Ok so I've been on about syrups recently, time to put the theory into practice. I wanted to play with a standard cheap kit, and try to produce something unique. After a little reading I plumped for a canned kit of Geordie Mild. These run about £12, yet most people who play with the recipie find they are a surprising bargain.
According to the instructions you're supposed to add 1kg of brewing sugars to the contents of the kit, top up to 40 pints, ferment, keg, condition and drink. So the first thing I did was throw the instructions away. Now for some practical calculations of sugars:-
1x 500g pack of dark DME
1x 454g tin of lyles golden syrup (assume this to be 80% sugars, so in reality 360g of sugars)
1/2 454g tin of black treacle (assume this to be 65% sugars, so in reality 148g of sugars)
1x brewing liquorice stick (didn't count this as a sugar source, it's primarily there for the flavour)
That totals up to 1008g of sugars, and leaves us on track for our 1kg of fermentables, plus a little extra for the brewing gods.
So preparation was much like any simple can kit brew, sterilise a FV, add the contents of your warmed can of gloop, your DME and other sugars. Top up to 40 pints with El-cheaperino 17p spring water, and now for the brewing liquorice. This stuff is hard, not chewy, has a full on liquorice smell, and tastes fairly strong, enough to border on being unpleasant. To prepare it, you'll need to grab your big knife, a chopping board and chop it up roughly in to 1-2cm long chunks. Chuck it all into the brew. Add the supplied yeast and get fermenting, it was brewed out in about a week.
OG was 1.038
FG was 1.012
Which yielded approximately 3.4% abv
Next it received a weeks cold crash at 6 deg C, then was transferred to barrel for mass conditioning. 75g of brewing sugars were added at this stage to prime the barrel, as well as a heading liquid for final finishing. The barrel was left in a warm area for a little over 2 weeks to condition. Finally the last step was transferring the barrel to a fridge to cool off ready to try the drink after 48 hours.
So what was the result? It's definitely darker than a normal mild, almost black, a lot of this extra colour comes from the treacle and liquorice. The head is nice consistent and creamy looking, but not especially long lived. As well as the usual smells one would expect with a mild, there's a hint of the combined smells of treacle and liquorice. It's reminiscent of the traditional smells of foods we have around Bonfire night/Halloween time, Parkin, treacle toffee etc.
Taste is definitely good for a young beer, though I think I'll use a bit less treacle next time. It's not overwhelming in the breadth of flavours, but it's too much at the forefront for my liking. If it's this good now, and I wasn't in such a rush, to try it I'd guess another few weeks maturing would produce something special.
This would definitely be a great brew for a bonfire night celebration or a summer barbecue, with some roast animal and pint or two of this, it'd be great.
When I make a subsequent batch with a lesser amount of treacle, I'll report back with my findings. I think just 1/4 of the can of treacle, and a top up with brewing sugar would be ideal. I'll also mature longer to improve the flavours.
According to the instructions you're supposed to add 1kg of brewing sugars to the contents of the kit, top up to 40 pints, ferment, keg, condition and drink. So the first thing I did was throw the instructions away. Now for some practical calculations of sugars:-
1x 500g pack of dark DME
1x 454g tin of lyles golden syrup (assume this to be 80% sugars, so in reality 360g of sugars)
1/2 454g tin of black treacle (assume this to be 65% sugars, so in reality 148g of sugars)
1x brewing liquorice stick (didn't count this as a sugar source, it's primarily there for the flavour)
That totals up to 1008g of sugars, and leaves us on track for our 1kg of fermentables, plus a little extra for the brewing gods.
So preparation was much like any simple can kit brew, sterilise a FV, add the contents of your warmed can of gloop, your DME and other sugars. Top up to 40 pints with El-cheaperino 17p spring water, and now for the brewing liquorice. This stuff is hard, not chewy, has a full on liquorice smell, and tastes fairly strong, enough to border on being unpleasant. To prepare it, you'll need to grab your big knife, a chopping board and chop it up roughly in to 1-2cm long chunks. Chuck it all into the brew. Add the supplied yeast and get fermenting, it was brewed out in about a week.
OG was 1.038
FG was 1.012
Which yielded approximately 3.4% abv
Next it received a weeks cold crash at 6 deg C, then was transferred to barrel for mass conditioning. 75g of brewing sugars were added at this stage to prime the barrel, as well as a heading liquid for final finishing. The barrel was left in a warm area for a little over 2 weeks to condition. Finally the last step was transferring the barrel to a fridge to cool off ready to try the drink after 48 hours.
So what was the result? It's definitely darker than a normal mild, almost black, a lot of this extra colour comes from the treacle and liquorice. The head is nice consistent and creamy looking, but not especially long lived. As well as the usual smells one would expect with a mild, there's a hint of the combined smells of treacle and liquorice. It's reminiscent of the traditional smells of foods we have around Bonfire night/Halloween time, Parkin, treacle toffee etc.
Taste is definitely good for a young beer, though I think I'll use a bit less treacle next time. It's not overwhelming in the breadth of flavours, but it's too much at the forefront for my liking. If it's this good now, and I wasn't in such a rush, to try it I'd guess another few weeks maturing would produce something special.
This would definitely be a great brew for a bonfire night celebration or a summer barbecue, with some roast animal and pint or two of this, it'd be great.
When I make a subsequent batch with a lesser amount of treacle, I'll report back with my findings. I think just 1/4 of the can of treacle, and a top up with brewing sugar would be ideal. I'll also mature longer to improve the flavours.
