the product itself (eg out of date). There is no way to tell.

A brew I bottled late in November is that little bit off, it is around 70% I reckon.  I can add something to it, e.g. a dash of lemonade or something similar to make it more pleasant to drink.  Some times I can do a 50/50 with a 50% good beer and 50% bad beer and mix them.

When I wash the bottles out after I have drunk them, there is always a little sediment trapped in the bottom of the bottles.  I use plastic bottles and they have what I call "rocket bottoms", small sections at the foot of the bottle (like Coca Cola bottles) where the sediment congregates (as per the photo).

A quick rinse or two, a firm shake with the bottle half full of water is always enough to remove this sediment.  This crook brew needs a firm and lengthy brush with a bottle cleaning brush to totally remove the sediment.

So today I have put another brew on and already washed all the 30 bottles ready for the bottling late next week.  Each bottle got a decent brush and a final close inspection to ensure they were as clean as they possibly could be.  Some bottles took around a couple of minutes to eventually remove all the stuck on sediment.

I have decided therefore to take a short cut, I will wash out half of the bottles and get rid of the sediment, the other half will be emptied down the sink and the soiled empties tossed into the recycling bin!  I will buy a new box of 15 bottles early next week  One box = around half a brew bottling!

At least this morning was dry enough for me to get a bike ride in.  I then bottle washed and took a quick swim afterwards to cool off though today hasn't been overly hot.  Wet and hotter weather is due the next few days.

And it appears it may be showery this weekend when we fly to Melbourne to attend a nephew's wedding.

A new small restaurant has opened a few kilometres away so we thought we would head there for a meal last night.  It is a small Vietnamese place with only around 20 or so seats for customers.  Things didn't quite go to plan as they were booked out and are just about booked out for tonight as well.

We will try again next Tuesday.  The fish and chips we had instead were sensational though!