Brewing

I'm an all grain brewer and I mostly like brewing stuff I can't buy in a pub. At the moment I've got 5 gallons each of Kolsch, American Rye, Belgian Pale and American Brown Ale in my beer fridge, all kegged. I've also got about 120 pints of various beers in bottles stashed all over the place. I find it important to keep myself hydrated.

I use 5 gallon kegs at home but I also have a couple of 2.5 gallon kegs that I take away in the camper to save space. At home I use a beer gas on a manifold to pressurise the kegs but I recently got hold of a much smaller bottle to use in the camper. I'm looking at rigging up a tap above the sink connected to a 2.5 gallon keg in the boot. Mind you, I'll need to clean the lines out after every trip so I might not bother.

I sometimes cask condition beers when I make English beers such as Mild or Porter. It does taste better for those styles. However, I find kegging more convenient and there's far less risk of it going off.

Unfortunately, it's a hobby that costs me a fortune. I spent just over £2000 on some new German made kit last month. I look at it like this, a bloke at work was telling me his wife spent £1200 on a new handbag last month. She hasn't even got any beer to show for it. Thankfully, I don't do it to save money, I just like making beer.

I don't pretend to be an expert but I do make some very acceptable beers that taste nothing like the rubbish I used to make out of kits years ago.