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.

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.

AG14 All Grain Black IPA - Black Dragon

I'm trying to get caught up with some brew day write ups to share so here's AG14, my first attempt at a controversially named Black IPA.

I've wanted to brew something using more American hops, this time to use up a bag of Cascade I've had for a while and some other odds and ends.

I ran this through qBrew an open source beer engine type brewing software for Linux.

Brewday 23rd April 2012

Target brew length: 20 litres
Target OG 1,074
Target FG 1,019
Target ABV 7.2%

Mash: 90 minutes
Boil: 90 minutes
Mash liquor: 15l
Total liquor: 35 (includes about 1.75l from the cold steep added to the boil)

Fermentables:
Pale malt (Maris Otter): 4.5kg
Munich Malt: 600g
Special B: 500g
Chocolate Malt: 100g
Pale Crystal: 250g
Torrified Wheat: 350g

Black malt: 500g cold steeped for 2 hours in 2 litres boiled and cooled water.

Note: Next time I'll use Carafa 3 as the finished brew did have slightly more roasted, burnt flavours than I'd wanted even with the cold steep of the back malt. I'll also use more hops.

Bittering Hops:
Target: 10g @ 90 mins - 9g @ 60mins
East Kent Golding: 11g @ 90 mins - 8g @ 60 mins
Northern Brewer: 5g @ 30 mins

Aroma Hops:
Cascade: 25g @ 10 mins - 32g @ flameout 80C steep for 30 mins

Cascade: 22g Dry hop added to secondary fermenter for 1 week before bottling.

Yeast:  Safale SO4 rehydrated and kicked of in a small starter of first run sweet wort boiled and cooled
Copper Finings: Protofloc - used a whole tablet as I wasn't impressed first time using just 1/4 tablet

The pics.

A bit of a grain user upper, Munich and Special B left over from AG13 Weissen

One of 2 carafes containing the cold steeped black malt extract

Adding hot liquor to the pre-heated mash tun

Doughing in

First runnings from the mash tun were pretty dark even before the cold steep was added.

Cold steeped black malt extract being added to the run off sweet wort before boiling.

Vigorous boil and the first bittering hops are in.

10 minutes from end of boil, chiller already in to sterilize in the boiling wort.

Lots of cold break crud settled on the base of the boiler as the hopped wort is run off to the fermenter

Pitching the SO4 starter @ 26C

The next morning. Water bath temp at 22C, hell of a fermentation

Crazy alien yeast head! It's Aliiiiiivvvvveeeee!!!!1!

I had to give the inside of the FV rim a good clean with a sterilized scraper before I could put the lid back on. It settled later that day but fermentation finally stopped around 1,022, 3 points above target FG.

I racked off to secondary and dry hopped for a week. Checking the gravity again before bottling and it was still at 1,022

I've calculated the finished beer to be 6.5% and it's tasting very good. As I wrote above though it does have a more burnt flavour than i was expecting so next time I'll definitely opt for the de-husked Carafa 3.

I'll try and get a decent photo of a pint of it this evening but I'm having a few blurry issues with my camera when it comes to photographing pints.

AG#13 Friday 13th All Grain Wheat Beer

With the run of luck we've had recently I figured Friday the 13th couldn't really do much more to me so I brewed. It turned out to be my 13th All Grain brew... It didn't actually dawn on me until I began filling in my brew sheet and I'm not really superstitious so don't expect things to differ one day from the next whether walking under ladders or leaving shoes on the table (touch wood). Not that I'd leave my shoes on the table anyway...

This brew was good for me, I really enjoyed it. Different yeast (Danstar Munich) and some very different grains amongst the usual. Munich Malt, Bavarian Pilsner malt, Wheat Malt and my first ever encounter with Hallertaur Mittlefruh hops. It was also my first brew using 1/4 Protofloc tablet for my copper finings, more on which later... It was also my first, unforgettable fermentation, BOOM!!!!

Wuppit's Wit 1313

Brew Length: 25l - Grain bill based on Easy Wit from beerrecipes.org

90 minute mash, 60 minute boil.

Fermentables and adjuncts (weights are my exact ones).
Wheat Malt: 2544g
Bohemian Pilsner malt: 1989g
Flaked Wheat: 504g
Munich Malt: 354g
Pale Crystal: 201g
Torrified Wheat: 202g

Hops.
Hallertaur Mittlefruh: 30g (60 mins)
Styrian Goldings (Bobek): 16g (45 mins)
Hallertaur Mittlefruh: 16g (15 mins)

Aromatics (In with last hops at 15 mins).
Coriander seed, ground coarsely with a pestle and mortar: 41g
Orange peel (unwaxed, organic oranges and with the white pith scraped away): 41g
Camomile (from opened Camomile tea bags): 3g - 4g (the scales were hovering between the two).

Total liquor: 38l

Mash liquor: 14.5l - Sparged with all of the remaining liquor.

From what I'm used to with previous brews there looked to be a lot of flaked wheat, mostly buried in the shot above, so I was expecting my first stuck mash. As I was doughing in the whole mash felt a lot more solid, porridgey than previously.

It ran off from the mash tun really well as it turned out.

Hallertaur Mittlefruh smell great, I'm not the best at describing aromas and flavours very well but they smelled... great, distinctive.

After sparging I ended up with a fair old quantity of wort so I put some to one side to boil up and use for yeast culturing after the yeast in this brew has done its job. My excuse is I usually do a 90 minute boil so evaporation losses are typically around 8-10 litres. I'd sort of forgotten this was only going to be 60 minutes.

Aromatics ready to go in 15 mins from the end of the boil. LOL'd whilst just looking at my brew sheet and saw they actually went in at 13 mins from the end of the boil... 13,13,13 FFS!!!

30g Hallertaur Mittlefruh in at start of rolling boil - I skimmed the initial surface crud as I have been doing the last few brews.

16g Bobek in after 15 minutes, 45 mins from end of the boil.

13 minutes from end of boil and in with the orange peel, a couple of minutes after the last 16g H. Mittlefruh hops had gone in. Chiller in at 15 minutes to sterilize in the boiling wort and hooked up, ready to go.

In goes the coarsely crushed coriander seed followed by the camomile and 1/4 protofloc tablet. Right, with regard to the protofloc... First time using it but I wasn't really all that impressed compared to my previous brews using rehydrated Irish Moss. I got a cold break of course but the clumping was nothing to write home about, maybe I'll up it to 1/2 a tablet next time but I've read all over that 1/4 tabs is enough for 23 to 25 litres.

I wasn't sure whether a typically cloudy beer like a wheat beer should use any floc at all but was advised to chuck some in via Twitter. I'd read that the desired cloudiness is from the yeast not suspended shite but I wanted confirmation.

Ran off to the FV nicely. After my previous brew run off clarity issues (the bloody immersion chiller trapping hops and keeping them away from settling on the hop filter) I removed the chiller and gave it a few minutes to allow stuff to settle back down.

I'd started off the Danstar Munich Wheat Beer yeast a couple of days previously and it had been happily glugging away in an air locked 2l water bottle. Pitched it as the FV was filling from the copper at 26C

Put the FV into a water bath I've made from a large bin and heated with an aquarium heater set at 18-20C which gives a typical water temperature of 20-21C. This was the krausen just a few hours later. I was a bit concerned that it had already touched the underside of the lid already but... it looked like it was settling back down a bit so I left it.

The following morning I went in to check and found this.

Bloody F*ck!

I took the FV out and gave the outside a clean over, emptied the water bath and cleaned everything back down. Re-filled with water at 21C and popped it all back in.

It behave after that. I've just been in to it and I think I'll give it a gravity test tomorrow, it's all settled down but there appears to still be a fair bit of activity going on below the surface.

UPDATE 10th May 2012. Here's a link to a photo of the finished beer taken a few evenings ago. All grain weissen.