Dutto's Brew Day

[Gerryjo]

Back in August this year I brewed up two DJ's using the juice from boiled up Rowan Berries instead of hops to give the bitterness required. In September, the brew was bottled, carbonated in the brew-fridge, left on the shelf to clear and condition and yesterday I tried one.

As you can see from the photograph they haven't cleared; and the taste was "different".

Not unpleasant, just "different" and very hard to describe. There's a bit of "fruitiness" but no identifiable fruit flavour and some "bitterness" but again with no identifiable cause.

In other words, the brew is definitely "drinkable" but something that I will only repeat if I ever run out of hops and have access to a plentiful supply of Rowan Berries. (The berries were weighing down the trees back in August but are now not to be seen anywhere in this area! Is this a sign that we are due a hard winter or is this because the town is being badly affected by the "Ash die-back disease"?)

View attachment 16748

Would only be due a hard winter if the birds eat them though birds don't eat Rowan berries....

 

[-Bezza-]

Pumpkin Ale, Mars Bar Beer, Cherry Lager, Rowan Berry Ale. Are you just ferreting around in your cupboards and brewing with whatever you find?

 

[Dutto]

Love the sound of the Cherry Lager Dutto. Is the recipe in this thread ?

Yes. Post #293. Enjoy.

 

[Dutto]

Would only be due a hard winter if the birds eat them though birds don't eat Rowan berries....

Well in Skegness the birds eat Rowan Berries because the tree was stripped by the end of November; and winter hasn't even started yet!

Maybe the pigeons (they seem to be the main culprits) know something that we don't?!?!

 

[Gerryjo]

Well in Skegness the birds eat Rowan Berries because the tree was stripped by the end of November; and winter hasn't even started yet!

Maybe the pigeons (they seem to be the main culprits) know something that we don't?!?!

The birds in Derry haven't copped on to this yet.....

 

[Dutto]

Pumpkin Ale, Mars Bar Beer, Cherry Lager, Rowan Berry Ale. Are you just ferreting around in your cupboards and brewing with whatever you find?

Not really because:

• Pumpkin Ale was mentioned on the Forum well before I brewed any of it; and at 10p per pumpkin in Lidl I couldn't resist giving it a whirl.
• I regularly drink Kreik Lambic Beer when I'm over in France so "Cherry + Lager" seems a natural extension; and so far it tastes great!
• The Rowan Berry experiment happened because again I saw an internet reference to it being used in olden times as a bittering agent instead of hops. I had a Rowan Tree laden with berries sat in front of my house and some spare malt extract in the garage so trying it out was an obvious result. The brew still hasn't cleared and as it tastes "okay" I will keep lifting the odd bottle until it either goes off or I need the bottle to be empty.
• I've left the Mars Bar Beer until the end because it started out as Barley Wine with way too much Chocolate Malt back in early 2016. It has failed to mellow so rather than throw it away I've diluted it with caramel extract to see if I can produce something that is better than the Barley Wine which has a "liquid black chocolate" taste.
• BTW, you forgot about the 2016 Chilli Beer (a brilliant addition that I may do again) and the 2017 Spiced Christmas Beer (which is still sitting on the shelves in the garage in the hope that it will mellow out the taste of cloves it I leave it long enough).

However, the fact that there are now three separate concoctions sat on the shelves is one of the reasons I have made "No Experimentation in 2019" my New Year Resolution!

 

[dad_of_jon]

[QUOTE="

I will NOT be joining the latest "stop drinking for a month" campaign.

The January offering seems to claim that not drinking for a month will cure all ills ...

... except boredom![/QUOTE]

I find it a bit of a coincidence that dry january and the most depressing day of the year occur together aunsure....

 

[Dutto]

Yella Belly Gold is brewed using lager malt, so it might be with getting some of that in if you want to get really close to the original, although I did think it would be great with MO.

I hope you (and me) are correct.

My MO is still in the original (5kg) polythene bags but they (along with some other grains) went out of date in October and I won't be buying any more malt until I've used up the out of date supplies.

I'm not too worried about the malts being OOD because they are all in their original packages, stored in a plastic container to prevent infestation and a dehumidifier to keep any moulds at bay.

 

[Dutto]

Okay, here's "Plan A" for the "Grapefruit Pale Ale":

INGREDIENTS
4.5kg of Maris Otter. - 0.5kg Rolled Oats Grain Bill = 5.0kg
1kg Golden Syrup
45g Cascade (AA 8.1%) - 30g Chinook (AA 10.1%)
American PA Yeast - Protafloc Tablet - Yeast Nutrient

DAY ONE
Preparation
Mill 4.5kg of Maris Otter.
Weigh out 0.5kg of Rolled Oats
Mash
Strike Water = 3.0 litres per 1kg of grain = 15.0 litres at 72*C.
Mash at 60*C forNINETY MINUTES.
Sparge Waterat85*C
Lauter until clear then sparge until Boiler is at 30 litres.
Cover Boiler and leave overnight.

DAY TWO
Preparation
Prepare Hops comprising:

• 1 x 20g Chinook Pellets + 10g Cascade Pellets
• 1 x 10g Chinook Pellets + 10g Cascade Pellets

Put out Protafloc Tablet.
Rehydrate Yeast.
Put out Yeast Nutrient.
Boil using Hop Spider
Boil with 20g Chinook + 10g Cascade Bittering Hops for 60 minutes.
Add Protafloc tablet and boil for further 10 minutes.
Flameout.
Lift and clean out Hop Spider
Cool to 85*C.
Add Hop Spider with 10g Chinook Pellets and 10g Cascade Pellets Aroma Hops and steep for 30 minutes.
Remove Hop Spider.
Cool to 19*C:

• whirlpool,
• run off into FV,
• add Golden Syrup to FV,
• make up to 23 litres.

Take OG, add Yeast Nutrient and rehydrated Yeast.
Ferment at 20*C in Brew Fridge 2.
After fermentation completed:

• Take FG
• Add Hop Tea made from 5g of Chinook Pellets and 5g of Cascade Pellets.
• Batch prime with Brewing Sugar at:
  • 1g per litre of for Growlers & PB's,
  • 4g per litre for bottles. (Note 1.)
• Carbonate at 20*C.

PREDICTED RESULTS (from BrewersFriend)
OG = 1.034
FG = 1.004 (Note 2.)
ABV = 3.89%

NOTE:

1. At the expected ABV the brew should be okay to save for a few months so it may be bottled for the summer.
2. On BrewersFriend this recipe ticks all of the 3A. Czech Pale Lager elements, with the exception of the FG (which is expected to be below the 1.008 required). It is almost a perfect match for colour and sits in the middle of theSRM and EBC Morey measures.

ANY comments will be appreciated.

 

[Ajhutch]

Looks a tasty pale ale. My only thought is the OG estimate looks very low for 5kg of grain and 1kg of golden syrup, feels like you might be pleasantly surprised on the booze level

 

[Dutto]

Looks a tasty pale ale. My only thought is the OG estimate looks very low for 5kg of grain and 1kg of golden syrup, feels like you might be pleasantly surprised on the booze level

I hope so!

 

[Ajhutch]

I think I’ve worked out your plan. You tell your wife the estimates but you know you’ll get much higher efficiency and therefore double the alcohol. Don’t worry, I won’t tell!

 

[marshbrewer]

Mmmmm... I get over 6% @ 21L in the FV!!

Invite me round when it's ready.

 

[foxbat]

If I brewed that grain/syrup bill to 23 litres into the FV, in my setup, with my usual 80% efficiency I would expect an OG of 1.068. If that then finished at 1.004 then the final ABV would be a whopping 8.5%. To get a final ABV of 3.89% I would have to suffer a catastrophically poor efficiency of 37%. I'm sure your efficiency is very good so I can only assume your numbers are off somewhere. I'm scratching my head. Do you normally brew short and strong in the kettle then liquor back in the FV?

 

[pvt_ak]

Out of interest - why do you mash and then not boil until next day ?

 

[Dutto]

To answer a few of the queries

• I stop draining the boiler when the debris starts to enter the unfiltered take-off and leave about 1 litre behind.
• I always take the FV up to 23 litres before fermentation.
• I add about half-a-litre of liquid after fermentation with the hop tea and batch carbonation sugar.
• I Mash and Boil on two consecutive days because I'm too old to do both on the same day. (*)

If the final ABV comes in at more than 5.5% I will definitely bottle it and keep it on the shelves for the summer.

(*)

I proved the "too old" theory with the last two brews where I did two Mashes on Day One and two Boils on Day Two.

I Boil outside and try to brew when the wind is below about 15mph. (Like is will be this Monday!) All went well as far a the wind was concerned, but the ambient temperature was about 5*C. As a result, I spent the following day drinking hot toddies in an attempt to get warm and nursing a variety of arthritic aches and pains.

This is why my 2nd New Year Resolution is to only do brews over two days!

 

[pvt_ak]

Now it all makes sense

 

[Dutto]

Okay, that's the Grapefruit PA in the Brew Fridge.

The recipe was mainly followed with the following exceptions:

• I bottled out on the OG being so high so I Mashed at a slightly higher temperature (66*C > 64*C) and changed over to only 650g of Cane Syrup because:
  • I didn't have any Golden Syrup.
  • I wanted to keep the colour as light as possible.
  • I had Cane Sugar in the cupboard.
• I also noticed that I was short on the Maris Otter so I substituted 500g of Crystal Malt with an EBC of 25 to make up the numbers.
• I thought the amount of hops looked pitifully small (I normally use whole leaf rather than pellets) so I increased the Cascade Hops by 5g for the Bittering and the Aroma hops. The result was that the initial taste is "bitter" which is good for me.

The OG came out at 1.054 which translates to just over 6% by the time I have added carbonating sugar; so I will bottle the brew when it finishes fermenting; and revert to my "Here's hoping!" system of brewing!

BTW, this is the Cane Syrup I used ...

... if anyone goes over to France this year I can recommend it as an easy start when making Candi Sugar!

 

[marshbrewer]

Looks good ~ was the wort nice and pale?

 

[Clint]

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