Luckyeddie's AG#23 - Smokin'Joe

[luckyeddie]

It's been a brewless few weeks. Remember a while ago my boiler decided to throw in the towel and I ended up salvaging 10 litres of rocket fuel? Well, the very nice people who manufacture the Electrim boiler replaced it completely free of charge. Huge thanks to them and equally huge thanks to Sam at Creative Winemaking, Spondon for sorting it out.

Last week I gave it a test run with just a simple Tripel (3.5 kg of MO, 0.5 kg of Biscuit malt, 0.5 kg of Special B, 0.5 kg of oats, 1 kg of Candi sugar (syrup form), Bobek hops (25g FWH and 25g @ 30 mins), Westmalle yeast. In the fermenter, rocking and rolling - in fact, it was going like a train so I top-cropped after 48 hours. I now have enough Westmalle yeast for about 5 or 6 starters. One of them is chuckling along now and will be in play tomorrow.

More huge thanks due to our old friend Rob at The Malt Miller for being so quick - I ordered on Monday and my Weyermann's Rauchmalz and Belgian Pale Malt arrived on Wednesday. Now THAT's service. So - what to brew this week? No contest. Named after my all-time favourite boxer who died only a couple of weeks ago, I give you...

Smokin' Joe's Rauchbier:

4.0 kg Weyermann's Rauchmalz
0.5 kg Maris Otter
0.3 kg Flaked Oats
0.2 kg Chocolate Malt

Hop Schedule

25g Bobek FWH
25g Bobek @ 30 min

Yeasties

Westmalle (waste not, want not).

Should be good for about 20 litres at 1055 or so.

Brewing tomorrow if the rain passes overnight - will take piccies too if I remember.

 

[RobWalker]

Sounds pretty unique. Good luck with it. I'm far too much of a wimp to get into things like smoked malt and lots of chocolate :p

 

[luckyeddie]

I doubt I'll ever win any competitions - unless there was one for 'freestyle brewing'. Saying that, friends who taste my beers usually say 'WTF?' at first taste - but they always come back for more (must be the drugs I add).

In another lifetime I would have been born in Antwerp and dedicated my time to Lambic beers.

 

[luckyeddie]

A rather uneventful brewday - done and dusted in not much more than 5 hours.

The grain...

The mash...

The yeasties...

Getting stabby with the sparge sheet...

First runnings (and first finger too - new phone

 

[luckyeddie]

Collecting the wort (and another finger)...

First wort Bobek...

Gratuitous advertising...

Looking good...

Bacon, tomato and African birds-eye chillies - the breakfast of brewers...

 

[luckyeddie]

Boil on...

I really ought to consider making cider...

Chillin...

Collecting...

Clag...

And we're done. It started pissing down with rain so the cleaning etc got done in a rush, but you know the drill - OG, pitch, thrash, FV, airlock, brewbelt etc.

I shall modify the label I created for my last Rauchbier (all my beers are FBB - Fat ******* Brewery)...

 

[Svarrogh]

Great pics and wonderful apples Cheers :

 

[craigite]

Great pics, thanks.
I like your mash tun. My cool box is a little too small for a full 6%+ brew of 23liters so I'm going to go down the clear plastic box from the supermarket that have the ok for food stamp.
Wondering if I bought two, one inside the other, if the air gap would be sufficient for insulation.
Experimentation will answer that, oh such fun.

Cracking apples, brew cider and post pics :thumb:

 

[31bb3]

Nothing wrong with freestyle brewing lol I do it myself that's just the hole point make what you like and if others don't sod em more for me

 

[craigite]

Nothing wrong with freestyle brewing lol I do it myself that's just the hole point make what you like and if others don't sod em more for me

:thumb: