Posts Tagged ‘yeast’
AG#128 – Belgian Hop Burst
Posted on: September 21, 2014
Belgian Hop Burst – I wasn’t going to brew today I was going to trim the hedges, I decided to skim the yeast from the Belgian Extra Blonde in the fermenter so I could experiment more with WLP575. The yeast had thrown off a lot of sulphur while fermenting I’d guess for one of two reasons; 1/ its just a yeast that does that sort of thing, 2/ the liquor treatment I used had too much in the way of sulphates in it so it made the yeast express this with co2 as it fermented. The FV had been left on the garage floor and the thermometer strip on the side said it was at a pretty steady 22c, if that thermometer was actually a bit wrong the beer could have fermented too cool and the lack of vigorous fermentation may have stopped enough of the sulphurous odors from gassing off, though its not like I’m saying the yeast didn’t ferment vigorously as it went off like a rocket spewing out all over the garage floor 🙂
So yeah, the hedges are still in need of trimming but I have made wort! I am aiming for a fruity, malty & sweet sort of beer, this recipes lack of sugar will hopefully be compensated for by the lower mash temp than that of AG#127… we shall see.
The yeast flavour is actually quite clean so the double edged sword of a warmer more controlled ferment coupled with no added sulphates, just a simple Tsp of CaCl, will hopefully bring out more of a Belgian character and gas-off any volatile sulphur compounds.
Recipe Specs
Batch Size (L): 20.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.166
Total Hops (g): 90.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010 (°P): 2.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.03 %
Colour (SRM): 11.3 (EBC): 22.3
Bitterness (IBU): 27.2 (Rager)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Malts:
3.334 kg Pale Malt (80%)
0.208 kg CaraGold (5%)
0.208 kg Dark Crystal 340 ebc (5%)
0.208 kg Munich I (5%)
0.208 kg Vienna (5%)
Single step Infusion at 65°C for 60 Minutes.
Hops:
2.0 g Willamette Leaf (6.4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (First Wort) (0.1 g/L)
44.0 g Ahtanum Leaf (4.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Flameout Stand) (2.2 g/L) (Software calculated as 5min boil)
44.0 g Columbus Leaf (16.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Flameout Stand) (2.2 g/L) (Software calculated as 5min boil)
My yeast was raring to do with just a little wort added to it at the start of transfer so I’ll probably end up making a yeasty mess of the fermentation fridge… which is set to 24c
Malts and Calcium Chloride:
A massive 2g of First Wort Hops!
Liquored back to 1048:
*22 Sep ’14 – Gravity at 1014.5 thats fair ripped through the fermentation since pitching yesterday and no sulphurous odors and flavour is still quite clean, hop flavours tasting good.
*Bottled 4th Oct ’14 – with 70g of sugar in just short of 20L, tastes good, has more character with the warmer ferment, could use a touch more Dark Crystal to boost the colour a bit and hit a deeper red.
*15th Oct ’14 – This is tasting rather good, it has a nice slick mouth coating body, I could go a touch heavier on the hops but otherwise has good depth.
AG#127 – Belgian Extra Blonde
Posted on: September 14, 2014
Belgian Extra Blonde – A mix of Pale (didn’t have any Lager malt), Carapils, Dextrose (partly sugar as I didn’t have enough of either), Oat malt & Wheat malt.
Hops are a tiny amount of Magnum to bitter then a subtle amount of Mittlefruh in the last 5 minutes and about half the coriander you’d expect to add to a Wit.
I’m fermenting with WLP757 which I revived from a 2 year old Whitelabs tube.
The Malts, mashed at 69°c for about 90mins:
The 9g of bittering hops!
The Coriander:
Second sparge running to copper:
Hit 3 points over my target so liquored back to 1047:
I’m hoping for just a hint of coriander and a light coloured, light bodied beer with enough but not overpowering Belgianiness! I’ve used sugars for part of the bill to keep the strength at 5% ish without adding too much colour.
*16th Sep ’14 – Yeast spewing all over the garage floor this morning, the ambient temp is about 19c and the FV is a fairly steady 22c, the WLP575 is smelling quite sulphurous, this could just be the yeast or I could be encouraging the sulphur because of my Sulphate additions (Calcium Sulphate & Magnesium Sulphate) all of which should dissipate as fermentation completes.
*Kegged 20th Sep ’14 – its about time i used my cornies!
*30 Sep ’14 – taster from keg, quite a soft carbonation, has Duvel-like properties some of the Sulphur is going but some of it could be the Coriander thats confusing me. I let the keg for 24 hours at 20psi and 24 hours at 30psi then left it until now, Ive put 30psi on it again and will test it again tomorrow.
AG#126 – IPA
Posted on: September 7, 2014
Just two brewday snaps and a hop growing update really…
Going for 1057 to finish at 1014, mashed at 68c for 60mins, sparged at 78c, boiled for 60mins, fermenting with 2 packs of Safale us-05 to get an ABV of 5.6%, will be heavily dry hopping with a blend of three hops.
Malts & Salts:
Tiny amount of FWH:
The rest of the Hops were going in at 5mins before the end.
And the hops outside:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets/72157647318338112/
*Bottled 17th Sep ’14
AG#116 – Blueberry PA/Saison
Posted on: March 16, 2014
Blueberry PA / Saison – I’ve never used fruit in a beer so the NCB/Saltaire Competition on the 12th April is as good of an excuse as any… (Don’t forget Entries close on the 31st March so get your entry emails into Shane competitions@northerncraftbrewers.co.uk as there is still plenty of time to brew).
I’m going to stew up the Blueberries in a pan to kill any wild yeasts or nasties and add them during fermentation, I’m splitting the wort into two FVs and using good old us-05 in one and Belle Saison yeast in the other, I’ll enter whichever beer turns out the best.
The malts in the recipe are a bit of a mish-mash but the hopping is straight Mosaic, for its Blueberry notes, and I may pellet Dry-Hop one or both of these.
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 70.3%
Flaked Wheat – 10.6%
Caragold – 7.7%
Wheat Malt – 6.7%
Crystal Rye Malt – 4.6%
Hops:
Mosaic – 11.8 % @ 60 mins – 20g
Mosaic – 11.8 % @ 0 mins – 40g (Flameout steep for 25mins)
Dry Hops & Fruit:
Blueberries – a Punnet or two split between the FVs
Mosaic Pellet – 50g (25g per FV)
Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.056
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 5.4% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 21 EBU (I’m keeping the bitterness low to balance any acidity from the fruit and work with the dryness of the Saison yeast)
Colour: 19 EBC
Mash: 90mins @ 66c
Boil: 60mins
The malts all blended together:
Mosaic Hops smelling good:
Flameout hops:
1060.5 going for 1056:
400g per 12.5 litres Frozen Blueberries:
Microwaved and Mushed up (Added 18th Mar ’14):
*20th Mar ’14 – Gravities: Belle Saison at 1011.5 vs US-05 at 1017.5, the Saison is up at a higher temp to the us-05 just a subtle pink hue to the beer from the Blueberries, think I need more!
*22nd Mar ’14 – Dry Hopped with 25g Mosaic per FV:
Just pass me a spoon and some whipped cream 🙂
*Bottled 29th Mar ’14 – Primed with 37g sugar in the PA and 55g in the Saison
AG#111 – SAC IPA
Posted on: January 1, 2014
SAC IPA – You might see some similarities with this brew and my ‘Summit 73 E366‘ brew mainly the amounts and times of the late hops, I’m using up the last of my Pale & Lager malts along with the Cara/Crystal and some Dark Wheat.
I think this is the third year that a bunch of homebrewers have made the effort to brew on New Years Day, but its my fifth NYD brew in 5 years.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 44.3%
Munich Malt – 20.3% (some of this was English Munich and some was German)
Pale Malt – 19.5%
Wheat Malt Dark (Weyermann) – 6%
Flaked Wheat – 3.6%
Crystal Malt – 3.4%
Cara Hell – 3%
Hops:
Cluster Pellet – 7.9 % @ 60 mins – 40g (First Wort Hop)
Summit Whole – 17.5 % @ 15 mins – 15g
Apollo Whole – 19.5 % @ 15 mins – 15g
Cascade Whole – 7.9 % @ 15 mins – 15g
Summit Whole – 17.5 % @ 0 mins – 85g (20min steep)
Apollo Whole – 19.5 % @ 0 mins – 40g (20min steep)
Cascade Whole – 7.9 % @ 0 mins – 45g (20min steep)
Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.014
Alcohol Content: 5.6% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 59 EBU
Colour: 24 EBC
Mash: 67°c for an inordinate amount of time
Yeast: Safale us-05 re-pitched from last gyle
Malts & Temp:
First batch sparge running off:
Big fat hit of flamout hops:
Skimmed straight off the FV of Ring of Fire IPA, mixed with a little fresh wort and pitched at 20c:
Maybe a touch darker than style, though beating it with a paddle it was smelling really good:
It was a bit of a drawn out brewday as i was supposed to be viewing a second hand car or two but one sold and the seller of the other was a bit shit at replying to txt messages.
*Bottled & Casked 8th Jan ’14 – with 15g sugar to the cask and half a Tsp to each of 6 bottles, also the cask was dry hopped with a 60g blend of Summit, Apollo & Cascade. I think it tastes good, my smell and taste are a bit buggered at the moment thanks to a cold.
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.
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)
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