New Year - Slid Brewday

[Slid]

Surprising it kept fermenting after 85% attenuation. Yeah, I've heard the thaw is starting to set in, good time for the final bottle. Enjoy.

The go-to yeast chez Brewery Slid is US 05, which quite often goes down to 1.003, especially if you re-use the trub (bizarrely). I really did think that 1.012 would be safe to bottle. But Slids make wort, yeasts make beer. And it seems, yeasts carry on making beer, even when Slid is happy with his finishing gravity.

Final Bottle? I do indeed hope to enjoy this and hope you too get as much from your BW drinking experience as I did. Sort of "one 250ml bottle at 2 months, a 250ml @ 3months, a full bottle @ 5 months", etc. Of the 17 x 500ml or so I finally got, I think as many as 3 may have been drunk over the "festive period".

I feel it is a sort of "have to" experience in brewing, even if 20-40 bottles is as many as you could enjoy (or face) in a whole year.

 

[Zephyr259]

Interesting, I've never used US-05 before. I'm starting to be very cautious as all my beers are getting slightly higher attenuation than expected. Might be from over-building starters so the yeast is going through a few generations.

I agree, have to brew a barley wine about now for the autumn/winter. I'm probably going to crack and try one of the bottles next week. I got five 500 my bottles over the carboy so I can see how it progresses. Was brewed 28th December and will have had 5 weeks in the bottle so might be drinkable.

 

[Slid]

I've thought about re-iterated mashes for some time and today gave an opportunity out of the blue to try one.

Basically a 9kg grain bill split into two 4.5kg mashes using the same wort.

To cut a very long and frustrating story short, all my attempts at high strength beers come up disappointingly short and prone to glitches that involve successive bailing from one vessel to next and then back into the GF.
The grain crush may be a factor, in a much as after getting 16L of wort, after the two mashes, there seemed to be about 1 kg of sludgy type crap in the bottom of the GF, which needed a total transfer of wort and discard of crap.

Result is 66% efficiency (Brewhouse), a shorter length and lower strength than hoped for and a very long brewday indeed. this 66% efficiency is very similar, BTW, to my first half dozen or so GF brews (mainly ESB's).
Every attempt at a high strength brew to date has been basically more trouble than it ever turned out to be worth.

Two weeks on, I am intending to rack this Old Ale onto 1kg of dried fruit (mainly raisins), rehydrated with boiling water & left to cool. May give it a gravity reading at this point, but what it will really tell me, I don't know. Don't really fancy the idea of adding spices as well and brewing beer with raisins seems to be in vogue in the USA at the moment.
Will then give it another 2 weeks in the secondary FV, before racking again to clear for a further week and bottling.

 

[Slid]

My last few brews have been done using S 04. These were:
Hobgoblin clone
Old Peculier clone
Golden Ale
Cornish Tin Miners Ale (GH)
Dry Stout (as above).

I have a few beers planned and US 05 looks like the go-to here. I tend to use a sachet on brew #1 and then re-use the trub for several other brews, maybe 3-6, by putting the trub, with some green beer, into 250ml bottles via sanitised jug and funnel.
Tomorrow I have planned out a pale ale using some hop samples from the Worcester Hop Shop.

Here is tomorrow's brew day recipe. The point of this is to use the "free" hops, so:

Maris Otter 5.225kg
Caramalt 275g

Bittering with 35g Flyer @60m (this poor little 35g of hops seems to have burst its bag, so needs using ASAP)
Huell Melon (35g) and Hallertua Blanc (35g) should go OK together, so they will get chucked half and half @ 10m and 0m (with the GF this really means 15m and 5m as it takes 5 minutes to sanitise the counter flow chiller).

The aim here is for a slightly fragrant Golden Ale.

"

First proper taste of this today, watching a disappointing Saracens win over Quins played at the Olympic Stadium.

This beer is absolutely everything I hoped it might be. More of a bitter beer than a Golden Ale, perhaps, but none the worse for that.

The "free" hops were from my go-to supplier Worcester Hop Shop (I get the same 5% discount as everyone on here!) and no doubt they are available still. Seemed to go well together.

 

[Slid]

Well, the last bottle of last year's Barley Wine is drunk and gone. I am brewing a full length Old Ale plus dried fruit (mainly raisins) and some spices for next festive season. It is currently ~ 3 weeks in, after racking @ 2 weeks and will get another week in the Secondary before racking again to settle out before bottling.

On to the next beer! Back in the day clibit posted up a clone recipe for Orkney Dark Island. It is in the "Completed and Brewed Beers" section on page 4 or thereabouts. clibit is long departed from this Forum and much missed (by me at least). No doubt he is promulgating the cause of homebrewing as best he sees fit. Great "feel" for a recipe, has the guy. There are quite a number of his suggestions in the "Completed and Brewed Beers" section and I feel that reviewing them might be a great idea for anyone interested in All Grain brewing.

The Orkney Dark Island I am hoping to brew tomorrow or Monday is slightly bumped up by a desire for a longer brew, but also for slightly heavier one. The malted grains are weighed out and are as below:

Maris Otter 3.75kg
Vienna Malt 1kg
Chocolate 320g
Crystal 230g
Wheat 230g

Hops are First Gold and EKG with 20g of each for bittering and 20g of each @ 10 mins as finishing hops. clibit suggested US 05 as yeast choice and I have lots of this, re-used in 250ml bottles, as trub saved under green beer, from a previous brew.

 

[Slid]

Well I got around to the Orkney Dark Island this morning as SWMBO and our two daughters went out shopping with the Mother-in-Law (now nicked "San Marino" due to her habit of kicking-off every ten minutes or so).

Mash went quite well, but I gave it a good stir at 30mins in because David Heath recommends this. Also because the last Brewday (re-iterated mash) was a bit fraught and I got a totally rubbish efficiency at 65%. Ironically today went so well that I end up with 26L and 78% efficiency, which is very good for me. Here, for what its worth are my three lessons on GF efficiency - the difference between 65% and 75%:

• Dough in slowly, one bit at a time. The first third of the grain might be done quite quickly, but it takes longer as the amount of grain in the mash increases. 20-25 mins on this phase.
• Stir the mash at least once during the mashing. If the water goes over the two handling toggles on the upper mash plate, stop the mash and give the grain a stir.
• Sparge very slowly. You may as well do so, since the wort needs to get up to over 100C for the boil. Also keep the sparge water at 75C or so.

Incidentally, the beer I refer to two posts above is this one:

Maris Otter 5.225kg
Caramalt 275g

Bittering with 35g Flyer @60m (this poor little 35g of hops seems to have burst its bag, so needs using ASAP)
Huell Melon (35g) and Hallertua Blanc (35g) should go OK together, so they will get chucked half and half @ 10m and 0m (with the GF this really means 15m and 5m as it takes 5 minutes to sanitise the counter flow chiller).

As I say, this is really very good indeed.

 

[Slid]

Brew day went well on the Mild above. Got 75% BH efficiency and over 26L of wort in the FV. Fuggles 30g @ first wort and 29g Progress @ 10 mins. Used US 05 although this is not really the style at all. Will probably be quite similar to the Porters I have made.

Had a very cheeky bottle of this 10 mins ago. (I am using up my Annual Leave from work this week. Supposed to be painting the garden fences, but very sadly it rained all day, with that thin, persistent drizzle that Bolton is famous for.)

Very much a "running beer" and I can understand now why mild was drunk almost as soon as it was brewed. It is actually not similar to Porter other than colour wise. Quite a good malty aftertaste and no bittering that I could taste at 25 IBU.

Surprised it is not more popular with impatient home brewers as it is perfectly palatable at 4 weeks and 2 days. No sharp flavours at all.

 

[Ajhutch]

Had a very cheeky bottle of this 10 mins ago. (I am using up my Annual Leave from work this week. Supposed to be painting the garden fences, but very sadly it rained all day, with that thin, persistent drizzle that Bolton is famous for.)

Very much a "running beer" and I can understand now why mild was drunk almost as soon as it was brewed. It is actually not similar to Porter other than colour wise. Quite a good malty aftertaste and no bittering that I could taste at 25 IBU.

Surprised it is not more popular with impatient home brewers as it is perfectly palatable at 4 weeks and 2 days. No sharp flavours at all.

It’s on my calendar to do in late October or early November for the Christmas period. I had a mild in the pub a few months ago and bought it was great

 

[Slid]

It’s on my calendar to do in late October or early November for the Christmas period. I had a mild in the pub a few months ago and bought it was great

Here again is the Grain Bill for 25L:

Maris Otter 4kg
Dark Munich 1kg
Chocolate 0.2kg
Roast Barley 0.1kg
Cara / Crystal 0.3kg

This really looks nothing like the recipe I was copying or indeed, most grain bills for a Mild brewed during the last 100 years or so.​

 

[Slid]

Did a brew today, as the weather forecast was a bit dismal. Summer Lightning, with Randy Mosher's ideas and brewed to 25L.

Maris Otter 5kg
Biscuit 250g
Wheat 250g

Challenger 50g @ 60m
Goldings 20g @ 10 and then again 20g @ 0mins.

Had an awkward brewday again because of the grain crush. During the sparge, the GF cut-out duly cut out @ 81C due to grain build up on the heating plate. So, once again, a case of baling all contents out of the GF and into the Peco boiler with the BIAB bag on the inside. After squeezing the bag there was a tennis ball sized lump of small bits of grain. Baled back into the GF @ about 70C and after resetting the GF, it got back up to the boil eventually.

After this, there was a slight issue with the counter flow chiller connection and this added more time to the day.

On the plus side, got 76% efficiency with long dough-in, stir at 30 mins into the mash and a very slow sparge.

The Challenger hops smelled good, but the EKG had almost no aroma at all. Still, they were cheap.

 

[Slid]

My last few brews have been done using S 04. These were:
Hobgoblin clone
Old Peculier clone
Golden Ale
Cornish Tin Miners Ale (GH)
Dry Stout (as above).

I have a few beers planned and US 05 looks like the go-to here. I tend to use a sachet on brew #1 and then re-use the trub for several other brews, maybe 3-6, by putting the trub, with some green beer, into 250ml bottles via sanitised jug and funnel.
Tomorrow I have planned out a pale ale using some hop samples from the Worcester Hop Shop.

Here is tomorrow's brew day recipe. The point of this is to use the "free" hops, so:

Maris Otter 5.225kg
Caramalt 275g

Bittering with 35g Flyer @60m (this poor little 35g of hops seems to have burst its bag, so needs using ASAP)
Huell Melon (35g) and Hallertua Blanc (35g) should go OK together, so they will get chucked half and half @ 10m and 0m (with the GF this really means 15m and 5m as it takes 5 minutes to sanitise the counter flow chiller).

The aim here is for a slightly fragrant Golden Ale.

The future beers planned, using the trub from this beer are:

Fullers London Porter (GW - may he rest in peace)
Fullers ESB (Also GW)
Old Ale (GH recipe, which I have done at least twice previously)
Hazy and undecided sort of "Reiterated Mash Experimental Brew"

So, first some feedback on the early year brews:

• Firstly, the Hobgoblin has dropped to the bottom of my storage (or been drunk by mice or something) so nothing on this
• Old P clone is just magnificent - just how a dark, Old ale style beer should be
• Golden Ale is very pleasing indeed, if a little more amber than intended
• Cornish Tin Miners is as good as last time - a little heavier on the palate than the Golden Ale
• Dry Stout is also very good - the full 1kg of flaked barley makes for a different beer alright

 

[Zephyr259]

Just did some searches and I can't find any details on your Old Peculiar clone, I really like the beer but figured cloning it would be tricky as I'd assume the characteristic flavours would be due to their yeast.

Sounds like I'll have to give the Corning Tim Miner's ale a try sometime.

 

[Slid]

Today was brew day again and I made a variant of clibit's "Fisherman Stout"

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/fisherman-stout.57524/

Here is the Grain Bill:
Maris Otter 4.7kg
Chocolate Malt 140g
Black Malt 300g
Crystal 190g
Special B 250g

Hops are nothing much in this beer - 26g of Admiral at first wort and 20g EKG late addition. About 40 IBUs.

For the first time. I had two cut-outs on the Grainfather. First at around 90C whilst sparging and bringing up to the boil.

So - bale out into the Peco boiler, with the BIAB bag in it, that I heat the sparge water in and dispose of a tennis ball sized lump of grain.

Bale back into the GF and off we go again. It cuts out again, so I empty out once more into the trusty Peco and after cleaning the GF again, put half the wort into each boiler and set both going.

The GF looks favourite, so once both are boiling, all gets put back into the GF.

After the ~1 hour messing around, all is well, with 24.5L in the FV @ 75% BH efficiency.

Really must get a grain crush that is suitable for the GF and not aimed at BIAB.

 

[Slid]

Just did some searches and I can't find any details on your Old Peculiar clone, I really like the beer but figured cloning it would be tricky as I'd assume the characteristic flavours would be due to their yeast.

Sounds like I'll have to give the Cornish Tin Miner's ale a try sometime.

There are a lot of scribbles in my brewing book on the OP clone. Here is the version I saved in Brew Mate:

Maris Otter 5.36kg
Brown Malt 318g
Wheat Malt 250g
Crystal 213g
Chocolate 211g
Roast Barley 175g

Bittering to 30 IBU's
Pilgrim 25g @ 60m
Fuggles 18g @ 10m and
Fuggles 18g @ 0mins

Safale S04 (not my usual US 05)

I bought a bottle of the commercial version to compare. I liked mine more, but the commercial beer has better clarity and head retention, plus a definite cherry like taste.
Mine tastes more like beer and less like a cherry pie.

The CTM is worth a go. I've done it 3 times. The second one picked up some chlorophenols in the fermentation and was hard work. First and third were very good, but more a cold weather sort of a beer. So I would suggest a Summer Lightning sort of a beer to do at this time of year. Just Pale Malt, Challenger to bitter and EKG as late hops.

 

[Zephyr259]

Just fired those numbers into the calculator and it's going to come out really dark, the predicted EBC is mid 50s, higher than my Brown Porter at 40 ebc which was black in the glass. Looks like a good recipe, I may have a go at it later in the year when the weather starts to cool again. I've got Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire on the go just now so as long as nothing happens to it I'll probably used that. Seems to be a trend of clones using belgian yeasts but that just seems wrong.

Thanks for the recommendation of the CTM, will keep it in mind also. For the warmer weather I'm brewing the Yorkshire bitter followed by a bit of an experiment, I'm going to ferment the Scottish 60/- recipe with Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse Ale for a light Scottish Saison hybrid. Mostly cause I want to keep my saison yeast healthy but I still have a decent stock of it's previous 6.3% efforts. Coupled with a bock and a strong stout I need few low abv brews on the go.

 

[Oneflewover]

Today was brew day again and I made a variant of clibit's "Fisherman Stout"

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/fisherman-stout.57524/

Here is the Grain Bill:
Maris Otter 4.7kg
Chocolate Malt 140g
Black Malt 300g
Crystal 190g
Special B 250g

Hops are nothing much in this beer - 26g of Admiral at first wort and 20g EKG late addition. About 40 IBUs.

For the first time. I had two cut-outs on the Grainfather. First at around 90C whilst sparging and bringing up to the boil.

So - bale out into the Peco boiler, with the BIAB bag in it, that I heat the sparge water in and dispose of a tennis ball sized lump of grain.

Bale back into the GF and off we go again. It cuts out again, so I empty out once more into the trusty Peco and after cleaning the GF again, put half the wort into each boiler and set both going.

The GF looks favourite, so once both are boiling, all gets put back into the GF.

After the ~1 hour messing around, all is well, with 24.5L in the FV @ 75% BH efficiency.

Really must get a grain crush that is suitable for the GF and not aimed at BIAB.

Must give the Fisherman's Stout a whirl. What's the thinking on the tweaks you have made ?

 

[Slid]

How odd life is. I was sure I had replied to One flower. (I read it as "one flower" every time, mate!) So, apologies.

Any variants were due to not having much crystal at the time, except for the Special B.
I bottled the Fisherman Stout over this weekend and it was rather good straight out the FV.

Today was a very simple pale ale. If you look at the recipes on pages 122 and 126 of GH's book, you see two very similar looking recipes for an English and a Belgian pale ale.

I want to try out two yeasts - the English Ale yeast from Lallemand and revisit the MJ 31 Belgian strain that gives fantastic attenuation.

So - a split wort brew today. I went with:
4,6kg Maris Otter
250g Caramalt

20g Admiral @ 60m
20g Bobek @ 15m
30g Bobek @ 0m

Had a really frustrating brewday, with GF cutting out again, at 88C on the boil, despite having decanted the wort into an FV through a BIB bag at the end of the mash-out.

Ended up having to use the PECO boiler to boil and then transfer (again) to the GF to chill.

So - two half brews at around 12L each. Will add some home made golden syrup to the Belgian.

The English version is for SWMBOs dad, who likes beer at around 3.2%.

 

[Oneflewover]

Ha, no problemo!

The Fisherman's Stout is firmly on my brew list. I'll stick to Clibit's recipe if you didn't actively seek to improve it for some reason. :hat:

 

[Slid]

Ha, no problemo!

The Fisherman's Stout is firmly on my brew list. I'll stick to Clibit's recipe if you didn't actively seek to improve it for some reason. :hat:

Yes, you can rarely go far wrong with one of clibit's recipes.

 

[Slid]

Here again is the Grain Bill for 25L:

Maris Otter 4kg
Dark Munich 1kg
Chocolate 0.2kg
Roast Barley 0.1kg
Cara / Crystal 0.3kg

This really looks nothing like the recipe I was copying or indeed, most grain bills for a Mild brewed during the last 100 years or so.​

A few updates are overdue. First is the "Mild" A le I knocked up by using a GW recipe, factoring up by 5:3 to give a good strength beer along the lines of the Milds of old.

Recipe is as per above and it tastes OK - not outstanding, just a fair malt forward beer. Very easy to drink.