Hop Harvest - 2013

I spent the last couple of evenings harvesting my Bramling Cross hops

The yield wasn't as good as last year, but I think I've got a better grade of hop, as I've picked them about a week earlier this time. Last year I left loads on the vine as they had opened too far and had a bit too much brown about them for my liking. This year's lot are about right - the cones are just about opening, with a hint of 'paperiness' about them, but still nicely green.

We got these two bags on Wednesday and I went up again on Thursday to get what was left, which was about half as much again.

The hops are now spread upon net curtains which adorn various parts my loft, 'hammock' style. It's so hot and stuffy up there, the cones dried in about two days last year.

Once done, I'll vacuum pack them and stick them in the freezer - then on to brew.

Brewday - Export Porter 22/08/2013

It sees like an age since I posted about brewing an East India Porter, but the brewday has finally arrived.

Dark beers have been growing on me over the years, but although there are many nice examples of porters, there's still loads I don't get on with. For this reason I've decided to use Mild Ale Malt as the base for mine. I'm hoping this sweeter malt might help take the edge off the acrid bite that the dark malts contribute.

I've altered the hop schedule a little from that original post too. Although the historical records suggest the porter exported to India was stuffed full of hops, in a similar manner to that of IPA, I wasn't too comfortable with the number of bittering units the Beersmith software was predicting.

Also, my beers tend to come across a tad more bitter than the software sometimes predicts, so I've cut back a bit. Even with the reduction in hops, the bittering units are predicted at 70, which I would still consider pretty high for a porter with an anticipated OG of 1.064

As the brewery's not been used for a while I've spent the day giving it a good clean, a thorough rinse and attached new hoses and connectors. Oh, and I'll be using new stainless fermenters too.

My water here in the South West of the UK is ideal for dark beers, so there's not much to do in terms of water treatment. I'm really looking forward to this one;

Export Porter

Type: All Grain	Date: 22/08/2013
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 10500.00 g Mild Malt (7.9 EBC) Grain 1 71.7 % 2800.00 g Brown Malt (150.0 EBC) Grain 2 19.1 % 750.00 g Amber (Crisp) (54.2 EBC) Grain 3 5.1 % 600.00 g Black (Crisp) (1339.6 EBC) Grain 4 4.1 % 200.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 50.1 IBUs 100.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 15.2 IBUs 35.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 4.3 IBUs 1 Item Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 8 - 4.0 pkg Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.064 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.2 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 69.6 IBUs	Calories:
Est Color: 72.8 EBC