Hazelwood Brewday

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Made another batch of my Mosaic IPA. This is one of those beers that doesn’t really impress for about 4 weeks then quite suddenly becomes everyone’s favourite - second favourite when there’s any Summer Breeze left (Citra/Galaxy IPA).

23 litres, OG=1060, abv~6.5%


Thanks to the always aggressive MJ US West Coat yeast FG = 1007 so in the end this beer is more potent than planned at 6.9%. The aroma though is really nice. athumb..
 
Brewed another batch of sweet stout last night. It’s just one of those beers that makes you feel comforted at the end of a hard day or when the weather isn’t so good. Mostly though, it just tastes really good! 24 litres in the FV, OG=1066, bubble trap blipping contentedly this morning.

It was the recipe in post #80 but I wanted a slightly larger batch and can’t get any more grain in my basket so I added 500g of dextrose at the same time as I added the lactose to maintain the abv.

I also switched yeast to MJ’s New World Strong Ale because I think this will be better suited.
 
Be interesting to see if you get an extended fermentation with the added dextrose. As I seem to get ..

In theory it’s a bigger meal so will take longer to eat but I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference with other brews.

I used to have a cat and maybe he’s a good analogy. If I gave him a bigger meal he’d just eat it faster - perhaps he was just worried I might realise I’d given him too much and take it away from him!
 
Two weeks on from my last tasting and time for another taste of my conditioning beers. First up the plum porter, now five weeks conditioned...

Wow! That’s good! The plum aroma is beautiful, the plum flavour is still strong but much more balanced. Beautiful plum porter. I’d say this might even be on a par with Titanic and I do know that’s a bold claim.

6A008411-7EDA-4CD5-AF32-4AF454706456.jpeg
 
Next up Trinity brown ale. Last time I tried this it was bloody awful so I have my fingers crossed, it had been conditioning for four weeks after all...

It’s OK. It certainly isn’t as bad as last time but it’s still quite murky and doesn’t taste clean at all. Dragging it’s heals this one. :mad:

B4E1F53E-0C8A-4B3B-9208-8E02DDD376EF.jpeg
 
Three weeks conditioned is my Summer Breeze, Citra/Galaxy IPA...

This is actually quite drinkable now but the flavour isn’t clean yet. I know what this one will taste like, it’s a real fruit bomb and I’m not getting that yet. This is why it’s important to let the beer mature. Right now I could drink this but maybe wouldn’t make it again where I know that in another few weeks it will be a very different beer - in a good way!

4B653197-21B1-40CF-8F58-0A3A08473E02.jpeg
 
Three weeks conditioned is my Summer Breeze, Citra/Galaxy IPA...

This is actually quite drinkable now but the flavour isn’t clean yet. I know what this one will taste like, it’s a real fruit bomb and I’m not getting that yet. This is why it’s important to let the beer mature. Right now I could drink this but maybe wouldn’t make it again where I know that in another few weeks it will be a very different beer - in a good way!

View attachment 26738

It still surprises me how much beer changes in taste over time, I had a pint of my black ipa 3 weeks ago, it was ok but i was a little disappointed. Tried it again on Wednesday and it was lovely, the flavours had gelled nicely and it seemed more hoppy. Simcoe came through much more strongly.
 
Goofie saison. This one is just two weeks conditioned so is still very young...

It has cleared up really well for the short time conditioning. The aroma has changed a little, I still get white wine but the orange aroma might be more gooseberry this time round. The flavour is not bad either and the orange is still present despite the aroma changing. The flavour isn’t yet as sharp as it’s appearance.

19351AE0-019A-4EF9-9A8C-5D644B937FF0.jpeg
 
It still surprises me how much beer changes in taste over time, I had a pint of my black ipa 3 weeks ago, it was ok but i was a little disappointed. Tried it again on Wednesday and it was lovely, the flavours had gelled nicely and it seemed more hoppy. Simcoe came through much more strongly.

Yes, I’m pretty convinced that for my beers at least, two-months is about right for most and three-months for some of the darker ales. It really is worth waiting if you can brew enough to see you through that lag.

It looks like 15ml of the plum flavouring might well be OK for the plum porter. I’ll let you know in another couple of weeks - even if you decided to try it and brewed this weekend, that will be in time for your kegging/bottling.
 
And the latest arrival - “Festival” my Mosaic/Simcoe IPA. This one has only been conditioning for four days so is just a baby.

Aroma is beautiful with full-on tropical fruit and sweetness like ripe mangoes and pineapple. Colour is really nice although the beer is quite hazy. Flavour has taken me by surprise, I was expecting it to not be nice but this is very drinkable. It tastes a little pithy and there’s the slightest hint of astringency associated with that - just enough that it makes you want another sip.

687B6990-D251-4FBD-AA0C-8BFD29DC0722.jpeg
 
Yes, I’m pretty convinced that for my beers at least, two-months is about right for most and three-months for some of the darker ales. It really is worth waiting if you can brew enough to see you through that lag.

It looks like 15ml of the plum flavouring might well be OK for the plum porter. I’ll let you know in another couple of weeks - even if you decided to try it and brewed this weekend, that will be in time for your kegging/bottling.

Nice one, it's probably a little way down on my list at the moment as I have a few longer conditioning dark ales on the go at the moment and a Baltic Porter will be my next effort so i'll do a couple of Pales in between!
 
Yesterday I brewed my first Munich Dunkel based on a recipe kindly suggested by @strange-steve.

It won’t be the same beer this time round because I made a change and I made a mistake. The change was substituting the yeast from WLP833 to MJ M84 because that’s what I had. The mistake was paying rather more attention to the beer I was drinking than the one being brewed and, running in auto-pilot mode, I made a 23 litre batch rather than a 20 litre batch.

Despite my sabotage the finished wort looks and smells really good so although it may not be the same beer (sorry Steve), I’m pretty sure it’s still going to be great.

OK, it’s now confirmed. @strange-steve ‘s Dunkel is officially my nemesis. I’ve completed over a hundred brews pretty much without incident, but...

I’ve just kegged the beer and while tipping the FV to make it easier to syphon, I poured the last four litres over my kitchen floor. The splashes managed to climb the wall on the opposite side of the room so I’ve had to spend an hour cleaning up! :eek:
 
OK, it’s now confirmed. @strange-steve ‘s Dunkel is officially my nemesis. I’ve completed over a hundred brews pretty much without incident, but...

I’ve just kegged the beer and while tipping the FV to make it easier to syphon, I poured the last four litres over my kitchen floor. The splashes managed to climb the wall on the opposite side of the room so I’ve had to spend an hour cleaning up! :eek:
Hangover???, Don't blame Strange-steve for this.
 
I have quite a lot of beer conditioning in the 5%-7% range so I think I will brew a couple of lower strength beers for guests that prefer something lighter.

I’d been thinking about a bitter and a pale ale so these will be my session beers. I’m going to start tonight with the bitter, recipe something like below. Not made this beer before so this is my first-cut recipe for this beer. Probably aiming for something in the range 4.2%-4.5%


“Bramble” Bitter
2Kg Pilsner
2Kg Maris Otter
200g crystal EBC 225
200g flaked barley
200g torrified wheat
40g chocolate malt
75 min mash at 150F
15g Magnum leaf AA=15.3% 60 mins
30g Bramling X leaf AA=6.8% 15 mins
1 pack Safale S-04
 
“Bramble” Bitter
2Kg Pilsner
2Kg Maris Otter
200g crystal EBC 225
200g flaked barley
200g torrified wheat
40g chocolate malt
75 min mash at 150F
15g Magnum leaf AA=15.3% 60 mins
30g Bramling X leaf AA=6.8% 15 mins
1 pack Safale S-04
This looks very drinkable. What EBC does that get you with 200g of dark crystal and 40g of chocolate?
 
Back
Top