Fairwater Brewery

Black Shadow (AG#69)

Feb 1st, 2015

A black IPA (or whatever you want to call it). Darkness from Black and Chocolate malts, with a dash of Crystal, and a pour of molasses for good measure! Bittering from a nice handful of clean-bittering Magnum hops, then a steep at the end with Citra and Cascade. I’m then planning on a dry-hopping with Chinook and Galaxy pellets. The mix of hops being mainly determined by what I have in stock, rather than any cunning master plan!

Brewday details:

Length: 25 litres
OG: 1.054
FG:
ABV:

BeerXml File: Black Shadow

Black Shadow

Style: Specialty Beer
Length: 25 litres
Yeast: West Coast Style Ale Yeast (Neale's Brewing Supplies )
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.9 %
Colour: 74.4 EBC
Bitterness: 47.3 IBUs

Fermentables:

Name	Colour	Amount (kg)	%
Flagon Pale Ale Malt	6	3.999	70
Wheat, Torrified (Thomas Fawcett)	4	0.499	9
Munich Malt	18	0.399	7
Molasses	600	0.249	4
Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett)	1300	0.199	3
Chocolate Malt	950	0.199	3
Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett)	118	0.199	3
Total		5.749

Hops:

Name	Alpha	Form	Amount (g)	Time (mins)
Magnum	14	Leaf	25	First Wort
Cascade	7	Leaf	10	5
Citra	12	Leaf	10	5
Cascade	7	Leaf	10	Aroma
Citra	12	Leaf	10	Aroma
Chinook	13	Pellet	40	Dry Hop
Galaxy	15	Pellet	40	Dry Hop

Comments:

Water quite hard again today: 233ppm. Using the Porter profile from the water calculator at Jims, I added 19.2ml CRS, 5.4g Calcium Chloride, 1.1g Epsom salts, and 7.3g salt.

No idea what the EBC of the molasses actually is, given BeerSmith had it as 176EBC which seems way too light. I’ve guessed at 600EBC as a more reasonable value, but it may be a lot higher than that, given how the invert sugar calculator uses it blended with golden syrup.

OG is a spot-on 1.054, with 27l in the copper and 26l into the FV. Yeast pitched into the wort at around 24C, and it’s heading down to its target fermentation temperature of 18C.

2015-02-08: Dry-hopped with 30g each of Chinook and Galaxy pellets. There was still a lot of yeast on top of the wort, but that should drop with crash cooling before next weekend.

2015-02-10: Measured SG at a slightly higher than I would have hoped 1.014, but that will give me 5.3% ABV, so I’m not complaining. May nudge the temperature a couple of degrees for a couple of days before crash cooling.

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Black IPA · Cascade · Chinook · Citra · Galaxy · IPA · Magnum · West Coast Style

TurboCider (TC#02)

Jan 18th, 2015

by bryan.

No comments yet

The last one worked quite well, though it could have done with tasting a little more “appley”. This is basically the same recipe, but rather than Aldi juices I’m using Princes apple juice (a slab from Costco, so I have plenty left for another batch in a few weeks), and a Ocean Spray cranberry juice from Morrisons (which isn’t as “pure juice” as I’d like, being only 24% juice from concentrate, but since it only contributes 500ml I’m not going to worry too much).

4 litres Princes Apple Juice
500ml litres Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice
4 tea bags
Champagne yeast + 1 rounded tsp yeast nutrient

Rather than making 500ml of strong tea, this time I put 500ml of the apple juice into a pan and brought it almost to the boil (it was just beginning to bubble). I then steeped the 4 tea bags in the apple juice for a few minutes. With luck, this will increase the amount of apple flavour in the final cider.

I’m also using a pack of Champagne yeast that I’ve had in the freezer for absolutely ages. It might be as much as a couple of years old, so if there’s no sign of life in a couple of days then I’ll pitch a sachet of either Windsor or West Coast Ale yeast.

Again, it’s a bit tricky to measure the OG as I’m again keeping 500ml of apple juice back to add when the first and most vigorous fermentation has died down. Since I used 500ml of apple juice instead of water for making the tea, I’ve also got a slightly higher quantity of fermentables than last time, so I’m expecting it to end up somewhere between 5% and 6% ABV (420g sugar from apple juice, plus 57g from the cranberry gives 472g sugar. Taking this weight from the weight of juice gives about 4 litres, and BeerSmith suggests that 470g sugar in 4l water would be 1.045, and last time we finished at 1.006, which would give 5.1%) .

Since the apple juice has been living in the garage and it’s been chilly of late, I’m letting the mix warm up to room temperature before I pitch the yeast.

2015-02-08: Primed with 40g sugar, which gave SG of 1.005, then filled 9 bottles. Smells and tastes a little sharp, but still rather good; if memory serves it’s better at this stage than the last batch. Colour is slightly more orange than last time. Given the gravity after priming, that’s pretty well attenuated, so should be quite a dry cider. I’m looking forward to this one conditioning, ageing, and being drunk!

Posted in: Cider.
Tagged: Cider · TurboCider

London Porter #3 (AG#68)

Nov 30th, 2014

by bryan.

No comments yet

A third batch of this one, with Northdown instead of EKG, since I forgot to buy any!

Was planning on using yeast from the last brew, but when I bottled it wasn’t entirely convinced that there wasn’t a slight taint to it, so I’m not risking it. I still have yeast left from the Discovery brew, and it tastes and smells ok, so I’ll use that. It’s a bit old, but it’s been in a sanitised bottle at 12C since I harvested it. Mr. Malty suggests I’ll need 300ml of slurry, and I’ve got plenty more than that.

Brewday details:

Length: 25 litres
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.008
ABV: 6%

Comments:

Forgot the CRS for the sparge water, so my water chemistry is probably a bit off. I did remember it for the strike water, so the mash would have been at the right pH for all but the sparging process. Used 5.8g calcium chloride and 8g salt in the copper. This time I did remember the protafloc, though…

Forgot to measure the post-boil volume until I’d already drained a few litres into the FV, but it would have been a little above 25 litres (26-27, probably), and bang on the gravity at 1.054.

2014-12-20: Finally got it kegged and bottled. A fornight ago when I racked it into the bottling bucket I checked the gravity and found it had only dropped to 1.020. I gave it a couple of days and found that the racking had roused the yeast enough that it finished off its fermentation, and it was down to 1.008 by last weekend. I was a little hungover after our work xmas bash, then a horrible cold kicked in, so I left it crash cooled for a week at 4C, before kegging 19 litres today, and bottling 1 x 750ml, 5 x 500ml, and 5 x 330ml. Tastes ok (if not perfect), so I think it survived its rather strange journey…

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Fuggles · London Porter · Northdown · Porter · WLP002

London Pride (AG#67)

Oct 26th, 2014

by bryan.

2 comments

Discovery last time, Pride this time, London Porter next… Recipe from BYOBRA, again tweaked for my kit and stocks.

Brewday details:

Length: 29 litres
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.006
ABV: 4.7%

BeerXml File: London Pride

London Pride

Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
Length: 25 litres
Yeast:
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.3 %
Colour: 16.1 EBC
Bitterness: 33.6 IBUs

Fermentables:

Name	Colour	Amount (kg)	%
Flagon Pale Ale Malt	6	4.079	91
Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett)	118	0.399	9
Total		4.479

Hops:

Name	Alpha	Form	Amount (g)	Time (mins)
Target	11	Leaf	14	90
Challenger	5.9	Leaf	8	90
Northdown	8.5	Leaf	8	90
Goldings, East Kent	5	Leaf	10	10
Goldings, East Kent	5	Leaf	5	Dry Hop

Comments:

Water really hard today: 239ppm.

Ended up with more than intended, 29 litres, but bang on at 1.042, which is a good result all round!

2014-11-05: Down to an impressively low 1.006, so crash cooling. Bottle at the weekend, hopefully.

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Best Bitter · Bitter · Challenger · Northdown · Target · WLP002

Fuller’s Discovery (AG#66)

Sep 28th, 2014

by bryan.

No comments yet

We liked the last batch so much, we’ve decided to do it again! Same recipe as last time, and the alkalinity was measured at the same level, so it’s even the same water treatment. This time I have a vial of WLP002, so it’s the Fuller’s strain of yeast. It will be interesting to see what difference this makes to flavour.

Malt is a mix of Crisp’s Flagon (a little over a kilo of which was left from the last brew), with maybe 500g of Clear Choice (also left over).

My current plan is to use the same yeast for the next couple of brews, and keep it in the Fuller’s area: something Pride-like next, then a London Porter.

Brewday details:

Length: 25 litres
OG:
FG:
ABV:

Comments:

Well, maybe I should have checked my hop stocks, because I had no Saaz left after the last time I brewed this! So, we’ve got bittering from Tettnang, the 10 minute addition from Liberty, and I’ve used Hallertau Herbrucker for the aroma steep.

At the end of the boil I had 29 litres at 1.037, so into my biggest FV, and then the fridge at 18C. Starter was pitched as it drained into the FV, as ambient air temp today was around 22C and the wort was down to 27C.

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Fullers · Golden Ale · Saaz · Tettnang · WLP002

TurboCider (TC#01)

Sep 13th, 2014

by bryan.

No comments yet

Thought I’d give one of these TurboCider things a go. Recipe taken from this post at Jim’s.

3.5 litres Aldi Apple Juice
0.5 litres Aldi Cranberry Juice
500ml strong tea (4 tea bags)
Gervin ale yeast + nutrient

I forgot to measure the OG, but I think we’d be looking at about 1.045. It the fermenting fridge at 18C.

It’s now a fortnight after starting (the last 0.5 litre of apple juice was added a week in), and it’s down to 1.006 (so ~5%). A bit cloudy, and a sharp green apple taste, but it would be drinkable immediately. I plan to bottle this up tomorrow with a bit of priming sugar.

2014-10-20: Bottled up at the end of September (wish I’d noted exactly when!), with the recommended 10g per litre priming sugar. By now it’s a little hazy, nicely fizzy, and the flavour is surprisingly good. Could be a little more apple-tasting, but this is definitely worth doing again.

Posted in: Cider.
Tagged: Cider · TurboCider

From shelf chiller to keggorator

Sep 7th, 2014

by bryan.

No comments yet

I started using Cornelius Kegs (or cornies, as they’re commonly known) almost two years ago. I’ve been really happy with them, as they’re far easier and more reliable to use than pressure barrels; you just syphon your beer into them, pressurise them with CO2 to carbonate them, and serve. No messing around with those CO2 bulbs, and the beer lasts far longer and has virtually no risk of going off.

At first I was just using a picnic tap with the kegs, but about 18 months ago I decided that I’d get myself some bar taps and a shelf chiller. I found them on eBay, being sold by a pub that was closing down. I got myself a Maxi 310 chiller that could cool four different beers, which came with a (rather tatty!) bar font of four taps.

This has been great, allowing me to have four beers running all the time, and the chiller has meant that even in summer I can have a cool glass of beer. The disadvantage of this set-up is that the kegs are kept at room temperature, which obviously varies through the year. And, as we all know (well, I didn’t before I got my kegs!), the solubility of CO2 is dependent upon temperature. The consequence of this is that as the temperature changes, I need to adjust the CO2 pressure I’m using to serve my beers. If I’m not keeping on top of it, sometimes I end up with beer that’s too flat, and sometimes I end up with a glass of foam.

There’s got to be a better way, hasn’t there? And, indeed, there is: the keggorator. This horrible word is an American invention, and refers to a refrigerator containing one or more kegs (a freezer containing kegs is, with depressing inevitability, a “keezer”. Ugh.)

We have just remodelled our kitchen, and bought a shiny new American-style fridge freezer. Our previous fridge was therefore going spare. I could have put it on eBay or Freecycle, but I decided that a better use was to make a keggorator out of it. I ordered four taps, 4″ shanks, and connectors from KegWorks in the USA. Within a week they had arrived, and last weekend I attacked the old fridge with a 25mm hole-saw I picked up in Clas Ohlson.

We decided where and how we wanted the taps to be positioned, and I marked the positions on the outside of the fridge door. I then drilled the first hole, then poked a tap and shank through to check it looked ok.

After drilling the next three holes, I took a piece of wood (kickboard from the old kitchen, actually!), had Vicky hold it against the inside of the fridge door, centered over the holes, and I drew a circle for each hole on the wood. With the same hole-saw, I drilled four matching holes in the wood. The purpose of the wood is to distribute the pressure from the back-nuts on the shanks – if all four were just screwed against the plastic of the fridge door I would get too much flex. I then fitted the four taps to the door, and tightened everything up.

Rather than risking lots of mess, I attached one keg at a time to the shanks, and ensured that nothing was leaking. For each tap, I had worked out that around 4 feet of 3/16″ beer line should be about right if I was keeping the kegs at 12C and with 12PSI to give myself 2 volumes of CO2. If this all sounds complex, it needn’t be: there are tables available on-line to work this stuff out. For example, I copied a forced carbonation for pressure vs temperature to Google Docs so I could change it from Fahrenheit to Celcius.

For the gas line, I used another length of 3/16″ to go though the door seal, then splitters to distribute the gas to all four kegs. They’re all on the same regulator, so all the at the same pressure. At some point I’ll rig it up against my gas board so I can have different pressures, but that can wait for a while!

I have the fridge plugged in to a temperature controller unit (the STC-1000, like this one on eBay), set to maintain the fridge at 12C. Since it’s in the house, I don’t have anything plugged into the heating side of the STC.

I’m extremely happy with how it’s all worked out. Beer pours perfectly, with just the right amount of carbonation, and it even looks tidier than the old set up! I just need to find some drip-trays to stop the floor from getting sticky drips all over it, and that’ll be it. I can even fit more bottles on the shelves of the keggorator door than I could fit in my previous beer fridge, so I’m winning in all respects!

Posted in: Equipment.

Belgian Pale (AG#65)

Sep 7th, 2014

by bryan.

No comments yet

Based on the first Belgian recipe in Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing, for my first attempt at a Belgian ale, but with hops from my stocks rather than his suggestions. Yeast is WLP550, and with a late starter of 4 litres.

Brewday details:

Length: 29 litres
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5%

BeerXml File: Belgian Pale

Belgian Pale Ale

Style: Belgian Pale Ale
Length: 25 litres
Yeast: Belgian Ale (White Labs WLP550)
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.004
ABV: 6.5 %
Colour: 15.5 EBC
Bitterness: 30.5 IBUs

Fermentables:

Name	Colour	Amount (kg)	%
Pale Ale (Dingemans)	7	2.099	39
Munich (Dingemans)	11	1.599	30
Dememera Sugar	4	0.799	15
Aromatic Malt (Dingemans)	37	0.549	10
Caravienne Malt	43	0.269	5
Total		5.319

Hops:

Name	Alpha	Form	Amount (g)	Time (mins)
Tettnang	4.5	Leaf	28	90
Perle	9.6	Leaf	12	90
Saaz	3	Leaf	20	15
Tettnang	4.5	Leaf	5	15

Comments:

Water hardness measured at 228ppm, and using the sweet pale ale profile on the water treatment calculator at Jim’s, we get 33ml CRS, 3.1g gypsum, 1.6g calcium chloride, 4g epsom salts, 1g salt.

Since I had less coriander than I thought, I ended up using all I had, which was 11g. The peels of two oranges also went in for the last few minutes.

I knew when I tipped in the second sparge water that I must have mis-measured, but never mind… After the boil I was at 29 litres of 1.046, which is about 75% efficiency, and I can live with a slightly lighter beer.

2014-09-13: Down to 1.010, now crash cooling to 4C. Hope to get it bottled tomorrow, but may leave for next week to allow it to clear – there’s a big crust of yeast on top!

2014-09-20: Kegged, and the remaining 11 litres in bottles, primed with 25g sugar. Quite clear, and rather tasty. Definitely Belgiummy taste, and hints of spice, though you can’t explicitly taste the orange or coriander (I should probably have given the latter a bash with the mortar and pestle!)

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Belgian · Pale Ale · Perle · Saaz · Tettnang · WLP550

Revelation (AG#64)

Aug 17th, 2014

by bryan.

No comments yet

Kind of based on the aim of hoping to make something a bit like Dark Star’s Revelation, inspired by this post at Jim’s Beer Kit. I ended up including some caramalt instead of having a purely pale malt grain bill to provide a bit more background to the hops, of which there a lot!

Brewday details:

Length: 25 litres
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.012
ABV: 5.8%

BeerXml File: Dark Star Revelation

Dark Star Revelation

Style: American IPA
Length: 25 litres
Yeast: West Coast Style Ale Yeast (Neale's Brewing Supplies )
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.012
ABV: 6.1 %
Colour: 11.8 EBC
Bitterness: 77.1 IBUs

Fermentables:

Name	Colour	Amount (kg)	%
Clear Choice Malt (Crisp)	6	5.499	92
Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett)	30	0.499	8
Total		5.999

Hops:

Name	Alpha	Form	Amount (g)	Time (mins)
Magnum	14	Leaf	16	First Wort
Magnum	14	Leaf	16	90
Liberty	4.3	Leaf	20	10
Cascade	7	Leaf	10	10
Centennial	10	Leaf	10	10
Citra	12	Leaf	5	10
Liberty	4.3	Leaf	20	5
Cascade	7	Leaf	10	5
Centennial	10	Leaf	10	5
Citra	12	Leaf	5	5
Liberty	4.3	Leaf	20	Aroma
Cascade	7	Leaf	10	Aroma
Centennial	10	Leaf	10	Aroma
Citra	12	Leaf	5	Aroma

Comments:

Water hardness measured at 216ppm. Treatment in 40 litres of liquor to “Dry Pale Ale” profile of 40.6ml CRS, Gypsum 11.6g, Calc chloride 2.9g, Epsom salts 4.0g, Salt 1g.

The comments from Dark Star differ slightly from the recipes shown in that discussion at Jims, in that Dark Star have stated there’s two bittering additions of 50IBU as first wort and start of boil, which is what I’ve gone for, with Magnum as it’s described as “a clean bittering hop”. The aroma additions are a mix of Liberty, Cascade, Centennial and Citra, and have equal additions at 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and as a steep. I’ll add more for dry-hopping when it’s fermented.

A lot of losses to the hops – down from 27.5 litres in the boiler to 23 litres in the FV. Ended up at 1.056, which is a smidge low but I’m happy with that. Smells great, though!

2014-08-24: Not done much yet, only down to 1.040 or so. The sample in the trial jar tasted ok, though. I’ve given it a gentle stir, so we’ll see where we are in a couple of days and if nothing has happened then I’ll add a fresh pack of yeast.

2014-08-30: Finally down to about 1.012, so the same Liberty – Cascade – Citra mix, with 10g of Amarillo in place of the final Centennial (since I didn’t see the point in opening a fresh pack for 10g) added as dry-hop after racking to secondary. Still very cloudy, but I’ll give it to the middle of the week, add some gelatine finings, and we’ll see how we go.

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Cascade · Centennial · Citra · IPA · Liberty · Magnum · Pale Ale · West Coast Style

Fuller’s Discovery (AG#63)

Jul 12th, 2014

by bryan.

1 comment

We wanted a golden ale, and this one (based on a recipe in GW’s book) I’ve enjoyed in the pub. The recipe has had slight hop substitution (Liberty to Tettnang), and the grain bill was adjusted for my normal efficiency. I was going to get some WLP002 to get as close as possible to the Fullers brew, but I didn’t have enough time or space (thanks to kitchen renovations!) to make a starter. I had all the ingredients in stock, too, so I didn’t need to buy anything other than yeast, so I’ve gone for a pack of Nottingham I had in the freezer.

Brewday details:

Length: 25 litres
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.010
ABV: 3.9%

BeerXml File: Discovery

Fuller's Discovery

Style: Standard/Ordinary Bitter
Length: 25 litres
Yeast: Nottingham (Danstar -)
OG: 1.037
FG: 1.009
ABV: 3.7 %
Colour: 11.7 EBC
Bitterness: 27.7 IBUs

Fermentables:

Name	Colour	Amount (kg)	%
Pale Ale (Crisp)	6	3.163	80
Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann)	4	0.584	15
Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett)	118	0.201	5
Total		3.950

Hops:

Name	Alpha	Form	Amount (g)	Time (mins)
Tettnang	4.5	Leaf	45	90
Saaz	3.4	Leaf	15	10
Saaz	3.4	Leaf	9	Aroma

Comments:

Hard water again today: 228ppm. Treatment was 42ml CRS in 38 litres of liquor, and Gypsum 11.7g, Calc chloride 2.5g, Epsom 3.8g, and Salt 1g.

24 litres into the fermentor at 1.040, which is a little higher than target.

2014-07-22: Down to 1.010, and now crash cooling to 4C. Cloudy, but that should change with a bit of cooling. Tastes good, if maybe a bit muted – clearing, cooling and carbonation should sort that out!

2014-08-16: Kegged it last weekend, so it’s now drinkable. First pint has a bit of haze but is pretty clear. Definite wheat in the flavour, and fruit both from the yeast and the dry hopping (a few cones of Goldings were recommened, but I went for Amarillo and something else that I can’t remember, though it probably began with a “C”!). Eminently drinkable – and my wife likes it too, so I’m guessing it won’t be in the keg for long!

Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Golden Ale · Nottingham · Saaz · Tettnang

Fairwater Brewery

Black Shadow (AG#69)

Black Shadow

TurboCider (TC#02)

London Porter #3 (AG#68)

London Pride (AG#67)

London Pride

Fuller’s Discovery (AG#66)

TurboCider (TC#01)

From shelf chiller to keggorator

Belgian Pale (AG#65)

Belgian Pale Ale

Revelation (AG#64)

Dark Star Revelation

Fuller’s Discovery (AG#63)

Fuller's Discovery

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Black Shadow

London Pride

Belgian Pale Ale

Dark Star Revelation

Fuller's Discovery

cookies

search

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categories

articles

blogs

faqs

forums

homebrewers

organisations

recipes

shopping

software

recent posts

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