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AG#98 – Robust Wheat Porter

Posted by: pdtnc on: March 24, 2013

In: Brewing
9 Comments

Robust Wheat Porter – The Pancake Day of Homebrews! I’m using up a load of bag-ends, so my base malts (Lager & Wheat) are now totally depleted.
I’m not too fussed if its something odd-ball, it should hopefully be entertaining and I can start from fresh malts for subsequent brews.

Fermentables:
Wheat Malt – 44.9%
Lager Malt – 26.6%
Munich Malt – 5.9%
Jaggery (Cane) – 5.5%
Brown Malt – 3.7%
Chocolate Malt – 3.7%
Rauch Malt (Weyermann) – 3.2%
Amber Malt – 2.6%
Peat Smoked Medium – 1.8%
Munich Type II (Weyermann) – 1.4%
Roasted Barley – 0.7%
Oat Husks – 3% (This works out at 103%, added after calculating recipe)

Hops:
Bobek – 4.5 % @ 60 mins – 408g
Saaz – 4.15 % @ 0 mins – 48g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.077
Final Gravity: 1.016
Alcohol Content: 8.1% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 70 %
Bitterness: 181 EBU – (This is going to be bogus, the hops are old and like confetti)
Colour: 148 EBC
Mash: 90mins @ 67°c
Yeast: Safale US-05 skimmed from last weeks brew before I dry hopped it
Liquor Treatment: General Purpose copied from AG#55

The Malts, I added a few Oat Husks as a precaution:

408g of Bobek Hops in the copper:

Recirculating the first few jugs from the mash tun until it runs clear:

Jaggery Goor, or Unrefined Cane sugar:

In go the late Saaz hops:

Quite a lot of spent hops left in the copper:

I ended up with 1079 so liquored back 0.54L to 1077, I feel a few things worked in my favor to get the right OG and 21.46Litres:

Predicted Mash efficiency be set low.
The 3.7L bellow the Mash Tun’s false bottom which I usually deduct from the first sparge.
80c second (technically first) sparge, I normally go for 78°c, and 15min rest before running off.

All cleaned up and yeast pitched, I expect it to kick off quite soon and spew all over the kitchen floor, the fermentation fridge is still full of Brown Ceas which I just dry hopped.

*25th Mar ’13 – The fresh yeast has taken off well, still in the bucket… just!

*31st Mar ’13 – Gravity at 1018 so this has been pretty fast at fermenting, and it tastes rather good with quite a bit of smoke and the Brown/Amber/Choc malts definitely playing their parts, bitterness is coming through but not overly 🙂

*7th Apr ’13 – Gravity at 1018 still so chilling it down before bottling sometime next week.

*Bottled 10th Apr ’13 – with 76g White Sugar, tastes bloody good too 🙂

AG#97 – Brown Ceas

Posted by: pdtnc on: March 17, 2013

In: Brewing
4 Comments

Brown Ceas – This is my NCB / Saltaire Brewery brew for the bar, an American Style Brown Ale, loosely based on my previous ‘Steaming, Brown & Sticky‘ of last year, this is going to be a little lighter in colour as the other version was almost black, or at least a very dark brown.
‘Brown Ceas’ its like the 3-Cs Cascade, Columbus, Chinook and its brown! Bittering will hopefully be nice & spicy from the Aramis & Saaz, and I’ll have a Hop-freezer rummage for American Pellets and give it some dry in the fermenter.

Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 72%
Wheat Malt – 10%
Crystal Malt – 5%
Caramalt – 5%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 5%
Chocolate Malt, Pale – 2%
Chocolate Malt – 1%

Hops:
Aramis – 8.9 % @ 65 mins – 36g
Saaz – 3.95 % @ 35 mins – 40g
Columbus (Tomahawk) – 16.5 % @ 0 mins – 30g
Cascade – 7.9 % @ 0 mins – 30g
Chinook – 12.5 % @ 0 mins – 60g

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.3% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 77 % (Its too late now, I punched in 77 rather than 75%!!!)
Bitterness: 45 EBU
Colour: 46 EBC
Mash: 68°c for 60-90mins
Yeast: Safale us-05

The Malts:

First Wort Aramis Hops:

Recirculating the Mash for Clarity:

The Hops all weighed out and ready:

85°c Steep Hops in for 30mins:

Top-Down view of the copper running off to FV, I got 1052 Gravity:

The spent hops in the copper, they soaked up a good couple of litres:

Bit of a late start but all done and dusted, liquored back just short of 3L from 1052 to 1045 getting a 21.92 Litre yield so only 1L short of target volume.
I almost forgot to add the Protafloc ‘cos I was messing about on Twitter too much, extended boil by 5 mins to account for lack of concentration!
I may dry hop this with Cascade Pellets, we shall see… 😉

*24th Mar ’13 – Dry Hopped with 20g each of Cascade & Amarillo, so approx 2g/litre, Gravity at 1011. I also skimmed the yeast to use in my Robust Wheat Porter.

*Racked to Box 31st Mar ’13 with just 20g White sugar primings, Alkleer Finings also added as this is to be served from Handpull on the bar at work. Smells nicely dry hopped 🙂

AG#81 – Olicana Rutilus

Posted by: pdtnc on: June 10, 2012

In: Brewing
5 Comments

Olicana Rutilus – This is my entry to the Ilkley Brewery / Leeds Homebrewers competition, an American Red/Amber/Brown style beer at 1038.

I’m doing a number of firsts for me with this brew:

The first time using of my Plate Chiller which I’ve had for ages with intent to use!
The first time I’ve done a 20 minute total boil time!
The first time I’ve tried Hop-Bursting!
The First time I’ve used Apollo hops!

Fermentables:
Lager Malt
Carapils (Weyermann)
Munich Malt I (Weyermann)
Chocolate Malt
Cara Munich Type III

Hops:
Columbus
Apollo
Apollo

Final Volume: 12 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.038
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 17.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 4.9 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 % (got over 81%)
Bitterness: 35 EBU
Colour: 39 EBC
Yeast: Safale US-05

Today’s Malts:

First run out of the Plate chiller (Heat Exchanger), with my second Solar Project pump:

Ye Olde mini-Mash Tun:

First Wort Hops, Columbus, with a THBF calc Mild profile for my liquor treatment:

Apollo hops, I’m using up the dregs, still sticky as owt and stinky:

Oh… Nooo!!! Hot Side Aeration! Recirc to Sanitise:

Flameout Hops:

This was actually a pretty quick brewday, didn’t quite hit my 1038 OG and got 1035-ish, this will be down to me guessing and 5% boil-off, it was actually a lot less as I collected 14 Litres in the FV rather than the planned 12 Litres. So something to adjust for next time I do a 20min boil. The break material formed in the bucket after cooling, I back-flushed the Plate Chiller and set it on a recirc for about half an hour with hot clean water.
Its been a long day as I’ve bottled 50-odd bottles of Nit Wit after brewing, then cleaned the FV and fridge from the WLP400 mess!!
I’ll post the full recipe details after judging 😉

Here’s Dave’s brewday blog of his entry.
And this is Neil’s Blog of his entry.

*14th Jun ’12 – Dry hopping time 🙂
Apollo hops whizzed up in a clean blender, about 4g per litre, a tip from @dredpenguin and his blog A Beer on the Downs though I didn’t puree mine I just dry blitzed them:

Dry hops tipped on the yeast head and stirred in, I’ll leave at current temp for a couple of days then stir again and drop the temperature to 17c then 11c for about a week before crashing it down to 4c to settle the hop debris out:

*Bottled 21st Jun ’12 – with 60g white sugar in 13 litres of beer.

AG#76 – Steaming, Brown & Sticky

Posted by: pdtnc on: March 11, 2012

In: Brewing
10 Comments

Brown and Sticky – brewing again today because I want to test out my new Mesh-Hop-Stopper after yesterday’s fiasco with my US-Brown Ale, so today I’m doing another American Brown and throwing a shed load of Columbus at it again and a further shed load of pellet hops just to try and screw it up. This could lead to another crappy end to an otherwise good brewday, we shall see… fingers crossed!

I’m worried that the stainless mesh resting on the base of the Gas-fired copper is going to have a damping effect on the rolling action of the boil, it certainly does when tested with boiling water, so this brew is also to see if it kills the roll with wort too.

Seeing as this is a very impromptu brewday I might even throw in 2 packs Safelager W-34/70 and make it a Steam Beer, so instead of being called ‘Brown & Sticky’ it would be ‘Steaming Brown & Sticky’ 😉 I quite like the latter naming option 😉 Its obviously going to be a cross-over style American Brown vs Steam Beer.

Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 74%
Flaked Barley – 10%
Caramalt – 9%
Crystal Malt, Extra Dark – 3%
Chocolate Malt – 2%
Chocolate Wheat Malt – 1%
Chocolate Malt, Pale – 1%

Hops:
Columbus (Tomahawk) Whole – 16.5 % @ 60 mins – 10g (First Wort Hop)
Columbus (Tomahawk) Whole – 16.5 % @ 30 mins – 25g
Chinook Pellet – 12.9 % @ 0 mins – 20g
Cascade Pellet – 5.9 % @ 0 mins – 20g
Columbus (Tomahawk) Whole – 16.5 % @ 0 mins – 80g
Rakau (Organic) Pellet – 11.5 % @ 0 mins – 89g (all Late hops will have a 20-30min steep)

Dry Hops:
Maybe…

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 4.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 70 % (reduced as I only just hit 75% yesterday)
Bitterness: 47 EBU (25% Utilisation)
Colour: 75 EBC

Malt & Temp:

Lots of Pellet hops:

New mesh Hop-Stopper with first wort hops:

First batch spargings running onto the new Hop-stopper and First Wort Columbus hops:

Its an altered boil alright, it rumbles around to its self and splatters occasionally, seems active enough:

In go 80g of Whole Columbus and 129g of Pellet hops:

OG: 1043/44, Refractometer said I was right on the money at 1045:

Torch held at the back of the trial jar, wort was nice and clear in comparrison to some of the wort I’ve had lately:

Loads of sludge in the copper, the new Mesh Hop-Stopper worked a treat and drained right down with the syphon effect sucking loads of wort out of the pellet sludge:

Maybe not the nicest looking soldering but it blooming well worked:

The Mash was on at 12:25 and I was all cleaned up by about 17:00, it all went rather smoothly. Maybe its time to start using my Plate Chiller as leedsbrew suggested! 2 packs of Saflager W34/70 Yeast pitched at 19-20c I’ll leave it on the cold garage floor to cool down overnight and let it go from there.

*24th Mar ’12 – FG 1011-12 put in fridge to warm up a little for a, probably un-needed, diacetyl rest. No dry hopping this tastes fantastic and clean as it is with a nice bit of bitterness coming through, I may actually transfer to a secondary FV and Lager this for a while (must ask a few Lagering questions on JBK).

*7th Apr ’12 – Bottled with 75g of White Sugar, tasting rather nice it has so far exceeded my expectations 🙂 I never bothered with any Dry hopping, I’ll be looking forward to this once its Carbonated up.

AG#75 – Mr Brown Hawk

Posted by: pdtnc on: March 10, 2012

In: Brewing
2 Comments

Mr Brown Hawk– A Columbus Hopped American Brown Ale (Brown IPA!) My first American brown, all Columbus hopping with a substantial Dry Hop in the FV with a bit of vague reference from the ‘Brewing Classic Styles’ book, the recipes in there use a heck of a lot of Crystal so I’ve sort of gone for the middle-ground as i don’t think a 6.3% beer needs all that. I’m using liquor treatment for ‘Sweet Pale Ale’ which will hopefully bring out the maltiness.

I started and realised I didn’t have enough Pale malt so some of it is sub’d with Vienna & Lager malts, I’ll give it at least a 90min mash to try compensate for a: crap Bairds Pale & Lager, b: the less convertibility of Vienna malt.

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 36.2%
Vienna Malt – 17.2%
Wheat Malt – 17%
Lager Malt – 16.6%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 5%
Caramalt – 3%
Chocolate Malt, Pale – 3%
Crystal Malt, Extra Dark – 1%
Chocolate Malt – 1%

Hops:
Columbus (Tomahawk) – 16.5 % @ 60 mins – 25g (FWH)
Columbus (Tomahawk) – 16.5 % @ 10 mins – 29g
Columbus (Tomahawk) – 16.5 % @ 0 mins – 41g
Columbus (Tomahawk) – Dry Hop 84g

Final Volume: 20 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.065
Final Gravity: 1.017
Alcohol Content: 6.3% ABV
Total Liquor: 30.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 14 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 % (actually got 75.8%)
Bitterness: 66 EBU (BeerEngine Hop Utilisation set to 25%)
Colour: 76 EBC
Mash: 90mins @66c
Boil: 60mins
Yeast: Safale US-05 (2 packs)

The usual malts shot:

Checking for starch to see if fully converted, other than bits in the husks it was good after 2 hours:

First Wort Hops:

Flame-out hops steeped for about 20mins:

1057-ish, should have been 1065:

It was a total pain, running off to the FV it clogged up really quickly and I had to resort to a jug and a sieve, these Columbus hops have some fine particles! Pitched 2 packs of us-05 even though I didn’t hit my gravity 1058 vs 1065, the quicker the yeast gets going the better after all that sieve and jug malarkey! It looks as though I got about the right volume in the fermenter even if some of it looks rather murky from break material and some hop debris. Another reminder that I should make a big mesh hop-stopper!
So… presuming I’ve not infected it with a shed load of extracurricular home brewing activity, I’ll be giving this a nice big dry hop once its got to FG.

*17th Mar ’12 – after reaching FG 1012 and being chilled in 2 stages (17c for 24hours then 11c for 24 hours) I had a 50mm thick layer of hop debris, trub and yeast at the bottom of the FV, I’ve racked the clear beer off the top into a 15L bucket and dry hopped with 84g Columbus, I gave the bucket a blast of co2 prior to racking onto the hops. This has been put back in the FV Fridge and I’m cooling to 5c, I’ll give the hops a stir in later on.

*Bottled 24th Mar ’12 with 30g sugar to 15 Litres of beer, this should be around 2 volumes of co2 @ 5°c tastes very Dry-Hopped, quite possibly too much flavour and Lovely colour.

*29th Mar ’12 – Very Early taster bottle 😉
A little under carbonated, its a Juicy fruit bomb maybe too too fruity as I’d actually like to taste some of the Choc malts underneath the hop flavour. Tiny bit of sweet alcohol on the nose, I’m surprised the dry-hop character seems to have mellowed out quite soon though this is my first time with a singled hopped Columbus beer. I’m thinking I should have reserved myself more than half a kilo from the 5kgs I had, I think I could have given it a bit more bitterness which would off-set the fruitiness a little.

*5th Apr ’12 – Just having a glass of this… even though its carb’d pretty low, if i splash it into the glass it gives a lovely head that clings down the glass and the carbonation actually fits pretty well with the beer.
Fruitiness is settling back, bitterness is starting to come through, tasty beer…. I’m happy with this 🙂

AG#64 – Mild Ale II

Posted by: pdtnc on: September 11, 2011

In: Brewing
1 Comment

Mild Ale II – The second of my brews for the www.gbhomebrew.co.uk competition, a Mild Ale based on my last Mild so slightly tweaked but hopping remains very similar. It wasn’t intended to have Pale Crystal in it but I ran out of Crystal Malt so had to substitute some.

Malts:
Pale Malt – 70%
Munich Malt – 10%
Crystal Malt – 6%
Flaked Oats – 6%
Crystal Malt, Pale – 4%
Chocolate Malt – 2%
Chocolate Wheat Malt – 2%

Hops:
Golding 21g – 4.2% @60mins (FWH)
Fuggle 21g – 3.8% @60mins (FWH)
Golding 13g – 4.1% @10mins
Fuggle 13g – 3.8% @10mins

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.038
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Bitterness: 23 EBU
Colour: 67 EBC
Yeast: Windsor
Mash: 60-90mins @ 69c
Boil: 60mins
Liquor: Treated to Mild Profile using GW Calc

Malts, Temp and Liquor treatments:

The Mash at 69c:

Hops weighed, small common salt addition to go in the Copper and Protafloc tablet for last 5 mins:

First run-off onto First Wort Hops:

In go the 10 minute hops:

Windsor yeast rehydrated as the packet suggests, using 2 packets as I hear things about Windsor yeast stalling:

Aerated and in the FV:

I forgot to take a OG shot, it was 1040 with the hydrometer, Refractometer said 1038 so near enough either way.
I had 86.5% Mash Efficiency and hit my 69c mash temp.

*18th Sep ’11 – Word to the wise… Forget Windsor, it stops really high and in theory would leave me with a 2.8-3% Beer…
Soo….
I’ve rehydrated 26g of Nottingham yeast, added it and 90g of dissolved Demerara Sugar to the FV and given it a rather good stir… Fingers crossed for a few more points!

*Cornie 22nd Sep ’11 with Allkleer finings, 4 500ml bottles primed with 1/2 Tsp sugar, FG 1018 so about 2.8% beer! First & last use of Windsor yeast I think! When brewed again I’ll use my usual us-05 yeast.

Tags: ale, beer, Brewing, Chocolate Malt, chocolate wheat malt, Crystal Malt, flaked oats, fuggles hops, garage brewer, goldings hops, homebrew, mild, munich malt, pale crystal malt, pale malt, Windsor yeast

AG#63 – London Porterish II

Posted by: pdtnc on: September 3, 2011

In: Brewing
1 Comment

London Porterish II – Maybe to be re-named, my first brew for the www.gbhomebrew.co.uk competition. The brew is based on my last London Porter which was based on the Fullers London Porter, the Fullers is a lovely beer.

Malts:
Pale Malt – 70%
Brown Malt – 15%
Crystal Malt – 8%
Chocolate Malt – 5%
Extra Dark Crystal Malt – 2%

Hops:
Goldings – 11EBU @60mins
Challenger – 17EBU @ 60mins
Goldings – 11g @ 0mins
Challenger – 30g @ 0mins

OG 1060
Predicted FG 1016
ABV 5.7%
EBU 29
EBC
Yeast Safale US-05
Liquor Treatment to Porter profile in the GW Calc less the common Salt

I had a Brew Monkey today, Dave, BroadfordBrewer from THBF… he took a few phone pictures throughout the day… Thanks
We had a few beers, brewed a little, ate some food, and had a few more beers, a jolly good natter along the way made for an enjoyable day
Hit our OG near as damn it, couple of litres down on volume tough, Mash efficiency a rather poxy 70%.
I’m hoping to better my last London Porter with more Maltiness and a slightly more assertive hop flavour presence.

Malts, Temp and Liquor treatment:

Mash temp of 66c aimed for and achieved:

Doughing in:

Weighing a few hops:

First Runnings:

Spooning the copper:

Preparing to run to the fermenter:

1060 (2 divisions in the meniscus):

*Bottled 18th Sep ’11 with 65g of Sugar, tasting very good.

*4th Dec ’11 – After initially tasting bloody gorgeous about a week after bottling it tailed off a bit, but now after a good bit of maturation in bottle is is bloody gorgeous again 🙂 Very happy, a pretty perfect winter tipple 🙂

Tags: beer, brewday, Brewing, brown malt, Challenger hops, Chocolate Malt, competition, Crystal Malt, extra dark crystal malt, fullers london Porter, goldings hops, home brewing, homebrew, london porter, pale malt, porter, safale us-05 yeast

AG#55 – Imperial Smoked Porter

Posted by: pdtnc on: May 15, 2011

In: Brewing
3 Comments

Imperial Smoked Porter – This is serving a couple of purposes; First is a Trial run of a big beer in my newly finished False bottom Mash tun; Second is using up some odd bags of malt and some older hops I had in the freezer and some other part bags of hops.
I’m not expecting the stated bitterness from my hops – http://www.wellhopped.co.uk/Product.htm so I’m going semi-worst case scenario and adjusting AA for age and storage.

Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 70.2%
Caramalt – 8.2%
Peat Smoked Malt, medium – 4.2%
Amber Malt – 3.9%
Oat Malt – 3.5%
Chocolate Malt, Pale – 2.3%
Crystal Wheat Malt – 2.4%
Chocolate Wheat Malt – 1.8%
Flaked Wheat – 1.6%
Chocolate Malt – 1.5%
Flaked Rye 0 EBC – 0.5%

Hops:
Bobek – 3.7 % @ 75 mins – 124g (FWH)
Admiral – 12 % @ 75 mins – 19g (FWH)
Herkules – 15.8 % @ 75 mins – 35g (FWH)
Brewers Gold – 9.1 % @ 10 mins – 68g
Cascade – 5.5 % @ 0 mins – 29g (Flame-out Steep for 20mins)
Saaz – 3.8 % @ 0 mins – 33g (Flame-out Steep for 20mins)
Simcoe – 12.9 % @ 0 mins – 20g (Flame-out Steep for 20mins)

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.076
Final Gravity: 1.021
Alcohol Content: 7.2% ABV
Total Liquor: 36.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 20.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 70 % (I collected 32L @ 1055 so hit efficiency but had too much liquor)
Bitterness: 121 EBU (I’m not expecting this as the bittering hops were fairly old so subtracting 30% from the AA will be more like 90EBU)
Colour: 140 EBC
Mashed for 90mins @ 66c
Boil for 75mins
Liquor treatment as per GW calc for General Purpose

Bigger bucket than normal with 8.5kg of malts:

New mash tun full of hot liquor:

Initial Mash a little high, cooled with cold liquor to 66c:

Tidy brewsheet (version 3, other two are scibbly works in progress) along with late hops:

Quite a heap of first Wort Hops in the copper along with the common salt addition:

What lies beneath, mash leftovers under the mash screen:

10 min hops going in:

Break material clumping in the copper:

Looks near as damn it to me (Showing 72 +2 divisions in the meniscus = 1076), not bad for a first outing of the new Mash Tun:

I had 3.7 Litres in the new mash tun to just cover the false bottom, the first sparge top-up was a little over 3 litres so I didn’t top-up and subtracted the difference from the Second batch sparge. This was to take into account the liquor under the screen, I ended up with 32 Litres in the copper which i thought too much but by the end of the 75min boil I was at my predicted gravity so I must have worked things out right!

Thoughts on the False bottom:
The mash ran off very well and after a few jugs of recirculating it was also very clear.
After stirring the second sparge and running off I came back to the mash tun to find it had run a load of malt particles into the copper as the last of the mash drained out. I’ll have to keep an eye on it next time to stop this just as it starts to show bits coming through, or have a go a Fly sparging so as to not actually disturb the Mash bed and hopefully limit the amount of malt particles coming through.
New cleaning game, poking bits of malt out of the perforated stainless!

16th May ’11
The usual, Stout+S-04 ferment 🙂 :

*Bottled 25th May ’11 with 71g of White sugar and a tiny sprinkle of Nottingham yeast into each bottle as a bit of a safety precaution as it had dropped very bright. Finished at 1016-1018 so about 7.7% ABV.

*4th JUne ’11 Taster bottle, tasting good the Peat Smoked malt works well with the Strength of this beer, Bitterness just right so I’m glad I adjusted the hop Alpha acids for my older hops.