Brewday 02/03/2018 IPA

Heritage Homebrew

For my next beer I decided to brew an old style English IPA. Not to a genuine heritage recipe but I took inspiration from my copy of The Homebrewer's Guide to Vintage Beer by Ron Pattison (whose blog "Shut up about Barclay Perkins" is great source of historical beery information) The 19th Century IPA recipes featured in the book aren't especially strong - around 5-6% abv - but are extremely bitter with IBU ratings in excess of 150 and hopping rates of up to 18g per litre. I didn't want to go for such a high level of bitterness so I used most hops as late addition and for dry hopping, with (high for me!) an overall hopping rate of 10g per litre. The IBU's are around 52 so still quite bitter. This brew was the first time I tried adjusting the water profile. One of my fellow local homebrewers gave me a water adjustment spreadsheet with our local water profile data from a recent report. After some messing about in Excel I ended up adding 6g of calcium chloride and 6g of Epsom salts to the mash, whether this will make any significant difference remains to be seen.

Recipe (BIAB)

• Mash for 90 mins at 66°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 28.5lt
• Maris Otter 4.8kg
• Wheat Malt 150g
• Crystal Malt 45L 250g
• Flaked Maize 250g
• Northdown 7% 25g (60 mins)
• Northdown 7% 25g (30 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown) 25g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• Cluster 7% 25g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• First Gold (homegrown) 25g dry hop for 4 days
• Cluster 7% dry hop for 4 days 
• Nottingham Ale Yeast 11g pack pitched at 18°C
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results 12/03/2018

I bottled this after 10 days fermentation

OG 1.057

FG 1.012

ABV 6%

Now I have to give it a few weeks to condition before I can taste it.

Brewday - 09/06/2017 Strong Bitter

Leftover Beer

I had sufficient spare ingredients left for one more brew, so I decided to make a strong bitter.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 4.4kg
• Crystal Malt 150g
• Carapils 140g
• Chocolate malt 12g 
• Saaz 50g (60 mins)
• Saaz 25g (15 mins)
• Goldings 20g (15 mins)
• Cluster 20g (15 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Goldings 22g (at turn off)
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Cluster 22g (dry hopped 4 days)
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results:

I got 23lt in the fermenter, the OG was 1.050 (slightly higher than expected!) and hopefully it should finish around 1.010 (5.1% abv) with 35 IBU's.

 Fermentation is going well!

Brewday - 24/05/2017 Best Bitter

Not Craft Beer

After the excitement of making my own invert sugar I felt inspired to brew a traditional English Best Bitter, using just fuggles hops as I had some spare.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 3.5kg
• Carapils 125g
• Black malt 40g 
• Invert Sugar No. 1 450g (30 mins)
• Fuggles 50g (60 mins)
• Fuggles 50g (15 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results:

I got 23lt in the fermenter, the OG was 1.045 (exactly as expected!) and hopefully it should finish around 1.011 (4.5% abv).

Brewday 27/04/2017 Another Pale Ale

Yet Another Hoppy Pale Beer

I like dark beers and I like pale beers, last time I brewed a porter so it has to be a pale ale this time.

Recipe (BIAB):

According to my extensive research (several whole minutes online) head retention is aided by carapils malt, so I've used some in this beer.

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 32lt
• Maris Otter 4.3kg
• Carapils 250g
• Crystal malt 150g
• Simcoe 20g (at start)
• Simcoe 30g (15 mins)
• Cascade 30g (at end)
• Simcoe 50g (dry hopped)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Fermentis Safale S04 Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

I am aiming to get 22lt in the fermenter, OG 1.049 and 5% abv - hopefully.

Results:

I must have miscounted when filling the pan and actually used 32lt of water, as I got 25lt in the fermenter and OG 1.046. I expect a final gravity of 1.011 and around 4.6% abv. 

Brewday 22/03/2017 - Porter

American Porter 

Time to brew a porter I think. I have plenty of American hops so this will (hopefully) be a nice hoppy American Porter.

Grain Bill:

3.9kg Maris Otter
250g Chocolate Malt
100g Roasted Barley

125g Carafa III

230g Rolled Oats
I have used standard porridge oats, not flaked oats as usually used in homebrewing. Oats should add a creamy texture and a bit of body to the beer so I hope this works.
Recipe in Brewers Friend

Hops:

15g Galena 13.2% - at start of boil
45g Cascade 8.1% - 15 mins from end
20g Mosiac 12.5% - dry hop for 4 days
25g Cascade 8.1% - dry hop for 4 days

Yeast: Fermentis Safale S04 - 1 pack

Mash:

This was a BIAB recipe as usual.

Mash water volume 30lt

Mash for one hour at 66°C

Results:

I got 23.5lt in the fermenter, a bit more than anticipated but at least I get more beer. OG was 1.047, efficiency 77% (very good for me). I should end up with around 4.7% abv.

Update 31/03/2017:

The final gravity reading was 1.013, a couple of points higher than anticipated, so I got an ABV of 4.42%. Now conditioning so I'll taste it in a couple of weeks. 

Pale Ale brewday 07/02/2017

Pale Ale brewday 07/02/2017

This is similar to the pale ale I brewed in November 2016, but this time I will bottle it rather than put in the pressure barrel.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 4.4kg
• Carapils 200g
• Crystal malt 70L 200g
• Galena 20g (at start)
• Amarillo 30g (15 mins)
• Amarillo 45g (at end)
• Citra 20g (dry hopped 3 days)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Gervin English Ale Yeast 11g pack

Hopefully I should get 21-22lt in the fermenter.

Results:

I ended up with 23lt in the fermenter and 1.050 OG, exactly as predicted! Hopefully I 'll get a final gravity reading of 1.012 giving 5% ABV.

Update 15/02/17

Actual FG was 1.011, so ABV = 5.1% and attenuation = 78%.
Final bottle count was 42 x 500ml, should keep me going for a bit!

Brewday 31/01/2017 - Scottish 100 Shilling Ale

William Younger 1879 100/- Scottish Ale

This is a historic recipe provided by top beer writer Ron Pattinson whose blog Shut Up About Barclay Perkins is a great source of old ale recipes. I'm brewing this 100/- ale as part of a homebrew event where members of Manchester homebrew club and my group Chorlton home brewers are brewing several of these 19th century Scottish ales to bring to a tasting with Ron at Beer Nouveau in Manchester on April 2nd. I'm not sure how we'll know if they taste authentic but hopefully they will all be great beers.

Recipe

This is a very simple recipe!

Pale Malt (I used Golden Promise for extra Scottish authenticity) 5kg

Cluster 90mins - 58g

Goldings 30mins - 58g

Yeast - WLP028 Edinburgh Ale Yeast

OG should be 1.070 and I'm aiming for 17lt into the fermenter.

Results

Not brilliant, I got 16lt in the fermenter but an OG of only 1.060. That's only 62% efficiency, I usually get about 75%. Hopefully the yeast will achieve 70-75% attenuation resulting in an ABV of 5.8% which is close to the original recipe specification. The difference between my recipe and the brewing record is the level of apparent attenuation, the historic recipe has apparent attenuation at 63% which is low for this yeast strain.

Brewday 24/01/17 - Altbier

First Brewday of 2017

One advantage of being temporarily unemployed is having plenty of time to make some beer. Now I've finished decorating the hall I can concentrate on more important issues. I've got a bit of a thing about German ales, I've made Kolsch a couple of times but never an Altbier so this is my first attempt.

Altbier recipe BIAB

• Mash for 1 hr at 66°C
• Boil for 75 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Munich malt 2kg
• Pilsner malt 2kg
• Carapils 300g
• Caramunich III 500g
• Carafa III 60g
• Halletauer MF 80g - whole leaf (at start)
• Saaz 25g - pellets (30 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Fermentis K97 German Ale yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results

Ended up with 20lt in the fermenter and pitched yeast at 18°C. A bit less volume than I intended but there was a fair amount of hoppy gunk left in the pan which I discarded. 

OG was 1.050 which is exactly as forecast! 

I've been hoping to use this yeast for a while but I haven't seen it in 11g packs before, only the 500g size seemed to be available in the UK until recently.

Brewday 18/11/2016 - Pale Ale

Pale Ale brewday 18/11/2016

Partner's at work, kids are at school, I'm at home. What should I do?

I could do some of those odd jobs that have been stacking up, a bit of decorating, a bit of DIY maybe, or I could do something far more constructive!

Recipe (BIAB):

Since I have enough ingredients to make a nice hoppy pale ale, that's what I'm going to do.

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 4kg
• Carapils 130g
• Crystal malt 215g
• Galena 30g (at start)
• Mosiac 25g (15 mins)
• Mosiac 55g (at end)
• Citra 20g (dry hopped)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Gervin English Ale Yeast 11g pack

Apparently Gervin English Ale Yeast is the same as Nottingham but only half the price. I've used it a few times and always had good results.

Hopefully I should get 21-22lt in the fermenter.

Results:

I ended up with 22.5lt in the fermenter. I was concerned that the OG was down to 1.040 (should have been 1.044) but hopefully I should still get around 4% abv. Efficiency was only 65%, I usually get about 75%.

Kolsch (type beer)

Home brewed Kolsch (-ish, made in Manchester)

I brewed this a few weeks ago and forgot to add some Irish Moss, it's still a bit hazy (15/11/16) but tastes good. I conditioned it for three weeks in the cold store at a friendly local micro and since then it's been further conditioned in my shed. I first tried it after bringing it back from the brewery and wasn't too happy as it had a bit of an apple flavour which fortunately has now faded after 2½ weeks of shed conditioning. Hopefully a few more weeks will clear it completely, standard home brew rules apply: if at first it doesn't taste right, leave it for a few weeks. It probably won't taste any worse.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 24lt
• Pilsner malt 3kg
• Carapils 375g
• Spalt 33g (at start)
• Spalt 17g (10 mins)
• Spalt 15g (at end)
• Hallertauer MF 23g (at end)
• WL029 Kolsch yeast

Fermenter volume: 17lt

OG: 1.044 (a bit lower than expected - should have been around 1.050)

FG: 1.010

ABV: 4.5%

Brew date: 20/09/2016

Bottled: 04/10/2016

Brewday 20/10/2016 - Hoppy Porter

My most recent effort brewed 20/10/2016

Not sure what to call this, a black IPA? Hoppy Porter?

Grain Bill:

4kg Maris Otter
200g Chocolate Malt

120g Roasted Barley

80g Carafa III

Hops:

35g Galena 13.2% - at start of boil

20g Citra 13.7% - 15 mins from end

40g Citra 13.7% - at end of boil

25g Amarillo 10.1% - at end of boil

Yeast: Fermentis Safale S04 - 1 pack

The Mash - 60 mins

1. Add 29lt water to pan and heat to 70°C. Turn off heat.
2. Put bag in pan and add grains slowly. Mix well to avoid clumping.
3. Check temperature, should now be 68°C. Add heat if necessary but ensure you do not burn the grain bag! A false bottom in the pan helps to avoid burning.
4. Replace lid and leave for 60 mins. Have a beer, walk the dog, etc.
5. Carefully lift out bag allowing the hot wort to drain into the pan. I tend to put the grain bag into a fermenter with an upturned colander in the bottom and leave it to drain some more. You can then squeeze the bag to extract as much wort as possible. In this case I ended up with about 27.5lt of wort in the pan.

Temperature check after grains are added

The Boil - 60 mins

1. Bring the pan of wort up to boiling and add the first hop addition, cover and leave to boil.
2. After 45 mins add the next batch of hops. I also put my immersion chiller into the pan and bring back to the boil, this will sterilise the chiller. Boil for a further 15 mins and turn off heat.
3. Add final quantities of hops and leave to cool for 10-15 mins.
4. Connect immersion chiller to cold tap and chill the wort down to 20°C as quickly as possible

Chilling the wort

Fermentation

1. While the wort is cooling I thoroughly sterilise the fermenter, seive, airlock and a plastic jug.
2. Once wort is chilled down to 20°C it is ready to be transferred to the fermenter. Using the sterilised plastic jug pour the wort through the seive into the fermenter. I ended up with 21lt in the fermenter.
3. Pour some wort into a test jar and take a hydrometer reading. In this case the OG was 1.050 which was exactly what was expected!
4. Sprinkle the dried yeast onto the wort and seal the fermenter. Fill the airlock with previously boiled water and fit into the lid.
5. Wait! The airlock should bubble away nicely for a few days, I usually leave the fermenter alone for at least 2 weeks before kegging or bottling.