Brewday - 14/01/2019 American Porter

You Want it Darker*

I haven't brewed porter or stout for a while, which is odd since mostly I tend to drink the darker stuff, so when I got a chance to brew I thought I'd have a go at an American Porter. I'm not sure what exactly defines an American Porter but I guess it's got to be a dark beer with lots of American hops. I tried making my own hop extract for this beer. To do this I boiled some water, let it cool to 75°C and then added 750ml to a cafetiere (or French press) with 20g of Pacifica hops. I let it steep for 20 minutes and then pushed down the plunger and added this "hop extract" to the fermenter. I did this at the same time as dry hopping with 50g of Cascade. 

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 60 mins at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 29lt
• Maris Otter 3.85kg
• Rolled Oats 480g
• Crystal 45L 125g
• Chocolate Malt 235g
• Black malt 115g 
• Northdown 7% (leaf) 30g (60 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown leaf) 15g (15 mins)
• Cascade 6.5% (pellets) 50g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• Cascade 6.5% (pellets) 50g dry hop for 3 days 
• Pacifica 5.8% (leaf) 20g "hop extract" for 3 days
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewer's Friend

Results

OG 1.046
FG 1.010
ABV 4.7%
IBU 48
Efficiency was disappointingly low at only 65%, originally I was anticipating over 5% abv. Apart from that I'm very happy with this beer, there's definitely a good hoppy aroma and it's very smooth and easy to drink.

Competition Time

And the Winner is....

...Me! I entered three of my beers into the annual Stockport Beer Festival Bar Nouveau homebrew competition, where the winning beer in each of the five categories is brewed at a local brewery and launched at Stockport Beer & Cider Festival. I entered my Kolsch in the speciality category, Another Porter into Stout/Porter and Red Rye Ale into the Bitter category, all three beers made it through to the finals and my Red Rye Ale won the bitter category. Of the three I thought the bitter was the weakest entry which shows what I know. This means I receive the fantastic prize of getting to brew my beer at a local micro (this usually means digging out the mash tun but never mind). The only problem I have is thinking of a suitable name for my beer. 

Testing Times

Kolsch and Porter

I've not been able to drink much of my most recent brews until recently as I have been going out drinking (and paying for) other beers. However, things are more or less back to normal now so I can revert to being an antisocial solitary drinker once again. My two most recent brews were a Porter and a Kolsch and both have benefited from a longer conditioning period than I usually allow.  

The Kolsch (strictly speaking I can't call it "Kolsch" as it's not brewed in Cologne, maybe Kolsch-style or Kolsch-ish) was brewed on the 17th of November, fermented for 10 days at 17°C, bottled conditioned for two weeks at room temperature and then stored for 6 weeks at 10-12°C. The end result is an extremely crisp, clean tasting beer which is also very pale and clear.

The taste is very slightly sweet, slightly spicy or herbal with a hint of malty breadiness. It's 4.8% abv so a bit more than session strength but not too strong. Overall I found it really clean and refreshing and probably more suited to summer drinking, which I'll try to do if I manage to save some until then.

The Porter was brewed on the 8th of December and fermented for 10 days (the yeast was pitched at 18°C and the fermenter temperature never rose above 19°C). One bottled I left it at room temperature for another 6 weeks. The beer is smooth and full bodied, not too bitter and has none of the astringent burnt flavours which I have found in past dark beers, which I guess is due to the very small amount of black malt in the recipe.

Despite the relatively small quantity of dark malts the beer is still very dark and at 5.1% abv it's not weak but remains very drinkable. It has a smooth consistency which I believe is derived from the oats. It's not overly hoppy but neither do the malts overwhelm flavour-wise, the sweetness of the crystal counters the bitterness of the black and chocolate malts so overall I think this is a easy drinking and well balanced porter. 

Brewday 08/12/2017 Another Porter

Brown Stuff

I had one last opportunity to brew in 2017 so chose to make a porter. I had some dark malts in stock and I could use some more homegrown hops and free up some space in the freezer. 

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 90 mins at 66°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 28lt
• Pale Malt 3.5kg
• Munich Light 0.5kg
• Crystal 60L 200g
• Chocolate Malt 240g
• Black malt 60g 
• Rolled Oats 250g
• Northdown 7% 15g (60 mins)
• Northdown 7% 25g (15 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown) 25g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• Cascade 4.2% 25g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• First Gold (homegrown) 63g dry hop for 3 days 
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

The whirlpool addition is a bit of a misnomer, I just chilled the wort to 75°C, added the hops, gave it a stir and left it for 30 minutes before finishing chilling. This should get more aroma from the hops as opposed to adding at flameout when the wort is still at boiling point.

Results 18/12/2017

I bottled this after 10 days in the fermenter.

OG 1.049 (efficiency 70%)

FG 1.009

ABV 5.17%

I'll give it a couple of weeks conditioning and try some in 2018, hopefully it will be good, the sample I tried from the gravity reading was very tasty!

Update 31/01/2018

Yep, still tasty!

Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Expo

Free Beer!

Manchester Beer Week finished on Sunday 2nd July with the now regular Homebrew Expo organised by Manchester Homebrew and held at Beer Nouveau in Ardwick. 16 homebrewers presented free samples of 50+ beers, covering all styles, to discerning drinkers. There were two competitions; "A Beer For Manchester", judged by a distinguished group of drunks experts and a Best in Show award voted for by expo visitors.

A piss up in a brewery

I brought along an exciting range of traditional bottled beers but there was also loads of keg and even one cask beer. A few highlights for me were a Banoffee Wheat Beer (it actually tasted like banoffee!), a Rye IPA (I must use some rye malt soon) and the beer judged to be winner of the Beer for Manchester competition, "Cosmetically Challenged" a New England IPA brewed by Tom, which would stand up to anything made by a commercial brewer. The Best In Show beer was another great example of a NEIPA, "Lazaretto" brewed by my fellow Chorlton Homebrewer Simon. There were loads of other great beers as well, too many to mention. The overwhelming impression I got from the expo was the sheer high quality and vast range of homebrewed beer and it has definitely inspired me to try a few new things.

Winner!

I took samples of five beers and even made the effort to label them using Beer Labelizer once I had thought of names for all five.

Four of my five beers (the Alt bier is missing)

The beers I took to the Expo were:

• Altbier "Alles Klar"
• Porter "3rd Prize"
• Another Pale Ale "Muddy Waters"
• Best Bitter "Boring Brown Beer"
• Strong Bitter "Strong & Stable"

I'm pleased to say that all five were well received and I was really thrilled with all the positive feedback I got from visitors and judges alike. My highest scoring beer in the Best in Show award was my most recent brew, the strong bitter "Strong & Stable" which achieved an average score of 7.8/10. If I had been able to give it a bit longer to condition it may have scored even higher.

Special thanks have to go to Connor and Jai for organising Manchester Beer Week, Steve at Beer Nouveau for the use of his brewery and Craig and Rich from the Manchester Homebrew group for arranging the expo.

Porter Tasting

First Tasting 

Time to sample the Porter I brewed on March 23rd. 

First impressions: good carbonation, a rich roasty flavour, slightly sweet and very smooth with an almost oily texture. Not as hoppy as I thought it might be, I was expecting a bit more aroma but overall I am very pleased with this. The only downside is very poor head retention. It's not at all flat, if anything it's slightly too fizzy but the head rapidly disappears after pouring. I'm not sure if the oats have made any difference but I think it is definitely a bit smoother than previous brews so I'll put that down to using rolled oats for the first time. 

In conclusion: very drinkable!

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. 

Quality control - Porter

Tasting Porter brewed 20/10/2016

Colour looks ok!

I always get a bit nervous whenever I taste a homebrewed beer for the first time. There's an established chain of actions to go through. If it's a pale beer hold it up to the light and see how clear it is, although obviously not applicable in this case I try to see if the yeast sediment has settled at the bottom of the bottle. Next, I open the bottle and hopefully get the satisfying "pssst" noise and the plume of vapour swirling out of the top of the bottle. Sometimes this is followed by a bit of frothing but not the dreaded geyser/fire hydrant effect. In this case everything was encouragingly spot on. So far so good, but next it's time to actually taste the beer and for this Porter I was pretty well pleased. It's not quite as hoppy as I thought it might be but it is very well balanced, quite bitter but with no overpowering burnt or roasted notes and fairly dry, not too sweet with a slightly hoppy aftertaste. Phew! Better have another now, just to confirm my initial findings.

 

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.