HalsteadMills Brews

[SamBrewster]

Batch 100

No head, odd!
Jarrylo hop description mentions banana & citrus. Getting some banana in smell and taste but thankfully not too much. Bitterness is good as this could have been too high. Happy to drink this through the summer but won't rush out and get this hop again.

 

[SamBrewster]

Flanders Framboos Tachtig, Zesenzestig & Vijfenvijftig

Tried these yesterday - overall a bit disappointed.

The 5.5 is far too thin. The 8.0 is too boozy and a little yeasty. The best is the 6.6 - great raspberry aroma but the beer is too dry and the hit of raspberry flavour could be stronger. I guess the wheat would have brought some sweetness. May try this again, mashing higher and adding some oats.

 

[SamBrewster]

Loads of plums on the tree two doors down. Took the ladder and picked a bucket full.

2kg plums
2kg sugar
5l boiling water
Campden tablet

Tomorrow will add some tea and a CML Red Wine yeast that expired in June.

Another kg plums in the freezer, maybe a porter?

 

[SamBrewster]

Wallonia Prunier Sauvage

After some faffing bottled today.
After 3 weeks the wild yeast stopped working at 1041 so poured onto a pack of CML Belgian. Finished at 1013.

7 bottles of Wallonia Prunier Sauvage Septante et Un
5 bottles of Wallonia Prunier Sauvage Cinquante Six

Smells 'interesting', we'll see in a month or so...

 

[SamBrewster]

GH Summer Ale tweaked to try and get close to Wainwright

Time to compare with the real thing:

Well mine are darker and the S04 is darker than the CML.

Wainwright: smells sweet, almost of shandy and drinks a bit more, a bit more. Low bitterness and hoppy flavour - nice.

My beers have very little smell, don't know why. Definitely a similar hop finish but more bitter than the Wainwright. My wife thought that the CML was more bitter than the S04 - I didn't notice. Not sure I learned much about yeast from this experiment.

Mine are nice but certainly not a Wainwright clone. Should I put this into the English beer comp as a pale ale or maybe another...

Have a great weekend

 

[cushyno]

Time to compare with the real thing:
View attachment 30563

Well mine are darker and the S04 is darker than the CML.

Wainwright: smells sweet, almost of shandy and drinks a bit more, a bit more. Low bitterness and hoppy flavour - nice.

My beers have very little smell, don't know why. Definitely a similar hop finish but more bitter than the Wainwright. My wife thought that the CML was more bitter than the S04 - I didn't notice. Not sure I learned much about yeast from this experiment.

Mine are nice but certainly not a Wainwright clone. Should I put this into the English beer comp as a pale ale or maybe another...

Have a great weekend

Good experiment. Last time I had a bottle of Wainwright I couldn't help thinking it was very "pub beer" so may benefit from brewing with a portion of sugar on the HB scale. Did you treat both the CML and S04 batches the same?

 

[SamBrewster]

Agree, the Wainwright smelled of 'beer' nothing specific, although I can happily drink all night

The S04 and CML were identical - split into the FV.

 

[SamBrewster]

CML Red Wine yeast that expired in June

Think the yeast was dead. Nothing in a week so pitched an in date pack. A good 5cm foam next morning and fermenting away nicely. Will strain to demijohn at weekend and let it ferment out.

Also gave the brew kettle a good clean with VWP and Bar Keepers Friend in places.

Hops and yeasts all in. Just need to order some malt and I will be ready for the restart next month when it cools down. First 5 recipes ready to go. I am getting worried as my early lockdown stocks dwindled to less than 300 bottles/pints last w/e At least I have plenty to refill

 

[SamBrewster]

Autumn's here and the temperature in the garage is a steady 20C. After brewing 375 bottles/pints of beer in lockdown, this is the first batch since 12th June. Decided to make Ghost of Box Mill - inspired by Ghost Ship and my most successful beer to date:

Pale Malt - 4.1kg
Crystal Malt - 90g
Rye Malt - 130g
Chucked in a scoop full of Porrage Oats - Feedback on all beers to date has been around mouth feel, hopefully this improves it.
Mash @ 64C (a little lower than last time to try and "dry out" a little)

20g Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes
30g Cascade @ 15 minutes
20g Cascade & 20g Citra at 80C Whirlpool for 15 minutes (last time this was at flameout, before I discovered "whirlpool")

40g Citra to dry hop 3 days before packaging (mostly bottles, maybe a PB - more to follow).

Really good brew day (forgot Campden the night before but...).

Made a grain shoot over summer - used to get grain everywhere when tipping from the washing up bowls:

Worked really well, easy to stir in and quick.

OG was 1.05 so diluted to the target 1.046 with cold water to get temperature down another degree.

22l ish in the FV with CML Real Ale yeast and wrapped up in a jacket for nice steady ferment:

Doesn't he look cosy

 

[An Ankoù]

Potato Monster
I will never do this again:
View attachment 25975
Got 3 tiny bottles of what I think will be undrinkable from the top half, I think it's a lousy 3% or so...
In the background you will see my other honey wild beer, this however I have very high hopes for. Tastes good, primed quite high, looking forward to trying next month, about 5%. Both wild beers, one of the 9 honey and ALL of the "spud you don't like":
View attachment 25977

Is this what happens when you confuse Maris Otter with Maris Piper?
I'm intrigued. I'm going to have a go at spud beer just out of a highly refined sense of sheer badness. But not with wild yeast. I recall that Lars Marius Garshol had something positive to say about it in his book.

 

[SamBrewster]

Plum Wine

Will strain to demijohn at weekend and let it ferment out.

This is done, FG 0.996 giving me wine of 14.7%. Taste is amazing, dry, sharp, fruity, give this a couple of months and I am hopeful of something rather nice. The colour is amazing (also seen from others here: Victoria Plum Wine):

Ended up with 3 x 750 and 3 x 500 of wine and 2 x 750 and 1 x 500 of Bubbly - 5g sugar added to bottles (little less to the smaller bottle):

 

[SamBrewster]

Is this what happens when you confuse Maris Otter with Maris Piper?
I'm intrigued. I'm going to have a go at spud beer just out of a highly refined sense of sheer badness. But not with wild yeast. I recall that Lars Marius Garshol had something positive to say about it in his book.

Ha, ha

 

[An Ankoù]

Ha, ha
View attachment 32060at

That's the most amazing instrument I've ever seen, even if it isn't real. A cross between pipes and a hurdy-gurdy. Pretty much sums up spud beer, I reckon, but I'm going for it anyway.

 

[SamBrewster]

That's the most amazing instrument I've ever seen, even if it isn't real. A cross between pipes and a hurdy-gurdy. Pretty much sums up spud beer, I reckon, but I'm going for it anyway.

Good luck, you will need a peg for you nose

 

[SamBrewster]

No turning back now, received 2 corny kegs, lines, taps, etc from BrewKegTap yesterday . Need to source some fridges and freezers now...
Also decided to persevere with the PBs, fitted each with a pressure gauge so I can see what's going on.
Time to build a tap tower, very excited!!!
Looking forward to filling everything up. Planning GH London tomorrow.

 

[SamBrewster]

N104 - North Mill - (mostly GH London Bitter):

Remembered to Campden the water this week.

4kg Pale Ale Malt
200g Crystal Malt
20g Chocolate Malt
Scoopful of Flaked Barley

Mashed at 66C around a meeting so about 80 minutes.

30g Challenger at 60 mins
10g Challenger at 15 mins
8g EKG at flameout

Above target OG so diluted back - about 23l in the fermenter at 1.043.

I am a little worried about the temperature. Planning to pitch S04 but have seen posts explaining how it does not like to be pitched above 20C - I am at 23C. Will put fermenter outside overnight and pitch in morning. Hopefully when back in the garage in a jacket it will not get too warm in the heatwave next week!

Mostly went well but noticed some wort in the bucket under the pump. Stopped just in time, both inlet & outlet seals were broken - think I tightened too much when reassembling after cleaning - combined with heat it's not designed for:

Time to paint the tap tower (office phone in pocket of course), less than two hours 'til the weekend :small

 

[SamBrewster]

Today was cider day:

That's a lot of work for 4.5l of juice...

Campden in, will strain into DJ with CML Cider yeast tomorrow.

Should have 8 or 9 bottles for next summer

 

[SamBrewster]

Ghost of Box Mill

All packed up in new corny, CO2 on, tap tower almost complete. Can I wait two weeks???
6 bonus bottles.
Home hop recipe planned for tomorrow.

 

[SamBrewster]

Used up this year's garden hops today.
E107 East Mill Home Hopped (hopefully with learning from previous years ):

4320g Pale Ale Malt
240g Crystal Malt
240g Rye Malt
Scoop of porridge oats

20g hops at 60min
30g hops at 15min
40g hops at flame out

Was planning to dry hop the rest (60g) but now thinking about making a tea instead to kill any bugs...

Good brew day and now tucked up in the new fermenting fridge - fermenter fitted with running belt

 

[SamBrewster]

Busy day. Too many meetings tomorrow so moved my brew day forward (today was just packaging day!). Realised that the brews I have planned are all north of 5% so decided to make a little session beer today based on Wheeler's Flowers IPA.

N108 - Flowers at North Mill

2870g Pale Malt
255g Crystal Malt
21g Black Malt
270g sugar added to boil.

20g Target at 60min
10g Styrian Golding at 10min

OG - 1.037 - should end up around 3.8%.

Great brew, everything to plan, just busy fitting in the packaging of N104 (which is actually N105!) to free up the FV.

last of N105 in FV >
One PB fitted with new pressure gauge so I can see what's going on and 6 bottles moved into the warm house to carb for a week or so.

Quick clean and sanitise:

N108 in FV - cooled to 23C, now in fridge to get to 18C when I will pitch CML4.

Going to try Ghost of Box Mill from Corny (this one is 104) via new Tap Tower tomorrow - sadly I'm very excited