Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Another couple of beers kegged today; Pirate Pale and Full English Best Bitter.

I do have another new bitter (Amber Alert) ready to be kegged but don’t have a spare keg. Fortunately my current keg of Pirate Pale is about to kick so I expect I’ll be able to keg the new bitter tomorrow.

 

[bobukbrewer]

Hazlewood, how much do you drink per week as your output is about 20 times mine....

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hazlewood, how much do you drink per week as your output is about 20 times mine....

Probably 4 pints a day.

 

[Leon103]

Probably 4 pints a day.

4 pints before mid day

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

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.

View attachment 98564
View attachment 98565

1.001

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Hazlewood, how much do you drink per week as your output is about 20 times mine....

He actually runs a pub, but he tries to cover it up by posting improbable claims of his personal consumption on here! (Sorry Mr H - just pulling your leg)

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Today I kegged a new bitter, Amber Alert. I’d planned for it to be a Best Bitter with the ABV at the top end but overshot slightly because the yeast attenuated a little more than expected. It’s ended up at 5.1% but I’m fine with that.

The colour looks to be where I wanted it but the flavour is a bit like Proper Job with a little caramel and not quite as intended. It will change as the beer conditions so I have interesting days ahead.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just cleaned my beer lines and decided which beers to put on for some friends coming round tomorrow. While I was at it I tried the Brut IPA for the first time since kegging it 4 days ago. It’s nicely carbonated with a big foamy head as it should be. Clarity isn’t there yet but I’d expect this to take up to a couple of weeks. The flavour is interesting because at the moment it tastes like a good quality low alcohol IPA despite being over 6% - I wasn’t expecting that!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m just looking over the last few posts in my brewday thread because I’m starting to look forward to my own beers - that’s a good sign, right?

 

[St00]

There's no point in brewing if you don't look forward to drinking it?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

On this lovely sunny morning I’m brewing another batch of Pirate Pale. I’ve made some small changes to the recipe in this batch the most significant being mashing 1 degree warmer, fermenting 1degree cooler, and swapping my usual Liberty Bell yeast to US-05. Actually, when I say fermenting 1 degree cooler I don’t actually control the fermentation temperature, just the ambient temperature in my fermentation cabinet.

 

[Twostage]

On this lovely sunny morning I’m brewing another batch of Pirate Pale. I’ve made some small changes to the recipe in this batch the most significant being mashing 1 degree warmer, fermenting 1degree cooler, and swapping my usual Liberty Bell yeast to US-05. Actually, when I say fermenting 1 degree cooler I don’t actually control the fermentation temperature, just the ambient temperature in my fermentation cabinet.

View attachment 100343

I’m convinced it’s happier not being straight jacketed to exactly X degrees.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m convinced it’s happier not being straight jacketed to exactly X degrees.

That’s good to hear - I don’t really have any comparison, I’ve never forced the fermentation temperature on any beer since I first started brewing about 5 years ago.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The Pirate Pale hit all the numbers in the nose as is usual, very dependable. Now in the fermentation cabinet at 18C.

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

Looking nice! I brewed yesterday but have decided not to brew for a while now, unless I time it during a period of cooler, rainy weather.

We've had fairly warm weather for the past 2 weeks with temps steady around 25c, and it just gets too warm in the kitchen to brew, I think the kitchen was close to 30c when the boil was done...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Today I’ve decided to brew another batch of my “Full English” best bitter. Again a couple of minor changes - 50 grams less of dark crystal to lighten the colour a shade, and extra 5 grams of bittering hops for a touch more bitterness, and 1C lower fermentation (as this beer will be fermenting with the Pirate Pale). This is a glass of the wort at the end of the mash and before the sparge.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I was thinking of brewing something hoppy next and coincidentally I received my rosette from the LAB Open competition along with a pack of NEIPA yeast. Looks like it’s time to come up with a new recipe.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Looks like it’s time to come up with a new recipe.

An NEIPA perhaps?

 

[Twostage]

and 1C lower fermentation

That makes me think. I've recently wondered if there is anything new under the sun. I thought there was no such thing as a red lager, there is. Then I thought surely nobody has made a black saison, yes they have. So I have been trying to think of something I can brew that isn't a style. As I'm doing a cold black IPA (an IPA, made dark and fermented with lager yeast), I'm wondering what a cold bitter would be like. I haven't googled it yet so don't know if it already exists.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

That makes me think. I've recently wondered if there is anything new under the sun. I thought there was no such thing as a red lager, there is. Then I thought surely nobody has made a black saison, yes they have. So I have been trying to think of something I can brew that isn't a style. As I'm doing a cold black IPA (an IPA, made dark and fermented with lager yeast), I'm wondering what a cold bitter would be like. I haven't googled it yet so don't know if it already exists.

An English bitter should have some esters, you might find it just doesn’t quite taste like a bitter?