Homebrew Review - Homegrown Hop 2013

I brewed this beer in mid-September with my new harvest of Bramling Cross hops.

Last year's incarnation was good, but unfortunately, the 2013 brew hasn't turned out quite so well, even allowing for the fact that I'm particularly hard on my beers.

Homegrown Hop 2013 

I was out of carahell malt when I came to brew, so substituted that with caragold this time around. It produced a paler beer, probably the colour I was looking for initially, but at the expense of some body. I definitely preferred the rounder flavour the German malt provided last year.

I also increased my estimate of the alpha. This was a good move as last year's beer was possibly a shade too bitter and this year's is nicely balanced. The disappointment comes with the flavour and aroma.

Hop aroma is earthy, spicy, but definitely muted. Not the assertive, fruitiness, I was expecting.

The flavour is not too bad and was better received by my local homebrew group than it was by me. To be fair, it is nicely balanced, has more fruit to it than you get on the nose, but overall the beer is a shade thin. I think reverting to last year's recipe with the carahell malt would help in this respect.

It's nicely clear and has a bright white head which dissipates about half way through. But although it looks the part, because of the lack of body and aroma, the beer is ultimately underwhelming.

Only I know what I was setting out to achieve, which is why I'm probably a harsher critic than most and I think the problem lies with my hop picking. Worried about them 'going over' I harvested a couple of weeks earlier this year and while the hops looked great, they probably lacked some of that 'paperiness' that you need to ensure the Lupulin is at its peak.

Having said all of that, the beer is perfectly palatable and I'll have no qualms about sharing this among friends. I've bottled the whole batch, rather than splitting half into a keg, as I get more requests for handouts of this brew, than any other.

I'll keep trying, though. I'll revert to the carahell malt and pick the hops a shade later and hopefully this time next year I'll be singing its praises.

Edit: If you're a hop geek, there's an article and some great pictures from this year's British hop harvest HERE

Brewday - RIP 06/12/2013

Friday is pencilled in for my next brewday. I've brewed this particular beer in some guise or another for a number of years. My father died unexpectedly a while back and I've tried to brew each year on the anniversary of his passing and that original beer I dubbed 'RIP'.

I'm not quite sure where you would pigeon-hole this brew. It's not really and ESB and I just tend to refer to it as my winter ale. The lower gravity version I did last year didn't really come up to scratch, so I'm bringing it back to a more respectable 1.055 gravity this year.

I've always found it very palatable. The British Challenger and EKG hops give the beer a moderate level of bitterness, with a late addition of Cascade delivering a hint of citrus.

And for this year, I've made a change to the grist, dividing the pale malt in half and substituting the other with mild ale malt. The other malts remain unchanged, the handful each of chocolate and roasted barley giving a nice touch of complexity to the finished beer.

I'm happier with my recent beers more than I have been in a long time and hopefully this will be another good one. A little later than usual this year, but dad, this one is for you...

RIP

Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Type: All Grain	Date: 12/06/13
Batch Size (fermenter): 45.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 52.43 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Elite 45L Brew
End of Boil Volume 48.88 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 45.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 73.1 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 5300.00 g Mild Malt (7.9 EBC) Grain 1 46.2 % 5300.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 46.2 % 500.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 3 4.4 % 230.00 g Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC) Grain 4 2.0 % 75.00 g Chocolate Malt (1000.0 EBC) Grain 5 0.7 % 55.00 g Roasted Barley (1199.7 EBC) Grain 6 0.5 % 20.00 g Challenger [7.10 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 7 8.4 IBUs 20.00 g East Kent Goldings (EKG) [6.45 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 8 7.7 IBUs 22.00 g Challenger [7.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 8.4 IBUs 22.00 g Goldings, East Kent [6.45 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 10 6.5 IBUs 1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 11 - 40.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 12 4.4 IBUs 30.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 13 0.5 IBUs 3.0 pkg Nottingham Yeast (Lallemand ) Yeast 14 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG	Measured Original Gravity:
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG	Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.6 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol:
Bitterness: 36.0 IBUs	Calories:
Est Color: 26.5 EBC

Homebrew Review - Galaxy

Firstly a big thanks to Scott, who kindly supplied the hops and the recipe for this one, all the way from Oz. Brewed at the beginning of October, the recipe for this one is here.

I split the batch into two and bottled half and stuck the other half in a keg. Gravity was 1.046, slightly under what was expected, but the beer is certainly no worse for it.

It pours a lovely golden colour, with decent carbonation producing a bright white head which laces the glass nicely. It's a cracking looking beer, but it sadly lacks the hop aroma I was expecting. It wasn't dry hopped, but I anticipated more from the good whack of late hops.

Galaxy

Initially, I was underwhelmed with the taste, but in fairness I was drinking the beer quite cold. Having raised the serving temperature a tad, the beer came to life. Even so, it's still a delicate number, no massive hit of peach, passion fruit or mango. More a gentle caress, with sweet herbal notes added in.

The more I drink it, the more I like it. I think my initial problem was that I was expecting something truly hoppy. With the bulk of the hops added from 10 minutes onwards, I guess that was never going to be the case.

As such, the beer makes much more sense as a summer drinker, but for now it gives me a nice low-gravity option over the Porter and IPA that were also recently brewed.

Ultimately it's a good beer, but I also liked the promise of the similar beer I brewed where the Galaxy hop was combined with Nelson Sauvin, although that brew wasn't without it's issues either. I reckon there's a really good beer somewhere between the two, which offers plenty of promise for a summer beer next year.

EDIT: A day after writing this review (of the kegged beer) I sampled one of the bottles. The beer was fresher and more vibrant, for sure. Although still a delicate number, the Galaxy aroma is definitely present in the bottled version and it drinks a nicer beer. I think the co2 in the keg might be responsible for masking a bit of the aroma. 25/11

Hop Growing

I'll get to review the beer featuring my homegrown Bramling Cross hops shortly, but the early news is that it's not quite the beer I wanted.

However, earlier this week I managed to secure an hour or two up the allotment to tidy up the hop vines and frames. After harvesting, I cut the vines at the base and let them die back. I removed the withered growth from the canes this week, so the frame is now empty as winter approaches.

I also took the opportunity to plant another variety. Regular readers might remember that in addition to the Bramling Cross, I also had some Target in the past. The Target failed to establish as well as the BX, so I dug them out at this time last year, with a view to replacing them.

It was some job trying to remove all trace of the roots, and to ensure there was no mix up with varieties in the future, I left the bed empty for a year. I must have made a good job of it as no growth appeared, so the bed is now ready for its new occupant.

WGV

These are Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV). I planted two rhizomes in a container last year, just to get them going prior to planting out at the allotment. Having retrieved them from the container, they have come on a bundle from their original size, so I'm hopeful of a good start from them next year. 

I tend to use WGV in a Best Bitter, a recipe I've probably returned to more times than any other, usually pairing it with Progress and a late addition of Styrian Goldings.