Posts Tagged ‘porter’
AG#98 – Robust Wheat Porter
Posted 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 🙂
- In: Brewing
- 11 Comments
On Saturday 15th of September the UK’s National Homebrew Competition took place (Hashtag #uknhc for Twitter).
163 Homebrewers had entered 460 beers and Ali-Kocho and the guys from Bristol Homebrew did the amazing job of making it all come together, this was their second year running this National event which was held in St. Werburghs Community Center this year.
Here come the photos… I’d love some help in putting some names to photos (Real name or Forum / Twitter etc), leave me a comment or Tweet me. I’m generally crap with names and the few that have stuck in my head I’ve either met before or have talked to on Twitter, so I totally apologise in advance for not remembering.
Ali & @Quadrangularus1 in the background, @stevewright1976 inspecting his beer, Light blue shirt, 2nd in is Paul Henderson, Simon Ashdown is front corner.
Moustache and pinny is @_Michael_Palmer (top food! “Bastard Hot Wings”), Bed Fields @Alsothings middle front with white T-shirt.
@NeilRimmer1005 over the back in the Blue/grey top and next to him is Mr Lard from JBK/THBF in the stripy t-shirt, the guy in the purple shirt sitting and bent over bottles is Paul Spearman the LAB chairman.
@Des De Moor & @Marisotter then at the top right the middle beard wearer is Capn Ahab (JBK)/@zymurgeeza – also part of the food team!
@TheMaltMiller with the red striped sleeve
Steve Syson & SteveWright’s head, @BrettJEllis of forthcoming brewery Wild Beer
Tony Barnsley/Aleman (From JBK / THBF) in the dark blue top and cap, Chairman of the Craft Brewers Association don’t ya know 🙂
White haired judge with Glasses in bottom left is Mike Carter from LAB
@BrettJEllis with the funky facial hair opposite brown baseball cap is Pete Hughes @SwaziPete (pokerswazi from JBK) I’d spotted a crate with Swazi written on it and half made a connection with the accent, I should have said hi 🙂
White haired judge with Glasses in bottom left is Mike Carter from LAB
Just some of the entries Mmmm Beer 🙂
Steve & Tom
To the right is one of the Justin’s from @DrinkMoorBeer
Stephen Sykes standing and @GraemeCoates judging, Graeme is going to Norway for his Best in Show! @SamTait to Graeme’s right.
In the red top, the other Justin from @DrinkMoorBeer
Paul (Vacant on JBK) far left, Middle is Barney (JBK) Wayne then Stephen (Alix101 on JBK) on the right
Ali and Tom
Best in Show judging getting set up, standing behind Steve in grey shirt is Roger @trunky_bristol
Steve (in the red shirt) is doing his PHD on beer judging some proceedings were recorded on multiple media!
We arrived at the venue just after the Stewards briefing, slapped wrists, and I was sent to help with the Belgian Ales and I spent the morning being a bit of a spare part but got to try a fair few Belgian & Strong Ales. After a lunch of BBQ Sausage sandwiches it was back to work and Ali got me to steward for the German Bock category and English Brown Ales, this was interesting listening to Steve Syson & Steve Wright doing the judging, I got to try all the beers and some of those in the Smoked & Spice/Veg category too which were being judged on the same table.
The judging finally finished with the raffle and prize giving after 9pm, a long but enjoyable day.
In case I missed copy/pasting any of the code from Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets/72157631555793596/
Congratulations to everyone that won a prize and all the Honorable Mentions.
Results – UK National Homebrew Competition
Best of Show
Place Brewer(s) Entry Name Style Club
1st Graeme Coates Cauchy – Schwarz Inequality 4C: Schwarzbier Oxford Brewers
2nd Steve Syson Debaser 14C: Imperial IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Dave Halse Mystrawraspb 20A: Fruit Beer London Amateur Brewers
Categories:
Porter (26 entries)
1st Jacob Griffin Zombier Baltic Porter –
2nd Chris Lewis Rigor Porteris Robust Porter
3rd Steve Crawshaw Waggoner Porter Robust Porter Bristol Craft Brewers
Stout (43 entries)
1st Ben Hislop Big Black Imperial Stout Scottish Craft Brewers
2nd Tim Daly Oatmeal Sweet Stout Sweet Stout Oxford Brewers
3rd Bryan Spooner Sadako Imperial Stout Imperial Stout London Amature Brewers (lab)
HM David Budd Heacham Russian Imperial Stout Imperial Stout North Devon Craft Brewers
Specialty Beer (27 entries)
1st Ali Kocho-williams Indian Ink Specialty Beer Bristol Brewing Circle/bristol Craft Brewers/pembrokeshire Union Of Brewers
2nd Ben Hislop Long Black Cloud Specialty Beer Scottish Craft Brewers
3rd Jacob Griffin Black Tiger Rye Pa Specialty Beer –
Strong Ales (14 entries)
1st Ross Harper Backbreaker Barleywine American Barleywine Red Earth Brewers
2nd Dave Halse Mybarleywine English Barleywine London Amateur Brewers
3rd Andrew Jardine Cave Adsum American Barleywine Boohs
Belgian And French Ales (45 entries)
1st Matthew Barker Disconnecty Belgian Ipa Belgian Specialty Ale London Amateur Brewers
2nd Robert Petterson Robert Petterson Witbier
3rd Ali Kocho-williams Black Monk Belgian Specialty Ale Bristol Brewing Circle/bristol Craft Brewers/pembrokeshire Union Of Brewers
HM Matt Bunn Duckfight 2012 Belgian Specialty Ale
Belgian Strong Ales (28 entries)
1st Ken Winter Velvet Tankard Belgian Dark Strong Ale
2nd Steve Syson Tripel Trubbel Belgian Tripel Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Ron Allison Kiwi Dubbel Belgian Dubbel Midlands Craft Brewers
HM Daniel Van Der Zee 055 DSA Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Light Hybrids (16 entries)
1st Ali Kocho-williams Amarillo Wheat American Wheat or Rye Beer Bristol Brewing Circle/bristol Craft Brewers/pembrokeshire Union Of Brewers
2nd Stephen Sykes Stephen Sykes Kolsch Northern Craft Brewers
3rd Mark Grundy Eau De Cologne Kolsch Bristol Brewing Circle
HM Shane O’beirne Bruntsfield Blonde Blonde Ale
English Pale Ales (57 entries)
1st Steve Osborne English Pale Ale Special/Best/Premium Bitter Midland Craft Brewers
2nd Ron Allison Golden Bitter Standard/Ordinary Bitter Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Richard Pearce Strong Bitter Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) London Amateur Brewers
HM Rob Marchington Croft Hsb Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) Cambridge Craft Brewers
American Ales (37 entries)
1st David Barker Citra Amber Ale American Amber Ale None
2nd Matthew Barker Prodigal American Pale Ale American Pale Ale London Amateur Brewers
3rd Tom Greasley The Red Scare American Amber Ale London Amateur Brewers
IPA (58 entries)
1st Steve Syson Debaser Imperial IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
2nd Steve Syson Stoned IPA American IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Ron Allison Classic Pale Ale English IPA Midlands Craft Brewers
HM Graeme Coates Emerald American IPA Oxford Brewers
Bock (5 entries)
1st Vladimir Kaznakov Bock Traditional Bock
2nd Rob Marchington Bob’s Your Dunkel Traditional Bock Cambridge Craft Brewers
3rd Richard Caller Bona Dea Maibock/Helles Bock Northern Craft Brewers
Scottish and Irish Ale (7 entries)
1st Karl Clark Claymore Strong Scotch Ale Northern Craft Brewers Association
2nd Aled Murphy Aittin 80/- Scottish Export 80/- Scottish Craft Brewers
3rd Steven Crump Start A War Strong Scotch Ale
German Wheat And Rye Beer (15 entries)
1st Graeme Coates Vital Signs Weizenbock Oxford Brewers
2nd Steve Wright KiWi-zen Weizen/Weissbier Northern Craft Brewer’s Assoication
3rd Ben Hislop Hefe Schwartz Dunkelweizen Scottish Craft Brewers
HM Richard Poole Druid Fluid Weizen/Weissbier Bristol Craft Brewers
Smoke And Wood Aged Beer (16 entries)
1st Paul Mills Butt-head Wood-Aged Beer Primary Fermenters Brewers And Vintners Of Minnesota (eastern League)
2nd Mike Tonks Saxon Smokey Porter Other Smoked Beer Bristol Brewing Circle
3rd Dave Halse Mysmokedporter Other Smoked Beer London Amateur Brewers
HM Bryan Spooner Sadako Imperial Stout – Oaked Wood-Aged Beer London Amature Brewers (lab)
New Zealand Pale Ale (11 entries)
1st Steve Syson Kiwi Pale Ale New Zealand Pale Ale Midlands Craft Brewers
2nd Mark Charlwood Summer Pale New Zealand Pale Ale London Amateur Brewers
3rd Ron Allison Kiwi Gold New Zealand Pale Ale Midlands Craft Brewers
Spice Herb And Vegetable Beer (17 entries)
1st Ken Bazley Kulao Porter Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer London Amateur Brewers
2nd Matt Bunn Snapdragon Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
3rd Andrew Jardine Bandit Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Boohs
HM Kieran Wall Thackrey Stout Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Amber Hybrids (8 entries)
1st Matthew Hicks Ardley Easter California Common Beer
2nd Tony Milner Alt Northern German Altbier Boohs
3rd Ken Bazley Altbier Northern German Altbier London Amateur Brewers
Sour Ale, Fruit Beer (10 entries)
1st Dave Halse Mystrawraspb Fruit Beer London Amateur Brewers
2nd Brett Ellis Lambic Straight (Unblended) Lambic
3rd Richard Caller Rode Koe With Raspberry Fruit Beer Northern Craft Brewers
HM Richard Caller White Walls Raspberry Fruit Beer Northern Craft Brewers
Light Lager, Pilsner, European Amber Lager, Dark Lager (15 entries)
1st Graeme Coates Cauchy – Schwarz Inequality Schwarzbier Oxford Brewers
2nd Graeme Coates Notfest Oktoberfest/Marzen Oxford Brewers
3rd Steve Syson Goodnight Vienna Vienna Lager Midlands Craft Brewers
HM Steve Syson Schwarze Engel Schwarzbier Midlands Craft Brewers
English Brown Ale (5 entries)
1st Christopher Eyett Andersons’ Brown Northern English Brown Ale
2nd Ian Ross-bain Three Rivers Northern English Brown Ale Midlands Craft Brewers
3rd Steve Crawshaw Ask Jon Mild Mild Bristol Craft Brewers
HM Paul Dodd Pd’s Nut Brown Ale Northern English Brown Ale
Here’s a brief breakdown of what was entered in the following categories and how they were boiled down:
IPA:
EIPA – 13
AIPA – 30
IIPA – 15
Stout:
Dry Stout – 16
Sweet Stout – 4
Oatmeal Stout – 5
Foreign Stout -2
American Stout -2
Imperial Stout – 14
American Ales:
Pale – 14
Amber – 16
Brown – 7
Bock:
Maibock – 2
Traditional Bock – 3
AG#63 – London Porterish II
Posted on: September 3, 2011
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 🙂
AG#55 – Imperial Smoked Porter
Posted 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.
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
Yesterday I took the short trip over to Elland Brewery, West Yorkshire to meet Gordon the head-brewer for a proper chat after our first brief initial meeting at work (Saltaire Brewery). Elland use the same original Thwaites brewery yeast as we do at Saltaire.
The Mash Tun & Fermenters:
Gordon’s enthusiasm and excitement for brewing beer is very obvious and I thoroughly enjoyed a good few hours of nattering with him, tasting a few from their retained samples, and looking round their 10 Barrel Brew House.
My personal favourite sample was his Brewers Reserve which he’d dry hopped with New Zealand Motueka hops (Though not available in the shops, this was just an experiment) yummy stuff.
Gordon tells me that the plant originally came from one of the Firkin Brew-Pubs, with its all wood cladding and copper-domed boil kettle. He has a lot more technical know-how than myself with his Chemistry background, and is really got a handle on the entire brewing process with accurate process measurement and documentation and good practice procedure.
Gordon and the guys from Elland are not doing too shabby with their recent SIBA awards for the 1872 Porter, getting the 2010 Winter Gold and the 2011 National Gold. You’ve gotta love a full complex dark beer!
Mash tun to the front with valentine, Copper boiler behind with Fermenters to the left:
The Man himself with his FV’s:
Hopefully Gordon is enjoying my Home brewed beers I left with him, you can catch up on his Tweets @GJMcKiernan
AG#41 – London Porterish
Posted on: November 6, 2010
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
London Porterish – This is a bit of a user-upper / Christmas gift / Christmas beer / a beer I only recently tasted at a beer fest and thought was amazing (Fullers London Porter). So this recipe is based around the one in the Graham Wheeler book, though a touch of Wheat malt added for head and the mix of Crystal malts is using up odd ends of malt. Hops are Sovereign which I have never used before.
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 3990g – 70%
Brown Malt – 625g – 11%
Crystal Malt – 340g – 6%
Wheat Malt – 285g – 5%
Chocolate Malt – 225g – 4%
Crystal Rye Malt – 170g – 3%
Crystal Malt, Dark – 57g – 1%
Hops:
Sovereign @ 60 mins – 56g
Sovereign @ 10 mins – 19g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.015
Alcohol Content: 5.6% ABV
Total Liquor: 34 Litres
Mash Liquor: 13.7 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 80 %
Bitterness: 33 EBU
Colour: 144 EBC
60min Mash @ 68c
60min Boil
Cooled to 21c before pitching yeast
Mash treated with General Profile in the GW water treatment calc
3g of common Salt added to copper at the end of the boil
Updates on my Twitter-T.watter page – https://twitter.com/pdtnc
Malts, Temp & Salt additions:
The three tier:
Waste of time checking pH as usual:
Mash efficiency 95.3%!:
First runnings being recycled, FWH & old yeast ready in copper:
10min hop addition:
StarSan-ing everything that will touch sterile clean wort:
My Mash was on at 8.05am
The Boil started at 10.30am
I collected 30litres @ 13.5 Brix
Cooling from boiling took 10mins & 44Litres of water to 33c, then 3mins more to 21c. The 44L was collected in the HLT @ 42c
Original Gravity was 1056 with hydrometer, 14.9 Brix with refractometer (1058, Bang on to recipe) 🙂
Started Run-off to FV at 12:00, taking it slowly probably took the best part of an hour.
The Wort & Hops were smelling lovely 🙂
*Bottled 17th Nov ’10 with 65g of Soft Brown Sugar Came down to FG 1020 ish, needs some age for the dark malts to meld into something lush 🙂
Probably Due To Network Congestion 