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Flat out like a lizard drinking
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Hazelwood Brewday
- Thread starter Hazelwood Brewery
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Only one tap with English Bitter (the only beer to drink while the game is on) and that’s getting lowThis made me chuckle knowing how many taps you’ve got in your brew shed
Sorry - autocorrect got me... I meant to address the good Mr Hazelwood
I now have three beers fermenting and using the learning from my recent interest in increasing aroma/flavour.
The aroma when I open the door to the fermentation cabinet is wonderful which might be a good sign but must also mean the aroma is being scrubbed. This was expected and is fine because so far I’ve been focused on flavour.
Today the first of the three beers is on day 7 of primary fermentation and there should by now be very little scrubbing effect so it’s time to focus on aroma. A second dry hop (using Citra because it has high levels of “free” Thiols) at the end of fermentation should deliver this aroma boost through greater solubility of oils in alcohol (now present) and reduced scrubbing by CO2. This dry hop addition will be for just 2 days and will be at 12C to reduce losses of volatile oils. After adding the hops I will purge the head space in the fermenter with CO2 and fit a CO2 balloon in place of the bubble trap.
(In theory I could even recover some of the aroma lost into the balloon by squeezing this into the keg as purging CO2 before I keg the beer. I might do it, nothing to loose, I think
).
The first beer is Summer Breeze so that will get done today. Pilgrim will follow in two days, Pathfinder two days after that.
Nearly at the moment of truth, place your bets…
The aroma when I open the door to the fermentation cabinet is wonderful which might be a good sign but must also mean the aroma is being scrubbed. This was expected and is fine because so far I’ve been focused on flavour.
Today the first of the three beers is on day 7 of primary fermentation and there should by now be very little scrubbing effect so it’s time to focus on aroma. A second dry hop (using Citra because it has high levels of “free” Thiols) at the end of fermentation should deliver this aroma boost through greater solubility of oils in alcohol (now present) and reduced scrubbing by CO2. This dry hop addition will be for just 2 days and will be at 12C to reduce losses of volatile oils. After adding the hops I will purge the head space in the fermenter with CO2 and fit a CO2 balloon in place of the bubble trap.
(In theory I could even recover some of the aroma lost into the balloon by squeezing this into the keg as purging CO2 before I keg the beer. I might do it, nothing to loose, I think
).The first beer is Summer Breeze so that will get done today. Pilgrim will follow in two days, Pathfinder two days after that.
Nearly at the moment of truth, place your bets…
The dry hop…
This second (aroma) addition was 50g of pellet hops. I chose pellet hops for this addition because they will disintegrate and maximise the contact surface area. They are also easier to add to a beer that already has a raft of leaf hops.
When I lifted the lid on the fermenter this is what greeted me, a raft of leaf hops and a little yeast krausen on top. It all looked fairly clean, had good colour (not looking oxidised), and had a nice aroma.
I pulled back a little of the raft to expose the beer beneath in part to see the beer but mostly to create a hole I could tip the hop pellets into.
Lid back on and CO2 piped into the head space until I could feel “air” coming back out for a few seconds. Balloon 2/3 filled with CO2 fitted to the lid in place of the bubble trap. Fermenter sitting in the main brew-shed at about 12C.
This will be left for two days and will then be kegged.
This second (aroma) addition was 50g of pellet hops. I chose pellet hops for this addition because they will disintegrate and maximise the contact surface area. They are also easier to add to a beer that already has a raft of leaf hops.
When I lifted the lid on the fermenter this is what greeted me, a raft of leaf hops and a little yeast krausen on top. It all looked fairly clean, had good colour (not looking oxidised), and had a nice aroma.
I pulled back a little of the raft to expose the beer beneath in part to see the beer but mostly to create a hole I could tip the hop pellets into.
Lid back on and CO2 piped into the head space until I could feel “air” coming back out for a few seconds. Balloon 2/3 filled with CO2 fitted to the lid in place of the bubble trap. Fermenter sitting in the main brew-shed at about 12C.
This will be left for two days and will then be kegged.
Today I kegged this ale. When I opened the door to the brew-shed I was met by a fermenter that was pressurised and a balloon that must have been on the point of bursting. I wasn’t expecting this given that primary fermentation was done and the fermenter had been at 12C for two days but there it was. The lid of the fermenting bucket was domed more than I would think possible without blowing off. This is some of the beer straight out of the fermenter - it seems you can pressure ferment in a bucket!
The down side was that I had an awful time trying to syphon fizzy beer. It just stopped every few seconds and the gas was coming out of the syphon pipe and bubbling up through the beer in the keg. I’ve no idea if this might harm the beer but I’m hoping not given that it’s CO2.
So, the next beer I treat in this fashion (tomorrow) will be checked every few hours after the last dry hop addition and where necessary I will bleed off CO2 to avoid a repetition of this problem. You live and learn…
The down side was that I had an awful time trying to syphon fizzy beer. It just stopped every few seconds and the gas was coming out of the syphon pipe and bubbling up through the beer in the keg. I’ve no idea if this might harm the beer but I’m hoping not given that it’s CO2.
So, the next beer I treat in this fashion (tomorrow) will be checked every few hours after the last dry hop addition and where necessary I will bleed off CO2 to avoid a repetition of this problem. You live and learn…
Pennine
Landlord.
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You need a spigot.
Oh and good thing you are kegging you would probably get some serious hop creep in the bottle.
Today I added the final dry hop addition to the second of three beers testing the science of aroma and flavour - or maybe just my understanding and my execution of it!
For this beer I used cascade in the whirlpool - cascade has one of the highest levels of bound thiols. I also used a blend of two yeasts to maximise the two main aims of bio-transformation; releasing bound thiols, and converting linalool to citronellol.
Again, the view inside the fermenter was clean and the underlying beer was actually more clear in this beer than my Summer Breeze (though I did use Wyeast 1318 in SB). This time the balloon is only inflated a little and I’ll make several visits to the brew-shed over the next couple of days to keep it that way.
For this beer I used cascade in the whirlpool - cascade has one of the highest levels of bound thiols. I also used a blend of two yeasts to maximise the two main aims of bio-transformation; releasing bound thiols, and converting linalool to citronellol.
Again, the view inside the fermenter was clean and the underlying beer was actually more clear in this beer than my Summer Breeze (though I did use Wyeast 1318 in SB). This time the balloon is only inflated a little and I’ll make several visits to the brew-shed over the next couple of days to keep it that way.
You need one of these. Not a problem for a man of your skills
I might need to think about it!
Time to keg Pilgrim and dry hop Pathfinder…
Pilgrim didn’t misbehave like my last batch of Summer Breeze. The balloon stayed exactly the same over the last couple of days as it was when I fitted it. Pilgrim looked quite nice out of the fermenter but wasn’t as aromatic as I’d hoped, maybe the aroma will develop over the next few days. The flavour was interesting though, the citrus flavour certainly seemed to be amplified. Early days but I’m hopeful I might have at least a partial result. The final gravity was 1012 so ABV will be 5.78%.
Pathfinder next. When I pulled the lid off the fermenter I was expecting to see the same colour variations with the dark green geranium leaves and pink rose petals. As you see, there’s no hint of them! Hopefully they’ve been eaten by the yeast and converted to lovely flavour/aroma!
The beer looked good under the hop raft so I’ve dropped the dry hops through the hole, purged the head space, and fitted the balloon as I did with the other beers.
Pilgrim didn’t misbehave like my last batch of Summer Breeze. The balloon stayed exactly the same over the last couple of days as it was when I fitted it. Pilgrim looked quite nice out of the fermenter but wasn’t as aromatic as I’d hoped, maybe the aroma will develop over the next few days. The flavour was interesting though, the citrus flavour certainly seemed to be amplified. Early days but I’m hopeful I might have at least a partial result. The final gravity was 1012 so ABV will be 5.78%.
Pathfinder next. When I pulled the lid off the fermenter I was expecting to see the same colour variations with the dark green geranium leaves and pink rose petals. As you see, there’s no hint of them! Hopefully they’ve been eaten by the yeast and converted to lovely flavour/aroma!
The beer looked good under the hop raft so I’ve dropped the dry hops through the hole, purged the head space, and fitted the balloon as I did with the other beers.
Yesterday I brewed another batch of English Bitter with a few tweaks as I’ve noted previously.
I changed the water profile reducing sulphate, adding some sodium, and increasing chloride. I also reduced alkalinity - this turned out to be unnecessary and I ended up with a pH of 5.04. This actually isn’t too much of a problem but may be the cause for a couple more gravity points on the OG.
The other change was to leave the additions of dark crystal and roast barley (used mainly for colour adjustment) until later in the mash. The rationale here is that coffee mashed for a few minutes is nice, left to stew for an hour and it’s not nice - maybe steeping the dark roast grains for less time will make the beer silky smooth
Having milled the grain I set these two additions aside. 100g crystal 225, 30g roast barley.
My mash profile for this beer is 20m @ 148F, 30m @ 158F, 20m @ 170F. The dark crystal went in at 40m and I added the roast barley at 60m.
I did seem to still get the colour from the roast barley but I won’t know for sure until the beer is finished. The wort coming out of the kettle looked good. Typically, I took this picture just as the flow stopped!
Now I have to wait for a couple of weeks to see if these tweaks have delivered what I want. So much waiting in this game…
I changed the water profile reducing sulphate, adding some sodium, and increasing chloride. I also reduced alkalinity - this turned out to be unnecessary and I ended up with a pH of 5.04. This actually isn’t too much of a problem but may be the cause for a couple more gravity points on the OG.
The other change was to leave the additions of dark crystal and roast barley (used mainly for colour adjustment) until later in the mash. The rationale here is that coffee mashed for a few minutes is nice, left to stew for an hour and it’s not nice - maybe steeping the dark roast grains for less time will make the beer silky smooth
Having milled the grain I set these two additions aside. 100g crystal 225, 30g roast barley.
My mash profile for this beer is 20m @ 148F, 30m @ 158F, 20m @ 170F. The dark crystal went in at 40m and I added the roast barley at 60m.
I did seem to still get the colour from the roast barley but I won’t know for sure until the beer is finished. The wort coming out of the kettle looked good. Typically, I took this picture just as the flow stopped!
Now I have to wait for a couple of weeks to see if these tweaks have delivered what I want. So much waiting in this game…
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Are you adjusting the recipe for your own taste or from feedback. I remember Steve reviewing your bitter. I remember him saying it was the best homebrew version he had tasted.
I also see your tweaking the summer breeze
I also see your tweaking the summer breeze
From feedback. In the dark ales competition @Dads_Ale found the bitterness a bit harsh and although I don’t find it harsh it is possible I’m just less sensitive to the harsh bitter notes. I’m trying this change to see if it makes any difference to me (hopefully better!). They are only minor tweaks so the beer will still be the same for the most part and I can easily revert if there’s no improvement. It’s also a learning exercise for me, I’ve never steeped grain late in the mash before.
The same is true for Summer Breeze where I had feedback from @Leon103 that the beer needed more punchy hop aroma and flavour. I’ve done some research and learned a bit more science about essential oils, thiols, and biotransformation. If the changes give me more hop aroma/flavour that’s great and I can share/re-use that knowledge. Again, I can always revert to my regular process if I get no improvement.
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I think the last few American pale ale competition aroma has been an issue for everyone.
I’ve just kegged Pathfinder. FG was 1014 so this ale will be 5.25%. It looked quite clean too but still very hazy.
I had to have a taste of course and it is very fruity but also has quite a lingering bitterness at the moment. That might condition out maybe? We’ll see in a couple of weeks. No hint of rose or geranium by the way.
I had to have a taste of course and it is very fruity but also has quite a lingering bitterness at the moment. That might condition out maybe? We’ll see in a couple of weeks. No hint of rose or geranium by the way.
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I don't remember the top 3 having much issues.....Maybe it’s @Leon ‘s nose that’s faulty!
Time for an update I think of the three beers I brewed employing some science, described a few pages back in this thread.
First, pictures of the three beers for a visual comparison. On the left Summer Breeze, in the middle is Pilgrim, on the right is Pathfinder. They have been conditioning 16, 13, and 10 days respectively.
All the beers are aromatic but on the whole I’m not really convinced they are more aromatic. All three beers are flavoursome and this might be where there has been a measure of success.
Pilgrim has a particularly hoppy flavour and is quite like almost every other heavily hopped commercial beer from the likes of Cloudwater.
Pathfinder was based on the same recipe as Pilgrim but had some more exotic additions. This beer was actually more dry than Pilgrim but otherwise not much different so either don’t bother with the exotic ingredients or look for some different ones.
I would say if you want to brew a really hoppy ale, try the recipe for Pilgrim. I’ve included a link to the recipe.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/c827e09a-5f2c-4586-9c09-18261dab4ef7-jpeg.940/full
If you want to try your own experiment to accentuate the hoppy flavour of your beer, put all your flavour hops in a 30-minute hopstand/whirlpool at 90C (scrap your bittering addition because the hopstand will add bitterness), use a blend of Lallemand BRY-97 and Lallemand Verdant yeast, and add some of your dry-hops on the first day of fermentation.
First, pictures of the three beers for a visual comparison. On the left Summer Breeze, in the middle is Pilgrim, on the right is Pathfinder. They have been conditioning 16, 13, and 10 days respectively.
All the beers are aromatic but on the whole I’m not really convinced they are more aromatic. All three beers are flavoursome and this might be where there has been a measure of success.
Pilgrim has a particularly hoppy flavour and is quite like almost every other heavily hopped commercial beer from the likes of Cloudwater.
Pathfinder was based on the same recipe as Pilgrim but had some more exotic additions. This beer was actually more dry than Pilgrim but otherwise not much different so either don’t bother with the exotic ingredients or look for some different ones.
I would say if you want to brew a really hoppy ale, try the recipe for Pilgrim. I’ve included a link to the recipe.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/c827e09a-5f2c-4586-9c09-18261dab4ef7-jpeg.940/full
If you want to try your own experiment to accentuate the hoppy flavour of your beer, put all your flavour hops in a 30-minute hopstand/whirlpool at 90C (scrap your bittering addition because the hopstand will add bitterness), use a blend of Lallemand BRY-97 and Lallemand Verdant yeast, and add some of your dry-hops on the first day of fermentation.
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Top work there Mr H and a big thanks for really pushing the envelope and making such a fair and cool headed evaluation of the results :hat:
