Brewday - Ordinary Ale - 03/05/2020

Nothing in this world is ordinary at the moment. My next brew, however, is an ordinary ale.

To be honest I wouldn't usually brew so frequently these days, but it passes the time nicely during lockdown. And as the last brew is going to sit a while before being consumed, I thought I'd jump straight back in and brew a low-gravity, easy-drinker, that I'll be able to get on tap real quick.

The recipe is based on a brew I first enjoyed after moving to my current town of residence. The missus and I had been on a 7 mile hike through the countryside on the outskirts of town and the weather was glorious. Conveniently the walk started and ended at a pub and after exerting myself in the afternoon warmth, I was in need of a pint of something nice and refreshing.

Being new to the area, I didn't know at the time that the beer I had chosen to enjoy was brewed locally, a few miles down the road. The beer was Archers Village - 3.6%

Many years have passed since that first taste and sadly the brewery is no more. Come to think of it, neither is that pub we ended up at. Sadly, that's closed too.

A recipe for this beer appears in one of the newer editions of Graham Wheeler's book 'Brew Your Own British Real Ale'. Described by the author as 'a dry, well-balanced beer with a full body for its gravity. Malty and fruity on the nose, then a fresh, hoppy favour with balancing malt and a hoppy, fruity finish'.

The recipe in the book calls for just pale and crystal malt, but in my version I've also included some Cara-Pils to boost the body and help with head retention. I'm also using a slightly different combination of bittering hops (Wheeler suggests Progress and WGV) but I'm using what I have in stock which is Progress and Aurora.

The full breakdown of the malt and hops I'm using is shown below. The brew is pencilled in for Sunday May 3rd when I'll update this post with how the brewday panned out.

3350g Maris Otter
300g Cara-Pils
180g Dark Crystal

Mash for 75 mins @ 67c

Hops during a 75 minute boil;

Progress 26g @ 60 mins

Aurora 16g @ 60 mins
Styrian Goldings 20g @10 mins
Styrian Goldings 20g @ 2 mins

OG should be 1.036 with around 30 units of bitterness. 

Yeast will be whatever I have available, which is likely to be dried Muntons Premium Gold.

As for the old Archers brewery, I happen to have one of their promotional bar runners from back in the day, with some quite scary looking west-country folk on. Cheers!

EDIT:

The day went fine, although I overshot the gravity despite the volumes being spot-on. SG is 1.040 instead of 1.036, so not quite the beer I was aiming for, but I decided not to liquor back and just go with it.

During the boil I did notice a dark twig-like object caught on the immersion chiller at one point. It looked darker than a bine, but thought no more about it until I had transferred the beer into the fermenter and then went back to deal with the clean-up. There, sitting on top of the trub was this fella. The same thing, but not a piece of hop bine. A caterpillar. Jeez.

On the plus side he was intact and hadn't ruptured. His insides only came out when I squeezed him after retrieval. Not sure how I feel about this brew now, but I doubt any damage has been done. Here's hoping and at least the wort is crystal clear above the cold break. 

Homebrew review - Brexit Beer

This beer was brewed at the end of January this year; brewday post here.

I bottled half the brew and put the other half in a 9L keg. First impressions are inviting. It looks good - pours clear with a nice amount of carbonation (this was a bottled conditioned example).

The head didn't dissipate too quickly and continued to lace the glass all through to the end. But looks aren't everything.

The hops are slightly underwhelming - I was expecting more from the late addition of Citra and being a beer I've done many times before, this was slightly lacking in hop flavour compared to earlier versions. Maybe the hops for this particular harvest weren't as pungent as previously.

Also, despite this bottle being okay, other bottles I've sampled have a definite phenolic character. It isn't present in the kegged version, so I'm guessing there may have been some cleaning residue on some of the bottles.

And although the keg beer doesn't have the pehnolic characteristics of some of the bottles, there is a hint of oxidation, so that beer is far from being perfect too.

Overall not a bad brew, but nowhere as clean as I would like. I'll have to review the bottle cleaning process and also the keg transfer, as that's the most likely cause of the oxidisation I guess. Hopefully the next brew will be better in that respect.

Brewday - Cream Ale 05/06/2014

It's been a while. A change of work regime has impacted more than expected, but I'm still here and I'm still brewing.

A Cream Ale is on the agenda this week. The local homebrew club has a 'lager' night coming up, but I didn't fancy brewing a lager and thought a Cream Ale might fit the bill just as well.

The weather forecast looks shite, so I'm guessing I'll be in the garage, rather than pulling the brewery out onto the drive and sitting in the sunshine, but hey, ho, I'm looking forward to a day off and what better way to spend it?

I'm not sure if this is an authentic recipe for this American style beer, but I found a couple of recipes on the internet and tweaked them to fit what I had ingredient wise. Either way it should be a pale, lightly-hopped beer, that will be nicely carbonated and served chilled. One that's likely to go down well, should the summer ever threaten to make an appearance.

Cream Ale

Cream Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 05 Jun 2014
Batch Size (fermenter): 50.00 l	Brewer: Mark
Boil Size: 59.08 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 75 min	Equipment: Elite Brewery 10G
End of Boil Volume 54.08 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 50.00 l	Est Mash Efficiency 72.8 %
Fermentation: Lager, Single Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50):
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 8000.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 73.1 % 1260.00 g Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 2 11.5 % 1000.00 g Maize, Flaked (Thomas Fawcett) (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 9.1 % 450.00 g Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 4 4.1 % 240.00 g Vienna Malt (Weyermann) (5.9 EBC) Grain 5 2.2 % 30.00 g Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 11.0 IBUs 20.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 6.0 IBUs 10.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 8 1.1 IBUs 10.00 g Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 9 1.0 IBUs 15.00 g Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 10 0.3 IBUs 15.00 g Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 11 0.2 IBUs 4.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 12 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 19.5 IBUs	Calories: 427.1 kcal/l
Est Color: 10.3 EBC

Homebrew Review - Blind Tiger

Life is too short for mediocre beer. And if you're brewing ten gallon batches and get it badly wrong, that's a shedload of mediocre beer to get through.

I'm not sure when I last ditched a batch, but this particular beer was a disaster from start to finish. It started with the recipe. A good idea, badly executed.

The idea of a low gravity easy-drinker with a nice hop combo appealed, but the idea of pairing carahell malt with mild ale malt to create a bit more body than you might expect from a lightweight beer, was a bad one. The sickly sweet malts completely dominate this beer and the hops fail to punch their way through.

I overshot on the gravity too, so it wasn't the small beer I was hoping for and the combination of malts made for a much darker beer than the software predicted, so it wasn't as pale as anticipated either.

To add insult to injury, I also took the beer off the yeast too early. Pressure of work made me use a window of opportunity that was far too early, so there's some diacetyl to add into the mix too. Lovely.

So all in all, a pretty poor effort, both in design and execution. I'm ditching all the bottles and will make a decision on the other half of the batch (which is kegged) in the next couple of days. I'm pondering whether to chuck in a load of dry hops to the keg, to see if this makes it more a amenable brew.

Anyhow, I've brewed again since revisiting a recipe that won me a bronze at the National Homebrew Competition a few years back. I'm not sure why I've taken so long to re-brew this one, but at least I can be hopeful of some decent beer to drink in a few week's time.

Homebrew Review - Best Bitter

This beer was brewed back in November

Best Bitter? 

To be honest, it's another disappointing beer. Yes, it looks the part, but in all other aspects it's very unexceptional.

It pours nice and bright, is a decent colour, although the white head doesn't hang around very long. There's not much on the nose, a few earthy and spicy notes, but nothing particularly inviting.

The taste is slightly better, hints of citrus, but the hops are largely underwhelming. To be fair, it was only meant to be an easy drinking ordinary bitter and neither hops nor malts dominate. I guess in that respect, you could say it was nicely balanced, but I was hoping for a bit more from the Simcoe hops.

Mouthfeel is a bit on the thin side. My brewday notes show I mashed on the low side, so I ought not to be surprised. Other than that, I can't detect any obvious brewing faults. It's limitations are purely due to design.

Perhaps if I was drinking this with the sun on my back during a summer heatwave, my impressions would be more favourable. As it is, conditions are grey and wet, much as they have been for the last six to eight weeks. My mood is sombre and the beer is distinctly average. At best.

Homebrew Review - RIP

I brewed this beer at the beginning of December and it's one I've done in some guise or another for several years.

I'm not sure what style you would class it as, but I brew it as my winter ale. But I don't want to give the impression it's verging on old ale or barley wine territory. It's not. I brew it as a traditional English ale, that's a tad stronger and a shade darker than my usual fare.

Bottle Conditioned RIP

So how did it turn out? The appearance is exactly what I was aiming for. A really deep copper colour with a malty nose, although it maybe a little top-heavy on the roasted malt aroma, which is surprising as there's not very much of it in there. There's also a slight hint of diacetyl.

Unfortunately, the roasted malts carry through into the flavour, as it's a shade more acidic than it should be, verging on sour. I hadn't picked up on the slight sourness until the beer was sampled at my local homebrew group, showing the usefulness of meeting with like-minded souls. The handful of roasted barley I used had been in my malt store for quite some time and I'm wondering if this might have contributed to the flavours?

I did take the beer off the yeast quite early too, which probably accounts for the diacetyl. It's a shame, as underneath, there's a nice beer. It looks the part, is nicely carbonated and had I used fresh ingredients and not rushed the fermentation, it could have been a belter. As it is though, I'll drink it, but it's not really one for sharing.

Recipe here.

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