marshbrewers brewdays

[cushyno]

Have you used Hallertau Blanc before? I have a lager conditioning that I used this hop in. It's a bit of a gamble because it seems quite a lot more fruity than noble hops.

My recipe used Vienna and some red-x rather than Munich and fermented with CML Cali-common cool at 12degC. 11.3EBC, almost bang-on the same as yours. I reckno yours will be closer to Kolsch style than mine will be to a lager!
I too considered dry hopping, which i may do next time if this one turns out well. 40g seems about right otherwise it may overpower.

 

[marshbrewer]

Have you used Hallertau Blanc before? I have a lager conditioning that I used this hop in. It's a bit of a gamble because it seems quite a lot more fruity than noble hops.

Nope, never used them before. To be honest, I originally designed an APA to showcase the hops, but then read that the PIA yeast might be a repackaged Kolsch yeast, so added the Munich and thought I'd give it a bash as a cool ferment. I read mixed things about H Blanc, some say they are cascade and new worldy, other that they are mainly noble spicy with a hint of new world, so I guess we will see! Could turn out to be pants .

 

[marshbrewer]

Its down to 22 °C now so its gone in the FV and into the brew fridge set at 14.5 °C. I'll pitch when it gets dow to 18 or so then it should be at 14 by the time its hydrated and starts to ferment.

I will not be sorry to see the end of this sack of Muntons propino or whatever it is ~ it always leaves horribly cloudy wort when used on my kit. The Baird MO I'm into a sack of now looks much less floury.

 

[marshbrewer]

I hit 1050°, and approx 19L. The missing litre is down to the amount of crud in the bottom of the boiler. The increase in extract efficiency? No idea.

 

[marshbrewer]

Yeast pitched @ 17.5°.

 

[marshbrewer]

Erm, it appears to be fermenting already, which I'm struggling to believe.

 

[marshbrewer]

This has been fermenting steadily for for days, and had slowed down and airlock activity stopped, so I increased the temp over the day to 18°C for a diacetyl rest. This resulted in airlock activity kicking off again, so perhaps I did this a day or so early, but hey ho. I'm still well within the yeasts recommended temperature, so perhaps I won't get to many fruity flavours.

 

[marshbrewer]

Both the Blanc and the Brown have now been put into corny kegs, primed with 1/3 cup of sugar and then sealed with a blast of CO2. They are sat in the Kegorator at 18° to carb up. First time I've tried naturally carbing a corny; I'll be interested to see how that works.

Can't decide what to brew next. Decisions decisions.......

 

[marshbrewer]

So I had a cheeky taste of both the kegs last night. Firstly, I think priming the kegs works for me. No worries about CO2 leaks while leaving the kegs connected. The brown ale is really promising, the Kolsch is nice and clean, with a nice smooth bitterness but I can't detect much flavour or aroma from the hops to be honest. I've got 500g of the H Blanc hops to get through; I suspect I will be using them as smooth bittering hops at this rate.

 

[marshbrewer]

Today, I thought I would brew a Belgian Blonde Ale sort of thing. Mainly because I had a pack of MJ Triple Yeast to use up as it went out of date at the end of March, and I'm a bit tight. I sort of got inspired having a bottle of Leffe Blonde (yes, I know.....) in that it was reasonably tasty and Belgian, but didn't have you fighting with the cat after a few. Which is really important for me, especially as we don't have a cat. Last time I used this yeast, I fermented at a nice safe temperature near the middle of its temperature range. This time, I'm going to push it up near the top, at 27° C to see what interesting flavours I get.

Zomer Bier - Belgian Blond Ale

5.4%
64.1% efficiency
Batch Volume: 20 L

Boil Time: 60 min
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity (Adv): 1.004
IBU (Tinseth): 28
Color: 10.8 EBC


Mash
Strike Temp — 67.9 °C
Infusion — 63 °C — 60 min


Malts (3.8 kg)
3.8 kg (88.4%) — Thomas Fawcett Pale Malt, Maris Otter — Grain — 5.9 EBC
Other (500 g)
500 g (11.6%) — Lyle's Golden Syrup — Sugar — 25 EBC — Boil


Hops (52 g)
10 g (14 IBU) — Hallertau Blanc 10.5% — Boil — 60 min
27 g (7 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 5% — Boil — 10 min
15 g (8 IBU) — Hallertau Blanc 10.5% — Boil — 10 min


Miscs
0.5 items — Protafloc — Boil — 10 min


Yeast
1 pkg — Mangrove Jack's M31 Belgian Tripel
Fermentation
Primary — 27 °C — 14 days

All went well, I ended up with 21L, and an OG of 1044, which is OK. New FV with no airlock hole - its just in the fermentation fridge at the moment with the lid resting on it. Once it starts, I might go crazy and remove the lid. Assuming it ever does start - the yeast is several months out of date.....

 

[marshbrewer]

The Belgiany thing is happily fermenting away this morning, and smells nice and fruity.

 

[marshbrewer]

Peak krausen had been and gone by Friday morning, I've no idea if that's a good sign or a bad sign. Nothing to be gained by messing around with it now, so I'll just leave it alone for a week, then take a gravity reading. Don't know what to do next; either a Double Diamond clone or a Golden Ale with EKG and Hallertau Blanc. Decisions decisions....

 

[cushyno]

Inspired use of Hallertau Blanc. I have a bit left, so may try something similar.

 

[marshbrewer]

Measured the Belgian thingy today. Hydrometer, below, read 1.000. After temp correction that s 1.002 (predicted 1.004 so that's about right as I mashed a bit lower than target). Tastes really promising from the fermenter; spicy, slight fruitiness which I think is from the hops not the yeast. I have set the fermentation fridge to 4 °C to crash, might be able to package at the weekend.

 

[marshbrewer]

Picked up these today from an advert on Faceache for £4 a pop. I foresee the bulk aging of historical keeping ales

 

[marshbrewer]

Today, I thought I would give one of Edd Mathers historical recreations a go. So today was JOSHUA TETLEY & Sons , X K BITTER BEER 1868

I messed around with the recipe in two ways - I used Bairds Maris Otter for the 38% pale ale part, and have pitched CML Celtic yeast as I'm all out of liquid yeasts at the moment, I haven't even got any trusty re-cultured Wye Valley available. If I like this, and initial results look promising, then I'm going to have a crack at making a homebrew scale Yorkshire square, complete with circulation pump, and use a proper yeast. But my aim here was to try out one of Edds interpretations of a historic mash. Gosh, is it time consuming - but, boy, does it get the most out of 'can be tricky to mash' Chevalier.

I started brewing at 10am, finished about 18:00. I hit 1054, target 1052. The wort is typically Chevalier / Maris Otter lovely, and the hop schedule, initial tastes suggest, brings that 'classic' taste I get with historic recipies with 30 min additions. Hard to explain, and it might be gone post fermentation. Anyhow, its in the fermentation fridge now doing its thing. Will report back tomorrow.

 

[marshbrewer]

Fermenting away happily with a thick krausen. Just leave it alone now until dry hop time.

 

[marshbrewer]

I managed to get the tap conversion on my second Burco cygnet (eBay special, £30) to seal and added a quick disconnect. That meant I could cobble together a sparge arm out of plastic plumbing fittings. It works! My next brew day will be batch sparge free, which should cut it down by half an hour or so.

 

[pms67]

What did you think of the Pia yeast?
I thought it was one of their better ones

 

[marshbrewer]

What did you think of the Pia yeast?
I thought it was one of their better ones

Not bad, but I preferred their old Kolsch yeast for doing Kolsch and fake lagers - I know a lot of people rate it for modern hop forward styles but it's rare I do those, so I'm probably not getting the most from it. For me, it will be my go to yeast for ales where I would have used Notty, as I get a sort of buttery taste with Notty that I'm not a big fan of and I don't with Pia. The one I really like from their new range is the Celtic yeast. Makes a good dark mild!