Posts Tagged ‘yorkshire’
AG#125 – 2013 Homegrown Hops
Posted on: August 24, 2014
2013 Homegrown Hops – A British hopped pale ale, Yorkshire Homegrown hops from last years crop, I used the alpha acids that were last used in BeerEngine for the calculations but who knows what the bitterness will be like.
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 89%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 11%
Hops:
Challenger – 60 mins – 9g
Fuggle – 60 mins – 9g
Challenger – 5 mins – 145g
Fuggle – 5 mins – 120g
Dry Hops:
Whitbread Golding 200g for 2-4 days
Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 42 EBU
Colour: 9 EBC
Mash: 60mins @ 69°c
Yeast: Safale us-05
Malts n Salts:
Lots of Hops:
First sparge wort going onto the FWH:
Quite a Hop charge at 5mins left to boil:
I’d liquored back with 2L during the boil as my volume in the copper was looking low, this later meant that I actually missed hitting my target OG of 1053 and got 1051. Weirdly the wort smells as if its been Wet-hopped even after drying and vac-packing my homegrown hops last September and kept in the freezer until now.
*28th Aug ’14 – Gravity at 1013.5 so dry hopped with 200g homegrown WGV, the beer was tasting good as it was so this may have been a mistake! Stirring them in has probably just oxidized the beer!
*Bottled 6th Sep ’14 – with 66g of white sugar in just over 20L so the hops and yeast accounted for about 5L of losses! Tasting pretty good, big orangy taste from the dry hops.
Ossett Brewery, West Yorkshire
Posted on: October 4, 2013
I popped over to Ossett earlier today for a chat with head brewer Paul, I’d been tweet-chatting off and on with @PaulSpencer1973 of Ossett Brewery, for a while so asked if it would be ok to come over and have a look around. Ossett Brewery was started in 1997 and Paul has been brewing there for 13 years, their current brew-kit came from a cider brewery in Sweden and is 40BBL in size.
As well as being a brewer with a passion for beer & brewing at Ossett, Paul also oversees three other Microbreweries under the Ossett group, quite a task!
The Copper & Grist case (Malt Hopper):
Another shot of the copper:
Ossett have 3 different types of fermenting vessel, 9 in total if my memory serves:
A slightly blurry shot of the mash Tun and underback:
Three of the Fermenters made by Moeschle:
The Mash Tun was just about to be dug out from the first of todays brews:
Their cask washing area:
This is their Microdat cask filler, it can cope with 80-casks per hour, and doses both Finings Adjunct (Auxiliary Finings) and Isinglass Finings:
This is the conditioning room at Ossett, quite a line-up of vessels, these are also made by Moeschle:
The very front left of this shot is their Isinglass tank where they mix and store it:
I took a few home-brewed beers for Paul hope he enjoys them and got a few back from him:
Do check out their website and their funky little promo vid.
It was interesting to find out that our own Head Brewer/Owner ‘Tony Gartland’ at Saltaire Brewery actually did some work experience at Ossett back when he was training at BrewLab before starting his own brewery.
Its been good meeting Paul and some of the guys and thanks very much for taking the time to show me round, Cheers
I arranged to go over to Dark Horse Brewery the other week to buy some local beer for a family member, a 12-pack of Hetton Pale bottles and the brewer, Richard, was kind enough to let me have some quality looking branded glassware.
Again it is nice to get another brewer’s perspective on brewing and beer and find out about how they do things and the process they follow to get a glorious Yorkshire pint of beer into the drinkers hand.
Richard runs a 15bbl plant at 10bbl brew-length which used to belong to Sharp’s in Cornwall, he treats his hard Dales Limestone water from his own bore-hole to soften it, ferments with his house yeast (I think he said it was originally Holts Brewery yeast) in square fermenters before transferring to conditioning tanks before racking to cask, all brewery effluent is treated on-site with a reed bed system… very ethical and must save a fortune long term.
The Brewery building:
A section of the Reed bed:
I won’t write about the beer as others with more eloquence have already done it for me, just click the links below, and do try a pint from the Dark Horse Brewery when you see it.
Hetton Pale Ale – paganum.wordpress.com
Yorkshire’s Perfect Pint – Craven Herald
Hetton Pale Ale – Good People Eats
Hetton Best Bitter – paganum.wordpress.com
Dark Horse Brewery – YourRound
Dark Horse Brewery – Quaffale
Magic Rock Brewing Co.
Posted on: November 11, 2011
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
One of Huddersfield’s newest breweries is Magic Rock , Rich is the boss who you might already know of from myBrewerytap, Stu is Head Brewer (Famed for eating Pork Pies on Youtube), recent addition is Scott the Drayman.
I’m not going to waffle on about Magic Rock too much when there is a great article in the Independent by Will Hawkes.
Needless to say, Magic Rock are brewing some stunningly excellent beers with my current personal favourite being ‘Highwire’ a thoroughly hop-forward & dry-hopped mouth coating loveliness of a beer.
The brewery was built and installed by www.malrexfabrication.co.uk who, as you can see from the following photos, have done a very professional job.
Its a bugger of a job making a Glass & Bottle look good with a torch in the kitchen!
From Left to right and anti-clockwise, Mash Tun, Bottom of Copper, Hopback:
I’m sure on the inside there is a sticker that says ‘Caution – Hop Surface’:
Bottoms of two conical fermenters:
The long-legged gas-fired Copper boiler:
Wort flow sight-glass and pipework, wort from the mash tun is re-circulated for clarity before being pumped to the copper:
Stu & Scott preparing the ‘Curious NZ’ hops for the Hopback:
Top of the copper:
Fermenter top hatch:
Another angle of the copper, through the plastic flaps is the Malt Loft; you can just see the grist case which is above the mash tun downstairs:
Filling the Hopback with lots of lovely whole-leaf hops:
Obligatory Sight Glass shot:
Two of the other fermenters, front filled with tasty Imperial Stout and the back has RockStar (the MagicRock & DarkStar collaboration brew):
Check them out on Twitter…
@MagicRockBrewCo @MagicRockRich @MagicRockStu @MagicRockScott @MagicRockJonny
Thanks for talking the time out of your day to let me take photos and talk beer ‘n brewing, it was good to hear Stu’s alternate views on yeast. I’m sure I learned a few things from you all 🙂
AG#10 – Yorkshire Trappist Red
Posted on: October 17, 2009
Fermentables:
Lager Malt 3300g
Munich Malt 800g
Vienna Malt 800g
Golden Syrup 680g (to be added at least half way through-ish)
Belgian Aromatic Malt 400g
Caramalt 400g
Wheat Malt 300g
German Cara Red 200g
Total 6.2kg Grain
Hops:
Boadicea @ 60 mins – 31g (FWH)
Saaz Whole @ 10 mins – 23g
Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 10 mins – 23g
Protafloc Tablet Pellet @ 20 mins
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 7.7% ABV
Total Liquor: 34.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 26 EBU
Colour: 23 EBC
Whitelabs WLP500 Trappist yeast, 2 Litre starter.
90 Minute Mash @ 66 C (2 Tsp Gysum to grist)
Maybe 3 sparge batches as the Mash tun looks pretty full, but I’ll see as I go.
Water from the hot tap treated with Sodium Met, I made sure i treated lots in preparation this time:
The Grain bill, all mixed up, weighed out last night:
Mash on at 66 C for 90 mins:
Mash pH looks spot on, 2 heaped Tsp of Gypsum were added to the grist before mashing, though otherwise no other water treatment:
First Run-off:
FWH Boadicea, and Northdown as I ran out of Boadicea:
Saaz and Hersbrucker, Golden Syrup, Protafloc and Yeast Nutrient:
Lovely fat Northdown hop:
Spent Grains:
Spent Grain Recycling:
Coming to the Boil:
Saaz & Hersbrucker 10 minute hops:
Experiment with 3L and safale s-04 to see what I’m missing using the WLP500, and I saved a bit of my 2.5L starter to culture up a little more Trappist yeast, I let down my wort a little with bottled water:
This was shot with a white light LED torch behind to get some idea of the colour, I was aiming for something red, it looked better in the sunlight near the window:
OG:1066ish, just a few points lower than anticipated, won’t be worrying about that:)
A little Video Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS3u1hUr5xU
Less than 24 hours later: Fermenting away with a good yeast head @ 18 Deg C this morning, I admit I was a little scared in leaving the FV on the cold cellar floor and not all tucked up and warm in my brewing cupboard. I’m going for the “earthy” character of the yeast…
After 4 days: Trial Jar and hydro says gravity 1026, so thats from pitched yeast on Saturday afternoon until now, is this normal for an 18 Deg C ferment????
The taste test btw,…. very different! Though there’s a fair amount of un-fermented sugars in there yet, has a very malty profile so far.
6 Days later: warmed it up to about 22 C.
The Smell is pears, taste is getting to a mild chalkiness with the pear coming through too.
Still tastes malty but it has gone a little now I’ve got the FV temperature up and Its dropped about 10 points though still quite actively fermenting with plenty of bubbles rising to the surface.
You also get a bit of warming in your throat from the alcohol.
Loads of yeast still in suspension.
*Bottled 29rd Oct ‘09 with 85g sugar to about 19-20 litres.
The yeast is surprisingly subtle, loads of malt flavour, still some pear flavour and aroma.
OG @ 1010 so its got to target.
Bottling about 19-20L with 85g sugar and bottling my s-04 3L with 25g sugar.
Tasted the s-04 batch, its like Wine, the alcohol comes straight through.
It was my other halves Birthday today, so we’ve just had a couple of days up at Masham in the Yorkshire Dales 
The Black Sheep Brewery:
The Full Black Sheep set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets … 195116936/
The Theakstons Brewery:
The Full Theakstons set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/sets … 195199854/
I think? we went in all the pubs in Masham, only slightly iffy pint was from the ‘Bruce Arms’, looks like they are trying to be a bit modern and the pub has half of it as a Curry House… I’d go for a curry there again as it was bloody good but I’d give the beer a miss.
Cracking food and beer everywhere else
I’m a Black Sheep drinker, pretty much stayed away from the Theakstons except in the visitors centre bar, I find their beers to be too smooth and malt driven leaving me not wanting to drink any more.
Black Sheep on the other hand is refreshing and more-ishness with a thirst quenching ability.
The Theakstons tour is interesting as you get to see the real old brewing system that has not changed in years, its more like looking round an old factory (which you are) Its a shame they don’t expand on their lovely little visitors centre bar with a restaurant etc. I didn’t realise that it was fully Theakston owned again either, which is good to know.
Friendly staff who are most willing to let you have a free sample of everything that is on hand pull
The Black Sheep tour in comparrison is much more up-to-date with, what I’d say, is an American bent to it for our overseas visitors. The brewery still having its original slate Yorkshire Squares in use along with the more modern stainless steel versions, a good presentation and interesting guide. Two minor down sides would be the bar, although good, should be more drinker orientated… and their restaurant manager woman should be more polite when asked simple questions and not smirk at you as she tells you they are all booked up do to a function *Like, if it had said that on the blackboard on the way in it would have helped visitors*
- 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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