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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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…)

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…

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).

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.

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.

Recipe based on Ollorson’s “Hoddesdon Dark” but replacing torrefied wheat with wheat malt, and omitting the late hops.

3.16kg Maris Otter
0.32kg Wheat malt
0.32kg Crystal
0.16kg Roasted barley

60-odd min mash at 64C

Challenger 7.1% 30g 60min (~23IBU Tinseth)

Fermenting this with recultured Fullers 1845 yeast – trying for the second time with this one – let’s hope it turns out better than the last one I used this yeast in…! Landed with 23L at 1036 so almost bang on.

Also, today, I received a big parcel containing (almost all) the malt I’ve been waiting for, as well as Hersbrucker hops and some liquid yeasties. I have some Weissbier and Begian style ales to make in the next month or two – and I must get round to sorting out the lager I have been meaning to brew – I have all the stuff, but don’t want to tie up the fridge for the minute!

Also, I have enough stuff to make two large batches of 7:2:1 stout to try and use up some old Northern Brewer hops I found in the freezer.  Plus there’s the issue of an old packet of Brambling Cross that must go soon – a made up brew called “BX Porter” is my plan there. Double brew days are going to have to be in order – especially since I need to keep “normal drinking stocks” up in the meantime…and I’m already getting low!

So here’s the deal:

7kg Maris Otter
140g Black malt
100g Torrefied Wheat

Mash 66C for 2hrs

320g Brown Sugar
180g Amber Candi Sugar

Hops:
Target (9% slightly old 2006 crop) – 32g, 90min
Fuggles (4.4%) – 20g, 90min
Fuggles (4%) – 50g, 90min

Fuggles (4%) – 50g, 15min

Irish moss at 15min

Pitch 2 packets S04

All went very well and hit 20.5litres at 1.086, and should have a bitterness about 60IBU or so – lost a load of wort to the 150g of hops in there, but a decent enough outturn nevertheless. The yeast has really kicked off too – big fluffy merangue top just 16 hours after pitching.

Not bothering with temperature control on this one as the large 6G fermenter doesn’t actually fit in the fridge…

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The recipe is based on Fullers Chiswick bitter-a favourite of mine.

3.8kg Maris Otter
190g Crystal malt

Hops:
20g Target (9%, 60min)
12g Northdown (7.9%, 15min)
12g Challenger (5.6%, 15min)
14g EKG (steep when cooled to 80C)

Irish moss at 15min

The yeast was some slurry from the previous brew – Brakspear reculture again. (Had to drop that into another bucket to retrieve said slurry before I started…)

The attentive reader will note the 60min boil which was in addition to a 60min mash at 66C-certainly shortens the time needed to brew and no drop in efficiency (24l @ 1039).

With any luck, this will ferment out in less than a week, and I’ll whack it into the keg with finings and 14g of dry hop Goldings, and it will have 2 weeks to sort itself out.

The beer will be one for bottling and a decent maturation time given the level of bittering and the strength.

Water treatment again – pH of mash was spot on (as close as I can measure), and alkalinity was measured at 207mg/l CaCO3 this time. (38ml CRS, 9g Gypsum,  4g CaCL, 3g Epsom Salts and 1g NaCl).

Recipe as follows:

4.8kg Maris Otter
285g Crystal
550g Golden Syrup (replacing invert sugar)

Hops:
40g Boadicea (7.6%) – 90min
25g Northdown (7.9%) – 90min
20g Northdown – 15min

1 tsp Irish moss at 15min.

23L nicely in the FV using a big wodge of Brakspear yeast from the slurry of the last brew. I set up a flying starter with a bit of cooled runoff about 15min into the boil (and placed into the boiler cupboard to give it a kick start) – by the time it came to pitching, the yeast was trying to blow itself out of the Schott bottle it was in! With any luck, it’ll chew nicely through it – aim of 1014 for an FG.

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