Belgian Basics

I've been wanting to do this for a bit....however, since winter is just around the corner, I knew it was time to wheel out something a bit darker and, well, warming.

Scouting around Hopville, and looking out a few recipes, along with a bit of inspiration from a few beers brought back to me from Bruges, I wondered if something Belgian wasn't in order. I came up with this. The recipe was modified somewhat from a basic dark abbey beer I had found. The only tweak here is that their recipe suggested almost 40% Belgian Aromatic Malt. reading elsewhere that you should NEVER use more than 10% of that malt in a beer I rebalanced with Maris Otter. Apparently, it's SO malty that many writers took the view that more than 10% would be undrinkable. Given what I have seen some people drink, I am not sure such a beer exists. Anyway, having tasted the malt, it certainly has a strong malt taste (quite nice out of the packet :-}), so I probably did right.

My other discover this brew was this graph, which tries to explain the balance of tastes in relation to the BU:GU ratio (bitterness units to gravity units)....kind of a hops vs malt graph. Very useful, and my ratio for this beer is about 0.65...suggesting hoppiness, and having tasting it after 4 days, it's still very hoppy (there were lots of hops added to balance the large grain bill). Mind you, Hopville calculates IBUs of 56, the BIAB Calculator Worksheet gives me 34, and Beersmith gives me 40!! So I could range from slightly malty, through well balanced, to extra hoppy!!!! Of course, there is a long way to go with this beer, it needs to ferement out, and then bottle mature for a good period - it is supposed to get over 9%

More grief on the boil....this bloody element thing is killing me. The whole brew took 2 hours longer than I think it should have done. I have tried all the tricks. All I think I can do now is buy two new elements (one to wash, one to wear!!), replace the element after each brew, and put the old element in some descaler for an hour and store!!

Used an old Trappist yeast from White Labs. Looks great! Lag time was a bit longer than usual, but once it got going, it really got going (see pic). Have given it a stir and thrown in some yeast nutrient, and it is still bubbling away feverishly. Have to say there does seem to be an awful lot of debris in the beer, but it does have another week or so to ferment out.

Elsewhere, all is disaster!! The Lovely golden IPA had basically deposited itself onto the carpet....I think it has just recovered, hopefully when the heating comes on it will draw the last bit of moisture out. The mild? Well, I'm going to have to chuck it. Not sure what happened, but I suspect I left it fermenting too long. Therefore, every bottle has that twang of off beer, and it has really had trouble clearing. I wonder if this was because it never really got boiling at the end of the brew, and the Irish moss I put into fine never got to work. This time around, I've used a Whirlfloc tablet, just in case. Shame really, tasted OK (outside of the 'off-ness'), just something to chalk up to experience...I'm really hoping this beer finishes by the middle of next week, so I can bottle it before going away!

Bottlin' Day

Today was about bottling the Mild.

Mild? Hadn't I mentioned that? Ooops....

A fortnight a go I made a Mild, based upon Wheeler's clone for Banks' Mild. If there's a beer I should know enough about to compare my efforts to, this would be it. Brew day went ok, but that element thing is still bugging me. Fortunately, it all happened at the end of the boil, so this may be nearer light bitter than mild, but hey! Nice people at H&G have given me a few hints, and, suffice it to say, a DIY bodge is on its way, in the shape of a hack-sawed splatter guard!

Thought it was time to bottle this, two weeks on. Hit OG, but FG was a bit high. Cannot believe there is anything left to really ferment, and my nose told me that if I left it much longer, I would have 2 gallons of malt vinegar on my hands. Here's the result:


Although the beer needs to settle Banks' aficionados will note a good resemblance to the colour. Looking forward to the beginning of November, when it should be good to go.

On the downside, I had my first real failure. The beer was fine, but the IPA I put in a pressure barrel never recovered from his awkward birth. After purchasing a new lid for the barrel, the beer started to leak - presumably through the tap. Having noted a rather beery/vinegary smell under the stairs, and thinking this had more to do with the mild coming to the end of fermentation, I suddenly realised I couldn't see the level in the barrel....and when I looked most has seemingly 'escaped'. So, time to VAX the carpet, as the plastic I had out it on only did the job it was meant to do to some degree :-{.  A shame, as the look and taste of it were really promising, even if it didn't look as it it was going to really clear all that well!! Possibly a new tap needed, or even just get bottling each brew.

So...that's how you make a lambic...

Unscrewed the top off the barrel of the latest brew to be greeted with a good 'Pssshhhhh...' followed by a slight waft of sour beer. Pouring in the finings and giving the beer a little stir, the smell was reminiscent of lambic beer, or Gales Old Ale, or even a porter I once had - that had been made in the now seemingly forgotten tradition of mixing green and stale beer to give a slight sour aftertaste

Now I'm partial to all of those beers, but I was a little worried. Firstly, I had 9 litres of the stuff to drink, and I bet that even Stuart Heron (one of many erstwhile GBBF co-visitors, with a passion for seeking out the weird and wonderful) couldn't manage that shift! Secondly, I was a tad concerned as it wasn't SUPPOSED to smell like that, and the stuff had only been in the barrel for 3 days!

Then, I found the issue...the top of the barrel had cracked. Clearly a little air had got in and oxidised the beer (not strictly what tends to happen in sour beer like lambics). Fortunately, the pressure seal must have been doing some good, as the release of gas from priming had given it that 'Pshht' upon opening.

So, what to do??? Well cue a trip to the Hop and Grape webpage. Even if I had to fret for three days, that's better than nothing! Bits ordered, I wandered around the corner to Holland & Barrett, just in case! Weirdly, this place on Shirley Road still stocks home brew stuff. Even more weirdly, it was open on a Bank Holiday Monday. But uber-weirdness of all, it had a spare pressure barrel lid.

The moral of this tale is, as I have suggested before, even a health food shop can provide a better service on the brewing front than somewhere local designed to fit the bill!

Fingers crossed no more leakage, and a decent beer to sample. It had better be, it is due to be tapped on my birthday!!

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