Flagon Slayer Brewery

First and foremost, if you haven’t been to http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bender/, you must. Simon is my new hero for building a real live Bender Fermenter. Words can not express.

I’ve been looking into growing my own hops, and it looks surprisingly cheap / easy / fun. Farms will ship you hop rhizomes for $3-$5, depending on the variety, so when they come back in stock early spring I’ll be picking some up. Odd to think about planning which hops you’ll need for brewing a beer a year or two from now, but I like the idea. It gives it a sort of permanence as well as adds pure homebrew points.

This Friday, as I’m sure you all know, is St. Bartholomew’s day, the patron saint of beekeeping, and in Cornwall the Blessing of the Mead is still celebrated every 24th of August. As such, I’ve decided on a Flagon Slayer party, where we’ll be showing Jeremy how to brew by making a Pomegranate Red Mead of my own devising, as well as sampling ample amounts, of course. A bottle of mead or some decent home/microbrew gets you in, and if you read this, you’ve probably already been invited.

Finally, since Kyle asked so nicely, I’m posting the recipe for Sima, a quick brewing Finnish lemon alcopop. It’s delicious, and costs about $2 / gallon to make.

Now’s the time to be laying in for the winter months, so I thought I’d make something Christmassy. The idea at the moment is as follows:

• 2.5 pounds honey
• 1/2 gallon organic apple juice
• 1/2 pound raisins
• several sticks cinnamon
• 20-30 paradise seeds, crushed

…as well as the usual additives. I’m concerned about the raisins, though, as I don’t want them to be overpowering. Might need to go to 1/4 pound to be safe.  I’ll be using campden tablets, to be sure.