I'm next out on Saturday 27th July at the Colvend Producers Market at Colvend near Rockcliffe/Dalbeattie, and I hope to be at one or the other of the Dumfries and Galloway producers markets most weekends for the balance of the year.

Here are the dates for the summer shows at which I'll be displaying and selling my prints -

Wednesday 31st July, Stranraer Show, Stranraer

Thursday 1st August, Stewartry Show, Castle Douglas

Friday 2nd-Monday 5th August, Kirckudbright Arts Trail (with Scotia)

Saturday 3rd August, Dumfries Show, Dumfries

Friday 9th-Saturday 31st August, Devils Porridge Museum, Eastriggs near Annan

Saturday 17th August, Gala Day, Crawford, South Lanarks

Saturday 24th August, Annan Harbour Festival, Annan

Saturday 31st August, Moffat Show, Raehills near Moffat

Beer in a barrelBut not much left! :-(

The pressure barrel was filled with about 35 pints from a 40 pint ferment, but here's what's left of the hoppy pale that I brewed a few weeks ago. It's a home brew called Golden Stag (bought in the Edinburgh brew store) which is an excellent 'summer ale' kit. A couple of hours of preparation (sterilisation and rinsing mainly) then add your warm wort and water mix, top up to 40 pints, add your yeast, seal up the tub with a lid and airlock, keep it at between 20 and 25 C and away you go. On day 5 add dry hops, seal it up again and leave it for another 5-10 days. On day 10, check the gravity and if it's good to go, transfer by syphon to secondary fermentation in the barrel (you lose the 5 pints bit in the yeast and hop sediment which doesn't taste great), add a bit of sugar to get those yeasties going again and produce some CO2. It's well drinkable about 5 days later but still a bit cloudy, another 5 days it's just moresome (a made-up word I've since discovered is a sexual gathering greater than a twosome or threesome but is alliteratively correct in my made-up sense because it reads better than moreish) when it's time to transfer the barrel somewhere a bit cooler, and then a week later it's just awesome.

Superlatives fail me on this kit. It's been as good as the best summer ale pub beer from the get-go. Home brews have certainly changed since my Dad's airing cupboard tinned bitter kit days. There's a 21 page long thread here citing similar exaltations ...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=23336

Cheers :-)

Beer in a glassNicely clear after just 15 days from the get-go.