For the last few days, I've taken a break from dieting, calorie counting, carb reduction and a number of other things we won't go into. So when I have a beer during the week there's usually a reason. I had a lunchtime pint with an old school friend earlier so it's only fitting I end the day with something from the beer fridge.

I found that I had two bottles of County Porter left. I made this in February. It spent 2 weeks in the fermenter before being put into a small barrel and a conditioning demijohn. I later bottled the contents of the demijohn, let it carbonate and then put the bottles in the conditioning fridge at 12 degrees - where it has probably been for about 5-6 months.

It's a moment when you drink the last bottle of a batch. The main reason is that the next batch will be different, despite it being the same recipe. The homebrewer only has a certain amount of control over these living organisms.

These two were beauties. The result is a clean, smooth Porter. There is a residual sweetness but nothing out of place. It's dark and it tastes dark. There's head retention too which I'm please about because some of my recent brews have felt a bit flat. Well worth the wait.

Er, tomorrow I'm back to my normal diet. I promise!