Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #4

After a week or so in a 20 degree water bath to carb up, the barrel was moved into its final position in my cold garage to condition. Something great has happened, as a quick test revealed it now does have some hop taste, is a great colour and, amazingly, doesn't feel thin. I've just got to leave it for 3 weeks or so now, and see how much it can improve with conditioning.

Scottish minimum pricing

Many people, much more articulate and knowledgeable have commented on the authoritarian stupidity and general unpleasantness of this legislation, so I shall just say this.

Today, I popped into ASDA to get some tea for the family, and also picked up four bottles of real ale, one of which was a King Goblin.

These were sold to me as a 4 for £6 offer.

My understanding is that, had this been Scotland in a few months, ASDA and I would be CRIMINALS.

Does that sound like a great and fair country?

Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #3

Ok, so I made a bit of a mistake with my dry hopping. The plan was to dry hop at fermenting temps for 72 hours then remove and crash at garage temps. However, I didn't leave any way of getting the hop bag out easily, so after the 72 hours I just turned the heaters off and left to crash for a few days. The hops were in these for a total of 6 days, which is longer than I planned but I looked to have avoided any 'grassy' flavours that I have read you can get if you leave them in there too long.

It's now packaged in a king keg, primed with 90g of sugar dissolved in boiling water, and is back in the water bath at 20 degrees for a few days, then it will be left to condition for at least 3 weeks before I try it properly. I had a sneaky taste while barrelling, and it wasn't very hoppy really, and perhaps a bit thin? Time will tell.....

Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #2

I measured the gravity of my Bobek / Canadian Blonde today after fermenting 12 days @ approx 20 degrees, and it was still at 1012, so looks like its finished at 4.73% alcohol and an attenuation of 74%, which is bang on for the CML yeast. It tasted quite nice, malty but with a nice level of bitterness and some hop flavour, although this wasn't pronounced. However, there wasn't any noticeable hop aroma, so I decided to dry hop to see if I could improve on both fronts with a dry hop of another 25g of Bobek.

Plan is to leave these in for 72 hours, then I'll remove the hops and cold crash by simply turning the fish tank heaters off and draining the water bath; it will then be left at garage temperatures (about 7 degrees this time of year) for a few days before transferring to a king keg.

Brew update

Bit of a cold snap here, down to 6 Deg at 10pm so popped out to the garage to check on the brew. It's sat in a water bath made from a 40l builders trug with two 25w fish tank immersion heaters to keep the temperature stable. Together, they are set to keep the brew at 20 degrees Celsius, and they seem to be coping with the colder weather with no issues; the brew is happily bubbling away.

*A quick update  - checked today after 2 days of cold weather and wind, and the temp had dropped to 18, so I've turned the heaters up a notch.*

First Brew after house move

I've recently purchased and moved into my own place; the whole process took ages, as it developed into having to re-model the whole house. So, despite having been in my new place over 4 months, this was my first opportunity to get a brew on.

I thought I would do a Canadian Blonde, slightly modified, to ease me back into the swing of things. I also wanted an opportunity to give the yeasts I got from Crossmyloof brewery a try; Their Real Ale, Pale Ale and Californian Common. I used the real ale on this brew. So, here are the details.

Type: Modified Kit Brew
Sugars: 1 Coopers Canadian Blonde, 1 Kg Richies Brew Enhancer, 500g Medium DME
Yeast: CML Real Ale Yeast, re-hydrated as per packet instructions.
Hops: 25b Bobek 15 mins, 25g  5 mins  boiled in the Medium DMD + 5l water
Additions: Water de-chlorinated with 1/2 Campden tablet.
O.G. 1048

The sample tased nice, and the medium DME gave the sample a sort of IPA colour rather than a true pale ale, so we'll have to see how it all turns out. Obviously, all of my equipment hadn't been ued in a while, so I sanitised thoroughly, but am still worried that I might get an infection. I'll just have to see. I plan to Keg this one, then immediately brew something dark for bottling.
...

Brews update

As I said below, I knocked up two brews (a Coopers Euro and Mexican Cerveza) as my 'get back into brewing' brews, and just kept them simple, kit plus 1Kg of Brew Enhancer.

However, I couldn't stand it and decided to hop them up a bit, so now the fermentation has subsided a little, I have brewed 30g of Saaz in a litre of water for 5 mins for each brew, and poured the lot, including hop bag, in the FV.

I am hoping to freshen up the taste a little, but may have just infected my brews. We'll have to see!