Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I admire your patience :)

Well they can just sit there, it’s not as if I don’t have anything to drink and I don’t need the King kegs for anything. Maybe it will be ready for next Christmas!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve had a fairly busy morning today. One of my tasks was to keg my latest stout “Smooth Operator”. This stout was made almost like a pale ale and just before flameout I tipped in 3 litres of a stout cordial made from cold steeped roasted grains. The idea is to get a smooth roasty stout which I’ll then serve using mixed gas and a stout spout.

The final gravity was 1016 so it had plenty of body and has ended up at an ABV of 4.6%. You can see the colour is good and I can tell you the flavour is nice, it’s very roasty and is fairly bitter but also very smooth. It does need to condition yet and obviously needs carbonating so we’ll see how it changes but right now I’m very happy with it.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

My next task was to clean all my beer lines, which I’ve decided will be done every two weeks in line with best practice. It’s at times like this having 7 taps is a bit of a chore!

For each tap, hook over a bucket, remove the gas and beer line from the keg and connect them to the bottle of cleaner. Open the tap and let the cleaner flow, leave it for a while to work on anything not immediately cleaned out. Here, all 7 beer lines are full of cleaner.

Connect up the water bottle to flush through. At the end of the flush invert the water bottle so gas pushes all the water out the tap leaving the pipe empty. At this point remove the disconnects and give them a boil for a couple of minutes.

Refit the disconnects, reconnect the kegs, open the tap to fill the line with beer. Taste each just to make sure

While I was at it I connected up my new batch of Raspberry Sour. This one used half as much fruit (I though the last batch had too much) and I used pectolase (I thought the last batch was too murky). I thought the new batch was better and it was clear. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture but I did bottle some for someone so I can show you that…

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

My last job in the batch was to swap out my Trappist Single for a keg of Belgian Tripel. Now done and my menu updated.

The batch of Tripel I made for everyday supping was meant to be 7.5% but I had a problem with my sparge water pump and it affected my efficiency so this batch is a little below spec at 7.1%. Never mind, as I said this batch is for supping. My competition batch is conditioning and is 9.2%.

 

[YeastFace]

Next time I'm down visiting my folks I'm giving you a knock

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Next time I'm down visiting my folks I'm giving you a knock

I’m always very happy to receive visitors and if they fancy a beer or six, all the better! Do give me a shout if you’re in the area.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

After 19 days in the fermenter I thought I should get my competition saison into a keg. I do want a complete and clean fermentation but I don’t want it sitting on the yeast too long - judgement call.

Anyway, it looks good and finished at 1004 giving me a perfect ABV of 6.0. It tastes clean though obviously isn’t conditioned and the flavours need to develop but I’m very happy with it at this stage.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

As noted in the “drinking channel” I’ve had a bit of a craving for a West Coast IPA so I brewed one today.

This is it in the fermenter. It has an OG of 1058 and I’m looking for an FG of 1006 for 6.8% abv. There was no bittering addition, all 74 IBUs are coming from an 88C 15-minute hopstand. Hops were 100g each of Ariana Lupomax and Citra. I will dry hop 2 days before kegging with 100g of BBC Citra.

 

[St00]

Have you perfected your mild yet @Hazelwood Brewery?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Have you perfected your mild yet @Hazelwood Brewery?

I haven’t brewed another batch as yet I’m afraid. I know, slacking!

 

[St00]

I haven’t brewed another batch as yet I’m afraid. I know, slacking!

I'm putting off making one until you say you've perfected it. I'd say that makes me lazier....

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I'm putting off making one until you say you've perfected it. I'd say that makes me lazier....

The problem with that of course is we might have different tastes.

Maybe I’ll get one on in a couple of days, I have what I need.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

No work in the garden for me today, the weather is too nice. I did however clean all my beer lines to keep my beer fresh.

I also had a taste of my competition Tripel to see how it’s getting on. It’s a long way from clear but does taste nice - it made me grin - but that could just be the 9%!

I don’t know though if it will be well enough conditioned in time, there’s just about 7 weeks until the competition.

 

[samale]

I am

No work in the garden for me today, the weather is too nice. I did however clean all my beer lines to keep my beer fresh.

I also had a taste of my competition Tripel to see how it’s getting on. It’s a long way from clear but does taste nice - it made me grin - but that could just be the 9%!

I don’t know though if it will be well enough conditioned in time, there’s just about 7 weeks until the competition.

View attachment 65197

I am a race against time as well, mine is bottled conditioned. It's ready

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I am

I am a race against time as well, mine is bottled conditioned. It's ready

I guess I could use the batch I have on tap as a contingency but at 7% it’s a bit low. I’m hoping it will come good in two months and will be a competition-winning beer.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

My latest brew (the West Coast IPA) has been fermenting for 10 days which means two things…

1. It’s time to dry hop this bad boy. 100g of fresh Citra BBC hops going in. Just look at the BBE and Packed date

2. It’s been too long since my last brew-day. Tomorrow I am going to brew another batch of bitter. Tuesday I’m brewing another batch of Mild, promoted by @St00. After that I think a Wit but not yet decided on the day, maybe Wednesday

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Mmmmm 100g of Citra .... that's gonna be a bad boy LoL

 

[jayk34]

My latest brew (the West Coast IPA) has been fermenting for 10 days which means two things…

1. It’s time to dry hop this bad boy. 100g of fresh Citra BBC hops going in. Just look at the BBE and Packed date
View attachment 65291

2. It’s been too long since my last brew-day. Tomorrow I am going to brew another batch of bitter. Tuesday I’m brewing another batch of Mild, promoted by @St00. After that I think a Wit but not yet decided on the day, maybe Wednesday

My next 2 brews. Already have an IPA conditioning but have taken a liking to them.

I'm going to brew my first bitter tomorrow. Was planning on trying the Greg Hughes Yorkshire bitter, have you ever tried it ?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

My next 2 brews. Already have an IPA conditioning but have taken a liking to them.

I'm going to brew my first bitter tomorrow. Was planning on trying the Greg Hughes Yorkshire bitter, have you ever tried it ?

I've done the GH Yorkshire - it was a very nice drop.
Are you using the WY-1469? It worked fine but I remember it smelled alarmingly eggy in the first few days

 

[jayk34]

I've done the GH Yorkshire - it was a very nice drop.
Are you using the WY-1469? It worked fine but I remember it smelled alarmingly eggy in the first few days

I'm going to use the CML beirm 4 (English ale) yeast