Rise of the Phoenix ‘Hops & Glory’

[DaryllLand]

Hi All!

Brew day awaits! I’ve just been down to the home brew store and picked up the malts for the recipe I’ve created above for a Porter! Aiming for around 6% or over if I can as I want something quite warming for the weather that’s about to come!

It’s Saturday afternoon (I’ll be brewing tomorrow on Sunday) as I sit in my local with a pint of Winter Ale...lovely and I’ve just encountered my first problem with the brew

The Grain bill was fine. Picked up 6kg of Pale, 500g of Crystal and 500g of Choco malt and had some wheat (just enough) in the shed! Win!

The problem was my local home brew only stores a very select range of Hops and none where in my recipe.

I wanted Phoenix, Cluster and Willamette but have had to make the selections of Styrian Goldings and Cascade as alternate hop additions.

I’m more than happy to go with it and see what happens. The Phoenix Hops were there to add depth to the chocolate spices for the recipe but I think I can use a little more of the chocolate malt for that.

I’m going to do a standard hop boil of 60mins, 20mins additions but may do a little dry hop to add to the nose.

Ibu should be around 25 and ebc of 41.

Fermenting with SAFALE US-04 English Ale yeast.

Will be racking off into a plastic cask and using it as my go to winter warmer pint.

I’ll also be vlogging this one for my channel so hopefully some of you can tune in and give me your much needed input and advice once you see how it goes!

Cheers...for now,

Daryll

 

[DaryllLand]

SO...the brew day has been and gone! I'm not totally sure how this one's going to turn out given the change to the hop types and aim for the recipe. I've made a vlog of how it went which can be seen here:



I'd appreciate any help/advice/pointers you might have. Far from thinking this was going to be easy, I find myself after every brew day finding a new problem to overcome but thats all to be expected!

Cheers all,

D

 

[DaryllLand]

Hi All,

I have a thought that some off you might be able to help with? I made about 1.5kg of a plum jam but it didn't include any pectin so it's basically a plum and sugar concoction. It tastes very nice, I had some on my porridge the other day. Basically, I didn't reach the high O.G I was expecting to on the brew day in the video above ^

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to put the sugary plum mixture into the F.V so that it could be eaten up by the Ale yeast (S-04) and converted in alcohol to boost the ABV? Any thoughts on this. I have 17l in the F.V and an O.G of 1030. I would like it if I could get an Ale at the end of this around the 4.5-5.5% range.

It has been fermenting since Sunday evening so will it be okay to add the fruits into it now?

Cheers,

D

 

[rank_frank]

I wouldn't normally put jam into a beer because the pectin that's binding it together isn't going to help with clarity. However, this is a porter so that might not matter to you so add it in.

 

[DaryllLand]

I wouldn't normally put jam into a beer because the pectin that's binding it together isn't going to help with clarity. However, this is a porter so that might not matter to you so add it in.

There isn't any pectin in it. I didn't have any but did add Chia seeds so its 700g of chopped plums, 300g brown sugar and a few teaspoons of seeds which I imagine will fall to the bottom.

I'm gonna do it. So will let you all know the result.

Just on adding fruits during the fermentation. I'm guessing I don't wanna disrupt the beer as much as possible? Should I stir it in or just drop it in and leave it?

 

[DaryllLand]

So I've gone against the idea of adding the Chia/Plum and Sugar after having read some info the oily, gelatinous nature of Chia seeds. Instead I've just added 0.9kg of Plums, which I've blitzed in the blender. Fingers Crossed.

 

[DaryllLand]

Hi All,

I have an update on the above brew day and need advice/pointers/thoughts on what you think please?

So I racked off from the FV into my plastic pressure barrel, using 95g of corn sugar to prime but it seemed I over-turned the valve handle and that left it leaking over the weekend. Basically I was out of the country and the batch went from about 18l to 15l so a 3l loss approx.

The question I have is that some of the corn sugar that would be carbonating the original 18l would have leaked out within the 3l of lost liquid so...do I need to add more sugar to help carbonation or would, all things considered, it be fine. It's got one more week (6 days) to sit in the barrel at 18degrees before I store at 10degrees for drinking.

It'd be good if anyone has any thoughts on this.

Cheers,

D

 

[Drunkula]

You'll have lost some potential carbonation but I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you open the top to put more sugar in I'd add a tiny bit more than the ratio of what you've lost to make up for losing the pressure in the head space - so 20g.

 

[DaryllLand]

You'll have lost some potential carbonation but I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you open the top to put more sugar in I'd add a tiny bit more than the ratio of what you've lost to make up for losing the pressure in the head space - so 20g.

Is what you’re talking about purely for barrel pressure? Or carbonation? I have Co2 capsules I can inject with. Would that work?

 

[Drunkula]

A bit of both but if you've got cartridges just them them for barrel pressure to avoid the extra hassle and extra waiting time for it to clear.

 

[DaryllLand]

Hey ya’ll! Hope everyone’s getting merry!

Here is the review of my ‘Plum’ Porter!



Smells great, tastes good too! Just wish it came in a little bit stronger!

Cheers!