Fairwater Brewery Logo
Fairwater Brewery

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." - Tom Waits

Skip to Content ↓
  • About
  • Brews
    • Beer Designing
    • CBS
    • Equipment
    • Recipes
  • Privacy
    • Cookies
Fairwater Brewery Rotating Header Image

WGV

Winter Meltdown (AG#52)

Nov 3rd, 2013
by bryan.
No comments yet

guest_ale_wintermeltdown_lgA beer that we enjoyed last year when we saw it at the Nag’s Head, so I googled for a recipe.

Brewday details:

  • Length: 25 litres
  • OG: 1.054
  • FG: 1.014
  • ABV: 5.3%

BeerXml File: Winter Meltdown

Dark Star Winter Meltdown

  • Style: Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
  • Length: 25 litres
  • Yeast: Dry English Ale (White Labs WLP007)
  • OG: 1.054
  • FG: 1.012
  • ABV: 5.6 %
  • Colour: 30.0 EBC
  • Bitterness: 43.6 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Pale Ale (Crisp)65.36793
Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett)1180.2885
Chocolate Malt9500.1152
Total5.771

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Kent Golding4.5Pellet4960
Kent Golding4.5Pellet3330
Bramling Cross6Pellet2215
Kent Golding4.5Pellet115

Comments:

Second beer of the weekend.  So far I’ve managed to drop a rubber washer into the copper when it was coming up to the boil, so I had to drain it to get the washer back…

I had slightly too little East Kent Goldings, so I’ve substituted some Whitbread Goldings Variety in to the 60 minute addition.

The recipe I found calls for ~50g of fresh root ginger to be added to the secondary for 7 days.  The Dark Star website describes this one as “cask conditioned with stem ginger and other warming spices to add that distinctive aromatic warmth.”, so I’m tempted to add some more winter spices – cinnamon, cloves, maybe?

The recommendation was for WLP007, but since I wanted WLP002 for yesterday’s brew, and since the Malt Miller was out of stock of WLP007, I’ve gone for WLP002 for this one as well.  Will probably give me a slightly drier end product, of course.

2013-11-09: Down to 1.014, so that’s 5.3% ABV, and racked into secondary with 50g stem ginger in syrup, a few bits of cinnamon bark, and a grating of maybe 1/8 nutmeg.  Added water to 100ml, then boiled quicky in the microwave, before adding to the secondary.  I expect a little more fermentation from the stem ginger syrup.  Would be nice to get this one kegged and bottled next weeken, but may not have time if I’m doing the dEVOLVIng…

2013-11-16: Decided to get this one bottled first.  19 litres in a keg, and 12 bottles over.  I’d let it condition for the last week at 12C, so BeerSmith told me I needed 10g of sugar to prime the 6 litres to 2 volumes of CO2.  Tasting very nice – plenty of ginger and cinnamon, but not over-powering.  Don’t think I’m likely to want to drink more than one in an evening, though!

  • Tweet
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Stumble
  • Digg
  • Delicious

Old Tom (AG#50)

Sep 7th, 2013
by bryan.
No comments yet

Old TomMy 50th All-Grain brew!  So something special is in order… A strong old classic from BYOBRA, though I didn’t have quite enough crystal so made the last bit up with pale crystal.  Not that I could tell the difference in colour by looking at the grains…  I intend to let this age for a good while in a pressure barrel before I bottle it.

Brewday details:

  • Length: 23 litres
  • OG: 1.076
  • FG:
  • ABV:

BeerXml File: Old Tom

Old Tom

  • Style: English Barleywine
  • Length: 23 litres
  • Yeast: Dry English Ale (White Labs WLP007)
  • OG: 1.084
  • FG: 1.014
  • ABV: 9.2 %
  • Colour: 43.3 EBC
  • Bitterness: 50.2 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Pale Ale (Crisp)66.57984
Caster Sugar00.5497
Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett)1180.4396
Chocolate Malt9500.1842
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L790.1091
Total7.864

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV)7.64Leaf4390
Goldings, East Kent5Leaf2890
Goldings, East Kent5Leaf2310

Comments:

Hard water today – alkalinity measured at 222mg/l.  Using the Porter profile on the water treatment calculator gives me additions of 28.5ml CRS, 5.7g calcium chloride, 0.65g epsom salts, 7.8g salt.

I’m using the WLP007 slurry that’s been sitting in my fridge since I brewed the White Shield.  Mr. Malty reckons I need about 326ml of slurry for this, or 180ml of thick slurry.  Looking at the bottle in the fridge, I’ve easily got this much, but a bit of over-pitching won’t hurt.

Ended up with 23 litres at 1.076 in the FV, which is more wort at a lower strength than aimed for (again!) and while I forgot to measure the post-boil volume, I can assume 2-3 litres loss to the hops and deadspace, so calculating back that’s 74-77% efficiency, which is fine.  I do keep getting lower OG and more volume, so I need to edge the rate of evaporation down another notch in BeerSmith2.

2013-09-13: Down to 1.018, which is 7.7%.  It should have a little further to go…

2013-09-26: And now we’re at 1.016, which gives 7.9%.  This is probably it, so I should get it racked into a conditioning tank (which I was thinking of using one of my now obsolete pressure barrels for) to give it a nice long age before bottling.

2013-10-26: Well, it’s now vinegar.  That’s a real pity…  And for some reason, it’s back up to 1.019…

  • Tweet
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Stumble
  • Digg
  • Delicious

Archers Village (AG#48)

Aug 4th, 2013
by bryan.
No comments yet

Archers VillageAnother recipe from BYOBRA, slightly tweaked for my hops stocks and strengths.  WLP007 this time, with a 1.1l starter.

Brewday details:

  • Length: 29 litres
  • OG: 1.036
  • FG: 1.009
  • ABV: 3.5%

BeerXml File: Archers Village

Archers Village

  • Style: Standard/Ordinary Bitter
  • Length: 25 litres
  • Yeast: Dry English Ale (White Labs WLP007)
  • OG: 1.037
  • FG: 1.008
  • ABV: 3.7 %
  • Colour: 11.7 EBC
  • Bitterness: 29.9 IBUs
Fermentables:
NameColourAmount (kg)%
Flagon Pale Ale Malt63.69995
Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett)1180.1945
Total3.894

Hops:
NameAlphaFormAmount (g)Time (mins)
Progress6.25Leaf2190
Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV)7.64Leaf1590
Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV)7.64Leaf14Aroma

Comments:

Starter (from Mr. Malty), given yeast date of 8th July, into 1.037 wort, is 1.1l.

Alkalinity: 4 meq/l = 200 mg/l CaCO3.  Water treatment: 11.6g gypsum, 1.87g calcium chloride, 3.65g epsom salts, 0.97g salt.  Since it would appear that I’m incapable of brewing without forgetting at least one thing, I only put CRS in the mash liquor, not the sparge liquor.  I’m sure it won’t make that much difference – at least I had it in the mash so the pH would be about right…

Ended up with 29 litres after the boil at 1.036.  Not sure how much into the FV, as it’s one of my unlined FVs.  Water butt is empty, so I cooled with tap water.  Still a warm time of year, so I only got it down to 32C before draining into the FV.  When the fridge has cooled it down a bit more I’ll pitch the starter.  Only a little over a litre, so it won’t make much difference to the beer to just drop it all in.

2013-08-10: After 1 week this is down to 1.010, so I’m crash cooling it (though it looks pretty damn clear already in the trial jar), and tomorrow during the brew I’ll rack it into a secondary so I can harvest the slurry for the White Shield.

2013-08-11: Racked 25 litres of very clear looking beer into secondary so I could harvest the slurry for this week’s brew.

  • Tweet
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Stumble
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Subscribe to our Feed via RSS
  • Subscribe via eMail
  • My Google+ profile
  • cookies

    This site may send cookies to your browser. In addition, adverts from Amazon and Google may also do so, and I use Google Analytics. If you dislike cookies, stop reading now. If you don't give a stuff (and, let's face it, that's almost everyone), then welcome!
  • search

  • Loading

  • tags

    Ahtanum Amarillo Bitter Bobek BrewDog Cascade Centennial Challenger Chinook Citra Coopers East Kent Goldings Fuggles Fullers Galaxy Golden Ale IPA Lager Magnum Mangrove Jack US West Coast Nelson Sauvin Northdown Nottingham Oatmeal Stout Pale Ale Perle Pilsener Pilsner Porter Ruby Ale S-04 Saaz Simcoe Stout Target Tettnang Thornbridge US-05 WB-06 Weißbier West Coast Style Wheat Beer Windsor WLP002 WLP007
  • I'd like to point out that I don't give a flying firkin about Search Engine Optimisation, about whether I'm using my H tags correctly, or about the plugin for Wordpress that so many people keep trying to persuade me to use in comment spam. If I notice that the same IP address keeps submitting such spam, it will be blocked.
  • Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • categories

    • Beer (147)
    • Books (2)
    • Cider (4)
    • Comment (3)
    • Equipment (14)
    • General (10)
    • Ginger Beer (2)
    • Pubs & Festivals (9)
    • Technique (7)
    • Water (1)
    • Wine (2)
    • Yeast (1)
  • articles

    • Pitching On Yeast Cakes
  • blogs

    • Beer. Birra. Bier.
    • Pete Brown's Beer Blog
    • Real Brewing at the Sharp End
  • faqs

    • DaaB's pages
    • Danstar Yeast FAQ
    • How To Brew (John Palmer)
    • Mr. Malty Yeast Starter FAQ
    • Wikipedia: Brewing
  • forums

    • Jim's Beer Kit (forum)
    • The Homebrew Forum
  • homebrewers

    • broadfordbrewer
    • Growling Dog Beer
    • Homebrew Answers
    • Probably Due To Network Congestion
    • Wuppit's Micro Brewery
  • organisations

    • CAMRA
  • recipes

    • Hop & Grain
    • Hopville
  • shopping

    • Brew UK
    • Hop & Grape
    • The Home Brew Shop
    • The Malt Miller
  • software

    • ABV calculator
    • Beer Engine
    • BeerSmith
    • Brewzor
    • Mr. Malty Pitching Rate Calculator
    • On-line calculators
  • recent posts

    • Martin’s Reward (AG#124)
    • Jasmine IPA (AG#121)
    • Huell Melon (AG#119) and Citra Comet (AG#120)
    • Elvis Juice (AG#118)
    • Berliner Style Sour Ale (KT#10, KT#11)
  • Brew Your Own British Real Ale
  • admin

    • Log in
    • Entries RSS
    • Comments RSS
    • WordPress.org
  • calendar

    February 2019
    M T W T F S S
    « Sep    
     123
    45678910
    11121314151617
    18192021222324
    25262728  

© 2019 Fairwater Brewery | Powered by WordPress

A WordPress theme by Ravi Varma