Posts Tagged ‘challenger’
- In: Brewing | Random
- 3 Comments
My Challenger & Fuggles plants were starting to get some brown bits on some of the hops so I diecded to pick them the other day, I plan to do a Gree-hopped beer so I vac-packed and froze them.
Some of the brown bits:
The red-tinge on the tops of the cones is not the brown you see above but the colouring of the Challenger hops:
Hops picked, me and the wife picked thru these again to remove any twigs and leaves:
All packed up and ready for the freezer:
I got 1.1kg of a mixture of Fuggles & Challenger, all the bines were entangled so I just picked the lot, so I’ll brew an English Homegrown green-hop bitter in a few weeks time.
I’ve still got a WGV plant to pick but I’m not too fussed about what WGV brings to a beer!
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
I shall be abstaining from brewdays for a while, normal service will resume once I’ve got through some of the beer!
This weekend I bottled my last two brews, Ta Moko II & Chinook Blonde and I’m still warm conditioning my Double IPA HopZilla IPA… so thats *6 crates of beer sat in our office/study/room/thing 
*Crates hold 20 bottles of 500ml or 24 x 330ml
Garage beer stocks are pretty high with lots more full crates stashed in there too… the Temperature control on the fermentation fridge has been turned off and the HLT is empty! (Hop Freezer is Full!)
There are Whitelabs yeasts in the fridge to brew with once I get going again:
- Brett WLP650 (Something with Flaked Oats and Wheat malt, lots of Cara/Crystal malts)
- Belgian Blend (Might get some more Date Molasses)
- Hefeweizen (I’ll go the whole decoction hog but hop with Amarillo & Nelson Sauvin +dry)
- Kólsch (Ideas for an IPA, a Malty Smoke beer, and maybe a Red Rye)
- San Diego Super (I’m sure I’ll have plenty of options for this one… US Brown re-brew with tweaks?)
- Edinburgh Ale (Something British, might do a Fuggle IPA and a Coniston Bluebird-esqe bitter)
Malts are pretty plentiful too:
Pale Malt, Lager Malt, Caramalt, Choc Malt, Choc Wheat, Crystal, Extra Dark Crystal, Flaked Barley, Flaked Oats, Pale Crystal, Carahell, Roast Barley, Carapils, Cara-munich Type III, Carafa Special III, Special B, CaraAmber, Medium Peat Smoked, Roasted Wheat, Black Malt, Brown Malt, Roasted Rye, Crystal Rye, Cara Vienna, Pale Oat Malt, Melanoidin, Flaked Wheat, Muinch Type I, Munich Type II, Amber Malt, Rye Malt, Rauch Malt, Flaked Maize.
Bulging Hop Freezer:
UK Cascade, Columbus, Challenger, Fuggle, Bobek, Goldings, Magnum, Summit, Willamette, Apollo, Chinook, Hersbrucker, Simcoe, NZ Cascade, Tettnang, Green Bullet, Aramis, Junga, Mount Hood, Spalter Select, Marynka, Cluster, Amarillo, Lubelski, Centennial, Riwaka, Citra, Northern Brewer, Galaxy, Super Alpha, Summer, Stella, NZ Hallertau Aroma, Pacific Gem, Warrior, Delta, Topaz, Nelson Sauvin, Pacific Jade, Pacifica, Wai-iti, Kohatu, Wakatu, Motueka, East Kent Golding, Sticklebract.
I wonder how long I can go without firing up the HLT? AG#88 will be a….????
Hop Growing 2012
Posted on: May 7, 2012
- In: Brewing | Random
- 4 Comments
From memory I think from front to back its Challenger-Fuggle-WGV Last year my pathetic piece of string I used between the house & the pole just snapped in the strong winds we had so down came the hops! This year I’ve borrowed the neighbour’s ladders and fixed a strong Rawl Bolt Eye-bolt in the house wall and strung a securely clamped steel cable between pole & house.
I may change tack another year and move these plants round the side of the house into very large planters and attach some more cables from house down to fence so when they hops grow they will form a nice looking covering over the yard at the side and also have a lot of support from strong winds. If I do this I shall probably but a Bramling Cross / Saaz or Hallertau / Cascade in the original spot.
You can just see the wire top right, now firmly anchored to an eye bolt in the house wall:
I’ll leave these a week or so as they are to see which of the new growth starts climbing best before weeding out to keep maybe 4 or 5 strong shoots:
Coir twine, AKA ‘Bean String’ a nice biodegradable climbing frame for hops, hopefully it will be strong enough to support them until they get to the top wire:
Rather than cutting and clamping off the cable at the height of the upstairs windows I’ve taken the cable down the wall to knee-height and looped it over another eye-bolt so I can un-hook and lower the cable down when it comes to harvesting or cutting back the hops:
AG#72 – Toasted Oatmeal Stout
Posted on: January 21, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 7 Comments
Toasted Oatmeal Stout – Its about time I made a Roasted Barley based Stout so the other week I toasted some oats in the oven, checking every 5 mins and turning them, they just began to catch so I stopped at this point (Slight oven-smell to them, hope this doesn’t come through to the finished beer).
Nice solid bittering from Northdown and a little Challenger thrown in at the end too. The Malt bill is just an altered Guinness recipe splitting the 20% Flaked barley between Caramalt & Flaked Oats (should be better than Guinness).
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 70%
Flaked Oats, Toasted – 10%
Roasted Barley – 10%
Caramalt – 10%
Hops:
Northdown – 6.2 % @ 60 mins – 42g (FWH)
Northdown – 6.2 % @ 30 mins – 42g
Northdown – 6.2 % @ 0 mins – 15g (15min Steep at 100c)
Challenger – 7.6 % @ 0 mins – 15g (15min Steep at 100c)
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 4% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.2 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 45 EBU
Colour: 211 EBC
Mash: 67°c for over 2 hours as I had stuff to do.
Yeast: Safale US-05
The malts, this actually dropped to 10°c, the Oatmeal is at the top so you can see the colour:
Copper filling onto First Wort Northdown hops:
I managed the protafloc all by my self:
Flameout hops going in:
Malt Recycling, she turns it into poo amazingly well:
One division in the meniscus, 1046 on the nail at 20°c:
Pretty slow but no fuss brewday, left the copper to clean later, in the fridge set at 19.5°c
According to BeerEngine I just topped 90% Mash efficiency on this brew, I shall put this down to the Oatmeal which simply disintegrated in the mash and the extended mash rest.
*Bottled 5th Feb ’12 with 60g White Sugar.
TT Landlord mkII – I really wasn’t going to brew today… but I smacked the Wyeast 1469 yesterday with thoughts of building a bit bigger starter, then thought sod it as the pack states its a Pitchings worth, the pack is well swollen now.
I wanted to use Fuggles in the finish with Bobek but don’t have any to hand so Challenger it is!
Fermentables:
Pale Malt - 81%
Munich Malt - 10.4%
Crystal Malt - 6.2%
Flaked Oats - 2.4%
Hops:
Bobek @ 60 mins - 33g
Challenger @ 60 mins - 23g
East Kent Golding @ 10 mins - 26g
Bobek @ 0 mins - 21g
Challenger @ 0 mins - 22g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 20 EBC
Updates & Photos on Twitter and a duplicate of the pics here from my phone.
The Malts:
Mash @ 68c for 1 hour:
Hops weighed out:
First Wort Hops:
Just less than 10mins to boil:
The West Yorkshire yeast:
1045 or there abouts:
No fuss brewday, yeast pitched at 21-22c
*Bottled 5th Feb ’11 with 1/2 Tsp sugar per bottle, no priming for the Cornie just hit with 30psi
AG#26 – Northern Blue
Posted on: May 8, 2010
- In: Brewing
- 3 Comments
I started out with the Coniston Bluebird recipe but I’ve not got enough Challenger in the Freezer, so Northdown will be taking the place of most of the Challenger and there’s going to be some late Fuggles also as I want to finish a bag off.
The Malts are a bit like this too and I’ve moved away a little from the original, I had a bag of Wheat malt that I have a plan for 2kg’s of (Wheat Beer with WB-06) so the remainder of that Wheat is going in this along with a part bag of Crystal Malt which is near as damn it right for a Bluebird clone 
Additions to the above are Crystal Rye & Crystal Wheat.
Malts:
Maris Otter 3450g 84.8%
Wheat Malt 264g 6.5%
Crystal Malt 154g 3.8%
Crystal Rye Malt 100g 2.5%
Crystal Wheat Malt 100g 2.5%
The Malts are weighed out and ready with 1 Tsp of Gypsum for the mash:
Hops are liable to change as I only roughly weighed what hops I’ll be using so anything over these weights will be thrown in at the end of boil.
Hops:
Northdown – 60 mins 25g (FWH)
Northdown – 30 mins 8g
Northdown – 20 mins 15g
Challenger – 0 mins 19g
Fuggle – 0 mins 28g
Mash on @ 7.45am for maybe 60 or 90 mins:
Pretty much hit my choice of Mash temperatures but found I have about a 1.5C variance across my three thermometers, 2 digital and 1 spirit:
Today’s hops all weighed out:
Beer profile:
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.8% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.2 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 34 EBU
Colour: 21 EBC
I’ll be using some Thick Edinburgh Ale Yeast I skimmed off my fermenter the other day, should be raring to go
Filling the Tun with the 1st batch sparge:
Top-down view of the FWH+Gypsum in thw Copper, Mash Tun and Underback:
Chiller already been in the copper for 15mins to sanitise, Flame Out hops in for a 20 or 30min steep:
Lovely thick skimmed Edinburgh Ale yeast from my last brew:
OG 1042, 2 points more than needed but near enough:
A good colour and very clear wort, tasted pretty good too:
Updates are on my T.watter page as I remember http://twitter.com/pdtnc
A No Fuss Brewday
Yeast Action Update, it was off like a rocket!
*Bottled 20th May ’10 with 75g Sugar, dropped to FG 1010 / 1012 tastes to have lots of body and a full robust flavour from the hops.
AG#22 – Bramling XB
Posted on: April 18, 2010
The Plan… to make a solid wholesome malty pint with English hops and a fruity Blackcurrant flavour & Aroma from Bramling Cross hops
I’m starting this brew off and getting all my liquor from my hot & cold feeds in the garage today, probably try and tidy up a little while the mash is on too. (Note to self B&Q Pushfits are crap, can’t get the buggers back off, glad I only bought one of them)
Bramling XB – (Bramling Cross Bitter)
Fermentables:
Maris Otter 2700 grams 60.8%
Flaked Barley 500 grams 11.3%
Brown Malt 500 grams 11.3% (Bag end from work which will hopefully balance the Blackcurrant of the Bramlings)
Munich Malt 500 grams 11.3%
Caramalt 200 grams 4.5%
Chocolate Malt 40 grams 0.9% (Just to add a little deeper colour)
Hops:
Challenger 20g @ 60mins (FWH)
Fuggle 30g @ 30mins
Bramling Cross 20g @ 15mins
Bramling Cross 20g @ 0mins for 80c steep
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.7 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 33 EBU
Colour: 46 EBC
Mash Temp aimed at 67c to keep some body
Yeast Safale s-04
1 Tsp Gypsum to Mash + 1 to boil
Mash on at 8.50am
Twittered some pics as I went https://twitter.com/pdtnc
The Malt bill:
Mash Start temp, not far off my aim of 67c:
Hops all weighed out:
First batch sparge just sitting before running off, and it ran off beautifully:
First Wort Hops (FWH) just going in on the first spargings:
80c Steep hops left for 30mins before cooling to 23c:
Dropped from a good height caused a heck of a lot of foam:
Aiming for 1042, so this is near enough for me:
Brewday seemed to go really easy, very relaxed, it seems having a dedicated area for brewing is going to smooth things out considerably… and I’m far from organised at the moment!
The wort was tasting pretty nice, though there were lots of roasted and biscuit aromas while the boil was on, will be interested how this one turns out, its a nice deep tawny copper/brown by the looks of it too
Bottled 25th Apr ’10 with 60g Sugar priming
AG#20 – Uber Bluebird mkII
Posted on: February 6, 2010
This is a tweaked re-brew of my ‘Munich Blauer Vogel‘ which was based around the Coniston Bluebird recipe which drunk very well and I plan to try and keep it in stock as a House Bitter.
This time I’ve done it at a slightly lower ABV and also dropping the bitterness a bit with something I learned at work about blending hops to smooth out any inaccuracies, hence the addition of Bramling Cross for half of the bittering. Adding a bit of Wheat Malt for head retention.
I had some nice fresh acid-washed yeast from work which I will probably have to rouse from time to time as it works well with some added oxygen.
Uber Bluebird mkII
Fermentables:
Maris Otter 3100g – 77.5%
Munich Malt 500g - 12.5%
Wheat Malt 200g - 5%
Crystal Malt 200g - 5%
Hops:
Challenger @ 60 mins 21g (FWH)
Bramling Cross @ 60 mins 21g (FWH)
Challenger @ 20 mins 20g
Challenger @ 0 mins 20g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.039
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.3 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 16 EBC
There aren’t many photos as I had a busy morning, the Mash was on at 8.45am and I had to go out so it is going to be a longer than 90min mash.
Mashing at a planned 66c which turned out to be 66.6c so near enough.
The malts and Gypsum:
Hops:
Leftovers:
Saltaire Brewery Yeast:
FWH:
OG pretty damn close to 1039 predicted:
Trub and cooler with last bit of wort running off:
The FV was looking a little full so I jugged out a few litres into a plastic demijohn, thought it best as I’m expecting a frothy creamy explosion, I pitched approx 75g of Saltaire yeast:
I would have been done ages ago if I hadn’t had things to do this morning. Wort tastes good, lots of fizzy challenger bitterness I was going to do a yeast comparrison with Nottingham but I really couldn’t be bothered, I’ll do a basic pale with Fuggles & Goldings with 5% crystal for a yeast comparrison… and besides I fancy and nice wholesome earthy F&G hopped ale
**update for yeast activity, within 4 hours I had good signs of life, this morning I have a deep frothy head
Yeast head after approx 24 hours from pitching:
*Bottled 16th Feb ’10
