BrannBrew - Beer Blog

Its been a difficult time for everyone but by all accounts the home brewing culture and hobby is thriving. It is a welcome sight, however has limited my own home brew desires to brewing only a two since last October and only one since UK lockdown. Kudos to The Malt Miller keeping up with demands.

I received an email the other week with an anonymous comment on an old post, stating they had a good read. Thanks!
Recently I've just been posting via Instagram but it made me think that it was time to don the Blog Cap again - see how long it lasts!

I went on a bit of a brewing hiatus too due to the sudden passing of my Dad at the very beginning of the year, he was an advocate of my brewing and something we both enjoyed drinking the results of together. When I was looking into what type of beer or recipe to clone this time I stumbled on one that I earmarked to use as a basis with dad in mind.
I tended to do a beer around Father's Day or his birthday that was more suited to his tastes than mine, either a stout or a balanced beer like an American Pale or Amber.

With the amber/pales I never have got the recipe quite right either not enough malt backbone, slightly too hoppy, hop schedule not quite right so more bitter than aroma/flavour or lacking some mouthfeel.
I haven't tried brewing one like this for awhile though, not since I have started using Kveik yeast or treating the water.

I did enter the Portsmouth Home Brewing Competition with an APA version a couple years ago and would of been 5th (if they judged it that far) in the Light Beer category but the basis of the recipe has been tweak and altered so much since I wouldn't be able to re-brew the original (it itself wasn't without flaws).
Even if Dad enjoyed them and expressed his satisfaction, I always picked holes in it. Some variations he picked up elderflower within the beer, I was like "Elderflower Dad?, I don't know where your getting that from"

I owe it to Dad to get it right!

So my goal, as it has been, is to come up with an American Amber, using hops that share the same initials as my Dad's. G,E,B.
I have 57G of Mandarina Bavaria BBC (M.B.) in the freezer left from my American Wheat last month which loosely takes care of the B.

There is only 1 G hops I can think of for this beer and its Galaxy! I have always kept using Galaxy as the G hops for this beer, another reason why I haven't brewed it as its been in high demand.

So it leaves me with the E.....

Enigma? El Dorado? both are on the tropical fruit scale with slightly different character profiles to blend well with Galaxy, I've used them in variations of the beer in the past but probably not considered the AA enough which loops back to the beers 'not being quite right'.

I've also used Ekuanot in the past, hence how Dad could of picked up floral notes, something that might work as a rounded beer rather than making it too tropical tasting. Ekuanot is very overwhelming however especially if you pair it with Galaxy.

Or I could just keep it with the G & B and use something that could blend the M.B. & Galaxy together, something like good old Cascade.

The amount of M.B. I have will only really add to the aroma, it'll be in the background and very subtle, but uses what I have already got.

As for the Malt bill, recipes I've looked into have 1 base malt about 90% of the bill and small amounts of others to add the extra layers of flavour - malts like Chocolate, Munich, and Crystal (60).

With all this in mind..... the recipe idea of the American Amber.
Name TBC but thinking either Life Finds a way (a call back to a childhood memory) or The Magician. Even something like George's Amber or what I originally called this beer for the Home Brew Comp. which was G.E.B - could I even call it G.S.B/B.S.B?? (George's/Brann's Special Brew)

Brewers Friend Screenshot (click to enlarge)

View Full Recipe

Your recipes/suggestions/alterations welcome!

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

In my other most recent post (A gift that has kept on giving) I mentioned that the recent beers I've brewed have been somewhere over the 5% mark ranging from 5.2% to 5.5%. While on their own the ABV isn't a problem, it's when you have multiple amounts, maybe 3 or 4 pints worth. Then before you know it your kissing your wife goodnight and heading for bed as your done for the night!

Something I am more aware of now that I have a proper keg setup in the garage, it's all too easy to pop out there to fill another glass.

I have recently put myself to the task in designing a recipe that is low abv. (targeting 3-3.5%), fortunately on The HomeBrew Forum there has been recent discussions regarding brewing low/no alcohol beers which I found a good place to start. I then started my own thread specifically in mind to get a few pointers on my 1st attempt of a sessionable beer.

The replies I got helped me alot to iron out a few holes, I also ended up looking in Camra's Essential Home Brewing to find Siren's Yu Lu recipe, with another great tip from Andy (the author) who says drop the Earl Grey & Lemon addition and you'll have a good base for a session beer.

Along with this I took note at 1 particular post on my sessionable beer thread and this was to look into Kernel's Table Beer. Although I probably wont get chance to find a bottle of this before I get to brew my own beer, I did find BYO magazine covered a version of their recipe.

Great! I have two examples that I could adapt....Now to put to paper. This was pretty tricky as I didn't want to have too many 'ingredients' and over complicate things or end up making essentially a hoppy tea.
Fortunately I had the replies from my thread, what I also read on T he Mad Fermentationist blog and watched some videos on ba sic brewing youtube channel.

So...what did I learn regarding brewing low ABV beers:

Mash high (68/69C is a good temp) for a full bodied beer. The high mash temp means you don't have enough fermentable sugars to get a lower FG
Rye adds a lot of mouthfeel so the brews would not taste too watery
Oats will add some more body
A slightly higher FG should help in the pursuit of some body, so use a yeast that has a lower attenuation AG brewers can manipulate mash temperature to achieve this, but for all brewers, careful yeast choice will drastically affect things.

For instance, using WLP002 English Ale yeast, rather than S-04 or US-05. The lowest attenuation for WLP002 is 63%, which means you can have an OG of 1.035 with an FG of 1.013 and ABV 2.9%. https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/low-alcohol-beer.18678/#post-399753

The two mentioned recipes, had already covered the above points, so I ended up mashing (pun was intended!) the malt bill's together but also adding abit of rye to be on the safe side and also the rye should pair well with the tropical/citrus hops. The hop schedule is based off Siren's Yu Lu recipe but I decided to pair my own choice of hops into the recipe, using Amarillo,Citra, Engima and Mosaic.

Artwork made up in parts of my wife's illustrations

......Thus Creatures Great or Small was born.

Download BeerXML for:All creatures great or small

It's been a interesting few weeks looking into this style of beer, I have learnt alot and having the homebrew community at hand has been invaluable. A home brewer is always learning!

I'll update after I brew this beer in a few weeks.

Until next time......Happy Brewing

As some of you may have been made aware from my Tweets/Instagram/ previous blog posts I was given Camra's Essential Home Brewing Book for a christmas present from my lovely wife.

Although I haven't read it from cover to cover yet. I have used it quite extensively for a recipe book. Which my wife & I both agreed it would be a nice thing for me to help try some different beers, or not brewing my own designed recipes all the time.

The book has 30 recipes from UK craft breweries including Verdant, Left Handed Giant and Elusive Brewing.

Back in January I did two brews close together, so I could have a choice of beer to drink but also because I was pretty excited to deep dive into the recipes. Only paying one postage was a plus too, but I did have to work out on a calendar when I could do the 2nd brew & had to store the grains/hops for a few weeks.

What is so good, is the author Andy Parker (who also actually owns Elusive Brewing) also has put some really useful tips/points with most of the recipes.

As an example I wanted to give myself 1 more chance in brewing a Black IPA. Something in the past has either been a bit hit and miss. Mostly too roasty, sometimes too imbalanced towards the hops.
There is a recipe from Eight Arch Brewing, their Corbel IPA, the tip that Andy gives is that you could add 500g of carafe 3 (given that your brewing a full 21L batch) but add it towards the end of the mash so you don't impart too much roastiness.

I gladly followed Andy's point and set about my way punching the recipe into MaltMiller recipe generator & BrewersFriend (other Home Brewing stores & recipe generators are available)

As I ordered the carafe 3 as part of the recipe generator it all came mixed into the main part of the malt bill, I will next time add a special note to have the carafe 3 separate, as it has imparted a fair bit of roast in the beer. The beer is still really balanced and the hop aroma is absolutely there, however the hop flavour is still developing, it might be because its only been 2 weeks in the keg, but its probably more due to the roast. You get an upfront Mosaic Punch then gets a bit lost as the roast comes through.

It still is the best black IPA that I've brewed, next time I'll brew it, maybe in a few months time while I can freshly remember how it turned out this time, I will add the carafe 3 in later into the mash and perhaps slightly boost the flameout/dry hops but not by much.

Like I mentioned earlier, the beer could still be developing and the roast may subside within another weeks time.

The other beer I have done from the book is a straight clone of Anspach and Hobday's The Cream Ale, which is really drinkable & full of flavour for a Cream Ale. As in the book, the recipe lends itself to the possibility of switching the hops. Its the 1st time of using enough of Sorachi Ace hops to get the full flavour of them. They do have a unique profile, early tastes were heavy on the dill, but now I get lemon and coconut. Its very pleasant.

The pocket sized book would offer alot for a newer Home Brewer, with all the additional information about home brewing processes, but even for the recipes themselves this book should tantalise any Home Brewer to get it. There's enough in there to probably make this year 'The year of the clones' if I wanted to.

Both beers brewed so far I have to watch it with, as both came out exactly the ABV from the book (figures in the region of 5.2-5.5%) You have a few and know about it the next day....which will bring me onto my next post of constructing a 'low ABV' session beer.

Until Next Time....Happy Brewing

With a 12L batch (fermenter volume) of a Black IPA seemingly finished its fermentation, as my Tilt Hydrometer was reading 1.012 for what was approaching 2 days. Which was the recipes target F.G., I decided to add my dry hop additions (50g split between Mosaic & Ahtanium in 12L).
I previously raised the temperature on my ink bird to encourage a diacetyl rest, however the readings didn't move until a few hours after I added the dry hops.

I gathered sometimes a Tilt gets yeast/hop crud stuck to it which can alter the readings, however it doesn't appear this time to be the case, as the readings have increased in temperature and decreased the gravity readings in a stable downward spike - going from 1.012 to 1.005 from 6am to 11am this morning. It maybe too a coincidence?

Upon having a lunchtime read on several other blogs & forums, I did encounter that dry hopping can actually kick start the fermentation process. Most forum posters have stated they have just seen extra airlock activity, likely due to either they are using a basic brew bucket or more than likely not using something like a Tilt to keep a constant measure on fermentation.

This stimulated other forum members to suggest taking hydrometer readings to be completely accurate, as an active airlock could just be Co2 coming out of suspension due to opening of the fermenter and adding the contact of hops on beer.

This I beleve isn't the case for me as I use a Tilt, even given a margin for error (taking into account of any crud sticking to the Tilt) fermentation is active.

I investigated further, finding out that hops do have something called diastatic enzymes, similar to ones you would find from an alpha amylase, that are short fermentable sugars for the yeast to further consume. This does make sense looking at the Tilt readings from this morning and the drop of gravity, increase of temperature and increase of % apparent attenuation. All point to yeast activity and enjoying some free food!

I expect that I will be left with a drier beer, It's the second time that I have mashed at 65(c) and have reached 90%AA. The last was a cream ale and the taste of that on transferring to its keg was crisp with a dry finish.

Now my 5.25% Black IPA with an AA of 76% (prior to this morning) is currently sitting at 6.17% with a AA of 90.38%.

I don't know what this increase will ultimately mean to a finished Black IPA?

Will the body come across too light/dry for the style?

I must say the previous BIPA's I've brewed have come across like a strong hoppy (or even "fizzy" - a comment from a friend at work) porter, which have been far too roasty for my tastes in this style, roasty but light in body then a hoppy hit.

So with a small addition of Carafe 3 to make a standard IPA/Pale Ale base into one that matches a black IPA style profile, we will see how it turns out.

I am going to take a hydro sample and measure independently (using a standard hydrometer) to cross check with the Tilt, also so I can have a cheeky sample!

Until next time.....Happy Brewing
Update 24/01/19 sometime that evening....

I had my cheeky sample and cross checked the tilt vs my standard hydrometer. My standard hydro did confirm that it was activity however was a few points higher than the Tilt, coming in at 1.009 instead of 1.006 that the Tilt is sitting at currently.

Its always good to check and going by the standard hydrometer it matches my recipe predictions from brewersfriend.

The taste of the sample is currently exactly what I'm aiming the beer to taste like, enough roasty taste to like a black ipa but the body and mouth feel of what you'd expect an ipa to be.
The 4 day dry hop will boost what is already a good citrus taste.
From the sample I got grapefruit and slight pine upfront, then it kind of melds into the malt taste with the citrus still present but balanced, citrus is left...I even had a faint citrus taste in the back of my mouth about 1/2 hour after I tried the sample.

Yesterday marked the 2nd brew of 2019. This time it was a deliberate 1/2 batch of a black IPA.
This brew also marked the second time I went for a recipe from the Camra's essential Home Brewing book, however this time I thought to take not of the recipe tip add Carafe 3 into the malt bill to make Eight Arch Brewing's Corbel into a black IPA. The hop scheduled remained the same as the book, which uses Ahtanum, chinook, cascade and mosaic hops.

I learnt from my previous brew day to Mash with more water, which for 2.3kg malt I used 8L.
This still made the first runnings come out like a dripping tap, however 2 rounds of batch sparging with 7 L each time made up the pre-boil volume and pre-boil gravity was spot on.

What hassle I did have during the mash was with the rubber washers of the SS Brewtech kettle, when I opened the value they started to seep the strike water..... literally not an easy thing to handle. In the end I was able to transfer the 70/80 degree (c) water into a spare brewing bucket and re jig the washers & all was fine for the rest of the day. Does anyone else have this problem?

My pre-boil volume was just over 15l, apart from a small dose of magnum for the First wort hops, all the hops were towards the very end, I had a clear target I needed to reach (which was 12L). This 12l was so that when I transfer out of the fermenter I will end up with a full 9.5l keg (so he thinks!).

To get it down to my target volume I did have to boil it down for an extra 15mins before I added the
rest of the hop schedule.
This could have been to the boil vigor, as I setup a very sophisticated ventilation system.....fan blowing with garage door open. So the boil was isolated towards the centre of the kettle.

As it happens, boiling for that extra time not only got me to my target volume it also nailed the OG of 1.52. which gave me 70% efficiency.

With it being cold outside/in the garage and also with the fan blowing the side of the kettle, after a 20 minute hop stand at the end of the boil when I transferred it to my keg to chill the temperature was 40 degrees (c).

It only took a few more hours in the fridge to get to pitching temp.
So I actually was able to pitch yesterday night, all I needed to do this morning was clean the keg were some hop sludge was left in the bottom.
10 hours later (this morning) I also noticed some activity, granted the airlock wont show crazy activity as its only 1/2 way up inside the fermenter but its popping away nicely and my tilt hydrometer is showing theres activity.

Fingers crossed that the future for The Dark Panda is bright.

Until next time......happy brewing

As I drink my last pint of Brann's Breakfast Stout, which coincidentally has a small late addition of Sorachi Ace hops in it too, I've got around to writing up about my latest brew day, a Cream Ale that is hopped only with Sorachi Ace hops.

As a christmas present from my lovely wife I was given Camra's Essential Home Brewing Which doesn't just contain useful information for beginners but its proven to be very useful to someone who has been brewing for a few years but has soaked up alot of previous information. It also has 30 recipes from UK craft breweries. Some very popular ones too. Like verdant.

Even though my Cream Ale shared the same recipe as in the book, I adjusted the grain bill slightly to hopefully achieve a slightly more session strength pint.

As I carried out the instructions from the book, mashing at a lower temperature to leave more fermentable sugars in the wort to achieve a drier, more crisp finish to the beer once fermented. My beer actually was slightly above the recipe (Anspach & Hobday The Cream Ale)
estimated ABV. at 5.5% with, according to my Tilt hydrometer chart, the apparent attenuation (the % malt sugar that has been converted by the yeast) is 87.5%. So little old US-05 did a pretty good job!

The brew day last week went well apart from mashing on the thick side, so I didn't fully achieve my target volumes and have a lesser amount and slightly stronger brew than intended.

On further reading during fermentation I found I should really have mashed with something in the region of 12l for the amount of grain (3.8kg) rather than 9l. This made the initial sparge longer as the grain was too compacted on the mash tun filter.

I now know that using my buffalo boiler on full power my brew kettle (SS Brewtech brew kettle) will roughly lose 4-5L of wort per hour.

These last two points 'should' be the turning point in using my new setup, which I only have used for 4 brews.

Tasting the hydro sample for the Starting Gravity I got a straight up Dill, like someone came behind me and emptied the pot of dill from the Spice Rack into the wort. I knew that Sorachi Ace hops do impart dill but I was pretty surprised. It wasn't unpleasant by any means, however it caught me off guard, overall the beer tasted crisp even from the initial sample.

5 days have since past, the main part of fermentation now complete, I pulled another hydro sample, one to make sure my Tilt Hydrometer was reading correctly, two to get a taste test.

The taste is still crisp and dry, something you would expect from this style of beer or a lager, then I don't get a herby taste but get citrus, the taste of what lemon rind smells like, followed by a mellow orange then very faint herby/woody note.

I may have created a stronger brew, but its already very quaffable or even gluggable!

In a few days time (probably Sunday/Monday) I'll start a cold crash of the fermentor for a few days before I transfer to the keg, ready for when we (my wife & I) have friends over soon.

My next brew is another from the book (Eight Arch, Corbel), using their tip, I've added Carafa 3 to the malt bill to make it black IPA in style. This brew day will be in a few weeks once the fermenter is free.

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

Another year has past, with 2018 being somewhat experimental and getting use to brewing on new equipment (ss brewtech kettle, buffalo boiler & standalone mash tun)

In hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to do experimental batches while figuring out a new brew system, but brewing what I fancied at the time meant this.

I also had a bit of a set back in Oct when I fractured a bone in my right (dominant) hand, which put me out of action for 6 weeks. Fortunately I had just had kegged my milk stout (Brann's Breakfast Stout) however unfortunately that was the last brew I have done this year and with difficulty typing/use of computer I didn't right my reactions/thoughts of the beer/brewday up.

What I can say now though is that it came out exactly how I remembered from last year. Very pleased with it and when my parents came over for xmas, my Dad happily consumed 4 pints of it in one sitting. He was blown away by it!

For a present I got Camra's Essential home brewing book, which has some tasty looking recipes like from Verdant & their Pulp. I'll be looking forward to going through the book, it looks really interesting even for me who's been brewing for 3 years.

I also got a ball and keg level indicator which I'll leave my impressions here when I get round to testing my next batch.

So what am I planning on brewing in 2019.....

I'll certainly be brewing Brann's Breakfast Stout again, maybe a smaller batch so I can drink it alongside a lighter beer.

Saison of Love will be brewed again too, I tried to do a variation this year but it didn't live up to the original so I'll be sticking to my 'core range' version.

2019 will also be a time where I'll some recipes I didn't do last year, maybe to hone them so they can become part of my 'Core range'. I only have 4 'core range' currently, ones that I'll brew over and over, year after year. Brann's Breakfast Stout, Saison of Love (dry hopped Saison, Thai-Panda-Ale (American Pale Ale with Kaffir Lime Leaves) and a Cream Ale (which might get some variation/update in 2019).

Until next time...... Have a Happy Brew Year!

After much deliberation I took the plunge on buying a Tilt Hydrometer, its not a cheap piece of Homebrew Tech by any means. It came to £144 pounds from Malt Miller, pretty good as it was the updated v2 of the Tilt which usually goes for nearer/over £160.

The Tilt V2 has some improvements over it's predecessor:
Range: Better reception and range. With the increased transmission power your Tilt will send data through larger, thicker-walled fermenters.
Precision: Upgraded sensors. With an improved temperature sensor and accelerometer your Tilt will operate with more precision.
Efficiency: We’ve reduced power consumption so more brews, less battery. New Look: Newly designed custom circuit board and harness.

There are two ways to keep track of your brew, One which the google sheet is hosted for you, which you get access to, or you can host your own cloud app and store the brew sheets yourself. I wanted to do the later so I can keep hold of the sheets and felt bit more in control knowing its all hosted in my own 'google space' I followed these instructions on how to do it.

see also written instructions/links to sheets template

I did a few 'test brews' basically just putting the tilt in water to get use to the cloud logging/tilt setup and I just had remember to email the cloud url to myself and copy the link into the tilt app.

Another thing to note is that if you want a constant stream of data throughout the day, you will need to have a bluetooth device in range of the tilt. Fortunately I found an old iphone (probably the wife's!) that I keep plugged in next to the fermenter in the garage. You will also need to stop the phone/device from going into sleep mode or switching off.

iphone sits on top of cool brewing bag (housing fermentor)

Initial Impressions

The Tilt does not control fermentation, nor will it make a better brew. I still have an inkbird (probe goes into my SS brewtech termowell) to control fermenation temperatures.

It is a great piece of equipment. Having that data and seeing the trend in fermentation opened, has helped stop obsessing over & wondering what the brew was doing. It's allowed me to gain extra control over the fermentation process - avoiding stalls and knowing when fermentation is done without taking numerous samples to find out.

I currently have my Saison Of Love in the fermentor with the yeast being pitched on 27th August.

I could track easily when fermentation kicked off and the rate it was going, allowing me to increase the heat source in my brewing bag to maintain the temperature to slightly higher than room temperature (26c). It now appears (5 days later) that the fermentation has slowed, even though my OG was 4 points lower than my estimated OG of 1.052 the belle Saison yeast has been a monster and eaten 93.75% of the sugars. Apparent Attenuation is another bit of info the tilt allows you to track, so even though I was looking at on estimate a 5.5% saison, I am now looking at something in the region of 5.9%.

Screenshot of the Tilt Report Sheet

I have noticed however, that the during active fermentation the sheet did record some fluctuations of gravity readings, sometimes only 1 points sometimes it jumped up to 3 points. You could however see a trend in activity so these blips can be ignored as it could record 2 'blips' say over several hours. so nothing to really worry about, I could see the trend visually using the chart sheet.

screenshot of the Tilt Chart sheet

How the new Tilt V2 holds up in a heavy dry hopped brew, that is something I have to find out. The V1 Tilt apparently wasn't very accurate when using lots of dry hops as they were effecting the sensors. The battery was another well documented flaw of the V1 with a lot of users expressing frustration with the Tilt V1 cutting out mid fermentation after just using the Tilt for 1 previous brews before hand. Make sure you keep the Tilt upright when not in use as that will conserve power (puts the Tilt in sleep mode).

Both of these I will have to wait and see if the Tilt V2 has overcome, but my initial use of the Tilt V2 is that it could be a welcomed gadget in my home brewing arsenal.

On many home brewers wish lists is a Brew fridge / kegregator or fermentation chamber.

I for one have been one of those brewers, and I also know for one that you can drive your wife nuts going back and forth in deciding do you actually need one, rather than just wanting one!

I had all the parts to my keg setup already - Keg ✓ Keg Taps ✓ Co2 Canister ✓ Various lengths of 3/8" inch tubing ✓ All I really needed was a way to constantly keep the temperature, I was struggling to keep up with keeping 2 kegs chilled as water bottles in my cool brewing bag were defrosting too quickly and the temperature was fluctuating by about 7 degrees. Our main fridge/freezer was also struggling to freeze 8L of water in 2l bottles too.

So with abit of birthday money I bought a Beko fridge, one that could cope with the ambient temperatures that an outhouse/garage has.

Currently I have fridge magnets from the main fridge and a calendar to mark F1 dates and brew days. I'm looking at doing fridge magnets of the keg/tap labels to show what's on tap. Eventually I'll have a magnet chalk board but at the moment I like the randomness of the decoratations and the keg/tap labels will look really good once I print them off on magnet paper.

Now for the important inside.

I have 2 perlick 650s flow control taps, the one with the wooden handle is a newer model and seems better, has an extra gasket inside the tap and the flow handle is peiced together better.

I have a three way John guest splitter from my co2 canister, two tubes feed kegs and one spare to purge any bottles or growlers.

Each of the 3/8" tubing have a flow control cut off close to the spilter, useful when I only want to focus on 1 of the outlets. At the end of each tube is a quick release/push fit connector, making it easier for maintenance/cleaning.

The co2 canister lives outside the fridge so I can monitor the pressure easier.
I also use my inkbird temp controller so that the fridge is only on when it needs to be, saving electricity. It holds the temperature well however when I open it in this heat it quickly rises a few degrees but chills back down just as quick.

All seems pretty good and a solution to my problems, especially when I had the taps and didn't want to drill the fridge door to put proper shank taps in to make a proper kegregator.
Hopefully this gives some pointers for other brewers if you've been thinking of doing the same steps.

Until next time...... Happy brewing

I've been wanting to try Denali hops for a few brews now but haven't come up with a suitable recipe/hop schedule. However after reading an article in a recent BYO magazine on Award Winning Home brew APA recipes, I got a few pointers and fleshed out a new recipe. Even though I have a few cans from them I also wanted to create something like thairannocitrus from staggeringly good, using Kaffir Lime leaves too.

I aimed this brew day to coincide with Fathers day, so my dad could have a full keg (of my 9l keg) and I could have some too.
During the mash the target temp was more like 70oC than the 67oc target. While I over spared my preboil gravitiy was 10.40 instead of 10.35, I did this sparge as my boiler was heating up, so it seemed to take less time to hit boiling temps which has been litterly like watching & waiting for a kettle to boil in the past - pain staking!

SG was 1050 and FG was 1014 making it 4.7%

When it came to kegging it filled my 9l keg full for my dad (as it was a fathers day present) and probably about 1/2 that amount in one of my full sized kegs for myself.

The very small sample when I kegged it had a sweet pineapple/peach aroma, tasted the same but the lime came through after. Not too overpowering.

I waited 4 days after applying the gas, and although still slightly under carbed it tasted so so nice, full of citrus (aroma and flavour), then the aromatic lime taste from the kaffir lime leaves.

Basically was like Staggeringly Good's Thairannocitrus but super charged! If I have a craving for their beer now I might just have to brew my own.

Very pleased with the results so far. Have to drink this fresh! I could be the first new batch that gets added to my 'core range' (brews to brew again).

See the full recipe on brewers friend.

Until Next Time...... Happy Brewing

Have you ever wanted to give your home brew as a gift/present but only have a keg setup? Since moving house and using my keg equipment more I have been thinking the same..

I use to syphon some beer off into a bottling bucket and condition x amount of beers (usually 6 or 12) to give to, say my dad, as a gift or fathers day present. However in the past the carbonation of the bottles have been somewhat inconsistent and on one occasion (bottled version of my Breakfast Stout) a bottle bomb could of happened. Well almost - upon opening it frothed out more than the Kilauea volcano (too soon?) so my dad didn't end up having much apart from a big head on a few bottles. You also always get unwanted sediment and the time to condition is always an extra factor to take into effect.

So I thought of the idea to use my keg and use my bottle filler to bottle from my keg directly. Knowing I can get the carbonation right and will eliminate the issues I've had with bottling.
One problem however is that if I give a full 6/12 pack to my dad he could not drink a bottle for a few weeks. Which could mean that the carbonation levels drop in the bottle. All the how to videos I've watched state you should cap on foam and you purge the bottle before filling.

Something that is quite common when bottle filling from a keg, regardless of the way you transfer it. Counter pressure fillers work well but I wouldn't want to leave for 2/3 weeks to find it was flat. A week seems the cut off before carbonation starts to drop.

Transferring to a Flip top bottle.

So this leaves me with doing some 'Beer Tokens' that I intend to give to the amount (in pints/bottles) that I would usually give. In my case for this Fathers Day I intend to fill my 9l keg for my dad and have beer tokens to the amount (in pints) that the keg holds.

If you have someone that lives close you could do a few bottles a time to take around/they come to you whenever they want, it'll be like having your own personal tap room!

It might even be a bit more fun for them to get stamped for the beers.
I still have my old bottling bucket so can give this a try this time and if it doesn't really work then I can go back to bottling.
Have you any other good ideas to give your home brew away as gifts?

What beer tokens could look like

Until Next time......Happy Brewing

Its been a long few months with lots of DIY/home improvements going a few weeks ago I was able to do an experimental batch of beer.
Why is it experimental? well unfortunately recently when I purchased one of my favourite beers Proper Job in bottle form I found it tasting abit bland and 1 bottle I had almost tasted off, the next day I had the new JD cider and liked the smokeyness but then followed by the classic refreshing cider aspect. Which lead me to think...have my tastes changed.....and how will a smoked beer taste.....

Two questions that made me ponder over a few weeks, until I could research smokey beers (and if they worked well with hops). What I wanted was a smokey beer but hoppy (but minimal bitterness) in a citrus tropical way too....An odd combo but having the ability to try our own style you can satisfy (hopefully!!) the cravings. Turns out that there are, small number mainly a derivative of an American Brown Ale/ Brown IPA.

Brewday happened and this past sunday I kegged it (carbing up with my new soda stream canister to test for coming months ahead of my next wedding batches), worked out pretty well as I was just about got a full keg. I mean just about as I was fearing I was going to get an overspill as it kept on coming.

I also had 2/3 of a pint spare at the end which I could do a quick sniffer test....it was 11am so didn't want to consume the whole glass that early!

It appears to have turned out really well - its carbing up ready for a proper test over the weekend however it does appear very well rounded, smells very tropical/citrus. You then get a taste of smokeyness not overpowering as I played safe and used cherrywood smoked malts which give a rounded subtle smoke character.

I kept with my favourite galaxy hops and went with citra (apparently one of the beasty citrus hops) to accompany them, these came through at the end, followed with a slight aftertaste of smoke again. Slightly more time to meld together will hopefully improve this beers characteristics.

Would I want to do this beer again, we'll find out in 18 pints time when the keg's empty.....by 1st impressions it could be one to drink while its fresh..

Until next time......Happy Brewing

Hi all, Happy Brew year.

Its been a lot longer than my usual intermission between posts, mainly due to me moving into a house, leaving the flat after 5 years.

We (myself and my wife) moved at the beginning of Dec and while its felt like home instantly there is a number of improvements and add 'our touches' across the house to make it more us.

With us also hosting Christmas and inviting my parents over during the Christmas period I wanted get a brew on, as 5 months break was too much and I probably annoyed the wife too much complaining I wanted to brew but couldn't, as things were all boxed up.

I managed to fit a brew in and get it ready for Christmas, I would of preferred longer time but at least I could determine I could do it at a push.
It probably was the best brew day to date, not only did I not have to worry regarding leaving things out or in the way, as our new home has an internal garage, but the smell didn't upset the wife nor did I have to book a day off to do it as I just got up early doing it on the weekend.

The recipe was abit of a test - borrowing elements from different recipes I've done in the past, however I did name it - Home is where the Hop Is. No label currently due to Christmas and things being Topsy Turvey due to silly season.
I will keep the malt profile, however the hops might change and use it showcase different hops.

Either this was a fluke or due to the temps I started at but I got the best efficiency I have ever got, so instead of aiming for a seasonable - 3.8% it actually came out at 5.2% however even with me and dad drinking a few pints each during Christmas eve and Boxing day we didn't notice it.

So all good things....as I type this and munching on my Christmas chocolate I'm getting the craving for my Brann's Breakfast stout....

Until next time.....Happy Brewing

A few weeks ago marked another brew day, again the focus was doing a batch of Saison of Love, this time however is abit more special as I brewed this for a wedding taking place this weekend (12th).

To mark this occasion I wanted to cover the brew day slightly different and do a time lapse video of it.

Unfortunately my old phone ran out of batteries when the boil started and turned off, not saving what was already taken.

However it a successful brew day, with my efficiency increased compared to the other batches, got 70% out of the grains, this was from a 90 minute mash, stirring every 20 or so minutes.
I purchased a larger keg for the occasion too, as I can always use it for the future, I overall got about 17 litres which is about 30 pints. It's being carbing up for the last two weeks ready for the wedding.

Looking forward to the weekend now, its exiting as its the first time (outside of parties) that my beer has been on show and drunk by a large audience.

Until Next time......Happy Brewing

Well another year has past and after 7 brews and some extra bits of kit, notably the grain basket for my boiler. I've now got a setup that works for me.

I still have struggled on chilling the beer down but after entering a BJCP judged competition (Welsh National Championship) I've since looked into potential causes of some faults that were highlighted and have a good idea how to improve in these areas.

Looking back over the last brew year, I've entered a couple of competitions that is a goal ticked off my list.

I had 2 recipes in mind to redevelop - Golden Flower and Fimbulwinter, the later has had a name change to Galactic Panda and its hop additions change to all Galaxy Hops. Golden Flower has been altered quite abit however I haven't brewed it as it made way for Midsummer Mosaic (IPA), which was a new idea/recipe I wanted to try.
I probably will brew it again, however probably wont be until next year as I will probably start thinking of brewing some more seasonal beers soon.

Another new recipe was a Brann's Breakfast stout a Coffee, Chocolate Milk Stout that will be a regular beer I would brew again. I was very tasty indeed. Saison of Love has also been a success, brewing tomorrow, what will be 3rd time this year.

I have in mind still to brew my G.E.B. American Pale Ale, as that too is a favourite, although it has been slightly tweaked over the past few times I've brewed it. The last time adding Rye Malt to it, which didn't really work for me so I took it out and rejigged the malt profile.

I have some exciting prospects to come as a close friend has asked me to brew some beers for his wedding in 10 months, also brewing a batch of Saison of Love for my wife's friend's wedding in august (only a month or so away!!) Exciting!!

Until Next time.....Happy Brewing

Last month (16th June to be precise) I brewed a new recipe with hops I haven't used before (Mosaic and Equinox).

It took some time to decide to do something new and original or do my Golden Flower again, however even though Golden Flower turned out really well last year what most would class a traditional English summer ale. I have developed a taste for the tropical hoppy beers, that have the flavour but not the bitterness. So I wanted to devise a recipe for just that, which could also double as a sessionable summer beer.

I am calling it Midsummer Mosaic, in which I used a large portion of Oats in the mash as well as a honey addition when transferring it to the fermenter. Which utlisies the Mosaic and equinox hops with a First Wort hop addition and no other additions until 5 mins left and flame out.

I can see why many like Mosaic hops, when opening the packet I got an intense tropical aroma which I haven't really notice when opening other hops in the past.

Like the brew day for Brann's Breakfast Stout, mashing the grains was easy thanks to my new grain basket, no mess, no fuss. Wanting to make a slightly larger batch (so I could fill my 9l keg to the top) while also bottling some giveaways too I hit my target fermenter exactly and after dry hopping I ended up with 16L packaged. With an abv of 4.1% it all worked out correctly according to my recipe estimates.

The fermentation to 6 days to reach final gravity, the trial samples I had around this time, had a definitive honey flavour with tropical notes coming through, which would obviously improve with alittle more time.

I was licking my chops and could of drunk straight from the fermenter quite easily!!

Come bottling day and toasting the beer with the token dregs left in the bottling bucket, I noticed that the honey flavour wasn't so prominent as before.

I could only assume 1 of 2 things (or a combo of both), this would either be I didn't mix the honey in enough in the first place and it all settled below the racking tube of the fermenter or the fermentation wiped out the flavours of the honey.

This I can correct if I brew this again, as TheHomeBrewShop sell a packet of Honey malt, which would give the honey flavour I am after, without the gamble of the flavours dissipating. I only used liquid honey as my brew last year (Golden Flower) came out really well however that was with different kit and different fermenter with no conical bottom.

I left all the bottles and keg in my coolbox in the airing cupboard for a week (at 21c) and put a bottle in the fridge for 24 hours.

So now for the 1 week taste test........

The bottle when opened had a slight hiss to it, and while it had some carbonation still wasnt really carbed to the level I aiming for.

The aroma was of tropical, much like the when I opened the packet of Mosaic hops was intense tropical.

The flavour was upfront Mango along with the taste of candied pineapple, some piney notes came through next. I was left with the mouthfeel that Honey gives you, a slight coating, with the taste of honey the last thing.

I was quite surprised by the honey as I thought it all faded/got lost. The sample bottle didn't last long, if I had more in the fridge I could of drunk 3 or 4 already. Another sample bottle is in the fridge for Friday. One that's had a couple more days out and an extra day in fridge. Really happy so far how this one has turned out. I can see why people like Mosaic hops!

Until next time....Happy Brewing

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