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

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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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The Welsh Homebrew competition judging took place over the past weekend (marked on average from 2 judges sheets) and although I unfortunately wasn't successful in getting in the top 3 in my category I did learn something from my feedback sheets.

It wasn't until now I understand one of the main top tips (Enter competitions to get 'qualified' judged feedback) given to Home Brewers to improve their beer.  The feedback given to me has been really helpful, as it just has highlighted the flaws I had with this brew day in particular and what I struggle generally.

What both judges picked up on occurred, I believe because I struggled to get the temperature down fast and well before pitching the yeast, by the time I did all the oxygen that was in the wort dissipated.
Even though my Saison (of love) was still judged in the Belgium/Saison category it wasn't quite to style as it was dry hopped to make it more citrus and I was aiming for this rather than the traditional peppery tones. So a few marks came off because of that too. I can however feel good that the dry hopped flavours were retained enough as I brewed this 2 months prior to the competition, the bottles were only kept slightly lower than room temp too.

I did however get some additional positives in the comments, with the BCJP judge sheet saying that overall it was a good beer.

Would I enter another competition that's judged with the bjcp style guide? Probably, but not this year or until I can sort out the flaws in my brew day. I have an idea on how.

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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It's been now sometime in the bottles and Brann's breakfast stout has come into its own. Definite Chocolate and very smooth. Not too much coffee, which I don't know if its a good thing or not, didn't want it too overwhelming but enough to taste. So within the recipe I've added more coffee to the addition as well as upping the the lactose very slightly too. No great changes just slight improvements.

Nailing this recipe has given me ideas to do some extra seasonal recipes based on Brann's Breakfast Stout. One I had in mind to add Orange Peel during primary fermentation to make it a chocolate orange stout, another idea would be to add bourbon chips to make a bourbon breakfast stout.

So come the stages of adding these to primary I'll split the batch next time and add 1/2 to my SS conical fermentor and transfer the other 1/2 to my watch I use for my bottling bucket as I would bottle 1 batch before the other anyway, as I'll probably leave the bourbon chips for a week and the orange peel for slightly less.

Until next time....Happy brewing

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What better way to start the rest of your week of with an original recipe. Brann's breakfast Stout couldnt be any better, trying to recreate a style of beer you've only had 3 or 4 examples to base off was hard.
Brew day as an earlier post describes went well, so I had hopes.

The aroma is prodomently made up of the coffee notes with some slight chocolate coming through at the end with that lactose milkiness.

Taste is much the same, just with more pronunciation, coffee with roasted malts then chocolate with the lactose coating the mouth like if you just had a milkshake. In fact this beer leaves you with a chocolate milkshake aftertaste, exactly what I was after.
If I was to compare it with any interest tried would have to be jet black heart by Brew dog. However brann's breakfast Stout has much more body, I found jet black heart slightly thing. I don't with mine.
It just goes down nicely in the evening as a dessert beer while you have your feet up.
This ones a keeper!!

Check it out in the recipe section soon...
Until next time..... Happy brewing

 

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A slightly delayed write up of my latest batch 'Brann's Breakfast Stout' which was actually brewed last Friday 26th May.
Why/What is a breakfast stout?

A breakfast Stout is brewed with flaked oats, chocolate and coffee, which can also have lactose (giving a creamy milky mouthfeel) with the stout smelling like a freshly brewed coffee.

The reason why I brewed it was a combination of things, 1 was that my Dad and I tried various stouts (see 'Beer Research' posts) and I thought I should try to recreate/use ideas from ones Ive tried or looked into for my own brew. Using element's from Founder's Breakfast Stout, Brewdog''s Jet Black Heart and Dead Metaphor - Brann's Breakfast Stout was born!



So along came the brew day.

Opening and transferring the malts to my malt basket, they smelt delicious like a malty chocolatey cappuccino.

Mashed at 67c for 75mins stirring at 20 then 40 mins. I actually overshot my mash temps so had to put some cool water in to reduce temps to required target.

During the mash the smell was of strong filter coffee.












I mashed out for 15 mins then let the grains drain while I heated the pot to boiling.











Added Magnum hops at 60 then Sorachi Ace at 15 with the wort chiller and 1/2 a brite wort tablet.

Lactose went in 5 mins later. The coffee and cacao went in at flameout, leaving
for 15 mins before chilling.











I prechilled my cool brewing bag with 9.5l of frozen water bottles  during the coffee/chocolate stand and chilling.







After 5 days in the fermentor the hydro reading is 1.030 down from 1.054.

I'll wait a few more days before I add some extra coffee and cacao.
Samples have been tasting good; roasted malts, coffee leaving the mouth with with slightly creamy, the body is quite full and much fuller than something like Jet Black Heart that I found lacked some body.









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

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Bottle Conditioned

Its been 3 weeks since I bottled Saison of Love. I finished the keg in quite quick time, mainly due to it being 1/2 full, my attention is focused on the bottles.

Thursday I had one of my smaller sized test bottles that were bottled with some of the remaining beer left in the bottling bucket once I finished bottling all the other allocated bottles.

The beer has turned out very well in the bottles. Nicely carbed up, having a nice white 1 & 1/2 - 2 finger head that dissipated slightly but still had about 1/2 finger all the way down to near the end of the glass.

This bottle had a crisper flavour and drier finish seemingly than the keg version. It still had that distinctive white wine flavour I was going for, the aroma does remind you its a saison.

The keg had a merky looking head, probably because some hops and other gunk got into it when I transfered it from the fermenter, racking too close to the Trub. Also I had a real issue with force carbing the keg.

Keg Version

I probably over carbed the keg (for the amount that was in the keg) or it had too much of a co2 blanket so when I pulled a glass of it there was so much foam. The colour of the keg version was also some what paler than the bottle version.

I'm now looking forward to enjoy all the remaining bottles that I've got for myself, its time now to chill the bottles to store and slow down the ageing.


Lets also see what the 1st July brings as its being entered into the Welsh National Homebrew Competition.




Until next time......Happy Brewing

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