Beware the dirty element...

It's been almost a fortnight since I started a brew day that I thought would never end. Loving these Amarilo hops, I had chosen to brew a nice pale ale, and followed Wheeler's clone of Exmoor Gold, but added a few Amarillo for the last few minutes of the boil, plus a dry hop in the fermenter.

Since I have been brewing, I have used one of these for boiling, and now mashing (using BIAB). Apart from me being dense and switching it on for the first time without water in, thereby shorting the element, it's been fine. But this time, it decided to be a royal PIA. Mashing went fine (more of that later), and, as I went to lunch, I set the thermostat to max to get the water to a rolling boil. Back from lunch...nothing. Left it a while longer...starting to boil......bit longer.....nothing.

So, the element worked, but obviously started tripping at too lower a temperature. A quick visit to the Internet and I found that I was by no means the only one with this problem. Basically, if the element gets dirty and scaled, it trips......and I live in a chalky water area!! So, I had to decant 20 litres of wort into a spare bucket (THAT'S what I'd bought it for!!), deconstruct everything, and get cleaning. 20 mins with a wire brush later, and I switched everything on tjust o short all the electrics in the house! BUGGER.

Obviously a bit of water had got into the wiring, so it was time to drag out a hairdryer (THAT'S what she brought it for!!). Back on....fine!! So, fellow brewers, the moral of the story is avoid dirty elements at all costs. The rest of the boil proceeded as planned, and I have just taken a FG reading 12 days later.....think it's time to barrel.

One note on the mash. You'll see I got an efficiency of 64% via Hopville. That's substantially better than I had experienced before. My BIAB calculator reckons this is an end of boil efficiency of over 80%. Now THAT'S more like it. Unfortunately (!), I had planned on my previous efficiencies, so over catered on the malt. Thus, instead of a nice drinkable 4.6%, I'm nearer a slightly more pokey 5.6%. Life's tough. Why the change, well I chose to step infuse rather than mash at one temperature: 15 mins @40C, 15 mins at 55C, 60 mins at 65C, and a final 15 mins mashout at 70C. Looking at the theory, this all about increasing efficiency (and hopefully balance). The lowest temperature fluidized the mash, so the grain and water mixed better. The next step gets outs highly ferementable sugars (so the beer is stronger but thinner). The main step is where most of the sugars you want are extracted, and the mashout gives you that little bit of less fermentable sugar, which adds little to alcohol but gives he beer a bit of sweet body. It didn't seem too much faff - I didn't add water as you might in full mashing, I just turned the heat up. And it seems to have worked.

To test that view, it will be time to start another brew soon....looking at a Banks's Mild Clone to see what I can do!!

IPA?? Not pale, not that bitter....still tasty, mind

There has been a bit of a debate about what actually constitutes an IPA. Surely, they need to be hoppy, golden, strong? Well, if there is a Dark IPA available, am I worried about this beer as being described as such.

Well, yes....kind of. Four weeks from bottling it was time to uncork this Amarillo IPA. Firstly, it looked nice an coppery, not golden. Untick. Secondly, it only came out as touch over 4.5%. Untick. And hoppy? Kind of, but not mouth puckeringly so! Untick.

So, is this really what it says on the label? Well, after a month, it has cleared quite well, without finings other than Irish Moss:

I completely buggered the priming up, and this is a bit flat, which does detract from the enjoyment of what isn't a bad beer. Yes, it is fully of punchy Amarillo hops; nose-wise and palate-wise they are there. I just expected a bit more 'Ooomph'. Maybe, getting the mash right next time up, might give me a bit more body and hop? What with that, and the lack of 'fizz', it's a bit easy to drink.

I just don't see the need for the caramber malt in this; it seems to make the beer sweeter, when actually the balance should be the other way round (IMO). On chilling, some of this sweeter malt goes, which perhaps is the way it was designed to be drunk.

It actually improves down the glass; not a 'warming' issue, almost like it starts to 'breathe' a bit. Anyway, not convincced this is an IPA...you can't just call it that if it has citrusy flavours!!

What it has made me think of is making this beer again, but with pale malt alone, and adding some nice spicy Goldings in the boil, and Amarillo post boil for that great aroma hit. Mmm, sounds good. Need also to sort out this bloody mash temperature, and think I might go for a 40/60/70 mash, or at least something more bottom end to up the strength and let the hops sing over the malt a little more.

Mmmm, I'm getting grapefruit...

Having been enticed into the world of aromatic US hops, I brewed an all Amarillo IPA at the weekend....some interesting new ingredients (Munich malt and cara-amber, supposed to give a bit of colour, sweetness, and something to do with biscuits???? WTF???), including amazingly pungent Amarillo hops. They smelt really citrusy, and I'm looking forward to a bottle of this chilled down....shame it takes so long to brew, the weather here is just a bit on the muggy side.

Another brew-in-the-bag effort this. I'm still struggling to control temperatures, and I am hoping I managed to get something approaching a decent conversion out of the process. Clocked in at OG 1052, not quite the 1058 I planned for. Still, the way it started bubbling within about an hour of pitching, fermentation might be done before I know it!! Great pitchable vials of yeast from White Labs, same price as the smack packs I buy, no starter necessary....bonus. Certainly liked the warmish temperatures to start it off; it's now frothing away like mad.....

Pacific Rim musings

It's been a mad month.....travelling hither and thither. Start of the month, the Lakes for a week, third week of May two days in Germany, week four saw three days in France, and the end (plus 13 days in June) sees me on Vancouver Island.

What a place this is. Difficult to sum up in words, you just need to come here! Different to my visits to the Rockies, but none the worse for missing the odd glacier!

Added to that, the West Coast vibe of craft brewing has also made it here. Sampled some good stuff from Vancouver Island Brewery, and, last night checked out two beers by the local Tofino Brewing Company (Beer transport miles = 1). A good 'Tuff Session Ale', well balanced with an interesting hint of at the end...burnt sugar?...reminded me of that really dark maple syrup you can get. But the Hoppin' Cretin IPA was glorious...not hopped beyond belief like some of these new N American IPAs, and better for it, in my opinion. Great citrus hits from the hops, and a solid bitter taste throughout.

On the homebrew front, thoughts turn to that all Amarillo IPA I have been promising to myself...will have to get to ordering the ingredients, so they are there on my return

Early May update - Maturing Milds and Well Tasty Wheats

Back from another week of the Lakes - up hill, down dale, and, regrettably only Ped for company of an evening, supplemented with the odd pint of Cumberland.

Still, back from field work I return to find that J has raided my wheat beer collection. Having tasted it now, all I can say is...bloody hell. It tastes like proper wheat beer. Sure there are a few tweaks I need to add (been looking at all kinds of techniques like decoction and Hochkurz Mashing, which are brewing rather than medical terms!). But colour - pale golden. Check. Carbonation - high, great frothy top. Check. Aroma - slightly banana, spice. Check. Taste - Weißbier. CHECK. Think this brew in a bag thing is great.

Just to convince myself, I've just had a half of the defunct-porter-that-became-mild. With a month in the barrel, it has matured very nicely. A bit of haze from the oats, but that 'thin' taste I got early on has gone - perhaps that's just a maturity thing? Tasting rather good now; slightly sweet, bit of coffee/chocolate. Very light mild at just under 3%. Still, it was my first attempt at all-grain, so cannot complain.

Yet to try the rather strong dry-hopped IPA experiment. Maybe next week. Time to start thinking of a new brew, if Julie is going to start giving all my beer away...I was rather taken by a pint of beer that Langers had, made with Amarillo hops. Might give something a go with those....it is summer, after all.

Dry hopping an IPA that isn't

I had a load of things ingredients left over, so decided to give an experiment a whirl.

Taking my lead from these guys (or you can find it here too), I got inspired to try out a 2 litre brew in a demijohn. Liked the dy-hopping idea, so decided to do my own version of an IPA. There's was v. American - all Cascade...mine should have been more like the real thing; all Fuggles and Goldings. The recipe is here.

Its bubbling away in the d-j now. I decided to dry hop on the primary ferment, just to save time, as I will be away in two weeks time. However, my major gripe was that the beer was anything but pale!

Following the idea from the 'Basic Brewing', I boiled the first bittering hops on their own, then added malt and flavour/aroma hops. I used DME again, as I didn't have enough grain for a mash. But on boiling the first lot of hops my water was a real brown colour, and I know have wort that is closer to a bitter than an IPA. No idea what happened there.

Anyway, looks like it could kick in at 8+%, so that is looking promising.

On another note, the weißbier is bottled and should be ok to sample next week. Interesting...doesn't look half as cloudy as commercial wheat beers, and I lost that banana/bubble gum aroma. From the FV it tasted like a malty light lager, so I am hoping for something a bit more interesting after secondary fermentation. The liquid yeast was great - after skimming and rousing, it fermented right out to target.

Die Katze wird gebraut

Indeed.

Spent yesterday having a go at an AG Weißbier. The mash went ok, think I was a bit down on the efficiency this time...it came out a little lower in gravity than I expected (1041 not 1047).

However, getting the thing down to pitching temeprature was a nightmare. Remind me to make this bier in winter next time. Had to pitch at 16C rather than 12C, and I am hoping that it will ferment at around 18C - should still be ok. From what I can see the raised temperature just promotes more banana and clove scented esters, so that's fine by me!

I am also having a 'mare getting the wort from boiler to fermenter. In the past this has been to too many hops and/or adjuncts blocking the hops trainer. No idea why its sticking now - must be all that gloopy crap that seems to settle out upon cooling. Of course, being a wheat beer, the proteinaceous gunk that gives the beer its taste, texture, and appearance cannot help!

Have to say the yeast I used (my first batch from White Labs) smelt wonderful...just put me back in Germany. I can only hope this gets somewhere close.