This is also a different way of showing the recipe details. I’m now using an XSLT file to generate HTML from a BeerXml file. It needs more work to get it looking better, but it’s a start. This was prompted by this post at the Homebrew Forum.

BeerXml file: Weiss Weiss Baby
XSLT file: BeerXml.xslt

Weiss Weiss Baby

• Style: Weizen/Weissbier
• Length: 15 litres
• Yeast: Safbrew WB-06
• OG: 1.04987
• FG: 1.01247

 Comments:

23 litres of wort collected from the mash, 19 litres at the end of the boil, about 16 litres into the FV.

Pitched 1 packet of WB-06 mid-afternoon the day after brewing (I forgot about it when waiting for it to reach 12C).  Also forgot to measure the OG, but I’ve just done that now and read 11.4Bx = 1.044.  This is a couple of hours after the yeast was pitched, but it doesn’t look like they’re doing much yet!

As ever with these batches of wheat beer, this is quite a bit under my target.  Beer Engine suggests an overall efficiency of 64%.  It’ll still be beer and taste good, though, so I don’t really care!

• Length: 25 litres
• Yeast: US-05
• OG 11.8Bx = 1.046
• FG
• ABV

Recipe:

Comments:

34 litres of wort collected from the mash.  Doughed in at 64C, still 64C at the end (by manual thermometer, since I no longer trust my digital one).

Stupidly, I’ve done exactly the same recipe as last year.  I say stupidly as I’ve since determined that my mash efficiency is around 70% rather than the 75% that was used to calculate the recipe.  Not that it really matters, it was a great beer last year so it should be good again!

The final hops addition was specified as being at flameout or hopback, but for some reason last time I dry-hopped the 60g.  I would have preferred a little more fresh grapefruit in the hops flavour last year, so I’m going to switch this to be a 80C steep for 30 mins instead.  If that’s still not enough for me then I may try a combination of the two approaches next time I brew this (and there will be a next time!)

After the boil, there was 29 litres in the copper, so that’s a 5 litres loss to evaporation in 1 hour, which is about 15%.  Measured OG at 11.8Bx = 1.046, and just under 25 litres of wort into the FV.  It’s down to 20C, and in the fridge until it gets down to 16C, when I’ll pitch the yeast.

So, we had 15% evaporation, and about 4.5 litres lost to 100g of hops – plug these numbers into my batch sparge calculator next time!

2012-02-19: Bottled 12, the rest in a barrel.  Bulk primed with 75g of cane sugar.  Not actually measured the FG, which is a bit silly, will do so from what’s in the barrel when it’s primed, so in a few days.

• Length: 29 litres
• Yeast: Windsor
• OG 10.4Bx = 1.040 (1.042 by hydrometer)
• FG 5.2Bx = 1.010 (1.012 by hydrometer)
• ABV

Recipe:

Comments:

Strike water heated to 76C, into pre-heated mash tun, when doughed in the thermometer was reading 64C, which is a little lower than I was aiming, but is good enough for me.  Don’t know why I’m so low, but it is a cold day and the crystal and top-up 70g of MO were at garage temperatures (i.e. cold!), though the 5kg of MO was at room temperature.

Since it is such a cold day I’m doing this brew inside the garage.  The heights of everything aren’t ideal, but it does mean a lot shorter distance from the boiler to the fermentation chamber.  I’m going to try to minimise the sauna effect by using my tumble drier hose tucked in to the top of the boiler, with the space around it padded out with foil.  I’ve joined two pieces of hose together to get a long enough run to get outside.  It’s a 29 litre batch, which means around 37 litres will be boiled, in my 70 litre boiler that should give plenty of space to prevent it boiling over.  It’s not doing a lot, but we don’t have a sauna in the garage, so it could be worse.

Since I’m boiling in the garage I’ve also got a CO detector and a fire extinguisher to hand.  Just in case!

I’ve also worked out what depth in the boiler corresponds to what volume of liquid.  Fortunately it’s a cylindrical pot, so the maths was simple!  I should manage to actually take some proper measurements for this brew…

So, 15 litre mash, 10 litre top-up, and 19 litre second batch.  I got 40 litres in the boiler, but then I forgot to measure the amount post-boil.  It’s gone in a shiny new 45 litre fermenter (to give me a bit more room on these longer brews), but I’ve not calibrated that bucket either.  So I have no idea how much wort I’ve ended up with…

I only have 1 pack of Windsor, so that’s all that’s gone in.  It’s probably a bit too small a quantity, but we’ll see how it fares.

2012-01-22: Bottled 12, rest in barrel.  Still cloudy, but I didn’t have time to fine and cold-crash it, so tough.  It may take longer to clear, but it will still be ok!  Tastes not completely unlike Pride, which is good.  When racked into the FV for bottling I had about 28 litres.  Before racking it measured at 32.5cm from the base in my new 45 litre FV (need to work out the volumes on these!)  I was intending to brew today, but unfortunately I need to go in to work (boo! hiss!), so I could have given it a couple of extra days to cool, but by the time I knew it was too late…

It started off as GW’s Fullers London Porter recipe, with some ingredients reduced to what I have in stock, and with others added to replace fermentables, colour, then with a bit of wheat and barley for head retention and texture.  We’ve ended up moving up from 100EBC to 157EBC, and a OG dropped from 1.053 to 1.052.

Since I’m doing more beer, I thought I’d check on Mr. Malty’s Pitching Rate Calculator and see how much yeast is recommended.  Given a 7.66 US gallon length, it suggests 1.3 packets of 11g dried yeast, so we’ll see what we have in – should I use one or two packs?  The usual principle seems to be to pitch large for ales…

• Length: 29 litres
• Yeast: 2 packs S04
• OG 11.8Bx = 1.048
• FG 6.4Bx = 1.012
• ABV 4.8%

Recipe:

Water:

A total volume of 37.6 Litres of wort is required for the boil. Collect two equal volumes of 18.8 Litres of wort from the mash tun. A total volume of 26.8 Litres of liquor is required for the first batch. Comprising of 18.5 Litres used in the mash, and 8.3 Litres to top up with.  18.8 Litres of liquor is used for the second batch

A mash tun of AT LEAST 34.5 Litres will be required.  The total qty of water required is 45.6 Litres, handy for water treatment.

Comments:

Brewed on Sunday 2011-12-18.

A little light on starting gravity, at 1.048, but there was a reasonable amount left in the copper.  I really need to get around to properly measuring everything.

29 litres of wort into the FV, and I decided on pitching the 2 packs of S04 I had in stock, rehydrated and pitched at 21C.  I’m expecting this one to escape the FV in the next day or so…

2012-01-09: It was very lively for the first couple of days, resulting in cleaning of the fermentation chamber.  On Wed 4 (day 17) I racked it into secondary.  Bottled 12 today, the remainder being a nice and full barrel.

I’ve gone for gas as I intend to move the brewing into the garage when it’s wet and horrible outside, and while we do have electrics out there (it’s a detached garage at the bottom of the garden), I don’t know if I’d trust it to run two elements at the same time.

I got the gas ring from Hamilton Gas Products, and chose a patio gas regulator so I can use the same bottles as the BBQ.

My intention was to get a boiler that will let me double my brew-lengths, making full use of my mash tun (on the right of the photo, on a stool, containing the second batch sparge – the first was in the boiler when the photo was taken).  So far I’ve only done two 25 litre brews, but that’s because I don’t have a pump and haven’t decided what it can stand on that’s tall enough that I can drain from the tap into a fermenter.  When there’s only 25 litres it’s still light enough that I can lift it onto a table to drain.  I also (of course) need a fire-proof surface to stand it on!

The other thing holding me back is fermentation…  Since there’s no way I can carry a fermenter containing 50 or so litres from the boiler into the fridge, I’ll need to ferment in two buckets.  This means either using both fridges simultaneously (which is a pain, as I intend to dedicate the colder and smaller of the two to lagering for the time being!), or getting a sturdy enough shelf in the large fridge.

The latter is my plan, but I need to get around to a) designing it, and b) making it.  I think I’ll make a wooden framed structure that will provide two shelves for the fermenters, but I ain’t no carpenter so it may take some time (and my father-in-law’s jigsaw) before I can make it.

I need to work out my stats for the new boiler: evaporation rate, and make a new measuring stick.  But after two brews I’m very happy with it.  It’s easy and quite quick to get up to a rolling boil, and means I can stick the full volume in it and largely ignore it during the boil, which is far less faff than my old 25 litre plastic boiler, as that always required topping up to get a 25 litre brew-length out of it.

It is very steamy, though: quite difficult to just glance at it and see what sort of a boil is going.  I always seem to need to blow the steam off it a bit so I can see the surface of the liquid, but it has been a bit cool the last couple of weekends when I’ve brewed.

The old one is still in use: combined with a temperature controller, it makes a reasonable hot liquor tank.  Albeit one that only just takes the full volume I’ll need for a 46 litre brew.  According to the batch sparge calculator at Jim’s Brew Kit, a 46 litre, and 8kg recipe will need 20 litres for the mash, 16 litres to top-up for the first sparge, and 27 litres for the second sparge, and require a 44 litre mash tun – and mine is 45 litres.  If I want to get any bigger then it would be brew-in-a-bag time (may have to give it a bash, for the cost of a bag)!

There are a few more photos of the Vorticist brewday on Flickr.

• Length: 25 litres
• Yeast: Saflager W-34/70 (2 packs)
• OG 12Bx = 1.046
• FG 5.6Bx = 1.008
• ABV 4.9%

Recipe:

Final addition during the cool, when it dropped to 80C.

Comments:

Slightly higher OG than target at 1.046, but only 23 litres of wort.  I really need to do some proper measurements of the new boiler and work out the evaporation loss rate and dead-space, and make myself a measuring stick for it.

2 packs of yeas20t rehydrated at 24C in 200ml boiled and cooled water.  Pitched the yeast at too warm a temp (20C) as I’d rehydrated the yeast far earlier than I should have done.  It’s all in the fridge, set for 12C, so it should be down to the right temperature by morning.

2011-11-30: 11 days into the fermentation, and it’s at 6Bx = 1.010, so (according to my reading!) it’s time for its diacetyl rest.  Since it’s a lager that’s been fermenting at 12C, this means a rise to 15C for 24-48hrs.  I’ll check again on Saturday morning (since I’m busy the next two evenings), and if I’m happy it’s finished I’ll rack it off into a fresh fermenter and stick it in the small and cold fridge at 2C for its lagering.

2011-12-04: 15 days in, after almost 4 days at 15C for the rest, and we’re at 5.6Bx = 1.008.  Racked into a secondary fermenter (new bucket!), and started the temperature drop – down 1C morning and evening until we’re down at 2C for lagering.  It’s very clear, and tastes quite good to me, though Vicky reckons she can still smell a vague egginess, but I can’t anymore.

2012-02-19: Bottled 41, bulk primed with 123g of cane sugar.  It’s all in the fermentation chamber at 12C to condition.

• Length: 25 litres
• Yeast: Nottingham
• OG 11.4Bx = 1.044
• FG 5.8Bx = 1.010
• ABV 4.5%

Recipe-wise it’s an English grain bill and hop schedule.  It’s a mix of pale and dark crystal malts rather than just standard crystal, mainly as that’s what I had in my stores!  I’ve gone for hop additions at 60 mins for the main bittering hop (Target), with equal quantities of Northdown and Progress at 30 minutes, 10 minutes, and flame-out.

This is also my first brew in my shiny new boiler – a 70 litre pot, heated by a gas burner.  I’ll post the details soon.

Recipe:

Comments:

Slightly low on OG today – no idea why.  Just over 26 litres into the FV, mind you, so maybe lost a little less to the boil than I expected.  New boiler, though: need to work out my losses properly.

There’s a sequence of picture of this brew, and the bottling, on my Flickr stream here.

The Saints Whisky Beer is produced with the same peated malt used at St. George’s Distillery in their whisky production. Following fermentation, English Whisky Co.’s Chapter 9 peated / smokey single malt whisky is added before bottling, to produce a superbly balanced beer which is rich in flavour and has smokey overtones from the peated malt. The beer has an ABV of 4.8% and is packed in St. Peter’s iconic oval 500ml bottles.

I’m not sure what I was expecting – something a bit Innis & Gunn, perhaps.  On the nose it immediately reminds me of Laphroig.  Now, that’s one of my favourite whiskies, but just smells strange on top of the beer.

The taste is also reminiscent of Laphroig, with the same peaty, medicinal notes.  There’s smoke, of course, vanilla, and a bit of sweetness from the beer, followed by a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Which all sounds interesting and appealing, but to me, I think I’ve decided it just isn’t.  I wasn’t sure if I disliked it, or if it was just too odd a combination for me, but I seem to have settled on disliking it.  For the first time in a *very* long time I can’t even finish 1/2 of it – the rest will be going down the drain.

I must admit I’ve never been a big fan of the St. Peters ale range, finding them all a little dull, but this came as a disappointment.

• Length: 26 litres
• Yeast: Nottingham
• OG 11.6Bx = 1.045
• FG 5.4Bx = 1.007
• ABV 5.1%

Recipe:

Comments:

2011-10-25: Slightly warm start, as I didn’t have the(second) temperature controller wired up fully until this evening, so it’s been running a couple of degrees warm for the first 48 hours – with any luck, not too many off flavours as a result…  It’s now all wired up properly with both fridge and tube heater keeping 21C.

2011-10-31: Down to 5.4Bx = 1.007, so another low finish.  Maybe I need to mash a little warmer?  It’s tasting good, fresh and a bit different to the South Pacific.  I dropped the dry hops (48g of galaxy) in yesterday (Sunday), and I think I’ll crash cool it in a couple more days.

2011-11-07: Bottled 12, 5 litres in mini-keg, and the balance in the barrel.  Ended up with about 23 litres of beer after the hops drank a bit and with the cloudy dregs I left in the FV.  After crash cooling for a few days (Wed 02 Nov, if memory serves)  then fining with gelatine on Saturday (2 days ago), it’s looking pretty clear at this stage, so should drop clear quite quickly.  With any luck it will be drinkable in only a week or two!  …and it smells lovely!

2011-11-12: Crafty 1/2 pint while brewing the Vorticist Ale.  The bottles have dropped clear, the 1/2 from the barrel hasn’t.  It’s had 5 days to carbonate, and it’s all now in the large fermenting fridge at 12C (along with all the bottles from the Fat Frog (a.k.a. the Thornbridge Oatmeal Stout) and the Autumn Glory.  Oh, and it tastes bloomin’ marvelous!  Up there with the Kipling, certainly.

• Length: 22 litres
• Yeast: Windsor
• OG 13Bx = 1.050
• FG 8Bx = 1.020
• ABV 4%

Recipe:

Comments:

Given the 300g of late hops, I’ve toned them down to 100g each, as that’s just a packet and will leave me with a bit more wort.  Gravity is bang on at 1.050.

Unlike the Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout I did earlier in the year, the oats haven’t been toasted.

Recipe says:

“Fermentation temp 20C.  Should ferment in 7 days.  Condition for 7 days at 12C then bottle using 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per 500ml.  Warm condition for a 4 days at 20c then cellar for a 2 weeks to clear.”

I actually ended up with 22 litres of wort into the FV.

2011-10-24: Seems to be stuck at 8Bx = 1.020.  It was there on Saturday, I gave it a gentle stir on Sunday, and it’s still there today (Monday).  I’ll drop the temp to 12C for the conditioning and get it bottled next weekend.

2011-10-31: Bottled 12, rest in barrel, with 60g sugar.  Still at 8Bx, so that’s all the Windsor managed – it is meant to have a moderate attenuation, clearly different to the Nottingham, as that always seems to get down to under 1.010!

2011-11-06: Having my first taste today.  It’s good, not as hoppy tasting as I expected, but it’s a good oatmeal stout, with quite a bitter character.  I think the Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout was better, though.