Well done for making it through another year. We can’t thank you enough for your support. It’s always a pleasure working with you, this year especially. It’s been a tough one for all, with costs of living soaring, and world politics a mess. But at least we have comfort in our homebrew! 

At times like these we at Dark Farm are thankful for a small but dedicated homebrewing community. It makes a huge difference to us as a team. It helps us improve as a small business, and provides the necessary motivation to carry on. And boy, have we got some exciting new things happening next year.

We are launching our brand new website in the new year, focusing more on content, learning and our awesome brewing community. Plus we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new Uni Tank, and the 60L Brew Tank will also be back in stock. Not forgetting the party in April for our first ever homebrewing knockout tournament (see page 28). We have had an amazing response to this from our community. Thanks to everyone who has entered their beers so far. By the time you’ll be reading this, we will only have a handful of places left. So if you haven’t signed up, do it now.

I’ve been enjoying brewing more in the past few months. I have to say, I’ve been knocking out some epic brews. One of the best was the fresh hop beer we did back in September; after around 6 weeks conditioning it matured into a beautiful ale. The balance between bitterness and sweet, sweet hops was perfect. I only know this because my wife has enjoyed a fair few - an accurate measure for an excellent homebrew, I think.

This year I have turned my back a little on new age beers - they are becoming repetitive, I feel. I find myself searching more and more for a real ale, and have turned to the pumps rather than the kegs when out in town. This has had a massive impact on what I’ve been brewing at home. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the new hops with intense flavours, but I’ve been more cautious, using them more to help refine the flavour and aroma of my brews.  

Learning a lot about the benefits of step mashing and refining the background flavours from the malts and bittering hops, I have found my beers to be far better balanced than before. Britain has an amazing heritage of brewing and hops; carefully combining this with a controlled amount of our overseas friends is, to me, the perfect blend. 

 On this note, I’m off to brew up another festive treat. We are spending 2 weeks amongst family and friends this Christmas. Beer will be needed. Lots of beer… 

 Have a relaxing and enjoyable festive break. We look forward to hearing from you in the New Year!