WezBrew - The Life Of a Fledgling All Grain Brewer

Fermentation Control

2010-09-06T20:54:00.002+01:00

Well, things have moved on a little at the fledgling brewery. The latest addition is a fermentation control lid which i've called "the contraption". I'm fermenting my beers in the 80L thermobox which I also use to mash in, the contraption lets me control the temperature that my beers are fermented at. It is a custom made stainless steel lid with beerline around the edge to create a seal (not airtight but it keeps the bugs out!) it has two SS cooling coils drilled through it which are connected to a beerline chiller and a 55w aquarium heater also fitted. The whole thing is hooked up to a TC10 temperature contoller with the probe going through the lid and this submerges in the beer. Basically all that happens then is I set the desired fermenting temperature and if the wort is 1c above this it kicks the beer line chiller on which pumps icy water through the product coils until the wort reached the right temperature or if it's 1c too cold it turns on the heater until the temperature of the wort is where I want it. Pretty good eh! The whole thing works really well.

I hate bottling

2010-02-27T19:26:00.002Z

I've bottled and kegged the beer I made last Saturday which finished at 1.010 (5.1%) I bottled 3 crates (36 bottles) and filled 2.5 cornie kegs. I really hate bottling, seriously, I really hate bottling but, when it's time to drink them I'll be glad I did. I've also promised a few people a bottle or two to review so needed to do it. The bottles have been primed with 1/2 tsp sugar and the cornies are being force carbed. Now it's time to enjoy a pint of "Witches Wort" that I made back in September 2009. I found half a cornie of it today......and I thought I had NO BEER!

I think a Stout is up next, probably a Toasted Oatmeal Stout.

Starters anyone...?

2010-02-25T20:07:00.002Z

A long long time ago I purchased some vials of White Labs liquid yeast, two of these vials have sat in the beer fridge unopened. The best before dates on them are October 2008. Being at a loose end this evening I thought I'd see if they will actually grow on after all this time!

So 2 x 2L starters made using 200g spraymalt in each, if they work I'll split each yeast into 4 x 500ml PET bottles and maybe even use them in a brew!

The strains are WLP002 (English Ale) and WLP023 (Burton Ale).

Fingers crossed.

Back In The Saddle, at Last!

2010-02-23T19:02:00.002Z

Its been the longest layoff since I started all-grain brewing in April 2007 but on Saturday 20 February I got back in the brewing saddle it a few tweaks and additions to the Fledgling Brewery.

Equipment wise the major change was the addition of an 80L stainless steel tun, this is a thermobox from Nordic Optical kindly converted to be a bottom drained tun by user Muddydisco from thehomebrewforum there is a great thread posted there showing it's construction from start to finish which you can see by following the link here I have fitted a stainless steel false bottom which was custom made for me by John at homebrew shop Hop & Grape, although Muddydisco has also now started to make these too! Other than that I have fitted a sight tube to my HLT which has made life loads easier!

1st Brew In The New Tun

I decided to christen the new tun with a batch of my house ESB "Big Kenny"

Target 60L FV
Target 1.050
Target 30IBU
90 min 66c Mash
90 min Boil

97% Pale Malt (12.2kg)
1.5% Crystal Malt 120L (190gm)
1.0% Roasted Barley (130gm)
0.5% Chocolate Malt (65gm)
2.5tsp Gypsum

Challenger to 30 IBU
60g Bobek at 15 Mins
2tsp Gyspum

Fermenting with 2x 11g sachets of Nottingham

The brew went quite well, there were a few issues which I need to fix for the next brew, the biggest issue was the amount of grain particles that got past the false bottom, I've traced the problem and fixed it (I hope) but for this brew I had to pump back from the boiler to a cleaned out tun through a fine SS mesh and then back again to the boiler, again through a fine mesh to get the particles out. Something I'd rather not have had to have done! I'll also be wrapping the boiler in silver bubble insulation to decrease the amount of time it's taking to come to the boil. The picture here shows the fly sparge, gravity feeding water from the HLT to a spinney sparger and pumping out at the same rate to the boiler.

I backed off the boil strength a little and ran on one element, this mean that my losses were much less and from the 85L pre boil volume I ended up with 70L into the "fermenter" the OG was 1.048 which I'm happy with, I'd assumed a 75% brew house efficiency being the first brew, this volume and strength works out at around 85% which is quite good I think for a first brew with new equipment.

Why Waste The SS Tun?

Rather than ferment in my plastic fermenters I'm trying a new approach, the beer is being fermented in the thermobox tun! I have dropped an aquarium heater set to 18c in the "fermento-tun" and also placed a short piece of copper tube into the drain on the tun, the reason for this is so that when I come to draw the fermented beer out I'm hoping that the yeast cake will be just below this point so I'll be drawing beer and not yeast, we will see! As you can see from this picture fermentation has started well, tonight it's sat bang on 18c and is down 28 points to 1.020.

Christmas Wine

2009-10-11T10:10:00.002+01:00

We are quite organised this year and have 8 demijohns of wine fermented out and clearing ready to be bottled. Kit wine's that we have made are:

Beaverdale Peisporter
Beaverdale Pinot Grigio
Beaverdale Barolo
Beaverdale Rioja Red
Beaverdale Chablis Blush
California Connoisseur Riesling

We have also had a bash at a wine which I have heard good things about, Wurzels Orange Wine, we have made 2 demijohns using the following method:

1Ltr 100% Pure Orange Juice (smooth)
1Ltr Pressed White Grape Juice
1.5Lbs Granulated Sugar
1tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2tsp Tannin
1tsp Pectic Enzyme
1tsp Glycerine
Water to 1 Gallon
1pck White Wine Yeast

Add Orange Juice, Grape Juice, Yeast Nutrient, Tannin, Pectin Enzyme & Glycerine to the demijohn along with a pint and a half of cold water and shake to mix well

Dissolve sugar in a pint of boiling water

Add Sugar water to demijohn

Top up to 4ltr with cold water and mix, and add yeast.

Ferment under airlock until the initial vigorous fermentation is over then top up to 4.5ltrs and continue to ferment until done.

When fermented rack to a sanitised demijohn with 1 crushed campden tablet and a tsp of potassium sorbate. De-gas for 24 hrs by shaking a few times. Then add wine finings. Bottle when clear.

Ours is at the de-gassing stage at the moment, the wine smells lovely, looking forward to trying it! It works out at around 40p a bottle!

Time flies....

2009-10-07T19:09:00.005+01:00

Wow! - it's been such a long time since last posting anything here, time has been taken up with other projects and also spending (probably) too much of my time on the forum!

The Keggerator which I last posted about is un and running and working well, I have it set to serve my beer at 13c and i've been pleased with it's performance. It uses an ATC800 to control a 60w tubular heater and the freezer itself, switching between the two where it needs to call for heat or cold. Mostly through the summer I have been dispensing via my beer engine which is a HiGene 1/4 pint jobby, I use a cask breather connected to the corni and an inline check valve also - it works pretty well.

I've not managed to brew as much as i'd like to have done lately, I did manage to fit in a brewday to get a beer ready for halloween though recently. Witches Wort was kegged last night and turned out at around 5%. It's mt first time using Nelson Sauvin hops i'm impressed was with the smell from the FV and also the small sample I had when kegging it. Fingers crossed it'll do the job come the 31st!

Here is the recipe

Witches Wort

Pale Malt (98%)
Crystal Malt (2%)
Bobek 90 mins (33 ibu)
Nelson Sauvin 15 mins (12 ibu)
Nelson Sauvin Steeped at 80c for 15 mins

Due to the mash tun dying on me when I added the mash liquor I had to mash in a smaller tun, so the brewlength was reduced from the intended 60L to 36L just right for 2 cornies. One fermenter was pitched with s04 the other was pitched with Nottingham.

The introduction of a pump and a therminator plate chiller has made life easier at the Fledgling Brewery, no more lifting dangerous amounts of hot wort!

The next imminent brewery upgrade is the addition of an 80L stainless steel thermobox tun. This is currently awaiting conversion. I'll put a post on about how I do it, all the bits and bobs are here, all I need now is time, peace and quiet!

Wezzerator - Work Begins!

2009-03-24T22:28:00.002Z

Work started tonight on the Wezzerator. The chest freezer that I am using is not deep enough to hold a cornie keg so this collar effectively means that i'll have a cut & shut cooler. It's just the framework at the moment - I will be picking up the insulation for it tomorrow and fitting that.

I tried it out on the freezer and it fits like a glove.

XL Bitter - Kegged

2009-03-23T20:01:00.002Z

The XL Bitter that I brewed on 12 March has been sat at a steady 1.008 for 3 days now so at 4.2% abv it's found it's home in 3 cornies.

I had a cheeky taster - I think it could be a nice beer, I got the complex malt taste that I was after and it's not too over powering, the bitterness level seems about what I wanted too (27IBU), certainly less bitter than some of the beers I normally brew. My only concern is that after the initial complex malt taste there wasn't much left, no lingering flavour to speak of....?

It's nice to have a sensible strength malty low IBU beer brewed anyway - looking forward to tapping this one.

Time to think about the next brew - It was to be Wezerection I think.

Warm Weather - Cool Beer

2009-03-23T19:54:00.002Z

Well...spot on 13c beer hopefully :)

When the Mrs suggested that we could do with a larger Chest Freezer as the current one isn't enough I eagerly agreed as this means that I can now conver the older chest freezer into a KEGGERATOR - so over the next few weeks I'll be converting a Chest Freezer which can hold upto 4 cornies using an ATC800 temperature controller, a 60w Tubular Heater into a device to serve beer at the perfect temperature all year round.

The only problem is that the chest freezer isn't tall enough to hold a cornie - i'll solve this problem by adding a 20cm insulated colar around the top of the freezer and fixing the lid back on to this.

I'll take some pics along the way.

Should be a fun and productive project.

SUGAR Points..the way?

2009-03-18T20:40:00.003Z

On the last few brews that I've done I have been experimenting with 'Sugar Points', Phil a member on www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk got me interested in doing this, it is in basic terms a method of ensuring that you collect the right amount of sugar from your mash to ensure that you hit the gravity that you want.

It calls for a bit of math, so as I sit here typing this with Hoegaarden in hand I'll try my best to explain how I understand it.

The start point that you need is to know three things

a) What your desired OG is
b) What your desired volume into fermenters is
c) How much you loose after the boil to your boiler, hops etc

To aid explanation we will assume that our three figures are:

a) 1.050
b) 25 litres
c) 8 litres

The amount of sugar points needed for 33L at 1.050 (33L is 25L + losses of 8L) is 33 x 50 = 1650

So what you do is calculate your grist as you normally would, based on your own known brewhouse efficiency but when you sparge measure what you have collected both in volume and specific gravity and stop sparging when you have collected your required sugar points (1650 for this example) (A refractometer is very useful for this).

You do this by multiplying what you have collected by the gravity of what you have collected. Your own efficiencies will dictate at what volume you reach your required Sugar Points, for the sake of this example lets say we collected 25L of 1.066 wort ... 25 x 66 = 1650.

This 25L is then diluted down to your pre-boil volume (you will have to work that out based on your equipment), boil happily away down to your post boil volume knowing that it will be at the OG you want.

It sounds complicated but it easy really.

I'll be lowering my efficiency to 65% from 85% next time to try to improve the quality of extract.

XL Bitter

2009-03-11T13:12:00.000Z

Not posted a blog for a while – I’ve been busy with work and the home brew forum that we have set up.

I’m planning a brew this week, hoping for a nice session beer with lots of malt character and a fairly low IBU.

XL Bitter

60L Batch
Target OG 1.040
Target IBU 27

Pale 90%
Dark Crystal 3%
Amber Malt 3%
Wheat Malt 3%
Chocolate Malt 1%

20 IBU from Challenger 90 Min Boil
7 IBU from EKG’s 15 Min Boil
30g EKG Steeped at 80c for 15 mins

Fermenting using S04

Our New Forum - The Home Brew Forum

2008-07-18T20:09:00.005+01:00

A few of us with similar interests have decided to set up our own brewing forum. Please feel free to join us.

THE HOME BREW FORUM

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/

A Busy Evening

2008-07-07T22:30:00.002+01:00

I've had quite a busy evening, I've kegged "Thirst Gold" which I brewed back on June 25, I've prepared everything ready for an evening brew tomorrow and I've had a bash at coming up with something which will hopefully come close to the Brains S.A. Gold I recently wrote about.

Thirst Gold, the OG of this brew was 1.048, after 12 days of fermenting it stabilised at 1.010 so it's around 4.9% abv. I tried something new with this brew and split the overall IBU between the 60 min and 15 min hop additions, aiming for 20 IBU from each, giving a total of 40 IBU, tasting a sample tonight I was very pleased that the First Gold flavour that I recognise from the Badger First Gold bottled beer that I enjoy has come through well and also that it tastes like a 40 IBU beer, meaning my 100g 15 minute addition was worth it in the end! This needs about 4 weeks to mellow out, I'll have a sample each week......just to see how it's coming along!

Next tonight came the preparation for tomorrow nights brew, I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I wanted to have a go at a plain and simple bitter, I have twaeked the recipe a bit to add more crystal malt to hopefully improve the overall malt profile of the beer, I have also increased the Goldings aroma addition, the recipe which I have settled upon is:

Swift Bitter

50L Brewlength, Target OG 1.049 (70% brewhouse efficiency) Target IBU ~36

9.80 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter 87%
0.90 kg Crystal Malt 8%
0.56 kg Torrified Wheat 5%
100.00 gm Challenger [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 30.8 IBU
35.00 gm Challenger [7.00 %] (15 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
70.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.00 %] (steeped at 80 degrees for 15 mins)

Finally tonight I sat down and tried to work out something that will come close to Brains S.A. Gold, the recipe that I came up with is below, I'll be fermentng with US-05 for a nice clean taste, hopfully this one will get brewed on Thursday night, that will be 100L of beer this week, so I'd best get drinking to free up some kegs!

Harvest Sunset

50L Brewlength, Target OG 1.051 (70% brewhouse efficiency) Target IBU ~30

11.00 kg Pale Malt, Marris Otter 90%
0.60 kg Crystal Malt - 60L 5%
0.60 kg Torrified Wheat 5%
80.00 gm Cascade [5.75 %] (60 min) Hops 20.0 IBU
46.00 gm Bobek [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
40.00 gm Cascade [5.75 %] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
50.00 gm Bobek [5.00 %] (steeped at 80 degrees for 15 mins)
25.00 gm Cascade [5.75 %] (steeped at 80 degrees for 15 mins)

Brains S.A. Gold 4.7%

2008-07-02T19:38:00.003+01:00

The bottle neck label tells us that this is a "Delicious golden ale brewed in wales late-hopped with Cascade and Styrian Goldings" There is also an emblem on the main bottle label telling us that this beer won CAMRA's 'Champion Beer of Britain' Bronze in the Strong Bitter Category 2007. So when in the supermarket tonight and it caught my eye I thought that I could do worse, the only thing that put me off slightly was the clear bottle and obvious risk of skunking.

I'm impressed, I'd have to say that this is going to be this summers favourite bottled beer for me. The smell of the hops was there immediately after opening the bottle, the description on the back of the bottle is spot on "S.A. Gold is a full flavoured, hoppy and refreshing golden ale, brewed in Wales at the home of the world famous Brains S.A. The beer is late-hopped using Cascade and Styrian Goldings, giving it complex and refreshing citrus aromas and flavours"

I want to have a go at brewing something close to this, whilst I have around 1kg Cascade I have no Styrians but do have Bobek which are supposed to be similar, I'll have to have a scout around to see if I can find a recipe. I'd imagine that the bittering hop is also Cascade and I'd estimate that its around 30 IBU and just pale malt.

Swift Bitter

2008-06-30T18:58:00.005+01:00

It's about time the Fledgling Brewery produced another bird related beer, so in coming up with a recipe that I hope could become a regular brew I've also named it after the Swifts I sat watching cruising around the sky yesteray evening, so Swift Bitter it will be.

I'm targetting a medium strength 4.6%abv (1.048) bitter with around 35-40IBU, 90% Pale, 5% Crystal and 5% Torrified Wheat, I've heard that Challenger and Goldings work very well together so for a 50L brewlength at 70% efficiency this is the recipe I'll be going for.

Grist
9.8kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter 90%
550g Crystal Malt 5%
550g Torrified Wheat 5%

Hops
100g Challenger [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 31.1 IBU
35g Challenger [7.00 %] (15 min) Hops 5.4 IBU
50g Goldings, East Kent [4.00 %] Steeped during cooling at 80 degrees for 15 mins.

I'm probably also going to dry hop one of the kegs when the time comes, just to see the difference it makes, i'll probably add 10g Goldings in a muslin bag.

Hopefully I'll get to brew this up next week.

Brewday - "Thirst Gold"

2008-06-28T19:53:00.003+01:00

I finally managed to get around to brewing a beer hopped only with First Gold on Wednesday evening. After posting on Jims Homebrew Forum the recipe I was going to go for (see previous post) I was egged on to change the hopping schedule around, quite drastically, so what started out as aiming for 29 IBU from the First Wort Hops (FWH), 8 IBU from the 15 minute additions and 2 IBU from a 5 minute addition ended up with me upping the FWH and throwing a basket full of hops in at 15 minutes to get 9 IBU from both additions. The AA of these hops is relatively high at 8%AA doing this method with a lower AA hop wouldn't be as practical and it could be expensive.

It'll be interesting to see if the bitterness is there and also if there is a notable aroma explosion from using such a large quantity of late hops, there was also a generous amount of steep hops, there were added when the cooling wort hit 80 degrees C and the immersion chiller turned off while they steeped before being turned back on to drop the wort down to pitching temp quickly.

I currently have 2x FV's both with 25L of 1.048 wort fermenting away well.

The final recipe that I went for is:

50L
Target OG 1.047 (70% bhe)
Target IBU ~38
68 degree mash 60 mins
60 min boil
Fermenting with s04

11kg Marris Otter 97%
300g Crystal Malt 3%

50.00 gm First Gold [8.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 19.7 IBU
100.00gm First Gold [8.00 %] (15 min) Hops 19.7 IBU
80.00 gm First Gold [8.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep 80 degrees 15 mins)

An itch I have to scratch...

2008-06-18T19:55:00.002+01:00

I have wanted to do an all First Gold brew and this week all being well I'll get one done, This recipe is what I have in mind. I am going to have a go at frist wort hopping with this one.

Brew Length 50L
Target OG 1.052 (70% eff)
Target IBU ~ 38

11.3kg Marris Otter 91%
600g Crystal Malt 5%
500g Torrified Wheat 4%
60g First Gold [8.00 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) 28.4 IBU
60g First Gold [8.00 %] (15 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
30g First Gold [8.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
50g First Gold [8.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep for 15 mins at 80 degrees)

Bike and Beer

2008-06-14T18:57:00.002+01:00

I went on a thirty five mile bike ride around the North Warwicksire countryside today, we stopped for a beer at the Plough Inn near Ansley, Nuneaton, the Abbot Ale was very satisfying indeed.

North Warwickshire Cycleway

Townes IPA Kegged

2008-06-07T12:13:00.002+01:00

I managed to get the Townes IPA kegged today, both FV's were down to 1.010 so thats ~4.7% judging by the fact that the kitchen was filled with the aroma of Cascades while I was kegging, it's gonna be hoppy! Thats just what I wanted, my wife thought that the aroma was like lemon cheescake, I'd have to agree. I really think that adding the aroma hops (and a lot of them) at 80 degrees and turning off the immersion cooler for 15 mins helps to lock in the aroma.

Just have to wait a few weeks now until it can be supped, hopefully on a warm evening with a BBQ.

Mmmm Mally's Mild

2008-06-02T20:47:00.002+01:00

Ok, Ok, I only brewed this on 14 May, but it's on tap already, for tonight only, just a tester before my Dad comes to give the verdict at the weekend. The picture is awful, I struggle to photograph dark beer, it has a lovely deep dark red/black, the roasted malt come through well and there is a nice dry finish, personally I think I would enjoy it more with a few more IBU's but the style I was after is as it is, so, it's good to go and I hope it gets the thumbs up from papa Wezbrew.

Busy Yeast

2008-05-27T18:02:00.003+01:00

Well the S04 seemed to like the Townes IPA I brewed yesterday, both fermenters looked like this first thing this morning, the smell from the Cascades is amazing, in time i think this will be a great beer, fingers crossed.
I picked up some Fiddlers Elbow today, while I'm in the mood for pale ale's I fancy a go at a clone of this, pale, wheat and styrians, sounds good already!

Brewday : 26th May - Townes IPA

2008-05-27T09:06:00.004+01:00

I managed to get this brewed yesterday, the day went very smoothly and ended with 50L of 1.045 wort which was spot on what I was expecting. I batch sparged again and I'm pleased with how quickly this gets the job done, so far also I think my beer has more body than the one's I used to sparge right down to 1.006, the final runnings for this one were 1.020.

I used in total 260g Cascade in this brew, 160 for bittering to 40IBU and 100g steeped at 80 degrees for 15 mins, I turned the chiller off while they steeped. This picture is of the 100g aroma hops just after throwing them in.

I do seem to have carried over quite a bit of trub on this brew, i'm not sure if this is something that is down to the batch sparging, maybe I am not recirculating enough and more grain particles are getting into the boiler?

The wort seems very dark in this picture, but this morning now the yeast (s04) has started working it's lightened up quite a bit, there is lots of yeast activity and both fermenters have developed good size yeast heads this morninig. I'm looking forward to this one (as ever) it should be a Cascade fest!

Here is the recipe that I settled on, the Cascades are actualy 7.1% but I based their AA% on 5.75% to allow for hop age, 2007 crop.

Brewlength - 50L
Target OG 1.045 (70% efficiency)
Target IBU ~40
60 Min Mash at 67 degrees
60 Min Boil

10.4kg Marris Otter Pale Malt (96%)
430g Torrified Wheat (4%)
160g Cascade [5.75AA%] (60 min) Hops 41.8 IBU
100g Cascade [5.75AA%] (Steeped at 80 degrees for 15 Mins)

Fermented with 2x packs S04 per 25L Fermenter

Mally's Mild Kegged and Brewday Planned

2008-05-25T14:10:00.005+01:00

Today I have kegged Mally's Mild into 2x King Kegs, they will sit for about 4 weeks then I'll try one. It's a lovely dark brown/red colour and has a good malty taste, pleasingly it tastes like a mild, which is a result.

Tomorrow I'll be brewing another recipe from Marc Ollossons book Real Ale for the Home Brewer, Townes IPA, it should be a nice pale ale with loads of citrus hop flavour, hopefully around the 4.5% mark.

Brewlength 50L
Target OG 1045 (based on reduced efficiency of 70%)
Target IBU 40
60 min mash 67 degrees
60 min boil
Batch Sparging

10.4kg Marris Otter Pale Malt 96%
430g Torrified Wheat 4%
125g Cascade 7.10%aa (60 min) 40IBU
100g Cascade 7.10%aa (steeped after the boil at 80 degrees for 30 mins)

Saturday Night Suppin'

2008-05-17T19:27:00.002+01:00

I've started tonight with a bottle of West Coast Pale although this beer never did live up to a clone of SNPA it's still a great beer I think, the 40 IBU from Magnum and Pearle give the beer a good bitter bite and the aroma and flavour from 80g of Cascade at the end finish it of beautifully.

Next it's probably onto the (very young) Springfield Bitter through the beer engine, although there is always a chance that I'll tuck into some bottles that I have been sent from fellow all-grain brewers to try!

Brewing "Mally's Mild"

2008-05-14T21:10:00.007+01:00

It's been a little while since I've posted, I have been busy upgrading to 50L brewlengths simply by converting a 60L fermenter to a boiler by fixing to it the 2 3kw elements and tap from my old boiler. The maiden brew on the new system was of course Big Kenny, I have kegged that tonight, it was quite nice to get 2x 25L kegs from one brewday, I also had a go at batch sparging which worked a dream.

Anyway, tomorrows brew (even if it's not the weather for this sort of beer) is for my Dad, he loves a pint of Mild but we can't seem to find a decent one around here so i'm having a go at brewing something I think he'll like. It's from Marc Ollossons book "Real Ales for the home brewer" - Hoddesdon Dark..

50L Brewlength
Target OG 1.044 (based on 70% efficiency)
Target IBU ~26
60 min mash 66 degrees
60 min boil

8.45kg Pale Malt - Fawcetts Marris Otter 80%
860g Crystal Malt 8.0%
860g Torrified Wheat 8.0%
390g Roasted Barley 4.0%
80gm Challenger [7.10 %] (60 min) Hops 26 IBU
25gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min

Not decided what to ferment with yet......but it will be yeast ;)

I think that this one will turn out a nice deep mahogany colour.

*Edit, Had a great nice and easy brew evening, by having a 60 min mash, batch sparging and a 60 min boil the yeast was pitched before 11pm, not bad considering I only started at 17:45 (I did prep everything the night before and have the boiler switched on for me to heat the mash liquor at 17:15). I ended up with 2x fermenters with 25L of 1.044 each, spot on what I wanted, the final runnings from teh tun were 1.020 so hopefully I've managed to extract just 'the good stuff' from the grain. Used S-04 both FV's are currently chugging away nicely with lots of airlock activity.

EB-BK - Even Bigger Big Kenny - 9th May

2008-05-09T23:00:00.003+01:00

On 9th May I used the new 10 gallon equipment for the first time, sticking with a recipe I know I really like, Big Kenny:

Brewlength - 50L
Target OG (at 70%) 1.047
Target IBU ~31
Fermenting with 4x S04

10.4kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 92.47 %
540g Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 4.76 %
150g Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 1.33 %
110g Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 0.95 %
50g Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 0.48 %

126.00 gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 31.1 IBU
40.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (15 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
40.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)

The brewday went well and I ended up with 50L at 1.047 split between 2 fermenters. This was the first time I had batch sparged, I found it really easy, and fast, I'll be doing it again!

Brew Evening 2 May : Springhead Bitter

2008-05-04T12:40:00.003+01:00

On Friday night I brewed this:

25L Brew Length
Target IBU ~29
Target OG 1.041 – 1.047

60 Min Mash @ 67 degrees 3.0L per KG
60 Min Boil
Yeast s-04

5200g Pale Malt (98%)
85g Crystal Malt (2%)

44g Northdown (7.0%) 60 mins (~29 IBU)
25g Fuggle (4.0%) 15 mins
25g Fuggle (4.0%) 0 mins (steeped from 80 degrees)

1 Whirlfloc Tablet 10 mins

I changed a few things for this brew, hoping to get more body in my beer. I upped the grain bill and mashed more than I normally would for a 1.040 beer and stopped sparging at 1.020 leaving some of the sugars in the tun, this way I hope to have collected the best runnings from the mash.

I stopped sparging at 1.020 which gave me 21.5L at 1.050 topped up to 27L with unused sparge water to give a preboil gravity of 1.040.

I got 25L of 1.044 in the end, which is a 70% efficiency, so if I am happy with the results from this method i'll just base future brews on 70% efficiency and stop spargng at 1.020 again.

It has been suggested to me by a more accomplished brewer to try a 'no sparge' brew, so just working with the runnings from the mash!

I do fancy giving that a go, i'm coming around to the opinion that chasing high efficiencies could be a detriment to the quality of the beer.

We will see!

It's currently sat in the fermenting fridge at 19 degrees.

Book - Real Ales for the home brewer

2008-04-30T23:06:00.004+01:00

I mentioned in my last post that the recipe for Broadsword was from a book by Marc Ollosson, the recipe had been passed on to me by a friend, I decided to order the book online and it arrived this week, I'm impressed with the information in the book and the range of recipes. I like formulating my own recipes but there are quite a few here that I want to brew or draw inspiration from. I'd recommend this to any home brewer. This is where I ordered it from. (I'm not on commission....honest!) I had an email from the author thanking for my order and was quite pleased to find that it had even been signed.

Looking forward to brewing a few from this.

Brew Evening 23 April - "Broadsword"

2008-04-24T19:17:00.015+01:00

A friend of mine reccomended that I try a recipe from a book by Marc Ollason (cheers Vossy), he's brewed it before and it sounds right up my street for this time of year. In Marcs book he describes this beer:

A very refreshing beer, the Fuggles give a good hop charachter while the Styrian Goldings give a superb aroma. The use of carapils ensures that this beer has a good body, slight residual sweetness, and a very pale colour.

I scaled the recipe up from 23 to 25 litres and adjusted for my 75% brewhouse efficiency and came up with this:

Target OG : 1.042 (75% bhe)
Brewlength : 25L
Target IBU : ~36IBU
Mash : 60 mins 65 degrees
Boil : 60 mins

4170gm Pale Malt Marris Otter 89%
520gm Cara-Pils Malt 11%
70gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 36.0 IBU
50gm Styrian Goldings [4.00 %] Added at 80 degrees and left for 15 mins

Whirlfloc at 10 mins
Fermenting with S04

Here are a few pics from the brew evening.

The grains weighed out and in a large bag, the thermometer is so that I can judge what strike temperature I'm going to need when I dough in.

The grains being added to the mash liquor in the tun, aka doughing in, I stopped stirring to take the pic!

The initial temperature of the mash 65.2 degrees, quite happy with that.

Tucked up nice and warm for an hour.

After a 60 min mash i'd only lost 0.2 of a degree, a quick test with a drop of videne on a sample of the first runnings confirmed full conversion.

The first runnings being returned to the tun through some pierced tin foil so that I didn't disturb the grain bed.

70g Fuggles weighed out.

Fuggles being added to the boiler.

50g Styrians added once the wort had cooled to 80 degrees, steeped for 15 mins then the wort was cooled quickly.

I ended up with 25L of 1.040 wort, so a little off target OG but I'm not too dissapointed with that.

Looking forward to supping this one in a few weeks.

Largs Thistle The End Result

2008-04-17T15:57:00.001+01:00

This is a pint of largs thistle served through the beer engine i'm enjoying this one it has a really complex malt flavour - the beer engine definately enhances it.

Brew Evening 15th April - "Long Summer Nights"

2008-04-15T21:06:00.005+01:00

Managed to fit a 'cheeky' brew in today. Inspired by the sunny morning we had I had an urge to brew something that will be a good session-able, pale, hoppy BBQ brew. I have some lovely Cascade in the freezer so decided to go with Northdown for a good 'clean' bittering hop and the citrus from Cascade at 15 Min's and then steeped at 80 degrees after 'flame out' or when you switch the boiler off, where I come from.

I set out as follows:

Brewlength : 25 L
Target OG : 1.042 (75% brewhouse efficiency)
Target IBU : ~35
1 Hour Mash 66 degrees
1 Hour Boil

Grains
4300gm Pale Malt, Fawcetts Marris Otter 92.5%
200gm Torrified Wheat Grain 4.5%
150gm Crystal Malt - 60L 3%
Hops
48gm Northdown [7.90 %] (60 min) Hops ~35 IBU
30gm Cascade [5.40 %] (15 min)
30gm Cascade [5.40 %] (0 min) (Steeped for 1/2 hr from 80 degrees)

I ended up with 25 L at 1.040 so missed OG by .002, I know why - I used a 3kg bag of Marris Otter from a local home brew shop as I was short. It doesn't matter, if the S04 that I pitched with does it's job it'll be 3.9% I was hoping for 4.0% - that's acceptable!

The wort was nice and pale and very clear, no pictures I'm afraid, I am soon to be reunited with my phone charger so pics of other brews will follow.

Relaxing now with a pint of Largs Thistle served from the beer engine, oh and silly me for thinking about BBQ's this morning, it's tipping it down now....

Brewday 9th April - Big Kenny

2008-04-12T09:13:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday I decided to brew up another batch of Big Kenny, to add a bit more body I've added some torrified wheat and I mashed at 69 degrees. It's bubbling away nicely at the moment.

I went for a 1hr mash and 1hr boil again with no drop in efficiency, I ended up with my target OG of 1.047.

25L Brewlength
Target OG 1.047 (75% brewhouse efficiency)
Target IBU ~ 31
1 Hour Mash
1 Hour Boil

4850gm Pale Malt - Fawcetts Marris Otter Grain 92%
250gm Torrified Wheat Grain 5%
70gm Crystal Malt - 60L Grain 1.5%
50gm Roasted Barley Grain 1.0%
25gm Chocolate Malt Grain 0.5%

63gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (60 min) ~31 IBU
20gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (15 min)
20gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (0 min)

1x Whirlfloc Tablet at 10 mins
Fermenting with S04

Some Pleasing Feedback

2008-04-09T21:05:00.004+01:00

It’s been an interesting day for the Fledgling Brewery today.

A little while ago a friend of mine who works for ‘Bateman's Brewery’ in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire knowing that I am a keen home brewer asked if he could sample my wares, he was duly supplied with a bottle of Big Kenny just before Christmas, he enjoyed that beer (I think he was a bit surprised!) and asked if I could supply another 6 bottles of the same beer so that he could present them to their "taste panel" at one of their monthly tasting sessions for their opinions. I duly brewed up another batch, and after letting the beer come into condition I sent him the bottles.

Today was the day that the 6 members of the tasting panel tried the beer....I was a bit apprehensive to say the least as so far my beers had only been tried by fellow all-grain brewers and a few friends and work colleagues, all of whom it could be argued would be fairly generous with their feedback no matter what they actually thought! I wasn’t expecting any such generosity today.

I received a phone call at lunchtime today to say that the beers had been very well received, of the 6 ‘tasters’ 5 were positive about it and only one of them wasn’t keen, although that apparently was because it wasn’t 'his sort of beer' not that there was anything technically wrong with it. I was told that the Head Brewer enjoyed it and I was over the moon to get the following email from him.

"Neil brought a few bottles of Big Kenny to our Beer Taste Panel this morning. We are always a little cautious of home brewed beer but it was a delight to sample Big Kenny. The most usual fault with home brew we have tried is a harsh flavour called yeast bite. Your Beer had no hint of this. The predominant flavour was of apple fruitiness. The balance of bitterness from the hops & sweetness from the malts was perfect. As you can imagine we get asked to taste a number of beers of this type but I have never had the pleasure of such a delightful example of the home brewer's art.

I must congratulate you on your skill as a brewer. If I was to recommend one home brewed beer Big Kenny would be the one. Keep up the good work."

I personally think that i'm more than entitled to be a bit smug about that for at least a few days!

A change of plan...

2008-04-07T17:19:00.004+01:00

Rather than brewing up the Buzzards Walk Pale Ale I had planned to do I'm opting for brewing up another batch of Big Kenny next, this is so that I'll have a tried and tested beer ready in 6 weeks rather than the experimentation brew with the Zeus hops! I don't yet know how my last brew West Coast Pale Ale will turn out so doing this will mean that I don't have two 'unknowns' back to back. The grains will be weighed out tonight for Big Kenny hopeful that I can brew it tomorrow night. The Buzzards Walk will be brewed later in the week I hope.

Beer Engine

2008-04-05T11:01:00.006+01:00

Im in a good mood today because I've just ordered myself a reconditioned beer engine off someone in the trade at a good price. Looking forward to getting it and dispensing from a vented cornie keg. I'm also looking forward to designing my own pump clips.

Planning a Brew : Buzzards Walk Pale Ale

2008-04-02T21:11:00.005+01:00

It's been a while since the boiler has seen any action so I've decided to get a brew on over the next few days, I want to do an American Pale Ale with the Zeus hops I've had in the freezer for a few weeks now. From what I've read (thank-you Google/wiki) Zeus are: American aromatic high-alpha hop with noticeable bitterness. Similar, if not identical, to Columbus/Tomahawk. (Alpha acid 15.0%) the one's that I have are 12.8%AA I've heard that they are really 'smack you round the face citrus' too. I'm going to use them as bittering along side Perle (50/50 split on the IBU) and then use them for aroma also. I'll be fermenting with US-05 which has turned out really well in my SNPA clone. The name might seem a bit odd, but while I was out walking the dog, I watched a Buzzard for ages, it's the first one I've seen for a while, I love the light nights where you can get out and see a bit of your surroundings after a day at work!

25L Brewlength
Target OG 1.045
Target EBU ~35
BHE 75%

Grain
4560gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter 95%
170gm Crystal Malt - 60L Grain 3.5%
70gm Cara-Pils Grain 1.5%

Hops
14gm Zeus [12.80 %] (90 min) ~17.5 IBU
26gm Pearle [6.90 %] (90 min) ~17.5 IBU
30gm Zeus [12.80 %] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
30gm Zeus [12.80 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

DIY reward

2008-03-29T19:42:00.008Z

After yet another day getting frustrated with DIY, I am rewarding myself with a well earned beer session, all home brewed except a bottle of SNPA which I have in my sights. Already tried a Q.C. bottle of Randy Sparrow (brewed back on February 28) in fact that leaves me with only 1 bottle the other 6 bottles from that batch are all promised out (hence the Q.C.) very pleased with it, it's a lovely refresing 'soft' ale, very creamy tasting and a cracking 4.6% session beer. The rest of the batch of course remains in the keg. Red Sky Ale will be next in the glass, it's been kegged since February 27th so it should be right, just about now.

Edit: Red Sky, Hmm an interesting taste, smokey on the nose and a big raisin flavour, the colour is very dark, held to the light it's red, but a very dark red. Both of these pictures are of Red Sky Ale

Drinking From The Tap

2008-03-22T19:20:00.005Z

We celebrated a friends birthday yesterday with a trip to Church End Brewery North Warwickshire for a few pints from their very popular brewery tap. It's a great place to drink, they always have 8 different beer engines on the go and I think that their beers are superb! You get to enjoy the drinking experience in a well done out, rather plush bar with a large viewing window through to the brewery, the view is dominated by two of their five fermentors, you can see them in this picture. Beers that we tried are Avon Ale, Vicars Ruin and Alter Ale (I think) you can see the tasting notes on the Church End Brewery web site (linked above).

Church End don't do food (except for functions) but you are welcome to take in your meal, picnic take away or whatever, you can also take in your dog but no children are allowed. During the summer you can enjoy their huge garden area (where kids are welcome) and it's ok to take a picnic along, I've even seen people setting BBQ's there during the summer.

I'm really pleased that I have such a great Micro on my door step!

Home Brew Review

2008-03-21T09:46:00.005Z

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of sampling 2 bottles of homebrew sent to me by fellow all-grain brewers.

First up was JW's Lager sent to me by John This is the first homebrewed lager that I've tried so I made sure that I got the temperature of the beer right earlier in the day. To sum this up in a line: A great session beer to serve up at a BBQ.

I found it to be nicely carbonated and a light golden colour (the pic doesn't do it justice) I thought that it could have done with more hop aroma and flavour but that could be just my preference, it had a very clean/crisp and light taste and a dry finish, ideal I would say at a meat V's hot coals contest and I'm sure that John's going to be very popular this summer if he brews this again!

Following that was an Oatmeal Stout sent to me by Calum, I am not normally a stout drinker but i'd happily see a few of these off.

Carbonation was great, just enough to give the beer some life, it tasted really smooth and really gives your taste buds a treat with a full on roasted malt invasion, (I wonder, does the smoothness come from the roasted oatmeal?) It was nice and sweet with a pleasant finish not at all like the mass produced commercial stouts I normally avoid at the pub, I've also come to expect that a stout will be filling, like having a Sunday lunch after 3 pints but this wasn't like that at all. It would be easy to sit on a cold night in front of the fire and see a few of these down the hatch, i'll be looking for a brew to put away for Christmas, this will be on the shortlist.

Both of these brewers have 2 of my beers to try each, both have a Glasshouse Porter which I bottled back in December, Calum also has a bottle of Largs Thistle and John also has a bottle of Randy Sparrow. I'm looking forward to their feedback, it's the best way to improve your brews in my opinion.

Brewday : West Coast Pale (SNPA clone) 6 March

2008-03-17T21:21:00.006Z

I haven't been able to post for a while, family life and a bathroom renovation which seems to have been going on forever have seen to that! Still I did manage to brew the SNPA clone back on March 6, which will be called West Coast Pale.

Brewlength 25L
Estimated OG 1.056
Estimated IBU ~40
Estimated SRM ~9
66 Degree Mash - 90 Mins
Boil Time - 60 Mins

Grain
5400gm Pale Malt Maris Otter Grain 91.5%
400gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 7.0%
100gm Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1.5%

Hops
25gm Pearle [6.90 %] (60 min) Hops 14.5 IBU
20gm Magnum Pellets [13.10 %] (60 min) Hops 24.4 IBU
30gm Cascade [6.80 %] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
50gm Cascade [6.80 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)

Fermented with 1 packet of US-05 yeast.

I've never used US-05 before apparently this should give the finished beer a nice clean/crisp taste, it certainly behaved differently to the S-04 and Nottingham i'm used to using.

I ended up with 25L at 1.052 (so 4 points below the target) but this went down to 1.008 and I think it'd still be going had I not transferred it to the fridge at 2 degrees to make it stop! It should turn out at about 5.9% SNPA is 5.6%.

The picture above is the aroma/steep hops just after being added it's 50g Cascade that went in after the cooling wort had got to 80 degrees, they steeped for 45 minutes whilst cooling before I ran the 20 degree wort into the fermentor. They gave off a wonderful cirus aroma, the fermented wort really does smell very similar to SNPA, I'm looking forward to trying it, I think it'll come out a bit darker though, I might lighten up a bit on the Crystal next time.

With regard to other brews the Largs Thistle 80/- didn't make it to bottle again because of time I had to keg it, it tastes great. I did bottle 8 of them up which will be sent out for tastings by fellow homebrewers.

Big Kenny - Turned out good

2008-03-05T20:44:00.004Z

This is a pint of Big Kenny that I brewed back on 31st January, it's in perfect condition right now, and it's crystal clear. I think that this is my favourite of the beers that I've made to date, It's certainly going to be a regular in my tap (aka the garage). It'll be next on the to brew list after my SNPA clone which I now have all of the ingredients for, so hopefully that will be brewed tomorrow.

Brewday : Largs Thistle 80/-

2008-03-03T21:27:00.008Z

Yesterday I managed to achieve 4 things that I've wanted to do for a while

1. Brew a Scottish Heavy, an 80/- (80 Shilling)

2. Do a brew of which all of it will go to bottle

3. Try a 60 minute mash

4. Try a 60 minute boil

The recipe that I used for this one was 'tweaked' from a fellow home brewer (thanks Mysty)

Brew length - 25L
Target OG - 1.046 (based on 75% BHE)
EBU ~30
60 min 69 degree mash
60 min boil

Brewlength - 25L
Target OG - 1.046 (based on 75% BHE)
EBU ~30
60 min 69 degree mash
60 min boil

Grist
4600gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.33 %
240gm Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
240gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
240gm Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.88 %
100gm Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2.03 %
Hops
50gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 25.3 IBU
20gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
Other
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
Yeast - Gervin English Ale

Originally I'd gone for just 4100gm Pale but concerned that I'd drop efficiency with a shorter (60 min) mash I upped it by 500g.

I had a great brewday, by only mashing for 1 hour and boiling for 1 hour I got my brewday down to 5 hours, which will help with the evening brews that I do. I needn't have worried about the efficiency, I got 25L at 1.052 which is a 76.7 brewhouse efficiency, I average 75%. The wort was a nice rich dark colour which I expect to be packed full of character.

This batch has been brewed to be bottled, so in a couple of week's I'll have 40 odd bottles of Largs Thistle 80/- conditioning.

About the name, I wanted to get the word 'Thistle' in there somewhere with the Thistle being the National Emblem of Scotland, when I looked into it I found an interesting story.

It is claimed that the Thistle became Scotland's emblem after the battle of Largs in 1263. Legend has it that during an attempted invasion of Scotland by Norsemen, the Norsemen tried to surprise the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to move more stealthily under the cover of darkness the Norsemen removed their footwear. But as they crept barefoot they came across an area of ground covered in thistles and one of Haakon's men unfortunately stood on one and shrieked out in pain, thus alerting the Clansmen to the advancing Norsemen.

I think that's a great legend, so Largs Thistle 80/- it is!

I got (and 'borrowed') the above from HERE where there is lots more information.

SNPA clone

2008-03-01T08:58:00.004Z

I had been reading for a while about how nice a beer Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is so, last weekend I went out a bought six 330ml bottles, well it was only fair to give it a good test! I really liked it, I served it quite cold and found it to be wonderfully bitter with a really prominent hop aroma and flavour. After some research on Jims Home Brew Forum. I found that the hops used are Magnum, Pearle and Cascade.

I'm going to have a try at cloning this beer hopefully next week.

This will be the recipe, i'm just waiting for some of the ingredients to turn up.

Brewlength 25L
Estimated OG 1.056
Estimated IBU ~40
Estimated SRM ~9
66 Degree Mash - 90 Mins
Boil Time - 60 Mins

5400gm Pale Malt Maris Otter Grain 91.5%
400gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 7.0%
100gm Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1.5%
25gm Pearle [6.90 %] (60 min) Hops 14.5 IBU
25gm Magnum [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 25.6 IBU
30gm Cascade [6.80 %] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
50gm Cascade [6.80 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)

Fermenting at 18 degrees with US-05

Friday Night...at last!

2008-02-29T19:53:00.003Z

After a manic week at work and hardly any ale in the week I've been looking forward to this Friday night. This is a half-pint sampler of the (not quite ready yet) Wezerection Easter Ale, I'm very pleased with it, it's got real thirst quenching qualities, a lovely dry finish and a cracking aroma, the elderflowers have come through a treat, they actually need to mellow a for while, looking at my notes from when I brewed this in April 2007 it took a month to come good, this isn't that far off. It had 30g Styrians at 15 minutes along with 50g dried Elderflower also at fifteen minutes and a further 40g Styrians steeped after the boil for 45 mins once the wort had hit 80 degrees. I'm looking forward to tapping this keg for real in about two weeks I think.

Other good things that have happened today, managed to acquire some Magnum pellets (courtesy of a fellow home brewer) and also managed to get an order in for some Cascade and some US-05 yeast, all of this means that I'm looking good to go on an SNPA clone brew late next week. I might try to fit another batch of Big Kenny in before that though, maybe Sunday? I also ordered a bottling stick to try to make me enjoy bottling, I hate bottling this had better work, I need to start bottling more of my beers!

Brewing Again (Randy Sparrow)

2008-02-28T19:09:00.003Z

After the success that was Randy Sparrow I've decided that I want another keg of it, so I've brewed it exactly as I did before :

25L Brewlength
Target OG 1.046 at 75% efficiency
Target IBU ~40
13L Mash Liquor, 90 Min Mash at 67 Degrees
90 Minute Boil

4400gm Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 89.80 %
250gm Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.10 %
250gm Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 5.10 %
57gm Challenger [7.10 %] (90 min) Hops 39.1 IBU
30gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (15 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
30gm Fuggles [5.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

This evening brewing is thirsty work so the brew is to be accompanied by a few pints of Big Kenny

I was origninally going to do a high gravity (1.090)version and diluting to 50L in my newest aquisition, courtesy of Steve F (cheers) a 66L coolbox but as yet I haven't got around to re-sealing the ball valve so that will have to wait.

Brewday : Red Sky Ale

2008-02-18T20:55:00.006Z

With my heart set on producing a beer with good malt characteristics with a deep red colour I brewed 25L of Red Sky Ale. The hope was that by adding to a base of Marris Otter pale malt a reasonable amount of Crystal Malt (7%) and small amounts of Chocolate Malt and Roasted Barley (both 1.5%) I'd get what I'm after. As you can see from the trial jar at the end of the brew colour wise it turned out a bit darker than I thought although it is definitely red! I’ll see how it turns out but I might ease off or drop the Roasted Barley next time.

I overshot my target OG of 1.046 and ended up with 25L at 1.050, I've tried to bitter this one to around 36IBU using 55g of 6.8aa Challenger (a great hop) and following the pleasing results with "Big Kenny" of using a citrus aroma hop in a complex malt beer I've gone with 20g each of Styrians and Amarillo. St Peters do a beer called Ruby Red Ale, which use Styrians as the aroma hop, I’ll be pleased if it's anything at all like that.

It's fermenting away as it should be after pitching 11g safale s04.

An update or few...

2008-02-17T17:14:00.008Z

It's been a while since I last posted for one reason or another. I've been quite busy brewing and bottling though!

Since my last post I have brewed and bottled Big Kenny v2 which seems to taste exactly the same as v1 so thats good, the bottles that I am sending for Sampling are currently say in the beer fridge cold conditioning along with the 30 or so pints that made it into a King Keg. I won't find out until April what the tasting panel at the brewery think of it the worst that'll happen is I'll get constructive feedback so It's worth a punt!

Randy Sparrow turned out lovely, this is a picture of the finished beer, really happy with the clarity. It's got a nice rounded mouthfeel, well balanced bitterness and the fuggles really come through, I'm glad I put the torrified wheat in there the head retention is superb.

I've also brewed & kegged another all-grain brew, a recreation of the first ever AG that I did, it's for Easter and is called Wezerection Easter Ale this is the recipe for that one:

Wezerection Easter Ale
25L Batch
Target OG 1.042 (75% BHE)
Target IBU ~40

4200gm Pale Malt 90%
220gm Crystal Malt 5%
220gm Torrified Wheat 5%
50gm Northdown [7.90%] (90 min) ~40IBU
30gm Styrian Goldings [3.30%] (15 min)
50gm Elderflower (Dried) (Boil 15.0 min)
40gm Styrian Goldings (0 mins)
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc

This one is very potent, it's going to have ooodles of flavour, I just hope they have all mellowed out by the time Easter is here!

Finally...today I am brewing again Red Sky it's an adaptation of Big Kenny but I've upped the dark grains to try to get a reddish beer, I'm also using some Amarillo late hops with the styrians to see how it works out. The recipe for this one is:

Red Sky

Brewlength 25L
Target OG 1.046
Target IBU ~36

4500gm Pale Malt - Maris Otter 90%
350gm Crystal Malt - 60L 7%
80gm Chocolate Malt 1.5%
80gm Roasted Barley 1.5%
55gm Challenger [6.80 %] (90 min) ~ 36 IBU
20gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (15 min)
20gm Amarillo Gold [4.00 %] (15 min)

Fermenting with S04

I'll try to take some pics to add on through the brew.

Dragon Stout - Jamaica

2008-01-29T19:53:00.000Z

I've tried a bottle of Dragon Stout tonight that I found in my local Supermarket, it's the first time I've tried it and to be honest I expected it to taste cheap and awful but I was pleasantly surprised. It poured with a good 1/2 to one inch fairly-tightly beaded head and tasted very sweet and light and refreshing, certainly not what I was expecting. It's Brewed by Red Stripe in Kingston Jamaica and comes in half pint bottles and weighs in at 7.5%. It gets the thumbs up from me!

There are some recipes here for cloning it which I might have a bash at and stick a few bottles away for Christmas I have loads of empty Leffe bottles that I could use.

Evening Brewing Again...

2008-01-28T20:17:00.000Z

I'm pretty (no actually very) low on stocks at the moment, in fact the only home produced beer I have right now is no where near ready and has only just been put into the beer fridge to crash cool with 50 ml aux-fining's after fermentation finished. That Beer is Randy Sparrow the FG was 1.012 from an OG of 1.044 so using the formula (OG minus FG / 7.45) it should be around 4.3% it tasted great from the sample jar the Fuggles really stand out and there is a lovely aftertaste that I've had in other beers where Challenger has been the bittering hop. It's turned out a nice light copper colour, I'm going to be strict with myself and not tap this one until it's ready (about 5 weeks from now).

To get the stocks back up I'm going to brew another batch of Big Kenny there are a couple of reasons for choosing this beer, firstly I thought it was bloody good, secondly before Christmas I dared to take a bottle to a friend of mine who works for a very well established brewery and he's on their tasting panel, he tried it and liked it so much so that he's asked me to brew it again so that he can pass some bottles to their head brewer for his opinion and also present some to the tasting panel!! - Better make sure I get this one right! (Cheers Neil BTW)

Brew-Evening : Randy Sparrow

2008-01-21T20:12:00.000Z

Well it had been a long time since my last brew but on Thursday night the brewing equipment came out and I got a brew on. As you'll see from a previous post I've come up with a recipe which will be known as Randy Sparrow

I ended up hitting target OG bang on at 1.044 (25l) it's fermenting out well using Safale S04.

Here are a few pictures from the brew :

The grains all weighed out and mixed, they had been mixed the night before and stored in the garage so they were a bit cold ~9 degrees, the temperature of the grain is important as it effects the strike temperature of the mash liquor.

After doughing in I adjusted the mash PH from (about) >6 to 5.2 using 1.5 tsp of CRS the mash temperature was just what I wanted - 67 degrees.

This picture is the first clear runnings after recirculation from the tun, it looks like it's going to be a lovely light copper pale ale this one.

The bittering hop was Challenger, added at the start of the 90 minute boil, 30g Fuggle was added 10 mins from the end of the boil and another 30 added when the cooling wort hit 80 degrees, this picture is of the final hop addition (steep hops) the smell was amazing. I'm going to crash cool with aux-finings as I did with Big Kenny to get this one as clear as I can, with any luck i'll be posting about drinking this one towards the end of February. I'm hoping to get another brew in this week, not decided what to do yet though.

Batemans Rosey Nosey

2008-01-15T21:45:00.001Z

Tonight i'm having a Rosey Nosey from Lincolnshires Batemans brewery in Wainfleet. Obviously this was their Christmas beer and very nice it is too, a full bodied sessionable (4.9%) winter ale. Very nice on a rainy night like tonight.

www.bateman.co.uk

As for my own brewing, it's now looking like being the latter part of this week before I can brew Randy Sparrow.

Randy Sparrow

2008-01-14T20:29:00.000Z

I've not done a brew since 21st November (Glasshouse Porter) so it's time to get the boiler on again this week (probably Wednesday) It's about time that I gave a beer a name fitting for 'The Fledgling Brewery' and I've come up with this which will be 'Randy Sparrow' I expect by the time i'm drinking it the sparrows will be at it like rabbits I've tried to keep it simple(ish) bittering with Challenger and then Fuggles at 10mins and steeped while cooling, hoping for a nice bitter with floral aroma.

Randy Sparrow
25L Batch
Target OG : 1.044
Target EBU : ~40

Grain
4400gm Pale Malt (Fawcett MO) (Grain 89%)
250gm Crystal Malt (Grain 5.5%)
250gm Torrified Wheat (Grain 5.5%)
Hops
60gm Challenger [AA 6.80 %] (90 min)
30.00 gm Fuggles [AA 4.00 %] (10 min)
30.00 gm Fuggles [AA 4.00 %] (steeped during cooling)
Other
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min)
1 Safale S-04

I'm going to crash cool for a week after fermentation has finished and add Aux finings - I did this with Big Kenny Scottish Ale and it turned out polished.

Brewing Again

2008-01-11T16:38:00.001Z

After the long lay off because of Christmas i'll be brewing again next week. I'm planning another batch of Big Kenny Scottish Ale this went down very well with friends and family so i'll stick with the recipe as before and use the same post fermentation crash cooling which produced my most polished beer to date.

It's official it's Christmas

2007-12-22T19:13:00.000Z

I like a few cans of pedi at christmas and this is going down well tonight!

Brewing Blockade

2007-12-16T19:43:00.001Z

Christmas preparations have effectively put a stop to brewing at the fledgling brewery. I have four kegs to go at over the holidays - Milestone Lions Pride, Hookey Street, Big Kennys Scottish Ale and Glasshouse Porter so it should be a merry Christmas.

Beer

2007-12-15T20:07:00.000Z

Just drinking a mile stone lions pride

Brewday: Glasshouse Porter

2007-11-21T23:40:00.000Z

This evening I brewed a 25L batch of Glasshouse Porter. Thanks to fellow home brewer John for the recipe.

Grain Bill
4450gm Pale Malt (Fawcett MO) 74%
720gm Crystal Malt 12%
360gm Torrified Wheat 6%
300gm Chocolate Malt 4.5%
220gm Roasted Barley Grain 3.5%
Hop Schedule
40gm Challenger 6.8% (90 min) ~25 EBU
42gm Fuggles 4% (15 min) ~7 EBU
26gm Challenger 6.8%] (5 min) ~3 EBU

1 Whirlfloc at 10 min

Fermenting with Safale s04

The brew went well and I ended up with 25L of pitch black wort at 1.058 so this one should be 5.8% - 6.0% - It might even be good to go for Christmas week.

Something to put away for Christmas

2007-11-20T21:30:00.000Z

I like Christmas it's for the kids really and it's great watching them enjoy everything about the festive season, for me though when they have flaked out and gone to bed from a cocktail of over excitement, loads of racing around and loads of food I want to sit down with a good 'fireside' pint, some walnuts or some cheese and put my feet up.

This year thanks to fellow all grain brewer John, who's blog you must read (here) this Christmas my dark beer will be 'Glasshouse Porter' I knew as soon as I tasted and reviewed this beer that I'd have to brew it so tomorrow I am!

I have scaled & rounded the recipe up from 23L to 25L and replaced the First Gold with Challenger due to availability, this is what I'll be going with:

Grain Bill
4450gm Pale Malt (Fawcett MO) 74%
720gm Crystal Malt 12%
360gm Torrified Wheat 6%
300gm Chocolate Malt 4.5%
220gm Roasted Barley Grain 3.5%
Hop Schedule
40gm Challenger 6.8% (90 min) ~25 EBU
42gm Fuggles 4% (15 min) ~7 EBU
26gm Challenger 6.8%] (5 min) ~3 EBU

1 Whirlfloc at 10 min

Fermenting with Safale s04 (DFS stylee)

Target OG 1.053 at 75% BHE
Target EBU ~35
25L Batch
90 min 68 deg C Mash
90 min Boil

Beer Labels & Bottling

2007-11-19T22:43:00.001Z

I have decided this evening that I hate (with a passion) bottling beer, I'm no good at it, it annoys me removing labels and sterilising and rinsing the damn things, it's a necessary evil though as in a couple of days I will be posting my beer out for review by other craft brewers. The brew that I bottled is Big Kenny Scottish Ale (x8 bottled - the rest I will keg) it had finished fermenting and was sat at 1.012, making it a quaffable 4.4% beer - good for mid-week Christmas drinking I think.

A sample at bottling is encouraging, lots of complex malt flavours with an a bitterness that I am happy with.

So that these bottles do not go out 'naked' I have spent an hour knocking up a couple of labels, one for this and one for Hookey Street.

Tomorrow I will be preparing for a Wednesday evening brew, I'll be brewing Johns Glasshouse porter. - Looking forward to it.

* Apologies for the label image quality, they don't seem to like being converted from Powerpoint to JPEG's

Evening Brew - Big Kenny Scottish Ale

2007-11-13T22:00:00.000Z

Tonight I brewed a Scottish Ale and have named it after one of our relatives from Glasgow who sadly recently passed away.

25L batch
90 min mash (67degC) & boil
Based on BHE 75%
Target OG 1.044

4800gm Pale Malt (Fawcetts MO) Grain 97%
70gm Crystal Malt Grain 1.5%
50gm Roasted Barley Grain 1%
25gm Chocolate Malt Grain 0.5%
80.00 gm Fuggles [4.00 %] (90 min) Hops 31.4 IBU
20.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (15 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
20.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc

Fermented using Safale s04

Brew Review - Glasshouse Porter

2007-11-13T21:00:00.000Z

This evening I have been lucky enough to get to sample/review a beer which had been posted to me by a fellow homebrewer; John. The beer in question was his Glasshouse Porter.

It travelled very well, to say that it was bottled straight from Keg it kept it's life extremely well. It was a lovely coloured beer deep brown/red.

Great tightly beaded head which stayed to the end, I got lots of strong coffee and dark chocolate flavour a great big dry/malty aftertaste which lingers. Some hop aroma but not overdone, just about right for this beer I would say. Bitterness was perfect too. I'd describe this as a BIG beer.

I'd pay good money for this and will be brewing it myself - well done that man.

Kegged - Lions Pride & Hookey Street - Amarillo musings

2007-11-11T21:36:00.001Z

Tonight I kegged the 2 brews that I did last week, the kit brew Milestone - Lions Pride started at 1042 and finished at 1012 so thats a 4.0% abv beer and the all grain brew 'Hookey Street' that I brewed last monday went from 1048 to 1010 so thats a nice 5.1% abv. Just got to wait a few weeks for them to condition...luvly jubbly!

I'll be brewing again this week using Amarillo hops but haven't settled on a recipe just yet. One of my favourite bottled beers Darwin Brewery - Rolling Hitch IPA uses them, it's a citrus, spicy orange flavour hop I think i'll do a version of a beer I did a while ago (Toecutters Twist) but just replace the Styrians with Amarillo. Brewnight will probably be Tuesday this week.

A brew from a fellow All Grain Homebrewer

2007-11-08T20:45:00.000Z

This evening I had the pleasure of sampling a bottle of Porter which a fellow all-grain brewer sent to me by post. Here is what I made of it : To say that this was bottled from keg upon opening the cap there was a pleasing 'Hish!' which meant that the master brewer of this beer had done the business and it had travelled well and kept its carbonation, the bottle had been filled within a 1cm of the rim which I think helped. The immediate aroma was one of sweet coffee, when poured it had a nice head, much better than most commercial bottled beers, the picture above doesn't do it justice it had fallen by the time i'd fannied around with the camera. The beer is lovely and clear (when held to the light) very deep dark red/black. It was well carbonated, a little too much initially for my taste, but hey who am I! The flavours I got were a sweet coffee/liquorice a slightly dry aftertaste the flavour really lingers, I have a feeling i'm going to have this one in my throat in the morning. It tastes very 'clean' though and has a definate kick, but at 6.5% thats no surprise.

All in all, if this were a commercial bottled beer i'd buy it on a reasonably regular basis, it's a good old fireside pint this.

Monday Night Brewing

2007-11-06T20:46:00.000Z

To try to get a good balance between family time, work and brewing I decided to have a go at an evening brew last night, with a bit of preparation the day before I was able to switch the boiler on at 5.45pm and dough in by 6.20pm.

After the excellent results I had with Hookey Street I decided that I had to brew it again, there are two changes from the last time I did this, the first is the bittering hop, using Oregon Fuggle rather than Northdown (as I forgot to pick them up) the second is the addition of Cara-Pils to aid head formation/retention.

Grain Bill
5000.00 gm Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 90.3 %
410.00 gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) Grain 7.4 %
130.00 gm Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 2.3 %
260.00 gm Cara-Pils (3.9 EBC) Grain 4.4 %
Hop Schedule
70.00 gm Oregon Fuggle [4.70%] (90 min) Hops 30.1 IBU
20.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
20.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
Other
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (10 mins)
11g Gervin English Ale yeast starter

25L Batch
Target OG 1052 (75%)
Estimated EBU 31

The brew evening was a success with the yeast pitched and all put away by 11:40pm I missed my target OG by 4 points and ended up with 1.048 rather that 1.052 so it will be a 4.8% beer rather than a 5.3% beer, I can live with that, I think that I rushed the sparge so next time on an evening brew I'll up the grain bill to accommodate for the brewhouse efficiency drop (75% to 69%)

This morning the yeast seemed slow to start but by the time I got home this evening it was well on it's way. Monday night brewing it is from now on then!

Milestone - Lions Pride

2007-11-05T11:04:00.000Z

As time is tight at the moment I've started to mix kits brews into the schedule along with all grain brews to make sure I've got a healthy stock of available ale. As I've also managed to lure a couple of friends into having a go at home brew I thought I'd try to document a kit brew as best I can.

I've gone for a Milestone - Lions Pride kit which is fairly new on the market and certainly wasn't around when I was last brewing from kits before going all grain.

The blurb reads

The lion is the symbol of power,courage and confidence and also acknowledged as the king of the jungle. As the box shows the 3 lions have long been used as a crest for the Kings and Queens of Europe.

A well balanced light and refreshing copper coloured session ale.

No sugar Required for this 3Kg kit

Makes 40 pints at an ABV of 3.8%

The first thing I noticed about this kit is the fact the the instructions are very clear and go into much more detail than any kit I'd brewed before, ideal I'd say for anyone starting out.

Equipment used :

Steriliser
500ml PET Bottle - for the yeast starter
Large Stock Pot - used to hold the cans to warm them up
Can Opener
Plastic Brewers Paddle
Fermentation Bucket with tap
Thermometer
Hydrometer

The kit comes in a box which contains 2 cans of the wort reduction, a packet of Gervin English Ale yeast (small silver packet) and the all important instructions.

The first and most important stage is to sterilise everything that you are going to use and is going to come into contact with the beer.

Once you've done that it's time to make up the yeast starter, I did this by adding 50ml of cooled boiled water (30 degrees C) and 1/2 tsp of sugar to a sterilised 500ml PET bottle, to this you add the contents of the yeast packet and gently swirl around, loosely fit the lid and wait for it to rehydrate.

Next Boil the kettle and stand the two unopened cans in a large stock pot and pour the boiling water around them, this is to soften the contents so that they are easier to pour, this takes around 10 minutes.

After the cans have been warming for about 10 minutes wipe the lid with a sterilised soft cloth and open with a sterilised can opened and pour them both into your sterilised fermenter.

Next you will need to rinse out the cans to get all of the 'goo' out and into the fermenter, I do this by boiling the kettle (twice) and filling each can and waiting a couple of minutes, then using oven gloves (hot cans) empty ONE into the fermenter then pour the contents of the other can back and forth from one can to the other until the cans become clean inside then add this to the fermenter.

Using your brewers paddle stir the goo and hot water together until it has completely mixed in. Once you have done this top the fermenter up to the final volume, for this kit that was 22.5L. I attach a large tube to the tap and hold the end over the bucket and make sure that plenty of air gets mixed in so that the wort it thoroughly aerated, snap the lid onto the fermenter for a bit.

Remember that yeast starter, well that should now look like this, with the yeast nicely re hydrated and hungry for some wort! Add 250ml of your wort to this via the fermenter tap tighten the lid and shake it like mad for 30 seconds,then loosen the lid sightly to let the air escape as the c02 builds up.

It will take a little while for the yeast starter to get going, this one took around 45 minutes.

At this point I took a hydrometer reading, it came out at 1042.

Once the yeast starter is chomping at the bit it's time to pour it into the fermenter to get going on the bulk wort, I pour it in then refill the bottle from the fermenter tap and swish around and add to the fermenter to make sure I get all of the yeast in there.

To keep the light from getting to the brew I 'black bag' the fermenter, this should avoid off flavours caused by 'light strike'.

12 hours later a nice yeasty head had started to appear and the airlock was very active.

Hookey Street - The Finished Product

2007-10-21T19:45:00.000+01:00

I brewed Hookey Street a while ago, this is the finished product it's 6% and a proper dark winter warmer.

Glug

2007-10-18T10:38:00.000+01:00

This morning the kitchen is very noisy, all four airlocks are going crazy - everything that I brewed yesterday has got off to a flying start, the krausen on the AG brew is nice and clean, hopefully a sign that I managed to avoid too much trub getting in there.

The Storm After The Calm

2007-10-17T19:26:00.000+01:00

Well after not brewing for a while, I got stuck in today and did an all-grain brew, a kit brew and two wine kits.

The AG brew was Grumpy Bum, I altered my usual recipe to add in some carapils which should give the finished beer a bit of a better head and head retention, I also went back to using Oregon Fuggles rather than Northdown I preferred the taste from the Fuggle.

The Grain Bill & Hop Schedule was as follows :

4130gm Pale Malt (MO) 86.40%
410gm Crystal Malt 8.58%
240gm Cara-Pils 5.02%
85gm Oregon Fuggles [4.70 %] (90 min) Hops 40.3 IBU
35.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.30 %] (15 min) Hops 5.4 IBU

I also mashed a little hotter this time, targeted 68 degrees got 67.5 this is to try to give the brew a little more 'body' and maltiness, previously I'd mashed at 65 degrees and it may have left the beer a little 'thin'.

I also got my head around hot and cold breaks with whirlfloc today, boiling hard with both elements when the whirlfloc tablet went in at 10 mins from the end then chilling right down to 20 degrees to get a good cold break, there was lots of trub left behind and the wort that I transferred to the fermenter was quite clear.

The mash and boil were both 90 minutes. This beer should be around 4.2% and 45 EBU's and a nice deep golden colour. The OG of this beer is 1042. Fermented with Gervin English Ale Yeast.

The kit that I brewed was a Brupaks Almondbury Old, not tried this one before but have read good things about it, I replaced the kit yeast with Safale S04.

I also started off 2 wine kits both California Connoisseur, Liebfraumilch and Cabernet Merlot, these only took 10 mins each to do and produce great wine for about £1.50 per bottle.

This is a picture of the 'trub' that was left behind in the boiler, filtered out by the hop bed, I wonder if it is this that has been giving me chill haze problems with some brews?

The wort that went into the fermenter was nice and clear.

The end result of the day, from left to right, Brupaks Almondbury Old kit, Grumpy Bum AG brew, Cabernet Merlot, Liebfraumilch.

It's been a while...

2007-10-09T19:50:00.000+01:00

Well it looks like things might just be settled for me enough to do a brew a week tomorrow, i'm down to my last ~90 pints so to make sure I have some properly conditioned beer i'll probably brew an all grain, most likely "Mr Grumpy Bum" and also do a kit to turn it into a double brew day, just need to decide which kit to do...?

Mr George Bateman

2007-09-25T21:27:00.000+01:00

"Mr George" passed a way a little while ago now, on June 25th 2007 but I've only just come across this obituary written by Roger Protz, I met him on only two occasions through work and found him to be a lovely charming man, all of the staff at George Bateman & Son Brewery knew him affectionately as "Mr George".

A sad loss.

George Bateman - Obituary

Rolling Hitch IPA 5.2% abv

2007-09-25T20:59:00.000+01:00

Last night I sampled a bottle of Darwin Brewery Ltd Rolling Hitch IPA and thought that it was the dog's wobblies, it's gone straight to the top of my favourite bottled beer list, beating St Austell - Tribute by a nose.

The Write Up

Rolling Hitch 1864: A Traditional shipping rope knot - of which thousands were produced and tied on Wearside's famous roperies and ship yards.

Darwin Rolling Hitch: An award winning classio style India Pale Ale, produced with only the finest British pale malts combined with rich Amarillo hops resulting in a refreshing fruit flavour and clean hoppy aftertaste.

This one did exactly what it said on the tin(bottle) very refreshing, nice fruit flavours but not massivley overpowering but the Amarillo hop aftertaste lingers for ages, I've emailed my local micro brewer to enquire about getting hold of some Amarillo to have a crack at making a pale Amarillo brew this side of the wallet emptying season.

I'm going to get a half dozen of these in and save them for a special event in the near future ;o)

Hookey Street - Winter Ale

2007-09-21T20:00:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I took the advice from Delboy about what to brew and he came up with this:

5000.00 gm Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 90.3 %
410.00 gm Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) Grain 7.4 %
130.00 gm Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 2.3 %
49.00 gm Northdown [6.50%] (90 min) Hops 30.1 IBU
20.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
20.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

Having never brewed a dark un before I didn't know what to expect, I got 25L at 1056 in the fermenter this went down to 1010 so it's 6%.

I'm well chuffed with the results, a nice dark beer which isn't too heavy and certainly doesn't taste like a 6%'er, I think i'll be enjoying this one in the colder months, next time I get a chance to brew I think i'll do another (maybe target 5% though)

Here it is

Tamworth Beer Festival

2007-09-19T20:59:00.000+01:00

We went to the Tamworth Beer Festival on Friday 7th, we all had a great night, can't remember too much but ended up getting an overpriced take away from a posh indian and a cup of tea in a taxi rank.

These pictures / flashbacks are from the night.

The smaller of the two 'walls of ale'

You can just about see all of the kegs on this picture, there was a bottled beer/cider table just behind me also.

Lee put a really brave face on being dragged along to a Real Ale Festival.

He...well...he....was having a close look at the beer!

Mick seemed pleased with his selection of Cumbrian Lad, nice drop!

Neil, who apparently had a really shiny left eye brow!

Me, with what appears to be 'The Beer Sweats' too early in the night!

A much, much happier Lee once he'd found the strong cider and bottled lagers!

Entertainment for the evening was TreeBeard, they were great, crazy folk music covers and ale!

Towards the end of the evening Mick tried one of Lee's strong ciders, i'm quite sure he didn't like it!!!

36 Pints of Goats Milk

2007-08-28T19:56:00.000+01:00

On Bank Holiday Monday my brother & his wife purchased a 36 pint keg of "Goats Milk" from Church End Brewery for around £42 (bargain), it's a superb afternoon quaffer at 3.8% and ideal for the BBQ, it's a nice light tasting ale with a predominant Styrian Goldings aroma, it went down very well indeed, here's my brother making sure the keg was definetely empty. Cheers!

A good Barbie and Barbie-Brew!!

The Bedford Arms - Toddington

2007-08-25T21:46:00.000+01:00

Today we visited friends in Toddington and visited The Bedford Arms, I had a couple of Wells Eagle IPA which were a nice afternoon session bitter. This is the write up from the Charles Wells web-site..

IPA long-standing favourite within Charles Wells' heartland and famed for it's rare, notably dry-bitter finish, Wells Eagle IPA (Alc. 3.6% Vol.) is starting to emulate the nationwide success of its premium bitter stable-mate, Wells Bombardier.

“A complex finish of bitter hops, nuts and citrus fruits.”
Roger Protz
(British Guild of Beer Writers and Editor of The Good Beer Guide)
The popularity of this perfectly crafted pint is described by award winning beer writer, Alastair Gilmour:
“The aroma is of freshly sliced ripe apples. Its amber hue is emphasised by a tight rich head which set it up as an ale with real credentials.”

Cheers for a great day guys!

Toecutter Fermentation

2007-08-25T21:41:00.000+01:00

Well fermentation got off to a flyer, this picture is how it looked 8hrs after pitching the yeast.

Brewday Friday 24/08 - ToeCutters Twist

2007-08-24T07:29:00.000+01:00

Todays brew is this one : Toecutters Twist

5000gm Pale Malt (MO) Grain 98%
100gm Crystal Malt Grain 2%
26gm Fuggles [4.90%] (90 min) Hops 12.6 IBU
35gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (90 min) Hops 10.4 IBU
30gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
50gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (0 min)

Yesterday everthing that I'll need for the brew was given a clean and the grains were weighed out. I'm using 5kg of Crushed Marris Otter pale malt and 100g of Crystal Malt. This picture shows the colour difference between the two.

I got a nice early start today and had the boiler switched on by 06:30.

The steps here were:

Heat the mash liquor to around 78 degrees

Transfer the required quantity (in this case 12L to the mash tun)

Leave the tun to stand for 5 minutes to heat through

I then checked the temperature and found it to be too hot still, i needed a strike temperature of 72 degrees I added 2 L of cold water to get the temperature down to 72.

Once at 72 I doughed in (mixed in the grains thoroughly) I had to adjust the temperature to my required mash temp (65 deg C)by adding a further 1L of cold water.

1tsp of CRS was then added and mixed into the mash to get the PH to 5.2

The coolbox mash tun is then closed and wrapped for 90 minutes.

At the end of the mash the temperature was 64.5 so only a half of a degree drop over the 90 minutes.

Next I ran off the cloudy first wort runnings into a jug and returned them to the mash tun, the flow of wort from the jug was diffused using some foil with holes in it. The purpose of doing this is to filter the wort through the grain bed until there are very few or no grain particles coming through. .

The runnings were free from particles after 4 litres had been returned so sparging started, using water from an old FV which has now become my HLT. I use a spinny sparge are which sprinkles hot water (80 degrees) onto the grain bed the wort is then run slowly into the boiler.

I adjust the flow so that the input matches the output so there is a constant flow through the grain bed.

I collected 30 litres in total 25 in the boiler and another 5 in a seperate vessel, the 5L was used to top up the boiler to replace the wort lost through evaporation.

The wort was then brought to the boil and the bittering hops added (26g Oregon Fuggles and 35g Styrian Goldings.

While the boil was underway I made up a yeast starter (DaaB's flying starter) with Safale S-04 yeast. I rehydrated the 11g of yeast in 200ml of 35 degree water in a large PET bottle, then took 400ml of wort after 15 minutes of the boil and cooled it to 25 degrees then added this to the bottle, shook it like crazy and squeezed the air out.

15 minutes from the end of the boil I added the aroma hops (30g Styrian Goldings) then 10 minutes from the end of the boil I added a whirlfloc tablet to aid the coagulation of the protein break matter.

At the end of the 90 minute boil I added the aroma/steep hops 50g Styrian Goldings.

Then I dropped the immersion cooler in to bring the temperature down to around 28 degrees.

Once cooled the wort was transferred to the FV using grativy to help aerate it.

I hit my target OG (1046) and pitched the yeast, hopefully this should be fermenting away within a few hours.

Beer Beer everywhere but not a drop to drink...

2007-08-23T18:38:00.000+01:00

I have 120 pints of beer conditioning at the moment with another 40 pints being brewed tomorrow but none that will be ready for 2 more weeks, so tonight i'm on the Ruddles County.

It's good but I wish it were a pint of homebrew.

Brewing Tomorrow

2007-08-23T18:32:00.000+01:00

After about as much DIY and painting as I can stand on my week "off" I finally get to do a brew tomorrow.

So tomorrow i'll be having a bash at this one:

Toecutters Twist

5000gm Pale Malt (MO) Grain 98%
100gm Crystal Malt Grain 2%
26gm Fuggles [4.90%] (90 min) Hops 12.6 IBU
35gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (90 min) Hops 10.4 IBU
30gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
50gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (0 min)

It's a variation of my TLC Twist recipe a friend of mine tried the TLC and enjoyed it but said that he'd prefer it less bitter and to have more Styrian aroma. TLC Twist is normally around 37 EBU (by Beersmith calcs) this one should give me 27 EBU i've also upped the steep Styrians from 25g to 50g so I hope this will give me what I'm after.

Working at 75% efficiency i'd get OG of 1046 (4.4%abv)

Ronnie Wrigglers Honey Ale

2007-08-21T09:34:00.000+01:00

Here is a picture of my Honey Ale "Ronnie Wrigglers Honey Ale"

It was brewed on 23rd June and is now coming to the end of the keg, it's crystal clear and tastes superb, the honey has really come through.

4000gm Pale Malt 86.0 %
100gm Crystal Malt 2.2 %
25gm Northdown [6.50%] (90 min) 19.0 IBU
43gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (90 min) 13.6 IBU
25gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (10 min) 2.7 IBU
550gm Honey (2.0 EBC) 11.8 % at Switch Off
1 Safale s-04 Starter
Primed the Keg with 100gm Honey

Itching....

2007-08-21T09:30:00.001+01:00

I'm off work this week and I'm itching to get a brew (or two) done but I have loads of DIY to get out of the way 1st! If I do get to brew I'll do a variation of my TLC Twist (less bitter & more aroma hoppy - Styrians) and a stout to put away for Christmas.

Best get the DIY done!

A Couple of Brews

2007-08-21T08:48:00.000+01:00

A couple of weekends ago I had a double brew weekend where I made a batch of TLC Twist and a Batch of Grumpy Bum. Here's the recipes for both:

Both 25L batches calculated at 75% efficiency using Safale s04 and a whirlfloc tablet 10 mins from the end.

TLC Twist.

5000.00 gm Marris Otter Grain 95.6 %
130.00 gm Wheat, Torrified Grain 2.5 %
100.00 gm Crystal Malt Grain 1.9 %
41.00 gm Northdown [6.50%] (90 min) Hops 26.0 IBU
25.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (90 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
25.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
25.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (0 min) Hops -

I ended up with 25L at 1046 (73.5% efficieny)

Grumpy Bum.

4730.00 gm Marris Otter Grain 91.0 %
470.00 gm Crystal Malt Grain 9.0 %
60.00 gm Northdown [6.50%] (90 min) Hops 40.0 IBU
25.00 gm Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (15 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops

I ended up with 25L at 1054 (87% efficiency)

Both of these got down to 1010 so the TLC Twist is a 4.7% beer and Grumpy Bum is a 5.7% beer.

The Rider for Cider!

2007-07-20T22:29:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday 18th July Tony set off from his Glasgow home on a 222.3 mile journey for a drink of home made Turbo Cider, the host Craig gladly welcomed the thirst quenched traveller with open arms into his den of turbo heaven, Aberdeen.

WezBrew says hats off to Tony for travelling the tortuous route in the colds of Scotland's summer. Here is the plucky travellers diary, be proud, be Strong for TURBO CIDER is for real MEN, like TONY! TONY the god of Rider Cider!

Tony's diary...

Day 1. Tony set off at 11am on Wednesday 18th July from Glasgow city centre, a man with a thirst a man who needed to get to ciders-ville. Day 1 Tony travelled through Aberfoyle, Calandar, Strathyre and Killin before finally reaching his day one resting place Aberfeldy some 98.3 miles into the journey, an impressive 1st days cycling, being strong, Tony did not drink any Turbo Cider that night, instead he ingested commercial alcohol, for which he had spent many months training his body to accept.

Day 2. The Hills have eye's. With visibilty down to only 50ft Tony continued toward the cousin who is the "apple juice fermentor". Tony battled through the mist and fog over the Glenfihee mountains and down into Braemar some 58 miles completed on day 2. Again no Turbo for Tony who tells us that he had a quiet night that he "Cann-ne remember" at the local watering hole.

Day 3. Turbo Bound. With the Tony taste bud's tingling focus for the day was on the cider capital of Great Britain, Aberdeen! Tony's steed had served him well until disaster struck at Ballater when both of the disk brakes on his bike failed! Most men in this position would have thrown in the towel, turned away, crumpled, become boys or been emotionaly shattered. Tony, with thoughts of small crystal bubbles rising from the bottom of a glass of 'Turbo' searched for the answer and found it in the form of a gift of nature, a small twig saved the day, using the twig against a front brake caliper Tony got on the road again. Battling headwinds Tony finally made it on day 3 after a 58 mile day a total of 222.3 miles at the cider house!

God bless you Tony!

Here he is....

Motorbike Show at Church End Brewery

2007-07-19T22:19:00.000+01:00

This Saturday 21st July there is a motorbike show at Church End Brewery Hoping that the weather holds out so it's a good day but the weather forecast isn't great at the moment...

If the rain holds off and we get to go it should be a great day, I expect that they will have eight different CEB handpull ales on as well as their excellent array of bottled beers and ciders.

Fingers crossed for a dry day!

A Cider Tonight

2007-07-18T21:27:00.000+01:00

Tonight I'm drinking "Westons - Premium Organic Cider" 6.5% mainly because it was on offer at the Co-Op. The bottle says "Made from organically grown cider apples under the strict conditions imposed by the soil association, Organic Certification UK5. An easy to drink cider with a ripe apple aroma and a refreshing well balanced taste." I'm not a massive cider nut but I do enjoy a bottle occasionally, this is definately one of the better one's I've tried .

Brewday Sat 14th July - "Not Tonight Dear"

2007-07-15T15:57:00.000+01:00

I brewed a high gravity beer (1060 OG) yesterday all being well this will be a nice winter warmer type brew with an abv of around 6%.

The recipe comes courtesy of SteveD at Jims forum.

6350gm Pale Malt (MO) Grain 98.1%
125gm Crystal Malt Grain 1.9%

65gm Challenger [6.80%] (90 min) 40.0 IBU
50gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (at switch off)

Safeale s-04 'DaaBs Flying Starter'

24L Batch
Target OG 1060 (based on 75% efficiency)
EBU 40

90 minute 65 degree mash and 90 minute boil

The Brewday went well without any hitches, fermentation has been very lively as you'll see from the pictures below. I'm trying to keep the temperature under 20 degrees by standing the FV in a large plastic tub filled with cold water and freezer blocks.

Some Photo's from the day.

This is the first wort runnings from by mash tun which were returned to the tun to filter out the grain particles, I had to return around 4 litres before it ran 'clear'.

This is the first clear wort runnings into the boiler.

Sparging.

65 Grams of Challenger hops weighed out.

Monitoring the temperature of the wort as it is cooled.

Transferring the cooled wort into the fermentor.

Measuring the gravity - 1060.

This was taken about 8 hours after pitching the yeast.

This is how it looked this morning (around 21 hours after pitching) the krausen has overflowed the fermenting bin!

2007 Tamworth Beer Festival

2007-07-11T21:00:00.001+01:00

I've just found the dates for this years Tamworth Beer Festival Thu 6th, Fri 7th & Sat 8th September.

The write up: 100+ real ales from micro breweries near & far (inc. festival specials, one-offs and specials), cider, perry & foreign bottled beers. Featureing more dark beers & cider. Soft drinks available for drivers. Hot & cold food available all sessions. Live entertainment Fri (Treebeard c 8pm)+ Sat (local acoustic artisits c7pm). Thu eve quiet. Souvenir half pint glasses + T-shirts available. This year all cask beers cooled.

Members: Thu, Fri £1, Sat freeNon members: £2 except Fri eve, £3

Last year's festival was great, i'm going to do the Thu & Fri nights this year!

Turbo Cider Bubble Bubble...

2007-07-11T19:58:00.000+01:00

As I'd hoped the 2 Gallons of Turbo Cider that I started last night are bubbling away frantically today loads of tiny bubbles fizzing to the surface. The last time I did a batch of TC it went down to a Final Gravity (FG) of about 0.998, if this one drops that low from the Original Gravity of 1054 (a drop of 56) it will be around 7.5% ABV. ABV is calculated (approximately) by dividing the drop points by 7.45, this is probably not a wholly accurate way of calculating it but all I'm after is a rough figure.

The plan is to bottle this into sturdy 500ml brown glass beer bottles with 1tsp each of sugar for priming, I'll also bottle one in a 500ml Coke PET bottle so that I can see that it's clearing and also be able to feel how much pressure is building up by squeezing the bottle.

Hopefully this will be ready to bottle in around 10 to 14 days.

2 Gallons Of Turbo Cider

2007-07-10T21:58:00.000+01:00

Tonight i've made up 2 1 gallon batches of Turbo Cider, this is quite easy to make, I have two cousins in Scotland who enjoy making it, even if they can't remember the nights that they drink it!

Ingredients (for 2 gallons or 9 Litres):

9x Cartons of ASDA 100% Pure Apple Juice
300g Granulated Sugar
1x 5g Packet Youngs Cider Yeast

First things first everything was cleaned and sterilised using ASDA Soda Crystals and a Videne Solution. This is a picture of the 2 demijohns with the videne in them after cleaning.To the right are the ingredients that i've used.

The first stage was to empty 4L of apple juice into each demijohn. I then weighed out 2 lots of 150g granulated white sugar and dissolved each 150g in 500ml apple juice in a saucepan.

The apple juice / sugar solution was then added to each demijohn, obviously I had to do two batches of the solution. This gave me an Original Gravity (OG) of 1054.

The packet of yeast was split into two and pitched into the demijohn's 30 minutes after pitching the airlocks were bubbling away. By tomorrow morning I expect both to be fizzing well. 2 Gallons of Turbo Cider.....Done!

Fledgling Brewery - Homebrew Equipment

2007-07-09T22:22:00.000+01:00

Here are a few images of the equipment that I use to make my beer at home.

This is my Coolbox Mash Tun, the coolbox was kindly donated by my good friend Simon, I did feel guilty after not asking him if I could drill holes in it so I got him a Woodfordes Wherry kit as compensation. It does a very good insulating job and when it has it's lid on and is wrapped up it the 'beer quilt' it normally only looses about half a degree C over a 90 minute mash.

This is my homemade Copper Manifold which fits neatly into the bottom of the coolbox. It's purpose is to filter the wort at the end of the mash and hold back the particles that I don't want getting to my beer. The instructions for putting together a coolbox mash tun can be found HERE Thanks DaaB!

This is my 30 Litre Boiler which I purchased from Leyland Homebrew The one that they do 'off the shelf' only comes it one element fitted, I asked the guy there to add an extra element to reduce the time it takes to bring water/wort to the boil. With both elements on the boil is too vigorous so when I get a rolling boil one of them is unplugged. The copper pipe at the bottom is a Hop Strainer which as the name suggests post boil strains the hops.

This is my Immersion Chiller, it is put into the wort immediately after the boil to cool the wort rapidly to get a good 'cold break' it works by having cold water passed through it within the coiled copper micro-bore pipe, this water then comes out of the other end of it very hot after exchanging heat with the hot wort.

To be continued...

Busy, busy, busy....

2007-07-09T21:22:00.000+01:00

There have been no blog updates for a while but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy brewing! Since my last post I have brewed the following:

Legless Frog
Ronnie Wrigglers Honey Beer
TLC Twist

Legless Frog

This is a recipe known as 'Bramling Beauty' on Jims but I've called mine Legless Frog as on the day I brewed it I also mowed the lawn and accidentally mowed over a frog which unfortunately resulted in one of his legs becoming detached. I'm sure he was fine, he limped off and as a fitting tribute to him I've named my beer after him.

Brewlength 25 L
EBU 33
OG 1044
FG 1014
ABV 3.9%

Grain Bill
4200gm Pale Malt (Marris Otter) Grain 85.5 %
270gm Amber Malt Grain 5.5 %
220gm Barley, Flaked Grain 4.5 %
220gm Wheat, Torrified Grain 4.5 %

Hop Schedule
52gm Bramling Cross [7.00%] (15 min) 16.9 IBU
22gm Bramling Cross [7.00%] (90 min) 15.4 IBU
19gm Bramling Cross [7.00%] (1 min) 0.5 IBU

1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 min)
11g Safale s-04 Starter

Ronnie Wrigglers Honey Beer

This has been brewed in honor of our impending arrival, the plan is to use this brew to wet the babys head! It's the first time I have used honey in a beer, I was advised that if you boil the honey the flavour will be stripped out so I added 550g at boiler switch off and also primed the keg with 100g. I'll report back how it tastes when it's tapped.

Brewlength 25 L
EBU 35
OG 1046
FG 1012
ABV 4.4%

Grain Bill
4000gm Pale Malt (Marris Otter) Grain 86.0%
100gm Crystal Malt Grain 2.2%
550gm Honey 11.8 % (Added at boiler switch-off)

Hop Schedule
25gm Northdown [6.50%] (90 min) 19.0 IBU
43gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (90 min) 13.6 IBU
25gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (10 min) 2.7 IBU

1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 min)
11g Safale s-04 Starter

TLC Twist

I've brewed this one before, it's supposed to be a clone-ish of Timmy Taylors Landlord, it does taste a bit like it although not a clone as such, i've not changed the recipe from the last batch too much as it turned out just fine as it was.

Brewlength 25 L
EBU 37
OG 1047
FG *still fermenting*
ABV *unknown at the moment*

Grain Bill
5000gm Pale Malt (Marris Otter) 95.1%
160gm Wheat, Torrified 3.0%
100gm Crystal Malt 1.9%

Hop Schedule
57gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (90 min) 16.7 IBU
26gm Northdown [6.50%] (90 min) 16.5 IBU
25gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (15 min) 3.8 IBU
25gm Styrian Goldings [3.00%] (0 min)

1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 min)
11g Safale s-04 Starter

Brewday Sunday 3 June - Fledgling Bitter

2007-06-03T22:44:00.000+01:00

I am already very pleased with how the first batch of Fledgling Bitter is turning out so on Sunday I brewed a slightly smaller (23L) batch, this one is destined for the Cornie Keg (18L) and Bottles (5L).

No Pictures for this brew unfortunately.

4050gm Marris Otter Grain 94.6%
230gm Crystal Malt Grain 5.4 %
50gm Challenger [aa 6.80%] (90 min) 37.6 IBU
23gm Styrian Goldings [aa 2.00%] (15 min) 2.4 IBU
9gm Oregon Fuggles [4.90%] (15 min) 2.3 IBU
5gm Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
66 degree mash for 90 mins and 90 minute boil

All went well except for forgetting i'd left the tap running into the boiler to clean it and flooded the kitchen (a bit) and falling asleep during the mash so it ended up at 2 hours not 90 minutes!

Efficiency was up to 86.3 for this brew! Maybe it was the longer mash? It is currently in the garage fermenting away at a reasonable 19 degrees, which is great concidering the hot weather we are having now.

Update to follow.

Double Brewday - Monday 28 May 2007

2007-05-28T07:33:00.000+01:00

On Monday 28th May in order to keep up with supply and demand I decided that it was time to do a double brewday, 2 5 gallon batches.

Batch 1 - Mr Grumpy Bum

I'm hoping that this will be a nice rich deep coloured bitter.

Target OG 1041 EBU 40
90 Min mash at 66 degrees C
4130gm Pale Malt (MO) Grain 91%
410gm Crystal Malt 9%
90 min boil
80gm Fuggles [AA 4.90%] (90 min) 40.2 IBU
25gm Styrian Goldings [AA 2.00%] (15 min)

Batch 2 - Styrian Stunner

This one should be a very light and very hoppy summer ale.

Stunner Target OG 1043 EBU 43
90 min mash at 66 degrees C
4750gm Pale Malt (MO) 100%
90 min boil
46gm Challenger [AA 6.80%] (90 min) 31.6 IBU
42gm Styrian Goldings [AA 2.00%] (90 min) 8.5 IBU
30gm Styrian Goldings [AA 2.00%] (15 min) 3.1 IBU
45gm Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (0 min) (At Power Off for 1hr)
15.00 gm Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (Dry Hop In Cask)

Here are a few pictures from the day:

(Left) Is the mash underway for Batch 1 Mr Grumpy Bum (MGB) this was covered and insulated. (Right) Sparging the grains at the end of the mash.

(Left) Is the initial run-off from the mash tun into the boiler for Batch 1 (Right) is the final volume collected in the boiler (25L) following the run-off and sparging, very pleased with the colour of this one.

(Left) The Batch 1 boil underway with the bittering hops swirling around (Right) Cooling the wort quickly with the IC (Immersion Cooler) after the boil.

(Left) The yeast starter getting going (Right) The first runnings from the Styrian Stunner mash, very pale compared to Batch 1.

(Left) Bittering hops going into the Styrian Stunner (Right) The result, 2 x 5 Gallon batches into fermentors, it was a long and quite tiring day in total it took 12 hours from 6am to 6pm! Now thats dedication! Both of these fermented out quite quickly and were kegged on Monday 4th June, Batch 1 Mr Grumpy Bum ended up at 3.9% abv and The Styrian Stunner ended up at 4.6% abv. Both are now conditioning and i'll be able to report back on how they have turned out in a few weeks! For the record the efficiency for the brews are Batch 1 73.8% and Batch 2 79.1% so not bad.

Fledgling Bitter - Update 1 Friday 25 May

2007-05-25T20:02:00.000+01:00

Well this one has fermented down to 1010 in five days so it's found it's way into one of my King Kegs, it will stay in the warm of the kitchen for 5 days before being moved to the cool of the garage to mature. I primed with 85g DME mixed with 250ml warm pre boiled water. This one is 4.2% abv.

Brewday Sunday 20 May 2007 - Fledgling Bitter

2007-05-15T22:30:00.000+01:00

On Sunday 20th May I brewed this which I hope will become my 'stock' bitter. I'm naming this one Fledgling Bitter for two reasons a) It will remind me of the number of Fledglings that we have being fed in our garden at the moment and b) to reflect by AG brewer status!

Brewlength 25 Litres

Grain Bill:
4350gm Pale Malt (Marris Otter) 94.8 %
240gm Crystal Malt 5.2 %
90 minute 66 degree mash

Hop Schedule:
55gm Challenger [AA - 6.80%] (90 min) 37.6 IBU
10gm Oregon Fuggles [AA - 4.90%] (15 min) 2.3 IBU
25gm Styrian Goldings [AA - 2.00%] (15 min) 2.3 IBU
1 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
90 minute boil

I cleaned and sterilised the boiler the night before and filled it with 25L water treated with a half campden tablet. Also filled the mash tun (MT) with water and steriliser and weighed out the grain to give me a bit of a head start, the following day then went like this:

6am: Alarm goes off, wandered downstairs to switch both elements of the boiler on and also the kettle for a much needed coffee, while the water was coming up to temp (85 degrees) I emptied and rinsed the MT.

6.30am: Water up to 85 degrees so turned switched elements off and ran 12L into the MT and put the lid on for it to stabilise the temperature for a few mins, waited a for the temp to drop to 75 degrees then doughed in the grains, adjusted the mash PH to from over 6 to around 5.2 with 1 tsp of CRS, lid back on the MT and wrapped it up in a quilt for an hour and a half mash.

6:30am to 8:00am: A bit of spare time to potter around and get the equipment ready for the next stage (sparging), so cleaned and sterilised the HLT, spinny sparge arm and got another 25L treated water up to 90 degrees ready to sparge with.

8.00am: Once an hour and a half mash had completed I slowly ran off the turbid wort and recirculated it through perforated tin foil on top of the grain bed then ran the rest of the wort into the boiler whist sparging. The picture to the left are the first 'clear' runnings to the boiler. I like the colour of this one. I ended up collecting 25L after sparging this took around an hour to collect with a real slow run off.

With 55g of Challenger hops weighed out the boil was started at around 9am and took about half an hour to come up to a rolling boil and after fighting back the hot break the bittering hops were added at 9.30am. I added the remaining aroma hops 10g Oregon Fuggles and 25g Styrian Goldings along with 1 tsp Irish Moss 15 mins from the end of the boil. I lost around 5L during the boil, the remaining 20L was left for the hops to settle to form a filter bed this was then cooled using a copper immersion chiller. It dropped from 80 degrees to 20 degrees in about 25 minutes!

The wort was then run off into my fermenting vessel, I collected 18L, this was topped up to 25L with treated water and I got a reading of 1042 at 20 degrees which is an efficiency of 75%. The yeast starter was pitched and 24 hours later the yeast head had formed nicely and the airlock was going mad. A hydrometer reading was taken at 7pm on 22 May (55 hours after pitching the yeast) and it read 1012, so this has turned into 4%abv beer in just over 2 days!

To be continued...

My First Ever All Grain Brew - Wezerection Easter Ale

2007-04-06T19:18:00.001+01:00

This brew was my first ever attempt at an all grain brew I set about on a day of messing up the kitchen, garage and generally getting under feet and taking over the house, the end result if I do say so myself was well worth it. The picture on the right is the finished product, it had a bit of chill haze when served at 13 degrees from the beer fridge but tasted loveley!

Brewlength : 25 Litres

5 KG Pale Malt M.O

250g Crystal Malt
Mash Liquor 13L (based on 2.5L per KG)
Mash Time 90 mins Mash Temp 65 degrees

Boil Time 90 mins
30g Northern Brewer (full boil)

25g Challenger (full boil)
10g Challenger (last 15 mins)

50g Dried Elderflower (last 15 mins)
1 tsp irish moss (last 15 mins)

Gervin English Ale Yeast (11g)

Some photos of this brew: