Home Brew in Donegal

What to do with a spare 8 hours.

2012-02-27T00:36:00.004Z

A Sunday evening alone, the perfect opportunity for things I’m not allowed to do when Ms Homebrew’s in: listen to jazz, and brew beer. Ms Homebrew doesn’t mind me watching the rugby, even when it’s on at the same time as an Eastenders omnibus, but jazz? She’s no time for it. “It’s messy sounding”. And homebrewing’s just plain messy. I’m wearing slippers now, while I brew. Once upon a time my homebrew outfit included waders.

I’ve been a bit busy with non-homebrew related stuff, so I’ll condense the last two brews into a single paragraph, seeing as nothing particularly exciting happened. 5 gallons of tiger beer made, from Dave Line’s recipe, to which I was largely faithful; and Kindleweisse, a whatever’s-left-in-the-cupboard wheat beer. The first has been lagered in the shed (in the plastic bucket, at about 9 degrees, so not really lagering, I know), the second, Kindleweisse, an American Wheat beer, has been soaking up the heat from the stove, occasionally exciting the cat. It did take a little while to start fermenting, but once I’d put it where the cat usually sits, it sprung to life. Cats do know the warmest spots.

I’m making a batch of Golden Ale. I’m not really sure what makes Golden Ale. Everything else I’ve brewed has either been pretty dyed in the wool as a style, or written about enough for me to reproduce it with some confidence. Even Kindleweisse, which was only made because apparently in some countries you can ferment a wheat beer with a top fermenting (ale) yeast, and was the result of a read through Daniel’s book.

Even on the Internet there’s not much about ‘Golden Ale’. As far as I understand it’s a relatively new term, coined in 1994, which is enough time for the Internet to have an opinion on it. Nevertheless, I did find the following: It’s a golden sort of colour, between 3 and five percent alcohol, little in the way of a malt profile, but plenty from the hops, which should produce a crisp, dry beer, with a feeling of bitterness, and a powerful hop aroma.

To that end, I’ve used 7lbs 8oz pale malt, 4oz each of wheat malt and barley flakes, 1.5oz Fuggles (hops) and 1/3 oz of Styrian Goldings (also hops) to give an IBU of about 30 (which may or may not be typical of the style). I’ve mashed low and long to remove any trace of flavour from the beer, but I’ll put it back with late additions of whatever Styrian Goldings I have left, and plenty of Cascade. I’ve also used some Burton water salt treatment to help with the hoppiness. I was toying with the idea of using acid malt, to lift up the pH, which I gather the Pilsner producing countries do to create a crisp flavour, but I chickened out of that in favour of something that would, if all else failed, make a passable pale ale. I also tried this: put in your copper hops before the wort comes to the boil and the wort won’t kick and spill over the place – it works.

Ah, and now I’ve distracted myself with writing, and I can’t remember if the boil started at ten to ten, or ten past! D’oh.

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-25T16:13:00.003Z

This year I’m going to continue to observe my ‘No Carlsberg’ resolution from a few years back (it’s harder than it sounds), and to it I’ll add ‘Spend more time in the kitchen’. That means brewing!

So, did you get a homebrew kit for Christmas, and have found this blog after Googling some home brewed beer related words? Then isn’t Google clever, sending you here. The following is some advice to those new to the hobby, or as is often the case, those returning after years spent having a family.

Brewing your own beer from a tin, box or bag is really easy, and very rewarding.

Your basic kit is:
Your tin kit (plus 1kg / 2lbs of sugar)
A 5 gallon bucket, plus lid
Bottles
A 5ft-ish tube to siphon your beer
Sterilising stuff
Anything else is needlessly fancy: hydrometer, thermometer and so on. People have been brewing without these for thousands of years.

If you’ve been given just a tin your kit won’t be as instant as all that, but as most homebrew starter kits come with everything you need, you can get cracking right away. If you do need anything from the above list, you’ll not go far wrong with your local farmers co-op. Start there. And while you’re in the co-op, get yourself some wood, put up some shelves, as you’ll soon need more space than you know. This ‘hobby’ is addictive.

Now I have no intention of reproducing the instructions given with your can, as I’ve yet to brew from a tin that had insufficient instructions within. However, I’ve some additional info here, which may help understand the instructions.

Firstly, don’t let the instructions scare you. Whilst I too can’t stress enough the importance of cleanliness in brewing, it’s not something you need to stress about. The instructions are likely to give you nightmares about making 5 gallons of malt vinegar. This simply isn’t going to happen. If the bucket is dirty, wash it up. A clean bucket should then be sterilised with any old household sterilising stuff (Milton, VWP, a weak bleach solution), and rinsed until there’s no trace of your cleaner or steriliser. Now it’s ready to use. There’s no need for lab coveralls and industrial steam cleaners. It’s homebrew.

Now go back to the instructions. The next thing it’s probably going to harp on about is how quickly your wort is likely to become infected. Your wort is the watery malt extract stuff you’ve now got 5 gallons of, which hasn’t yet been fermented. If you leave the bucket unattended for a day or two then yes, you might have a sour tasting, very weakly alcoholic, undrinkable beer, but if you pitch (chuck in) your yeast into the wort as directed, you’ll have no problems. Put the lid on, put it somewhere not too warm, not too cold, and leave it for 12 hours. After twelve hours, or a day, or whenever you’ve got time, open the lid a little and take a peek. There should be a lovely, fluffy cloud-like layer going on, with lots of brown bitter-tasting bits sticking to it, and the smell can be anything between a loaf in the oven to rotten eggs. This is normal. Normal. Replace the lid having not sneezed into the bucket or dipped in anything unsavoury, relax, and continue to follow the instructions.

Finally, exercise patience. So it says leave your beer in bottles for 3 weeks? Leave it 6 and you’ll be amazed at what you’ve created. Don’t forget to tell everyone about it now; you’ll never make it through 5 gallons on your own.

'Tis the season...

2011-12-20T21:15:00.004Z

Needing an extra empty pop bottle is a weak excuse for drinking homebrew before lunch. In the end I didn’t actually need the extra bottle, but the lengths I’d go to to secure one are as yet unplumbed.

The reason I needed another bottle is I’ve finally gotten around to bottling some cider. It’s been under fermentation lock for about as long as I can remember. Now it’s split between three 1 litre bottles, primed and awaiting spring. I’ve only a few more bottles of the Mmmild to give away, and then that’s the homebrewing done for another year (though there are still bags of empties and a keg needs washing!). If Santa gets me some ‘AAA’ batteries for Christmas I’ll be making some more booze in January (thermometer and beard-trimming-machine both take ‘triple A’s, so no mashing or shaving has been done for some time).

I’ll be looking forward to making some more lagers while the weather’s cold, which will be the perfect refreshing drink for our guaranteed hot Irish summer, and while I’m home over the festive season I hope to make a homebrew demo video. This will be a short, introductory video aimed at people who got their first homebrew kit for Christmas, and want to get cracking right away!

So, to end 2011, I’m happy to look back on a progressive year of brewing, from a tin in March, extract in May, and making the leap into almost completely all grain by July! The beers have been getting better and better, I’m making less and less mess, and I’m getting a whole batch of all-grain done in less that 12 hours! And that’s all true except for the less mess bit.

So, I hope you’ll check back for the video in January, but until then, Merry Christmas, and a happy new year. And remember: Homebrew isn’t just for Christmas, it’s a way of life.

Brew 20: Looking like a Mmmild winter, 5 gal of Dark Mild, 3.5 – 4%

2011-12-06T15:52:00.001Z

I’m making more beer, because I don’t think the 5 gallons of Hobgoblin is quite enough. Another 5 of mild ought to see me through to New Year. The mild, as it happens, purely by coincidence, is just a low alcohol version of the hobgoblin recipe. Honestly, the recipe is all from my head. I had 4.5lbs of light DME left over in a bag, going solid, and I thought a mild would mature in time for Christmas, y’know, so I could give the odd bottle out, if I can bear to let go. It was only afterwards, looking over the recipe, that I realised it was close in proportions, just about 2/3s of the gravity. Just as well the Hobgoblin tastes great, then.
Uh, yes… I did open up a bottle after barely two weeks.

So, to conclude the post, here is my mild recipe, called ‘Mmmild’, even though there’s no way of knowing if it’ll taste that good for a number of weeks. I’m really just assuming that it’ll be great because it’s made of beer.
4.5lbs Light DME
12oz crystal 55L
2.3oz. chocolate malt
1oz maltodextrine/carapils
All the above, plus a pinch of salt, prepared in the usual extract/grain way.
Then, 0.3oz Magnum, 0.85oz Fuggles, and 0.4 Styrian Goldings all at 60 mins.
Followed by Irish moss and some more hops for flavour and aroma. Fermented with Safale US-04 (English Ale)

I’ll rack it into a secondary, so that if I do manage to part with some bottles as some sort of gift, there won’t be a ridiculous amount of yeast at the bottom. I know it’s harmless, you know it’s harmless, but it does look odd. Fortunately, if some yeast does end up in the glass, the chocolate malt will have darkened the beer sufficiently to cover any of that cloudiness up. There could even be a bit of chill haze, if that’s the way it turns out. So long as it tastes nice, eh? Seeing as the Hobgoblin clone I’m currently drinking tastes so fantastic, I imagine a ‘lite’ version will go down equally well.

By the way, it tastes like Rum and Dandelion and Burdock, and I love it! But what if nobody else does? Maybe I shouldn’t give any away after all.

Brew #19: Brew Hobgoblin Clone, 5 gal, 5.8%abv

2011-11-09T16:25:00.002Z

Which brings the total number of gallons of beer (not including ginger beer or cider), to a gut-busting, liver-loving 60 gallons, or about 480 pints! No officer, I’m not still over the limit…

The latest is a Hobgoblin clone to Orfy’s recipe, and is conditioning in a plastic barrel downstairs, with bluetack plugging a CO₂ leak, and a “drink on” date set for December. Although it’s a partial mash, with half malt, half extract, I did mash 6+lbs of malt, which is tricky enough, given my sparging capacity is 2 gallons, which I only found out after putting in two and a half gallons of mash.

It’s very clear to me that I’ve still a lot to learn, but as I’m sitting by the fire, contemplating my next brew, I’m very happy with how far I’ve come in the last two years, especially given that drinking isn’t necessarily conducive to learning much. Bags of crushed malt are now taking preference over tins of ready-mix, and I’m now considering (optimistically) malting my own home grown grains.

The next brew will probably be something from ‘Home Brewed Beers and Stouts’ by C.J.J. Berry, as I’ve some dried malt extract needs using up, and I’ve filled the shed, undersink cupboards and two shelves in the porch with empty bottles, it seems only right to fill them up with something, before Mrs Homebrew loses the rag and… recycles them! I want something quick and easy, so it’ll be something like a mild, I imagine, so I can get drinking it pretty soon. Also, they make great gifts to the over 18s, and the primary gifting season is nearly upon us.

Whilst making/drinking all this homebrew, I’m still working out how much CO₂ is produced from one 5 gallon batch of fermenting booze, as well as trifles like how to measure mash temperatures now the expensive thermometer’s broke, how to pour a pint of beer as opposed to a pint of head from the pressure barrel, and why the beer tastes so different from bottle to bottle! I suppose the only way to work these things out is to keep doing it all again, until I’ve perfected everything. After all, it’s not about the destination, but instead about the journey. Though I won’t be undertaking any journeys until the last of the 480 pints wears off.

Pride before fall (or by winter, at the very latest)

2011-10-07T19:01:00.002+01:00

Tuesday night I set my alarm for 6 am. It was dark, quiet, and way before I’d usually get up unless there was some sort of emergency. In a way, there was. The homebrew supply is worryingly low (I’m drinking white wine as I write this, and if it weren’t for Mrs Homebrew’s birthday last week we wouldn’t have any of that)! As a result, I was forced up way before dawn in order to get a small all-grain brew going before the day’s choir commitments got in the way. Oh, and I borrowed a thermometer for the mash that very much needed to be back in someone else’s fridge by half 8, so six was as late as I could leave it.

I’m making a gallon to try a new recipe, and I’ve only enough stuff for one anyway. It is a trial of Dave Line’s Fuller’s London Pride, from his book ‘Brew Beers Like those you buy’. The beer bottle says ‘Target, Challenger and Northdown’ are the hops used, whereas the book opts for Fuggles and EKG. Naturally, I’ve gone for Fuggles and Styrian Goldings, as that’s all that was in the freezer.

My morning was spent mashing 1lb 6.5 oz of pale malt and 1.6 oz crystal, followed by a 90 min boil with the hops. The mash and sparge went well, though I’m still struggling to juggle jugs of hot water and the perforated chopped tomato tin I use to spray the grain bed gently. I’ll show you what I mean in a picture one day... actually, for that I’ll need a fourth hand.

Then an interesting weather phenomenon occurred halfway through the boil; a small Cumulo Nimbus formed at the kitchen ceiling. It was a beautiful sight, and at a certain angle a rainbow shone through from the striplight on the roof. I opened to doors and windows to let some of the steam out. Apparently condensation on the walls annoys Mrs Homebrew even more than burnt caramel on the stove, which ranks pretty high.

So, having set the alarm for 6, and by four in the afternoon the beer is frothing away very merrily, which isn’t bad at all. And neither is the state of the kitchen. The walls need a go over with a hair dryer, and I’ve a bag of wet grain I need to get rid of. I’m very happy to report that what went into the bucket will probably end up a lot like an English bitter, and we’ll see how much closer it gets in about 3 to four weeks!

St. Arthur, Patron Saint of Guinness

2011-09-19T13:37:00.008+01:00

I’ll be celebrating St. Arthur’s day (22nd Sep, if the campaign has passed you by) by drinking some stout I’ve brewed myself. I’m only making a gallon because I’m not really a stout kinda guy, and every last one of my mates will be mooching promotional pints of the ‘real thing’ in town. Nevertheless, it’s important to observe Irish tradition by brewing this, a uniquely Irish beer, a beer that’s been around for nearly as long as marketing, which is the third oldest profession. Whilst doing a little research, I found this article in the library, and I faithfully reproduce part of it here:

First brewed by pagan settlers to Ireland c. 3000BC, the forerunner to Guinness was a beer made with burnt bread, mashed by the enzymes found in saliva, and made bitter with Dandelion and Yarrow. Years of brewing and celebrating followed, with little sign of change in the recipe. Then, at around the same time as the Romans were befriending Western Europe, St. Arthur (then known simply as Arthur the Sot, causing leading academics to wonder if this is the origin of the abbreviation St. for saint, as a mistranslation) began brewing stout more like the stuff we know it to be today. To begin with he pioneered a primitive malting process, bringing out the natural sugars found in the barley, instead of the much cruder way of grinding the bread into flour, baking with it, forgetting about it overnight until it burns, then mashing with saliva. This new brew was considered far superior to the older beers, however in order to get the dark colour drinkers were used to, St. Arthur still included portions of burnt bread. An early recipe, found carved into the an Cuin nEas stone, locally known as ‘Beer Stone’, located in county Meath, describes how St. Arthur used 8 parts malted barley to one part burnt bread, in order to make the beer he is famed for. Also found on the same stone is an early numerical system, believed to be a tally used to advertise and sell the beer. The contemporary currency was small rocks with holes in, and academics calculate that the price of a pint of St. Arthur’s beer was half a round stone with a hole in, and the modern equivalent is 4-euro 85c, a price now only charged in Dublin and hotels. Truly, St. Arthur’s contemporaries valued this beer highly!

In the 18th and 19th century many styles of beer were invented or developed by brewers, thanks to updated malting, kilning and brewing techniques, and the discoveries of Louis Pasteur. However, current versions of St. Arthur’s legendary brew have made only little steps towards modernity. Not much has changed from the original recipe carved into a stone nearly 1,800 years ago, and developments in yeast strains allowing brewers to use pure yeast strains in their beers have not been entirely taken on board by brewers at the Guinness factory; there are still vats in the St. James’ Gate brewery where the wild yeast strain Brettanomyces is actively encouraged in order to maintain the taste that would have been familiar to drinkers four thousand years ago.

The article then goes into detail about palaeontological evidence of early Guinness drinkers and some interesting facts about the mysterious death of St. Arthur, and the amazing feat of surviving on his beer alone for 40 days and nights, but it’s the above section that interested me most.

So, I’ve brewed to the basic Guinness principle, 80% pale malt, 10% flaked barley and 10 % roast, unmalted barley. However, to make it a little different, I’m using 5% roast and 5% chocolate malt instead of just 10% roast, mainly because I’ve got some lying around. It’s been boiled for ages in order to try and get the length at 1 gallon, with an O.G. of 1048. Seeing as brewday was the 1st of September, I’m not expecting a very dry stout by the 22nd, but hopefully it will be ready to try and, god willing, will be a suitable tribute to St. Arthur, patron saint of Guinness.

Calculating IBU & Copper Hop needs!

2011-09-12T17:38:00.009+01:00

It’s not something I lose sleep over, seeing as my scales aren’t pinpoint accurate anyway, but I’ve noticed in my homebrew reading that there isn’t a suitable calculation for getting IBUs or ounce weights for British gallons. Papazian has a nice one for American homebrewers using grams, and even goes as far as to suggest an equivalent for British measures, but in spite of the use of ounces, which weigh the same in the US and the UK, the equation still figures in US gallons, which, as I’ve already said somewhere, is a bit of a wussy gallon. So, here is an adapted equation I’ve been working on for a couple of hours.

Firstly, you can either use the original Papazian sum, which is: and then correct it for UK gallons by dividing the answer by 19 (the number of litres in 5 US gallons - 5 gallons being a typical batch size) and multiplying that by 22.5 (the number of litres in 5 UK gallons), or by multiplying the answer by 1.1842. Those will give you an answer in ounces, and they shouldn’t be miles out.

Or you could use my own simpler contribution to Imperial homebrewing, by using the “Evans UK factor”, or the EKs Factor!

The Eks Factor

The Eks Factor is a simple number that you can use within the above equation that will give you an answer for your common or garden UK gallon brew. So instead of 1.34, use the number 1.587, and thus the equation becomes:
So, for a 5 UK gallon brew, with an IBU of 50, hop utilisation of 30%, an Alpha Acid content of 6% and the Eks Factor, 1.587, the sum goes as follows:
To get an accurate answer you do need to use the factor to 3 decimal places, but then, if like me your scales don’t go much lower than an ounce, I’d recommend, in Papazian’s own words, “don’t worry, have a homebrew”.

I’ve looked through about half of the books on homebrewing available, and the older UK books tend to only use AAU and HBUs in the calculations, which is too general for me. The American books, for example Papazian’s The Complete Joy... doesn’t account for the larger UK gallon, and the exquisitely detailed Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels has something that’s far too complicated for me to get a straight answer out of – my head just can’t get round it! Brew Classic European Beers At Home has an equation in grams that can be converted into ounces if needed, by dividing the gram answer by 28.35 (the number of grams in an ounce), although that answer will be about 0.002 oz out!

Anyway, to sum up, for a very easy equation for anyone brewing in macho-gallons, use the following: I’m no mathematician, and given that I’m not even sure my hop utilisation IS 30%, it really is just splitting hairs. In order to accurately assess your hop needs or IBUs, colour of your beer etc. read Ray Daniels’ Designing Great Beers. But if you’re merely staggering drunkenly towards your perfect pint, my Eks Factor will suit you nicely! Good luck, and happy nit-picking.

Cider #2011

2011-09-11T15:29:00.003+01:00

This year I’ve harassed two people for cider apples, and apart from the absence of wassailing and being chased down the street by an angry man, it’s as typical an old fashioned cider as one can hope to get, and still have a good chance of success. This year the cider contains ONLY apple juice, with one Sodium Metabisulphate tablet (Campden Tablet), and Young’s Cider yeast.

This year the process was simplified too. Rinse the apples a bit, remove anything you wouldn’t feed to a pig, and then mince the rest in a good fruit juicer, stalks and all. The apples are red looking (see photo) and the juice that came out looked fantastic, like a Tequilla Sunrise, but unfortunately the colour hasn’t hung around to be in the actual cider. The stuff that will ferment (O.G. 1046, by the way, which is two washing-up bowls full making one gallon) is a typical yellow-green apple juice colour.

So, with campden tablet in place, I added the juice directly on top, so that it doesn’t get chance to go brown, and I’ll wait 24 hours before pitching the yeast. I think that is so that the tablets have time to react with the oxygen in the apple juice, and not mess up the sweet-toothed yeast.

Once it’s fermented I’ll put it into a demijohn, rack at regular intervals to keep the cider clear and nice tasting, and I’ll try and get it drunk around New Year. 2010’s cider was very dry after leaving it 7 months before drinking, so I’d like something a little sweeter this time, but we’ll see.

This time the whole cider making process took only about two hours, most of which was spent picking bits of apple off the floor, ceiling and out of my hair. Don’t worry I didn’t juice those bits. I do have standards.

An update, is all.

2011-09-01T20:28:00.004+01:00

I’ve recently spent a couple of weeks travelling around Ireland, mooching down the west coast, visiting a few festivals; it’s been fun. Fun, but trying to sample all the micro-brewed beers I found on my way round was, frankly, thirsty work. I’ll not go into detail, there’s a fantastic blog for that sort of thing, The Beer Nut, but I will go as far as to recommend Galway Hooker Pale Ale. It’s nearly as good as my own! Anyway, it’s nice to see a healthy industry.

In an interesting capitulation to the holiday, we ended up singing at the Hilden Beer Festival, and gratefully accepted our beer tokens in return. I chose a pint of Metalman, I think twice, and I didn’t pay enough attention, but I think my first was something called Champion. All pales, anyway. I also had a try of Armagh cider. For anyone interested, and I mean really interested, you’ll have your mind blown by the beautiful ciders on offer there.

Finally, my Lorna Light Bitter from Shale’s Advanced Home Brewing turned out nice. It would have turned out nicely conditioned, too, had I lubricated the seal on my Youngs’ barrel. Subsequently, anything after the first glass was airlocked in, and I had to open up the lid in order to get a pint out. That, of course, puts the beer in danger of infection or oxidisation, drawing in the shelf life from anything up to 3 months, to a mere three days. Fortunately, help was at hand. Two brave, selfless individuals who, with a twinkle in their eye, helped get rid of a few gallons of flat but tasty ale. It’s good to have folk one can rely on in an emergency.

Oh yeah, and while I was brewing a stout today I got attacked by a wasp while I was sparging! I can't believe my luck sometimes!

Real life Vs Real Ale

2011-07-31T18:45:00.006+01:00

So, there I am, Sunday afternoon, with the promise of an empty house for a few hours. I try and brew when I'm on my own in the house - it's more harmonious that way. I severely dislike company in the kitchen! My girlfriend has gone to the pictures. No sooner than I hear the car pull away and I'm busy brewing up. Once upon a time the words "fancy a brew?" would conjure up images of crumpets and choccy biccies, but today it's 1 gallon of Feile Pale. I've just got to what I feel is the hardest stage, a sparge (rinsing the sugary grains with hot water) when the phone goes. The phone is always upstairs when it rings. Then, once I'd restarted the sparge, my girlfriend comes in telling me the car tyre's flat! Thank God for Papazian's insistence that all home brew be brewed with a 'Here's One I Made Earlier' pint in the hand. It really does make brew-day feel like it's going a lot smoother!

The reason I'm only brewing a gallon is because I'm currently making another adjustment to my Feile Pale recipe.

This time, for 1 gallon:
OG: c.1050, IBU c.50, probably a little more
Pale Malt: 1lb 5oz (90%)
Crystal (120EBC/55lov): 0.7oz (3%)
Wheat Malt: 1oz (4%)
CaraMalt: .75oz (3%)
Magnum: 0.2oz @60
Magnum: 0.1oz @30
Fuggles: 0.3oz @ 15 + irish moss
Styrian Goldings post boil.
Also, I added in 4oz of pale dried malt extract because I didn't account for Mash efficieny when I worked out the recipe. But I really think this is 'the one'! Actual O.G. was 35, because for some reason I've 1 gal, 3 pints in the fermenter! At least I know that if I had done it right, I'd have got 1048 o.g., so I'm doing something right, if not everything!

This is my third attempt at a good pale ale. The first was a little boring, containing only pale and crystal malts, the second, with wheat malt and more hops was fantastically bitter, but still lacked something (sparkle mainly, because I think I forgot to prime the bottles). This third effort is an attempt to nail down some good bitterness levels, having finally got some reasonably accurate scales, and a good depth of malt flavour. However, I won't know if this recipe is any good until it's fermented. Nevertheless, it should taste, at the very least, amazing. I've started bottling into used brown beer bottles with crown caps. Despite the obvious stupidity of hitting the tops of glass bottles with a hammer, I think they look fantastic, especially with the label above stuck to the side with selotape.

I'm going away for a few weeks in August, but before I go I hope to get one last 5gallon brew in; Orfy's Hobgoblin clone. I'll be pitching it on top of the yeast created by Ken Shales' Lorna Light Bitter, just as soon as it's fermented down enough to keg. I've been very encouraging towards it for several days now, and I've been rewarded by a 24 point drop in 4 days. I can see my window of opportunity getting closed and the curtains drawn, but hopefully, with similar encouragement, I'll have time to Keg the Ken, brew up Gobhoblin and bottle it before I go away in ONE week. I've all but washed the bottles!

All in all, I think I'm getting the hang of this brewing lark.

Tiger Beer

2011-07-25T13:59:00.004+01:00

Readers of this blog who already know a bit about brewing might occasionally think of me “he hasn’t a clue what he’s doing”, and indeed, some of the time you’d be right. However, to get a proper feel of the everyday low-level incompetence, you’d need a look at every aspect of brewing, including simply ordering malts. After spending 5 hours sitting beneath the letterbox, waiting for my delivery of malts, it only occurred to me after I’d opened the parcel that 25^oL isn’t the same as 25EBC*. So instead of 3kg of light crystal malt, which I’d probably use quite a lot of, I’ve got 3kg of CaraPils, which features in, as far as I can see, two recipes. D’oh! Never mind, I’ve got till Christmas before it goes off**!

So, today, I’m brewing 1 gallon of Tiger Beer to a Dave Line recipe. I’m only brewing a gallon because a) the battery on my drill stopped working, and I can’t finish my Zapap Lauter Tun, and b) because the recipe calls for lots of saccharin tablets, which I don’t want to use, and I don’t think are necessary, so if it turns out they are necessary, I’ve only made 1 gallon of a very dry lager.

So, as promised, here’s this post’s photo: My fantastically top of the range (make that on top of the range) Mash Tun. The WD40 on the right was for essential gas-hob maintenance, and hopefully won’t end up in the beer, but you never know.

The recipe features Pilsner Malt (although it asks for Lager malts), Flaked Rice, Hallertauer hops I’ll be fermenting it with Brewferm Lager Yeast, which this morning seems to be floating on top like an Ale yeast…

I’m not one for doling out advice, but here’s one: It’s quite important to double check your sums before you start brewing. This morning I was only bringing up half of the required strike water (the water in which you mash your malted grains) to temperature. After thinking something along the lines of “that doesn’t look like nearly enough water” but not quite thinking “oh well”, did I quickly add in some more. Oh well, disaster averted, what next?

* One of the three colour-codes used to describe the darkness of the malts, and how it will affect beer.
**A very malty Christmas ale?

Tum ti tum...

2011-07-21T14:13:00.008+01:00

I seem to be doing a lot of waiting at the moment. I've bottled so much beer, and none of it is ready. I'm also waiting for a parcel of homebrew stuff, namely crushed malts, some new hops and yeast, in order to start making some all grain brews. I don't really need to make any more, but I'm going to anyway.

First up will be a 5 gallon barrel full of Lorna Light Bitter, from Ken Shales' Advanced Home Brewing, which is mainly Pale Malt Barley and Wheat Malt, shortly followed by a Tiger Beer copy from Dave Line's Brewing Beers Like Those You [pay through the nose for], which I'll bottle.

I did my first partial mash the other day, and as far as I can tell it worked OK, but it was with whole malt, which I had to crush myself. This time I've opted for bags of crushed malt, so that I don't have to spend an hour with a hammer before I even start the brewing process.

Also, I've finally bought batteries for my camera, so hopefulyl the remaining posts for the rest of my life will be illustrated in some way. For now, have a picture of my very modern lagering facility.

Lately, I've noticed the hammer has been more involved in my brewing; for crushing things and for capping glass bottles. It seems counter intuitive to hit glass bottles with a hammer, but so far, after a few frustrating first, second and third attempts, I've got the hang of it. But I really do hate bottling. And hitting glass bottles with hammers ought to release frustration, but instead, with every overflowing bottle, every bit of sucked up yeast, every square foot of kitchen covered in puddles of booze just drives me further up the wall! It really will drive me to drink.

Tasting beer and tastes in beer

2011-07-13T18:41:00.004+01:00

Never let it be said that I do anything in halves. There are a lot of things I don’t bother to do at all, but anything I do do gets done good and proper.

So, not really knowing all that much about beer, except that I like it, I’ve started trying a number of different bottled ales that can be found in our supermarkets and bars. We’re not flush up here, but fortunately you can get a bottle of ale for less than £2, which alongside some olives for the missus, and cat food for the cat, I see a bottle of beer in the weekly as a reasonable luxury (yeah, I know, "whatever gets you through the day"). I’ve recently tried Timothy Tailor’s Bitter (Engerland), Whitewater’s Red Ale (Belfast), a Downpatrick Bitter, Goose Island IPA (Chicago), two pints of Bass, and, from Eniskillen, a secret bottle of wheat beer, a gift from a friend with the surprising instruction “add blackcurrant”. After all that, what I don’t know about a malt profile ain’t worth knowing.

So there I am, trying beer, wondering what exactly goes into these that make them so darned tasty, if it isn’t a lock of MSG? Why exactly is it that our everyday, mass-produced beer tastes so bland in comparison?

I’ve begun to realise the importance of yeast in the whole thing. Not only does it affect the overall sweetness, as you’d imagine, but all the fruity stuff comes from it if it’s too warm, and so on. So how much of an effect can yeast have?

Two questions, and no answers, so far. The yeast thing… well, I’ve started some ginger beer with champagne yeast, and so far the yeast is all I can taste. Since, I’ve made Smithish with both toasted and roasted barley, and I’m getting the feel for different hops, as well as quantities and styles of beer. It’s all part of the brewing learning curve, but it’s nice to improve recipes when you know what goes into them in the first place!

But I digress. It’s not my beer on the shelves. It’s the likes of Goose Island IPA, which wasn’t selling in the bar*, and I don’t think it’s for want of knowing about it, as in the bar they stock a wide variety of beers from around the world, which are advertised in a little ‘menu’. And, no, before you ask, it’s NOT a Wetherspoons. Similarly, the beer from Downpatrick doesn’t seem to fly off the shelves in a bar full of ‘locals’. Granted, not local to DP, but local Irishmen nonetheless. I mean, Carlsberg! Seriously? Won't they even try Harp?

I was chatting to a fellow bandmate at that bar recently, during the ‘refreshment’ break of a recent gig. I noticed, quite by chance, a leaflet for a bottled bitter from a local brewery. I ordered one. The guitarist apparently loves ale, and drinks nothing else when he’s over in Engerland (drinks bottled Heineken here), and he ordered one. That was three bottles sold that night, because I happened to go leafing through the leaflets. Elsewhere I’ve noticed Bass on tap, and I’ve allowed myself the usual look around to see if anyone else was drinking it, which they weren’t, and ordered one anyway. I’m very funny about the first pint out of a tap…

I know places like “Rhymes with Al Fresco” and “sounds like Painsburys” probably stock ‘local’ beer nationwide, so I can’t really include them when discussing local, but there are places trying to stock local booze, when it’s available, and it’s a pity it’s not flying off the shelves. I’m keen to try local booze when I see it, but it’s also hard to find. Hilden brewers had a tent at a recent festival I went to, and I was fine with paying £3.50 a pint once, but after that, I was happy enough with warm can of… I forget… something cheaper anyway. You can’t always afford to be discerning!

So there’s definitely an ale profile over here in Ireland, but it’s not mainstream yet.

* When they knocked the price down by half, I felt sorry for them, which is why, between the three of us, we drank the lot. Not in an evening, of course; over two.

Carbon Footprint

2011-07-10T13:44:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I quickly, well, not quickly at all, boiled up two lots of gallon trials. The first was the Smithish recipe with roasted barley (1/5 oz for 1 gallon) the second was the same but with toasted malted barley (1 oz for 1 gallon) instead of roasted. My aim is to improve my brew-day skills with small batches, and also to see if the recipes are any good. A side-by-side test of two identical, bar one ingredient, recipes should be interesting*.

On Sunday night I ‘knocked up’ a quick batch of pale ale (though it’ll be more like an IPA, I went a bit mad with the malt and hops), and I’ve racked it off into a gallon demijohn with a Quality Street wrapper placed over the top while the froth settles down! Mmm… hygienic. Nevertheless, last night it settled down enough to put on one of those plastic bubbler fermentation locks. I couldn’t believe just how much CO₂ one gallon of fermenting wort produces! The airlock is pretty much a constant stream of massive bubbles. I had to drive to the garden centre to buy two trees this morning to ease my conscience.

And then, while I was at it, I racked off a gallon of my 5gallon batch of Coopers Pilsner into a demijohn to ‘lager’ in the fridge. I needn’t have bothered. With the hot weather we’re having the fridge isn’t much colder than the front room (about 6^oC – that’s the fridge, not the front room). When the main bulk of the Pilsner is ready I’ll bottle it as usual, and set some aside in order to do more side-by-sides, but I’m expecting it to be a big waste of time, and a big waste of the bottom of the fridge, where we retire bits of butternut squash and courgette we didn’t use. I’ll probably try another lager this winter, when the temperatures are more consistently conducive to lagering (0-4^oc). At the moment it’s just too warm and I’ve misplaced my cave.

One of the things I need to work on is hopping rates. I’ve useless kitchen scales, so I’m guessing conservatively at the amounts of hops to boil. I think I need to be a bit more liberal as the Pale (bottled yesterday) has next to no bitterness whatsoever. I like bitter beers so instead of putting in little and working up, I’ll start putting in shed-loads and working down.

So, now the front room smells fantastically of fermenting booze; though the cat has started to get a little drowsy when she goes in there… I wonder how much CO2 8 gallons of fermenting wort will produce?

*For me, anyway.

If I don't like 8 pints...

2011-07-04T23:41:00.005+01:00

... I'll not bother making forty.

Yesterday, in my shiny new stainless steel 5+ gallon tin - of which I used a third - I boiled up:

For 1 gallon:
1lb 5 and a half oz pale dried malt extract,
2.7 oz Crystal malt (100ECB, but I'd go lighter next time)
1/8th oz Magnum (12.7% AA) (boiling/bittering IBU 54)
and I'll put in some East Kent Goldings tomorrow (dry)
Safale US-04 English Ale Yeast, and some Burton Water Salts.

1 gallon, O.G. should be 1.060, but I forgot to take a measurement! I was very tired after singing in a festival in Co. Down. Very sunny, lots of fun, a pint or two of Belfast Blonde, and I think I've got a name for my ale...

Feile Pale (Fay-luh Pale) or Festival Pale.

It's a basic recipe, but the measurements are quite hit and miss. Our scales are as bad as our tin openers. Nevertheless, if I don't like it, I've only got 8 pints to drink/distribute. If I do like it, it was very easy to make, I've got loads of malt left, and I've developed a raging thirst. And I think it shows a great commitment to beer making that I brewed a batch before unpacking the camping gear... or is that laziness. No, no, definitely commitment.

This week, I 'ave mostly been eating...

2011-06-09T15:37:00.000+01:00

Here's a short but happy update on 'the craic' this week.

Homebrewed Smithish went down spectacularly well for my first extract brew. Sweet, malty, great looking head (about 4 inches every time... so not quite a pint) and it was appreciated by everyone, including non-Smithwicks drinkers. I'm thrilled at how well it turned out. Recipe and critique will follow soon.

Also, fantastically, the home made cider recieved some positive feedback. The words 'ripped my insides out' were thrown around a little, in a lighthearted kind of way.

Birds have pushed a home advantage and are now 2 - 0 up in the barley stakes, but I've sown a third lot, and I've put a big net over it. This isn't to catch the birds, but to keep them off. Though if I catch one in there, I'm not sure I can be held accountable for my actions. Disclaimer: No animals were harmed in the making of this beer, but some jackdaws did recieve a stream of verbal abuse and a shook fist.

I got a some malty ingredients (wheat malt, whole pale malt and some Magnum hops) and Burton Water salts for my birthday, and I'm on the hunt for a 3-4 gallon tin to cook it in. My aim is to make an American IPA (with English hops... ooh, I am naughty).

I turned 25, and recieved plenty of bottles of ale to sample (6 with the word OLD secreted in somewhere! Very clever, Richard! Cheers!). Having tried a few, I'm keen to try and make a Golden Ale (Badgers'), and the Hopping Hare was very interesting.

And finally, I'm reading Ray Daniel's Designing Great Beers which I got from ma & pa. Surely I'll know everything now?

So, with that busy week over, and only about 10 pints left in the fountain, sorry, beer barrel, I'll settle down tonight with a beer, a book and a shotgun across my lap. Is that a jackdaw cackling or some community gardeners laughing at me from behind the cabbages?

First blood to the birds...

2011-05-21T15:06:00.000+01:00

... Round one to the Goodwives of antiquity.

After all that glorious weather, followed by incessant rain, everybody’s barley on the Inishowen Riviera is sprouting like something from a fairy-tale – all except mine, that is. Some gardeners plant marigolds next to carrots, etc, or nasturtiums next to cabbage, to encourage the pests to eat the decoys, and not the actual produce. It works wonders. Plant barley in an allotment, and the birds will go crazy for it, and leave everybody else’s stuff well alone. I’m glad my barley was of some service, at least.

But that does leave me with a problem. I’ve no barley growing for the rest of the project, which is mostly to do with barley. It’s a bit too late in the season to sow more, but I might do anyway, next time I’ve a spare half hour. However, I’m now only going to have room for a half plot of barley, as the idea of the allotment is we’d get some vegetables from it too.

So it would seem that the old wives from the past have been conspiring with the birds:
Ravens in league with history’s brewers, the weather in cahoots with farmers of old. I’m not being paranoid, of course, but I’m sure I occasionally catch a whiff of Humble Pie cooling on the windowsill of “it’s not as easy as it sounds”.

I BURIED the seed… how could they know?

Never make your hero

2011-05-17T14:04:00.000+01:00

I'll keep it short.

Yesterday I barrelled a batch of Smithish. It tastes just like Smithwicks'. Trouble is, after a weekend of drinking nothing but Goose Island IPA, I find it hard to favour Smithwicks' as much as I used to. Having said that, an IPA worth its Gypsum can hardly be described as a session beer, but the taste of a proper beer (or rather a beer with proper taste) is much better than that of mass produced Smithwicks' &c. So what posessed me to imitate something mediocre (albeit brilliantly!)?

Never mind, I've forty 3% pints conditioning in a barrel, and I'll enjoy every last home-brewed one. And at 3% I should remember each one, which is more than I can say for the IPA.

Tight rules on sanitation

2011-05-03T16:49:00.000+01:00

Not one to pass up a good bandwagon as it trundles by; I’ve just put to bed a beautiful smelling ginger beer (or ale…). Frankly, it was nice just to see some brewing activity – the first since the cider, back in November. Ridiculously long for someone who blogs about brewing.

Ginger beer (or ale) isn’t something I’ve given much thought to, until recently.
After dressing up as a pink phoenix and pushing a float up and down the sun-baked streets of Carndonagh for an Easter parade, the natural conclusion was a trip to the pub. I had my usual Smithwick’s, but a hue and a cry went up for Crabbies’ Ginger Beer!

It’s not new, but The Arch started stocking it recently, and before long half of the group were drinking it, my missus included. So, thought I, while I wait for the bags of DME to show up (which probably won’t happen till after I’ve ordered them) I’ll get cracking on some ginger beer.

I’ve copied some recipes from the net and I’ll work my way through a couple, to see what works best. Crabbies’ was very refreshing, sweet, with hints of herbs somewhere, flavours which a ginger, sugar, water and lemon recipe can only dream of, but eventually, and with some surplus crystal malt and hops, I’ll perhaps perfect a brew which my girlfriend will like. And in one or two gallon batches and with reasonably cheap ingredients (ginger is so potent you only need a few ounces), I have plenty of room for experiment.

Missus Homebrew didn’t feel like she’d get through a lot (and a 5 gallon batch would be a bit of a gamble for a whim), so I’ll be brewing one, maybe two gallons to begin with. Once the Republic of Inishowen has discovered the desirable properties of my ginger beer, then we’ll go bigger, but for now I’ll need a 2-gallon fermenting vessel. The kind folk at the Cosy Cottage in Moville have given me two empty bulk mayonnaise tubs, both weighing in at 10litres apiece. Of course I could have used my 5gallon, but I’m brewing so regularly that I wasn’t sure I’d find a spare week in which to ferment. Oh, but look, it’s free now, once I move all this stuff that’s piled up on it.

So, the smell of mayonnaise and some sort of cleaning fluid scrubbed from the pot, I boiled 8oz of finely sliced ginger in a little water for about 15 minutes. During this time I got two yeast starters going. The opened packet of cider yeast didn’t do well at all, so I tossed it into the boil (as yeast nutrients, and shouldn’t affect the flavour) and opened a fresh pack of Young’s Champagne yeast. Then, once boiled, I filtered the hot ginger liquid into the clean mayonnaise tub through a pair of old (sanitised) tights. I added to this just shy of 1kg (2ish lbs) of sugar, and topped up the water to about 2 gallons. Finally, in went a washed and quartered lemon, the tights, in which is tied the ginger, and once at 22oC I pitched the champagne yeast.

Within two hours it’s bubbling away healthily. I was nervous at first, because it seemed thick, and jelly-like, but it turns out, after inspection with a torch, that the bubbles are in fact bits of floating yeast. Having never seen champagne yeast work before, I think I’ll rest easy now, knowing the brew is in millions of good hands. Over the weekend I’ll take out the tights of ginger, and let it ferment a couple more days. Then, all being well, I’ll bottle it into pint sized bottles, and let sit for about a week.

The original gravity is 1046, which should give a plump 4.5% ABV, and overall it cost less than £2 to make. It won’t be opened or tasted for a couple of weeks, but it already smells fantastic. Crabbies’ is a tough benchmark, but if the weather is this good through summer, I’ll be getting plenty of brewing practice.

And as the saying goes, “I’m so thirsty I’d drink it through a sock”… Well, I've just the drink for you.

The barley has arrived!

2011-04-27T16:55:00.000+01:00

Well, to be precise, the barley landed last Wednesday, but the hot spell we’ve been having, in spite of being perfect weather for sowing barley, isn’t conducive to actually doing any work. Add to that the long Easter weekend barbequing and generally not being in the house, I only managed to get the barley in on Easter Monday, but, thanks be, in perfect weather and in plenty of time. However, the irony of not getting any barley sown because of boozing in the sun didn’t escape me.

So one of the allotments in the town plots has been given over to barley. My absence from the allotments had been noted, but I really did need the good weather… though I’ll be known as the fair-weather gardener now. I’ll have to put in some rainy hours to put paid to that. Having said that, while every other gardener is labouring over the lettuce, or caring for the courgettes, I’ve two months till I need to do anything with mine. Maybe I’ll take a chair down there… watch the world struggle by.

My wonderful barley, coated and treated with something nasty, means I should have a trouble free germination, with barley resistant to almost every disease known to a farmer. It’s guaranteed not to catch TB, scabies, the lot. However, this blessing took an interesting turn the morning after I’d sown, when I woke up in a cold sweat, worried I’d poisoned the avian population of Moville. Apocalyptic images of bird carcasses littering the streets, newspaper headlines scaremongering the public, top military scientists get involved, and upon discovering the source of the problem, point their combined, accusative finger at me; well it got me out of bed early enough to get back to the allotment to add some bird deterrents before my nightmare vision came to pass.

As usual, either no picture, or one doctored from the internet. Never mind, soon I'll be posting pictures of the 'Adventure in Barley' up in the Challenge page. But for now, please close your eyes and imagine some dirt with nothing growing in it, and you'll be on the same page as me.

Anyway, after that week, I think I deserve a pint. And I'll get one precicely 5 months from now.

Kids, come down, the cider's ready!

2011-04-19T16:47:00.000+01:00

“Psssssht!” encouraged the bottle of cider, as I twisted off the cap.

I’m not really a cider drinker, so I can’t reliably describe what I poured into my glass. The best I’d do is the primary school essay: ‘If an alien landed on earth and asked you what cider is, how would you describe it to them’, an essay for which I’d probably get low marks anyway. I did go through a Kopparberg phase, like everyone else in that balmy summer of 2007, when we all thought we’d discovered a new drink, having in fact only discovered a new advertising campaign, (and Frosty Jacks’ doesn’t count, though it’s a hell of a lot clearer than this stuff in front of me), so I’m not really qualified. Nevertheless, the primary school essay that never was reads as follows:

It tastes a lot like watery apples.

I’m sure there’s alcohol in there somewhere, but as I’ve only had a glass so far, it’s hard to say if it’s in this bottle or the next. I’m going to leave it for now, though. It’s been a warm one, and I’ve been stuck inside all day painting, so I’d earned a drink, but the rest will placate the non-beer drinkers during this elusive homebrew party.

The finished red ale recipe, Smithish, is as follows:

5lb 3oz Pale Dried Malt Extract
1lb 3oz light crystal malt
4oz toasted barley (1oz roasted barley used)
1 ¾ oz Fuggles hops (5%AA, bittering)
½ oz Goldings (aroma)
Irish Ale Yeast (Safale US-04 used)
Possibly some Carragheen / Irish moss to make it look pretty

Anticipated O.G.: 1.048, IBU 30, ABV: 4.5-4.8%
(Actual O.G. 1.036, F.G. 1.014, ABV: 3%)

With any luck it’ll at least be drinkable, and with all the luck of the Irish, it’ll be perfect, and I’ll never need to buy Smithwicks’ again.

1 ¾ ounces of Fuggles… how did you come up with that? I hear you ask*. Well, sums, is the answer. In his book ‘The Complete Joy of Homebrewing’, Charlie Papazian has several formulas for working out things like, how dark will the beer be, or how bitter, or if you want it this bitter, how much of what ought I put in. The rest, as I’ve mentioned before, is all composed from averages. And the sums are the least of my problems. CP’s book is so weighty it takes me 20 mins to find any charts I want. I think I’ll be typing some of the important calculations up and laminating them. What kitchen isn’t improved with laminated International Bitterness Units calculations or a wipe-clean ‘lb per gallon’ gravity table?

So, that’s the end of this weeks’ post, and I’ve just started my second pint of cider. Now, these days I only have to look at beer to have a headache the next day, but I can definitely feel this pint ‘doing its thing’. The alcohol must have all settled to the bottom of the bottle, with the yeast.

Don't ask. I got it wrong in the end! Nevermind, read a later post for the craic.

Not going against the (speciality) grain.

2011-04-15T17:12:00.000+01:00

Last night, after hours of research and printing stuff off the internet, I devised a recipe for an Irish red ale. Far from an eureka moment, it happened by taking the ingredients for 8 different recipes (all off the net) and working out an average for each ingredient. It leaves me with the following:

5lb 3oz light DME,
1lb 7oz of speciality grains (Crystal and roasted unmalted barley)
roughly 2oz hops (Fuggles and Goldings) whatever I need for an IBU (bitteness) of about 22 - 28
Irish Ale Yeast and some leftover DME for conditioning.

It's an exactly average recipe, but hopefully it will ease me into extract brewing and I'll have a good base on which to work. A canvas, if you will. We'll find out soon. I'm not short of 'quality control' volunteers.

Any suggestions, with the recipe or a name for it, are very welcome.

I've also heard that the local barley farmer, my dealer, is planting Quench soon, which is great news. I love it when a plan comes together!

The Homebrew Gods have left you a message:

2011-04-07T12:56:00.000+01:00

The homebrew gods have been busy dropping hints this week. Firstly, things are coming together nicely for The Challenge. Someone I know knows someone who will be sowing barely in the next week or so, and he’s agreed to get a kilo of barley for me. The Co-op we’re helpful, as usual, but they didn’t know if the varieties that they had in stock were 2- or six-row barley. Two-row is traditionally used in proper beer, and the lighter beer from America uses 6-row, as it lends itself better to additional (cheaper) ingredients, like rice etc. Six-row is also used in malt whiskies, but that’s a bit out of my league just yet. Anyway, I’m left with two varieties, Quench and Snakebite (both sound like words thrown around a pub, so I must be on the right path). I’ve also been allocated a small plot at the allotments, and a couple of friends have offered me some space in their gardens, one in a veg patch, and the other in a lawn. I’m thrilled at the idea of having somewhere to grow my barley, but less so about returning a lawn to its original state after I’ve turned it into a barley patch!

I’ve also found a massive stock pot in which to boil the beer. It’s at the local GAA club (God knows what they use it for), and I’m sure they won’t mind lending it to me once in a while if it’s for a good cause. I was ‘looking for the bin’, and rummaging through their cupboards after a meeting the other night, and ‘happened’ across it. Nothing quite like thrift to keep the price of a pint down.

But, whilst being both gracious and generous, the homebrew gods have also been encouraging me to ‘get my finger out’, as it were. There’s competition! I hear there’s a fella in the next town over who wants to set up a microbrewery. Now, I’m not saying that I do (yet), but if I did, I don’t need this upstart who’s been brewing for years getting in before me!

And finally, I’ve also been sort-of asked to present a homebrew demonstration at the local gardening club meet. Quite how I’m going to condense a 4-week process into a 90-minute talk is yet to be worked out, but I suspect it’ll involve something Blue Peter has been doing for years… cheating.

St. Patricks' Day and other days

2011-03-20T23:54:00.000Z

Firstly, the Irish Blog Awards ceremony was last night, and though I didn't win owt, I was listed on the site as a contender in the Newcomer category, so I'm happy with that. The blog needed a little tart up anyway. However, in the meantime I've come up with a great idea to get noticed for next year! I'm going to make some beer using only ingredients I've grown myself and blog about it. Seems easy, really, considering barley can grow in most places, and you can’t stop hops growing in others, but that's just the easy bit. I'll also have to malt and toast the barley, dry the hops, and find some way of bottle conditioning the beer. Now do you see where it becomes more challengeing? Anyway, I've got my eye on the 'Food & Drink' category. Read Homebrew Challenge for more information on the challenge.

In addition to that new page, I'm looking forward to receiving a review of the Triple from Richard, which you'll find on Richard's Review page soon. And after St. Patrick's Day, I'm pretty sure I know what it'll say!

17th March is St. Patrick's Day in Ireland (he was Welsh too), and as per our new household tradition, we got all our muckers to parade with us a bit, before spending the rest of the afternoon with a drink in our hands. And like last year, it wasn't long before we cracked open some homebrew. Edward brought down 5 bottles of his Brewferm Pilsner, the same as I’d brewed the year before, and I opened a couple of bottles of the Triple. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the pilsner went down better. However, there’s a redeeming factor in this. The main problem with the Triple was the strength of flavour and alcohol, made all the more prominent by the fact we’d been drinking canned tasteless lager all afternoon. So, really, in spite of the initial reactions, the triple was enjoyed, and none was left to waste. And as for the pilsner, which was excellent (well done Eddie B.), who will brew next years’ batch?

Oh, and finally, I've finally bottled the cider! I'd been putting it off for ages as I had no idea when it was ready to bottle, but 5 months ought to do it. So, here's to a little more waiting.

Yeast...

2011-02-22T17:01:00.000Z

Beer, bread and poetry?

Having run out of Homebrew tins, I thought the next best thing (after the cider) was to bake my own bread, to evoke that lovely yeasty smell I remember fondly from my last brewing session, way back in September.

I made a loaf of wholemeal bread, from a readymix packet, and that worked fine… then I made pizza bases, with normal flour and yeast etc., and you really get the smell of brewing from that, which is almost what it was all about.

Pizza is a poor topic for discussion on a homebrew blog, granted, but while following the method in the recipe book, it instructed the baker to empty the sachet of baking yeast into a cup of warm, sugary water, and allow it to sit for ten minutes… which sounds to me like the perfect yeast starter!

I’ve been half-experimenting with different ways of pitching yeast (pitching = introducing the yeast into the wort) and didn’t really notice much difference in the quality of the brew, whether I pitched it in a sugar solution, or just sprinkled the powder straight into the wort, but I did notice a significant difference in the bread. The readymix loaf took ages to rise, and it was a half-arsed effort at that (saying nothing of the alcohol content), but the sugar solution yeast was very active within its little starter solution, and the yeast was 2 years past its sell-by as it was. The bread rose really well (even for a pizza base) and I think, from now on, I’ll be pitching all my yeasts in a sugary starter.

Though not too sugary, or we'll be confused by a cidery taste again!

Any chance of a pint?

2011-02-17T20:05:00.000Z

Because I'm clean out of homebrew.

Homebrewing isn’t really happening for me at the moment. The closest I’ve come is decanting a bottle of Triple into an empty, to take it with me on the bus (to a mates house, for after a gig). It went down well, and kept most of its sparkle, though there wasn’t much to begin with…
However, as usual, when I’m not doing something, I’m reading about it. My latest home brew book, ‘The Complete Joy of Home Brewing’ by Charlie Papazian, has inspired me onto the next step; malt extract brewing. It sounds just like the kind of thing I’d be into. You still open a tin, but it’s pure malt extract, not flavoured by hops or other adjuncts like the no-boil tins. So I’d be a little freer to experiment with flavours and hops and so on. All I need is a big pan, and some way of straining the beer. But rest assured, it’s the future.

I also siphoned the cider off its lees, and really wish I hadn’t now, because in opening and disturbing the cider I may have introduced a little of God only knows what. Those white things floating on the top are good, aren’t they?

Home Brew Triple Reviewed!

2011-02-07T10:43:00.000Z

My recent light-hearted capitulation of a post turned out to be true; Big Stevie Segal was on TV last night. And I drank some Triple! The prophecy was complete. Ah, the wisdom achieved off the back of home brew.

So, finally, we see an educated review of a home brewed beer on here. I’ve been reading up, and I think some of the words are:
Very malty.
Spiced and hopped.
Light smokiness (from the sugar, I think).
Not overly, but noticeably sweet.
Above all, the eagerness of double vision so soon after the first glass makes me think I needn’t have bothered getting two bottles out of the shed.
Nice!

I’d like to reassure you of my determination to being a better beer blogger. Soon, I will buy myriad beers and sample them all, as my homework, in order that my palette be better next time I drink something I don’t think I’ve ever tried before.

Finally, a warm welcome to the person or persons responsible for the 36 hits from Norway this week, and the occasional visitor from Israel. Spying on you wasn’t as easy before Browser Cookies, what? Please, leave comments, so I can look good.

Back to the Beer

2011-02-05T19:26:00.000Z

The last post had the look of a government health warning about it (and the one before that looked a lot like a Guinness ad from the 70s…). Any similarities are purely coincidental.

Now then, back to homebrew: I’ve had another, tentative taste of the Brewferm Triple with my family. It’s mellowed since the last time, and the flavour has broadened a little. It certainly does not lack body! The strength of the flavour and alcohol come from the use of less water, and candi sugar, which has its own strong flavour, common with this type of beer. And while it went down well with my dad, it didn’t go down so well with my mum or my missus (though I thank them all for trying it). Similarly, if it were ordered at a bar, neither my dad nor myself would be drinking it all night! We were definitely in connoisseur territory with the Tripple. However, if you like Leffe etc. then I think that brewing this would be right up your... um...

I'll review the Triple properly tonight, in front of some Steven Segal or something, and I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Sugar! I don't like it in my tea...

2011-02-02T17:15:00.000Z

... and it turns out I’m not that fond of it in my beer!

Something I may have mentioned in the first couple of posts is the overly fruity or cidery feel to the beer I’ve been brewing. Thinking that it was the yeast that was to blame, and I’ve been looking online for different strains.

But, it turns out that the current system of one tin and one kilogram of sugar is the problem. A beer that has sugar in a ratio greater than 2 parts malt, 1 part sugar, tends towards my unwanted cidery flavour. In fact, it is recommended not to use any adjuncts to a greater extent than 20% of the fermentable sugars. For example: if I use a 1.6kg tin, I ought not add more than 400g of your ordinary everyday sugar, far less than the kilogram I've been putting in. The amount of water used would then have to be reduced, of course, to keep the intended specific gravity, but the result would be a nicer beer, I’m led to believe… though unfortunately a little less of it!

In fact, according to homebrewblog.co.uk, your everyday household sugar (sucrose) "needs to be broken down initially into fructose and dextrose [...] fructose can leave a somewhat apple-like aftertaste". Brewing sugar, which is just dextrose, doesn't. Another person, elsewhere, goes on to say the appley taste diminishes with conditioning.

I'm sure most homebrewers don't mind the taste, but this is the next step for me. Or maybe I could go further; two tins of malt, and no sugar, for 40 pints. It would push the price up to a whopping 45p per pint, but it'll be worth it.

So, there I go! I can either fork out more for my ingredients, or wait a little longer for my beer...

All this information, and so much more, can be found in Charlie Papazian’s book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

Homebrew - It's Good for You

2011-02-02T14:02:00.000Z

I've been arguing this for a while now, and I feel that, being home made, Homebrew can only be good for you. And even though a lot of sugar goes in, the yeast turns it all into alcohol, and the yeast cells at the bottom can be found as a source of vitamin B in healthfood shops. In sufficient quantities, Homebrew can even help you sleep. You're doing yourself a favour, drinking Homebrew.

New Year's Resolution

2011-01-05T02:20:00.000Z

An(other) update.

Shortly before christmas I did the following:

1. Tried the Triple. Nice, but definately needs more time in the shed.
2. Sniffed the cider. Looks like it can wait till spring, too. Back under the stairs with ye.
3. Finished the rest of everything else. Another local home brewer brought round some (posh) Pilsner too (in a screw top wine bottle - brave), so we had a little sample evening. It wasn't a 'home brew party' by a long way, but it's the closest I've got yet! The upshot is Pilsner will be on my next shopping list.

Father Christmas was good to me again this year. Three beery books*, and a mystery piece of brewing paraphernalia from a market in town. Of course, the mystery may unravel once I see it, but so far, all we know is it's home brew related. And in the shop. I've got my fingers crossed for a mash tun.
*I spy a link*
I'm reading about extract brewing, at the moment, *there it is!* which is giving me ideas for a summer project. I'm hoping the hop plant I got last year will flower this time, giving me a good opportunity to try something a little more like making Uncle Ben's stir fry, and less like the Bachelor's tinned soup method that I'm used to. Although I can't even do that, at the moment, as I've knackered another tin opener. I'm going to try the ones that cut in from the side next. An unexpected lesson to learn.

In the meantime, a bit more waiting. Waiting for some disposable cash for more tins, or for the two stalwarts, sitting it out under the stairs/in the shed, to mature - whichever comes first!

For now, though, I think a New Year's toast** is in order; make mine a home brew!

*The books will appear on the Reviews page soon.
I also got some Olde Worlde ale spices to put in cider, ale etc which I'm looking forward to. Hope I don't confuse them with the normal teabags. I'll throw in a review of them, too, 'coz I like your face.
**New Year's Toast = anagram = We r Oats n' Yeast!

My New Juicer:

2010-11-09T20:56:00.000Z

I've just come back from, amongst other places, a 'Good as New' charity shop with a fruit juicer for only 5 euro! What a bargain. Too late for the apples, of course, but I've just made carrot and ginger and apple and shrivelled tangerine juice with it, and I can't believe how much easier it was than weilding a bit of two-by-four. Well, no, I can believe it, but the 2x4 was easier to clean.

Cider:

2010-11-06T17:02:00.000Z

Making the cider reminded me of doing the first brew; checking up on it every five minutes, sniffing it, making sure it’s nice and cosy, etc. Recently I’ve been quite confident in my brewing technique, so brewing up has become routine. Now, trying something completely different, it has that sense of the unknown again. Adventure, exploration, that kind of thing.

Also, this week, I’ve opened up the second lot of IPA. It’s to coincide with a curry I made, which coincides with a book I’m reading about I.P.A. and its journey to India. The book’s called Hops and Glory, by a fellow called Pete Brown. It’s a great book, and though it only just creeps into the home brew genre, it will none the less receive a review in the appropriate section soon. Oh, and the I.P.A. was fine, thanks!

So now that the cider is fermenting away in the spare room, under a sleeping bag, a duvet and some sort of blanket, we’ve got the dining room table back. The apples were resting there for a week, as per online advice (well, they didn’t specify a dining room table), and it didn’t take long before bills, books and other day to day household gubbins were piled on top of the apples!

I won’t really know how the cider turns out until spring, but until then I’ve written up my ‘recipe’ (with pictures) in a separate page. It’s not particularly useful until then, as it might turn out not to work, but if I don’t write it now I’ll not remember what I did. Anyway, these nights are drawing in, and I need something to write about!

An Update:

2010-10-14T00:01:00.000+01:00

I've opened the Geordie Bitter! After only a couple of weeks it was a fantastic beer. I've used the past tense there, but there is still some left, and I'm trying to leave it alone!

I took a bottle over to Dad in Wales, as he's something of a connoiseur of real ales, and he liked it, I think. Although he said it lacked sparkle, he did manage to drink it all. We were drinking a bottled ale called 'Dandelion Ale' by Badger Organic, and it's much more like the real ale I want to be brewing. I'm going to look into some tasting notes and recipes to see what it takes to produce something more like it - though it will be a lot more complicated than just opening the tin, like I'm used to - and frankly, with our crappy tin opener, that's hard enough!

I recieved a parcel with bungs and bubblers etc in it, so I've been itching to get scrumping for a couple of weeks. Luckily, my need for apples coincided with a wedding over in England we (Girlfriend and I) were going to, so I've brought back a bag-for-life full of apples from Mum's garden. We travelled by car, which was handy, as I doubt the Ryanair baggage restriction would have allowed me to take on that kind of weight!

So I'll be putting a borrowed juicer through it's paces next week, and hopefully end up with a good gallon of cider to comment on come spring. I'll have to be much more patient than I have been so far, but luckily I've got some Triple ready soon. That should take my mind off it.

On Order

2010-10-07T01:29:00.000+01:00

Living in a relatively far flung town, in a similarly distant peninsula of Ireland (it’s not the end of the world, but you can see it) as I do, I have to get my home brew mail order. I’ve written that like it’s a bad thing, but I love getting parcels. Most of the home brew is ordered online, and I really have to like a website, find it easy to navigate and with a good FAQ section before I buy. There’s nothing quite like judging a book by its cover. I don’t know what it is about such beautifully constructed websites, but they have cheaper beer too, I’m sure of it. And my brew always comes out better. Well, alright, maybe not.

But I’m on the prowl again. I might try the John Thompson Bitter this time, and will definitely be doing some early Christmas shopping. I’m thinking about Brewferm’s Christmas beer, or Munton’s Winter Warmer. They prefer a long condition, apparently, being of a higher alcohol content and stronger flavour, I presume, so I will need to start soon. I’ve already started on the mince pies, this year.

It’s nearly autumn (it must be - it feels like christmas), and there are loads of apples just lying about the place, so I've been on the phone to mammy, with polite instructions that on her next trip to Wilkinsons she send over some bungs for the two glass demijohns I found in a charity shop, some champagne yeast and campden tablets.

The plan? To make dynamite cider!

N.B. Whilst scouring the internet for a good home brew website I stumbled across the Chichester Real Ale and Jazz Festival. Two of my favourite things! Now... where did I put that Visa...

Seventh Brew: John Bull I.P.A (40 pints, anywhere between 4.5 and 5 %)

2010-09-29T20:37:00.000+01:00

This time I had a small audience whilst I was brewing up. Of course, no one offered to stir, boil or wash or anything, but a few 'helpful' bits of advice were ignored along the way. That was the last of the latest order, but I’m already scouring the pages for the next lot.

Once again, the beer contained the usual tin and fair trade sugar (fair trade, to ease the conscience of shopping for it at Sainsbos), hot and cold water. I used the shower attachment in the bath to add the cold water, to speed up the process a little and keep the kitchen dry. But, brilliantly, the fast, powerful flow of water we so like to shower under frothed up the beer so much that I couldn’t take an accurate reading on the hydrometer. Taking a reading is hard enough as it is! So the final ABV will be about 4.5 – 5 %, probably, but I’ll not know for sure, just like every other time.

Now, although the bathroom is not the most hygienic place to keep a wort, it was a very brief visit to the bath. Having recently looked in the attic to see about insulating it, to keep us (and the beer) a little warmer this winter, I noticed inside the water storage tank. I’ll never wash any bottles in warm water again! It wasn’t that it was out of the ordinary, it’s just that it was bad. I’d say check your own, if I didn’t know better.

Hot off the Spare Room press; I’d literally just cleared it from its former use as a toy store, when it was taken over for another purpose, so now the beer is fermenting in the ‘master’ bedroom. But I’m going to enjoy waking up to the smell of fresh beer, just like walking into a house that’s baking bread… only nicer!

Sixth Brew*: Geordie Bitter (36 pints, 4.5%)

2010-09-05T00:09:00.000+01:00

I’m writing this before bottling the beer, where normally I write afterwards. I think I’m doing this to put off washing the bottles, in the same spirit that gets the housework done or all the socks paired whilst some deadline or other looms. I’m not looking forward to cleaning and rinsing 20 bottles. Maybe I’ll give in and buy a pressure barrel soon. Maybe.

The brew seems to have gone off without a hitch, so far. I’m getting pretty quick at making it all. I stopped measuring out the pints exactly, and went with the marks on the side of the bucket for a guide. I’ve also got the hang of siphoning the beer into bottles. I think the trick is to keep the barrel only slightly higher than the bottles, so that it doesn’t all gush out. Nice and easy does it. Although I’m still not quite sure about sucking the end of the tube to get the beer out… no bacterial side effects yet…

Not much else to report in the way of brewing. Once it’s bottled I’ll be off to the shops for 2 lbs of sugar and another round of bottles to empty.

A Few Days Later...

Well, isn’t washing bottles fun. At least I won’t have to do it again for a week or so. 20 litres bottled, and it looks good and dark. I’ve saved myself ten minutes work in a couple of days time by just putting the bottled beer straight in the cupboard without the four day 'warm' period. Frankly, it’s just pointless because the house is tepid at the best of times, and if the mice like it behind the cupboard, then it must be reasonably warm. It’ll do.

* Getting the hang of it now

Fifth Brew: Brewferm Triple + light candy sugar(15 pints, 7.4%)

2010-08-23T00:33:00.000+01:00

And now, we wait. The Brewferm Triple, a beer apparently similar to Leffe Trippel, is settling in for the long haul, spread between 8 one litre bottles, and a 500ml Diet Coke bottle. A modest amount of beer, but I’m not disappointed, I just put on another. It’ll be ready a lot quicker than the 10 or so weeks that the Triple will take.

The Triple was easy enough to make. It was a 9 litre kit, so there was only a fraction of the mess in the kitchen afterwards, though I still had to wear my waterproof boots. As usual, in went the tin, some expensive sugar (called Crystal something), hot and cold water, and then yeast. I made this at about midnight, before I was due to go away on a little marine adventure, so I put it to bed in a blanket and checked up on it at 7 the next morning. When I said goodnight, the brew hardly filled the 25 litre bin. Yet, the following morning, the froth coming off the brew was touching the lid! That’s – does sums – 16 litres of froth! Anyway, after seeing that vigorous yeast activity I went off feeling the brew could probably look after itself for a couple of days.

I bottled it when I got back, ten days later, having first siphoned it off into another bucket. I did this hoping some of the yeast would sink, and there wouldn’t be so much in the bottle, but it didn’t really work. I also tried it because apparently the beer tastes better if left a day or two extra in the bucket. Again, having only tried this on one or two brews, and not in a proper side – by – side test, it’ll be hard to know. But the overspill tasted excellent: very sweet, and darned strong. I was right in thinking it could take care of itself.

I ordered the latest set of tins from www.thehomebrewcompany.ie, which showed up quickly. I wasted no time in brewing, as I want plenty of beer to be ready for my own little Oktoberfest in, uh, October. Watch this space…

Fourth Brew: Hambleton Bard’s Bitter (Dry Kit, 40 pints, 3.8% ABV)

2010-07-31T13:20:00.000+01:00

After a long weekend of drinking and so on (it was St. Patrick’s day on Wednesday), my Monday afternoon was spent making up the fourth brew. The home brew Pilsner went down exceptionally well on Wednesday, when we had everyone and their mothers round to help out with the carnival float. People from all over the world were here (Holland, France, Australia) and pretty much everybody tried the home brew, and everybody who did, loved it. Empty glasses all round! Also, empty bottles abound, so time to make another batch.

This was a dry kit, but made up in much the same way as the others. Once the dry ingredients (malt and sugar) were added to the bucket I poured on 2 gallons of hot water (boiled and cooled) and stirred thoroughly. Don’t worry about the dry ingredients clumping together; keep stirring and it’ll all dissolve. Once that’s done, follow the rest of the instructions and let the yeast do the rest.

This time I’ve opted for my first fermentation method, which is to keep it away from the radiator, but wrapped in as many blankets as I could spare. It’s a cold March, so we’re layered up in bed. I spared all I could.

It wasn’t strictly necessary to brew more, as I’ve about 70 pints worth maturing in the cupboard, but the Bards kit says that although the beer is drinkable in a matter of weeks, it can be improved if left for up to six months. I’ve started it now, so that when my parents come over in May, it’ll be very drinkable. I don’t want them to think I’m not doing anything with my life.

THREE MONTHS LATER

The beer has eventually turned out grand. Very tasty (and it got a thumbs up from Dad, who is partial to a Shopshire Gold). I’ve kept it in 2 litre bottles though, so I can’t have just the one glass, it always turns into a session. As a result of the quantity, or maybe the beer, I’ve had some bad hangovers on this stuff. It is nice though, and definitely benefits by being left alone for ages before drinking. As for the 70 pints I’d mentioned… I was having a tough old time getting through it all on my own, so I had some boys around after a band practice, and between the four of us we made light work of it. I’d post photos, but there weren’t any.

Thing of note: Don’t use bottles larger than 1 litre. You have to pour it all out at once, and if you’re on your own it’s quite intimidating, having 3 and ½ pints sat in front of you. Having said that, I never let it put me off.

Third Brew: John Bull I.P.A. (36 pints, 4.6 %)

2010-07-31T13:16:00.000+01:00

Day 1: The bucket was empty just long enough to be cleaned before I’d started the third brew. This time an IPA, for which I paid less than a tenner. So, with 80p on sugar and £1 on bottles (if the Sainsbury’s ones hold out), it’s looking like a very reasonable 31p per pint, or ppp. Apparently I drink an Irish IPA called Smithwicks at £2.60 a pint, so I’m looking forward to saving some money. I didn’t know Smithwicks was an IPA, but I’m reliably informed by a fellow Pure Bongo-er (our pub quiz team) that it is.

This was the quickest turnaround yet, from clean kitchen to the spare room smelling like a pub carpet. As usual, in went the tin, a kilo of sugar, and 36 pints of pure Donegal tap water. I’m concerned that one day the water will come out brown halfway through making the beer, as it is occasionally want to do here, but so far I’m in the clear, so to speak. The starting gravity was 1.044, and I’m supposed to bottle it at 1.006, which will leave a very tasty 5% brew. I’ve noticed that when the brews ferment they give off a bad smell, a bit like bad apple juice. Still inexperienced, I’m hoping it’s just ‘one of those things’, as the Pilsner suffered the same and tasted alright, but this time the IPA really stinks. If it turns out fine I’m going to embrace the smell in future. For now, it’s time to collect 5 gallons worth of bottles.

Day 5: The IPA has been fermenting for 5 days now, and is still way above the recommended final gravity stage, and it doesn’t look much like it’ll get there. I’m beginning to suspect two things. Firstly, what they say about constant temperatures is right, and secondly, that a bag of McKinney’s sugar is no substitute for brewing sugar. The Tom Caxton Real Ale (which is looking grand in the bottles) was brewed using dry spray malt, and the IPA with ordinary sugar. Maybe that affects the final gravity?

Day 9: IPA bottled. At around 4.6% it’s not as strong as I’d imagined (the instructions suggest final gravity 1006, but mine stopped at 1010 after 7 days), but it’ll taste cracking, if the first glass out of the bucket is anything to go by! I’d bottled it in a rush before heading to the ‘day job’, and left a half filled pint glass of the IPA on the side, so I had a wee taste of it once I’d got back. It had cleared a little, so tasted much like it will in the end. Flat for now, obviously, but I don’t think I’d enjoy too lively an ale anyway. I’ll know for sure in two weeks! As for the Pilsner, or what’s left of it, they’re like live grenades sitting in the cupboard. One false move and they’re set to explode!

As for the Pilsner, I’m still no closer to organising a home brew party, and there’s now only 6 bottles left. St Patrick’s day tomorrow, so maybe then.

Thing of note: Plenty of those large tin cans kicking around now. For ideas on what to do with the empties, look here: www.instructables.com. You’re bound to find something.

Second Brew: Tom Caxton Real Ale (36 pints, 4.3%) + Muntons Beer Enhancer Kit

2010-07-31T13:12:00.000+01:00

After bottling the Pilsner it seemed a pity to leave the bucket empty. A trip to London at the start of Feb left me pretty skint, but with some money from a gig and pocket money from my nan, I managed to cobble together enough for a couple of tins. I’m not sure there are any home brew shops in Donegal, so it was all done mail order.

I’d ordered three kits; two tins and a dry kit, as well as a ‘Muntons Beer Kit Enhancer’. I loved looking through it all, reading and re-reading instructions, eventually working out in which order to brew them so as to get beer asap! (Beer greed again).

I started the real ale at the end of Feb, with a few pointers from the Pils. Firstly, I didn’t boil all the water, just what the instructions told me. Not because I don’t think it improved the beer, it was just time consuming and hassle in our small kitchen. I added beer enhancer instead of sugar, which according to the pack improves everything. Also, I only brewed 36 pints, not 40, hoping to get fuller bodied ale.

Once made it was up to the spare room to ferment, next to the radiator with a blanket over both it and the radiator, to keep the heat in. Although all instructions and books suggest that the fermenting brew should be kept between 18 and 25^oc, and constant rather than variable, I’m hoping that the scheme will be good enough for the brew. The heating goes on twice a day (if there’s oil) so not ideal conditions at the best of times!

As it’s only my second brew, I still have loads to learn. For example, with the beer enhancer kit added the original gravity of the ale was 1.046. I’m not sure if that’s what it would be if I’d used sugar, but it seemed reasonably soupy. I also assumed that it would need to be bottled at 1.011 or below (the quarter gravity – I’d read a book between the first and second brew). After 8 days it only reached 1.014, but I bottled it anyway. It’d been in long enough. If that’s the fermentation finished then I’m looking at a much weaker alcohol percentage than I’d first thought, and than perhaps would have been if I’d used sugar. If it hadn’t, in fact, finished its primary fermentation, then the bottles might burst (build up of CO2 gas). However, seeing as I’d spent a sunny Friday morning in March emptying out Sainsbury’s own brand bottles of carbonated spring water just for the flimsy bottles, I’m expecting one or two ruptures anyway. At least I was more prepared this time, since for the Pilsner I had to dash to the shop to buy the charmingly named Smak cola in order that I’d have sufficient bottles!

Anyway, the beer is now in the cupboard, 2 days into its two week maturation period. It’s clearing nicely, but throwing a lot of sediment. Hopefully I’ll not need to leave too much beer at the bottom of the bottles!

In drinking some of the Pilsner (there’s about 20 pints left for the home brew party planned for the end of March) I’ve realised the problem of only half filling a bottle. There was only enough beer to half fill the last bottle. Despite priming the bottle with plenty of sugar, the beer inside was just a little flat. The same has happened with the real ale, in that a two litre bottle is only half filled. The remedy: when the beer has cleared, amalgamate a full litre bottle and the half filled two litre bottle into one, full, two litre bottle, re-prime, and wait. Hopefully, not only will it be sparkling and lively, but also it won’t have any sediment left once it’s ready for opening. It’s a plan, so we’ll see if it works.

If it does work, I think I’ll decant every bottle like this, because I’ve given two bottles of the Pils away and it doesn’t travel very well. The movement kicks up the yeast sediment that occurs in bottle conditioned beer, and the beer clouds, making the gift poor looking and in no fit state to drink for a few days. Hopefully in racking off the clear beer into another bottle, it will make beer that presents itself nicely. It will be awkward, but until I can afford a pressure barrel, that’s just the way it might have to be, if it works at all!

Thing of note: House is beginning to smell pleasantly like a brewery, or a pub carpet.

First brew: Brewferm Belgium Pilsner (40 pints, 4.5%)

2010-07-31T13:10:00.000+01:00

Under this year’s comically large Christmas tree was a big, promising looking box. After the usual fruitless shake’n’weigh, I had to wait until Christmas day before finding, inside the box, a bucket full of empty bottles, tubs, tins, tubes and three very different sets of instructions! My very own home-brew kit.

The kit was for 24 or 40 pints of Pilsner. I’m a big fan of paying over the odds for European lager in the local bar, so receiving a way of making it for a fraction of the price was a great gift.

After a little online research for tips etc, I started brewing up. I followed the instructions that came in the can, more specific to the beer than the two sets floating around inside the box. The only thing of note, really, was the tip: ‘Preferably use boiled and cooled water. This benefits both taste and head of the beer’. So I spent half a day boiling water and letting it cool, alongside the labour intensive cleaning process! The rest of the instructions were standard.

One snag to brewing in Donegal is the cold. 2010 had a very cold start, so I wasn’t guaranteed an ideal temperature for fermenting, so the bucket (fermentation bin, no better a term) was placed in the spare room wrapped in cheap fleece. Not great, but it kept the brew reasonably warm. How warm I don’t know, because I’ve still not managed to get a thermometer.

After 10 days the brew was bottled and placed next to a radiator for secondary fermentation. The radiator was also used for drying sheets, so with bottles under sheets, the result was a warm beer and a cold room. As per the instructions I left the beer clear and improve for between 6 – 8 weeks. Heroically I held off opening for five and a half weeks. It tasted quite nice. I was a little disappointed in the initial flavour (nuts and butter, my girlfriend tells me), being weaker than the commercial stuff I was used to, but after three bottles, we agreed it was a success. Here I must clarify that by weaker I mean the strength of flavour was a little short of commercial pilsner. It was a little weaker in terms of ABV too, but not so much as you’d be able to tell the day after.

However, the reason for this weakness, I think, is because the recipe for the Pilsner was for 12 litres (24 pints) or 20 litres (40 pints). The smaller quantity required just the 1.5kg tin of malt extract and 12 litres of water, whilst the larger quantity required the tin, 20 litres of water and 1kg of sugar to increase the strength. As a result, the way the malt extract was diluted left a weaker, thinner brew. It tastes fine, really, but I think I’ll be more careful next time about being brew greedy!

Thing of note: Pilsner doesn’t taste great from pewter. Must wash it out better!

On order...

2010-07-31T01:25:00.000+01:00

I ordered some more home brew last night. 3 tins and some posh sugar, so I'll be writing again soon. And, as a special warm up treat, I'll post about 25 hundred words tomorrow, after I've given it the once-over. They're annecdotes on my first 4 brews, all in handy sip-sized chunks.

Thanks (dad) for your persistent vigilance.

New Blog

2010-03-28T18:27:00.000+01:00

Hello.

This is a test page. On their way are four new blog posts, all containing information, both important and trivial, about my experiences as a home brewer. I started in January 2010, so check back soon for the latest in my home brew experiments.

Cheers!