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.