Hello! I don't know about any of you (before you started brewing), but I've said to my girlfriend over the past years, repeatedly, that I intend on making my own beer, but never actually done it. However, this time I actually intend on going through with it!
We recently came back from visiting friends in Sweden and while there I found a new love for beer, particularly IPAs. For those of you that haven't been to Sweden or don't know as much about their alcohol culture. Swede's are big summer drinkers, the vast majority of Swede's have a good month or so off in the summer to make the most of life, including alcohol! In all shops across Sweden, you can only buy drinks with an ABV of no higher than 3.5%, but wait, before you all cry out, they have a solution... Systembolaget; it is a government owned, off licence chain. Their selection of alcohol, particularly beers, is other worldly and staff are all well versed in what they sell and offer valuable guidance when exploring anything new. We tried so many different beers, it was fantastic.
Queue arriving home in sunny Devon, I nipped to Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons in search of good IPAs and found no more than 12 varieties between them (a Tesco superstore near me only had 1!!!). Did I buy lager? Well, yes I did, but that's not the solution here. I decided to embark on a quest to make my own IPA. I want to start with kits and stick to them until I have a firm grasp on what makes a good beer, then I intend on making my own.
Only time shall tell how successful that endeavour will be!
We recently came back from visiting friends in Sweden and while there I found a new love for beer, particularly IPAs. For those of you that haven't been to Sweden or don't know as much about their alcohol culture. Swede's are big summer drinkers, the vast majority of Swede's have a good month or so off in the summer to make the most of life, including alcohol! In all shops across Sweden, you can only buy drinks with an ABV of no higher than 3.5%, but wait, before you all cry out, they have a solution... Systembolaget; it is a government owned, off licence chain. Their selection of alcohol, particularly beers, is other worldly and staff are all well versed in what they sell and offer valuable guidance when exploring anything new. We tried so many different beers, it was fantastic.
Queue arriving home in sunny Devon, I nipped to Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons in search of good IPAs and found no more than 12 varieties between them (a Tesco superstore near me only had 1!!!). Did I buy lager? Well, yes I did, but that's not the solution here. I decided to embark on a quest to make my own IPA. I want to start with kits and stick to them until I have a firm grasp on what makes a good beer, then I intend on making my own.
Only time shall tell how successful that endeavour will be!
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