Nicks90's Brewdays

Nicks90 · May 9, 2019

Took a measurement now it's cooled overnight, 1.056
I'll live with that! 75% efficiency
Pitched the yeast this morning and it's gone off like the proverbial already. Bubbling like hell and blown most of the water out of the trap, it's been that vigorous.

Nicks90 · May 11, 2019

Next brew is going to be an experiment, as I've picked up some mandarina hops. So I'm thinking a smash to show off the tangerine flavours. Will do my usual 15l brew and use the whole 100gm hops split half in the boil and half for a dry hop.
From what I've read, if you leave the dry hops for 2 weeks, it really brings out the tangerine flavour. Whereas a few days just gives a lighter floral/fruit flavour - and i want this one to punch brewdogs "IPA is dead" out of the water.

So the plan is to put this on tomorrow and then dry hop next weekend and leave it for 2 weeks whilst I'm in Barcelona for work and bottle it when I get back.

Nicks90 · May 12, 2019

AG number 14

Tangerine Surprise

3kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 60 EBC

18l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil - ended up with 16l in the FV

Hops
15 g Mandarina 60 min
15 g Mandarina 15 min
15 g Mandarina 0 min
will follow up with a 2 week dry hop of 50gm Mandarina

Yeast, Wilkos finest notty!

OG 1.046 – shooting for 5% abv as usual

pilgrimhudd · May 12, 2019

Sounds nice that! Will be interested to hear how that one goes!

foxbat · May 12, 2019

Also interested in this one. Sounds like a nice hop.

Nicks90 · May 12, 2019

It does sound very interesting and it will make a change from the grapefruit IPA that is the usual fruity fare.

As slight change in process, I am going to use my metal hop spider for the dry hop, as I reckon my little muslin bag will struggle with 50gm of pellets. Might also give more room for flavour outlet.
Just need to work out how to clean and sterilise it, as I am never that meticulous with it normally, as it goes in boiling wort for 60 mins and is therefore pretty safe with just a good rinse!

Nicks90 · May 12, 2019

AG number 12

Click to expand...

Another Another IPA

2kg Irish malt
100gm crystal malt 240ebc

Hops
25gm Cascade at 45min
30gm Cascade when the wort reached 80C and left for 3 hours

Had another taste of this tonight - purely in the name of science - and it's continuing to develop. However it's got what I can only describe as a tobacco after taste.
It's still lovely and piney and floral, just maybe 5-10 seconds after swallowing you get this smokey tobacco-ey note.
Has anyone else experienced this with cascade?

matt76 · May 13, 2019

Nicks90 said:
It does sound very interesting and it will make a change from the grapefruit IPA that is the usual fruity fare.

Ironically, I recently tried a beer made with summit hops which had an intense white/yellow grapefruit flavour and has inspired me to give these a whirl in the near future! :laugh8:

Best of luck with your brew, will be interested to hear how the mandarina hops work out for you athumb..

Nicks90 · May 14, 2019

Nicks90 said:
AG number 4

Bitter thingymebob
Blahblahblah
Disgusting TCP flavour – must have mashed it at too high a temp. Sitting for 3 months to see if it comes good. still tastes like **** and washed it down the sink

Guess what. I kept 10 bottles of this 'just in case' - and tried a bottle tonight.
It's bloody gorgeous!!!!!!!

Yes I am now kicking myself like a spin kicking roundhouse ninja for chucking the rest of the batch.
Old adage is definitely true. If it tastes rank, keep it and it'll come good in the end,.....

Nicks90 · May 18, 2019

Nicks90 said:
AG number 13

Oat Stout
My order from the HBS has turned up, so time to get the black stuff on!

The stout has been stable at 1.014 for the past 4 days so it got bottled last night.
Blacker than a black hole and can't wait to try this in a couple of weeks!

Also dry hopped the mandarina pale with 55gm. Unfortunately my hop spider won't fit down the cap of my no chill cube, so I retasked one of those small muslin bags my wife uses to wash her bras in. She'll never know!

Nicks90 · May 18, 2019

Obligatory piccy of ag#12 my cascade IPA - which has been named Cascadia

Nicks90 · May 24, 2019

Nicks90 said:
AG number 14

Tangerine Surprise
OG 1.046

got this bottled this afternoon, and whilst i wanted to leave it 2 weeks for dry hopping, unfortunately i fly out to poland the day i get back from barcelona and then i am flying straight from Warsaw to Lagos for another week. i reckon 4 weeks might be a bit long!
finished up at 1.010 dead and what an incredible smell! had a sneaky half whilst bottling and it really is a light and delicate flavour with a distinctive tangerine aftertaste!!!!!!!

this is by far my new favourite beer - beside cask blacksheep - and something i will definitely be doing another batch of very soon!

pilgrimhudd · May 25, 2019

Nicks90 said:
got this bottled this afternoon, and whilst i wanted to leave it 2 weeks for dry hopping, unfortunately i fly out to poland the day i get back from barcelona and then i am flying straight from Warsaw to Lagos for another week. i reckon 4 weeks might be a bit long!
finished up at 1.010 dead and what an incredible smell! had a sneaky half whilst bottling and it really is a light and delicate flavour with a distinctive tangerine aftertaste!!!!!!!

this is by far my new favourite beer - beside cask blacksheep - and something i will definitely be doing another batch of very soon!

Going to defo try this one!

Nicks90 · Jun 2, 2019

Tangerine surprise.

It's all carb'd up and a sneaky pint was had.
Hmmmmmmmm
That is delicious!

It's hard to describe, but it's a really delicate floral IPA with a big citrus after taste. But not flowery, but
So sort of a grassy hoppy, summer garden taste with a definite citrus orangy mandarin note at the end.
Definitely quaffable,

matt76 · Jun 3, 2019

Very interesting, it sounds great athumb..

I've just dry hopped an IPA with a load of Amarillo which I really like - it also has a definite orange/tangerine flavour.

I've tried first gold elsewhere but I've never got much of the orange marmalade flavour it's meant to have.

The way you describe it, it sounds like mandarina is somewhere between these old and new world hops??? Will have to give it a try sometime...

Out of interest, although you mentioned the hop additions above, do you know how many IBU's you got with each addition or in total?

Nicks90 · Jun 3, 2019

I think it was about 30ibu if I remember rightly. I don't like really bitter ipas as I think it masks some of the flavour IMHO.

As for hop flavours, I find some come out totally different to what they are supposed to be. My cascade smash has a real tobacco flavour, which was completely unexpected!

Nicks90 · Jun 4, 2019

AG# 15
Foxbats Mainline Mk2

Looking in my beer cellar I have only got 6 bottles of bitter left! Everything else is IPA or stout. Goddamit!!!
So time to revisit a bit of foxbats mainline with a few tweaks.

3kg Irish malt
20gm carafa special 2
100gm crystal 340 ebc
50gm crystal 40 ebc

18l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil - ended up with 16l in the FV

Hops
20gm Fuggles 60 min
10gm Fuggles 15 min
10gm EKG 15 mins
10gm Fuggles 0 min
10gm EKG 0 min

Yeast, Wilkos finest notty!
Currently cooling at the moment - but i'm aiming for 4.5% abv, 22 IBU and SRM of 12

pilgrimhudd · Jun 4, 2019

Just reminded me i've had mainline in the bottom of the little ones wardrobe for the last 3 weeks, time to take out to the garage!

Nicks90 · Jun 11, 2019

AG# 16
Bayou IPA

Having got some Simcoe and Centennial hops in my last order, i fancied doing a recipe i found on the t'interweb from the Bayou beer club. The malt is different, but i doubt it will make that massive a difference. Still fairly generic IPA, so whatever....

4kg Irish malt
200gm crystal 110 ebc

20l mash at 67c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 22l wort for a 60 minute boil - ended up with 17l in the FV

Hops
15gm Centennial 60 min
15gm Centennial 10 min
25gm Simcoe 10 mins
Massive dry hop of Simcoe to follow after its nearly finished fermenting

Yeast - S05 of course

shooting for 5.5% and a fairly heft 45 IBUs and colour of 9 SRM

Nicks90 · Jun 11, 2019

OH COCK.
The packet of S05 turned out to be a packet of cider yeast!
So i am doing a real bodge job which i hope will work. I've siphoned out a 500ml PET bottles worth of the trub from AG15 (which has just about finished) on the assumption there should be plenty of viable yeast in the bottom and the little bit of darker bitter wont affect the overall colour or flavour when added to 17l of ipa wort.
I;ve popped a tiny amount of sugar in the bottle to see if it starts to firm up overnight to prove there is yeast in there, whilst the wort cools down in my cellar.

If the bottle is firming up by tomorrow morning, i will be confident it should be ok to pitch. If not then the cooled wort will have to wait until thursday before i can get to the shops to buy some yeast.

Edited to add - Wasnt confident that it was going to work. There was probably only an inch of sediment/yeast in the bottom of the PET, so i must have done a **** job trying to syphon the trub out!
So instead i transferred my bitter to a bottling bucket and pitched the IPA on to the yeast cake. Sorted

Nicks90's Brewdays

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