ag#19 Own Recipe Summer Blonde (again)

Second brew of this beer as myself and other drinkers of it enjoyed the first batch so much (see here: all grain summer blonde)

Not the most exciting of grain bills or hopping but it makes a bloody lovely session bitter.

I'm posting it again because there were a couple of brewing firsts for me in this batch. My first time with gypsum added to the mash and my first mega clear first runnings.

The gypsum was a guesstimate as I hadn't received my water analysis from the water company so I chucked a tablespoon in.

So, Brewday: 4th June 2012

Brew length 25 litres.
Target OG: 1042
Target FG: 1,010

Mash liquor: 11 litres
Total liquor: 38 litres

Maris Otter: 4,171g
Pale crystal: 101g
Flaked wheat: 150g

Hops. (Adjusted from first batch for different alpha acids)

Target: 12.66%AA 25g 90 mins
Fuggles: 3.81%AA 20g 30 mins
EKG: 5.85%AA 13g 10 mins

Flameout and cool to 75C steep for 30 mins
EKG: 5.85%AA 31g
Fuggles: 3.81%AA 31g

1/2 protofloc
Safale SO4 - rehydrated and starter made with 150ml first wort runoff

750ml first wort runoff boiled down to 300ml to caramelize and added at 10 mins from end of boil.

Obligatory dull grain shot

In case the grain shot was too dull, here's a Star Destroyer instead.

2 litres run off to clear the bits and this started flowing from the mash tun. Clearest yet, I don't think it'll get clearer than this.

Caramelizing 750ml first wort - it reduced to 300ml

Blah blah hops, rolling boil etc

Break formed in the caramelized wort - I didn't see this happen first time I tried this technique

Aroma hops steeping at 75C for 30 mins - Temp dropped to 62C during the steep.

Break shite settling

Bang on 1042 OG and 25 litres ran off to the FV

All in all, pretty uneventful other than a neighbour turning up just as I was doughing in to use our internet to find a phone number.

I tested this yesterday, the gravity was down to 1,012 and the sample is tasting very close to batch 1. I might yet decide to dry hop when I rack it off to secondary.

Another pint of my #allgrain Summer Quaffing Bitter

This is seriously blowing me away as to how clear it is. No filtration other than through the hop bed when running off to the FV after boiling. I have to admit if served at room temperature the carbonation is a bit strong and stirs up the sediment but 30 mins in the fridge and it pours to pretty much empty without dislodging a skerrick - a skerrick is a tiny thing - of the bottle bottoms.

Absolutely going to brew this again, it's been superb - 2 bottles left alas :( note to self, get bigger pans and FV's and increase brew length soon.

It looks deceptively pale but there are layers of toffee, caramel, a hint of vanilla, dryness, tongue bitingly bitter that both quenches and makes you want to dive in for more. There are subtle fruits happening, citrus and more beyond my vocabulary of descriptors.

Here's the link to my brewday for this all grain, session bitter.

A delicious experiment in Beer

I don't know why I decided to top up an almost finished pint of my Black IPA with my Summer Blonde Bitter the other night but I'm very pleased I did.

A malt and hop explosion, gorgeous colour, delicious, creamy and smooth bursting with goldings and cascade. Love it! I now want to try to create a new recipe based on a merging of the two individual beers recipes. The mix was about 5:1 blonde to black,

Probably easier to brew separately and mix before bottling, not sure how to calculate the actual abv of two mixed together.

Black IPA Summer Blonde hybrid. A happy accident.

East Kent Blonde - Own recipe all grain pale bitter

I fancied something simple and session-able with the summer coming up (I wish someone would remind the rain gods of this) but also with a bit of interest in the nose and taste. Something quaff-able but with a bit of, "hmmmm what's that?" about it.

Ooops, half way down the first sampler I remembered to take a piccy. Clearest pale beer I've brewed to date.

I went for pale malt, pale crystal and tried just using flaked wheat instead of torrified to see what sort of head retention it gave. I've been reading that flaked wheat behaves the same as torrified but without the flavours torrified can sometimes add. It was absolutely nothing to do with opening the wrong bag and not realising until it had been tipped into the malt bucket...

I also wanted the classic combination of East Kent Golding and Fuggle hops with some target chucked in for its higher alpha acid content for bitterness.

I also figured I'd have a go at caramelizing some of the first run sweet wort after reading a thread on Jim's Beer Kit about the toffee, caramel and vanilla notes this process can bring to a beer.

End result, v nice. Everything I'd aimed for pretty much but I ended up slightly over target OG so from what was meant to be 3.9% abv beer I ended up with a 4.1% - still a lot more session-able than the typical 5.5 to 7% brews.

This is also one I plan to have on hand pull for our summer garden party.

Target brew length: 25l (got 26l)
Mash liquor: 11l
Total liquor: 38l

Mash time: 90 minutes
Boil time: 90 minutes

Fermentables:
Pale malt: 4,170g
Pale crystal: 100g
Flaked wheat (ahem): 150g

Bittering and Late Hops:
Target (12.6%AA) - 11g @ 90 minutes
Fuggles - 11g @ 90 minutes (old bag, pre MaltMiller supplier so %AA unknown)
Fuggles - 20g @ 30 minutes
East Kent Goldings (4.96%AA) - 15g @ 10 mins

Aroma Hops:
East Kent Goldings (4.96%AA): 20g @ 80C steep for 30 minutes
Fuggles (3.81% AA) - 25g @ 80C steep for 30 minutes

Not many pics, I was using my phone camera as my Mrs had pinched my camera to take photos of her handmade bags that she sells on Etsy.

As you can see (bottom left) flaked wheat looks nothing like torrified wheat... Not sure what I was thinking but it worked out ok in the end with a bloody nice, crisp pinter. Just need a bloody nice summer to finally appear now.

First runnings taken in my blurred foreground, sharp background photography style. FFS!

It was looking a little dark in the bucket even once I was sparging but it soon paled down/up.

1 litre of first run sweet wort boiling down next to the main boil...

Reduced to 250ml and a thick syrupy gloop. During this time the smells were absolute toffee and vanilla. Nice!

Chiller in and last hops etc etc yawn usual stuff

Shite heading for the compost bin.

Next time I brew this, all bittering hops in at 90 mins. Some additional EKG and Fuggles in at 10 minutes and then slightly more EKG and Fuggles in for the 80C steep.

It was bitter, it was hoppy but I think (possibly due to the caramel/vanilla notes) the bitterness and hop aroma can stand to go up a bit.

Photos Of My Brews - Wuppit's Bramling Amber

Still clearing from pouring from the jug in the pic above. I'm really liking this beer, it hasn't turned out quite how I imagined but it's not far off. Home cooked biscuits with a nice hit of burnt edges from the amber malt I used and a full, floral and fruity hop aroma from the copious amounts of Bramling Cross hops added at various stages. Great, creamy head that develops easily and sticks to the glass right the way down.

The brewday post is here: all grain homebrew bramling amber beer.

AG#10 All Grain Own Recipe Amber Beer

First brewday posted for a while for various reasons.

This beer was brewed on 31st March 2012.

I became a fan of Amber Malt from my first ever all grain brew and have been looking for a recipe that featured more of this biscuity, flavoursome malt.

Having finally found, via teh Google, that it can be used as up to 20% of the grain bill I decided to construct my own recipe. In it I also wanted to feature Bramling Cross hops, another flavour and aroma I have found I've grown to really appreciate.

My aim was to brew a medium dark, biscuity beer with fruity hop notes. I came close.

Luckily I posted a few Tweets during the brew day and caught the attention of a brewer I have a lot of respect for and who's blog I follow as well as his numerous, informative and superbly photographed posts on Jim's Beer Kit forum, PDTNC.

He advised me of some Amber malt things to be aware of when used in higher quantities than typical and also offered some good advice on upping my original Hopping rates to balance the amber malt flavours. So, if you read this, cheers for the help Ade!

Here's the recipe:

Grain Bill:
Pale Malt: 3400g
Amber Malt: 900g
Torrified Wheat: 250g

Bittering Hops:
Challenger: 14g 90 mins
Northern Brewer: 14g 90 mins

Aroma Hops:
Bramling Cross: 60g (50% @ 10 mins - 50% @ flameout - 30 minute steep)

Irish Moss (10 mins), rehydrated and Safale SO4 made into a small DME starter a couple of days before.

Dry Hops: 15g Bramling Cross - added to secondary for a week before bottling.

Total liquor: 32 litres
Mash liquor: 12 litres

Mash time: 90 mins - Mash temp: 66C
Boil time: 90 mins

Target volume: 23l
Actual volume: 20.5 :(

Target OG: 1,043
Actual OG: 1,052 Oops! I didn't bother to top up with freshwater to adjust the gravity down.

Final Gravity: 1,011

All in all, an uneventful brewday, I like these as I read many that are fraught with equipment let downs. I'm still being very lucky in this aspect, no stuck mashes or blocked hop filters as yet. Using a gas burner for my copper I also avoid the seemingly common place electric boiler cut outs.

This time I batch sparged rather than fly sparging for no particular reason with 20l of liquor at 68C in the Mash Tun.

Here's the piccies...

The obligatory grain shot. Lots of Amber malt and fascinated audience.

I'd taken this pic and added the text before PDTNC advised upping the Bramling Cross (see recipe above)

HLT coming up to temp ready to add 12 litres to the mash tun.

Crud scum forming approaching the boil.

Vigourous boil and bittering hops in.

Spent grains, some went off to my Mum to make some splendid bread with and the rest went to the Chickens.

Post boil hops going in. Just remembered this was an overnight cool down hence the lack of immersion chiller.

I ran off the hopped wort and pitched the yeast the following morning then placed the FV in a heated water bath set to 21C.

Moved to secondary on 14th March but then everything went wrong, we lost our German Shepherd nicknamed The Little Wuppit (Holly) suddenly on the 18th.

Bottled on 22nd and not thinking very clearly primed it with 150g sugar in 350ml water. I usually prime with less than 100g.

As it turned out the extra priming must have fermented out as there's no detectable sweetness in the finished beer of which I have had a few now and it is nicely primed.

A piccy of my first pinta, which I raised to the memory of my very, very sadly missed Little Wuppit.

I love the colour and it has a fantastic head (my reason for adding the torrified wheat) that stays to the bitter (no pun intended) end.

Tastes... not my strong point in describing flavours but slightly burnt homemade biscuits springs to mind but with a floral, black current aroma that in my opinion sets it off very nicely indeed. For me, an enjoyable pint.