Following on from my other post this week I've cracked open another beer in a similar style Jet Black Heart, however it doesn't either call itself a stout or really fit into the style quite right either.

Batemans Mocha Beer isn't a bad beer, however after the initial wow (taste of coffee and chocolate) within first 1/4 of the bottle I felt then kind of bored with it.
It smells much like it tastes. Coffee with a chocolate, almost syrupy like flavour. Some little dark malts. Pretty fizzy actually, kind of like Coca Cola on the verge of going flat.

The head dissappeared very quickly, the colour is black however has some deep red hues when up to the light.

Given the choice I would choose Jet Black Heart. For a few reasons, one was that the mouthfeel was better, it left me thinking I just had an milkshake. There was more 'layers of flavour ' with the malty and berry like aspect as well.

Until next time.....Happy Brewing

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I thought to do a different kind of post, a quick post looking into styles that I could try to clone an existing beer or create a recipe of my own of this style.

This time I'm trying a bottle of Jet Black Heart from Brewdog, bought from Tescos Extra.

Ive read and watched alot on this beer and thought it was a good starting point to the style as I generally like Brewdogs beers.

As for the important sniff and taste test!

Well its very enjoyable, especially after a long but productive day at work.

It pours very dark brown, almost 'jet black'  with a little tan head that disappeared quickly.
Smell is of dark, roasted malts with faint coffee almost nutty notes and slightly sweet.
Taste wise I get dark, roasted malts followed by some slight dark berries and vanilla then what I can describe as a lingering chocolate milk flavour.

Very good indeed! I've got more of these to try coming up but it's certainly a great entry point into the sweet stout beer style.

The recipe itself is also so vary excesable given the fabulous DIYDOG.

Until next time.......Happy Brewing

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While Mrs Panda (aka wifey aka Mrs Brann) was away for a friends hen do I thought to get a cheeky brew on.

Few weekends ago I had a bottle of 5am Saint, a very enjoyable Red IPA from Brewdog.

I generally like what Brewdog produce even though some of what is out there is abit too bitter (in a hoppy way) for me.

What it did do for me is wanting re-evaluate  my previous attempt of this style (in the form of Red Baron). The malt bill I generally left along as I was quite happy with this, however I did find it lacking in some hoppy flavour.
This now will now be dry hopped with a combined 85g of hops (30 Belma, 30 galaxy and 25 cascade), actually the whole hop schedule carries this theme using Belma, Galaxy and little bit of cascade to balance out the pure tropical fruits a bit. Its going to be one hazy tropical fruit bomb! 

As for the name change? Well we all have to have a brand don't we? I'm in the process of coming up with new names for some of my beers and new designs for the labels. Essentially Panda's rule!

So Red Baron....now becomes Red Panda and follows in the footsteps of Galactic Panda.

As for the brew day? 

Well it went pretty well, even if I was tired (waking up early to catch the F1) it went well. My Ace Boiler Grain bag finally gave up though, by my next brew day though I should have a Stainless Steel grain basket which should generally help matters of spillages on the kitchen floor and sparging, I did however get 5% more efficiency than my other brews with the boiler.  

Unfortunately some of the sugars scorched the bottom of the boiler so I had a job to clean this off this morning even after a good soak overnight. 

The grain basket should help with this too as it has 2cm feet to sit up from the bottom of the boiler. 

Another thing I did differently was that I used a fan to cool the outside of the boiler while a chiller took care of the rest, so after 15 mins or so hop stand it cooled to about 24c in roughly 30 mins. 

Hydrometer sample actually tastes better than my current brew I'm drinking.  Which I'm quite surprised about. 

I also let gravity take over when I transfered to the fermentor, I watched on a youtube video in the week where someone did this and got a massive load of foam in the fermentor due to the sloshing and spalshing, it saved me alot of work stirring it and it seems to of worked.

It was around 6pm-ish when I pitched the yeast, 8am this morning airlock is nicely active, even with the brew bucket being 1/2 fall (due to me only ding a 16l batch)

Two dry hops one at 7 days then 5 days before bottling. 6.2% expected ABV don't know if to bottle most or keg most. I might try natural carbing the keg this time as I'm not overally happy with how force carbing went in my current brew. 

I can smell the fermentor standing behind me, smells glorious! I'll do an update at the dry hopping point.

Until next time.........Happy Brewing

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It's a time for change for the blog. I have given it a little face lift as it was looking a little dated and not didn't really suit what I wanted to do with the blog, so over the course of this week, I tweaked a design and now have the look I kind of always had in mind. 
I am still developing the Recipe section so watch this space for more improvements. 

How do you like the new look?

Another change.... or addition depending on how you see it, is my existing Black IPA 'Fimbulwinter' has now become 'Galactic Panda'.  

Why might you ask I've changed the name?

Well I haven't just changed the name, I have also modified the recipe slightly, last time I found that I nailed the malt base of 'Fimbulwinter' however the feedback I had from it was that it seemed more of a fizzy porter/stout like, it wasn't quite what I was aiming for!

So, after the success of G.E.B. that showcases Galaxy hops, I did a little research to find that it also works well in Black IPA's (taking into consideration the quantity needed for a balanced flavour, of course).

Now modified, all apart from a Magnum addition at the start, it’s Galaxy hops for all other additions. 

What will become of 'Fimbulwinter'?

Well it will still be kept as part of what I want to call my 'core' range of beers eventually, however over the last few months I have really wanted to try my hand at doing a proper stout, well a Milk Stout anyway. 

By myself reading the Brew your Own (BYO) Magazines each month, they really give you some inspiration. I feel I could really enjoy having a Milk Stout as some kind of 'Dessert' beer during a long soak in the bath. 

I just now want to try some examples to get my bearings on the style, any suggestions?

Until next time.......Happy Brewing

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The big night came and went, with some great beers to try at the end after the results.

I met some new faces in the local home brew community, trying their beer they entered too and going by it was only their 3rd brew they are getting things right and was probably better than some of the brews I did at a comparable stage.



Regarding my result.....

From what I learnt after the results talking to Malcolm Irving from Irving & Co. Brewers, I came 5th in my category of 'Light beers' (in terms of pale ales, IPAs, APAs, blonde beers, Amber ale, Red ale or English Bitter an Black IPAs) (judged on taste, aroma, colour, clarity, drinkability, name/presentation/label). 

I am pretty happy with this result, being that there was over 25 entries in my category and drinking some of the others there was a lot of great beers, many from people who have entered in the past and brewing for far longer than myself. So 5th in my first competition is probably a fair result.  

I was a long night for the judges sampling over 40 beers across all the different categories.

If the competition comes around next year would I do it again? Yes! Would I do it with G.E.B again? probably not....Not for the reason it came 5th but with the fact it was good to get feedback on this beer so I would like to enter another for the same reason.



What beer would I enter? I currently have 2, Fimbulwinter  my black IPA or Saison of Love, my dry hopped saison. Both I will brew again this year.

As for G.E.B its now part of Brann Brew's 'core range'

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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