Archive for July 2012
AG#85 – HopZilla IPA
Posted on: July 22, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 20 Comments
HopZilla IPA – Fingers crossed this is going to be a Double or Imperial IPA, 9.2% heavily bittered and mentally dry hopped, I’m quite happy it not being ready to drink for a while but I think the Dry Hopping might mean I’ll have to drink it pretty fresh so its at its height. Hopefully I’ll keep some to age too.
The bittering is mainly from German Perle hops with the late hops being a fairly classic mix of Amarillo & Cascade with Riwaka thrown in too to add some spiciness with it being of Saaz lineage. Its the dry hops that I’m not holding back on, I shall split the 200g (thats 11.1g of Hop Pellets per Litre of beer) of pellet hops in two and add to the fermenter at different times, close to or at Final Gravity in the cooling phase. For an excellent guide to Dry Hopping go to Gregs Blog.
This is the first time I’ve used Belgian Special B malt, I could smell it in the mash and while sparging, I’m hoping it might add something a little different with the Crystal Rye. Instead of just throwing a load of White Sugar in the boil I decided to make some Candy Syrup while the Mash was on.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 77.1%
Sugar,Belgian Candy Light – 9.3%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 5.4%
Wheat Malt – 4.5%
Special B – 1.8%
Crystal Rye Malt – 1.8%
Hops:
Perle Whole 8.2 % @ 60 mins – 50g
UK Cascade Whole 5.7 % @ 60 mins – 22g
Perle Whole 8.2 % @ 30 mins – 50g
Amarillo Whole 10 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Cascade Whole 7.9 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Riwaka (D Saaz) Whole 5.9 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Dry Hops:
Chinook Pellet – 50g
Summit Pellet – 50g
Nelson Sauvin Pellet – 50g
Motueka (B Saaz) Pellet – 50g
Final Volume: 18 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.084
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 9.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 28.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 13.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 125 EBU
Colour: 28 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05 x 2 packs
Mash: 60-90mins @ 66°c
Boil: 60mins
Liquor Treatment: Pale Ale thanks to THBF water treatment calculator
The usual malts shot:
Gypsum for the Mash being weighed out:
First Wort Hops and Salts for the Boil:
I cooked up some Cane sugar with a good pinch of Citric Acid to make Candy Sugar, I cooked it down until a light amber colour then added water back to it to keep it a syrup rather than going to the Hard Crack stage:
FWHs and Mash run-off, I did a decoction to take the mash upto Mashout temperatures before roughly fly-sparging with a jug at 80°c:
Rather steamy, the late hops go in:
Hefty looking break material in the copper as the wort cools, I used a 1/2 Protafloc tablet into approx 18 litres of wort in the last 5 mins of boil:
Aiming for 1084, I got 1088 @ 20°c, weighed the fermenter (subtracting the weight of the bucket) and calculated my liquor-back volume 820ml added from HLT, giving me a final volume of 18.15 litres in the FV:
Pretty smooth brewday, yeast pitched and FV in the fermentation fridge at 20°c 🙂
*28th Jul ’12 – Gravity at 1017, soon I’ll add the first dry hops, already tasting very good 🙂
*30th Jul ’12 – Dry hopped with 25g of each pellet hop at current 21.5°c temp.
*2nd Aug ’12 – Dry hopped again 25g of each pellet hop at current 21.9°c temp, will lower temp tomorrow to 17°c then 11°c and finally 4°c.
*Bottled 11th Aug ’12 – with 50g White sugar, tastes pretty full on, a couple of weeks in the bottle should see it smooth and mellow a little.
*17th Aug ’12 – Early taster bottle… the flavours in this are very much that which I’ve had in some bought beers and I’m very happy with the hopping flavour and maltiness, it has bags of body, some alcohol on the nose but only the warming in the throat after drinking, a fair amount of sweetness goes with the body. If I were to tweak the recipe I’d throw out the Carapils, Mash a little cooler, increase the bitterness by 10-20 IBU’s (the strength of the wort obviously makes its harder for the hops to be isomerised), I think with a little more carbonation it would lift the sweet body and present the hops better. Very close, deserves a re-brew.
*5th Sep ’12 – This has dried out, the carbonation is spot on, the bitterness is coming thru, the dry hops are still a touch on the raw side, a little more time and this will be there! 🙂
*10th Sep ’12 – Maybe a week or two more, I think with the mad amount of dry hops and the strength things are taking longer than I’d expected to settle down and meld with one-another. This leads me to believe that my 17th Aug comment was far too preemptive and all that was really needed was some time and maturation in bottle. More time will tell 😉
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
Yesterday a bunch of Leeds Home Brewers paid a visit to Ilkley Brewery where we were given a detailed tour by Director Chris Ives and sampled quite a bit of their Rhubarb Saison which was on draft.
The brewery equipment, a major investment, was manufactured by Moeschle in Germany and installed by ABACUS Fabrications, Halifax.
The brewery currently consists of 5x 20BBL fermenters & one 30BBL conical DPV (dual purpose vessel), along with mash tun and copper of the same capacity, we hear that further expansion is planned too with lots of interesting beery ideas too 🙂
The Brewery is situated at the bottom of Ashlands Road in Ilkley:
Its a modern compact industrial unit:
Due to space constraints their Mash Tun sits directly on top of the Hot Liquor Tank, Chris explained that this caused some issues initially while getting used to the new equipment as heat from the HLT was warming the Mash Tun and making the mash hotter near the bottom of the Mash-bed:
Chris talking to Pete @pchindle at the bar, most of Ilkley’s beers are fermented using the Thwaites strain of yeast a very popular strain for many northern Microbreweries, their Saison is obviously not Thwaites yeast, it is instead fermented with yeast from Dupont:
A couple of their 20 barrel fermenting vessels:
Rob @Hopzine chatting to Matt @braukerl with the 30 Barrel DPV (Dual Purpose Vessel) in the background which was hissing away venting co2 while it fermented more Rhubarb Saison, above is the Malt Loft & Grist Case (Malt hopper), malt is transferred to the Mash tun via an Auger and Hydrated as it flows into the tun, if my memory serves they mash in at a ratio of 2.6-2.8 litres of liquor to every kilogram of malt and vary their mashing temperatures and liquor treatment for the type of beer they are brewing:
Myself, Ian @lugsy51, Matt @braukerl with his GF’s father sniffing beer… as we do:
More Beer Geekery now with @Broadfordbrewer:
I’m sure we all really appreciate Chris going out of his way to host a very interesting tour and taking the time to explain their brewing equipment and process, its nice to hear the commitment and excitement he brings to one of our most progressive (yet still traditional) local breweries.
Lets hope they enjoy judging our homebrewed competition entries, someone could be the proud winner of a Brewday at Ilkley, entries must be in by the 14th July – Leedshomebrew.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks for a great day and plentiful Siberia Rhubarb Saison!! 🙂
Photo Credits are all thinks to my Wife 🙂
AG#84 – Liquorice Stout
Posted on: July 8, 2012
Liquorice Stout – My last Liquorice Stout brewday is here. That last beer poured with an amazingly thick creamy head so I hope this new brew will have a similar effect from the Liquorice.
I’m going for hops in at the start of boil and after 30 minutes with no late hops at all, the idea is I want to keep the malts and the Liquorice up front without much influence from hop flavour, and its 6% so a fairly hefty mouth full 🙂
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 78%
Flaked Oats – 6%
Caramalt – 5%
Chocolate Malt – 4%
Roasted Barley – 4%
Amber Malt – 3%
Hops:
Willamette – 6.4 % @ 65 mins – 29g
Willamette – 6.4 % @ 35 mins – 29g
Herbs:
Liquorice Root Powder – 15g
Final Volume: 15 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.064
Final Gravity: 1.018
Alcohol Content: 6% ABV
Total Liquor: 22 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.7 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 52 EBU
Colour: 211 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05
Mash: 75mins @ 66°c
Boil: 65mins ‘cos I almost forgot to put the Liquorice & Protafloc in!
The malts:
A tiny amount of Chalk added to the mash, other liquor treatment was in the copper and to the Stout setting on THBF Calculator:
Some Willamette hops:
I sneaked in Dry Hopping the NZ pale with almost 100g of Blended-up hops:
Start of boil hops:
Weighing out the Liquorice Powder:
I liquored back to 1064 in the FV though I was about 2 litres short of target volume, I’m pretty sure I know why as I altered the Wort-losses setting in BeerEngine, but no real problem.
Thats it for the photos, I blogged about the Leeds Homebrewers Ilkley Brewery visit yesterday instead.
The Wort was tasting pretty weird, hopefully this is going to settle down through fermentation and in the bottle as I’m hoping this will be one of my NHBCUK entries in September.
*12th jul ’12 – Gravity @ 1019 tastes quite sweet and thick, hope it dries out a little, a fair amount of liquorice flavour.
*Bottled 31st Jul ’12 – with 40g of White Sugar, FG was 1013.5 some comes in at a very healthy 6.6% ABV and doesn’t taste like its so strong 🙂 Bags of Liquorice flavour with a thick solid malty base.
Truefitt Brewing
Posted on: July 4, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
Last week, while we were on holiday for our wedding anniversary, we visited a brewery… we went up to Middlesbrough from Whitby to meet Matthew at his new brewery ‘Truefitt Brewing’. He has fairly recently set-up in an industrial unit with a 4 BBL Dave Porter brew plant that was bought from Cleveland Brewery, he’s also commissioned a couple of new square Fermentation vessels from a fabricator that lists on eBay sometimes.
The current regular Truefitt beers are:
Mydilsburgh IPA 5.0 uses Cara, Munich, Torrified Wheat, hopped with Columbus, Cluster and Cascade and dry hopped with Cluster and Cascade.
Ironopolis stout 4.7 classic roast grains in there all hops added last 30 min, Columbus, Magnum, and Willamette
Erimus pale is 3.9 hopped with Cascade, Saaz, Riwaka and dry hopped with Riwaka
North riding bitter 4.0 traditional style bitter using Magnum and first gold and dry hopped with Styrian Goldings
And a seasonal beer, Ayresome angel 4.2 a Summer ale. Flaked maize, pale malt, hopped with Willamette and EKG.
I’m liking the pump-clip designs, they really stand out thanks to the individual shape, so far I’ve only managed to try Ironopolis Stout in the Maltings in York, its a solid full-bodied stout and very drinkable.
Now for some photos of the brewery:
I have my lovely wife Emma to thank for taking the photos 🙂
It was really good to see Matt again, the first time was while he was brewing at Captain Cook Brewery, top bloke who knows way more than me, and brews some fine beers.
You can contact Matthew via his website or check out whats tweeting @TruefittBeers Have a pint if you see it 🙂
AG#83 – Ring of Fire
Posted on: July 1, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
Ring of Fire – This is a brew using two New Zealand hops I’ve never tried, ‘Pacifica’ and ‘Pacific Jade’ the latter smells like a cross between Citra & Nelson Sauvin to me…
The name is taken from the the hops / Pacific Ocean / volcanic “Ring of Fire”, part of which passes through New Zealand giving them Geothermal activity and Earthquakes.
A fairly sensible malt bill with German Munich Malt for some maltiness and Cara-Pils & Cara-Belge for some body & Sweetness, I’m going fairly restrained on the early bittering and quite light on the 5 minute hops as I want to leave the Dry Hopping to do the talking which will be the remainder of the two 100g packs of hops, should be around 50g of each.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 75%
Munich Malt I (Weyermann) – 10%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 5%
Flaked Oats – 5%
Cara Belge (Weyermann) – 5%
Hops:
NZ Pacifica – 6.1 % @ 60 mins – 10g (FWH)
Pacific Jade – 15.1 % @ 60 mins – 10g (FWH)
NZ Pacifica – 6.1 % @ 30 mins – 10g
Pacific Jade – 15.1 % @ 30 mins – 10g
Pacific Jade – 15.1 % @ 5 mins – 30g (with 20min Steep)
NZ Pacifica – 6.1 % @ 5 mins – 30g (with 20min Steep)
Dry Hops: (These will be added near the end of fermentation before cooling)
Pacific Jade – 50g
NZ Pacifica – 50g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049 – I got 1053 so liquored-back 1.7 Litres
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.8% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 % – I actually hit over 83%
Bitterness: 50 EBU (I still have the BeerEngine software set to 25% Hop Utilisation)
Colour: 9 EBC
Mash: 67°c for 60-90mins
Yeast: Safale us-05
Liquor Treatment: General setting via www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/water.php
Malts & Temp:
First Wort Hops and liquor Salts for the boil:
The 5 min Hops & 1 Protafloc tablet:
Recirculating about 6 litres to get rid of the Turbid wort before running to the copper:
5min Hops going in:
Break material forming during cooling:
OG:1053, I liquored back to correct 1049 gravity in FV:
Pretty straight forward brewday, bleached a couple of crates of bottles thoroughly in amongst brewing to prepare to bottle AG#82 on Tuesday-ish 🙂
Liquoring back:
Its pretty easy to use a Smart Phone based app to help you calculate your liquoring back volume, but probably just as easy to use a calculator, it goes a like this.
Wort OG x Volume = (Litre Degrees)
Litre Degrees / Target OG = Volume to make up to with Liquor-Back
(We drop the leading 10 from the 1053 giving us 53)
Its important to read your Hydrometer/Saccharometer correctly and adjusting for sample temperature and know an accurate volume for the wort that you’ve collected.
*Bottled 15th Jul ’12 – with 90g sugar to 20.5 Litres of beer, tastes pretty green / grassy / zingy / catty, will probably take 2 or 3 weeks to settle down in the bottle.
*18th Jul ’12 – Cheeky taster, Orange zest and smooth, slight musky edge… bet would work well as an IPA or just a lovely refreshing summer pint.
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