This past Sunday I checked the gravity of the old ale that I started a week earlier. It was really just an experiment so I shouldn’t have had very high hopes for it. But I can dream, can’t I?

The yeast went crazier than I had anticipated. I wanted something like a 75% attenuation, which would have given me a final gravity somewhere around the 1.015 area. What I got was 1.009. That’s crazy. But the true test is in the taste. So I tasted it. Dry and bitter. Kind of the opposite of what I wanted. Well, at least it’s beer, right? Right?!

I racked (siphoned, for those unfamiliar with the terminology) it off the yeast and into a 3 liter ginger ale bottle. I like the ginger ale bottles because they’re green so they let less light through. Then the bottle went into the fridge to clear for a week or two. Then I guess I’ll bottle it and sit on it for a few months and just hope it tastes good enough to drink later down the road.

Better luck next time. Which will probably be soon.