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A Busy Evening

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%

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

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"

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...

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

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