AG #18 - Gone Kegging

Been meaning to write this post for some time, but now that the temperatures are dropping, brewing is coming back onto the schedule.

The eighteenth attempt at all grain brewing focused on two new techniques. Firstly, I ditched BIAB. I was getting hacked off with poor fermentation, driven by the lack of fermentable sugars rather than poor fermentation conditions. I wondered whether a proper sparge would give me better results.

So I commandeered an old cool box, heated my mash water, and started to dough in at the rate of around 2.5 litres of water per kilo of malt. My recipe was derived from Greg Hughes' American Pale, with a little more malt (since batch sparging has a lower efficiency) and some Carapils for body. Batch sparging was really simple, especially if I just let the grains still sit in the bag I used for BIAB. My only issue was that the cool box had so much headspace, the mash dropped well below 65C. In the end, this only ended up a higher gravity beer (remember, MALT: more alcohol, less temperature), perhaps with a little less body than I would have liked. I may have solved this for the future by purchasing a small cool box!

The boil was done with Ahtanum hops....for no reason than they were on offer, and I had never used them before. Have to say that I like these; nice gentle citrus but no aggressive bitterness. Even so, to get the balance right, I used  ALL a packet of hops in the boil, including a lot at flameout. The recipe looked something like:


Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV (standard): 5.26%
IBU (tinseth): 46.17
SRM (morey): 5.65

FERMENTABLES:
2.19 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (95.2%)
0.11 kg - German - Carapils (4.8%)

HOPS:
35 g - Ahtanum, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 3.8, Use: Boil for 70 min, IBU: 35.83
15 g - Ahtanum, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 3.8, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 7.38
15 g - Ahtanum, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 3.8, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 2.96
35 g - Ahtanum, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 3.8, Use: Boil for 0 min

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 65 C, Time: 60 min, Amount: 5.3 L
2) Sparge, Temp: 65 C, Time: 20 min, Amount: 7.7 L, Batch sparge
Starting Mash Thickness: 3 L/kg

I fermented with WLP001, hoping these hops would come through.

My second change was how I stored the beer. I hate bottling, and my pressure barrels were leaking all the time. So I invested in a mini Cornelius Keg from Brew UK.

To begin with it was a bit of a faff, but, once you sorted your carbon dioxide tank and regulator out, I can see why so many homebrewers never go back to them. There is an issue of storing the beer at the right carbonation levels if you only drink a couple of pints at a time, but I'll live with that. What is cooler than tapping off a beer from a keg?

And the final product?  Well there is very little aroma from these hops, which I am a bit disappointed with given the large dumping it got at flameout. The balance is good, however. Yes, you can tell it has that North American  character, but it is much less in your face. so I approve. It is cloudy, which might be the result of so much cold break, or the high hopping. I may have also forgot to fine!!! No matter, it isn't yeast (he hopes), so I should be fine!! The best thing , however, is that I hit or exceeded gravities and the beer doesn't have that odd something I was getting with all my BIABs. So, a ethod to try again....maybe with something darker next time!

Oh, one warning point....just remember your pressures and how the gas in/beer out lines and tap work...I, absent mindedly, forgot, fixing the beer out connector sans tap. I am now covered in beer!!!

AG#17 - Mild times again.....

Yes, yes, I know. It's been over a year since my last post. A lot has happened in that time; not least the ripping off of the old kitchen and much of the back of the house, and the grafting on of a new extension. Therefore, brewing was a tad difficult  all the way through summer, and, for one reason or another, I never got back to it until a month ago.

At least in the new configuration of the downstairs there is something of a separate utility space, where I can store brewing stuff and brew without much hassle! And I haven't been beerless...oh no. From our annual Christmas Crawl around the city (not as successful in beer terms as previous visits, I thought), to a number of festivals, via acquiring a new book or two (Greg Hughes' recipe book and John Palmer's epic 'How to Brew'), and attending an AG brewing course at Brew UK. The latter showed me that I wasn't getting it all wrong and that BIAB was almost as good a technique as real AG brewing, particularly at my low volumes.

So, I sit here, writing away, supping on my first two pints of Greg Hughes' 'Mild' recipe. And it's pretty good. I didn't quite hit my gravities, so the beer comes in at 3% only, but it's toffee and chocolate just as you might expect from the crystal and chocolate malts. The hops might be a bit much for a true mild, but they come in at the end, so that keeps your palate going for the next sip.

The one major difference with this was that after talking to a few old hands on the course, and brewers at the newly formed Butcher's Hook Brew Club (attached to our fantastic micropub in Southampton), I used plain old tap water. I did adjust for alkalinity, which I can measure at home, but that was about it. And can I spot the difference? No, not really, unless the fact that it's not bad is an improvement!!

Might try and beef this up to a richer, stronger mild next,

GREG HUGHES' MILD

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: Mild
Boil Time: 70 min
Batch Size: 9.5 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 18.5 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.024
Efficiency: 67% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.036
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV (standard): 3.3%
IBU (tinseth): 29.35
SRM (morey): 17.69

FERMENTABLES:
1.498 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (83.3%)
0.25 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (13.9%)
0.05 kg - United Kingdom - Chocolate (2.8%)

HOPS:
11.2 g - Northdown, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8, Use: Boil for 70 min, IBU: 29.35
10 g - Bramling Cross, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 6, Use: Aroma for 0 min

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 65 C, Time: 60 min, Amount: 18.5 L

YEAST:
White Labs - English Ale Yeast WLP002
Starter: No
Form: Liquid
Attenuation (avg): 66.5%
Flocculation: Very High
Optimum Temp: 18.33 - 20 C

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Profile Name:
Ca2: 0
Mg2: 0
Na: 0
Cl: 75
SO4: 0
HCO3: 0
Water Notes:
23.7 ml of CRS

Generated by Brewer's Friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/
Date: 2015-04-05 21:07 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2015-04-05 21:06 UTC

AG #16 - Hoping Two Wrights make a Right

Having inflicted a dreadful Hefe on people, I felt the need of a little redemption on the brewing front this weekend. Therefore, I looked out for a spot of inspiration, which came in the form of John Wright's infectiously enthusiastic book 'Booze'. John Wright (@johnmushroom) is the chap who goes around foraging the hedgerows and coasts of Dorset with Hugh Fearnley-Whathisface on the 'River Cottage' series. However, it wasn't until recently that I saw him making his own home brewed beer on telly.

Having given some of his infusions a go - and them working out pretty well, (beware odd coloured bottles of liquid for Christmas prezzies , folks...). I decided to give his 'Ordinary Bitter' a go, but tweak it for the BIAB method I use. I also wanted to use some hops that were on they're way out, so swapped out the Pacific Gem for a more UK-centric dose of Challenger. Just to see if I couldn't get a dose of 'freshness' in there 3g of Cascade pellets went into the cube whilst the wort cooled overnight.

However, the malt bill was identical, and that is what drew me to the recipe. Maris Otter spine, but the additions of wheat, crystal, and chocolate add, in turn, mouth feel, residual sweetness and a roasty hint and colour. This strikes me as a good balance - the hop schedule is suggesting quite high bitterness, which I didn't get out of the unfermented wort, but we will see. If so, I'll need these malts to counteract them. All fermented using WLP002, the ESB strain, so I am expecting malt/sweet, from that yeast so I am hoping that this doesn't kill the hops altogether. In the FV it looks brown, substantially 'traditionally' and British, and there is a lot to be said for that - as boring as it might sound!

I also paid a LOT more attention to temperature this time, adding cold and hot water to get the inital infusion just right at 66C, and then monitoring every 15mins to check on the temperature.I am a bit more confident that I did not overshoot the temperatures this time, so I am hoping for a decent attenuation (and ABV)  this time around!

Christmas Crawl 2013 - Reports from the front....

It has been almost a month since your three explorers disappeared into the depths of Kentish Town and Camden to drink, eat and chat. However, today, the weather outside is frightful (erm....that's more than enough Christmas references now...Ed.), so I thought I would get this report all written up.

After a relatively trouble free journey to Tufnell Park, we emerged from the Tube station in rain. Fortunately, it is but a 5-10 minute walk to The Southampton Arms. What a great pub this is. Admittedly, we were the first in, and it was a quiet day, but the luxury of sitting in a good pub, with the real fire being set, fresh pints in hand....difficult to beat. The pub is a single room bar, with somewhere in the region of a dozen beers and ciders on - so one could have a beer festival in one pub. Friendly welcome, and an apology for not having much food on (this isn't a place for burger and chips anyway!. All the beer we tried was well kept, but, and here's a bit of a personal moan, during winter a few more dark beers wouldn't have gone amiss. This place was so good we felt embarrassed to leave after one (the bar team looked like they wanted the company), so we ordered a second and waited for the next lot of punters to add to the growing lunchtime hubbub. I suspect this place may get rammed in the evenings, and it should be.

The rain had now abated, and the weather looked set fair for the rest of the day. Heading south we took a few short cuts through residential areas to appear at The Grafton. I had seen, from their site, that this looked like the place for some decent food and a good beer. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to advertise that their kitchen was closed, and we walked into the staff clearing out all their lines. Oh dear. Still, a very helpful member of staff pointed us at 'Another real ale pub, not far away...' ...Did we look THAT obvious?!?!? The aforementioned pub was the strangely named 'Tapping the Admiral', and it was next on our list anyway. This a corner terrace boozer, and I was expecting some harridan to be shouting 'Get aaat my paaaab' at any moment. But no, we were well looked after. A smaller selection of beer, with Adnams seeming to feature strongly. And lunch. And here's the thing. I have experienced this in London before; the concept of Thai food in pubs. I was a bit dubious, but the walk, a few pints before hand, a beer in hand....all seemed to add up to a great match for what was really tasty, and pretty cheap, Thai food. Lunch for a fiver, you cannot go wrong!! I still don't understand where the name comes from, but I urge you to not miss this pub out if you're in the area.

And so on toward Camden and Brewdog. I'm sure you already know about the Brewdog ethos. The bar was a little 'industrial', the decor all matching the 'punk' attitude of the brewery. There were a good range of beers on, from the relatively common to the less obvious. I settled for a half of 12 Hop, oured through their 'hopinator' of fresh Galena hops and ground coffee beans. Very hoppy, but not astringent, and...yes...you did get that coffee. We finished on thirds of Brooklyn Chocolate Stout...at 10% one to be sipped...huge, but lovely. Interesting, I was worryingly waiting for the Craft Beer Co moment of last year, but the prices were somewhat moderated by focusing on their own product.

Continuing southwards, we skirted the back of Euston and hit the Bree Louise. We always seem to get a seat in this pub, yet it always seems busy!The CAMRA card in hand to claim discount we settled for a couple of Christmas brews from the Brains 'Craft' set up. The second Brains 'craft' beer I have had (Boilermaker being the other), and this was similarly disappointing. The beer is never undrinkable, but it just lacks that Ooomph.

 To cap the evening it was but a hop and step to the Euston Tap. This pub is TINY, and you find it in the little mock gatehouse outside Euston station. There is a cider alternative in the gatehouse opposite. The place was busy downstairs, but there are a few tables upstairs up the winding staircase. The place was a bit full to appreciate the range of beers on, but I noticed that there was a Moor beer (so'Hop) that I wanted to taste. This is not a beer for the malt lovers to be honest...it was really assertively hoppy!

 Saying our goodbyes, we left Dr B. to the delights of the Victoria line, whilst we took the trip south of river to Waterloo, a welcome pasty and home. A few more places ticked off the list, and added to the growing map of decent beer venues, this tradition is going to get more and more difficult to make different each year at this rate. However, what you got in all the places we visited is the vibrancy of new breweries, new beers, more established breweries upping their game, and pubs opening or changing to accommodate this movement. If this continues, there will be places to discover for years to come.

It is now the day after Burns Night, and I am feeling remarkably fresh. My contribution, for which everyone has my apologies, was the rather average Blackberry Hefe last brewed. Interesting beer this, never really delivered due to mashing too high and fermenting too high I suspect. Thus the body was too light and the clove thing not very pronounced. The blackberries added a nice pink hue to the beer, but what they predominantly lent in taste was a slight sourness. Not unpleasant, but nothing really that good. I think I still have a few litres left....coming near to a drain near you....

Christmas Crawl 2013 - Camden and Kentish Town

Christmas. Time for tradition. You know the sort of thing; the same inane rituals, the same shit decorations you won't throw away, the same ranting at another year without a late night Marx Brothers' film to munch cheese and pickles to.

And so to an event now firmly lodged in the Christmas schedule. We've done the family stuff, we've even had a few days to relax. So it's time to hit London with Dr. B. and drink some beer. And, as usual, the planning is interesting/stressful. Will the pub be open? Will the beer be ok? Can I get away with drinking in London without having to overstretch the mortgage? Can I get some decent nosebag for less than twenty quid for a plate of chips? (Gastropubs! Christ!). So here's this year's plan, with a thankful nod to Stig and his Foursquare list:



View Christmas Crawl 2013 in a larger map

Unfortunately, the Camden Town Brewery is shut when we plan to go...ah well, another day. The Grafton seems best bet for food without being fleeced (is it me, but to get a decent bit of scoff in this bit of London it seems like gastros all the way?.....I can eat Scotch Eggs 'til the cows come home, but I regard the Scotch Egg as a snack!). I am sure Brewdog will both amuse and infuriate me, and I look forward to the more homely atmosphere of the Bree Louise at the end of the day.

As ever, a round up will follow!

AG #15: Blackberry Hefeweizen

Elsewhere on this blog, I have posted the recipe for this.

The yeast, after being a bit slow, really kicked into action, and then stopped in a cold snap. THE FG was still rather high, so I roused and put it in somewhere warm. Nice bit of krausen, and then stopped again. My final gravity is still really too high (by about a full tenth of a point!!).

Well, it went in the keg anyway. A hefeweizen tends to primed scarily high (about 100g of sugar in my 10 litres). I replaced 10 g of this with the crushed juice of 200 g of foraged blackberries (assumed a 5g/100g sugar content, as per the Internet). So this could all go wrong in a scary pink explosion!

This efficiency/gravity thing is getting annoying now. So much so, I am thinking of mashing in a large esky to make sure I maintain heat. Yes, the yeast may have been a bit old - it was on the last month where I could use it. But it had been in the fridge all that time, and smelt OK. The beer also smelt and tasted fine....it just won't ferment out fully.

Given that I have experienced this phenomenon more than once, with different yeasts, suggests that it must be me and my technique, not my ingredients. I am sure my worry about hitting temperatures leads me to warming the water too much, adding the grain, mashing high. As the saying goes M.A.L.T. (more alcohol, less temperature).

To be honest, the temperature loss in my kettle/mash tun is pretty small over 90 mins, so I wonder if it is better to dough in a few degrees under, and the add hot water?

As it is, I've ended up with a lighter beer than I thought (3.7% not the 5% I aimed for), perhaps sweeter (thank goodness I added more hops than I did in my original attempt), and potentially explosive to boot :-{

The Session #82: Beery Yarns

Well. Some of these yarns could be ribald, some long and convoluted in the telling, and others could be as fishy as they are beery. However, for this Session (and apologies for not contributing since my last rant many months ago!), I wanted to focus upon beer as being the excuse for the story; the stimulant for the tales that unfold, not the story itself.

In fact my first yarn hardly features beer at all. Back in the day, as a postgrad student in Cardiff, in the early 90s, beer was Brains (or, if you were unlucky, Hancock's....or if you had committed one of the most heinous sins known to Man, Ansells). So a chance to sample something else was always welcome, and one pub where this was possible was out of town, up a hill, at a pub where we had to direct the taxi driver - the Ty Mawr in Lisvane.

On a summer's evening, the garden looked down to the coast, with a great view. But this evening was a wintery one. It was blowing a gale outside, raining sideways. I don't recall what I drank, probably something dark and deeply flavoured. I almost cannot recall who was in the intrepid party, except a few brave souls from the Department. But what I recall is the pub, with its fire roaring, shuttered against the elements, the gentle hubbub of conversation, gradually loosened by beers we had never tasted before was the antidote we all needed. I just remember laughter, warmth and friendship. I also recall visiting a few years later, as a friend left to I study in the US. It had now become a family friendly pub. For all this, the warmth it had on that winter's evening had disappeared in a haze of menus and child friendly policies...

My other tale is also wintery. Christmas morning to be exact. My sister and I had taken a walk up to the pub whilst mom finished cooking. Our destination was The Beacon Hotel, not 20 minutes walk up a relatively steep hill. The day was crisp; snow on the ground from a previous fall, but the sun was out. Glorious. We sat, with many, in the back of the pub. The landlord had tapped a new barrel of Ruby Mild. After the walk up, it tasted utterly superb. The boss came in and individually wished all of his customers a "Happy Christmas" and there was much chatting between strangers. If you don't know the pub, and I know many do, it is an old Victorian building, with furnishings to match, and the decorations consisted of holly obtained from the Beacon Hill behind the pub. No music, no fruit machine, just the cracking of coals in the grate, and the sound of people happy and contented. It was almost as if this scene was a replay of the same moment, recreated over 100 times on the same spot. After a second pint, lunch beckoned, and I left this fantastic bit of the Black Country behind me, knowing full well that however things change outside, what happens inside would represent what is good, and will persist, for many Christmases to come.

 

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Brewing a taste of autumn

Not a lot has happened since my last post. I seem to have been busy or ingredient less for months, and I am almost at a loss to remember my last post.

Anyway, in between then and now, I continued on the tweaking of recipes and using of simple ingredients. Well, it was summer, and I wasn't looking for anything complex and heavy. So I settled on a really nice and simple pale ale, with two hops; Magnum to bitter, and finishing and dry hopping with lots of Cascade. I know some people really love this hop, one of the three big 'C's that got US beer really rocking. I also know of folk who find their sweet citrus thing just too much; a veritable 'tarts handbag' (thanks Ann and John Ince!). But I'm a bit of convert, and it is the kind of crisp summery hop that makes beer both Julie and I can drink.

The results of the recipe weren't half bad. I suppose that its great clarity, great mash efficiency, and excellent fermentation was always going to guarantee that I liked this beer. But there was a catch....

To get that great efficiency and to make sure I hit my ABV, I decided to mash on the low side. To make the hop stand out I opted for the rather more flavour neutral malt bill, with plentiful wheat malt. To make sure it cleared I opted for a yeast with great attenuation and flocculating properties, SafAle04. All of that made a great beer in those regards, and it certainly meant that you had almost nothing to disrupt you tasting Cascade....I just wanted something more....the taste was TOO clean, it needed a bit of malty backbone.

We've had one of the best autumns for fruit that I can remember. Blackberrying this year was a joy, pounds picked in minutes. Outside of the crumbles made with apples scrumped from a neigbour's overhanging branches, the question was what to do with all the other fruit. As I write, I am coming to the end of a boil of a Hefeweizen. I brewed this a few years ago, and it worked very well, the White Labs yeast was superb. So I have upped the malt bill a little, to give it a bit more oomph, been more generous with the hops as I like the floral properties of Hallertau, and I will, eventually, prime with a mix of sugar and blackberry juice. At least the photos will look nice!

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TMS 2013 tasting and a summer beer

It seems an awfully long times since I last blogged.

I am now at the end of the TMS 2013 - an amalgam of English and Kiwi hops to celebrate the early season Test Series between England and NZ. It was an overwhelming victory for England.

Wish I could say the same for this beer. It's nice; in fact I really like it, and a friend who usually drinks lager quite liked it to. But, as ever, it wasn't what was in my head when I started the brew. Where were those great late hop hints from the Pacifica? The addition of the mild malt over Maris Otter meant that this shifted from a crisp golden ale, to a dark golden, just a little sweet brew - what it really reminded me of was a pint of Banks's Mild from back home.

Not that that is a bad thing; it has been a long time since I tasted a pint of this back home. But, perhaps, this is why my lager drinking friend liked it - it was lightly bittered and easy drinking in the end.

I would definitely brew this again. My only issue was, in the heat we have just had, getting the pressure barrel down to cellar temperature is well nigh impossible.

And so, the summer really kicks off. Well, to be honest, its been and gone weather wise. Braving the high temperatures (Hey, I quite like estery beer!) I thought I would try a nice pale ale. This time, I wasn't messing, and decided to use some Cascade against some Magnum I had left over (a great bittering hop). I have also kept the malt bill nice and clean with a mix of MO and Pilsner, with a bit of wheat for some body.

Technique wise, not a lot has changed, but I do have two new sites that helped me. Firstly, I was becoming concerned that my efficiencies were not great, so I started to look at mash pH, and the effects my malt bill might impact on water chemistry. Up until know, I had just been concerned on the water only - now I started to look elsewhere. This great site let me work out water chemistry and mash pH all at the same time. Finally, the old site I used for recipe storage has moved, here's my new recipe, archived at BrewToad.

AG#13 - TMS

I am slowly working may way through the milk stout, and getting to like it. A touch more alcohol would have made this really tasty, but it is a good beer for a couple of pints supped slowly through the evening.

And so on to my next venture. I was impressed with the Bluebird Clone, even more so when I walked into the Black Bull Inn in Coniston two weeks ago. Another year of fieldwork, another day on the hills, and a pint of Bluebird was in order. And I have to say, my attempt was not half bad at all. It perhaps needed a little more body, from a bit more booze, but the hopping was good, and the late hop technique of half my IBUs in the last 5 minutes of the boil gave great aroma.

That being so, I decided to recreate the beer, but this time I upped the malt bill. I was hoping for an OG of 1.056, but for a reason I need to look into, I only seemed to hit 1.052, and that was with a little more malt than I needed. Against this poorer extraction, I set a boil of East Kent Goldings, and finished the boil with 5 minutes of the rest of my Pacifica hops, which I had bought for the dark saison I brewed at the back end of 2012. Hoping for plenty of orangey hints from this hop, and, I have to say, I much prefer these Kiwi hops to their more abrasive US New World cousins.

The starter of SafAle 04 made sure that fermentation was well underway, after 7 hours of pitching.....it also meant I saved half the pack of yeast for another brew soon! My aim is for a solid 5% paleish ale, with a nice malty backbone, balanced out by English bitterness and some New World marmalade aromas and palate.

I wish!

 

 

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Milky Milky! It's a beer...it's a bread!

The milk stout has had plenty of time to sit and mature in the barrel now. So I gave it a taste today. There is still a bit of carbonation, but I think that I under primed it (I am cautious with this after a few issues) and much of the yeast I had left in the be was probably on its last legs after a three and a half week ferment.

It pours a dark, black/brown, with a thinnish tan head. On the nose, there is a bit of hop, but this is mainly roasted grains, almost burned toast. Tasting it, I am first struck by its creaminess, perhaps from the body the lactose gives it, but I know that the flaked grains often give a good texture to the beer. It is soft and bitter, as Mackeson's is, with the majority of balance coming from the roasted grains, and this is mainly dark chocolate and coffee, rather than the liquorice you get in some stouts. The roasted grain taste does linger, but does not kill the palate, which I have had in previous darks. I think the sweetness helps here.

 

But, not really a session beer; there's just a bit too much going on. So, what to do with 9 litres of the stuff? Well, I think this beer suits the unseasonably cold weather at the moment, and, with the addition of some crisps, nuts, or scratchings, this would be a great in-front-of-the-TV beer. But even I can't think this cold snap will go on for ever. Therefore, I needed another use for this.

I do, occasionally, get taken with baking bread. I love it, but I'm just not that good at it. Inspired by Paul Hollywood's new series on bread, I tried his basic bloomer, which came out amazingly well. So, this morning, I started his rye, ale, and oat loaf. The recipe just calls for ale, and uses black treacle. But I have used my stout in this, and, boy, it honks of dark beer....hope this isn't overkill. It looks very dark, and smells amazing. We have a bit of cheddar and a pot of Stilton still to finish from Christmas....maybe a few salad things, and some chutney, a cheese ploughman's tea looks on the cards!

 

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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?

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!

Christmas Walk Around Round Up

So, here I am. Fresh as a daisy, the day after. A few new places under my belt, and definitely a few more to add to my emergency 'Lost in London and Thirsty' map.

After a bit of a nightmare due to Tube engineering work that were 'planned' but not flagged on the National Rail site, Ian and Julie and I ended up having to take Shanks' Pony to the first stop, the Bavarian Beerhouse in Old Street.

This is a large underground kind of place, and I mean that in terms of its location rather than reputation...I just stopped myself using the term 'bunker' in the context of a recreated Munich beer cellar, that's all. When it gets full, I suspect it is gets warm and noisy. However, we were the first customers in and treated to Erdinger Dunkel and Hefe Weisse to start. I suppose this kind of stuff is all a bit old hat now, but I do like Erdinger, it has just the right balance of banana/clove/bitterness for me. The Dunkel is, perhaps, less refreshing, but the dark malt does add a bit of toastiness that I really like. Anyway, this helped us wash down lunch of schnitzel and an array of sausages, sauerkraut and fries. Great drinking food!

A short step north from here, passing by some very attractive Victorian terraces into an empty space probably forever changed by either 1970's town planners or the Luftwaffe (with the same result one thinks), you arrive at proper old school corner boozer. It sticks out a mile (ma'am), but you also wonder how it does business. Stepping inside, you realise. Voted for again and again by their local CAMRA group, The Wenlock Arms really takes you back. A horseshoe bar dominates, seats against the outer wall with tables and stools. All it really needs is sawdust and a couple of spittoons  and this place is much more at home in 1912 than 2012. The beer was also good, Dark Star APA (has this got a tad weaker? The pump said 4.7%, but I am sure I drank it at 5%) and Rebellion Mild, but there was a selection of about 6 beers. The pub had a few locals and then visitors in, suggesting that people know about this place, which is all to the good. God forbid that we should lose this kind of place! However, if BITE is to be believed it lives in constant threat of 'redevelopment'. Oh, and a final point, the music playing was not obtrusive and great - Fleet Foxes (why do I always think of summer when I hear stuff from their first album , Stones, Elbow, Led Zep (Bron-y-Aur Stomp no less)

From there, we had a 15 minute walk up City Road to Angel - again not a part of the City I am that familiar with. We hit the Old Red Lion Theatre. This was an interesting place, full of period features, but the beer selection was on the popular side (Tribute, Wherry, and TT Landlord). Having said that the Landlord was in fine form; I've had worse pints in so called 'real ale' pubs in Southampton. It was crisp, hoppy with a little hint of sweetness that makes it so drinkable when its good. So no complaints there. The pub was busy, OK there was football on the telly, and then....it emptied. It emptied because, in the corner of the bar, is a box office where you buy tickets to the theatre that sits above it (I assume). An interesting first for me, and Julie has threatened to visit again next year for their Christmas show. I am just hoping that the punters hadn't been told this was West End show!

Ever onwards, we started our descent into the City. A few rights and lefts found us in northern Clerkenwell (I suppose) at the Pakenham Arms. Again, for mid afternoon on a Saturday between Christmas and NYE, the pub was quiet, with  dozen or so 'locals' at the bar - but no less welcoming for this! Julie tried the Sharps wheat beer, which was an interesting beer (none of the wheat beer of earlier in the day, this is a clean, slightly sweetish pale beer with a bit of bubblegum rather than the more interesting banana/clove thing). Ian and I opted for a pint of Nemophilia from the Botanist Brewery, based along the Thames in Kew. This was lovely, dark, roasty but not too bitter, and I am interested to try some of their other beers if they are of this quality. This pub was accompanied by some beer tapas (wasabi peas and crisps!), and another non-obtrusive but fantastic music selection (Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd....have these pubs raided my music collection?). Again, not an area I tend to visit too often, but the pub was great and would definitely go back!

There was a real sense of heading home, as we we took a short walk towards Lamb's Conduit Street, and went into The Lamb. We had been here last year, and it seemed a good place to stop before pressing on towards our final stop. Young's Winter Warmer was our tipple here - nice, but I always think it could do with being a but stronger and fruitier for a real winter ale. The pub was much busier this year than last and MUCH warmer - look, even Julie felt warm, so it must have been hot.

And then, finally, a dash through the rain towards Clerkenwell Road, and Leather Lane's Craft Beer Co. This has been recommended to me so many times, I knew I had to visit this soon. We managed to find a seat to perch on, as it was rather busy, and we spent a bit of time choosing our beer. The Craft Beer Co summed up everything I love and hate about the 'craft beer' thing. The beer was lovely....no scrub that...it was, in fact, gorgeous. But, at that price, so it bloody should be! We had three rounds here, and I managed to sample halves of the Mikkeller Milk Stout (utterly superb, really well balanced), a double IPA from Southern Tier in the US (resinous, pine, orange, amazing), and a final beer of Against The Grain's 'Scottish Charred' (a lovely sweet smoked beer, which does not predominate but does go on.....and on).

And my gripe? Not the quality? Not they hype? Not the beer snobbishness? No, just the bloody price ticket. In every pub, 2 pints and a half had come to less than £10 - that's not bad for Southampton let alone London, these days. But here, three halves came to £12-15. Utterly shocking! Yes, I know it's a prime location. Yes, I know these kegged beers have come in from abroad. Yes, I know some of these 'different', maybe even 'not to be tried again'. But, please! If you peruse the bottle list, it gets worse, with some bottles coming in at over £30. As I read this out aloud, I am sure I saw Dick Turpin leave through the back door. This is not about me being a skinflint or not appreciating 'craftmanship' or 'quality', this goes to the heart of my point last month. Beer in this guise is becoming a rather effete, middle-class product. That means those who cannot afford this kind of money end up drinking cheap, bland, mass produced pop. That is not only bad for choice, it's bad for beer.

Anyway, rant over (again). We finished up and Dr B headed North for Low Speedlink through the MEdway towns, whilst we walked up to Holborn and tubes to Waterloo, destination south coast. A great day - 3 miles, 6 pubs, 8 hours. We went from the swank of craft to the sawdust of Wenlock, through the gentrified Victorian streets via the Munich Beer Halls. Here's to another in 2013.

Christmas Crawl 2012

Oh yes....it's that time of year again. Time to scour the streets of London for a few interesting and recommended pubs. This year, there is a real mixed bag, some of which come from Pollard and McGinn's 'Around London in 80 beers', some from 'Beer in the Evening', and others from sheer pragmatism and the need to cut down walking times during a day that looks as if it will not be blessed with great weather tomorrow!

Our journey starts at Old Street, yet again in a part of town I do not know, and then heads north west, then south west, ending up in Clerkenwell (kind of). In between we should experience, a proper boozer, an old theatre  a Munich styled beer hall, and a homage to the craft beer revolution. The trip will look something like this:


View Christmas Crawl 2012 in a larger map

We start at the Bavarian Beerhouse on City Road. Alledgedly, we should be experiencing a bit of Deutsch Gastlichkeit whilst there; wheat beers and plenty of pork products - you know the thing....looks a bit restauranty, but we'll give it a go. A short walk north sees us at the Wenlock Arms. This looks like a really old school corner boozer, so I hope it's friendly. It has appeared in the Good Pub Guide numerous times, so I am expecting a  good pint at least! Then we plough on to towards Angel, and stop at the Old Red Lion, a bar/pub in a theatre (we shall come across this kind of things again, later!). I think it is fair to say that these three represent a bit of a 'give it a go' choice of places for a pint this year. They may be great, they be pants, but that's kind of what these crawls have become about. If they are good, they end up on my master map of London pubs, which always comes in handy in times of thirst in the Smoke.

The final three pubs represent something a little more familiar. A decent stroll from the Angel sees us in the north part of Clerkenwell, in the Pakenham Arms. Looks a little more 'up market', but the bottled selection looks good, and I am promised (according to the blurb) of a changing roster of draught beers. Certainly the photos suggest a good selection. Looking forward to that one. Continuing our walk south west, towards Bloomsbury, we end up at The Lamb in Lamb's Conduit Street. We went there last year, to this pub with an old theatre upstairs and fantastic tiled outer aspect. Hoping Young's Winter Warmer is on, and up to snuff, but I liked its cosy green leathered interior. Then, tiredly, we will make our way towards Holborn, and finish in the Craft Beer Company in Leather Lane. A new one on me, but this comes very recommended, and I am looking to spend a few minutes perusing my beer menu before making my final choice(s) of the day.

As ever, I'll be on Twitter as I go around

AG #11 - Wailing Bike

With a number of important points learned from the last two brews (namely watch your carbonation, and late hopping is great), I sat down to plan out this years Winter beer.....it was supposed to be Christmas, but I kind of got around to this a little late.

I decided to roll with what I had, a load of pale malt, a vial of White Labs WLP500 Trappist yeast, and a pile of New Zealand Motueka hops from the dark saison I had brewed a while back (which has now been fully road tested, and no one has died). I supplemented this list with a bit of crystal, liking the colouring it gave to the Bluebird clone I had brewed, some light Belgian Candy sugar, and a smidgen of torrified wheat for a bit of head retention. The recipe is here.

As you can see, if all goes to plan, this is a it of a mighty beer. One to very much sup and savour. The tropical notes of the hops should work well in a Belgian beer, according to their blurb, so here goes.

Brew day went without much of a hitch. I also decided to forego my recent ritual of boiling my water and instead opted for using Carbonate Reduction Solution (CRS) to get my alkalinity down. Whatever is in this stuff really works, according to my test kits. A few millilitres in 20 litres of water, and the alkalinity has dropped by an order of magnitude. I look forward to easier brew days from now on.

I forgot to make a yeast starter too. Don't usually bother with White Labs stuff, but this is such a strong beer that more beasties would have helped. I thought I had killed the blighters, and, eventually, took to putting the beer in the airing cupboard after 24 hours. After about 72 hours, I spotted the first hint of krausen, which developed through the day. Once this subsided, the whole beer became alive.....and I am now a bit worried.

Belgian yeast goes mad from Paul Wright on Vimeo.

I'm a tad concerned now that this is TOO active, the temperature too high. I know that fermenting high gives really fruity esters, especially with these yeasts, but too much can really kill the beer. Certainly, when I removed the lid, the smell was AMAZING....fruity hops and bananas from the yeast. It is now back in the kitchen, and it is still fizzing away. Hope this beer doesn't turn into solvent!

My other worry is the masses of crud that I have generated, presumably from cold break material. I hope this stuff settles out somehow, otherwise this will not drink well! In the relative cool of the kitchen, it now seems to have crashed a little, and I will take a week-on gravity reading soon. I can see some of this stuff settling out....if it doesn't compact well, I may only have 5 litres of this to drink.

Mind you, at that strength, this may be a bonus. Please send all small bottles direct to me.....don't reckon a pint of this will a good idea!

Oh, and a free bottle if you can guess from the above why this beer is so named...

 

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The Session #70 – Don’t Believe The Hype

Hype?

Well, I’ll probably get hammered for this, and there is an element of me being contentious for its own sake (because I DO like much of the stuff I taste!), but can I suggest the most over-hyped beery thing is the term ‘craft’ and the stuff that sits around it!

It’s a meaningless term. It is generally defined as something you do with skill and by hand. So, can someone tell me how the ‘craft’ of brewing a pint of Banks’ Mild is less than that of making a beer with ‘bucketloads’ of hops before ageing it in the stomachs of Bactrian Camels? How can a brewery so aggressive in its defence of the term ‘craft’, defined in the US as ‘small, independent and traditional’, pump out around 2.5 million litres of product, ripping up everything we know about ‘style’? (a hateful word, anyway)? It isn’t that, to quote Brewdog, ‘real ale no longer means anything’, it is that the term ‘craft’ has been misrepresented, incorrectly used, and been foisted on drinkers as a marketing ploy, in a cynical attempt by brewers to entice the weak willed into buying their product.

And, as we (and I have been there too, comrades) get drawn into the seedy guerrilla marketing world of ‘craft’, we become involved in the beer-porn universe they want us to inhabit. For the analogy bears some testing. You start off, perhaps dissatisfied with the pint in your local, professing it to be brown and bland. You find, lurking in some recesses of the Beeriverse, an old bottle of some kind of IPA, packed with New World hops. You drink. You savour. No one need know. It’s your little secret; American beer isn’t that bad after all. However, soon, a beer spurting with Amarillo no longer thrills; you need to move on. Before you know it, you are drinking a Saison, flavoured with creosote, brewed on the auspicious day of the Great Farting, filtered through the gusset of a pair of tights worn by Betty Grable, and delivered by water cannon fired by homeless Ugandans. And we can tell our mates about it. And we can metaphorically say ‘Fuck You! I drank a PHENOMENAL beer that was only PHENOMENAL when I drank it…it is now shite, and you can’t have it!’

Why am I so exercised? Jealousy? That I cannot afford the £45 a bottle price tag? Hurt pride? That I can never brew beer like that? Not really. It’s more like the spicy hit of tedium, aged with chippings of concern.

Tedium. Tedium, because all of a sudden beer is starting to gain the caché of wine. Even CAMRA support that kind of thing. However, we now talk about beer pairings, artisan manufacture, and is someone going to say terroir soon? As a geographer, I really want to think about beer as a geographical entity; the hydrogeology of water supply, the transport of ingredients and product, the historical context, the environmental footprint, the way beer permeates parts of our social fabric and how that has changed over time. As a drinker, I just want a good, tasty pint, well kept! When I go to the pub I want to leave the academic stuff behind (that’s my day job!), and sup a beer and think ‘Mmm, I could have another of them….’ Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for people to taste and describe. I belong to the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society, and some of their tasting notes make Gilly Goolden blush. But, sometimes, over-analysis tells us nothing. You’ve just got to taste it yourself. And I don’t care what you think.

Concern. Well, because some proponents of the term ‘craft’, seem to have forgotten the roots of the drink they so love. And this has built a sort of ‘beer snob’ culture that I hate. I get accused of being a ‘beer snob’ because I turn my nose up at a pint of Worthy CreamFlow, but by ‘dissing’ lots of small, regional, truly traditional breweries who put out stuff many are now seeing as ‘bland and brown’, means that the real essence of the craft could be lost, at least to the many. Beer IS a simple product; the ingredients are few and common, and the process not that difficult – after all many households made their own in times gone by. But the present shift of the ‘craft’ movement towards chucking everything at it from coffee grinds to printer cartridges (‘ummm…yes…wait…I’m getting hints of the HP Magenta ink circa ‘95…’), means that they are actually making brewing a far more arcane activity, as if these brewers have some divine connection to Ninkasi, and marking the product up accordingly.

Beer, and brewing, is about democracy. Firstly, like any good democracy, you participate; not just in the process of selection but in the creation of product. There are aspects of the ‘craft’ industry where this is just as alien as the so called ‘regionals’ or ‘nationals’. Don’t get me wrong, there are both ‘craft’ and ‘non-craft’ areas that get this right, but neither can claim the moral high ground. Secondly, beer is democratic in that you choose to like it and choose what to like. At GBBF this year, a thoroughly decent ‘regional’ introduced us to a new range of beers laced with New World hops. They were, in my opinion, pretty rank. Or, at least, much worse than either the bitter or dark mild they had brewed for generations. Even they had been seduced by the ‘movement’! Even worse, could there be a time when I can no longer choose their ‘boring, brown and bland bitter’ over these new brews? All of a sudden, this lack of beery competition is sounding like taste autocracy!

I could go on. But you have probably nodded off into your exquisitely fluted glass of fermented yaks horn, barrel aged in the sewers of Paris, and fermented under strict conditions of 24 hour Popul Vuh records being played at barely audible volumes.

Cheers.

AG#10 - The Tasting

Well, here it is....in all its glory!

This is the late-hopped Bluebird clone, fresh out the barrel. First impressions, this is rather too carbonated...I'm going to have to move the barrel to the shed, as sitting inside, even in the coldest room, is playing hell with the fittings.

That aside, the look is great...compare that with a previous photo, and the colour is smack on. Dark golden in colour. That bit of crystal has given a nice hue, and just a hint of residual sweetness.

I late hopped this quite considerably, and I can report that it has really worked. The nose is really hoppy, when it is first poured. Afterwards, this dissipated a bit, possibly losing it in the head (?), but a gentle swirl gets the aroma back. Of course, this was hopped with Challanger, so the hop hit is all spicy green hops, rather than the New World tropical fruits.

On the palate, the beer is nice and bitter...not over the top at all, but good enough to keep coming back. So my concern that I would not get enough IBUs out of the late hopping are unfounded. It lacks a bit of body (this is almost 1% lighter in ABV than it should be, due to a lower attenuating yeast than must be used by Coniston). However, this means that this is a cleansing pint, which you can keep coming back to.

Quite chuffed with this. The technique of late hopping looks promising.

All Grain #10 - Bottling the Bluebird

Last time, I wrote that I had decided to try a Bluebird clone, but use a significant amount of very late hops.

Well, the brew went quite well. I seemed  to hit all the volumes and gravities, with perhaps the finishing gravity being a little high (1.014 rather than 1.013). Having said that, there was no way I was going to get 3.6% out of this wort and yeast. Either Coniston have a phenomenal control of fermentation, which I suppose goes hand in hand with a more professional brewery, or their yeast has one hell of an attenuation rate. Well, 3% ABV isn't that bad, is it?

So, it all get kegged today. Great colour, that lovely burnished gold that draft Bluebird has....here's a particularly fine example from it's home in Coniston - a well deserved pint after a day on the hills with 45 undergrads!:

And did that late hopping work? Indeed it did, and this is quite exciting - almost 60g of Challenger hops added with 5 minutes to go. This gave me half of my bitterness, and it is still there. It's crisp and really enjoyable, well balanced. However, most of all, the hoppiness is there in the nose, in a way I have not been able to get before. Challenger is not a big aroma hop, and it's %AA is relatively low compared to the New World hops.  The aroma is one of hops (yes, I know that sounds remarkable!) rather than citrus or any of the stuff you get with hops like Chinook and Amarillo. It's kind of a grassy, spicy smell, not unlike the 'hop store' aroma of the hops in their packed state. Rather nice, and reminds me that the 'hopheads' who keep piling New World lupilin into their beers need to touch base with home occasionally!

Clearly, for the pocket, late hopping is a bit of an issue, but the results have been good so far. With some of the bigger aroma hops, with higher %AA, I can probably cut down on use. However, as a first go, with some good British hops, the results are decent. What it also means, is that I have probably been a little conservative in the past with my late aroma hops. It is also a technique to keep in mind when I have hops that need to be used. The single varietal pale ale approach isn't a bad tactic every now and then - a session beer with interest, easy to make and using up hops before they tire.

I hope I don't get any kegging nightmares before I can start drinking in 2-3 weeks. For some unknown reason, I seem to have yielded more beer than usual - the pressure barrel is full, so I hope there are no explosions.