Archive for December 2013
This years Homebrew review of the year isn’t going to be as lengthy as other years as I’ve simply not brewed as much and didn’t try that hard when it came to the National Homebrew Competition, some serious time was spent building a car-port style affair at the side of the house, so the list bellow is the best of what I had time to brew…
- AG #110 – Ring of Fire IPA
This one is also still fermenting, but it smells & tastes so good I thought I’d add it to my end of year round up, it has promise whether I dry hop it or not 😉 - AG #109 – Mittlefruh Junga Blonde
This isn’t actually bottled at the time of writing this but tastes from the FV have been displaying some the traits I was wanting so I have high hopes for another easy drinker like AG#108 but with more spicy character. - AG #105 – Summit 73 E366
This is bloody marvelous, I hope they re-release Experimental 366 in future years and let us know what its going to be called. - AG #104 – NZ Sour Wheat
My Sour Mashed wheat beer, this is a style I’d like to pursue further, I dropped lucky and got a really nice balance between the Sour and the balancing sweetness and body. - AG #103 – Farmhouse Rye Noir
My first attempt at a Saison and it turned out damn well too 🙂 - AG #102 – Gods of War
Easy drinking mix of under-used hops, worthy of a re-brew but with more cara/crystal/hotter-mash/flaked-barley. - AG #101 – SCAN
Mental but good, in hindsight I’d go a bit easier on things to ensure more of a crowd-pleaser. - AG #100 – Altitudinous Cable
Everything to the MAX, a touch too much Max which has taken time to settle down, VERY hoppy, this is going to age really well over a few years 🙂 - AG #99 – BoomStick
Massively easy drinking simple recipe. - AG #98 – Robust Wheat Porter
It seems these user-upper brews always turn out well, this is a mega solid porter with hints of smoke. - AG #96 – Bravo+Apollo=Citra?
An experiment that turned out good. - AG #94 – Hooded Embarrassment
Maybe not my best beer but it ticks enough boxes and made for enjoyable drinking. - AG #93 – Pacific Rim
Nice little hop-combo and worthy of a re-brew.
A nice surprise this year was this book through the post from Andy Hamilton featuring a couple of my homebrew recipes, its full of good stuff and obviously some cracking recipes 😉
Too many hops and so little time!
My Hop-Freezer is bulging, I should make 2014 the year when I don’t buy any hops!
Sad to say the 50L copper I am building and said in last years review I would finish, is still not complete just the hop-filter to sort out and a mate to finish the socket wiring, I obviously need to get my finger out once the wiring is done.
What I want to do in 2014 is get an upt-to-date Liquor test by Murphy & Son and maybe get my digital Thermometer calibrated so when I mash in at 69°c I am really mashing in at 69°c! (for most beers 69°c seems to be the mash temperature that makes us-05 get to the FG that BeerEngine says it will!)
Happy New Year to all
AG#110 – Ring of Fire IPA
Posted on: December 27, 2013
- In: Brewing
- 3 Comments
Ring of Fire IPA – if you recall sometime last year I did a brew called ‘Ring of Fire‘ which had some big orange notes to it from hopping, this is the IPA version with added Nelson Sauvin, the NS should add a good muskiness.
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 70%
Flaked Wheat – 13%
Munich Malt I (Weyermann) – 10%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 4%
Cara Hell (Weyermann) – 3%
Hops:
NZ Pacifica – 6.1 % @ 60 mins – 40g
Pacific Jade – 15.1 % @ 60 mins – 23g
Pacific Jade – 15.1 % @ 5 mins – 30g
NZ Pacifica – 6.1 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Nelson Sauvin – 13.0 % @ 5 mins – 30g
Dry Hops:
Pacific Jade – 35g
NZ Pacifica – 35g
Nelson Sauvin – 35g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 5.5% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 78 EBU
Colour: 11 EBC
Mash: 90mins @ 67c
Yeast: Safale us-05 x2
The Malts, it was actually 11c once it had settled down:
The First Wort Hops:
Recirculating the first runnings:
Sparge number 1:
Break material after cooling, just half a Protafloc Tab:
Running off to FV, 2 packs of yeast used rather than 1 pack which would be slightly under-pitching:
Bit of a late start, my day didn’t go to plan, but the wort tasted great and the hops smelled just right 🙂
*29th Dec ’13 – Gravity at 1023.5 and tasting all woody and musky, very nice, smells ace 🙂
*2nd Jan ’14 – Tasting really good before dry hopping so I’ve decided to leave it as it is, from experience the main hop character from dry hopping would have been the Nelson Sauvin.
*Bottled 11th Jan ’14 with 129g White sugar, tasting good.
*22 Jan ’14 – Tasting good, a nice blend of all three hops with nothing over powering, maybe a touch more bitterness would be nice.
- In: Brewing
- 6 Comments
Northern Craft Brewers & Saltaire Brewery Competition 2014
The Homebrew Competition for Homebrewers by homebrewers!
Back by popular demand, get the brew-planner out and put the date in the diary!
Saturday 12th April 2014 – Doors open from 11.00, meet at 12.00 for 13.00 start… (The week before Easter)
The Northern Craft Brewers & Saltaire Brewery are doing it again, the last three years have gone down a storm and last year we raised £640 for charity.
The Homebrew Competition is to brew your most interesting *Speciality beer:
It could contain Herbs, Spices, Vegetables, Fruit but the idea is you get a 5th ingredient to compliment and add to the Water – Malt – Hops – Yeast, you have free reign on ABV (We suggest no higher than 7%, spare a thought for our Judges!!) Let your imagination run wild! *Check BJCP Cat 21a but you can include Fruit too if you wish.
Entries
- Entry is 3 500ml-1Pint Brown Bottles with no labels or Identifying Marks any colour crown cork closure allowed. Entry fee is £5.00 per entry, payable on the day, £2.00 Entry fee to the event on the Day for non competitors.
- Cash Prizes for 1st-4th amounts will be announced nearer the event as size will depend on entries received but minimum £25 for 1st place plus Trophies & certificate presented on the Day.
- To enter the Competition please email Shane Swindells @ competitions@northerncraftbrewers.co.uk
Please provide Name, Address and a preferred contact email, Extra Ingredients used when contacting Shane. - You will receive a confirmation email on application and any further information/updates will come via email, closing date for entries is midnight on Sunday 30th March 2013 no entries will be received after this date.
- Bring Your 3 Entry bottles on the Day & we will issue Tags with your entry number to be applied to the bottles on the day of the event.
- The Brewery will be open from 11.00am to accept entries, all entries must be in by 13.00
As previous years the bar will be fully stocked by Homebrewers and all proceeds will be for Charity, I’ll be asking people to brew for the bar so we get a good range of styles across a number of ABVs. Info for invited brewers is here.
Prizes will be given, Engraved Tankards for 1st, 2nd & 3rd and a ‘Best Cask’ prize for the best beer on the bar.
During judging we’d like to keep you entertained while you enjoy the beers on the bars, so with that in mind we are organising a ‘Meet the brewer’ style presentation from a range of interesting local breweries with different backgrounds so we can get to know a little about their brewers, their background, and of course to hear about their fantastic beers!
Roosters Brewin Co
Northern Monk Brew Co
Mallinsons Brewery May be unable to attend due to family commitments, possibly Nick Briggs (Works for Mallinsons and also Cuckoo brews) will be coming along instead.
Wharfedale Brewery
and our own NCB member, Shane of The Cheshire Brewhouse
Bring your homebrew, swapping and tasting is very much encouraged 🙂
If you need food, bring your own as its a 10 minute walk to the nearest eatery as is Shipley Train Station, here’s the Google Map for the Brewery. There is an Ibis Hotel 10mins walk away too and local Aagrah curry house not too far either 🙂
Mittlefruh Junga Blonde – Another easy drinker which might just be ready in time for over Christmas, this time using German Mittlefruh & Polish Junga, I’ve tweaked the malt bill a tiny bit from my last brew loosing 2% Carapils and making sure I hit my 69°c mash temp.
I’m hoping the addition of Junga will add a spice-character, I’ve also increased the bitterness just a touch to try emphasize this.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 82%
Vienna Malt – 10%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 8%
Hops:
Junga – 12.3 % @ 60 mins – 11g
Hallertauer Mittlefruh – 4.9 % @ 60 mins – 10g
Junga – 12.3 % @ 5 mins – 24g
Hallertauer Mittlefruh – 4.9 % @ 5 mins – 24g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 25 EBU
Colour: 4 EBC
Mash: 60mins @ 69°c
Yeast: Safale us-05
The malts:
Recirculating the first few jugs of wort and a tiny amount of FWH:
These Junga are smelling particularly nice:
Running off to FV:
Gave my FV a thorough clean/sanitise as the last thing that was in here was my Kraftwort smoked beer and it still had a slight taint to it.
Left it cooling really slowly while we went out, got back and it was at 12°c (oops) and I’d hot-liquored back on the FV with 2 litres from the HLT so only had 620ml to liquorback in the FV so no chance to warm things up with that, its now in the Fermentation Fridge set to 20°c so should warm up pretty soon.
*Bottled 30th Dec ’13 – with 127g of sugar
*8th Jan ’14 – Early-ish taster, this is rather good, a little bit of sweetness, a nice amount of body with subtle tasty hops. (I’ll taste again when my cold has gone, but I reckon this is a good one)
Probably Due To Network Congestion 
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