Thursday 21 February 2013

An odd bottle swap

In my other job - the dull one I have to do to pay the bills - I take a module whose concept I shamelessly nicked off a couple of academics in the States and Canada.

Called 'the Lifestyle Project', the unit asks students to plot out a course of 10 weeks of progressively more austere measures in their personal lives to eliminate or reduce aspects of their environmental footprint. Usually, people focus on travel, local food, water usage and the like.

However, this year, one student has focussed on trying to reduce his beer footprint, by brewing his own. And just to show that it works, we did a bottle swap (so it does not look like a gift in lieu of a good grade, right David!). And here's his attempt:



His gone kit rather than AG. I swapped for some Wailing Bike, and he's still around, so that's good.

The beer is well carbonated, and has poured very clear - probably less need to fine a kit beer. However, this just shows the real benefits of using real ingredients over extract. I expected it to be hoppy, given the colour, but their isn't the aroma you get from that big hit of late copper hops. Malt wise, this is pretty clean, almost lager like, and again, I think a few hops in the boil would have bittered this up (it is a little sweet in the balance for me). I also think that a mash might have dragged more flavour out of the malt. But, probably, the clincher would have been the yeast. Something giving a few more fruit characteristics would have made this a really decent first attempt.

However, Dave, a really good first go at zymurgy. I will be interested to see how you try and an environmental footprint out of this. Yes transportation costs may have gone down, but don't forget the extra processing that has gone in getting this kit up together.

Discuss.

Stuck....Again!!

Well the Milk Stout fermented rather well.....sorry, actually that is a lie. It fermented fine, until it stuck. So stuck, that the gravity has not dropped one iota since a week after pitching. I have now hit the fortnight, and I am really annoyed.

I followed someone else's recipe this time, not some fanciful dreaming of my own, so why should THEY get it wrong too? It just seems that me and roasted grains just don't get on. Is it the BIAB technique? Does that have some impact on breaking those dark, long chain sugars down? Not really sure, may have to ask!!

Well, completely at a loss, I googled some stuff on stuck ferments, and my last gasp solution is to introduce alpha amylase into the FV. Now, there should be some of this around already, but the idea is that this enzyme will get to work on those stubborn dextrins, and make the brew fermentable again. So, here goes, dark lovers. A teaspoon in, a bit of agitation.....who knows where this will lead! It may just be a bit dry, taste like rocket fuel, or stay as cloyingly sweet as it is.

2 gallons of Mackeson's clone, anyone?

Friday 8 February 2013

Left Hand, Right Hand (AG#12) and Wailing Bike testing

Been a little while since I wrote, but only two brewing type things have happened during the hiatus.

Firstly, I have cracked open a couple of bottles of the Wailing Bike. Christ, this stuff is strong. Really interesting that although I used a big late hop of Motueka there is not a great hop nose here. Comparing this with the rather tasty Bluebird Clone (AG#10) I was really surprised. The hops are definitely aromatic, possibly more so than the Challenger I used in the Bluebird. So why the difference?

I am sure this is all about the yeast. The Belgian Trappist yeast I used (WLP500) is terrific, but it definitely does a certain job. That job is to make the whole beer taste and smell like a good Belgian should - fruity, estery, organic chemistry lab like!! I think that killed off any of the hop aroma I might have got. However, all is not lost, as the big hop hit on the palate is still ere, and it balances a strong ale out really well. Perhaps too well; it makes the whole thing rather drinkable, and counteracts the caramel sweetness from the crystal really well. So, whilst this beer is strong and sweet, the bite makes it dangerously suppable.

Took some of this to a party, and it went down rather well, with someone asking what brewery it came from!! 

Secondly, after drinking some great Milk Stout from Mikkeller at the Craft Beer Co at Christmas, I realised that it had been some time since I brewed a dark beer. I have had a couple of issues with dark beers in the past; I've made them too dark. I have used too many dark grains, which makes for a less fermentable pint, so the thing has always come out a little thin and too bitter/roasty - even for me!

This time, I consulted the web for guidance. I eventually found a clone of the infamous Left Hand Milk Stout that friends rave about. The reviews had been good. The unscaled, non BIAB, recipe is here. It is relatively involved, and, at such low volumes, I must have annoyed the folk at Hop and Grape getting them to crush 200g of stuff a few times. There was no need for CRS this time; the dark malts are good foils for a too low pH, and did change my water (more by luck than judgement having visited Waitrose rather than Sainsbury's that weekend! Wairose get their water from Church Stretton, under a very different geology). And, just to finish things off, there is a hefty dose of lactose!

This is now actively fermenting (and I mean bubbling like a mad 'un, not quite writhing like the Trappist yeast did), after adding a sachet of Saf-Ale US 05 yeast. I had used 04 in another beer, and was impressed, so I will be interested to see what happens here - it is an American recipe after all. However, after my lesson from the last brew, this yeast is supposed to be rather neutral in flavour profile, which should give the complex malts and bitering hops a chance to vie for supremacy. The unferemented wort tasted great - almost drinking chocolate with hops - so roll on next Sunday and barrelling!