Wednesday 16 December 2009

Pretzel disappointment

Well, after my utter failure of my first attempt at twisting pretzels, where I couldn't even get around to rolling out the dough properly because it was too soft, I had another go. I consulted the internet and found out I should have used a firmer dough, and discovered that it was better, but still not great.

My worktop is too smooth, so the dough slides and I found myself pushing the rolls of dough across it rather than rolling them out. Rolling them on a wooden board was much better, but the board wasn't wide enough for the long strands.

I need to think of something else. And I thought this would be the easy part.

Sunday 6 December 2009

KKKK

I brewed this months ago thinking it would be nice to have a strong ale around for Christmas time. Now it’s nearly Christmas time already and I opened a bottle to test it.

Sadly, due I think to my sloppy bottling practice, it’s quite badly oxidised. If you can ignore that, it’s alright. It’s quite syrupy but I deliberately hopped it quite highly to avoid it being sickly sweet. Lovely whisky aroma (or, if you dislike whisky, I guess you would say a harsh alcohol aroma) with floral, woody notes.

Can’t quite decide whether it’s good enough to offer to my friends. I poured most of the bottle into the roasting tin for the roast pork I’m cooking.