How do you eat yours?

A little earlier in the office the conversation turned to fruit, and while discussing it I raised the question as to how do you eat a kiwi fruit? Now for me there has never been a question, I pick it up and eat it like an apple, "what furry skin and all" Yes! now this was met with horror and mutterings of me being slightly weird. The general consensus was that you either peel it or as most people do slice it in half and eat it with a spoon. Granted, this would taste slightly less tarte and bitter, but for me thats what I like about it, so the question is how do you eat yours?

Imperial IPA

I thought that I'd get a head start on the brew day and prep as much as I could the night before, malt weighed out, 7.8kg, HLT filled with water ready to spark up in the morning and everything sterilized to within an inch of its life. Before any of this could happen I had to get a little inspiration, so I chose a couple of beers I had been saving for this very occasion. Firstly The highly rated Black IPA from The Kernal Brewery and secondly JJJ IPA from Moor Brewing, having thoroughly savored these and pondered how lucky I would be if I produced anything mildly as special, I was now ready to build an Imperial IPA. And so to bed!

The flame went on at 8am, a little early for me on a Sunday, especially one so miserable. Not willing to let this dampen my spirits I though I'd knock up an additional brew to wake me up so with the click of the kettle I was in business. Now I'm still very much the novice when it comes to brewing but its that, that makes it so exciting, like when you first start learning to cook and you produce something that is not only edible but actually tastes good and its not just you that thinks so!

The mash went in an hour later and then the waiting game began, would it work would I get the desired sugar levels? an hour and a half later I was relieved as the wort came out darker and thicker than I had planned and on first measure the OG was 1.090, It was looking like it was going to be a big one!

200gms of Amarillo and Citra hops, and 70 minutes later I had 20 litres of sweet and hop saturated liquor waiting for some yeast, there was one obstacle left, how to cool the wort before I went to bed. After calling on my twitter followers I was given the answer (thanks @thehappybat ) stick it in the sink, well the sink wasnt big enough so the bath worked just fine.

Its now fermenting nicely and smells pretty good too, the proof of the pudding though will be in the eating or in this case....

King Cup

On a recent trip to Bruges while walking the streets we were confronted with yet another chocolate shop, something that this beautiful town is not short of. However, after reading the "taste the best hot chocolate" written above the door there was little else to do but take the challenge. After scaling a vertical medieval staircase, once atop the choice was threefold white, milk or dark, I went milk Amy went dark. The result, a head sized cup of steaming milk and a pot of chocolate drops. Yes the sign did not lie, it was indeed the best hot chocolate I'd ever tasted.