#4 Batch: Coopers Stout

Brewed the fourth batch today: Coopers Stout + Munton Beer Enhancer.

I'd just finished drinking the #2 Canadian Lager, so the barrel was free. I'm now drinking the #3 Woodforde's Wherry, which seems much better than the first batch, for some reason; perhaps it's the extra two weeks in the barrel before drinking.

I had a couple of problems with the #2 lager: first the syphon tube inside the barrel came off, so I had to depressurise the barrel to open it and then refit the syphon. The site I bought the barrel from were very helpful, telling me what to do. As per instructions, I added 4oz of sugar to the barrel to repressurize it and the following day, the saftey valve (a glorified elastic band) broke, the beer foaming out of the top of the barrel! A did a quick fix with some elastic bands; a quite difficult feat amongst the beer foam and the supplier sent me two replacement bands, so I'm hoping that the next batch behaves itself.