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The main lesson from Thursday evening's research at the Bat was to notice that none of these microbrewed beers are clear. Not clear in the sense that commercial beers are clear. That was nice to notice since if I hadn't I'd have been disappointed with my beer when I bottled it this morning. Without that, my only comparison would have been the cider, which settles nicely to be crystal clear. Still, even though it still has a few weeks of conditioning to do in the bottle, it tastes lovely. Hoppy like it has hopped all the way from Hoppsville.

That was definitely the highlight of the day since, if it had been horrible, it would have been a waste of a day brewing it and a waste of three weeks waiting. And every bottleful would have been a waste of 15p.

Home-brew is traditionally poured into washed out old Coke and bleach bottles to properly cement the cheapskate, chemistry-set image but I'm going for the handmade, artisanal look. The little tags are pretty cool, if I say so myself, although I wish I had nicer handwriting. It's a pleasure to see 12 of them bottled, tagged and stored in their little wooden crates.