chromosphere

The first sample of a 7.2% Belgian Dark Strong Ale I brewed way back in mid-April. It has been conditioning for the last few months and it is now getting very smooth indeed. Excellent carbonation; slightly peppery; some faint banana with some dark fruits (though could do with more to be more like a Rochefort); hints of roses in the aroma; warming alcohol and slight, but pleasant sourness in the finish.

Not too bad at all. And looks great in a good glass.

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Last weekend was the CBA National Homebrewing Festival in Sutton – I went last year and entered four beers this year. I took along a best bitter, an ordinary bitter, my BBX Porter and my year old Mad Boris.

As a (rather unexpected) result, I picked up a second in “Mild, Porter and Stout” with the Russian Stout with lots of good feedback from guys at the festival who tried it; and to top that, a first in “Bitters up to 1040″ with my “Windrush Bitter”.

Was very chuffed with it all and had a great afternoon and chatted a lot with some other great homebrewers. I got to try my stout again at the festival for the first time in 4 months(!), and was pleasantly surprised that the bitter got first place given the standard of the competition.

Congrats to Andy Hill who picked up the overall best beer with his mild which was very good indeed.

My Windrush Bitter recipe that got first place was as follows:

3.2kg Pale male
102g Light Crystal malt
102g Crystal Malt
85g Amber Malt

Mashed at 67-68C for 60min, then boiled for 90 min as follows:

WGV 8.7% 14g, 90min
EKG 4.6% 14g, 90min
EKG 4.6% 14g 15min
EKG 14g 0min
Dry hop 4 days prior to bottling with 10g EKG.

Yeast: Wyeast 1335
“Fruity, hoppy nose. Light refreshing bitter. Long bitter finish.”

The Wy1335 is great yeast – I fermented at “about 20C” (upstairs front room) for 2 weeks and got from 1034 to 1008. It forms a thick yeasty head while fermenting, not unlike Hopback yeast, but then drops very clear quite quickly – much quicker than Nottingham (though not as quick as the Fullers strain so it will ferment out without needing rousing – though stirring back in seems useful!). I must make this beer again soon – it was only 4 weeks from brewing to the festival so it’s a quick one to get ready.

In fact I have another beer on the go (a week now) with the same yeast and it’s almost done at the moment (Pale malt, light crystal (4.5%) and (2.3% each of) light chocolate and roast barley; touch of sugar; Fuggles, Goldings, Boadicea and Challenger, with Goldings for flavour and aroma.). It’s down to 1013 from 1037 – another couple of points in the next few days and it’s done and ready to be racked – though the ferment was explosive at the start and had piles of yeast being thrown out of the fermenter via the airlock after just 36 hours… I need a bigger fermenter I think (those 60 litre ones at Hop and Grape look like just the trick…)

Oops – bit of a time since I last posted! Things to report:

Brewed a dunkelweizen – Jamil Z’s recipe which came out at OG1059, FG1010. Just conditioning now…

Tonight brewed a ordinary bitter – 87% Pale, 7% Crystal, 3% Flaked barley and Torrified Wheat. Also, 200g of dark brown sugar. Fuggles 4.4% 60g, 75min; 22g 15min. Eventually got 22L @ 1038.

Plus, Twitter & Blistered lasted a weekend between 8 of us on a narrowboat – good beer indeed (though not quite like the Harviestoun beer though – hey ho, never mind). If anyone happens to find my Sat night/Sun morning, please can they let me have it back as I seemed to lose it at the time…

Last Friday, I managed to get a batch of Bavarian style Weizen on the go. Since I won’t filter it, or let it settle out, it’ll most likely be a hefeweizen (hefe = yeast) as opposed to a kristallweizen (or “Champagne Weizen” as a mate of mine also told me they are called) which are, ahem, clear…

The recipe is fairly simple – maybe slightly out of style with the Munich malt and using normal pale rather than pilsner malt, but I’m not doing a decoction mash so maybe it’ll help it all out with a bit more of that malty flavour.

2.5kg Wheat Malt
1.9kg Maris Otter
500g Munich Malt

Mash at 67C – use 34L of Asda bottled water with 1.5 tsp CaCl2. Target OG ~1050.

Hops:
45g Hallertau Hersbrucker (2.1%) bittering hop
20g Hallertau Hersbrucker (2.1%) last 15min

Yeast – WLP300; pitch at 13C and allow to rise to 17C.

Efficiency was a bit on the low side (20L at 1049) – it’s been going a few days now, and this yeast is going potty – it filled the gallon and a half of headspace in about 24 hours, and hasn’t quite died down yet. Eventually, I’ll try and reuse the slurry for making a dunkelweizen – this will have wheat and Munich or Vienna and a bit of chocolate and much the same for hops. I may even do a brief decoction, but that seems like a technique that’s prone to cock-ups…

Meanwhile, the last porter (which did get cocked up!) is smelling amazing and slowly creeping down in gravity – it’s currently 1019 (which makes for 63% attenuation – a bit lower than I’d expect, but then I did have to rack it into another fermenter to make way for the hefe – perhaps that was a bit early to do it (though the krausen had pretty much disappeared by that point. Maybe I’ll repitch and see if it’ll come down further or not).

On Saturday morning, I started off a brew for a batch of porter with the following grist based on Jamil Zs brown porter:

3.9kg Pale malt
500g Munich malt
500g Brown malt
500g Crystal malt
280g Chocolate malt

Mashed it at 67C for a few hours and then sparged it all down. However, at this point, one of the elements in my boiler decided to stop working leaving me with one element to heat 30L of liquid. Eventually got a (not very vigorous) boil and chucked in 60g of some old Bramling Cross hops I had in the freezer. After 45 minutes, that element also pegged out.

Putting the boiler on the hob to try to get it going again, I chucked in the remaining 35g of hops and Irish moss, and I managed to get the brew back up to 95C for another 20 minutes or so, but no boil. Anyhow cooled it and landed up with loads of wort (27L or so…) at 1051.

Of course, to top it all off, I found my immersion heater was also smashed, and so I had to cover the hole in the lid of the fermenter with a saucer. Needless to say, the SO4 has now gone potty and is spewing foam all over the place in the fermenting fridge – it’ll be a minor miracle if this isn’t infected…

Sod.

Still, it smells amazing (think chocolate factory!), and new kettles (+ spares!) are on order with Tesco awaiting some butchering to allow me to replace the elements prior to my next brew, when I am aiming to do a Hefeweizen with some WLP300 that I need to grow up in a starter beforehand.

No – not a typo but Ollorson’s recipe called “Bitter Bitter” which I brewed yesterday. All Challenger hops in this one and using Nottingham to ferment with. The usual water treatment (CRS, 2 tsp Gypsum, a smidge of CaCl2 and a tsp of NaCl) and then the following recipe:

3.86kg Pale malt
230g Crystal
455g Wheat Malt

Mash 2.5+ hours (was hanging a gate in the garden…) at 66C or so.

Challenger 7.1% 50g – 90min
Challenger 5.5% (but old) 20g – 15min

Turned out with 24L at 1041 (pretty much bang on really) – it’s sitting in the fermenter but no apparent action as yet – though Nottingham can take a time to kick off I seem to remember – it’s been a while since I used it last.