Homebrew Review - Ordinary Ale

Ordinary by name, ordinary by nature. 

Maybe that's  little harsh because this beer is exactly what I set out to achieve. A nice everyday pint you can enjoy all evening, without consequences. It's like a friend you can while away the hours with, without any aggro. No needle, no falling out, just a pleasant time. But then again, nothing too memorable either. 

That's not to say I'm not pleased. It's clear as a bell with a nice tight white head (this was from the keg). The earlier pints were slightly hazy, but as always the last few out were stunning to look at. The head dissipated quite quickly but continued to lace the glass on the way down.  

The beer is nicely balanced, the body and the colour are ideal, but if I'm being particularly picky, the beer lacks a bit of bite. I was hoping for bit more hoppiness (which can't be a word as I've got a red line beneath that one) to give the impression it's punching above its weight. In reality it's the lightweight that's good in it's division but has no pretensions about stepping it up and mixing it at a different level. 

To be fair I did overshoot the gravity, the thin mash in the Braumeister made the extraction very efficient and the beer ended up at 3.9% rather than the expected 3.6%.

There's nothing wrong with a small beer and I'm tempted to brew this again. Maybe with some American or New World hops, but keeping the grist the same, to see if the more feisty hops make a significant difference. 

I served this about 8c and it hit really hit the spot after a few garden jobs in the sun. I might make it my next brew with the hops I mentioned substituted - maybe  Galaxy and Simcoe.... Until then Cheers!

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. 

Thoughts for the next brew...

My last brew has been bottled and kegged so while I wait for that condition, it's time to muse over what to brew next.

I've got in mind a small beer I'd like to do at some stage, but as the last brew wouldn't be too dissimilar, I'll put that one on the back-burner for now and go with something a bit more robust.

I might go with a homage to Brakspear Triple. It's been discontinued but used to be a nice drop. In the book '300 beers to try before you die' by Roger Protz, Roger describes it thus; 'Triple is one of the best new beers to appear in Britain in many years - it's a glass of the Old Stunning, as Charles Dickens was want to say.'

The recipe did change over the years, with the label on the last few bottles that I acquired stating the hops were Northdown and Cascade. My preference was for the earlier version which was hopped solely with Target.

Descriptions of the two different versions can be found here;

https://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/Beer/Beer-Ratings.asp?BeerID=173826

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/brakspear-triple-72/46132/

With a starting gravity of around 1.065 it will push my 20l Braumeister to the limit but I'll see what I can come up with. Time to get to work putting a recipe together...
-

It's been a while

Five and a half years to be precise. I've not brewed much in the intervening time and I've sold my old 10 gallon brewery pictured on the right.

But all is not lost. The hiatus is over and I'm finally brewing once more. Maybe only 3 or 4 times a year, but I'm enjoying it again and I'll bring you up to speed with details of the new set-up very soon.

I rediscovered this old blog and found it a useful resource to remind me what went well and what didn't. I also find it therapeutic to write (even if no else reads it but me) so here we go again...

Oh and apologies for any images missing on the old posts - there's nothing I can do to recover these.