Hazelwood Brewday

[samale]

Do you bag your pellet hops when dry hopping

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Do you bag your pellet hops when dry hopping

No, just throw them in. I have tried a bag before and also tried sinking the bag. Each of these I found made no difference but did give me something else to clean so I don’t bother.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Last night I brewed a new Citra Pale Ale with a simple grain bill and single hop. I’m also trying pellet hops again. Recipe looks like this:


Citra pale 4.85%
4Kg Pale Malt
1Kg Malted wheat
200g Crystal 30
75 min mash at 150F

20g Magnum leaf, AA=15.3%, 60 mins

50g Citra pellets 15 mins

At 0 mins reduce to 165F
30 min hop-stand with 60g Citra pellets

22 litres in FV, OG = 1043
1pk US-05 yeast

Dry hop day 5, 50g Citra pellets

Keg on day 12, FG = 1006

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The great hop blending experiment has hit a small snag. My fridge is too small to accommodate all four 10l Jerry’s so I’m going to have to bottle them over a couple of days.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Day 1 of bottling the small-batch brews today. I’ve bottled the beers flavoured with Ella and Azzaca.

Both beers look exactly the same out of the fermenter and both are 5.25% finishing at 1008.

The beer flavoured with Ella is quite nice out of the fermenter.

The beer flavoured with Azzaca is pretty amazing! Smells like pineapple juice (literally) and the flavour reminds me of Lilt!

 

[Clint]

Day 1 of bottling the small-batch brews today. I’ve bottled the beers flavoured with Ella and Azzaca.

Both beers look exactly the same out of the fermenter and both are 5.25% finishing at 1008.

The beer flavoured with Ella is quite nice out of the fermenter.

The beer flavoured with Azzaca is pretty amazing! Smells like pineapple juice (literally) and the flavour reminds me of Lilt!

View attachment 32377

Oooo! I got 100g of azzaca in the freezer...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Oooo! I got 100g of azzaca in the freezer...

I used 100g for 6 litres of beer, it is good though.

 

[Pennine]

it really is a pineapple monster. I love it in my saisons.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

it really is a pineapple monster. I love it in my saisons.

I might try that myself, I hadn’t thought of using Azzaca in a saison.

 

[An Ankoù]

Time for a tasting of my beers, starting with “Punky”, an attempt at making Punk IPA. You haven’t heard much about this one from me other than perhaps it’s nothing at all like Punk IPA.

This one is 5.8% and now 6 weeks conditioned. It is clear though not quite crystal clear, nice golden colour, good off-white head with good head retention. Aroma is slightly bready malt, some caramel notes I hadn’t expected, and a blend of tropical fruits but nothing shines through particularly. Flavour is actually quite nice but it isn’t Punk IPA! It’s more resinous and earthy than the aroma let’s on, there are fruity notes too but quite subdued. The bitterness is assertive as you’d expect and it lingers for a while.

I’ll enjoy drinking it but it definitely won’t be my go-ale.

View attachment 31738

This is my problem, too. I have expectations of how a beer's going to turn out and if it's off the mark it's a failure. Someone else comes along and tries it and has to convince me that although it's not e.g. Punk IPA, it's amazing beer!
In fact my Punk IPA turned out pretty much spot on and served to remind me that I'm not all that fond of Punk IPA.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This is my problem, too. I have expectations of how a beer's going to turn out and if it's off the mark it's a failure. Someone else comes along and tries it and has to convince me that although it's not e.g. Punk IPA, it's amazing beer!
In fact my Punk IPA turned out pretty much spot on and served to remind me that I'm not all that fond of Punk IPA.

Your last comment made me laugh, I’m not sure I’m the biggest fan either but I do like it and several of the family do.

The first time I made it, mine turned out more hoppy and I didn’t mind that, I quite liked it. This time it’s just altogether different and I have to wonder if the mini heat-wave had some part to play.

I will probably give it another go but not for a while.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Day 2 of bottling the small-batch brews and today it was Simcoe and Citra.

So that’s the four hops for my first blended trial bottled up. Tasting them straight out of the fermenter my running order of favourites is:

1 Azzaca
2 Simcoe
3 Citra
4 Ella

I honesty expected Citra to do better - but it’s early days. I’ll give them a week, maybe two, and then try some blending taste tests.

 

[samale]

So what's the plan. Mix them at different ratios to see which you like best

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

So what's the plan. Mix them at different ratios to see which you like best

Yes that’s right. Every combination with each beer at different ratios 1:2, 1:1, 2:1

A lot of combos/ratios

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Just been testing the flavour of all my beers. There’s quite a few, might need a lie down!

 

[Pennine]

Citra's been uninspiring to me lately too, wonder if we get the garbage batches from the prior season over here?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Citra's been uninspiring to me lately too, wonder if we get the garbage batches from the prior season over here?

They were 2019 crop, maybe 2019 wasn’t a good year for Citra

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Had a busy weekend but still managed to keg my hop monster (by getting up at 5:30 ). Anyway it’s done. First taste out of the fermenter was not very inspiring - I’m hoping this is just a “phase” it’s going through!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Also managed to label up some beers. I normally just hand write on labels but decided to print some and save myself some time. Did this lot tonight.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Dry hopped my Citra Pale today. The beer looked really clean despite being only 5 days in the fermenter. This one could be good