Brewday - Best Bitter 11/12/2012

Weather permitting, I'm planning to brew tomorrow. After some dark beers and a couple of big ones, it's time to brew something a bit more sessionable. My plan is for a standard English bitter.

I'm having another crack at my best bitter recipe as the last few attempts were not the best, as they came at a time when some form of infection was ailing my brews. As I've appear to have turned a corner on that front, I reckon it's worth another go.

A variation of this beer, was one of the first recipes I put together after leaving kit brewing behind, so it's kind of special to me. A very simple grist of 95% Pale and 5% Crystal malts, with a combination of Progress and WGV hops for bittering, plus a late addition of Celeia.

Although temperatures are likely to be below freezing when mashing in, I'll take steps to try and ensure the outside water supply isn't completely frozen, for what will be my last brew of 2012.

Best (Celeia)

Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 11/12/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 61.39 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 75 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 8700.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 95.0 % 460.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 2 5.0 % 30.00 g Progress [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 12.1 IBUs 30.00 g Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) [6.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 11.0 IBUs 30.00 g Celeia [4.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 3.2 IBUs 0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 2.0 pkg Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-)  Yeast 7 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.3 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 26.4 IBUs
Est Color: 16.9 EBC

Brewday - Porter 20/11/2012

Porter is not a style I've brewed before. In fact, it wasn't until recently that I started to enjoy the darker British beers, so I thought it was definitely time to have a crack at brewing one.

I've based the recipe on something which I believe is not dissimilar to that used by Fuller's and brought the gravity down a tad. As I'm short on Fuggles, I'm going to try Williamette as the hop. As the beer style is more about the malts than the hop, this hopefully shouldn't detract from what should be a decent pint.

In fact, it wasn't until after I put the recipe together that I read in Beersmith that Williamette is used in Sierra Nevada Porter. I've not had the opportunity to try the American beer, but it's encouraging that my thought of using Williamette as a substitute wasn't wide of the mark - although whether the American interpretation of a porter is the same as ours, I'm not sure.

Oakhurst Porter

Brown Porter

Type: All Grain	Date: 20/11/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 8200.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 78.0 % 1050.00 g Brown Malt (150.0 EBC) Grain 2 10.0 % 1050.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 3 10.0 % 210.00 g Chocolate Malt (1000.0 EBC) Grain 4 2.0 % 78.00 g Willamette [6.30 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 5 26.8 IBUs 0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 2.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 7 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.5 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 26.8 IBUs

Brewday - R.I.P. 24/10/2012

October is a time of year when the sunshine begins to ebb away. I lost a bigger chunk than most when my dad passed away a few years back. On the first anniversary I concocted a new recipe, dubbed 'R.I.P.' and I try to brew this beer each year, at some stage during the month.

The plan for this year was to bring the gravity down. Originally I brewed it at 1.065, reduced over the last couple of years to a more quaffable 1.056, but what i really want to learn is whether the same recipe will work scaled down to a starting gravity of 1.048, or thereabouts.

The grist consists predominately of pale and crystal malts, plus a handful of chocolate and roast barley.  Hops are an infusion of Challenger and Goldings, with Cascade added late in the day to give the flavour a lift.

I wasn't at my sharpest on this brew day and miscalculated the boil time. This meant the bittering hops were in for longer than planned. I also added the chocolate and roast barley to the mash tun after the mash was complete, so the sugars extracted from these malts came only from the sparge, with much less colour being added to the wort.

Whether it turns out to be any good remains to be seen. It was a beer I liked in it's last incarnation, but it's much less dark this time around so doesn't have the 'winter' feel I was hoping for. We'll find out about the flavour, further down the line...

New RIP

Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 24/10/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 9400.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 92.5 % 450.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 2 4.4 % 200.00 g Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 2.0 % 70.00 g Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 4 0.7 % 44.00 g Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 5 0.4 % 15.00 g Challenger [7.10 %] - First Wort 75.0 min Hop 6 6.4 IBUs 15.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.50 %] - First Wort 75.0 min Hop 7 5.0 IBUs 24.00 g Challenger [7.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 8.9 IBUs 24.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 6.9 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 10 - 30.00 g Cascade [7.00 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 11 3.0 IBUs 30.00 g Cascade [7.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 12 0.5 IBUs 2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 13 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.8 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 30.7 IBUs
Est Color: 23.0 EBC

Brewday - Agent Orange 11/10/2012

Agent Orange? Strange name, but it's not mine. This is a beer brewed by a friend of mine and whenever I get a taster, I'm always impressed, so I thought it was time to brew it myself.

I was due to work today, but due to the racecourse being under water following a recent deluge of rain, the meeting has been abandoned. It's raining here too, so there's not much I could be getting on with, so a brewday seemed the obvious solution.

The beer's a strong one by my standards. As the recipe's not mine I shan't reproduce it in full detail here, but it's very American with a heavy use of Centennial, Columbus and Citra hops. The grist is made up with a mix of pale malt, caramalt, carared, plus some wheat, to give a target OG of 1.072

To ensure I can get all the malt in the mash tun, I'm only doing half my usual batch, so 5 imperial gallons. This will be destined for the bottle and will hopefully in good shape come Christmas.

Agent Orange

Homebrew Review - Common Ingredients

Although a bit of a rush, my beer had conditioned sufficiently for the homebrew meeting I mentioned in an earlier post.

I effectively took two beers. Given the ingredients, my plan was to make a lightly hopped beer, split the batch into two fermenters and dry hop the other.

Of the two hops allowed, Target seemed the more naturally suited to bittering, so I used them in three additions; from the start of the boil, at twenty minutes and again at seven minutes. The other hop, Columbus was put in at 1 minute from switch-off.

As it turned out, I was pleased with both beers. The first was delicately hopped (starting gravity 1.042 and IBU's of only 23.5). Not quite a mild, but very malt forward. It's a lovely deep red colour and although I used only a smidgen of Colombus, you didn't have to hunt for them. As the sweetness of the malts ebb away, there's a final farewell from the hops. Delicate, discreet even, but definitely there, leaving you wanting more.

The dry-hopped version was obviously very similar, apart from the bitterness being far less discreet.

Which do I prefer? It would very much depend on my mood.

The sweet, malty, mild, with a tease of hop flavour at the death, might just edge it. But, the hoppy version has it's merits too, although for it to really work, perhaps the dry hopping needs to be even more aggressive.  I might very well brew this again and replace the Columbus with a different variety and dry hop at a much higher level. I'll give it some thought...

Recipe;

Common Ingredients

Type: All Grain	Date: 01/09/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 7600.00 g Mild Malt (7.9 EBC) Grain 1 85.1 % 830.00 g Aromatic Malt (51.2 EBC) Grain 2 9.3 % 500.00 g Cara (Crisp) (34.5 EBC) Grain 3 5.6 % 30.00 g Target [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 16.6 IBUs 15.00 g Target [10.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 5 5.0 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 10.00 g Target [10.00 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 7 1.5 IBUs 10.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 0.4 IBUs 1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast 9 - 50.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.50 %] - Dry Hop 4.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.040 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.042 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.008 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.1 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.9 %
Bitterness: 23.5 IBUs	Calories: 427.1 kcal/l
Est Color: 13.8 EBC

Homebrew Review - Renegade Pale Ale

It's been a while since I reviewed one of my beers. Mainly because there have been problems.

This beer is largely the same recipe I brewed here. That original brew was ultimately ditched; the bottles succumbed to a distinct dryness that I found to be unpleasant. I'm convinced it's something happening in the bottling process and my thoughts were confirmed after tasting this latest version which was brewed in July.

Once again, the bottled version was disappointing. Not entirely clear, lacking both in flavour, body and very dry. Some other seasoned beer tasters thought there was little wrong, but I know my beer and it definitely wasn't right.

Half the batch was bottled, half was casked. This is the cask version.

Very pale, much clearer than the bottled version and it has plenty of flavour. Whatever is ailing my bottled beer, it's not manifesting itself in the cask.

The beer had good condition, poured with a small head which laced the glass on the way down. The simcoe didn't have quite the effect I was hoping for in terms of flavour, but there's definitely a mild citrus background, followed by a good whack of bitterness.

It's a really nice quaffing beer with an OG of 1.042. The sort of ale you'd happily down a few of, while basking in the sunshine.

If anything, it might be a tad bitter for what I originally had in mind, but that doesn't make it a bad beer. If brewed again, I might add a touch of crystal to give it a bit more body and perhaps dry hop it with simcoe to get a bit more flavour coming through.

The best part, though, is that it confirmed my earlier tasting issues are restricted to the bottles. I have made some alterations to my bottling regime in a view to eradicate the problems once and for all, and I'll know more when I crack open a few of my Citra Pale Ale which was bottled at the beginning of September.

But for now, I'll get on and enjoy this one. Recipe;

Renegade

Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 12/07/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 8700.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 95.0 % 460.00 g Cara (Crisp) (34.5 EBC) Grain 2 5.0 % 32.00 g Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) [6.80 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 3 12.3 IBUs 30.00 g Progress [7.50 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 4 12.8 IBUs 15.00 g Simcoe [14.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 5.7 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 30.00 g Simcoe [14.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 1.0 IBUs 2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast 8 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.042
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.4 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.1 %
Bitterness: 31.7 IBUs	Calories: 427.1 kcal/l
Est Color: 9.3 EBC

Brewday - Homegrown IPA 18/09/2012

Following on from the recent hop harvest, it's time to crack on and use the beauties.

To showcase the hop, I'm brewing an IPA. As the Alpha content is unknown, I've taken the view it will be at the bottom end of the commercial scale.

Because I only want to use my own hops in this brew, the IPA will also be at the lower end of the gravity range for the style. To hopefully maintain a reasonable level of bitterness, with limited hops of an unknown alpha, it seemed a sensible choice.

As it was a beautiful day, I pulled out the brewery from the confines of the garage and brewed outdoors.

The picture of the wort going into the copper makes the beer a lot darker than it is. It's really pale and gravity was bang on at 1.056

Homegrown IPA

English IPA

Type: All Grain	Date: 18/09/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 11000.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 90.2 % 1200.00 g Carahell Malt (25.0 EBC) Grain 2 9.8 % 100.00 g Homegrown Bramling X [4.50 %] Boil 75.0 min Hop 3 23.0 IBUs 100.00 g Homegrown Bramling X [4.50 %] Boil 20.0 min Hop 4 13.3 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 5 - 80.00 g Homegrown Bramling X [4.50 %] Boil 7.0 min Hop 6 4.7 IBUs 100.00 g Homegrown Bramling X [4.50 %] Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 0.9 IBUs 2.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast 8 - 100.00 g Homegrown Bramling X [4.50 %] Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.8 %
Bitterness: 42.0 IBUs
Est Color: 11.8 EBC

Hop Harvest

Last week saw the harvest of my homegrown hops.

Although it's not been a good growing year in general, the hops have done okay, especially the Bramling Cross.

Harvest Time

They've been picked, dried, vacuum packed and frozen. All that's left is to use them in a brew and I've decided to use them in a single hop, English IPA, with additions at three stages during the boil, plus some more at switch-off. As usual, my ten gallon batch will be split into two fermenters and it's my intention to dry hop one of them. 

Hopefully I'll be left in no doubt as to the attributes of the variety after that lot and it will be interesting to compare the dry-hopped and regular versions side-by-side. I've pencilled in the brewday for next Tuesday.

I did also harvest some Target hops, but only about 300g dried weight. I think I'll dig these up in the winter (they've never done nearly so well as the Bramling Cross), and try a different variety. I'm thinking WGV (Whitbread Golding Variety), but I'll see how it goes nearer the time, after assessing how easy it is to remove all of the existing Target roots.

Brewday - Common Ingredients 01/09/2012

The recipe for today’s brew is slightly different.

My local homebrew club has a regular schedule of beer styles to brew. But, from time to time, we have one where the style is left open, but only specific ingredients can be used.

Pale malt is usually a given, but the remainder of the ingredients get pulled out of a hat. On this occasion the additional malts and hops were;

Mild Ale Malt, Caramalt, Aromatic Malt

Target and Columbus

So we all get to brew what we like, but only using these ‘common ingredients’, with a minimum of 5% on the malts, plus the yeast of your choice. Despite using the same ingredients, I’m pretty sure we’ll end up with very different beers between us.

I shan’t divulge exactly what I’ve concocted at this stage, so it remains a surprise for the other members when we get together and taste at the next meeting. 

To be honest, I’ve left it a tad late to get the beer ready in good condition, but pressure of work meant I had little option other then to delay. Also, my fermenting fridge is currently in use with an earlier brew, so this one will not have any control on the fermentation temperature.

I’ll be fermenting in the garage, which is the coolest place at present and with ambient temperatures unlikely to get above 20C (68F) over the next week, hopefully things will be okay. I took extra care to ensure the wort came slowly through the chiller, to ensure the initial temperature in the fermenter didn’t exceed 19C and the air temperature in the garage is currently reading 18.6C (65.5F). I’m certainly very pleased with the colour, a deep marmalade amber.

I’ll update with tasting notes in a few week’s time, together with full details of the recipe and how it compared to the other members’ offerings.

Homegrown Hops

On a more positive note, this year's harvest of Bramling Cross hops is coming along nicely.

Doubt

Brewing beer is my hobby. It's meant to be fun and rewarding. Currently it's neither.

The bottled version of my last brew has gone the way of those before. Early samples were encouraging; lovely tropical fruit on the nose, well balanced on the palate and very drinkable. Then, for whatever reason, the hop aroma disappeared and the beer has become dry and astringent.

Having experienced this in earlier beers, I put it down to cleaning residue which resulted in a change to the cleaning and sanitising routine. From what's developed in this latest brew, it would appear this was not the problem.

And I'm assuming it's just the bottles. I brew in 10 gallon batches, bottle 5 and put the other half in a cask. As much as I'm longing to tap the cask and see how that's doing, it's earmarked for a party. As I currently have a shortage of beer, I have nothing else to take, so it will have to wait.

In a previous brew, although the bottles suffered, the cask was fine, so I'm hoping it will be the case this time around too.

The cask version is racked straight from the FV. The bottled version gets racked into a secondary vessel prior to bottling. So if the beer itself is fine, something is going awry either in the second vessel, or in the bottle.

To try and remedy the situation, for the next brew, I've purchased a new secondary vessel and a new bottling stick and all bottles will be cleaned and santised by hand, instead of relying on the dishwasher. And it has to work, as I'm fed up of chucking beer.

Having brewed for a good number of years without problems, some even good enough to warrant attention at National competitions, I ought to know what I'm doing. Recent events leave me doubting.

Brewery Open Day - Triple FFF

The annual family vacation meant that things have been pretty quiet on the brewing front for the last couple of weeks. And although it's never nice returning to the daily grind after a decent break, the prospect of a brewery open day softened the blow a little.

Three days after returning from France, the Triple FFF brewery threw open their doors for their annual open day.

Based in the village of Four Marks in Hampshire, a history of the brewery can be found here. In addition to the beer, there was musical entertainment and food cooked on a massive paella pan over an open fire.

Shiny Mash tun...

dusty chalkboard...

and some classic two-wheeled transport.

Whilst there, CAMRA awarded Triple FFF with further awards for Moondance and Pressed Rat And Warthog 

I managed to try both, along with Alton's Pride (supreme champion beer of Britain in 2008), Dazed and Confused, Elder Skelter and Jabberwocky, a really tasty black IPA.

A cracking day, good beer, good company and terrific weather. As for me, I'm firing up my brewery again tomorrow. Revisiting my Citra Pale Ale which won me a bronze at last year's National Homebrew Competition.  

Renegade Update

This was the first brew since faced with a bacterial infection.

As I mentioned in the last post, the brewday was drama free and 10 gallons of wort were collected at a starting gravity of 1.042

As usual, the wort was split into two separate five gallon fermenters. I've racked one of these off the yeast, prior to bottling. I'm pleased to say there is no sign of infection and the beer tastes good!

The other fermenter has had some auxillary finings added and has been set to chill. That one is destined for the cask with some isinglass in a couple of days time. So far so good...

Brewday - Renegade 12/07/2012

I'm busy preparing everything for the first brewday since the deep clean.

Hot caustic has been through the brewery, the chiller and fermenters. This was followed by a similar clean with PBW and the silicone pipes have been replaced. The temperature controlled fermenting fridge has also been thoroughly cleaned and sanitised.

Today, I've been getting the liquor and water treatment prepared, the malt weighed and milled, ready for a ten gallon brew of a pale ale.

The grist consists of 95% Marris Otter Pale Malt and 5% British Caramalt. Bitterness will come courtesy of home grown Progress and WGV hops, with aroma and flavour coming from American grown Simcoe.  Expected gravity is around 1.042, with 32 units of bitterness.

The old scratched plastic fermenting buckets have been replaced, and with super sanitising and rinsing high on the agenda, I'm hoping for a trouble-free brew.

My homebrew stocks are now non-existent and with this being the last opportunity I have to brew before the annual family vacation, it needs to go well.

Update 12/7: The brewday itself went smoothly and without drama. 10 gallons of wort was collected with the gravity bang on at 1.042. I'll post separately once fermentation is complete, to update on the condition of the beer and whether any infection is determinable.

Brewery Shutdown

Houston, we have a problem.

There's a problem in the brewery. My beers this year have simply not been at their best and the recent brews, more so.

My Citra Pale Ale was phenolic. Samples under the microscope revealed no bacterial infection, but something clearly wasn't right. I put it down to cleaning residue in the fermenters.

The Renegade Pale Ale I brewed recently had some lovely flavour from the Simcoe hops and early samples from the bottle were pleasing. But, a fortnight later the beer in these bottles is also questionable; very dry, astringent and lacking in hop flavour and aroma. It's as if something has taken time to establish itself and is now destroying the beer.

I don't currently have a microscope at home, so am unable to test this one, although I'm pretty sure the result will be the same as the Citra beer. No bacterial infection, but something clearly wrong.

Since these two brews, I've changed my fermenters but my latest wheaty pale ale is the latest to succomb. This time it is a bacterial infection.

The picture was taken on my phone and the colouring isn't great. The yellow patches are normal bits of yeast floating on the surface, whereas the white spores are the obvious cause of concern.

All the beer has been dumped and I've spent time cleaning and sanitising the fermenters, the fermenting fridge, beer hoses on the brewery and the plate chiller.

This latest infection is very different to the problems experienced with the first two beers. I'm hoping the off-flavours attributed to those came from the cleaning residue in the scratched fermenters, which have now been replaced. The latest episode is hopefully a one-off, due to some error on my part during the brewing process.

Hopefully the time spent in cleaning, santising and rinsing, will sort out the problem. I can't deny I'm gutted. I've not had a bacterial infection for many years and there's little more heartbreaking than throwing beer away.

After the deep clean, I'll fire up the brewery again next week. I'll have another crack at the Renegade as it promised to be so good.

Brewday - Wheat 21/06/2012

Most days are pretty trying, but some days are more so. It was one of those days yesterday.

I had planned to brew, but needed to get finished relatively early. So I prepped everything the night before, had vessels full and ingredients weighed, milled and ready to go. The plan was to switch the hot liquor on before breakfast, so I could mash in early and start the sparge as soon as I returned from dropping little'un off at school.

I awoke plenty soon enough and went to hit the switch to get the HLT fired up. Trouble was, the garage smelt like a brewery. Although half-asleep, it was readily apparent there was beer everywhere.

My latest pale ale, which had been racked into a cask and was conditioning at 12C in my conditioning fridge had decided to cause me grief. Beer was dripping from the fridge door and there were puddles everywhere; seeping under another fridge, under a freezer, under my bottle crates..... you get the picture.

Inside the fridge, the cask just sat there. Minus a shive. Perhaps I racked too early. Perhaps I over-primed. I definitely lost beer and the sad thing is, it was a good beer too. I had sneaked an early bottle a couple of nights before, to see how it was coming along and it was good.

So I lost an hour of my day, cleaning. Then, when I attempted to commence the new brew, I was faced with another problem. I got the hot liquor to strike temperature plus 3C (as I tend to lose about 3C in the transfer to the mash tun). I checked the temperature in the MT before commencing with the malt, to find it hadn't lost 3C. It had lost 23C.

Impossible? Yes, I thought so too. The HLT thermometer was faulty. I checked the liquor in the HLT with the other thermometer and it read 20C lower than the original reading. I then got my spare thermometer and double-checked. The original liquor was definitely 20C lower.

So the cleaning delayed mash-in, was now going to be delayed again, while the liquor was returned from the mash tun, back to the HLT and reheated.

Ultimately beer was made and I guess it goes to show it's prudent to have a spare thermometer or two (and a spare hour or two...)

As for the beer, it was an ale containing 30% wheat. I don't like to call it a wheat beer as I'm not keen on the style and haven't used an appropriate yeast. So it's more a pale ale, with 30% wheat, fermented with an ale yeast. Cascade and Galaxy are providing the fantastic aroma that's currently coming out of the fermenters.

I hope the beer is more enjoyable than the brewday itself.

Brewday - Renegade Pale Ale 31/05/2012

I managed to squeeze in another brew at the end of last month. After playing around with my Best Bitter recipe so many times, I thought it was about time I did something different. So I did, but in all honesty, it's not that different...

The grist for the Best is made up of 95% Pale Malt and 5% Crystal. For this brew, I simply replaced the Crystal with British Caramalt, so it should give a much paler beer. The Caramalt is EBC 27-32, compared to the Crystal at EBC 120-140.

As for the hops, I used my normal WGV and Progress for bittering (essentially a Fuggles and Goldings type combo) and then late hopped with Simcoe.

I was hoping to end up with is a a nice pale ale, around 4.2% with a nice touch of bitterness from the English hops, but rounded off with a nice American zing.

The brewday was straightforward enough, although this was the brew that I noticed some cleaning residue inside one of the fermenters, which was slightly scratched. I used a boiling kettle to wash away the residue and continued as normal and just hope the beer will be okay.

Early samples prior to racking were encouraging, although the phenolic flavour that blighted by Citra Pale Ale didn't manifest itself until after it had conditioned properly, so only time will tell with this one. I've stuck half the batch in a cask which I'm putting to one side for a forthcoming BBQ and he other half has been bottled.

Tasting notes to follow, unless of course, the whole lot gets dumped...

Hosepipes, Phenolics and Pale Ales

As of today, the ban from our local water authority on drawing water from the mains supply, via a hosepipe, has finally been lifted. And about bloody time.

I've managed to get around the ban by employing some copper pipe via a tap connector to fill the brewing vessels and to chill the wort. But, to be honest, the clean-up without the use of a hose has been pretty painful and probably the worst part of the ban, so I'm glad we're now free to chuck as much water at it as we like.

As well as the hosepipe ban being a bit of a downer in recent months, my Citra Pale Ale, which I mentioned in this post as being one of the best brews I do, turned out to be phenolic. Or, at least the bottles did. I split the brew into two fermenters and bottled one and put the other in a cask. The cask version was unaffected. but the bottles were dumped.

On a subsequent brewday I noticed a bit of cleaning residue on the fermenter wall. It appeared there was a scratch in the plastic and the residue hadn't been washed away, so I'm guessing this may have caused the problem. New fermenters have been purchased.

Since my last post, I've also sampled the Aurora late-hopped Best Bitter. It's a bit harsh at present and will probably be a nice beer given a bit more time, but the upshot is, it's still not the beer I was after. I'm missing the soft flavour of the old Styrian Goldings and I'll have yet another crack at this brew soon, replacing the late hop with Celeia.

I did squeeze in another brew at the end of last month, which is currently conditioning. Early samples from the fermenter were very encouraging. It's a Pale Ale in which I've used Simcoe for the first time. I'll do a more detailed post on this beer separately.

As for the next brew, my local homebrew club have a schedule of beer styles and it's about time I applied myself properly and did one. I swerved the Mild Ale due to lack of time but will have a crack at the beer style for July, which is any beer containing at least 30% wheat.

I've put together a recipe, incorporating another hop I've yet to try and can't wait to get stuck in. Maybe next week, now that the hosepipe ban has been lifted.

Brewday - Best Bitter 10/05/2012

During the spring and summer months my work begins to hot up, so opportunities to brew can be few and far between. It's important to fire up the brewery when a window appears, and as I've had some work cancelled due to the appalling weather, that's today.

I'm revisiting my standard English Best Bitter that I've had problems with since switching the late hop from Styrian Goldings. This time I'm going to have a crack with a higher alpha hop, Aurora, sometimes referred to as a 'Super Styrian'. The remainder of the ingredients will be the same as before.

Best

Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Type: All Grain	Date: 10/05/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.65 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 55.12 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 77.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 8700.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 95.0 % 460.00 g Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (118.2 EBC) Grain 2 5.0 % 32.00 g Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) [6.80 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 3 12.3 IBUs 30.00 g Progress [7.50 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 4 12.8 IBUs 20.00 g Aurora [8.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 4.4 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 - 30.00 g Aurora [8.10 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 0.6 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.2 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 30.0 IBUs	Calories:
Est Color: 12.7 EBC

As always, nothing seems to go exactly to plan when I'm rushing in the morning. My strike temperature was a little too high, so I had to add some cold liquor to the mash to get the temperature down. It's still at the higher end of the range around 69C (156F) and the mash is now a little thinner than usual, but we'll see what happens. The pH was 5.2

I'm going to split the batch into two and ferment one with US-05 and the other with WLP007. I'll be interested to compare yeasts and see what the pair bring to the table.

Dry Hopped Cousin

It may not have been good enough to feature in the Bristol Beer Factory Homebrew competition, but my American Brown Ale has a cousin. A dry-hopped, cask conditioned version.

I tapped it yesterday and it was the first pint pulled through my new, twin beer engine.

The dry hopping has made such a difference to this beer. I'm a hard man to please and while this isn't my best beer, the dry hopping has definitely lifted the flavour.

Many of my brews are re-brewed, but normally with a slight change to the hop or malt schedule, to get them just where I'd like them and this beer is no different. I'd do things slightly differently next time; get the gravity down a bit and the hops up, but I'll definitely have another crack at it.

There is a downside to the cask, too. Once tapped, the cask will not fit into either of my temperature controlled fridges, so it has to be drunk at the ambient temperature in the garage. With temperatures a bit below the norm for this time of year, it's being served at around 8C which is definitely a tad chilly. By the time I reach the end of the pint it's noticeable that the flavour has improved, but with temperatures likely to rise over the next couple of months, hopefully this will not be a problem for future brews.

Like many of my recent beers, the head retention isn't great, either, and that's something else I'll have to work on.

I took pH readings at various points through the brewing process on my latest brew, which may help in this respect.

Mash: 5.5
Sparge Liquor 5.9
First Runnings 5.2
Final Runnings 5.9
Start of Boil 5.5
End of Boil 5.2

The mash pH was a little high, but otherwise the figures look acceptable. I'll be interested to see how this beer fares once it's bottled and conditioned. In the meantime, I'm looking to brew again next week and I'll endeavour to get the readings for the mash and the liquor a little lower.

Brewday - Session Bitter 27/04/2012

Since brewing the American Brown, which incidentally didn't feature high in the Bristol Beer Factory competition , I've brewed another batch of my Citra Pale Ale. It was bottled last week and I'll report back. Until now I'd say it's probably the best beer I do.

Although the Brown Ale wasn't a knock-out, I do have some in the cask waiting to be tapped. And this one was dry-hopped with Columbus, so I'm hoping it might have a bit more about it then the bottled version.

On then, to to the next brew. This will be a session beer based on the recipe for my regular English Best Bitter. For this brew I'm looking to get the gravity down to 1.042 to make it really drinkable and I'm changing the late hop from Styrian Goldings to Nugget. I've seen a few recipes using Nugget as a bittering hop, but not so many for aroma. I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

The recipe is shown below, although it's subject to slight change as I'm a bit low on Crystal Malt and might be a bit shy of the required amount. I'll substitute any shortfall with Carahell.

Brewday is pencilled in for Friday 27th.

Session Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 27/04/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 62.19 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery
End of Boil Volume 56.16 l	Brewhouse Efficiency:
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 9000.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 93.8 % 450.00 g Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (118.2 EBC) Grain 2 4.7 % 140.00 g Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 1.5 % 35.00 g Progress [7.50 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 4 14.5 IBUs 35.00 g Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV) [6.80 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 5 13.1 IBUs 15.00 g Nugget [15.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 5.9 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.2 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 33.5 IBUs	Calories:
Est Color: 12.6 EBC