akdunbar Brewdays

akdunbar · Nov 23, 2024

Thought I'd jump in and bore anyone who stumbles over this thread...
I'm just getting back into home-brew after sometime away - not that I did a massive amount back then - and very much regard myself as a newbie with just a little bit too much arrogance and overconfidence in his meagre abilities to mess around and try different things fro the start rather than following folks tried and tested recipes...
No doubt there will be missteps along the way, but as long as there's something that can be drunk at the end of it (not necessarily enjoyed) then what's not to like?

akdunbar · Nov 23, 2024

Oh Breó, where art thou?

Were you to spend any time in Ireland in the late ‘90s you may have come across that elusive white whale that was Guinness Breó.

Advert for Breó

Guinness spent about £5 million marketing this white whale of a beer, launched in 1998 and abruptly ending it in 2000.

Living in Naas, Co Kildare at the time, I was fortunate to be able to enjoy Breó many times. Whilst I no longer know how it tasted, in my mind it was glorious, which is why about ten years ago I decided to try to recreate it (well, brew a wheat beer…)

This beer (which, thanks to dodgy Google Translate,I called Beoir Bán) was even better than my memories of Breó.

Which is why I’m having a go at brewing it again:

Batch Size: 5L
Mash Water: 7.7L

500g Pilsner/Lager Malt
500g Wheat Malt

4.5 g East Kent Goldings @ 60mins
4.5g Coriander Seeds @ 5mins
4.5g Bitter Orange Peel @ 5mins
Fermentis SafBrew Speciality Ale T-58

I was really enjoyable to make this today, lovely aroma from the crushed coriander, nice warm kitchen away from the foul weather outside.
I think it all seemed to go well, managed to get the starting SG that Brewfather suggested I'd get. Also managed to get pretty much the volume too, which makes me suspicious that something will mess up further along the way. I even managed to do some bottling of the beer I brewed a couple of weeks without swearing at the capper too much!

Now it's just a matter of waiting...

akdunbar · Dec 8, 2024

Paint My Name in Black and Gold

If I recall correctly, the first beer that I tasted was McEwan’s Export from a can when I would have been about fourteen or fifteen years old. And really since then this style of beer – Scottish Ales - has probably been the type of beer I’ve drunk most, whether it was a 60/-, 70/-, 80/-, Special, Export,,, Just last night a had a few pints of McEwan’s 70 on tap. Even when I lived in Ireland my pint of choice was its Irish cousin, Smithwick’s.

So, with this in mind I decided to brew my own version:

To make 5L
1kg Maris Otter
100g Medium Crystal
15g Roast Barley
8g East Kent Goldings
Fermentis S-04 SafAle English Aleyeast

When it came to giving this a name I let my mind wander. The traditional colours used in Annan are Black and Gold – be it Annan Academy, the rugby club, the football club or the athletics club. Even in the past, the colours used by the old Solway Star football club were Black and Gold. With this going through my mind, my eyes fell upon the bookcase and Mark Andrews book “Paint My Name in Black and Gold: The Rise of The Sisters of Mercy” This led me to choose the name “Heartland” for this brew.

Today’s brew day went well, nice and stress free – it’s always good to practise clean as you go – that is until it came to chilling down the wort. It never helps to cool it in the sink when you turn on the hot tap rather than the cold. Once this was rectified it was still taking an age to cool down. It was stuck at around 50 degrees for so long that I began to get suspicious. And sure enough, when I changed the temperature probe the temperature showed 15! Must have broken the detachable probe somehow.

Using my new iSpindel toy to monitor the temperature of the wort I have now finally pitched in the yeast now just have to wait as it does it’s thing…

akdunbar · Dec 14, 2024

akdunbar said:
Oh Breó, where art thou?

Were you to spend any time in Ireland in the late ‘90s you may have come across that elusive white whale that was Guinness Breó.

Advert for Breó

Guinness spent about £5 million marketing this white whale of a beer, launched in 1998 and abruptly ending it in 2000.

Living in Naas, Co Kildare at the time, I was fortunate to be able to enjoy Breó many times. Whilst I no longer know how it tasted, in my mind it was glorious, which is why about ten years ago I decided to try to recreate it (well, brew a wheat beer…)

View attachment 106051

This beer (which, thanks to dodgy Google Translate,I called Beoir Bán) was even better than my memories of Breó.

Which is why I’m having a go at brewing it again:

Batch Size: 5L
Mash Water: 7.7L

500g Pilsner/Lager Malt
500g Wheat Malt

4.5 g East Kent Goldings @ 60mins
4.5g Coriander Seeds @ 5mins
4.5g Bitter Orange Peel @ 5mins
Fermentis SafBrew Speciality Ale T-58

I was really enjoyable to make this today, lovely aroma from the crushed coriander, nice warm kitchen away from the foul weather outside.
I think it all seemed to go well, managed to get the starting SG that Brewfather suggested I'd get. Also managed to get pretty much the volume too, which makes me suspicious that something will mess up further along the way. I even managed to do some bottling of the beer I brewed a couple of weeks without swearing at the capper too much!

Now it's just a matter of waiting...

akdunbar said:
Paint My Name in Black and Gold

If I recall correctly, the first beer that I tasted was McEwan’s Export from a can when I would have been about fourteen or fifteen years old. And really since then this style of beer – Scottish Ales - has probably been the type of beer I’ve drunk most, whether it was a 60/-, 70/-, 80/-, Special, Export,,, Just last night a had a few pints of McEwan’s 70 on tap. Even when I lived in Ireland my pint of choice was its Irish cousin, Smithwick’s.

So, with this in mind I decided to brew my own version:

To make 5L
1kg Maris Otter
100g Medium Crystal
15g Roast Barley
8g East Kent Goldings
Fermentis S-04 SafAle English Aleyeast

When it came to giving this a name I let my mind wander. The traditional colours used in Annan are Black and Gold – be it Annan Academy, the rugby club, the football club or the athletics club. Even in the past, the colours used by the old Solway Star football club were Black and Gold. With this going through my mind, my eyes fell upon the bookcase and Mark Andrews book “Paint My Name in Black and Gold: The Rise of The Sisters of Mercy” This led me to choose the name “Heartland” for this brew.

Today’s brew day went well, nice and stress free – it’s always good to practise clean as you go – that is until it came to chilling down the wort. It never helps to cool it in the sink when you turn on the hot tap rather than the cold. Once this was rectified it was still taking an age to cool down. It was stuck at around 50 degrees for so long that I began to get suspicious. And sure enough, when I changed the temperature probe the temperature showed 15! Must have broken the detachable probe somehow.

Using my new iSpindel toy to monitor the temperature of the wort I have now finally pitched in the yeast now just have to wait as it does it’s thing…

(My main take away, when you think something may go skew-whiff you’re probably right. The iSlindel worked great. But rather than using the 5L Tesco water bottle as a fermenter I’d bought a new Browin 12L bucket - so of course not enough room for the iSpindel to sit properly in the wort!

stubrewworx · Dec 14, 2024

Are you from Annan?

Is it the Bluebell pub there by the bridge?

Cracking pub.

akdunbar · Dec 14, 2024

stubrewworx said:
Are you from Annan?

Is it the Bluebell pub there by the bridge?

Cracking pub.

Aye to both, though it's a couple of years since I've been down to the bell, though I doubt that it'll have changed any!

akdunbar · Dec 14, 2024

akdunbar said:
Oh Breó, where art thou?

Were you to spend any time in Ireland in the late ‘90s you may have come across that elusive white whale that was Guinness Breó.

Advert for Breó

Guinness spent about £5 million marketing this white whale of a beer, launched in 1998 and abruptly ending it in 2000.

Living in Naas, Co Kildare at the time, I was fortunate to be able to enjoy Breó many times. Whilst I no longer know how it tasted, in my mind it was glorious, which is why about ten years ago I decided to try to recreate it (well, brew a wheat beer…)

View attachment 106051

This beer (which, thanks to dodgy Google Translate,I called Beoir Bán) was even better than my memories of Breó.

Which is why I’m having a go at brewing it again:

Batch Size: 5L
Mash Water: 7.7L

500g Pilsner/Lager Malt
500g Wheat Malt

4.5 g East Kent Goldings @ 60mins
4.5g Coriander Seeds @ 5mins
4.5g Bitter Orange Peel @ 5mins
Fermentis SafBrew Speciality Ale T-58

I was really enjoyable to make this today, lovely aroma from the crushed coriander, nice warm kitchen away from the foul weather outside.
I think it all seemed to go well, managed to get the starting SG that Brewfather suggested I'd get. Also managed to get pretty much the volume too, which makes me suspicious that something will mess up further along the way. I even managed to do some bottling of the beer I brewed a couple of weeks without swearing at the capper too much!

Now it's just a matter of waiting...

akdunbar · Dec 14, 2024

Had to crack one open and try it today while brewing, may have needed to wait another week or two, but it still tasted good. Lovely and refreshing, orange and coriander flavour comes through nicely. Think I'll certainly make this again.

akdunbar · Dec 14, 2024

Just Like Honey

A couple of my old school friends have been beekeepers for the past while and have their own company, Oor Bees, (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1376258162464520) selling honey and wax products. Wanting to try to use some of their honey in a brew I had a look through the index of Greg Hughes’ DK Home Brew Beer book and saw a Honey Porter.

Taking this recipe as my basis, I increased the amount of chocolate malt to try to make it a wee bit darker (looking out of my kitchen window I took inspiration for this from one of the magpies that frequently visits the garden)

After the snafu with the last brew (not enough volume for the iSpindel in the fermenter…) I decided to try to double the volume on this one.

Recipe: Magpie Honey Porter

14.63 L mash water
Maris Otter 2 kg
Extra Light 300 g
Vienna 300 g
Carafa II 200 g
Chocolate 150 g
Oor Bees Honey 400g @10 mins
Fuggles 30 g @60 mins
Challenger 4 g @10 mins
Wakatu 10 g @0 mins

As this was my first time with this quantity it was a wee bit touch and go with the mash, but it turned out ok…

Boiled it for a wee bit longer to get to 1.072 gravity though this meant 9L to the fermenter rather than 10.

Lovely colour for the wort, and can’t wait to see how it ends up.

I’m starting to think that maybe I should bite the bullet and invest in a different setup, though I am still wary that if I did, I’d soon get bored and pack it away never to be seen again. So, I will try to carry on with this setup for a wee bit longer and try to learn what the hell I’m doing…

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