Batch #4 happened on a beautiful Sunday afternoon after cleaning the BBQ and the garage. I wanted to show Vero’s parents how it was done.
Nothing really out of the ordinary happened with this batch…pretty standard fare. It takes HOURS to cool down from boiling though. What a pain!
I did happen to take a hydrometer reading so that was foolish of me.
Three days later, I checked on the batch and it looked it severely bubbled over/through the fermentation lock. There was beer on the floor and on my white shirt sleeve which was touching the top of the fermentation lock. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the fermentation lock was still in place and bubbling away. What’s strange is I also made a 4.5 gallon batch thinking I could get a higher alcohol content with less water. So I find it quite strange that the thing fermented/created enough pressure to blow a little. Any ideas as to what may have happened?
Update: Well, because I failed to measure the original gravity, I have no idea what the alcohol content is. Either way, it came out to be a fine tasting batch of Dark Ale, or as I have called it, Darktin as Vero’s family was up for the event. I must say that I enjoy my other batches more…the dark ale is definitely an acquired taste and an entire batch is a lot to take in. Plus, since it’s an acquired taste, it’s hard to let people try it and enjoy it if they don’t care for the darker beer. That being said, I think in the future I will stick to one batch as experimental for yours truly, and the other for a beer that pleases myself as well as others.