Henley's Microbrewery

Dark Brown Ale - Take 2

2011-07-14T08:00:00.002+02:00

This weekend (16/17 July) I will be making v1.1 of the dark brown ale. I'v decided to open up the manufacturing lines and bring in a few helpers (basically friends that want to carry stuff around and mix a few things in exchange for free beers!).
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Dark Brown Ale v1.0

2011-07-12T22:50:00.001+02:00

After a few months of quiet contemplation and sort of licking my wounds from the last 2 batches (sucks when things don’t quite work out the way you intended) I’ve decided that its time to let the world know which beer is being made next by Henley’s. I present to you v1.0 of a Dark Brown Ale.

The look of it, the taste of it - Coopers Lager Part 3

2011-04-02T10:50:00.009+02:00

... the smell of it, the texture! I do enjoy a good Austin Powers marathon! But back to the beer... This post is way overdue. The 2 weeks have passed and at the time of writing so has the 5 week mark. I must confess that I couldn't wait the whole 2 weeks and had a bottle the day before the 2 week mark. The excitement got the better of me.

Bubbling and bottling - Coopers Lager Part 2

2011-02-24T13:55:00.007+02:00

Waiting for the beer to ferment reminds me of a child waiting in anticipation for Christmas morning to open his presents. Instead of a tree to go to for the presents I went to the kitchen counter where TheCreativePot graciously allowed us to turn it into the fermentation station. It sounds a lot fancier than it is really - just a bucket with a hole on top for an airlock and a tap at the bottom. But I do like the sense of occasion so fermentation station it is!

Christmas in February - Coopers Lager Part 1

2011-02-10T17:01:00.005+02:00

I remember that old Bell’s Christmas TV ad where the dad had given himself a bottle of whiskey: “To Dad, From Dad”. It has been said that you are to give the type of gift to somebody that you yourself would like to receive.

The idea to start brewing our own beer started about 3 weeks ago. I’m not really sure what triggered the idea, but once I started reading up on the subject I got more excited. And so Henley’s was born.

Mike got on board the minute I told him about the idea. Imagine always having beer in the house. Your own custom-made beer – the way you like it! It sounded like a Utopian dream. Very un-Utopian it would require a degree of preparation.

We decided on a Coopers Micro Brew Kit. It includes all/most of the equipment a home micro brewer would need in his endeavours as well as ingredients to make your first lager beer.