Erik The Anglophile's brewdays.

[An Ankoù]

I Always make starters, even with dry yeast, and pitch at least 1mcells/L/p. So the yeast is in good health and plenty of it at pitching time.

Yes, jolly good.
I've found your recipe for Grundelin's KK, which, I presume, is your stock ale.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Correct, I won't be able to give you any evaluations of it until next fall sometime though...

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

As a bonus: a freshly drawn pint of my current bitter, looks a bit darker than it actually is.
Reminds me a bit of TT's Boltmaker.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

When you said "open fermentation" I initially thought you meant a lambic ale ... now that would be quite a thing

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

As a bonus: a freshly drawn pint of my current bitter, looks a bit darker than it actually is.
Reminds me a bit of TT's Boltmaker.

TT was originally based in Keithley, which is where my Dad grew up... these days TT 'Landlord' is a fairly popular cask beer in pubs in my area, and one of my favourites (but it really matters how well it's been kept). Interestingly I have never seen Boltmaker though.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

There are a few pubs/bars who are cask-marque certified and ran by brits and/or people with a passion for UK ale in Stockholm, so I've had Landlord and a few of the others from the larger northern breweries from cask a few times when I still lived there.
A bit bothersome to fly about a 1000km south just for a pint though...
I do prime and naturally carb my kegs to about 2vol, keep the kegerator at 10-11c and pour the last half of my pints rather agressively, to "knock out" a bit of the carbonation... Not exactly like proper cask but a fairly good imitation.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

So I've brewed a few ales since the last one I posted.
A red ale that sort of failed as a red but turned out a decent brown, a Bramling X/EKG bitter and I have a light/pale summer bitter fermenting right now.
Next is a mild.
For anyone interested in my brews I will due to limited time due to various projects and family life etc probably only post my more interesting/special brews from now on.
Ordered a sack of Chevalier and got a few historical milds coming up, a 1890-early 1900's era inspired London stout for bottling and will likely bottle my Stock Ale and Imperial Brown Stout that have been secondaried with brett, a healthy dose of hops and a light touch of oak during summer and early fall.
That will def be posted about.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

With my summer bitter I got the glorious idea to dry-hop in the keg, leading to a clogged up beer post when it came time to draw the first pint, a lot of swearing, beer overflowing due to hop debris acting as nucleation sites when I tried to switch for a new beer post, and ultimately me rage-quitting and dumping the whole thing when the second beer post clogged up.
I have prepared a dip tube that is shortened about 15mm for my pale "Pennine" mild that was dry-hopped a bit in the keg aswell, to switch and purge quickly when I hook up gas on that keg.

One of the Historical ales with Chevallier has been brewed @peebee

1885 Kirkstall L
20 Liter batch (in FV, ~21L post boil) 83% efficiency

3.12kg Chevallier
200g Simpson Brown
680g Invert 2 (90% of that weight as a 50/50 mix of white cane and light muscovado)
mashed at 69c for 90 mins, after a protein rest at 50c for about 15min

It was a bit of a faff dividing the mash water in 2 portions due to me not owning a AIO, so the first one was more like porridge in consistency...

Boiled for 120 min, Challenger as bittering, 15g Fuggle @30 min, the recipe called for Hallertau but I don´t have that so good ole Fuggle had to do, also dry hopped with 10g Fuggle at Wednesday around dinnertime when fermentation was winding down before closing up the FV.

My very High-tech open ferment system...
Fermented with a MJ M42/Fermoale AY3 blend, as the other yeast I usually blen m42 with seems to have gone out of production...
OG 1.050(1.049 intended)
FG unknown, hopefully somewhere in the mid 70's AA wise
IBU according to Beersmith is 40, but knowing Chevallier inhibits isomerisation a bit the actual is probably about 35, as per the recipe.

hopefully it turns out tasty, next thursday after I am done building my firewood storage shack and changing the pillars on the small porch around our front door, I will rebrew the light bitter with some small changes based on the small glass I got to taste while dumping it.
Got some flaked maize for a late 1800's AK ordered aswell.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

The Victorian Mild is kegged!

 

[peebee]

One of the Historical ales with Chevallier has been brewed @peebee

I've been mentioned, best make a response ...

The Victorian Mild is kegged!

nnnnn ... "Edwardian"? They didn't seem to go in for the coloured malts and sugar much in "Victorian" times (except for Porter and Stout). If I'm reading me Ron P. (etc.) right? But the early 20th C. is fast becoming my favorite period; probably because they do use more coloured malt and sugar! And no pharting about with "Brett" and massive storage times to be on the right side of "authentic".

I'm just waiting for my "Edwardian Mild (Ale)" to start fermenting (brewed yesterday, still, a bit slow!). It's not "Edwardian" either but very early WWII and "evolved" from "Edwardian Mild". No brown malt, but 4% crystal malt. 3% sugar, No.3 "Invert" emulation (I'd put yours as No.3 too, I'd only use up to 30% light Muscovado for a No.2?). Plumage-Archer barley pale malt which seems about right for 1940 (and we can get it!). Paltry 22IBU of bitterness, as was the way back then, and is now, for "mild ale". Not one of Ron's gleaned recipes for a change, it's from the brewery's head brewer! Slightly controversial, 'cos it is not what many think of as a mild ale (it is still brewed, but the OG has slipped a bit). Has it's Centenary this year (first brewed in late 1923). Wadworth's 6X.

I'm a week behind you, so no doubt you'll be drinking your mild before me.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

I'll report back when I taste it, it will likely sit 5-6 weeks before I taste since I am gonna go away for a few weeks soon.

 

[peebee]

In which case I'll be sampling mine before you.

Here's a sample of mine in its pyknometer OG testing bottle, which also seconds as a colour sample (doesn't go back with the rest - no bad thing as there are signs of spontaneous fermentation in this "cleaned" bottle, the capillary tube has all the beer blown out). Just No.3 Invert, a little normal crystal malt and a couple of mls of caramel colouring. Dark amber ... but full-on-dark (brown) "Milds" were just about appearing at the time this brew is supposed to represent.

Since my last post, the Tilt is saying fermentation has started proper, and its lost 10 points in five hours. But it's an older titchy Tilt and they are subject to getting a bit "stuck" at times (unlike the behemoth "TiltPRO"). Currently its regained most those points; that new (to me) yeast is giving the Tilt a bit of a rough ride! (Mangrove Jack's #M42).

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

This is the 1885 Kirkstall L.
Mighty fine pint, I understand why so many beers back then were basically just Chev and sugar, cause you really don't need much else. This malt packs a ton of flavour.
Lots of toffee notes and a hint of coffee roast/toast, and that's with absolutely zero crystal malt in it.
10/10 would reccomend.

 

[peebee]

... beers back then were basically just Chev and sugar ...

But yours has the Simpson's Brown Malt! I've got me eye on you

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Well brown malt IS in the original recipe...

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Although next time I will likely go with Crisp brown in a more "normal" colour range...

 

[peebee]

Rubbishhh. I'll look up my secret weapon to pour derision on that claim:

Shutup About Barclay Perkins - 1885 Kirkstall L

See! ... (Oops)

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

I rebrewed that light bitter, used about 1/3 Crisp Vienna malt, and a EKG/Fuggle combo for late boil and dry hops. It's a nice bitter but nothing really special, a decent light quaffer.

Almost 2 weeks ago I brewed up a Stout that will be kegged this morning. A late 1800's London Stout inspired by Barclay Perkin's.

14L batch ~80% efficiency
Crisp Vienna 2.27kg 51%
Crisp Brown Malt 530g 12%
Simpson Amber 360g 8%
Simpson Black Malt 360g 8%
Simpson Crystal T50 270g 6%
Invert 3(emulation) 670g 15%

Mashed at 67c/120min
Boiled 120 min
Challenger as bittering charge
Fuggle 20g 20 min
Fuggle 10g as dry hops

OG 1.071(75 intended)
FG 1.017
IBU ~60

I had a lot more wort left after boil and subsequently missed my gravity by a bit, then I remembered I had this issue last time I brewed a smaller batch and that I had forgotten to change my new calculated boil off in BS...

Took a gravity sample 2 days ago and it tasted promising, this will sit in the basement after I keg today, until the week before Christmas to mature a bit.

Gonna brew a bitter with my homegrown hops tomorrow!

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Oh, and yesterday I tapped about half a shotglass of my old ale, and took a refractometer reading.
Down to an estimated 1.007 from 1.080 for just under 10% abv, gonna take another reading in 3-4 weeks to see if it is stable and bottle if it is.
Just the Imperial Stout left to go but that seems quite active still so I'll leave it a few more months.