Happy birthday to me!

It was my birthday this weekend and received some home brew treats. A good haul!

The problem is that now I have the ability to make water adjustments, and a wealth of other recipes to try, I'm tempted to change my brewing schedule to do a different historic beer with my California Common yeast rather than the direct comparison with the Kolsch yeast!

We'll see .

East Street stout bottled

Bottled the East Street stout today. It really tastes promising. That's made the fermentation fridge available for the Barkley Perkins 'kolsch' to finish it's diactyl rest. The bottles of stout are in water baths carbing up. This leaves me a spare inkbird and immersion heater, so I can do the California Common version of the Barkley Perkins lager.

I received my order from the Home Brew Company, and so have enough supplies for my next few brews. I'm thinking these will be;

California Common version of BP lager
Something Belgian with the CML Belgian yeast
Something Victorian from Ron Pattinson
A Vienna lager with Kolsch yeast.

Stay tuned!

Juggling things about

I'm off work, using up annual leave, again next week, so I want to get a couple of brews in. Thing is, I don't have any fridge space or Inkbirds & fish tank heaters spare. So tonight, I went out to the garage to see what was happening.


The Barklay Perkins Lager using Kolsch yeast has dropped to 1012 already. Oh dear, I didn't manage to catch that for a diacetyl rest at 50% or so attenuation. As I suspect it has a couple of points to drop still, I've started raising the temperature. 14.5 tonight, 16.5 tomorrow and then to 18 on Monday. My logic behind the slow increase in temperature is that the Inkbird is measuring the water bath, not the wort, so I want to give the thermal mass of the FV a chance to slowly catch up to the raised temperature of the water in the bath before ramping it up again. And the sample? Wow. Double wow. I had forgotten how lovely Saaz hops are. This is a lovely drop, and already tastes clean and lager like. Once carbonated up and then left to pseudo 'lager' in the bottle for several weeks I think I may be onto a winner. Very impressed with the CML Kolsch yeast at this point and am already thinking about other historic lagers I could commit heresy with brew with this yeast ~ darker, more complex, malty beasts. Won't be ready for bottling till the end of this week at the earliest, however. So no Inkbirds to free up there.

Next up for testing was the best extra stout. This appears to have dropped to 1014 already, but, again, needs to be left for finish off. Tastes incredibly chocolaty and rich. Very nice, in fact. Both these have cheered me up a bit, after coming to the realisation that my brown ale is pants. More on that later. Again, no freeing up the brew fridge.

So I popped a bottle of ESB in the fridge, cracked it open to see of they had fully carbonated. They have, which is excellent as it frees up an Inkbird and a couple of immersion heaters. That is all I need to ferment the CML California Common version of the Barklay's historic lager.Now, it hasn't totally cleared, but it tastes really good, just what I was aiming for. It also has a cracking head, which I think has me converted to flaked barley.

So, I'd better cover the 1954 Whitbread Double Brown. On bottling, I quite liked the fruity flavour the yeast gave it. But, I'm afraid, it just doesn't work. In fact, the whole recipe is just thin, and uninspiring. Its not undrinkable, but it's not enjoyable. It just doesn't really work at all. Still, its the first all grain brew I've done that I haven't liked, so I'll chalk that up to experience.

Is it fermenting yet?

Went to check that the East Street stout was still doing its thing.

I think that's a yes! Cleaned it all up and replaced the airlock with a clean one and it's bubbling away happily, so peak crausen must have been and gone. I will have to go back to using a blow off tube. It always seems to be dark beers that cause massive yeast escape attempts, as I don't really regard Nottingham as a particularly active yeast when it comes to climbing out if the FV. Efficient and highly attenuating yes, escape artist, no. 

My Kolsch is bubbling away happily as well, and my water

bath solution for conditioning bottles is working well. One inkbird controls both the immersion heaters, but obviously the temperature probe can only be in one bath, but I've checked and they are within 1°C if each other which is fine for carbing up. I need to ask around on the forums to have a guesstimate as to how long the Kolsch yeast will take, as the idea will be to ramp up the temperature for a diacetyl rest when it's within a point or two of final gravity; obviously I don't want to be disturbing it unnecessarily and risking introducing infection by constantly measuring gravity so am idea of when this might be will be helpful.

East Street Best Extra Stout, Bring a Toy, and Pizzas

This started life as a recipe on Brewers Friend for a clone of Coopers Best Extra Stout. I then adapted various malts, and also the hops, for what I had in stock. This left me with tiny amounts of various things, so their amounts in the recipe were rounded up to use them up completely. The result was pretty far from the original clone, so it needed a new name. In Grimsby, East street is where Hewitt Brothers cooperage was (the building still stands, see photo), so I thought it would that was a tenuous link I could use.

Being off work this week, I got up nice and early, at which point out youngest announced that it wasn't 'bring a toy to school day' but 'bring one of your parents old toys' to school, preferably along with the parent to talk about it. So I needed to be in school for 1.30pm. I also had agreed to pop in to Grimsby (about an hour or so) to get some grub for tea. The latter I was planning to do during the 90 min mash, and I also needed some yeast, as my fridge only had Crossmyloof Belgian and Californian yeasts in it. I really must get into yeast recovery and banking.

As it happened, I was in town slightly longer than expected, and the 90 min mash turned into a 105 min one. I also did two batch sparges, one for 15 mins, and the second for 30 mins that gave me time to nip to the primary school and talk about my toy Mk II escort (in blue). Then back home, and the second sparge was drained, and all the wort put into the boiler. I had managed to collect 20L, instead of the planned 19; how this happened I've no idea. I batch, rather than fly sparge and measure my water in and out of the HLT. I can only think I miscounted.

So, adjusted figures were pre-boil gravity 1051 (predicted 1048) and post boil 1060 (predicted 1059). Perhaps the extended mashing bumped the efficiency up a little?

The lovely cool autumnal , mains water got the wort down to 21 degrees with no drama, and Wilko's Nottingham was pitched, with the fermentation fridge set to 20.

That's my brewery(!) at 100% capacity ~ Kolsch in a water bath, ESB in bottles conditioning / carbing up in another and the stout in the fermenting fridge. I haven't got any more inkbirds to control anything, so until the ESB bottles are ready for cold conditioning, I will have to find something else to do.

I'm thinking along the lines of a home made heated brew cupboard to replace inefficient water baths, but we'll see.

1934 Barkley Perkins Draught Lager (not)

Today was brew day for the Kolsch yeast version of this lager. The mash schedule was easier than I thought, and the temperatures all appeared about right after each addition.

However, the pre boil gravity was down a bit (1035 rather than 1037) but the post boil was way off, 1039/40 rather than 43. It must be an extraction efficiency thing as volumes were bang on. I'm wondering if I should leave the rests longer, as in the original brewery, it would have taken longer for the mash to reach rest temperature (Kristen England does point this out in the notes of Rons post, which I appear to have managed to ignore).

The immersion chiller got the wort down to 23/4° in a reasonable time, yay for autumn water table temperatures, and I then left it in a water bath with a couple of ice packs. Pitched 2 packs of CML Kolsch yeast when the wort was around 18°, but falling rapidly, and I had a peek tonight and the yeast was just starting while the wort was about 14. The weather forecast tonight is for lows of 9° so hopefully it will settle at 12° when the heater kicks in.

Bottling the ESB

Bottled the ESB today, which will come out just over 6% one primed. The sample was really promising, which I'm really pleased about because I made the recipe up myself. Clear as a bell (my sample jar is plastic and not totally transparent), which I find is always the case with Mangrove Jack's Liberty Bell yeast. Lots of malt, balanced with hop bitterness, East Kent Golding flavours and some aroma. It's no hop bomb; more nice fruity yeast esters with caramel malts. I don't think the crystal will be overpowering, or too much, but I won't really know this until its fully conditioned and I can sink a few. It reminded me a bit of Batemans Victory, but perhaps I am sipping it through rose tinted taste buds. Certainly, pushing the yeast to the top end of its recommended temperature range has worked really well.

I actually found that bottling wasn't such a chore this time; perhaps I'm getting used to it and my technique becoming more efficient. I do, however, need to change the FV that my little bottler tap is fitted to as its mounted too high in the present one and needs lowering so that I can more easily get the last few bottles out without having t tip the FV. That's something I'll look into soon. I also solved the issue I've always had with my brew fridge that I couldn't fit an entire brews worth of bottles in at one go. Voila! A quickly cut up piece of chipboard and an improvised shelf that sits on the bottles below. The chipboard should spread the weight across the bottles, so I don't think it will be putting a huge strain on them. I'm brewing tomorrow, but will be popping that in a builders tub water bath, so the fridge won't be required and the bottles can sit there until carbonated (7-10 days with this yeast in my experience).

Busy week, and beers

Using up some annual leave this week, and have got lots of beer related stuff to do. I've also got a ton of DIY tasks to complete, and want to get back exercising, so something will no doubt fall y the wayside, but here are my home brew plans.

Tomorrow, I will be bottling my ESB. I switched off the brew fridge yesterday, so it will be gradually cooling down to 9° C or so ambient temp. I have decided enough is enough with my King Kegs. Since returning to home brewing, I have suffered leaking S30 valves, leaking taps, taps that leak gas under full pressure, but most annoyingly, two Hambleton Bard S30 cylinders that were faulty and lost all their gas. These aren't cheap, the the only solution would be to get a pub bottle and adapters, which is a lot of clat. I really like the way that a properly working, primed King Keg can dispense cask ale like beer, if the tap is right and the pressure is correct, but I'm fed up with the S30 expense / reliability issues. Cornie kegs are meant to be more reliable, but are a bit keg like (obviously!) with all that force carbing malarky. So, I'm bottling all my brews for now. I really (really) dislike bottling, so this might not last, but a leaking bottle is a single bottle lost, rather than a whole keg, and they can be warmed / cooled if the ambient temperature is anywhere near beer cellar serving temperature. You can also set down bottles for ages, and it only ties up some bottles, not a whole keg.


I want to get one of my pseudo lagers on the go this week, with the Crossmyloof Kolsch yeast. Ambient temps here aren't forecast to exceed 14℃, which in my garage will be more like 12℃ ~ so a builders trub heated water bath will be fine, as it will onl need to heat at night when its cold, and never have to worry about cooling. This will free up the brew fridge, which I am going to use to do a   'Coopers best extra stout sort of clone', or more accurately something that started with a Coopers Best Extra Stout clone recipe that I then modified to suit what I have in my brewing cupboard.

I cracked open two bottles of my 1954 Whitbread Brown ale yesterday. Its really nice, but also a testament to my lack of brewing experience, I think. The style would have suited a more neutral yeast, the lovely esters given off by MJ's Liberty Bell just don't seem to site right with the style. I am hopefully going to do some yeast re-culturing soon (more on that in another post), but if I brew a historic brown ale before I've banked a suitable liquid yeast, I'll probably try Fermentis S04, which is meant to be a Whitbread strain. Being still rather young, the head wasn't very long lasting (as you can see from the photo) but then I don't really remember brown ales being massive, lacy headed monsters? I am encouraged to brew more brown ales, however.

Next up is my Kentucky Common. Let's be honest, I've no idea whatsoever how authentic this tastes, but its a really great beer. Very, very drinkable. Smooth, malty, but not heavy in any way; the CML Cali common yeast really gives it a snappy clean finish. Having heard directly from CML that this yeast benefits from a decent lagering / storage period, I am probably drinking it too young, but I don't care. Its lush!

More Historic 'sort of' Lager

Bit if an update in these plans. It has occurred to me that as I plan to ferment the two yeasts at different temperatures, which means I need to use different water baths for temperature control, there is no advantage to splitting a batch into two 10L FV's. Originally, I had this idea of two identical, bar the yeast, batches sat side by side in the same water bath so as to give a common environment and less variables between the two batches so that all the differences would be down to the yeasts. However, now they will be at different temperatures, and may well need different duration's for their primary fermentation, and adding to this is the fact that a further email exchange with CML has confirmed that the yeasts will benefit from a diactyl rest, I've decided I'm just going to do two batches, probably a few weeks apart as I will want to do an ale next.

I've ordered the Saaz and the yeasts, so I just need to get the malts. I'm going to do the Kolsch first, I think. Good news is all the weather forecasters are warning of something of a cold snap, so I should have no issues keeping the water bath at 12 degrees.

John's House ESB update

This had dropped to 1010° after a week, and appears finished. I've will leave it over more week to clear up, but the sample was crystal clear, amber and tasted lush! After priming, it will be over 6%, which is a little high. If it tastes as good after priming, bottling and conditioning then I don't think I need to mess with the recipe much, so will mess around with different yeasts. Danstar Windsor or ESB next maybe, it perhaps finally venture into liquid or recovered yeasts territory?

Kentucky Common update

This has now dropped clear, and its very nice. The CML California Common yeast has done exactly what it was supposed to; produced a beer where the hops and malts are the stars, not the yeast character. I didn't lager or cold store this ale for the time CML recommend, and this would have improved it, I believe, as its taste gets 'cleaner' by the day. I'm now planning a pseudo lager with it ( and CML's Kolsh yeast - see here). I'v updated my yeast page accordingly.

Historic 'sort of' Lager

I fancy using the Crossmyloof California Common and Kolsch yeasts to produce a pseudo lager. I also fancy giving one of Ron Pattinson's historical British lager recipes a spin. Sounds like an excellent opportunity to mess around and experiment a bit.

So here is the plan.

1. The recipe.

This will be based on Rons '1934 Barclay Perkins Draught Lager' from his blog. I've scaled it to 19L in the FV, choose to use Saaz for the hops, like Kristen England, and I've also attempted to adapt the mash schedule he describes in the comments for my equipment.

1934 Barclay Perkins Draught Lager

Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 19 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 22.2 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.037
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV (standard): 4.35%
IBU (tinseth): 24.1
SRM (morey): 3.3

FERMENTABLES:
1.86 kg - United Kingdom - Lager (50%)
1.86 kg - United Kingdom - Pale 2-Row (50%)

HOPS:
25 g - Saaz, Type: Pellet, AA: 3.5, Use: Boil for 90 min, IBU: 14.03
25 g - Saaz, Type: Pellet, AA: 3.5, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 10.08

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 51 C, Time: 40 min, Amount: 9.3 L, Use 56.4 degrees stike
2) Temperature, Temp: 70 C, Time: 20 min, Amount: 6.9 L, boiling
3) Temperature, Temp: 77 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 5.4 L, boiling
4) Sparge, Temp: 79 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 10.9 L, mash
Starting Mash Thickness: 2.5 L/kg

I'm undecided on the pale malt to use, but am leaning towards Golden Promise rather than Marris Otter. I'll probably change my mind on the way to the home brew shop several times.

2. The yeasts.

CML's specifications give a lower end for fermentation temperature at 15° for both yeasts. So I sent them an email asking if this could be lowered if the pitch rate was doubled. That way, I can split the 19L batch into 2, and use one packet of yeast in each. I got a really prompt response from Steve at CML explaining that the lowest they had used them at double pitch was 14° for the California Common and 12° for the Kolsch. They also recommend a 8-12 week lagering for each yeast. I've got two 'heat only' inkbirds going spare so if I can rig up two water bags with fish tank heaters I should be good to go as soon as ambient temperatures are no higher than 12°. The weather is turning here so that could be very soon.

3. The method.

I'll mash and boil & chill as per the recipe.  Then split the wort into 2 10L FV's, put them in the water baths. Both well then be left to do their thing for however long it takes for them to complete fermenting. Then they will be bottled, left to carbonate in the water baths at a slightly higher temp, probably around 18°, then stored away in a cool wintry garage for the suggested lagering time.

Hopefully, as well as producing some amazing historic almost lager, I will be able to do an honest comparison of the two yeasts too see which I prefer. I can then add historic lager recipes to the long list of beers I don't have time to brew!

John's House ESB: First attempt.

When I brewed my Kentucky Common, I was struck that, if I tweeked the recipe a bit, and changed the yeast / fermenting temperature, I might have the start of a nice house bitter of some kind. So, I played around with the grist in Brewer's Friend, and came up with the following. The main changes were the switch from Vienna to Munich, dropping the block malt, and using dark as well as normal crystal malt. I also dropped the maize. So, the result was;

Title: John's House ESB
Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Strong Bitter
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 26.4 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.041
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)
STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV (standard): 5.4%
IBU (tinseth): 49.1
SRM (morey): 12.67
FERMENTABLES:
4 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (80%)
0.5 kg - German - Munich Light (10%)
200 g - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (4%)
100 g - Flaked Barley (2%)
200 g - United Kingdom - Extra Dark Crystal 120L (4%)
HOPS:
20 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 23.3
25 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 22.39
25 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Pellet, AA: 5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 3.42
MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 68 C, Time: 90 min, Amount: 15 L
2) Sparge, Temp: 72 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 18.4 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg
YEAST:
Mangrove Jack - Liberty Bell Ale M36
Fermentation Temp: 22.5 degrees.

All went well, and I ended up with exactly 20L in the FV  at exactly 1055. I managed to get the wort down to the low 30's with the immersion chiller, then sat it in the fermenting fridge to cool it the rest of the way. Yeast sprinkled on the foam on top of the wort at around 28, by which time it was cooling rapidly so by the time it will have rehydrated it was down near 23. It's now sat at 22.5 +/- 0.5 on the inkbird. Fermenting away already, which isn't unusual for this yeast.

If this turns out ok, I'll start playing with different yeasts and making the odd small change until I have a house bitter I'm happy with. Updates to follow!

Colour adjustment

My 1954 Whitbread Double Brown was bottled today, and needed colour adjusting. I had been putting off bottling for this reason, and just kept forgetting to either pop into a home brew shop while on my work travels, or order some Brupacks brewers caramel online. However, Tesco provided the answer for the princely sum of 85p, in the form of Sarson's Gravy Browning. Er, gravy browning? As in meat? Well, no, not really. Its mainly caramel colourant with a tiny, tiny amount of salt and glucose syrup. This is a home brewers trick of yesteryear, and I can see why. Two teaspoons gave my 19L batch the required colour boost, and before and after tasting showed no difference whatsoever.

The sample tasted really nice; the combination of yeast and fermentation temperature has given it a slight fruityness that balances the bitterness nicely. I'm not sure that is right for the style, but I like it.

Yeasts

This thread on the home brew forum on home brewers most / least favorite yeasts gave me an idea for a page on this blog, of the yeasts I've used and my experiences with them. Some yeasts characteristics are highly subjective, such as taste, suitability for your favorite beer style, etc, but other things, such as reliability or performance are more universal, so I hope you find it of use.

1954 Whitbread Double Brown & Kentucky Common updates

The Kentucky common is carbed up, but really really cloudy. It went into the PB clear as a bell, so I'm hoping it will settle down. Tastes nice; clean, slightly malty. The hop character has disappeared somewhat, or it may be being masked by the yeast that can be tasted. I'm going to leave this alone for 2 weeks to drop clear.

The 1954 Whitbread Double Brown has finished at 1006, which gives an ABV of around 6% after priming. Yikes! Its as totally clear, so I will bottle this at the weekend. It isn't very brown at all, more amber, so I can only assume it was coloured up with caramel by Whitbread. If I can get my hands on some brewers caramel before bottling day I'll do the same.

Up next will be, erm, don't know yet. Maybe a Graham Wheeler recipe? Still deciding.

1954 Whitbread Double Brown

In my attempt to recreate the brown ales from my youth I thought I would start by brewing a Ron Pattinson researched historic recipe, either from his blog or his guide to vintage ales. Eventually, I settled on the 1954 Whitbread Double Brown here

It looked a good start because it appeared to have a reasonable abv, and didn't just rely on brewers caramel for colour ~ I'm not sure why the latter is important to me, it just is. I will not doubt brew one that is coloured in this manner soon to compare.

The recipe, when scaled down to my 20L batch size, needs 740g of number 3 brewers invert for the batch size I'm planning. I'm going to use the dilution method to create this using golden syrup and black strap molasses. However, its brew day and my golden syrup bottle only holds 680g, not the 780g I thought it did. So a bit of jiggling with figures, and I'll be using the following as my #3 invert substitute;

Golden syrup 680g

Meridian molasses 26g

Demerara Sugar 39g.

I'm also going to use EKG instead of fuggles, because I've got loads, and have adjusted the hop additions to give the same IBU. Oh, and I'll be using Mangrove Jack's Liberty Bell yeast instead of the Whitbread yeast recommended by Ron.

So, all things considered, it will probably turn out nothing like the original! The mash is on, photo's later.

Update: Well, the good news is the first runnings are brown, even before the late sugar additions, that should darken it further.

Update 2: OG is 1049, which is down on target but some of the golden syrup refused to dissolve in the wort, so I sieved it out when pouring the sugar mixture into the boiler, as I didn't want the lumps scorching on the boiler element. That, and the fact my efficiency is pants! The sample doesn't look that brown to me. The sample tasted OK, not too bitter. Once the wort was cooled to 24 degrees, the yeast was spinkled on the top of the foam that had formed on the wort surface when transferring from the boiler, and its been placed in the brew fridge set at 22.5 degrees. Now the wait begins.....

Update 3: Fermenting away nicely. Smells lovely, which is often the case with Liberty Bell yeast, especially when it's working at the top end of it's temperature range.

Brown Ale

Back in my youth, the drink of choice for my crowd was either Bateman's XB or XXXB. However, in the late 1980's, there were many a pub that limited, sometimes no, real ales and also many that had real ale, but it was kept appallingly. So the budding drinker needed a back up plan. For us, it was brown ale. Now, in 1987, Newcastle Brown ale was a very different beast to what it is today, and this was the bottled brown that most likely to be found in a pub that was otherwise a fine ale desert. Today's Newkie is a shadow of its former self, in the late 80's it was actually worth drinking. Sometimes, however, there were occasions where something else was on offer.

One such occasion was in Louth trad jazz club. A club that was open once, possibly twice, a week, and probabally had no opportunity to offer anything from a cask. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that they had anything on tap at all, although I may be wrong. They did, however, have brown ale. Another such occasion was a Northern Soul do in a working mans type club somewhere around Chapel St Leonard's (I have hazy recollections of this evening, other than the music being a revelation, I may even be mixing up several different similar evenings in different places, such were the heady days of my late teens). On one of those occasions I had a pint bottle or ten of a really fine brown ale that wasn't Newkie brown or the dreaded Manns; and it is to my great shame that I don't know which establishment, or remember what ale it was.

Fast forward to 2018 and my better half and I have a weekend in lovely York; a place I really like and one of the few cities in the UK that I actually enjoy visiting rather than just tolerate. One of the pubs we visited was the Sam Smiths pub, the Kings Arms. A bottle of Sam Smiths Nut Brown ale got me thinking nostalgic thoughts. What were those other brown ales I sometimes used to come across?

It was possible, maybe, that Bateman's might have still been brewing and bottling their Double Brown and Nut Brown ales, although I have my doubts ~ I think I would have missed them by a couple of years. Double Maxim possibly? Shipstones perhaps?

Why am I telling you all* this? Well, I have decided to try and recreate a brown that 1980's mod JJSH would have enjoyed. In order to do this, I'm going to search out every brown ale I can that is being commercially brewed, review them, and then start from there. If anyone has any ideas of UK brown ales for me to try, pop them in the comments.

So far, my list is;


Cat Asylum Brewery ~ Nutty Brown
Cat Asylum Brewery ~ HB - A Newark Brown Ale
Ashover Brewery ~ Thor Cake
Blue Monkey Brewery ~ MonkeyNuts
Sam Smiths ~ Nut Brown Ale
Shipstones ~ Nut Brown Ale
Maxim Brewery ~ Double Maxim
Heineken International ~ Newcastle Brown Ale
Marstons ~ Manns Brown Ale



* I use the term 'all' but am not actually sure anyone reads this blog at all, looking at my stats.

Kentucky common finally packaged

This brew has now had 2 weeks fermenting at 17 degrees, 1 week to 10 days crashing / sort of

largering at 4 degrees then the remainder of the week gradually returning to ambient temperature. I packaged it today in a king keg that I cleaned using oxi, then bleached using unscented thin bleach, then treated with campden powder to remove any chlorine and finally sanitised with Videne. Why the paranoia? Well, my Lovibond  ale picked up a taint in its king keg, so I've decided it's not that much extra effort to do the above every time and the king keg smelt clean as a whistle!

The Kentucky common was super clear and stable at 1010, giving about 4.7%, maybe 5 after priming.

The taste was excellent, clean like a lager, but malty as well. However, there is a lovely black currant slight fruit flavour coming from the Bramling Cross hops. Very excited to try this one in a few weeks after it has carbed up and conditioned. I'm also keen to do the same recipe again, but with an English ale yeast, as I think it's a very promising grain bill and hop schedule. Colour is almost like a brown ale. Updates to follow.

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a .... substitute for American 6 row?

Planning a brew to put down for Christmas, which is only 12 weeks away, so anything huge is out of the window as I don't have sufficient conditioning time. Enter, stage left, Ron Pattinson's blog, and his guide to Vintage beer, for a massive resource of suitable recipes.

The problem? Well, it's a problem I keep having with many of these historic recipes, mainly American 6 row pale malt. I can't get it here in the UK, and can't find any consensus on what would be a suitable substitute. Some say 'meh, don't worry, just use any pale malt', others say Vienna, others UK distilling malt. Arrrgggh! I suspect it may vary from recipe to recipe; if it was used for its huge diastatic power, maybe distillers malt, if it was used because it was cheap and neutral in flavour, maybe any old pale malt. But that is just my uninformed guess.

So I've settled on 1804 Barklay Perkins TT ~ a nice early porter that doesn't use any 6 row, and isn't crazy strong.

Brews update and stuff

The Kentucky Common has finished at 1010, giving a pleasing 4.73% abv and apparent attenuation of 78%, which is within yeast specifications. Tastes nice, but is hazy. No yeast taint whatsoever so this is one CML yeast I can get on with. It has a nice hop bitterness and taste, with a surprising amount of malt coming through. As I planned,  I've set the fermenting fridge to 4 degrees to cold crash it before I package it in a King Keg. On that front, I need to dismantle the S30 valve on my second keg, replace the rubbers, then check if for sealing, as it was leaking. I've got the kit for this, so I'll try and remember to take some photos to post.
My Lovibond XB has dropped clear, and tastes OK. The taint from the barrel appears to be subsiding, so I'll leave it a bit longer. Its very hoppy!

Kentucky common after 1 week

After a week, the experimental brew has dropped to between 1010 and 1012. It still looked fairly effervescent and active so it may have a couple of points to go. CML say it's Californian yeast performs in a similar manner to Mangrove Jack's Californian yeast. If that's the case, then brewers friend says it should finish around 1010, so I think it probably needs leaving another week to totally finish then clean up after itself. I am fermenting at the bottom end of its temperature range after all. Then I'll cold crash for a couple of days before packaging.

I tasted the sample and am quite hopeful for this brew. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, it didn't have the yeasty tang that I detected with the other two CML yeasts that I have tried; US pale and real ale. Secondly, it had a malty, fruity taste that was nice. Not estery fruity from the yeast, but from the Bramling Cross hops; or actually had quite a clean finish.

A long way to go, and anything could happen, but a very encouraging start.

Some bad news; the Ron Pattinsons Lovibond XP appears to have picked up a taint from the king keg I used. My fault, I had lent it to a friend who told me he had used Milton to sterilise it, I must not have rinsed it out enough. School boy error. I'm hoping it will fade with time, as it hasn't cleared yet so there is hope!

Kentucky common update

Well, this is interesting. It's took off, with the Inkbird keeping the temp between 16 & 17. It must have been fairly vigorous, as it blew the top of the airlock off, but I've put it back on. Predictably, it isn't bubbling now but I can see activity. I think this is the air lock; the top part is too firm a fit so pressure builds up and it pops off.

It looks to be a proper bottom fermenting yeast, which as I understand it, is correct for the style; I read somewhere that some of these supposed Cali common yeasts were top fermenting ale yeasts that just happened to be quite clean, which isn't what they would have used in the gold rush era; they would have been bottom fermenting lager yeasts that could tolerate the higher temps. 

Either way, all the activity appears in the lower part of the fv with just a bit of crud on the top. 

All very interesting.

I've asked on the forum if a period of lagering will be required, as the packet and yeast specs say it may improve things. I'm hoping to get away with just a cold crash, and so far the wisdom of the forum suggests this will be OK. After all, the early American settlers wouldn't have had any means of doing this, so it will be true to style. I'll take the first gravity reading on Friday (after 1 week).


Update, Day 4 ~ OK, so no it has a think krausen and looks much like a top fermenting yeast, so who knows. I'll leave it alone now to see how it comes out.

Kentucky Common inspired 'use it up' brew

I wanted to try to use up the various odds and ends I had hanging around. Yeast wise, I wanted to use the last remaining Crossmyloof yeast that I had, which was the California Common. I had been reading about Kentucky Common ale, and thought I could knock something similar up with my leftovers. Brewers Friend calculated this;



HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Kentucky common

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Kentucky Common
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 27.7 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.041
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV (standard): 6.1%
IBU (tinseth): 28.71
SRM (morey): 14.75

FERMENTABLES:
2 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (41.7%)
1 kg - Flaked Corn (20.8%)
0.5 kg - German - Vienna (10.4%)
100 g - American - Black Malt (2.1%)
100 g - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (2.1%)
1 kg - United Kingdom - Lager (20.8%)
100 g - Flaked Barley (2.1%)

HOPS:
10 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 11.68
15 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 13.47
20 g - Bramling Cross, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 3.56

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 64 C, Time: 62 min, Amount: 14.4 L
2) Sparge, Temp: 70 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 18.6 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg


For some reason, I didn't hit my usual efficiency, so my OG was 1046, quite some points down. However, if this hits an FG of 1010, then that will give a more quaffable sub-5% beer, so Im not really bothered. Some of the crushed grains were over 6 months old, so that my be the reason.

Here is a blury picture of the sample. It looks (and actually tasted) like a brown ale to me, so we will have to see what the yeast contributes to it. The wort is chilling down from the 30 odd degrees C the wort chiller could get this down to in this heat, down to 17 in the brew fridge. I think I'll pitch at 22, which is the top end of the yeast specs, in the hope that once the yeast has hydrated and started, the wort will be down to 17. I'll keep you updated.

1864 Lovibond XB

A recipe from Ron Pattinson's book, which I won't reproduce here, apart to say that despite being a Pale Ale, rather than an IPA, it uses over 170g of hops in a 5 UK gallon brew, all of the East Kent Goldings.

Target OG / FG was 1052/1011 giving an ABV of 5.56%. I hit 1056. I pitched Nottingham yeast rather then the specified Whitbread liquid yeast, and it finished at 1004. Gulp ~ after priming, this is going to be the wrong side of 7%. My plan was to bottle this, but along with the fantastic sun and heat this summer has brought, it has increased the fly count so I put it in a King Keg in the end. Its had a week conditioning now and has already started to clear; a combination of 4 weeks in the primary caused by work and family life intervening.

It tastes very promising ~ quite bitter, obviously, but it also has an intense hop taste. This surprised me as none of the additions are later than 30 mins.

More on this once its conditioned fully.

A Vintage Ron Pattinson brew

I've wanted to brew a recipe from Ron Pattinsons 'The Home Brewers Guide to Vintage Beer' for a long time, the problem was, which one? This isn't helped by his excellent blog, which keeps popping up with other great recipes I want to try out.

I also recently returned from a Scottish trip, where I had the opportunity to try out many a local ale, and fancy brewing something old and Scottish as well.

So, the quest to brew a perfect mild, bitter and brown ale is going to take a back seat while I have a go at the following brews. Firstly, from the book, an 1864 Lovibond XP. Then, from his blog, an 1868 Younger XP.

I'll keep you posted.

AG#3 - Hop Back Mild update

Packaged this in a King Keg today; it had finished at 1004 which was very low. The temperature corrected reading for the OG was 1030, so that gives a respectable 3.41 before priming for conditioning and about 3.6-3.7 after. I didn't have any white table sugar to hand, so I boiled up 90g of unrefined cane brown sugar. I think ~that works out about right for 19l of British Ale.

It tasted good, a bit thin, but I'm finding that all beers are tasting a bit 'thin' before conditioning, I think its really the lack of dissolved CO2 I'm tasting, as they all seem to come good after priming and conditioning.

Its now sat at 19C in an Inkbird controlled water bath.

I really like the MJ Liberty Bell yeast, but I'm wondering if I should give a yeast a try that doesn't attenuate so much, or perhaps mash at a different temperature to get more non-fermentable sugars? I need to do some research...

GW Hopback Summer Lightning clone update

Bottled this yesterday. Gosh, how I dislike bottling, all the washing, rinsing, sanitizer, etc etc. Give me packaging in a King Keg any day.

I got 30 bottles, and it's finished at 1007. Thats knocking on the door of 5.2% abv when it's finished carbonating. For such a strong beer, it's very easy drinking; in fact there's not much to it. Hoping for a nice summer quencher.

I need to get a King Keg back from a friend then I'll package the hop back mild that's in the 2nd FV.

I'm split between doing a bitter (Timmy Taylor's Boltmaker clone) or a historic recipe from Ron Pattinsons blog next; watch this space.

GW's Hop Back Summer Lightning update #2

Tested this yesterday; its finished, so I've turned off the water bath it was in to cool it and get as much yeast as possible to drop out. It tastes pretty good; not complex, but light , dry and with a nice level of bitterness. There is a hint of Goldings citrus coming through, but it isn't modern US Pale Ale levels ~ this is an English beer from the late 1980's after all.

I'm going to bottle this weekend.

Then next up will be a classic 1920's IPA from Ron Patterson, and then a bitter of some sort from Graham Wheeler.

AG#3 - Hop Back Mild

I decided to try another mild from Graham Wheeler's BYOBRA, this time Hop Back Mild. 90 min mash, 60 mins boil - but I forgot to allow for a shorter (than the recipe) boil time and thus had a couple of more litres of wort into the FV with the subsequent decrease in OG. Even if this brews out to 1007, it's still going to only be 3% ABV ~ a proper session ale, lol. Here is a pic of the first runnings;

Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell yeast again. Not much more to say really, as I can't post the recipe for copyright reasons.

* update - I've just realised I didn't correct the hydrometer reading for temperature. Onve I did, the OG was actually a little over target, it anything. Good news!

GW's Hop Back Summer Lightning update

The 3x combo Cooper yeast took off very quickly and a healthy yeast head was formed after less than 12 hours. All seemed to be going well...

Then, we have a perfect example of 'a little bit of knowledge' being a dangerous thing. I opened the brew fridge on day 3 and was met with a pungent, rotton egg smell. Now, I've had this before once or twice in the past with Coopers kits to no ill effect, but I made the mistake of searching the internet, and found a quote apparently from a John Palmer ( i.e. a beer god) book. Apparently, this meant one of two things; its normal for some lager yeasts, otherwise you have an infection.

Yikes. Panic set in....

However, I decided to ride it out, as there was nothing I could do, and a couple of days later it has gone. I think it's the yeast.

Today, I needed to move the brew fridge from the conservatory to the garage, and as I had to disturb the FV anyway I took the opportunity to take a sample and test it. It has dropped to 1007, so I assume it has done, and it tastes fine. I'm going to leave it for the usual 10 days - 2 weeks anyway to clean up after itself, cold crash it for a couple of days then bottle it, I think, although I may put it in a King Keg if it isn't very interesting. Either way, its  a success so far!

GW's Hop Back Summer Lightning

Today's brewday was Graham Wheeler's Hop Back Summer Lightning clone.

Bit if a calamity at mash time; after 90 mins I turned the tap on to get a rush of wort then... nothing. I didn't think I could have a stick mash at 3L per Kg, so I investigated and found the bazooka filter had come off the inner barb of the tap, and the tap had blocked. So, it was a case of taking all the grain and wort out into an FV, unblocking the tap, refitting the filter, putting it all back in, then proceeding as normal. I need to look at that to try and stop that happening again. Anyway, the sparge went fin, but I was so anxious to get the bloomin wort out I didn't lauter that well, so we will have to see if that effects final clarity / taste. Cooling took longer than in colder weather, obviously, but other than that, all went well. Oh, apart from me touching the cooled wort with the tip of my unsanitised finger....

I used a crazy combo of 3x Coopers kit yeasts that I had hanging about in the fridge, one was a normal coopers yeast, one came with the ruby porter, and one with the IPA. That was because I realised I didn't have any Nottingham in stock, and didn't want to risk using the CML yeast I had in stock. I had a Mangrove Jacks that I could have used (Liberty Bell) but I need that for my next mild, and anyway, wanted to try the crazy coopers yeast combo. It will either work or it won't (this appears to be a reoccurring brewing theme of mine  )

Final gravity was 1046, and I got 17.5 L into the FV, which if it drops to 1009 would mean an ABV of 4.86. That less than I should have got into the FV, and subsequently a higher FG, but I suspect that was due to messing about with the mash extending the mash time and me loosing some wort while transferring it into the FV temporarily.

Brewing update

The mild is down to 1009ish after 4 days, and almost clear. Tastes good already, even though it's really young, but I'll leave it for the usual 2 weeks before packaging even though the gravity suggests I could get away with one. This is pretty standard, it seams, for Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell yeast; starts quickly, smells nice, finishes promptly. It adds a mild (no pun intended) amount of esters and fruity tastes to a brew, but nothing totally dominating. 

Can't wait to get going with my next AG brew, not sure what it is going to be yet, possibly another mild. Or a golden ale. Or an IPA (traditional English one, of course). We'll see.

I've also finally bottled my two WOWs that took an age to clear. They have some promise, but am not yet convinced they will be suitable to keep us in wine. We'll see on that one as well.

Oh, and some happy news; I've won something! Inkbird were giving away some stuff and I was the very greatful winner of an ITC 306. In fact, when the package came, it contained two. Yippee!  I plan to build a brew cupboard with one and use the other to control the water temp on my Burco. 

AG#1 - Batemans Dark Mild

Today I brewed this recipe;

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Batemans Dark Mild

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Dark Mild
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 20 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 23.1 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.027
Efficiency: 65% (brew house)


STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.031
Final Gravity: 1.007
ABV (standard): 3.11%
IBU (tinseth): 22.18
SRM (morey): 23.8

FERMENTABLES:
2.42 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (78.3%)
0.36 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (11.7%)
0.21 kg - American - Black Malt (6.8%)
0.1 kg - Torrified Wheat (3.2%)

HOPS:
14 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 90 min, IBU: 19.91
8 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Pellet, AA: 5, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 2.27

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 67 C, Time: 90 min, Amount: 9.5 L
2) Sparge, Temp: 72 C, Time: 15 min, Amount: 18.7 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg

YEAST:
Mangrove Jack - Liberty Bell Ale M36
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 76%
Flocculation: Med-High
Optimum Temp: 16.67 - 23.33 C
Fermentation Temp: 20 C

First things first ~ I made a mess of hitting my strike temp, simply heating the water to 67 C, rather than calculating how much over this it needed to be to give a mash temp of 67 C. That meant I had to calculate and add some boiling water to the mash, which I did, but this didn't quite work, so I had to add a bit more,

After the 90 min mash, I drained the mash tun, and forgot to lauter my wort, which I might get away with as its a dark beer. Then the remaining hot water was added ( I remembered to calculate this time) for the 72 C sparge. The tun was lautered / drained and I ended up with just over 23L of wort to transfer into the boiler. 

The boil went well, as did chilling the wort. However, as I was draining the final part of the cooled wort into the FV a drip of water fell into it from the garage door that was open above the boiler, so I didn't risk transferring any more. So I only ended up with 15L in the FV. However, when I cam to clean up I doubt there was the expected further 5L in there ~ so I need to revisit both measuring the dead space in my boiler, and it's boil off rate and update my equipment profile in Brewers Friend.

The result was wort with an OG of 1040, which is higher that expected ~ the hydrometer in the picture reads 2 points high ~ and  if it ferments down to 1007 will give an ABV of about 4.3%. The sample tasted really good; much better than any kit / modified kit I have ever brewed.

Yeast added, its sat in my fermentation fridge at 20C. I've got high hopes for this one.

Lincolnshire breweries

See? I told you something would intervene and stop me doing my first all grain. A heavy cold, and a broken patio door blocking the route between where I would boil and the kitchen mean its on hold for a few days. So, to keep me amused while I am not brewing, I'm going to start researching Lincolnshire breweries, past and present.

Exciting, huh?

The map is here. There is nothing on the map yet, but I am thinking of having a blog page or post (don't know which yet) per brewery, and a pin on the map that takes you to it. Hopefully, I can have two colour pins for existing and historical breweries.

That's what I've got in my head at the moment, but I suspect it will be an evolving idea.

Wort chiller

I now have a wort chiller, so can finally do my first ever full all grin brew. In the end, after realising I could use my nectar points on ebay, I brought one as it was less faff than making one, and by the time I'd got y hands on a pipe bender, not that much cheaper. Once I'd factored in the nectar points, it only set me back £7. Its really great, well made, and I've connected it up today and doesn't leek. It fits my 30L Burco perfectly.

Hope to be brewing one day this week (haven't I said that before?).

WOW updates

I racked the first of the WOW Rose wines into a fresh demijohn containing a teaspoon of campden powder and also wine stabiliser. It was degassed then finings added and is now somewhere cool to clear, once it is it will be bottled The second had thrown a huge amount of sediment, and I also realised I needed to add another 100g of sugar as I'd only added 600g originally, so I made up a syrup, and added this to a fresh demijohn whilst racking the wine from the first. Judging by the airlock activity, this still has a way to go before I rack it again.

Kitsters last stand update #3

I've bottled this today as it was stable at 1012, and had nearly 3 weeks in the FV giving the yeast lots of time to clear up.

Batch primed in the bottling bucket with 75g of sugar, then packaged into 500ml bottles. After trub, etc, accounted for, I got 37 bottles in total.

This is the first brew I've bottled for years, but it's just as much of a faff as I remembered it. I need to have a think about the whole process, as I want to brew several beers that won't really suit being put into a king keg for various reasons. There has to be a better way!

Now carbing up at 20 degrees in the brew fridge for a couple of weeks then into the garage for conditioning.

The sample tasted really nice. Lots of flavours that need melding in the conditioning phase.

Planning my first AG

So, wort chiller excepted, and that's being sorted this week, I'm all ready for my first all grain brew. I've been mulling this over, and this is what I have come up with.

What shall I brew?

It needed to be a style that would suit being put in a King Keg, as I really don't like bottling beer, and my last brew is going into bottles and I will need a break to get over the trauma. In my book, that eliminates any style that needs high carbonation levels (lagers and similar); any style that you would drink small amounts of infrequently as it would tie up a King Keg for too long (strong beers mainly) and finally anything that would need conditioning for a long time (same reasons / styles)

That leaves me with a fair range of styles still, three of which I want to brew on a regular basis ~ an English Golden Ale, an English Bitter and a Dark Mild.

For my first AG attempt, the golden ale looked initially like a sensible option ~ very simple grain and hop bill could produce something quite nice. However, if you've seen my mini mash posts, you'll know I'm struggling a bit with efficiency, which while I think I can improve this area, if it doesn't get better, a 2.5% golden ale will be a bit pants. Getting an English Bitter down to a T is a fine art, and best left until I am happy with the AG process, so I decided on a mild. Even if efficiency woes mean I end up with a 2.5% rather than a 3.1% beer, I think the dark malts will still give something drinkable and tasty. So I've settled on Graham Wheeler's clone of;

My Yeast Conundrum

I brought a selection of Crossmyloof brewery dried yeasts, and was initially very impressed with them. They are fantastic value, and take off like a rocket. However, I had a sort of sour, yeasty taste in the background of my modified Canadian blonde brewed with the real ale yeast. It eventually conditioned out almost completely, but it took ages. I have noticed that my Coopers IPA mini mash, using the US Pale yeast, has a similar taste to it, all be it in a much, much reduced prominence. On the homebrew forum, a couple of other people have noticed the same thing, although it has to be said we are in a minority and I'm by no means sure that it's anything to do with the yeast at all. However, my Coopers Ruby Porter / Old ale mini mash, that used the Mangrove Jacks Liberty Bell yeast doesn't have a hint of it, and it's still in the primary. I'll get to the bottom of it, but until I do, my three remaining CML yeasts I have in store (one Real Ale, one US Ple and a Californian Common) will remain unused until I get the hang of AG. So, what yeast to use? I did think of something nice and fruity, eithe Mangrove Jacks Old Empire or Danstar Windsor. However, they both have low attenuation rates according to many, and what with my efficiency problems, I don't want to end up with a 1% ABV beer or something! So I think for this brew I'll use the Liberty Bell yeast again.

So hopefully, wort chiller manufacture Monday; brew Tuesday.

WOW Rosé wine #2

I saw these in Morrisons on offer, 3L for £2.50. The ingredients are 40% Grape, 40% Apple and 20% Raspberry, so these looked ideal for another WOW. Exactly the same recipe as before, and as before, it took off within 3 hours.

The Apple and Red grape one is still  chugging away 9 days later, and shows no sign of slowing; I've no idea how long these will take. I've only got one demijohn left now, which I will need for racking, so that's it until one of these bad boys is bottled. The one with raspberry is producing a lot more sediment, I am assuming that is the pectolaise having something more to work on with this juice combination? It's the one on the right.

WOW Rosé wine

Wurzals Orange Wines (WOW) are a method of making home brewed wine using supermarket fruit juice and a few added bits and bobs. I won't go into the history / origin of the name and method, there is a huge amount of info on the internet, so I'll run through what I did.

I am aiming for a Rosé , so reading this thread on the home brew forum, and tinkering very slightly I put the following into a sterialised demijon and gave it a shake. That's about it!

1 litre Asda Fresh Red grape juice.

2 litre Asda Smart Price Apple Juice.
700g Sugar, dissolved in water and brought to the boil.
1 tsp Tannin (actually added to the sugar solution before boiling)
1 tsp citric acid (added as above)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Ditto)

All of the above were put in the DJ, then the temp was checked. It was 22/23 degrees so the following were added;

1 tsp Yeast Super Wine Yeast Compound

1 tsp Pectolase.
1 tsp Glycerine. (optional)

The airlock was put on, and that's that.

Once the fermentation has finished, it will be racked into a fresh DJ, degassed, and finings and stabaliser added. Left to completely clear, and bottled.

Kitsters Last Stand update #2

Still bubbling away merrily, and it smells amazing. The krausen raised right up to the lid then dropped back. The smell is a bit fruity, with malty tones, but very nice.There is a huge amount of sediment already, so I think I will loose a few litres to the trub, but never mind. I'm going to leave this at least 2 weeks before measuring the gravity and bottling; possibly more.

Kitsters Last Stand #1

Last ever kit (probably) went into today's brewday ~ 'Kitsters Last Stand'

Title: Kitsters Last Stand
Brew Method: Partial Mash
Style Name: Old Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 20.5 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 12 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.042

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.014
ABV (standard): 5.78%
IBU (tinseth): 52.41
SRM (morey): 19.27
FERMENTABLES:
1.7 kg - Coopers Devils Half Ruby Porter kit - (late addition) (29.8%)
0.5 kg - Dry Malt Extract - Dark - (late addition) (8.8%)
2 kg - Golden Promise (35.1%)
0.3 kg - Crystal 60L (5.3%)
0.2 kg - Torrified Wheat (3.5%)
0.5 kg - Vienna (8.8%)
0.5 kg - CaraRed (8.8%)

HOPS:
25 g - Bramling Cross, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.5, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 10.69
25 g - Bramling Cross, Type: Pellet, AA: 6.5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 4.29

YEAST:
Mangrove Jack - Liberty Bell Ale M36 (2 packs)
Fermentation Temp: 20 C

Used my new ( to me, 2nd hand) cool box mash tun for the first time. Mashed at 62, sparged at 72. Still got appalling efficiency (48%) ~ addressing that is my next step. However, the resulting wort from today's brewing was lovely, but not at all hoppy ~ I couldn't detect the bramling cross at all. I also realised that I didn't sanitise the measuring jug I used to re-hydrate they yeast; however it was fresh out of a dishwasher hot wash, then mostly filled with boiling water, put in a water bath to cool to 30 degrees before adding the yeast. I will have either got away with this or not ~ I was running out of time to pick up the kids and was rushing. Lesson learnt.

I used Aldi bottled water again, and left the ones not used in the boil outside at an ambient 2 degrees, so after adding the wort and bottled water to the FV and thrashing it about, it was at 26 degrees, so I thought I would risk pitching it and get it in the brew fridge like last time as I really had to go and get the kids. Except, after I had done this and attached the inkprobe it read 28 degrees. Must have misread the thermometer. Ooops. Its down to 25 now and falling. Again, I'll either get away with it or I won't. The fridge is set to 20, which is where it should settle.

No dry hopping or anything to come, so it will be left now for 2 weeks to get on with it, assuming I see the airlock bubbling, or other signs of it fermenting.

Coopers Brew A + mini-mash #4

Packaged  this today into a King Keg with a solution of boiled water / 75g of sugar. I looked to have totally got away with the hop tea container falling into the FV, and the beer tastes good, with no off flavours. In fact it doesn't taste good, it tastes fantastic. If you have ever had Aldi / Marstons 'Wild Bills IPA' it isn't to dissimilar to that in colour and bitterness, with similar hop aroma and flavour, but obviously different because of the different hops used. Considering this is a modified kit, I extremely pleased.

On another note, I did some testing with my two hydrometers in pure water at their calibrated temperatures, and they both read read out. Given that, the adjusted OG and FG are 1043 & 1010, so this hasn't finished as low as I thought ( I predicted 1008), but after priming, it will be just under 4.5%, which is fine for me.

Coopers Brew A + mini-mash #3

Made a hop tea today with 50g of cascade. First error, boiled up 500ml of bottled water and poured it into the cafetiere containing the hops, without letting it cool to 80 degrees ~ however this may have saved me because when I went to pour this into the FV the glass part of the cafetiere slipped out and Plop! into the brew it went. I had sanitized the inside of it before use, but I can only hope that holding boiling water for 10 mins would have killed off any nasties on the outside. We'll see ~ I'm too long in the tooth to overly stress about these things if I am completely honest. Anyway, it will all sit in there until next weekend.

The sample I took before hand measured 1014, which is a lot higher than I was aiming for, although I thing it was still pretty active, so perhaps it will drop a couple more points. If it doesn't, it will be a nice session IPA at about 3.5%, and I shall claim that was my intention all along.Tasted quite excellent. 

Coopers Brew A + mini-mash #2

After 2 days, the airlock has stopped, and looking at the lack of krausen, I think its nearly done. Had this been any other yeast, I would have suspected a stall, but the threads on the UK Home Brew Forum suggest that this rapid fermentation is normal. I'm still going to leave it in the FV for the normal 2 weeks to clean up, but am considering dropping the temperature for the last week to aide clearing. As the rapid fermentation stage is over, I'll probably add the hop tea at this point, and take a sample for gravity testing. I didn't get any 'sewer' smells that you sometimes get with kits while fermenting, with this brew ~ I've read that this odor may be caused by a stressed yeast; perhaps the brew fridge temperature control, size of the yeast pitch (11g rather than the usual 7g kit yeast) or the fact that there are no simple sugars in this brew have helped?

Coopers Brew A + mini-mash

Type: Kit + Mini Mash Brew
Sugars: 1 Coopers Brew A IPA, mash liquor as per schedule.
Yeast: CML US Pale Ale Yeast, re-hydrated as per packet instructions.
Hops: 23g Bobek 15 mins, 50g Cascade flame out, 50g Cascade hop tea at packaging.
Additions: Lidl bottled mineral water, 1/4 protofloc talet @ 15 mins.
O.G. 1042
Volume in fermenter: 20L

Mash Schedule;

2Kg Golden Promise, 200g Medium Crystal, 200g Torrified Wheat. Strike water 73 degrees C. Mash at 63 degrees C 50 mins, raised to 73 degrees C, dunk sparged 10 mins.

First of two brews to use up my last two Coopers kits before going fully all grain. This was the first time I'd used my Burco Cygnet 30L boiler, and it went really well. It heats up water much more quickly than a pot on the stove. The grain bag I purchased is too small really, but it will do until I either buy a bigger one or make a mash tun; and that will have to wait until I have made an immersion chiller to allow me to do full volume boils.

I used 8L of water for my mash, but was a bit worried towards the end of the boil due to loss to steam ~ it was getting a bit shallow in the boiler. Once topped up to 20L in the FV, the wort temp was 26 degrees C, so if I use more water in the boil next time I am going to have to chill the wort somehow, perhaps by sitting the FV in an ice bath for a bit.

Brewers Friend predicted an OG of 1049 with an efficiency of 65%, I hit 1042, which gives me an efficiency of 47%, which isn't very good, but I'm not that worried at this point. I just want to get used to the general technique. Sample tasted really good, and not very 'kitty'. 

The yeast was pitched at 26 degrees, which is high, but as it was re-hydrated in 'tepid' water, as per the instructions, of 36 degrees, I thought I'd pitch it, then get the FV in the brew fridge set at 20 degrees C. The good news is that the 'cooling' part of the fridge got it down to 20 in pretty short order ~ the brew fridge had only been called on to heat brews up to this point so its good to know that part of its functionality works well. Its presently holding at 20 with no heat or cooling inputs, due to the exothermic reaction of the yeast.

The Crossmyloof yeast took off like a rocket; it was going like the clappers after 4 hours. Pretty impressive.

Now its just a waiting game. Will I get the kit 'twang' or will the mash disguise it? We shall see.