New Year - Slid Brewday

[Slid]

As the weather today is rubbish, I spent my last day off brewing another Saison, with half an eye on next week's weather forecast. Recipe:
Minch Pale 4.3kg
Munich 1kg
Wheat 200g
Special B 250g
Columbus 14g @ 60m
Mandarina Bavaria 25g @ 0m

My usual supplier (WHS) does not despatch until next Monday, so I got some stuff from the HBC in Ireland.
The Minch pale malt seems to be quite a fine crush, as I had a very sticky mash and sparge.
The mash in the GF was just weird, as the pump kept picking up air as well as liquid and there was a load of froth on the top.
The sparge had to be "hand-balled" by removing the top plate and stirring in the sparge water in half litre additions.
This seemed to give a pretty decent efficiency, but the wort in the FV was very cloudy indeed.
No doubt there will be a lot of trub at racking.

Also added the rest of the Mandarina @ racking ~37g. This is great already! Very pleased with the result. As orange peel is often added to a Saison, using Mandarina Bavaria seemed obvious - and it works.

 

[Slid]

A heatwave this weekend, for an ABH change! So, soon be Autumn, and with this in mind it's a 25L Dry Stout, recipe borrowed from GH.

Pale (Minch) 4.84kg
Flaked Barley 600g
Roast Barley 500g
Chocolate Malt 200g

Just one bittering addition, at first Wort:
Endeavour 34g
Columbus 12g

 

[Slid]

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.

Decided to do this one again. Had a bag of EKG open and this recipe used the remainder. Also had open bags of malt, which influenced the subtle looking weight differences:

Pale Minch 4.72kg

Chocolate 316g
Special B 248g
Wheat 197g

First Gold and EKG - 20g of each @ 60m (22 Bittering Units)
FG 20g EKG 31g @ 10mins

The grain crush in this bag of malt makes for a very sticky mash and sparge, which I address by a lot of stirring up. This in turn gives a very cloudy wort and a lot of trub (~ 3L) at first racking to secondary FV.​

 

[Slid]

I did forget to mention that yesterday's brew was the 100th using the Grainfather. Mine has a distinct tendency to cut-out on the phase post sparge when it is being brought up to boiling,

It also does not perform well with a fine grain crush (I have not the space yet to accommodate a grain mill) and basically I have adopted a routine that sees the mash, sparge and cooling done in the GF and the boil stage done in the Peco Boiler. I got this with the HBC AG kit, and also I use a pretty robust BIAB bag to filter out the fine grain, usually a tennis balled sized lump, after the sparge in the transfer to the boiler. A bit tedious, but once you get into a routine, it is just what you do, TBH.

 

[Slid]

Last of the re-used Belle Saison today.
I have been collecting and freezing the many bits of tangerine and other citrus fruits for a few weeks, with a view to doing today's brew, so here it is:

X Pale MO 4.65kg
Wheat Malt 500g
Crystal 200g
Special B 200g
Honey 200g
Sugar 200g

First Gold 25g @ 60m
First Gold 35g @ 0m

600g of citrus peel at or around flame out.

On the site I work at, there have been bees for some years now and the honey is from those bees. Looked very high quality stuff, even to my eyes. There was a sale, basically, I think to recover some of the costs that the dedicated bee keeper must incur pursuing his hobby. I got 2x 454g jars and about half of one went into my beer today.

 

[Slid]

Whilst in the lakes last weekend, I got dragged to the Lakeland shop in Bowness. I did once make the Marmalade kit from the homemade jam stall and had a vague idea of adding some or all to a beer, so picked one up @ £3. It is Seville bitter oranges. The Saison from today seemed OK with the citrus peel, so I am thinking of perhaps adding some to a Stout for next brewday. 650g can and as I am not really eating much bread these days (SWMBO fantasy world restriction) I don't much fancy making the marmalade again. But, even for a big stout, I feel that this much bitter / sour fruit may be a bit much.

Any thoughts?

 

[Slid]

Today's pale ale, Fullers London Pride Grain Bill and some US Hops:

X Pale MO 4,9kg
Crystal 25 EBC 0.5kg

Simcoe and Centennial, combined:
20g @ 60m
20g@ 10m
20g @ 0m

Even 60g of pellet hops overwhelmed the GF pump filter. The whirlpool I did to sort that out took the bloody thing off completely. Result - a great load of trub in the FV again.

I really don't like pellet hops and am starting to despair of the GF. It cuts out every time, and at lower and lower temps - down to 78C today.

 

[Oneflewover]

You have my sympathy, sounds like a right palaver. I've given up on pellet hops in the boiler altogether and am the happier for it!

 

[Dutto]

I use Hop Leaf in a bag to reduce the “bits”.

Leaf may be a bit more expensive on a “bang for your buck” basis, but I’ve given up on pellets as even making a Hop Tea out of them clogs up the cafeteria I use.

 

[Slid]

Today's pale ale, Fullers London Pride Grain Bill and some US Hops:

X Pale MO 4,9kg
Crystal 25 EBC 0.5kg

Simcoe and Centennial, combined:
20g @ 60m
20g@ 10m
20g @ 0m

Even 60g of pellet hops overwhelmed the GF pump filter. The whirlpool I did to sort that out took the bloody thing off completely. Result - a great load of trub in the FV again.

I really don't like pellet hops and am starting to despair of the GF. It cuts out every time, and at lower and lower temps - down to 78C today.

Added a further 20g each of Centennial and Simcoe today as a hop tea.

As @Dutto says, the pellet hops don't half gunge up the cafeteria.

 

[Slid]

Whilst in the lakes last weekend, I got dragged to the Lakeland shop in Bowness. I did once make the Marmalade kit from the homemade jam stall and had a vague idea of adding some or all to a beer, so picked one up @ £3. It is Seville bitter oranges. The Saison from today seemed OK with the citrus peel, so I am thinking of perhaps adding some to a Stout for next brewday. 650g can and as I am not really eating much bread these days (SWMBO fantasy world restriction) I don't much fancy making the marmalade again. But, even for a big stout, I feel that this much bitter / sour fruit may be a bit much.

Any thoughts?

Well, I made up the 6lb (imperial measurements, FGS!) and bunged the marmalade into 3x 2lb Jars yesterday, one of which was added to the initial FV.

Today's Dark beer was thus:
MO 4.7kg
Black Malt 230g
Crystal 300g
Amber 500g
Marmalade 900g
Chocolate Bar 100g

Progress 35g & 25g @ 60 / 10m
S04, by way of a change from US05, so as to leave more sweetness to counter-act the very bitter Seville oranges.

By way of explanation, the odd looking quantities were just finishing off open bags of grain (except the Amber). The chocolate came from an M&S thingy pack my work colleagues got me 7 months ago when I was off for 9 weeks. It was 70% cocoa solids and came from Ecuador. The marmalade is quite bitter, so I dropped the bittering hops which are 5.2% Alpha.

SWMBO suggested that this would turn out more like a Jaffa Cake than a beer.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Slid +1 on the pellets bloody awful last 2 brews I have had to sanitise my hand and arm to clear the bazooka on my klarstein kettle, going back to leaf in a bag from now on

 

[Ajhutch]

Well, I made up the 6lb (imperial measurements, FGS!) and bunged the marmalade into 3x 2lb Jars yesterday, one of which was added to the initial FV.

Today's Dark beer was thus:
MO 4.7kg
Black Malt 230g
Crystal 300g
Amber 500g
Marmalade 900g
Chocolate Bar 100g

Progress 35g & 25g @ 60 / 10m
S04, by way of a change from US05, so as to leave more sweetness to counter-act the very bitter Seville oranges.

By way of explanation, the odd looking quantities were just finishing off open bags of grain (except the Amber). The chocolate came from an M&S thingy pack my work colleagues got me 7 months ago when I was off for 9 weeks. It was 70% cocoa solids and came from Ecuador. The marmalade is quite bitter, so I dropped the bittering hops which are 5.2% Alpha.

SWMBO suggested that this would turn out more like a Jaffa Cake than a beer.

I absolutely love chocolate orange so hope this turns out well for you!

 

[Slid]

Thanks, @Ajhutch! It is one that should not go too wrong - it's pretty dark, for a start, and the grains tend to swamp bad things! My guess is that it could be a tad bitter with fermenting on the oranges goo. If so, the bitterness will doubtless fade in time, like the best of Brewers!

 

[Slid]

Another dark stout sort of a beer today at 26L in the initial FV. Very typical Stout profile with:

MO 5kg
Black malt 500g
Dark Crystal 500g
Chocolate Malt 100g
Molasses sugar 100g

26g Columbus @ FW
Williamette 20g @ 10m and 25g @ 0mins.
US 05.
I really liked the US Stout from the GH book (post 113 above) and this is intended to be similar. May add Simcoe and Centennial as dry hops, since they are open.
Another option is to blend in the fairly strong beer from the last Parti-gyle.

 

[Slid]

Well, I made up the 6lb (imperial measurements, FGS!) and bunged the marmalade into 3x 2lb Jars yesterday, one of which was added to the initial FV.

Today's Dark beer was thus:
MO 4.7kg
Black Malt 230g
Crystal 300g
Amber 500g
Marmalade 900g
Chocolate Bar 100g

Progress 35g & 25g @ 60 / 10m
S04, by way of a change from US05, so as to leave more sweetness to counter-act the very bitter Seville oranges.

By way of explanation, the odd looking quantities were just finishing off open bags of grain (except the Amber). The chocolate came from an M&S thingy pack my work colleagues got me 7 months ago when I was off for 9 weeks. It was 70% cocoa solids and came from Ecuador. The marmalade is quite bitter, so I dropped the bittering hops which are 5.2% Alpha.

SWMBO suggested that this would turn out more like a Jaffa Cake than a beer.

Bottled this one yesterday and it does taste different. Mainly an orangey sort of taste. Very pleased with this!

 

[Slid]

No I had not thought of this, I will ponder a moment and reply later, if that's OK?

On reflection - I doubt that a hop sock would help to catch the grain dust. The only bag fine enough to do so would interfere with the re-circulation process, so, no, I don't think this would solve things. The most promising route is that of crushing my grains at home and that is unattractive just now, due to space constraints.

Will continue to think about this option, though.

OK so update number one is that I bought it today - a Brewdog Grain Mill from BrewUK.

 

[Slid]

I just had a look back on this thread and it seems that I never did write up the 18th April Parti-Gyle. That is a shame as it may be of interest. First and foremost, I get this idea from Andy Hamilton's book Brewing Britain, which documents his search for the ever elusive Perfect Pint. In turn he credits a Michael Hopart from the Top Out brewery in Edinburgh. So, many thanks to them! The idea is to make a strong beer, here a Barley Wine, and a lesser beer, here a Dark Stout (not a Milk Stout, as the quoted book suggests).

I made a lot of notes and scribblings in the brew book, with lots of juggling type number stuff, and thought for ages about what and how and such-like. Here it was:

Main Gyle was restricted to 7kg, as I feel the GF struggles horribly with much more:

Maris Otter 6.5kg
Crystal 500g

After the mash, I nicked the best 11-12L of first runnings for the Barley Wine beer. This got boiled up with Admiral / Warrior bittering hops and finished a bit with 25g EKG. There are 11L still in a Carboy. Maybe bottle itself or blend into an Old Ale or something?

The "cap" for the second mash was basically cold steeped overnight:
Roast Barley 100g
Black Malt 300g
Chocolate Malt 250g
Crystal 150g
Then added 1kg DME and 500g Dark Sugar. Same hopping for this.
The result is a very smooth tasting stout indeed. I think the cold steeping makes a difference with the dark malts and is really worth trying.

So, is Parti-Gyle worth trying? Yes, for an experience. No, because it is a PITA.

I've done two and been very pleased with the results, but have spent literally hours thinking them through in advance. Much easier to just chuck 200g of expensive US hops into a run-of-the-mill IPA.

 

[foxy]

Regarding the knock off switch I had a similar problem, different system, same concept I reduced the wattage during mashing and the sugar build up above the element was far less. Having emptied the SVB after mashing giving it a clean and going to the boil showed me there is hardly any sugar residue during the boil.

 

[Slid]

For some reason I fancied a Wheat Beer. My usual supplier has Safale 33, which suggests on the packaging that it does a Belgian Wit. As I have home made marmalade to burn at the moment (check out the Lakeland marmalade kit below) I added half a 2lb jar at the end, straining out the peel.

Rest of the recipe is a bit basic & standard:
XPMO 3,04kg
Wheat Malt 2kg
Oats (Tesco Scottish) 275g
Marmalade 450g (ish)

Brew day was rubbish. First, I over-thought it a bit and did an initial mash "rest" at 55C for 20 mins. The bl**dy GF cut out twice trying to get this up to 65C! This with real scorching both times. Usually when it does this cut-out it is because some gunk got too attached and it amount to nowt, but it got proper scorched twice. Then (of course) after I had messed around getting the mash sorted it cut out again after the sparge - I have a routine for that, not a real issue, just a timewaster, really.

I was a bit taken aback by this scorching thing, maybe I was trying to be too clever? (SWMBO would say for sure that that would be impossible, but one never knows...)
I ended up separating the mash pipe from the mash liquor, then heating the mash liquor back up to about 72C in the PECO boiler and then transferring the liquor back to the GF, Refloating the mash pipe plus grain back into this and "nursing" the mash along at 62-65C using mainly the 500W element heater only. Started around 7:30 and finally finished not far short of seven hours later.

All the time, I kept saying to myself "its only soaking some grain in warm water, rinsing it off and then boiling the stuff up with some vegetable weeds - it's easy".

It will, no doubt be decent beer after a few weeks (or months).

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/13801/Home-Cook-Marmalade---Prepared-Seville-Oranges-Medium-Cut-850g