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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Since my last post, Ive been working on improving/modifying my most successful brew (G.E.B. Pale Ale) after reading back at my notes in my brew diary and the memory I have of it the malt backbone was slightly week compared to the hops.  I like flavourful hoppy beers but it was a little one sided. So I set to work on this aspect of beer for improvement.

During this time Strong Island announced their 7th Annual Home brew Competition, I set out the plan to get this beer ready in time.

G.E.B. Pale Ale 

Fast forward a few weeks from brewday. I've been trying my allocated test bottles prior to the competition this coming week at Meat & Barrel, Portsmouth. After 2 years of brewing I am still taken aback how the bottled beers change overtime.
Over a space of a week of 'testing' the beer went from very malty to the hops coming to the forefront and being quite bitter to achieving a nice balance with a punchy tropical aroma blended with a slightly spicy malt base.

I've now had all my bottles and have 1 non competition bottle left, which I'll give to my Dad (it's named after him after all). Hopefully the taste wont change much from now till Wednesday, I may have to chill them down abit more just to be on the safe side.  The beer is certainly in the 3-4 week sweet spot - so its been perfectly timed!

In myself I am happy how this beer has turned out, really very happy, the competition if nothing else will allow me to get unbiased, expertly judged feedback. I would love to get in the prize spots (don't we all) that would just be a bonus to me.

I'll report back on how I did next week.






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

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With Christmas now upon us a small update my latest brews and what the new year potentially will bring.

Since my last post in Oct (It's been awhile again!) I have done 2 brews ready for Christmas and silly season, both contrasting each other.
One is a Black IPA, very roasty and fully bodied, the kind you sit and slip in front of an open fire while you wonder if John McClane can save the day even if you've watched Die Hard 25+ times before.

This is quite aptly named Fimbulwinter - which is norse for mighty winter & is the immediate prelude to Ragnarok (if you were wondering?!).
I originally did this beer last year as a partial extract, however this time tweaking it and did it as an all-grain.

Coming out as 5.2% and full of dark roasted malts this is a one a night beer for me.  The only thing I would do differently next year is to up the hops, to balance more with the malts.

The other is it's younger brother.....Santa Panda, a light refreshing Pale Ale that is heavily hopped with Amarillo and Ahtanum to impart a strong Tangerine Citrus quality, with added late spices which has given the beer a faint nutmeg spicy finishing note after the citrus flavour.

I have only tasted a 10 day old sample which wasn't fully conditioned and carbonated but it certainly appears that Santa Panda will be a great alternative to the 'traditional' winter/autumn beers you get. At 4% it wont knock your head off.  I decided to keg this one with a few bottles for a selection Xmas box of the two.

My idea for two completely different types was to have this choice, which I haven't had really before, also for making a mixed present box of 3 of each kind.

So briefly onto next year...Now with 3 very successful brews under my belt(along with my new setup)  I have the confidence I think to try my hand a some competitions at the very least.
I have already penciled into the calendar the Saison Competition as part of the Home Brew Forum that runs in June next year. With the Strong Island Portsmouth Competition a few months earlier will be a perfect opportunity to do my most favoured G.E.B Pale Ale.

I have no illusions that any prizes will be within my reach however I am at the stage in my hobby that I would like to see actually how good am I, like a golfer obtaining their handicap.

Until next time......Have a MERRY Christmas and Happy Brew Year

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The Red Barron (American Red IPA) had mixed fortune, from the keg it was a great success. Took it to a friends house warming (but not party!!) and it all went within a few hours. No joke! all what I had left was some slurry at the bottom of the keg. No only it seems everyone finds it remarkably cool to see a keg on the kitchen top, people also like free beer.

From the bottle it was more of a traditional english ale as I gave a 6 pack to my dad. it certainly wasn't designed to be relatively still, I had thought that it could be the case in the bottles as my sample ones were the same. So all in all I am not completely happy with the results.

There wasn't as much hop flavour as with my other batches in the past.




When I came to build and order my next recipe (Fimbulwinter Black IPA) I noticed that the hop quantities for the Barron were around the same as I have done with my 12l batches, however the Red Barron was in the region of 19l so all I can think of was that is was slightly diluted and I amended the recipe volume after I purchased the hops and forgot about it.

A shame and it didn't help also that I was adjusting to using a new brew setup (my Ace Boiler) and had a real ball ache to cool and transfer to the fermenter.  I will redo this batch in the future, I owe it to myself to do it again to make 12l to see how it turns out. I really do like the 'Seasonal' takes on IPAs so I will ear mark it for next year.

I must remember I am a 12l batch brewer!!!
I must remember I am a 12l batch brewer!!!
I must remember I am a 12l batch brewer!!!

What I have taken from this though, my keg setup works very, very well. I will utilise this going forward and will carb it in the keg and transfer enough when fully carbonated to bottles to give away.

To do this I have recently bought a growler/bottle filler to fill the bottles straight from my tap. I will also buy in the next few days a mini regulator adaptor so I can use larger co2 bottles (same as the soda stream machines) to connect a direct supply to my small keg. The mini 16g cartridges are good to transport with to parties but are not great and consistent enough to carb the keg.  I will also purchase a smaller 6l keg for kind of an overflow/bottling/testing keg before I tap my 9l keg.

If this all works out well with my Fimbulwinter Black IPA. I will get rid of my massive 30l bottling bucket.

Until next time.....Happy Brewing

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I've been abit slow on my write up with the last brew day and the first go with the Ace Boiler.

It was a good bit of kit and worth while purchase to get off the stove that if you wanted a dedicated system but didn't want all the extra parts like a induction hob and kettle or fork out on a more expensive system like the Grainfather.






The boil/heating of especially my powerful 2500W model made the biggest initial impact as it cut down so much compared to heating on the stove, something like 20 minutes and with the double wall insulation it maintained the temperature for the duration of the mash.




I did sparge this time and the colour of the first runnings looked good, it was a bit of a heavy load to then fit to put the wort back in the boiler. I might have to put the kettle lower to the ground rather than on my kitchen top. Trying to lift 19L of warm wort head high (given the height of the boiler on the counter) was a struggle. So that was my first personal note.


 The boil went well and got pretty vigorous a few times, my next personal issue came when I tried to cool the thing.....It took ages, I use a immersion chiller which got the temp to around 35-40 from near boiling in about 15-20 minutes but getting it from that temperature to pitching got me really twitched,

I have since picked up the trick (from a forum member of the HomebrewForum) of stirring it constantly for the chilling time which should get it down to pitching in a under 30 minutes with a chiller.

 The last personal issue was when I was ready to transfer to my fermentor, this was a real pain as the hop filter got surrounded by crud and just couldn't pass anything through the tap.

I have since bought a different filter (well some heavy grade tubing that goes directly from the boiler tap to my false bottom which should do the job better. As after having such clear wort I kicked up all the Trub by having to manly using a measuring jug to strain into the filter.

These were my only issues, just 3, which I have/will hopefully rectify come the next brew so they aren't brew day killers.

I look forward to using this again,

Until Next time........Happy Brewing

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