We decided to try some one gallon batches and use up some barley that had been collecting in my garage over the last year. I must confess that I didn't have much hopes of a drinkable beer, using a grain that had been sitting in the garage at least one year and even through the summer when the temperature reached as high as 80F or 27 C. We used wild hops which had been in the freezer for at least a year!
We made three one gallon batches and by God they were good! One brown ale, one pale ale and one amber ale. All of them ended up around 7%. I was amazed! One tasted very much like Harvey's Sussex ale, an ale that became my favorite this last summer.
Now we have 2 gal lager in the fridge and we made a sage ale today with OG of 1.090!!. If that one is drinkable! ha ha I almost made a promise to eat some inedible garment.
Next we will try some orange peel, juniper berries and rose water! I am not sure about all this, but I will just go with it and make some IPA in between the small batches.
It is fun to brew again and if we ruin a batch, so what? It's only a gallon. Cheers to all wives out there!
