New Year - Slid Brewday

[Slid]

Oh no! That's a shame, what's made it terrible? The fruit do something strange to it?

Apologies on the belated reply. I think that perhaps a beer of this type and huge strength, may just need a little more time. The spices and raisins may have just pushed it out a bit further than anticipated.

On reflection, it does not taste "bad" or "nasty" but merely, perhaps, immature for its style.

As it is, I think another six months.

On the plus side, the (GH) Bourbon Vanilla Stout started 14 October 2017 (last year) is much more drinkable now. But it is still "a lot" as #2 daughter would say.

In response to these observations, I have bought a 10L carboy (it holds nearer 11L) to condition these high strength beers going forward. If I were to do another, it would be "parti-gyle", with 10-12 L of wort done in a stove top pot, from the first "runnings" and a second beer done as usual in the GF.

 

[Zephyr259]

No apologies necessary, you already replied to me.

Yeah, my barleywine is drinking quite well but it had 10 months in a carboy and a month in the bottle and it's only 8.1%. The old ale is 7.9% but was ready quicker due to using Voss kveik, still I'm thinking it'll improve a lot with some age.

How are you finding the bourbon stout? I brewed it back in march, also with Voss kveik, and it's been really good. It comes across quite light-bodied for the style has been the feedback as a few people here have tried it. Was it you who entered it into the Feb comp I judged?

 

[Slid]

Hi all, I have not updated this thread since I fell over in the living room on Boxing Day, fracturing my left humerus (shoulder), It is only this last week that I went back to work. 9 weeks at home might sound like fun, but it was not.
Anyway, feeling better and today I decided to use up the open bags of grain (my last brew day was 14th December). So here is was:

MO 4,5k
Brown Malt 500g
Chocolate Malt 273g
Roast Barley 224g
Dark Crystal 368g

Hops - Progress 70g at 60m and 30g @ 15m

Very smooth brewday, except that the GF cut out again at around 93C, which involves having to bale it all out into the Peco Boiler I use to heat the sparge water. Using a grain bag gets rid of about a tennis ball sized amount of grain dust that seems to cause the sludge to stick to the boiler plate and cause the cut-out.
Then I have a methoology thet involves using the 2 boilers (Peco and GF) in conjunction to heat up the strained wort, befors transferring the Peco contents back to the GF. This messing about takes around 40-45 mins, but gives a good result and no scorching, so I think that, on the whole, a 15% increase in time for a brewday is perhaps the least bad thing that could go wrong.

 

[Zephyr259]

Sounds like a tasty dark beer. Have you ever tried wrapping a hop sock around the bottom plate? I've seen some folks doing that and have considered it as it feels like I get a fair bit of grain in the boil, but currently it doesn't cause any issues and a lot of it might actually be hot break.

 

[Slid]

Sounds like a tasty dark beer. Have you ever tried wrapping a hop sock around the bottom plate? I've seen some folks doing that and have considered it as it feels like I get a fair bit of grain in the boil, but currently it doesn't cause any issues and a lot of it might actually be hot break.

No I had not thought of this, I will ponder a moment and reply later, if that's OK?

On reflection - I doubt that a hop sock would help to catch the grain dust. The only bag fine enough to do so would interfere with the re-circulation process, so, no, I don't think this would solve things. The most promising route is that of crushing my grains at home and that is unattractive just now, due to space constraints.

Will continue to think about this option, though.

 

[Zephyr259]

No worries, yeah it'll stop small bits of grain but not dust if that's your issue. Just thought I'd share the idea.

 

[Slid]

Had another interesting Brewday today, with two cut-outs on the GF, My solution to this problem, caused essentially by too much crud due to a fine grain crush, is to bale all the contents out of the GF into the Peco Boiler I use to heat sparge water. If you put a BIAB bag over the Boiler, that strains out a tennis ball sized lump of stuff and usually the GF works fine after it has been cleaned up a bit, with the re-baled in wort.

Today the GF cut out again on me, approaching the boil, after the transfer to filter the crud out, so I decided to boil in the Peco Boiler and just use the GF for the chilling phase (the GF has 2 good points - the mash / sparge and the chill - it is a dodgy deal on the boil for me).

Enough of the gripe, on to the recipe. A few weeks / months ago, I was out for a walk and passed the Bank Top Brewery in Bolton and dropped in on a whim. I have been on one or maybe two tours of the Brewery many years back and engaged the bloke there in friendly brewing discussion. He outlined his current proposition around the lines of "Trad English, with influences from US and wider New World Hops". So this is the Fullers grain bill with US hops. To 25L:

MO 5kg
Caramalt 500g
Light Muscovado 500g

Warrior 23g @ 60m (Whole Hops)
Cascade and Ahtanum 15g each @ 10m (Pellets)
C&A 45g each @ 0mins

US05

I am seriously thinking, going forward, of using the Peco for the boil phase and just accepting that my particular GF unit is going to be too unreliable on the "fail safe" cut-out switch.
Another observation from today is that my wondrous new Hop Spider (MJ) is about as much use as a chocolate sieve with Pellet Hops.

 

[Oneflewover]

Another observation from today is that my wondrous new Hop Spider (MJ) is about as much use as a chocolate sieve with Pellet Hops.

I'm not a fan either. Useless for pellets as it clogs up solid. Useless for whole hops due to a lack of capacity. I've gone back to mostly whole hops directly in the kettle. When I do use pellet they are in a large bag. Problem is I prefer pellets in the fermenter....

 

[Oneflewover]

Looks like a good recipe btw.

 

[terrym]

Enough of the gripe, on to the recipe. A few weeks / months ago, I was out for a walk and passed the Bank Top Brewery in Bolton and dropped in on a whim. I have been on one or maybe two tours of the Brewery many years back and engaged the bloke there in friendly brewing discussion. He outlined his current proposition around the lines of "Trad English, with influences from US and wider New World Hops".

One good reason to live near Bolton I suppose, having looked at their website.
I think you should get your walking boots on again and go and seek the recipe for their dark mild

 

[Slid]

Looks like a good recipe btw.

Thanks! I am basically following the hop blueprint in the GH book for American IPA, just with different hops. The malt bill is a per Fullers ESB and the Unrefined sugar is a recommendation of Randy Mosher's. So, basically, all my own work. :hat:

 

[Slid]

One good reason to live near Bolton I suppose, having looked at their website.
I think you should get your walking boots on again and go and seek the recipe for their dark mild

The Dark Mild seems highly recommended. Not initially my choice of style, but I did do an enhanced, or stout version of the Banks's Hanson's mild recipe from GW. It did taste as described. OK but not one to repeat frequently.

Another look on the Bank Top website suggests a grain bill of Pale Malt, Crystal and Chocolate. Hops could be anything, really, and few in quantity for a mild. To get a hint of molasses suggests, well, the obvious, really...

 

[Slid]

I am on leave from work today, using up my Holiday allowance. Unbelievably both SWMBO and #1 daughter are both "WFH" today.
Totally overestimated the amount of MO I had left, so today is a "using up the bits" recipe for an American Stout at 25L:

MO 2.56kg
Munich 1kg
Amber 0.5kg
Crystal 0,5kg
Black Malt 0.5kg
Dark Muscovado Sugar 0.5kg
Light DME 0.5kg

Warrior 26g @ 60m
Cascade 20g @ 15m

Dry hop with Cascade and Ahtanum 20g and 40g.

 

[Slid]

One of my better clone brews was an Old Peculier, brewed about a year ago. This is essentially an Old Ale style of a beer. I borrow much from GW on this one and here it is:
MO 5kg
Munich 1kg
Crystal 330g
Chocolate 230g

This is essentially a malt forward sort of a beer - I suspect that the commercial version currently available is a poor reflection of its former glory, so I am thinking of adding a Brew Enhancer (BBF March 2017) on sort of "general grounds". Also, I can't see much other use for it, and it has been kicking around the place for a long time.

Hops are probably rather irrelevant, but the Nugget @ 13.2 is going in to bitter and some EKG from as recently as 2016 will be bunged in at 15m.

An update on this brew. It came out pretty close to 8% ABV and I bottled the majority of it, which is very good indeed, if a little strong. I did buy a 10L Carboy around last November and put 10L in that until now. Over the weekend my intention is to bottle the Dark Porter brewed early March. My plan is to bottle 10-12L of the Dark Porter, siphon (or just pour) the 10L of OP clone into the bottling FV and then bottle the blended beer. The two beers are similar style wise and not too different in strength to be a mis-match. Could be an interesting experiment.

An empty Carboy is just another one to fill. After breaking my shoulder (left proximate humerus) on Boxing Day, I did not brew for quite a while and have some empty bottles to fill. So a possible option for the near future is another (i.e. second) Parti Gyle brew, with a small batch Barley wine or Russian Imperial Stout, and a longer brew with a "cap" of crystal and dark malts. Andy Hamilton's Brewing Britain has a suggested recipe for these and it appeals to me - it is Barley Wine and Milk Stout. I would omit the lactose as a sweet stout is not my "gig", as the young people say.

I am trying to "catch up" on missed brewdays, whilst using up my holiday allowance and am planning to reprise the "Euro-Hop IPA" I have done a couple of times. It has a very simple malt bill - Pale Malt and a little crystal and half and half Hallertau Blanc and Huell Melon, plus a bittering hop. Monday looks favouritie for this one.

 

[Slid]

This Christmas beer, pitched on the 2nd of March, turned out at around 10% and has been sampled a few times since - each time it has been fairly awful, TBH.
Tried a bottle this evening, warmed up to room temperatures, and it is a reasonable Christmassy sort of beer. No chance I will do the same next year, though!

As I still have a fairly large number of bottles, it could be hanging on until next Christmas.

Well, at least this is better after a full year in the bottle - it is the beer Randy Mosher suggests on p168 of Radical Brewing - "Fruitcake Old Ale". Barley Wine with MO and Goldings was a better bet, perhaps, on my experience, for a Xmas beer.

 

[Zephyr259]

A blend of an old ale and porter could be interesting. Some tasty beers you have planned and glad the fruitcake old ale has improved from "fairly awful" did you brew a Maris Otter / EKG barley wine? I've been tempted to try that very simple and traditional brew but not got round to it. All my carboys have sour or Brett beer in them now and long aging is less convenient, maybe one of the 5 strains of kveik I've suddenly ended up with could make a good barley wine.

 

[Slid]

A blend of an old ale and porter could be interesting. Some tasty beers you have planned and glad the fruitcake old ale has improved from "fairly awful" did you brew a Maris Otter / EKG barley wine? I've been tempted to try that very simple and traditional brew but not got round to it. All my carboys have sour or Brett beer in them now and long aging is less convenient, maybe one of the 5 strains of kveik I've suddenly ended up with could make a good barley wine.

On the Barley wines, the only one I made was using Admiral and Bobek. It was the first runnings from a Parti-Gyle brew. 10L in all and 17g of each hop. The grain bill on it was 6.5kg MO and 660g of crystal malt. For the second runnings brew, I added a Coopers kit and a load of Cascade. It was very nice, the IPA. The Barley wine was very strong @ 9% and. TBH, I would prefer two bottles of the Cascade IPA to one of the BW.

One might reasonably ask "why (TF) are you thinking of doing another Barley Wine or other strong beer, when you actually prefer something that tops out at 6%, eh, Slid?". That would be a good and just question and one to which the only answer might be "Because there is a 10L or 11L Carboy and because I still can."

US05 was the yeast for both parts of the Parti-Gyle, BTW. It is my "go-to" yeast. Very clean and clear, plus it attenuates well, as a sweet beer is not to my taste, although I am over-fond of chocolate and sugar based confectionery.

 

[Slid]

Tomorrow is the last of the Holidays I can't carry forward to 2019/20. So, guess what the plan is?

Weighed out the grains from the recent batch of supplies from the Worcester Hop Shop:

Maria Otter 5.2kg
Wheat Malt - 0.3kg
Crystal Malt 0.25kg

When completing the order, I had a few grams left over from the 30kg limit and ended up buying some bargain £2 Boudicea hops 2015 harvest. When they arrived, the bag appeared to have de-vacuum-ed, so am planning a hop bill like:

Warrior @ 14.6 Alpha 22g for bittering
Boudicea, say, 30/40/30g @ 15m / 0m / Hop Tea

No real idea why I bought these hops, as I have quite a few "bargains" in the garage, but I am too mean / frugal not to use them. The women I live with refer to me as "Sandy Freegan". Cheeky they are.

A blend of an old ale and porter could be interesting. Some tasty beers you have planned and glad the fruitcake old ale has improved from "fairly awful" did you brew a Maris Otter / EKG barley wine? I've been tempted to try that very simple and traditional brew but not got round to it. All my carboys have sour or Brett beer in them now and long aging is less convenient, maybe one of the 5 strains of kveik I've suddenly ended up with could make a good barley wine.

 

[Slid]

A blend of an old ale and porter could be interesting. Some tasty beers you have planned and glad the fruitcake old ale has improved from "fairly awful" did you brew a Maris Otter / EKG barley wine? I've been tempted to try that very simple and traditional brew but not got round to it. All my carboys have sour or Brett beer in them now and long aging is less convenient, maybe one of the 5 strains of kveik I've suddenly ended up with could make a good barley wine.

I bottled 12L of the Dark Porter in 2L bottles yesterday and bunged in the Carboy with the OP clone in on top of the rest. Very much a botch-job with racking and pouring. Nonetheless, both the beers had an FG around 1.010 and the blend of the two beers did indeed taste quite good. I got 45 x 500ml bottles of the blended beer, which I think will be good to go after carbonation, but will improve over many weeks, I hope!

 

[Slid]

Tomorrow is the last of the Holidays I can't carry forward to 2019/20. So, guess what the plan is?

Weighed out the grains from the recent batch of supplies from the Worcester Hop Shop:

Maria Otter 5.2kg
Wheat Malt - 0.3kg
Crystal Malt 0.25kg

When completing the order, I had a few grams left over from the 30kg limit and ended up buying some bargain £2 Boudicea hops 2015 harvest. When they arrived, the bag appeared to have de-vacuum-ed, so am planning a hop bill like:

Warrior @ 14.6 Alpha 22g for bittering
Boudicea, say, 30/40/30g @ 15m / 0m / Hop Tea

No real idea why I bought these hops, as I have quite a few "bargains" in the garage, but I am too mean / frugal not to use them. The women I live with refer to me as "Sandy Freegan". Cheeky they are.

Brew day went well, with no GF cut-out, so very smooth. Treated this with gypsum and Epsom salts as if it were a Pale Ale, though maybe Golden Ale is nearer the mark, stylistically. Hops smelt of absolutely nothing, but hey-ho, it is going to be a dark-ish shade of a golden beer after a few weeks. No real hopes for this one, other than session beer. Got 27L in the FV, aiming for around 5%. I mean, that's a session beer, ain't it?