Archive for August 2009
It was my other halves Birthday today, so we’ve just had a couple of days up at Masham in the Yorkshire Dales 
The Black Sheep Brewery:
The Full Black Sheep set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets … 195116936/
The Theakstons Brewery:
The Full Theakstons set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets … 195199854/
I think? we went in all the pubs in Masham, only slightly iffy pint was from the ‘Bruce Arms’, looks like they are trying to be a bit modern and the pub has half of it as a Curry House… I’d go for a curry there again as it was bloody good but I’d give the beer a miss.
Cracking food and beer everywhere else
I’m a Black Sheep drinker, pretty much stayed away from the Theakstons except in the visitors centre bar, I find their beers to be too smooth and malt driven leaving me not wanting to drink any more.
Black Sheep on the other hand is refreshing and more-ishness with a thirst quenching ability.
The Theakstons tour is interesting as you get to see the real old brewing system that has not changed in years, its more like looking round an old factory (which you are) Its a shame they don’t expand on their lovely little visitors centre bar with a restaurant etc. I didn’t realise that it was fully Theakston owned again either, which is good to know.
Friendly staff who are most willing to let you have a free sample of everything that is on hand pull
The Black Sheep tour in comparrison is much more up-to-date with, what I’d say, is an American bent to it for our overseas visitors. The brewery still having its original slate Yorkshire Squares in use along with the more modern stainless steel versions, a good presentation and interesting guide. Two minor down sides would be the bar, although good, should be more drinker orientated… and their restaurant manager woman should be more polite when asked simple questions and not smirk at you as she tells you they are all booked up do to a function *Like, if it had said that on the blackboard on the way in it would have helped visitors*
AG#4 – Black Sheep Ale
Posted on: August 15, 2009
I wasn’t going to brew today, I was meant to be taking a garage roof off but feeling a bit crappy and its raining anyway… Sooo!!!
Recipe to 23L from the Graham Wheeler book 🙂
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.011
Bitterness: 40 EBU
Colour: 27 EBC
I’m going to split the wort between 2 FVs and pitch Nottingham or US-05 to one and Pitch a litre of my large WhiteLabs Burton Ale yeast starter to the other.
The Grain Bill with 5g of Chalk and 5g of Gypsum
Mashed in @ temp
Mashed in pH looking pretty good
Hops Weighed out, 5g gypsum and 1 protafloc tablet 😉
img*I’d better not post the picture of the hops as it gives the hop schedule away, it being from the GW book!/img
Mash finishing temp, the first run of the Coolbox tun went very well 🙂
The Clearest wort I have produced so far, the depth and size of grain-bed definitely has an effect on this, this is after using my mini 15L bucket tun and getting cloudy wort.
FWH and 5g Gypsum
Warming up with the first Batch Sparge
Coming to a nice rolling boil
My Mash tun performed admirably, good clear flow no signs of sticking 😉
10 min hops going in, chiller already in sanitising
Cold Break
The Clearest wort ever going into the FV 🙂
OG, right about where it should be 🙂 🙂 1046/1024 @ 23.5 Deg C
Left overs
A fairly laid back brewday, started a bit confused with water treatments but got going after that 🙂
The Whitelabs Burton Ale Yeast:
The Safale US-05 Yeast:
Bit of a difference, then Burton is all froth and the US-05 is sticky slime
***Bottled 26th August ’09
Dry hopping both FV’s, double the amount of hops in the Burton Ale yeast FV in comparrison to the US-05 FV. (about 6g in the Burton)
Tastes from both FV couldn’t be more different, the US-05 is bitter and astringent with loads of hop flavours…
Whereas the Burton Ale Yeast has a rounded drinkable feel to it…
Interesting stuff 🙂
Primed with 60g of Household sugar and a teaspoon of slurry mixed in well.
Sanitised with Starsan again, again rinsing half the bottles with the other half drip dry only.
2nd Sale @ YAYmicro
Posted on: August 13, 2009
Damn! a stock related topic with no beer!!! Whatever next!!!
With brewing, and learning more about brewing coupled with mortgage / house extension plans I’ve had no time what so ever for stock. Not even picked up the camera for something creative since about October last year, shocking I know!
Here, go click the referral link http://yaymicro.com/register.action?referredBy=pdtnc 😉
Description:
Stock Photo: Light at the end of the Tunnel, old railway tunnel, natural lighting from tunnel entrance.
Keywords:
architecture,brickwork,dark,darkness,gloom,light,natural lighting,nobody,railway,tunnel,underground
AG#3 – Fuggles Bitter
Posted on: August 1, 2009
AG#3 – Fuggles Bitter, H.Hillbilly’s House Bitter Grain bill
Thanks to Horden Hillbilly for answering my questions, I’ve used his grain bill for this recipe and just replaced the Goldings Hops with Fuggles.
Fermentable  Colour  lb: oz  Grams  Ratio
Maris Otter  4.25 EBC  4 lbs. 9.2 oz  2080 grams  90%
Crystal Malt  120 EBC  0 lbs. 4.9 oz  135 grams  6%
Torrefied Wheat  4 EBC  0 lbs. 3.3 oz  93 grams  4%
Hop Variety  Type  Alpha  Time  lb: oz  grams  Ratio
Fuggle  Whole  4.9 %  60 mins  0 lbs. 1.0 oz  28 grams  65.9% ((FWH))
Fuggle  Whole  4.9 %  15 mins  0 lbs. 0.4 oz  10 grams  24.4%
Fuggle  Whole  4.9 %  0 mins  0 lbs. 0.1 oz  4 grams  9.8%
Protafloc Tablet  Pellet  0 %  0 mins  0 lbs. 0.0 oz  0 grams  0%
Final Volume:Â Â 12Â Â Litres
Original Gravity:Â Â 1.043
Final Gravity:Â Â 1.010
Alcohol Content:Â Â 4.3%Â Â ABV
Total Liquor:Â Â 18.5Â Â Litres
Mash Liquor:Â Â 5.8Â Â Litres
Mash Efficiency:Â Â 75Â Â %
Bitterness:Â Â 33Â Â EBU
Colour:Â Â 16Â Â EBC
Water Treated to the ‘Bitter’ profile on the GW calc.
Mash on!
Water Treatment for Keighley Area to the ‘Bitter’ profile.
The Grains. (I Just sneaked in a little oddment of Crystal Wheat malt)
Mash temp at start.
Mash pH. (Is this a little on the low side? I think its about pH5.7, shouldn’t it be more like pH5.2????)
Hops Weighed out, Half a Protafloc Tab in with the 15minute addition.
Sparge!
Mash finished.
FWH in with first batch or wort warming up.
Recycling at second batch sparge, trying not to disturb the grain bed. Had some sticking issues which I think are down to the flexibility of the plastic false bottom something I need to address before the next brewday.
Mash fun! I poked it with the paddle handle which seemed to keep it going.
Boiling.
Boil and Cool!
Last 15 mins and the Cooler going in to Sanitize.
Cold break.
I scooped up a little from the boiler, looks pretty clear once the cold break settles.
Sanitised sieve to catch the occasional hop seed and give the wort a good aerate.
Boiler to FV setup, the long restricted (down to 8mm bore) copper pipe makes for an excellent syphon effect.
Trub left overs.
I was a few points short of my OG, seems I hit about 1036/38 ish @ 22 Deg C, Pitched Safale s-04 dry sprinkled.
I’m pretty sure my excess volume was me overestimating a little while sparging as the last was boiled with the cooler in for the full 90 mins, this time I only had a 60 min boil and put the cooler in for the last 15 mins. I think leaving the IC in for the full boil actually makes for more boil off, hence the overcompensation! 
All in all not a bad day, started at 7.40am and finished about 2pm with just a little clearing up left to do.
**The morning after:
Good Yeast head this was getting going well last night less than 8 hours after dry pitching the yeast.
**Bottled 12/08/2009
Bottled about 15L with 70g sugar and re-pitched approx 5g of rehydrated s-04 yeast (see if I can solve my carbonation problems with the AG brews) First bottling using Starsan to sanitise. A tiny taste and it was pretty smooth.
Probably Due To Network Congestion 