Sunday 19 December 2010

Santa Claws - It's Christmaaaas

As Noddy Holder once said.....

OK, so the Claws is now ready. It is as thick and black as I had hoped. The first thing you get is spice; cinnamon, cloves and ginger -possibly too much cinnamon. Then there is a dark treacle thing too - sweet but bitter/burned at the same time. Finally, there are lots of hops here. Nice counterpoint, but I was hoping for something sweeter. Letting breath a bit really opens the aroma out, and softens the taste a little - probably because this is the first pint drawn.

With the hops there, this does not feel like a 7% beer, but there is a great vinious feel to the beer, possibly from lactose and alcohol. Could be a winner for next year.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

The Claws - Half way through

Three weeks in, thought I had better crack open the Festive Brew. It started out like the mild; I wondered whether there was an air lock, gave it a shot of gas, and poured a glass of dark evil.

Conscious of what happened last time, I am not so worried about the lumpiness at present. But, man, what a taste. Great thick head, which is retained, but the beer has bits of spicy warmth, plenty of hop balanced by a treacle/fudge sweetness, probably from the brown sugar. No orange that I could taste, and, perhaps too much hop, so I perhaps need to go easy on my hop bill.

But, there are three weeks to go. This can only get mellower, but the warming richness of a beer over 7% should ensure a Merry Christmas!

Sunday 21 November 2010

The Ginger Tom

I've shared my space with a cat from an early age. Very early. In fact, there was one in the house when I was born. So, my next brew is in memory of him....and he was real ginger tom. 

Well that's not true really, but it made a better opening to the post than 'I'm going to try ginger beer'!

I want something like non-alcoholic ginger beer, (but alcoholic)perhaps something like the stuff my mom used to make in summer. For this she used a 'ginger plant', and it struck me that this tee-total woman was secretly brewing beer, like women of the Black Country and elsewhere, in days past. Granted, alcohol content was very low - we drank it sweet, only partly fermented (hence exploding bottles), and I am sure all the sugar killed the yeast after a time anyway. Still, it was good!

No, wanted something sweetish and gingery, but still wanted to use malt and hops. Did a bit of research. Looks like maltodextrin and lactose do not REALLY do a lot re sweetness, just give the beer body. However, if I used crystal malt, which you can now get light (think GB needs to be yellowish!?), that should sweeten it. Also, I need to drop the smallest amount of hops in - may even dry hop. And finally, you use a low attenuating yeast i.e. it doesn't ferment all the sugar.

So, here's what I came up with!! Oh, I also think I'm going to give bottling a crack with this one too, just to make it more complicated!

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Twas the sixth week before Christmas

The 'Claws is all kegged and primed. Added 175g of lactose too, it was just a bit too dry and bitter, not what I wanted. Bottom of the mild tastes great. Looks like the beer should be ready just on Christmas.

Have to say, I was worried. It sat at 1012 for a few days, and it was getting smellier and smellier....rather sour/old ale. But it tastes fine, perhaps that is what happens when you use Belgian Ale yeast. In the keg it smelt fantastic, cloves and oranges......can't wait for Christmas as this smooths out in the cask.

Sunday 7 November 2010

Fermentation...in a week!

Well, gone back to the brew after a week, and it's plummeted to 1012, 4 points lower than predicted. This suggests it weighs in at >7%.

The down side is that most of the sugar has turned to alcohol, so I am left with quite a bitter, dark beer. The spice seems to have disappeared under the hops. However, I seem to recall that all my brews were hoppy on being kegged, and the softened in the barrel. I hope so, because this will be difficult to drink at that strength and bitterness!

Biggest problem of all, is that I still have mild left in the keg....that's tonight's mission sorted, then!

Monday 1 November 2010

Santa Claws is coming to town

Enough of the poor puns, already...

As suggested, Sunday saw the need to brew something different. Something a bit more on the fly. Something not in Wheeler's book!

Looking through a range of seasonal beer recipes on 'Hopville', I managed to find a few that seemed what I was aiming for. Strong, sweet, and with all those Christmas spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, clementines.... Without sounding too Heston like, it was about getting a Christmas experience in a glass - spice, oranges, and something strong enough to provoke a fight - proper Christmas, like. Decided holly and ivy were no goers, but, on reflection, I could have used an old sock as the hop bag!

The recipe is here. Have to say, it was a bit more involved, almost took three hours start to finish. Huge amounts (comparatively speaking) of hops just to balance the 2kg of sugars I got in there. But it smelt great, and the wort tasted good, even now. Definite spice tastes, good rich malt and dark caramel, with some hop balance.....oh, and it could weigh in at >7%. Yoiks.

First outing for the immersion chiller, and, after a bit of jiggery pokery outside, managed to get it all working. Might need to redesign all the hosing for kitchen use (need to work out how I get the pipe on the tap in the kitchen!!)....but it chilled the wort in about 20 minutes.

Looks like it's starting slowly. A lot of the boiling and chilling was done outdoors, and, although I made sure everything was clean and/or covered, I am a bit worried about contamination....

Sunday 24 October 2010

He that can have Patience, can have what he will

Indeed......there you go, wait a week and everything looks better!

Went to tip my ruined mild down the sink, but decided to give it one more try. After all, it has only been in the keg for 4 weeks, it should be in top condition.

And, Lo!, it came to pass that apart from the odd lump of flocculated yeast, the bloody thing is clear. Its darkish, so you can't see through it like my last effort, but you can definitely see the prints on the other side of the glass.

And it's started to taste a bit sweet too....just as I designed it.

Mr S. is snoring softly on the bed next door, blissfully aware of eventually having a beer named after him. Feline Philistine!

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Ideas for two gallons of waste beer :-{

Just poured another glass of the mild..still lumpy, still cloudy.

Thought that the flow was slowing down so gave it a CO2 blast....bad idea, the valve whined, the tap fizzed, the beer bubbled! Ah hah...there's my problem.

The whole keg is still fermenting, it just hadn't finished in the fermenting bucket, as I suspected. So, I have two gallons of tasty beer, but drinking such would cause much ruffling of the nether garments and loss of friends. One to chalk up to experience.

Time to brew up again, methinks

Saturday 16 October 2010

The Dark – Two week test

OK, yes, there probably are two weeks to go until this is ready, but a two week test is pretty useful.

So, what was it like. It tastes pretty good...definite chocolate and a hint of coffee, good roasted overtones. Not to sweet, even with the lactose....possibly needs more?

The colour seemed to have changed too. No longer does it seem that dark brown, more a rich chestnut colour of a dark(ish) mild.

However, there's a clear(!) issue. The taste has a bit of yeast about it, and the pic below shows why. Happy with the lumpy bits, I can avoid them, and they may settle. However, the haze is an issue. Could be two reason:

  • The extra yeast I put in to resurrect fermentation hasn't cleared down. The Windsor yeast used first time round had only moderate flocculation, and God know's what strain went in second. It just doesn't taste THAT yeasty though!

  • It didn't cool quickly enough, I didn't get the cold break, and this is protein haze. Might validate my purchase of an immersion cooler!




Give it another fortnight, and I'll see. Will do a quick test, in that, if I warm the beer the haze should go if its proteinaceous.

Sunday 10 October 2010

Christmas/New Year's Crawl

It has been become tradition that, alongside Dr. B., we meet up in Laandaan for a few beers over the Festive bash.

Lanndaan, I admit, has a range of pubs to tickle all taste buds, some of the best are rather hidden. However, using Pollard and McGinn's 'Around London in 80 Beers', I'm wondering if this year's crawl could look like this. Pubs to visit are:

B: Betsy Trotwood

C: Crown Tavern

D: Jerusalem Tavern

E: Fox and Anchor

F: Smiths of Smithfield

G: Ye Olde Mitre

Looking forward to it already.....

Saturday 2 October 2010

Mr. S's Dark Espresso Cream

OK, so I like dark beer. So, having been impressed at my start of an easy bitter, I thought something with a bit more character was in order. Maybe a dark mild?

Except, I wanted a bit of something else too.

Occasionally,I find the coffee/roast/ chocolate thing of dark beers a litle much; not because I don't like the tastes, I find them, well, drying. Once in a while is ok, but a batch to drink..nope, needed something else....maybe a bit between Mackeson's and Rhymney Dark. Although my base recipe (another Wheeler version, this time of Hydes Dark Mild) called for crystal malt, I wanted something creamier...so I got me some lactose.

So, how much to? Thankfully the internet is awash with message boards, but there seemed no consensus, so I guessed. The resultant recipe can be found on the excellent Hopville site (I hasten to add that it isn't excellent because of that inclusion!) 

As you can see from the recipe, I also added some espresso...just to see what would happen.

All hell broke loose as it fermented from 1042 to 1020 quickly, and threatened to overtop the fermenter. After removing trub etc., the whole thing stopped at 1018.

Now, as I have alluded to, there are many message boards out there, usually useful. However, even my 'go-to' site, Jim's Beer Kit, with all its great advice failed me. Yes, I roused. Yes, I added fresh yeast. Nothing. Not a point drop in gravity. I was getting near two weeks and nothing was changing.

I have no idea what happened....1018 seems high to cask, according to all the calculators I could find, but perhaps the lack of change meant one thing...no more sugar?!?! To be honest, it might be due to it being colder now than my first brew. The central heating is not on yet...so maybe it is all just a bit cool.

Anyway, casked and primed it yesterday...let's see

The First

So, there I was....nice long summer holiday, what to do?

I had tried homebrewing years ago, and it kind of worked. There was a little taint, probably from crap Southampton water, but drinkable none the less.

Time moves on, and, thanks to the internet all the bits and bobs are easy to get. Last time, finding a cask was a nightmare. Now...easy peasy. Thanks to those nice folk at Hop and Grape and Graham Wheeler's revamped book from CAMRA, it all seeemd so much easier than I remember. So, I set off, and started to brew a beer based upon Wheeler's Batham's Best Bitter recipe:

Pale Dried Malt Extract (1130g), was boiled for 90 mins with 11g of Fuggles and 6g of Northdown hops. The post boil had 3g of Goldings. The 9 litre brew length (I only brew small volumes as only I drink it, and I wasn't confident it would work!!), started at a gravity of 1044. I had also added some irish moss for clearing the beer.

Fermentation was relatively rapid, the whole thing getting reaertaed after 2 days. After a week or so, the gravity steadied out at 1012, and it was casked. Added a pack of Beer Brite after 3 days, and left the whole thing for 4 weeks.

The results were really NOT that bad...I had drunk worse in pubs. The start was malty, but as I worked my way down the barrel, the beer became bell clear and much better balanced. The carbon dioxide sparked keg kept the whole batch in condition for a month.....

Convinced, I felt it was time to start another brew...