Session #58: A Dickens of a Christmas

So, I thought I would add my twopenny worth, although in these times of inflationary pressure, it is now probably worth 1.5p

Well, Christmases past? Coming from a family where alcohol was only added to the cake, Christmas pud and trifle, early Festive Ones were relatively dry. However, since the rite of passage which was sneaking half a bitter in the Tavern in the Town, things have been somewhat different.

Christmases past were Banks'. Mild, to be specific. A group of us would come home from various points around the Black Country and find ourselves in the Clarendon Hotel on Christmas Eve night. I still hanker after Banks' Mild, regardless of its name change (and its name change back to 'Mild'!). It is always my first drink at GBBF, when it turns up. If Marstons let it out. Well, needless to say, this session went on way past the last bus home, so a  brisk(ish) walk home down the Birmingham new Road ensued. There were many chilly walks....but it brightened one up for Christmas morning. The other great thing was that since you had plenty of Mild on Christmas Eve, the juxtaposition of a lunch the following day which included sprouts hid some of your worst excesses!

Since those days, people have graduated and moved far and wide, and from its website the Clarendon looks a tad posher than I remember! Things have been quieter, but no less interesting beerwise. Since I live down the hill from The Beacon Hotel, it has been my pleasure to also indulge in Christmas pints of Dark Ruby Mild. I probably do not have to write much about this for UK beernuts, but the Beacon has a special place in my heart. A really great pub, rescued and renovated tastefully to its Victorian roots, it was at the vanguard of the rise of real ale drinking for me. The brewery behind the pub echoes days when pubs made their own. The recipe for Ruby was reputedly found by a relative of Sarah Hughes, the old landlady. The pub has never looked back. The beer is, quite simply, one of my favourites. Dark, rich, sweetish, full bodied, drinkable, and a tad too strong for a session (not that that stops you). The place, and the beer, are regular stops on beer tours, and rightly so. The fact that it is 20 mins walk up the hill from home was just a bonus. My abiding memory is walking up the Beacon with our kid one Christmas morning. It was sunny, crisp, with snow on the ground. We decided to pop in for a pre-prandial pint. A new barrel was on, the fire was roaring in the lounge, everyone was in the most convivial of moods. If mom hadn't had the lunch on it could have got very messy. Perfect.

Christmases present are quieter still. They involve lots of travel, and not much beer. To compensate, my annual large buy from Bitter Virtue is a must. Chris and Ann, who run the shop, are always knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and, this time of year in particular, their range is dangerous. A good browse amongst their bottles is one of my annual pleasures....which reminds me, I must pop up soon.

Onto Beermas Future, well that's always difficult to predict. Having recently visited Amsterdam again, and recalling my first ever visit just before Christmas in 1992 or 3, the standard of winter beers in Belgium and Holland is just exceptional. However, perhaps hunkering down in the bar of the Clachaig Inn if they stay open at Christmas would be a fine idea. Especially if it snowed.....now that WOULD be Christmassy!!

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.