I finally got round to assembling some of the bits for my mash tun and here are some piccys of the result:
I’ve used a 22mm braided hose attached via some jubilee clips & 15mm pipe to T compression fitting. The pipe from this then goes through a drilled out tank connector. On to the end of it will then go a tap.
Ranakpur India Pale Ale
Grain Bill:
Light DME – 1500g
Pale Malt – 1000g
Crystal Malt – 163g
Wheat Malt – 163g
Amber Malt – 41g
Hops:
Challenger 6.4% AA @ 60 mins 38g
Challenger 6.4% AA @ 15 mins 31g
EK Goldings 4.6% AA @ 5 mins 20g
EK Goldings 4.6% AA @ 0 mins 20g
Total IBU = 59
1 x pack Safale 05 yeast
Total £19.50, 75p/bottle.
I’ve not updated the blog for a while as I was away over Christmas and New Year but I did manage to get a brew on. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures! I’ll update this post with a picture of the first cracked open bottle. I have high hopes this’ll be my best brew yet. The name for the brew is taken from a Jain temple I visited in Rajasthan when I did a bit of traveling in my youth. Hopefully it’ll be a classic English IPA with robust hop & alcohol content with a bit of malt complexity. For my next brew I plan to replicate the grain bill entirely & substitute Amarillo for all the hop additions to make an American IPA. This was my first time using US05 & was impressed by the attenuation (1057 to 1012 in 10days) and the weird gloopy head it formed. It also cleared with no problems.
The current mini-mash method is going ok. A lot smoother than the previous one anyway and I am definitely extracting sugars. However I have ordered some bits of copper pipe & plan to make a small 15 litre mash tun inspired by the excellent pdtnc brew-blog.
And I used a wort chiller! This was a present for myself and was well worth the £27.50 investment.
After a few months in the demi-johns the apple cider has cleared dramatically. No longer a primordial soup the cider is clear as a bell & a nice straw colour. And the taste? Well, it’s cider; very sharp & dry cider! I primed the bottles with a bit of sugar hoping for some carbonation. I’ll sample these in the spring hopefully. At the same time I made the cider I was given a big bag of pears so I made some perry as well. That is a good deal more cloudy than the cider but still tastes good.
Cider on the left. Perry on the right.
Well, it’s December & I’ve just put my tree up so that more than justifies me sampling the Brewferm Christmas Ale. It’s been 12 weeks since I bottled it so it should be well & truely conditioned.
This was the kit which strangely required no priming sugar for the secondary fermentation. Just bottle it up & leave it. So have I got 14 bottles of flat brown booze? Well, here’s a picture:
Look at the head on that!
I have fizz! And I’d even say it was over carbonated. The head was massive & rock solid. Like a meringue! And the taste was intriguing. Nice and malty but with a real bitter yeasty aftertaste. Not to keen on that to be honest. After a bit of airing it did dissipate though – perhaps it’s due to some noxious yeast gases? Anyway, I’ll keep sampling this every couple of months. Maybe it’ll be at it’s peak next Christmas!
The time has come to explore the wacky world of mini-mashing! And a surprisingly easy & rewarding experience it was too. So, how did it all begin…
The plan was to make a nice session bitter for My Dad’s Christmas present using the Challenger & Whitbread Golding hops he grew for me. Of his hop plants the Challenger was the most productive so I dreamed up this recipe using an estimated %AA typical for the variety. I estimated on the low side thinking the reduced daylight hours in Teeside wouldn’t be perfect for hop oil production. The grain bill included crystal & amber malt for sweet, biscuity flavours & torrefied wheat for head retention. I opted for Windsor yeast as it’s supposed to leave lost of fruity esters & a relatively high gravity for a bit of body.
Nederdale Gold ESB
Hops / Boil / Weight / IBU
1 x Windsor yeast
So with the day off work I commenced the usual equipment sterilisation & then thought about how I was going to do this. There are various mini-mash how to’s available on the internet. My method has been culled from those & tailored for what pots & pans I have in the kitchen. So I’m going to use a 6 litre cast iron casserole, large muslin cloth & oven to conduct the mash.
Mini-Mash Method
Sounds easy! Unfortunately there were a few hiccups along the way. Upon adding the strike water the mash temp was bang on 67 °C. Huzzah, thought I, and swiftly put the pan in the oven. After 15 mins I checked the temperature & it was at 70°C! Fearing an overly dextrinous wort , poor attenuation or even enzyme denaturation I added some cold water to bring it down. I added a bit, stirred & it plummeted to 61°C. It seems I’d not stirred the porridge enough & was measuring the temperature of a hot spot. The pan was basically at its limit so I put it back on the stove & heated it gently to bring it back up to temperature. After that the mash temperature was stable & all progressed as planned. The mash pH was 5.3 which is pretty much ideal I think. Upon adding DME to the boiler & topping up with water I took a sample, chilled it & checked the gravity. 1.044! I had mashed, with about 21 gravity points coming from the grain.
Now for the hops. However, upon taking them out the freezer however I noticed that several bags of Challengers didn’t look to good. They were dark brown, some had mould on them & they smelled musty. It seems my Dad didn’t do a particularly good job of drying them out before storage, so several bags had to go in the bin. The EGV’s were fine though but still leaving me with not enough hops to do the job. The only other hops left in the freezer were Glacier, the quality of which I was a bit unsure of. However, they smelt fine upon opening them so they were used for the 10 and 20 minute additions. Who knows what this Frankenstein’s monster of a beer will taste like!
A couple of pals at work were clubbing together to do a big order from an online homebrew shop & I couldn’t resist getting this one. It’ll be a while until I have the time do my next brew-day (a partial mash ESB for my Dad’s Xmas pressie) so this simple kit would act as a stop gap.
Woodfordes get some mixed reviews due to them apparently sticking & finishing with a too high FG, but they still seem to be the most popular two can kits in the UK. So I thought I’d try the Headcracker; a supposed 7% ABV Barley Wine. But as I had a few spare bits in my brew box, I couldn’t resist tweaking. So here’s the “recipe”:
Westwood’s Skullsplitter
1 Woodfordes Headcracker Kit
200g Crystal Malt
300g Brupaks Belgian Light Candi Sugar
1 x Nottingham Yeast
Original Gravity 1075
Total Cost Per Pint 95p
After steeping the grains, dissolving the candi sugar & mixing in the tins I chilled the fermentor in an ice bath to get it down to 20degreesC & pitched the yeast. I opted for Nottingham yeast as it’s high attenuating so it will hopefully take a big bite out of this high original gravity. My Dad also brought up his crop of homegrown Challenger & WGV hops so some of those will be used for dry hopping. I reckon this’ll be finished in 3 weeks, bottled and then supped in the New Year.
I’ve also taken delivery of 2kg of Maris Otter & some other grains from Barley Bottom. I reckon I’ll be able to use a large cast iron le creuset pan plus muslin for a bit of mashing. My first steps on the road to all-grain has begun!
Update!
After 10 days the gravity is down to 1020 with still some activity present. I’ve kept the temperature at a constant 20 degrees up till now but now I’ve popped the brew belt on it to bump it up to 22-24 degrees for the remainder of the fermentation. I’ll also be rousing the yeast every day. I’m confident that it’ll finish around 1016. I’ve also dry hopped with a good handful of goldings. Smells yummy!
New Update!
Bottled at an FG of 1014 after 3 weeks. Looking forward to the New Year already.
After around 14 days fermenting the ESB had an FG of 1012, so that gives an ABV of around 4.5%. Top stuff! And it smells delightful too.
So, now to get the King Keg ready. I sterilised all the bits dutifully & lubricated the threads & O-ring with Vaseline before commencing racking. I primed the barrel with 80g of household sugar & then got my flying saucer hop-strainer operational.
The hop strainer. Maybe I should patent this design?
My UFO made short work of the loose hops & seeds & before long I had a keg of beautifully clear beer. Huzzah! Job done.
Keg filling is underway...
Look at what's left behind! A big pile of hops & yeast.
I was a bit concerned that the keg was only two thirds full though. Hopefully the large amount of headspace won’t affect the carbonation too much.
So I plan to leave it 1 week in the warm then into the garage for 4 weeks before supping.
The cider has been fermenting like crazy the past week so I thought I’d rack it off into some demi-johns. There was a very thick layer of apple pulp on top of the fermenting bin so I thought I’d get the juice off it while it was still floating.
I just racked off via the tap on the bin. Very easy. And got 7 litres of murky scrumpy for my trouble!
I hope these clear. Smell lovely though!
I also managed to harvest most of my hops. I am very impressed by the size of the crop & the smell is fantastic! Similar to Goldings maybe, but more floral? Who knows what “terroir” my First Golds have picked up from Lanarkshire?
A nice juicy First Gold hop.
Of course, I’ve no idea of the AA%; perhaps 4%? If they dry OK I’ll use them in my next ESB. Hopefully the plant will survive the winter. Already looking forward to next years crop!
A big box of hops. Smell reminiscent of wacky baccy!
I thought I’d branch out with my homebrewing & have a shot at cider making. I got a couple of bags of apples from my Dad’s trees; another bag from a friend & a big bag gathered while visiting Aberdour Castle in Fife. There was an orchard in the castle grounds so me and my 3 year old son gathered all the windfalls & filled up my back pack. The entry did cost £4.20 so I think it’s fair!
I then borrowed a fruit juicer & after an hour or so of mashing I ended up with around 7 litres of pulpy, murky apple juice. I treat the juice with 2 campden tablets over night to kill off the wild yeast & other bugs before sprinkling on a sachet Youngs Cider Yeast.
Will this swamp water turn into cider? I have my doubts!
Well, this is how it looks. Not very appetising. I wonder how this’ll turn out?
