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Martin’s Reward (AG#124)

Sep 16th, 2018
by bryan.
No comments yet

As a reward for passing an exam we needed someone to get at work, I offered the choice of a brew, and 5 litres of the results. Martin chose a saison, so this is based on a recipe in Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing.

Brewday details:

  • Length: 21 litres
  • OG: 1.051
  • FG: 1.004
  • ABV: 6.2%

BeerXml File: Martin’s Reward

Martin's Reward

  • Style: Saison
  • Length: 21 litres
  • Yeast: French Saison Ale (Mangrove Jack's M29)
  • OG: 1.050
  • FG: 1.000
  • ABV: 6.5 %
  • Colour: 9.5 EBC
  • Bitterness: 34.5 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Pilsen (Dingemans)32.49956
Munich Malt181.09924
Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann)40.44910
Dememera Sugar40.44910
Total4.499

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Northern Brewer8.5Leaf2060
Saaz3.4Leaf3030
Perle9.6Leaf355
Saaz3.4Leaf105
East Kent Goldings (EKG)5Leaf55

Comments:

Low hardness today, only 165ppm. Hop mix included 5g of something that another colleague found growing wild, which smelled a bit Goldings-like to me. I chucked it in at the 5 min addition, where it was joined by Perle and Saaz.

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Black Pepper · Coriander · Goldings · Northern Brewer · Orange Peel · Perle · Saaz · Saison

Jasmine IPA (AG#121)

Jul 15th, 2018
by bryan.
No comments yet


A second batch of this one
, since it worked so well last time.

Brewday details:

  • Length: 22 litres
  • OG: 1.060
  • FG: 1.008
  • ABV: 6.8%

Comments:

A hot day, so drained into FV at 37C. It will need to cool in the fridge before I pitch the yeast – Mangrove Jacks this time.

Fermented out all the way to 1.008, which is lower than I expected, so this should be somewhat boozier and drier than last time.

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: IPA · Jasmine

Huell Melon (AG#119) and Citra Comet (AG#120)

Jun 24th, 2018
by bryan.
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Huell Melon is a new hop variety described as having honeydew melon and strawberry flavours, and Comet is a hop I had in a single-hopped beer I really liked last year.  Both brews are made with my normal Citra grain bill (i.e. 85% Pale Malt, 7.5% each Munich and Wheat Malts), but with the hops substituted.

I forgot to blog the Huell Melon brew, but I’m fairly sure I used some Magnum to bitter it and the Huell Melon in the last 15 minutes, whirlpool, and dry-hopped.

For both brews I’ve done a different water profile – starting with the “Dry Pale Ale” profile in the Jim’s Liquor Treatment Calculator, but then switching to the Automatic profile to push the Sulphate:Chloride ratio to be 4:1, with the hope of getting a more bitter and drier end result – often my IPAs seem to be a bit too smooth and rounded.  This was all as a result of a newsletter from BeerSmith discussing the ratio.

Huell Melon Brewday details:

  • Length: 23 litres
  • OG: 1.048
  • FG: 1.008
  • ABV: 5.2%

More wort at the end than intended, and consequently more than a corny-full when it came to kegging time.  I ended up filling a few bottles.  The keg tastes good – a bit subtle, could use more of the hops at the end of the brew and in the dry-hop, but a very sessionable beer. The water profile was a definite improvement.

Citra Comet Brewday details:

  • Length: 23 litres
  • OG: 1.050
  • FG:
  • ABV:

Hardness is 188ppm, so for 32 litres liquor, that’s 28ml CRS, 12.4g Gypsum, 3.3g Epsom Salts, 0.6g Salt to get my target 4:1 Sulphate:Chloride.

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Citra · Comet · Huell Melon · IPA · Pale Ale

Elvis Juice (AG#118)

Apr 21st, 2018
by bryan.
No comments yet

Brewday details:

  • Length: 17 litres
  • OG: 1.060
  • FG:
  • ABV:

Comments:

I needed ~900g Carapils but didn’t have any, so went for 200g Caramalt and 700g Munich.  Won’t be the same, but it won’t be bad!

Water was 188ppm today.

No idea how I ended up with 17 litres into the FV at 1.060.  Rubbish efficency and I mis-measured my sparge water??

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: BrewDog · Grapefruit · IPA

Berliner Style Sour Ale (KT#10, KT#11)

Apr 15th, 2018
by bryan.
No comments yet

I saw these Mangrove Jack’s Berliner Style Sour Ale kits on the BrewUK website, and since I’ve had mixed luck with my own attempts at souring, I thought it worth a go.

I made the kit to the instructions, so that was using the 1.8kg pouch, adding 600g DME, making it up to 23 litres, and fermenting with the supplied M20 Bavarian Wheat Beer Yeast packet.  When I bought it BrewUK were running a promotion that included a pack of the Mangrove Jack’s LME, but since that was 1.2kg and I only needed 600g, I went with the DME that I had in my stocks.

The fermentation took off very quickly, and was done within the week, so I kegged it into 2 corneys (since it was 23 litres that was a bit more than 1 corney’s worth, and I had two empty at the time, so it seemed easiest).  The smaller of the corneys I then bottled with my shiny new Blichmann Beer Gun.

I was really impressed with this kit.  The beer is a perfectly clear, pale, gold. Typical wheat beer aromas, bananas and the like, which are also present when tasted.  The sourness isn’t mouth-puckering, but it’s more than enough to let you know you’re drinking a sour beer.  It’s a really refreshing and tasty beer.

So much so, in fact, I bought another two of them.  It’s described as being a “limited edition”, so I grabbed a couple, but I really hope they keep making them.

The M20 yeast did make me expect it, but I was kind of surprised by the overtly wheat beer flavours of this kit, I guess I was expecting something more like the Berliner-Weisse-styled beers I’ve had from the likes of Siren’s Calypso, where I don’t remember any bananas at all!  The ones I made myself I also used a neutral yeast (as I was planning to dry-hop and wanted those flavours to come through).

So, for my second time around I’m not using the kit yeast.  In fact, I’ve added it straight on top of the yeast cake left from having just kegged the Gamma Ray. I’m making it to 20 litres (i.e. a corney), so after a bit of fiddling with BeerSmith worked out that I wanted 250g DME to get the same OG, which has turned out to be 1.030.

I’m also going to dry hop it when fermentation has finished, though I’m not sure with what.  I have some Galaxy, Amarillo, Citra, and Cascades (among plenty of others!), so I’ll decide next week whether to go for a single hop, or a bit of a blend.

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Berliner Weisse · Kit · Mangrove Jacks · Sour

Gamma Ray (AG#117)

Apr 15th, 2018
by bryan.
No comments yet

A beer I’ve always absolutely loved, and I was excited to see a recipe for it in the Brewdog book Craft Beer For The People. I couldn’t find any Calypso hops, so I substituted Cascade.

Brewday details:

  • Length: 24 litres
  • OG: 1.048
  • FG: 1.008
  • ABV: 5.2%

BeerXml File: Gamma Ray

Beavertown Gamma Ray

  • Style: American IPA
  • Length: 20 litres
  • Yeast: Safale American (DCL/Fermentis US-05)
  • OG: 1.051
  • FG: 1.008
  • ABV: 5.6 %
  • Colour: 7.5 EBC
  • Bitterness: 32.9 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Extra Pale Maris Otter (Crisp)33.99992
Cara (Crisp)340.2095
Caragold (Crisp)120.1193
Total4.329

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Columbus (Tomahawk)14Leaf760
Amarillo9.199999999999999Leaf815
Bravo15.5Leaf815
Columbus (Tomahawk)14Leaf815
Mosaic (HBC 369)12.25Leaf815
Citra12Pellet52Dry Hop
Amarillo9.199999999999999Pellet42Dry Hop
Calypso13Pellet16Dry Hop

Comments:

Ended up with a little more wort than intended, 24 litres at 1.048.
FG of 1.008 gives us an ABV of 5.2%.

Because of holidays, the beer had 10 days fermenting, then 3 days at 12C dry hopping, then crash cool to 4C-6C for another 10 days. It looks great – a slight haze, but impressively clear. Maybe I should have 10 days cold every time, and be less impatient! Tastes great as well, so I’m looking forward to this being drinkable.

19 litres into corney keg, plus I filled a 1 litre growler and a 0.75l flip-top, to which I added 7×0.25tsp and 5×0.25tsp sugar respectively. Not expecting anything terribly good from these, but it seemed a better bet than just pouring it away!

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: IPA · Pale Ale

5AM Saint (AG#116)

Feb 17th, 2018
by bryan.
No comments yet

I didn’t manage to post for my last few brews: there’s been a stout with coffee, cocoa nibs, and vanilla (which was gorgeous!), a pale using Citra and Amarillo, and a couple of standard pale ales. If I don’t write the body of the post while I’m actually brewing it seems I never get around to it.

So, since the boil is on at the moment it seems like an opportune time to post this one…

Recipe is another from the Brewdog book, and the recipe XML itself I got from this useful site that’s got all the recipes from DIY Dog on it (the first edition, at least).

Brewday details:

  • Length: 21 litres
  • OG: 1.046
  • FG:
  • ABV:

BeerXml File: 5am-saint

5AM SAINT

  • Style: American Amber Ale
  • Length: 20 litres
  • Yeast: Wyeast 1056 - American Ale ( )
  • OG:
  • FG:
  • ABV:
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Extra Pale22.5656
Caramalt150.8819
Munich60.6314
Crystal 1501500.388
Dark Crystal800.133
Total4.58

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Cascade6.8Pellet360
Amarillo8.9Pellet360
Nelson Sauvin12Pellet330
Amarillo8.9Pellet130
Nelson Sauvin12Pellet130
Cascade6.8Pellet50Dry Hop
Centennial9.5Pellet50Dry Hop
Simcoe12.8Pellet25Dry Hop
Ahtanum5.4Pellet25Dry Hop
Amarillo8.9Pellet25Dry Hop
Nelson Sauvin12Pellet13Dry Hop

Comments:

Soft water today, only 159ppm. Used the “Sweet Pale Ale” profile from Jim’s.

A bit light on gravity, and bang on 20 litres into the FV.  Gave it a 90 minute boil instead of 60 minute, in a hope that might give a little more clarity to the end product – the last few have been a little more hazy than I’d like.  I also plan to fine this one with gelatine.

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Amarillo · American Red Ale · BrewDog · Cascade · Mangrove Jack US West Coast · Nelson Sauvin

Sim Citra (AG#111)

Oct 3rd, 2017
by bryan.
No comments yet

Once more into the Citra, dear friends…

OG 1.054, FG 1.008, so ABV 6.0%.

Tasted as good as usual when the dry hops went in!

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Citra · IPA · Mangrove Jack US West Coast · Pale Ale

Jasmine IPA (AG#110)

Sep 16th, 2017
by bryan.
No comments yet

A friend really liked a Jasmine IPA he had when he was in Vietnam (brewed by Pasteur Street), as asked if I could do something similar.  I wasn’t sure how to use jasmine, but after a bit of reading around I settled on making something inspired by this recipe from the Homebrew Talk forum.

Grist is pretty close to my normal pale ale grain bill, tweaked to match what I had in stock, and the hops are German as the Pasteur Street description is that they used Hallertauer at the end, but I don’t have any so I went with Perle and Saaz.  Steeped with Amarillo, as that’s what the Homebrew Talk recipe went for (and I like them and have plenty in stock!)

Brewday details:

  • Length: 21 litres
  • OG: 1.054
  • FG: 1.006
  • ABV: 6.3%

BeerXml File: Jasmine IPA

Jasmine IPA

  • Style: American IPA
  • Length: 20 litres
  • Yeast:
  • OG: 1.062
  • FG: 1.016
  • ABV: 6.1 %
  • Colour: 13.5 EBC
  • Bitterness: 47.0 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Pale Ale (Crisp)64.49985
Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann)40.3998
Biscuit (Dingemans)440.2996
Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett)300.0992
Total5.299

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Magnum14Leaf1560
Amarillo11.2Pellet1015
Perle9.6Leaf1015
Tettnang4.5Leaf1015
Amarillo11.2Pellet10Aroma

Comments:

Smelled marvellous when I added the dried jasmine, so I hope the aroma and flavour last through to the glass.

Um… as I type this I realised that I forgot the 15 minute Amarillo that’s in the recipe.  Never mind… (I always seem to forget something!)

Looks like I ended up with 21 litres at 1.054, which matches a BeerSmith efficiency of 70%.  A little lower than normal, but I’m happy with mid-5%s as a final beer; makes it a little more sessionable than one north of 6%!  Not sure why my efficiency suffered today, I’m normally in the mid-70%s, nothing unusual happened.  Maybe I screwed up the measuring of something – wouldn’t be the first time.  Doesn’t help that my scales can’t be zeroed all the way down when my measuring bucket is hanging from them: my zero point is 500g.

2017-10-03: Finished fermenting and looking pretty clear; temp dropped to 12C while the other beer in the same fridge dry-hops. Tastes really good, and there’s still definite jasmine aroma and flavour. FG was 1.006, so that’s 6.3% ABV, which is a little strong, but might help it last a little longer (yeh, right!)

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: Amarillo · IPA · Jasmine · Magnum · Mangrove Jack US West Coast · Pale Ale · Perle · Saaz

Elvis Juice (slight variation) – AG#109

Sep 16th, 2017
by bryan.
No comments yet

Another batch of ELvis Juice, but this time with a slightly different grist. This is not because of any unhappiness with the recipe, but purely because of what grains I had in my stores!

Brewday details:

  • Length: 21 litres
  • OG: 1.054
  • FG:
  • ABV:

BeerXml File: Elvis Juice – variant

Elvis Juice - variant

  • Style: American IPA
  • Length: 20 litres
  • Yeast: Safale American (DCL/Fermentis US-05)
  • OG: 1.064
  • FG: 1.011
  • ABV: 7.0 %
  • Colour: 8.5 EBC
  • Bitterness: 62.4 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Extra Pale Maris Otter (Crisp)34.49983
Pilsen (Dingemans)30.59911
Caramalt (Thomas Fawcett)300.1994
Carapils (Weyermann)40.0992
Total5.399

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Magnum14Leaf360
Amarillo11.2Leaf1330
Simcoe13Leaf1330
Citra12Leaf25Aroma
Mosaic11.8Leaf25Aroma
Amarillo11.2Leaf13Aroma
Simcoe13Leaf13Aroma
Amarillo11.2Pellet50Dry Hop
Citra12Leaf50Dry Hop
Simcoe13Pellet50Dry Hop

Comments:

I did this last week, and can’t think of anything useful to add..!

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Posted in: Beer.
Tagged: BrewDog · Grapefruit · IPA

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