Back In The Saddle, at Last!

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.

Brewday : 26th May - Townes IPA

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

Brew Evening 15th April - "Long Summer Nights"

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

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

Planning a Brew : Buzzards Walk Pale Ale

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 -

Brewday : West Coast Pale (SNPA clone) 6 March

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.

Brewday : Largs Thistle 80/-

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

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

Brewing Again (Randy Sparrow)

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.

Evening Brewing Again...

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)

Randy Sparrow

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.

Brewday: Glasshouse Porter

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

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

Evening Brew - Big Kenny Scottish Ale

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

Kegged - Lions Pride & Hookey Street - Amarillo musings

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.

Monday Night Brewing

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!

The Storm After The Calm

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.

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

Brewday Friday 24/08 - ToeCutters Twist

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.

Brewing Tomorrow

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)