Barrel half-full or half-empty?

Is the glass half-empty or half-full? And by glass, I mean barrel.

Here's the barrel-half-full argument: Si stopped the leak that threatened our latest batch of beer last week. We have sampled it and it ain't half-bad.

Here's the barrel-half-empty argument: The barrel's half-empty. Or half-full. But probably half-empty. Yep, sadly, the leak I reported recently led to half our brew disappearing over Si's kitchen floor/Si's back garden/Si's dog.

But Mr Alton decided maybe releasing the pressure in the barrel might help and it appears this has worked, which is a relief as one reader suggested we might be about to experience a big bang — and not in a Stephen Hawking kinda way.

It is actually quite worrying how often, in the process of home brewing, you come across warnings of explosions. I'm hoping someone will tell us whether releasing the pressure was A) an obvious solution; B) a stroke of genius; or C) really stupid and a surefire way to ruin the beer.

The reader also warned there was a slight danger of contamination, but happily this also appears to have been avoided and the ale is drinking quite nicely, thank you very much.

Admittedly we're not actually supposed to be drinking it yet, as it still needs another two weeks in the cool for conditioning before it is perfect, but we sampled some the other night and liked what we tasted, so we tried a few more.

The rest is now stored in a dark, cool place, and it will be interesting to see what, if any, difference this makes.The beer is still a bit on the cloudy side at present and we're waiting to see if the extra conditioning time will do anything to help the clarity.

This week saw Si's birthday, so being the good mate I am I decided to buy him a present that would benefit both of us: Emily.

Now I don't want you getting any ideas. Emily is, in fact, a device for putting lids on beer bottles. And no, I'm not one of those people who goes around naming his household objects. For some reason it's called Emily.

Why? Well, it is Swedish.

Anyway, I presented Si with Emily (along with some bottles and lids, which don't have names) and a couple are now chilling in the fridge ready to be sampled next week.

I'm quite interested to discover whether the beer still in the barrel, which is being left outside, will taste any different (and indeed any better or any worse) than that which has been bottled and refrigerated.

I have also, rather foolishly, pledged to bottle up a couple more and bring them in for some of my colleagues so they can see what they think of our efforts so far.

Next week it will be back to Brew Genie in Shrewsbury for another advanced kit, and this time Si and I will try out some of the specialist techniques to try to alter the taste and strength of the brew.

We're also going to try a tip from reader Peter Wignall, in Australia, to brew the beer in two brewing bins rather than one, which will, apparently, minimise the yeast.

I've also invested in a second barrel (in case the first one was beyond repair) so as soon as the new beer is under way, well be moving on to trying to create our own recipe.