Big Kenny - Turned out good

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.

Friday Night...at last!

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!

Batemans Rosey Nosey

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.

It's official it's Christmas

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

Something to put away for Christmas

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

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

Brew Review - Glasshouse Porter

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.

Hookey Street - The Finished Product

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

Rolling Hitch IPA 5.2% abv

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

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

Ronnie Wrigglers Honey Ale

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