This evening I went down to the basement and eyed up the barrel of beer.

It had sat there for the last two weeks, quiet and unassuming and with unknown mysteries going on under the plastic. The small piece of paper with instructions said leave it two or three weeks; we were on two weeks and a half, time to crack it open.

When I opened the tap it came out with a suitable rush and in the glass it was clear with a slight frothy head. Taste-wise it was better than the last lot – not so sweet and with a touch of the bitter. It still had the tang of homebrew about it but no more so than the odd bottle of beer I have bought from The Farmer’s Market.

So that’s forty pints done and ready for drinking in the space of three weeks or thereabouts. I may start the next lot off this weekend and have a go boiling up some hops to go with it.