Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[dlowe1992]

Black Rock are fairly close to me and I've used them a few times. Think the boxes are pretty new.
A label on the packets would be good..

I bought hops for a couple of brews there a couple of months ago. Didn't use all the packets, tossed the boxes for easier storage in the freezer and low and behold, when I checked stocks yesterday, a couple of un-identifiable packets! Should have marked the freezer bags I put them in. Hey ho! I can narrow down to which two they are then test my sense of smell to see if I can identify which is which

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Highly recommend these for writing on black surfaces (they also work very well on glass bottles)

@DocAnna

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The boxes look quite smart but I'd worry they'd go soggy in the freezer longer term and so would need the label on the hop packet itself - and being black it's going to be difficult to use a sharpie on it! I'd never heard of Ernest hops though, and just looked the history up of it being considered too American in flavour when it was first trialled .

That’s actually a very good point about the boxes getting soggy although I store my hops in a fridge so I don’t have to worry about that so much.

Yes, Ernest are maybe a bit “uncouth” for some being more American in style. If you try them, put them with Olicana and Jester for a really fresh hoppy English pale ale. “Should be banned!”

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I completed the set today by filling that empty slot in my fermentation cabinet, I brewed another best bitter. My house bitter (Full English) is hopped using Fuggles and EKG. For this bitter I’ve used a little less dark crystal and I replaced the Fuggles with Centennial so this beer should be a bit lighter in colour and a bit lighter/floral in flavour.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I completed the set today by filling that empty slot in my fermentation cabinet, I brewed another best bitter. My house bitter (Full English) is hopped using Fuggles and EKG. For this bitter I’ve used a little less dark crystal and I replaced the Fuggles with Centennial so this beer should be a bit lighter in colour and a bit lighter/floral in flavour.
View attachment 98011

Whoa … that’s a majestic sight Mr H

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Do you ever have them go over-temp due to heat of fermentation? I can only fit one FV per chamber, and I notice it usually switches from heating to cooling, then back to heating again as the fermentation progresses

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Do you ever have them go over-temp due to heat of fermentation? I can only fit one FV per chamber, and I notice it usually switches from heating to cooling, then back to heating again as the fermentation progresses

I’ve not noticed them going over-temp because the temperature is controlled but it’s very possible my heating and cooling is working hard to maintain a fairly narrow temperature range. I have to say I don’t really take much notice any more because I’m used to it just managing the temperature for me.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I’ve not noticed them going over-temp because the temperature is controlled but it’s very possible my heating and cooling is working hard to maintain a fairly narrow temperature range. I have to say I don’t really take much notice any more because I’m used to it just managing the temperature for me.

I meant the temp of the brews themselves going higher than the temp of the air… mine do that quite a bit when they are “going for it” at the start of the process

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I meant the temp of the brews themselves going higher than the temp of the air… mine do that quite a bit when they are “going for it” at the start of the process

Ah! I don’t monitor the temperature of the fermenting buckets. You might well be right and I probably should take a bit more interest - I’m probably placing too much trust in managing the ambient temperature.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Yesterday, after 9 days in the fermenter, I dry-hopped the Brut IPA and today I’ve dry-hopped the latest batch of Pirate Pale. I’m looking forward to these already and particularly interested in the Brut IPA because I’ve never brewed one until now.

 

[Wynne]

Yesterday, after 9 days in the fermenter, I dry-hopped the Brut IPA and today I’ve dry-hopped the latest batch of Pirate Pale. I’m looking forward to these already and particularly interested in the Brut IPA because I’ve never brewed one until now.

View attachment 98260

Looking forward to your report on the Brut IPA @Hazelwood Brewery!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Looking forward to your report on the Brut IPA @Hazelwood Brewery!

Have you ever tried one? Have you ever brewed one?

 

[Wynne]

“No “ to both questions. I brew saison now and again (Saison Dupont is a firm favourite) and I’m intrigued by Brut IPA but, so far, I’ve not tried enzyme additions.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

“No “ to both questions. I brew saison now and again (Saison Dupont is a firm favourite) and I’m intrigued by Brut IPA but, so far, I’ve not tried enzyme additions.

I’ve chosen to not use any enzymes in my first attempt because I want to see where I end up with a large sugar addition and US05 (which normally does a good job with simple sugars).

 

[Wynne]

When you give your assessment, please would you add your recipe. Nottingham tends ferment low too so would work with a sugar addition. A diastatic saison yeast fermented cool and/or under pressure to suppress ester production is another possibility.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

When you give your assessment, please would you add your recipe. Nottingham tends ferment low too so would work with a sugar addition. A diastatic saison yeast fermented cool and/or under pressure to suppress ester production is another possibility.

Yes, happy to share the recipe but it is my first attempt so there may be some adjustment required

US05 is not bad, my cider came out at 1.000 so I’m hoping all the simple sugars and a good proportion of the rest will have been fermented out - we’ll see.

I did consider a saison yeast but worried a bit about the impact on flavour profile, this was part of my reasoning on using US05. Again, we’ll soon find out if it works, I’ll be kegging next Monday I think.

 

[Wynne]

The brewery where I help out use a blend of US05 and Nottingham for some of their recipes. I did a test taking 3 small (6L) batches of wort from the same gyle and fermenting 1 batch with Nottingham, 1 with US05 and the last batch with a 50/50 blend of both yeasts all under the same conditions. Unsurprisingly, all the resulting beers were very similar, howevet, it was possible to discern slight differences in taste and the FGs were slightly different too. In blind tastings, the head brewer could reliably identify which batch was which, I could only tell that they were different and, of each pair of beers, which one I preferred.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The brewery where I help out use a blend of US05 and Nottingham for some of their recipes. I did a test taking 3 small (6L) batches of wort from the same gyle and fermenting 1 batch with Nottingham, 1 with US05 and the last batch with a 50/50 blend of both yeasts all under the same conditions. Unsurprisingly, all the resulting beers were very similar, howevet, it was possible to discern slight differences in taste and the FGs were slightly different too. In blind tastings, the head brewer could reliably identify which batch was which, I could only tell that they were different and, of each pair of beers, which one I preferred.

I tend to use Nottingham for my stouts and porters, always with the stronger versions.

Liberty Bell is my choice for English bitters and pale ales.

US05 is often my choice for American style ales, and of course cider

Others tend to be more specific to style such as saison yeast for saisons, weizen yeast for weizens, etc…

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I cleaned my beer lines and taps today. It’s very rewarding when they are all gleaming. Shanks cleaned, taps and ball-lock disconnects cleaned and ready to re-assemble.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Today I kegged the Brut IPA. The flavours at this point are a fairly non-descript “tropical” flavour and citrus fruits (orange, lime, grapefruit). The overall impression is a bit like Opal fruit sweets and a bit mouth-watering.

The aroma is a bit less impressive but I’m hoping 25g of Citra cryo hops in the keg will resolve that. I normally use leaf hops in the keg (in a hop spider) because I’m a bit paranoid about fouling the poppets but of course cryo hops are only available in pellet form so I’m using a hop tea bag.

The finishing gravity is 1.001 giving me an ABV just a shade under 6.2%, both metrics are within spec. So far I’m thinking this will be a nice beer. It looks like it will be the same colour as my post 868 in this thread once it clears. The beer is sitting in my brew shed at 60 psi to get it carbonated.