Hazelwood Brewday

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Top work there Mr H and a big thanks for really pushing the envelope and making such a fair and cool headed evaluation of the results :hat:

You’re very welcome, it’s been interesting so far and sharing my (unsophisticated!) findings is part of the pleasure of these things.

 

[Wynne]

Time for an update I think of the three beers I brewed employing some science, described a few pages back in this thread.

First, pictures of the three beers for a visual comparison. On the left Summer Breeze, in the middle is Pilgrim, on the right is Pathfinder. They have been conditioning 16, 13, and 10 days respectively.

View attachment 51800 View attachment 51801 View attachment 51802

All the beers are aromatic but on the whole I’m not really convinced they are more aromatic. All three beers are flavoursome and this might be where there has been a measure of success.

Pilgrim has a particularly hoppy flavour and is quite like almost every other heavily hopped commercial beer from the likes of Cloudwater.

Pathfinder was based on the same recipe as Pilgrim but had some more exotic additions. This beer was actually more dry than Pilgrim but otherwise not much different so either don’t bother with the exotic ingredients or look for some different ones.

I would say if you want to brew a really hoppy ale, try the recipe for Pilgrim. I’ve included a link to the recipe.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/c827e09a-5f2c-4586-9c09-18261dab4ef7-jpeg.940/full
If you want to try your own experiment to accentuate the hoppy flavour of your beer, put all your flavour hops in a 30-minute hopstand/whirlpool at 90C (scrap your bittering addition because the hopstand will add bitterness), use a blend of Lallemand BRY-97 and Lallemand Verdant yeast, and add some of your dry-hops on the first day of fermentation.

I have been following your trial recipes with interest (I have recently bought the Scott Janish “The New IPA” book which may have been your inspiration) and tend to add my flavour additions after flame-out and I bought a Blichmann Hop-Rocket to use immediately prior to my chiller to see if this enhances aroma capture. Have you reached any conclusion regarding the value of a hop addition to the mash? This is something that I have never tried? Are you thinking of doing further trials to test the benefit of pre- and post-boil hop additions? I can only echo TETB’s thanks - good job!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hi Wynne,

Have you reached any conclusion regarding the value of a hop addition to the mash?

The hop mash was primarily to stave off oxidation and help preserve the bright colour and fresh taste of the beer. I haven’t come to any conclusions yet, possibly because the beers are still quite young. I can tell you I’ve not noticed any difference as a result so it doesn’t appear to be doing any harm and on that basis I’ll keep doing it on highly hopped beers as a precaution. The science says it works but it might take some time to make a judgement.

Are you thinking of doing further trials to test the benefit of pre- and post-boil hop additions?

Possibly not pre-boil. What did you have in mind here, are you looking for a smoother bitterness or something else?

Post boil maybe. I haven’t yet produced a higher level of aroma so I may do some more experiments focused on aroma. I might also use bigger hop additions and lighter coloured malt to see if I can better test the deferral of oxidation.

I can only echo TETB’s thanks - good job!

Thanks very much for your feedback, I think I’m going to have to improve my assessment technique if people are taking more than a cursory interest in this stuff!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve just kegged my latest batch of Best Bitter and my taste out of the fermenter is encouraging. You might remember I was trying to smooth the bitterness. I have a little left over after filling the keg so I’ve force carbonated it and it’s in the fridge for a little later. This is what it looks like.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Went to pour myself an English Bitter and the keg kicked so the one I kegged in the previous post is now on tap!

Time to stop researching and experimenting and get some regular beers brewed. I’m on the last bitter, last stout, last pilsner. The bitter and stout need Maris Otter which I just finished (more arriving tomorrow or Thursday) so I’ll start with the Pilsner.

Collecting RO water now…

 

[dave_77]

I’ve just kegged my latest batch of Best Bitter and my taste out of the fermenter is encouraging. You might remember I was trying to smooth the bitterness. I have a little left over after filling the keg so I’ve force carbonated it and it’s in the fridge for a little later. This is what it looks like.

View attachment 51935

Is that your entry for this month's comp

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Is that your entry for this month's comp

It might have to be, I’ve drunk everything else

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Is that your entry for this month's comp

Actually I do have space in my fermentation cabinet for one more beer and a keg has unexpectedly become available today so maybe I’ll brew a mild (never brewed a mild before) or I could brew another bitter - do you have a preference?

 

[The Furnace Green Brewer]

Hey landlord,

Where can I buy a homebrew apron.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hey landlord,

Where can I buy a homebrew apron.

Cheers

Peter

That’s a bit random. Something like this perhaps?

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

That’s a bit random. Something like this perhaps?

View attachment 51946

I think the guy that does the forum T-shirt’s can do aprons

 

[Scrattajack]

maybe I’ll brew a mild (never brewed a mild before) or I could brew another bitter - do you have a preference?

Mild!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I can thoroughly recommend the GH Ruby Mild - took a little while to condition but it’s been a lovely drop.
I don’t have the recipe to hand but ping me if you want it

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve made a start on replenishments by brewing a Czech Pilsner today. All went well and it’s now chilled and resting in the boiler before I put it in the fermenter.

I need my delivery of Maris Otter (it’s in the post) before I can brew the next batch of bitter and stout. I expect I will also use it for the batch of mild I’ve decided to brew. As it happens I’ll be popping to Somerset tomorrow so with an 8-9 hr round journey I won’t have time to do any more brewing until Friday.

 

[The Furnace Green Brewer]

That’s a bit random. Something like this perhaps?

View attachment 51946

I was thinking of something a bit planer my girl thinks that I spend all my time, brewing, drinking and talking about home brewed beers.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I was thinking of something a bit planer my girl thinks that I spend all my time, brewing, drinking and talking about home brewed beers.

You’re among friends here, we all spend time brewing, drinking and talking beer - not “too much” though.

I think there’s a couple of guys on the forum that can help you out with that. I know @Benfleet Brewery can. Have a look at his thread and some of his merch using this link…

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...eer-mats-coasters-bar-runners-and-more.94125/

 

[samale]

I was thinking of something a bit planer my girl thinks that I spend all my time, brewing, drinking and talking about home brewed beers.

Maybe it's time to change the girl.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Maybe it's time to change the girl.

I could sort something for you. The options are almost endless. I’ve just done a screen shot of the few below as examples of what we could easily do for you:

Or even something for the Mrs:

send me a PM if you are interested

 

[Pennine]

Time for an update I think of the three beers I brewed employing some science, described a few pages back in this thread.

First, pictures of the three beers for a visual comparison. On the left Summer Breeze, in the middle is Pilgrim, on the right is Pathfinder. They have been conditioning 16, 13, and 10 days respectively.

View attachment 51800 View attachment 51801 View attachment 51802

All the beers are aromatic but on the whole I’m not really convinced they are more aromatic. All three beers are flavoursome and this might be where there has been a measure of success.

Pilgrim has a particularly hoppy flavour and is quite like almost every other heavily hopped commercial beer from the likes of Cloudwater.

Pathfinder was based on the same recipe as Pilgrim but had some more exotic additions. This beer was actually more dry than Pilgrim but otherwise not much different so either don’t bother with the exotic ingredients or look for some different ones.

I would say if you want to brew a really hoppy ale, try the recipe for Pilgrim. I’ve included a link to the recipe.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/c827e09a-5f2c-4586-9c09-18261dab4ef7-jpeg.940/full
If you want to try your own experiment to accentuate the hoppy flavour of your beer, put all your flavour hops in a 30-minute hopstand/whirlpool at 90C (scrap your bittering addition because the hopstand will add bitterness), use a blend of Lallemand BRY-97 and Lallemand Verdant yeast, and add some of your dry-hops on the first day of fermentation.

The summer breeze had better head retention, or do you think it is just carbonated a little higher?

What yeast did you use for Summer breeze and pathfinder?

I am glad you did end up with 3 drinkable beers, I wonder in time when the hops fade a little if you will start to notice some more flavour in the pathfinder. Those quantities can overwhelm everything initially.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The summer breeze had better head retention, or do you think it is just carbonated a little higher?

What yeast did you use for Summer breeze and pathfinder?

I am glad you did end up with 3 drinkable beers, I wonder in time when the hops fade a little if you will start to notice some more flavour in the pathfinder. Those quantities can overwhelm everything initially.

Don’t read anything into the head on these beers, I skimmed it off to get a better look at the beer itself. They were all well carbonated.

Summer Breeze used Wyeast 1318, both Pilgrim and Pathfinder used a blend of Lallemand yeasts; BRY-97 and Verdant. I used these two yeasts together because they each are specialists in the two main bio-transformation processes.

It will be interesting to see how the beers condition and mature. Already Pilgrim has changed to become a lot more aromatic.

I’m also curious to see if mash hopping does anything to stave off oxidation, these beers are both heavily hopped and I’d expect to see signs of oxidation fairly quickly.