Posts Tagged ‘sugar’
The Double IPA, Hmmm
Posted on: May 5, 2013
- In: Brewing
- 9 Comments
I’m a little confused over the matter of brewing Big IPA’s, in regard to getting bitterness and some dryness into these high strength Imperial or Double IPA.
Consider my AG#92 Klaatu Verata Nictu its an all malt DIPA but the residual sweetness after fermentation is far too high, time in bottle is s-l-o-w-l-y drying it out and its a nice beer, but much more of an American Barleywine than displaying the bitterness characteristics I was aiming for… It would seem that my predicted 200 IBU could have been doubled to 400 IBU to help cut through the sweetness.
This is theoretically where a Sugar addition comes into play to help dry the beer out…
Now consider this AG#85 HopZilla IPA which did have a sugar addition for the purpose of drying the beer out, yet I still got an annoyingly high level of residual sweetness after fermentation, this did eventually dry up and display its proper character in bottle but it took blooming ages! I think I have 1 bottle of this left which I assume will be the dogs bollocks by the time I crack into it.
There is nothing wrong with either of the above beers apart from me not getting what I was aiming for, for my next experiment I will be trying a 10% addition of Dextrose, and a long cool Mash with less malts that could be adding Dextrins to the wort.
The following questions arise:
- Mash Temp?
- Liquor to Malt Ratio?
- Mash Duration?
- Amount & Type of Copper Sugars?
- Malt selection?
- Liquor Treatment additions?
I feel a MASSIVE dry hop is needed on these higher gravity beers, done in two stages.. i.e. Once in the FV, then transfer to Conditioning/Secondary for a while before doing a Second or even Third Heavy dry hop.
We brewed Kala BIPA, 6.2% @SaltaireBrewery a short time ago, I know the ABV is considerably different but we used a sugar addition of almost 10% to great effect in this beer making an amazingly easy drinking beer that went down like a 4% session ale.
Its all fun 🙂 I’d be really interested in how other homebrewers / brewers get their level of bitterness & Dryness in their DIPAs.
Cheers
AG#71 – Abyss Imperial Stout
Posted on: January 1, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 8 Comments
Abyss Imperial Stout – The big brew! New years Day 2012, a beer to brew-bottle-and-leave until New years Eve (or as long as you can wait! 6 months +) 🙂 Brewing today was the idea of @Leedsbrew and a number of us Homebrew Forum and Twitter users are having an Imperial Stout Brew-a-long, the results should be interesting if we get to taste each others fully matured beers in a years time.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 69%
Munich Malt I (Weyermann) – 7.2%
Sugar, Date Molasses – 4.9%
Cara Aroma (Weyermann) – 4.5%
Roasted Wheat (Simpsons / Barley Bottom) – 4.5%
Sugar, Molasses (Blackstrap) – 3.8%
Roasted Rye Malt – 2.7%
Chocolate Wheat Malt – 1.8%
Carafa Special III – 1.8%
Hops:
Target – 10.2 % @ 60 mins – 83g
Bobek – 5.2 % @ 60 mins – 37g
Centennial – 11.5 % @ 60 mins – 10g
Challenger – 7.6 % @ 30 mins – 35g
Pacific Gem – 14.6 % @ 0 mins – 21g (20-30mins steep)
Hersbrucker – 3.0 % @ 0 mins – 20g (20-30mins steep)
Fuggle – 4.9 % @ 0 mins – 19g (20-30mins steep)
Stella – 15.6% @ 0 mins – 19g (20-30mins steep)
Final Volume: 20 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.096
Final Gravity: 1.022
Alcohol Content: 9.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 21.2 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 65 % (reduced from a regular 75-80%)
Bitterness: 154 EBU
Colour: 625 EBC
The Malts, 8.455kg of them:
The Sugars, Date Syrup & Blackstrap Molasses:
The day so far:
The mash was on last night at 00:50 and the temp was 66°c, at 9am this morning it had dropped to 59°c.
I did 1 sparge at 80°c with an hour’s Mash-out and collected my pre-boil volume in the copper, as I had expected this was lower than the predicted pre-boil gravity (10 points too low).
I did a second sparge at 80°c with a 30min Mash-out of 12 Litres while boiling the first run-off hard, ran off about half the mash then boiled down some more before running off the rest of the mash. I also added the sugars at this point, and continued boiling down until I reached 1086/7 when the bittering hops went in which will hopefully put me in the 1096 area for the end of the boil.
7 Degree drop over about 8 hours:
Pretty full mash tun with the sparge liquor added:
Today’s hops:
The Molasses going in:
Flameout steep hops, I threw in a 19g sample pack of Stella too (very nice smelling hop):
Dirty Copper, break material forming as the wort cools:
173g Safale US-05 yeast skimmed from previous brew and kept in the fridge for a week at 4°c, I’ll pitch the lot at 18°c:
OG: 1095 Temp corrected (Brix 23.8 with Refractometer = 1096):
Running to FV:
Pretty much hit my predicted OG, yeast pitched (still smelling of Nelson Sauvin hops from AG#70, if it wasn’t that I’ve just ruined an entire brew!) **Update, the beer in my Glass is Ta Moko, it smells just like the yeast, beer is fine)**
Copper is being very slow to run off, must be the thick sticky wort.
Its almost time for a beer, a Chilled very-early taster of Ta Moko just to see how its doing 🙂
I think I’ll be buying some more Basra Date Syrup as it tastes very good and would lend its self very well to a Belgian Ale.
Other peoples NYD Imperial Stout brewdays:Â (I’ll add more as they are posted)
Spikesdad’s Imperial Stout
Barney’s Imperial Stout
Leedsbrew’s Titan Imperial Stout Parti-Gyle brewday
Lugsy’s Super Massive Black Hole Imperial Stout
Jimp2003’s Event Horizon RIS (Slightly Belated)
Tom Dobson’s Old Black Imperial Stout
*3rd Jan ’12 – Gravity is currently 1064-ish, Tastes good, some of the hopping coming through and some Fruity stuff which might be the Date Syrup.
*4th Jan ’12 – 1050
*Bottled 18th Jan ’12 – with 60g of White Sugar, filled 50-off 330ml bottles.
*29th Feb ’12 – Taster:
The Carbonation is just about right, a good hiss when popping the cap and a solid mouth tingle.
Beer Colour is dark as it gets, if i shine a very bright LED torch at one side of the glass I can only just see a very, very faint red shape thru the glass.
Smells a leathery, dry, with a touch of alcohol and coffee.
Tastes, full mouth oily coating body, a fair amount of alcohol which lasts as long as the mouth coating, some coffee & liquorice.
I am, again, glad that i used sugars in this beer 🙂
*2nd May ’12 – Just having a bottle of this, its rather good… maybe more like a Black IPA as the sugars have obviously helped to dry it out, very drinkable 🙂
*6th Jun ’12 – Taster time! This is rather bloody good, a full smooth and oily mouth feel, crisp tingly carbonation, its getting to the stage of being like Warm Boot leather and just as chewy 🙂
- In: Brewing
- 5 Comments
Something a little different today and almost all made up with a little reference to a recipe I found online, could taste pants, but hopefully it will be a hot ‘n spicy 4.4%-ish Ginger Ale.
The Ingredients & recipe go something like this:
- Approx 21-23 Litres of hot liquor from the HLT
- 1.4Kg Ginger root, finely sliced
- 6 Lemons, finely sliced
- 1 Lime, finely sliced
- 1.5Kg Caramalt, steeped in Mash Tun then all hot liquor Sparged through it
- 1.25Kg White Sugar
- 250g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
- 150g Demerara Sugar
- 40g Ground Ginger followed by 4 Heaped Tsp of the same
- 1/2 Tsp very hot Indian Chilli powder
- 3/4-1 Tsp Cream of Tartar
- Yeast Safale s-04
Put all the ingredients in a very large pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30mins, followed by chilling down with the Immersion Cooler and running off to the FV.
I tweaked the OG to 1038 (the ingredient sugars reflect this) and also the extra Teaspoons of Ground Ginger & Chilli Powder were added near the end to adjust the spice / heat level. If the yeast ferments down to dryness it will be a 5.4% Ginger Ale 🙂
Most of the Ingredients:
Caramalt which I steeped then sparged thru to get my liquid volume in the large pan:
Lemons & Limes all sliced up:
All the Ginger chopped up:
The Steeping Caramalt:
Sparging:
Fruit Salad anyone?:
Quite an easy couple of hours this morning, time will tell what it turns out like 🙂
*Bottled 22nd Oct ’11 with 80g Demarara Sugar, fermented right down to 1000! so its dry, tastes a bit pants so I hope some carbonation lifts it, Needs sweetness!!!!
AG#32 – Kurgan’s Candy
Posted on: July 24, 2010
Kurgan’s Candy – This uses the Candy Sugar I made the other day to make a fairly strong Belgian Ale with some Duvel yeast cultured up from a bottle to a 1 Litre starter.
Fermentables:
Wheat Malt 2000g 42.5%
Lager Malt 2000g 42.5%
Sugar,Belgian Candy Light 250g 5.3%
Muscovardo Candy Light 250g 5.3%
Torrefied Wheat 200g 4.3%
Hops:
Bobek @ 60 mins 52g (Start of Boil)
Saaz @ 10 mins 36g
Final Volume: 15 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.067
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 7.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 25.9 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 28 EBU
Colour: 50 EBC – Roughly speaking!
Mash will be 90mins, Boil will be 60mins, Mash Temp will be 68c.
Yeast is cultured from a bottle of Duvel and is a 1 Litre Starter.
Lager malt, Wheat Malt, Torrefied Flaked Wheat, 1 Tsp Gypsum with thermometer stuck in it ready for the morning:
My home made Belgian (Yorkshire) Candy Sugar, LH dehydrated pee colour, RH 50/50 White Sugar & Light Muscovardo, both taken to Hard Crack:
The rest will follow tomorrow 
*Tomorrow comes, Mash was on at 7.55am
No Mash picture as its just a mash!
Big Bag of Bobek & Some Saaz Hops:
Just Waiting for the Mash, everything prepared. Old lager yeast to use as Yeast Nutrient in the boil, Half a Protafoc tablet, Scales, Thermometer, Refractometer, fully Tooled up!:
Refractometer conversion & Mash Efficiency:
End of Mash Temp, It started at 68c:
Light Straw coloured wort going into the copper:
Bobek going in at the start of boil:
I added the Lighter candy sugar after 15mins:
Then the Darker candy sugar after 30mins:
Recycling the IC coolng water to the HLT for later cleaning:
Saaz hops going in at 10mins left of boil:
OG 1061, supposed to be 1067 but I’m not bothered:
Light straw?:
Leftovers:
Some stuff going on – https://twitter.com/pdtnc
*This mornings Yeasty Head:
*Bottling update*
*Bottled 1st Aug ’10 with 60g of Light brown Sugar, tasting pretty good as a subtle Belgian.
*Tasted 5/9/10
Aroma:Â Subtle Pear drops & Banana
Taste:Â Spicy with more Pear Drops & some Sourness (possibly getting some of the Bobek & a bit of the Muscovardo in the finish)
Rather too easy drinking for a 7.5% 😉
Making Belgian Candy Sugar
Posted on: July 22, 2010
I used the guide from here http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Metho … andy.shtml I’ll have a go with some more white sugar and try and get a really deep red.
500g of White sugar simmered at 127-135c with enough water to make a thick syrup and a good healthy pinch of citric acid for about 20 mins to gain some colour.
This is half n half white sugar & muscovardo… we’ve just been eating it like toffee 😉
I used a silicone baking sheet draped over a couple of pie tins, much better than grease-proof paper
I shall have another go with just White sugar another day and see how dark I can make it, maybe add it to a Stout or a dark Belgian Ale 🙂
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
OK, I’ve gone and done it… these should be pretty different.. One weak and light, and One Dark and bitter!
Its a Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Kit split in two so I can mess around a bit with the brewing process, each of my two Fermentation Vessels
In FV1:
- 20 Pints of Geordie Yorkshire Bitter
- ASDA Smart price Liquor
- 500g Medium Spray malt
- 280g Brewing Sugar (just what I had left in a bag)
- 100g Demerara Sugar
- 20g Target Hops Steeped for 15mins in cafetiere (Hop Tea)
- Kit Yeast used and brought to life for a good couple of hours before pitching
- OG: 1040
In FV2:
- 20 Pints of Geordie Yorkshire Bitter
- ASDA Smart price Liquor
- 500g Light Spray malt
- 20g Saaz Hops steeped for 15mins in cafetiere
- Safale s04 Yeast also working well before pitching
- OG: 1032
Are they going to be OK or awful?
They might both be awful, but I’m thinking of these as experiments before I make a mess of any other kits 🙂
**Update**
The Only Drawback here is I shall probably have to prime my bottles rather than priming my Bottling Bucket (which is FV2).
I do have some other buckets but I’d have to buy a drum tap, I’ll probably stick to 1 Bucket brews after this as I think I bent my head a bit trying to remember what volumes of liquor to add…
I mixed the Kit and the liquor in 1 bucket first to less than the stated full 40 Pints, then had 1L dissolved malt/sugar and 1L-ish of Hop Tea.
They both have a nice rocky head this morning 🙂
My rehydrated yeast was pretty impressive as both the Kit Yeast and the Safale04 were trying to escape from their sterile cling-filmed jugs, the S04 was really going for it. Pitched the Yeast at about 24 Deg C.
As the pictures now show, yeast heads and constant 20 Deg C 🙂
**Second Update**
Looks like FV1 is going to have Alcohol Content (ABV): 2.89% and FV2’s Alcohol Content (ABV): 3.94% as they have both settled at around FG: 1010
**Third Update**
Primed with 40g Brewing Sugar and bottled today (07/03/09) 23 Bottles of each and half a 2L coke bottle, all capped and at 20 Deg C for 1 week. I’ve wrote on all the crown caps so I don’t get them mixed up, GYB Saaz & GYB T – Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Saaz + Light Spray Malt & Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Target + Medium Spray Malt + Brewing Sugar + Demerara.
My sneaky little taste of both brews are quite promissing as they both taste better than the Woodfordes Wherry, I’ll be looking forward to these ones. 🙂 The Saaz batch with the Safale s04 Yeast dropped out almost clear whereas the Kit yeast stayed in suspension a bit more.
The two big plastic buckets I got from work streamlined my bottle sanitizing procedure, it still took me over an hour to clean, sanitize and rinse about 50 bottles though (did some extras so i wouldn’t get caught out). I also got a couple of drum taps from the HBS so I fitted 1 bucket with a tap and used it as my bottling bucket.
Probably Due To Network Congestion 
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