New Year - Slid Brewday

[An Ankoù]

About three weeks ago now I did a second Durden Park malt recipe, sort of, which was bottled and thus tasted yesterday. This was the Whitbread London Porter from 1850, the recipe for which is posted up, along with the Simonds Bitter recipe on the Durden Park Website.
The Brown Malt for the recipe was also done from Pale malt in the oven, following the method outlined in the Appendix to the DP pamphlet.

I knocked up a batch of this, recipe #97 in the booklet, on 29th March. The recipe calls for Pale, Brown, Black malts and Fuggles or Goldings, so I reckon you've done a bit more tweaking than just the hops. I see I misguided enough to ferment it with S-04, probably didn't have anything else at the time. Anyway the blurb says ferment for 4-5 months and that time has expired so I'm going to try one this evening. I got an FG of 1012, by the way. Which isn't surprising with S-04.
You mention another Durden Park recipe, which calls for Pale Amber. Which one? I did a Simonds 1880 Bitter using Simpson's Imperial malt instead of making my own Pale Amber, and fermenting it with Opshaug. FG was 1010 and it was more light and fresh than the batch I made earlier fermented with West Yorkshire. Not sure which one I like the most, they're noticeably different. (Identical recipes only the yeasts changed).

 

[Slid]

I also did the #7 Bitter (1880) Simonds brewery, Reading recipe and followed the instructions in the Appendix for making Pale Amber Malt.

 

[Slid]

Hello mate, how did that Marmalade(y) beer end up that you brewed in April? Any good?

I don't appear to have replied - so sorry, may have actually been "working" from home or something.
The marmaladey beer I guess must have been the Mandarina Bavaria SHA which is quite good. Might need an oenophile type nose to detect much orange stuff, but solid enough beer nonetheless.

 

[Slid]

Last weekend I reprised the Red Spider Rye-PA with Simcoe and Centennial, as it was so good it disappeared in what seemed like no time at all. Have the stuff to "threepeat" this beer in the near future. It really is that good and it is nicked from the recent "CAMRA's Essential Home Brewing" by Andy Parker and the late GW.

Today I decided to go for a Belgian Bruin Ale and found a clone of Leffe Bruin over on the US HBT site, I think, which I used.

Pale Malt (MO) 5kg
Acidulated Malt 200g
Amber (Homemade, DP style) 500g
Carafa III 320g
Sugar 1.3kg

Bittering to 31 IBU's from 32g Mandarina Bavaria Hops - last of the bag.
Re-used the Lallemand Abbey Style yeast from the Patersbier in June.

Not so fine a crush on the grain today and it made for a very smooth brewday (by my standards) - only the jugging of wort from GF to boiler and back to complain about.

Very good efficiencies (though this really is a "WTF" issue) today, so very smug. Only added 300g pre-pitching (OG 1.060) and will feed in the other 1kg of sugar over the next few days.

 

[Slid]

Racked the Leffe Bruin clone yesterday (a sort of dark and inky-looking colour) and today reprised a Eurohop IPA I have done before. It's really just an ESB with Cascade derivative hops and good old US05:

Maris Otter 5kg
Wheat Malt 200g
Crystal 300g

Mandarina Bavaria 25g @ FW
Huell Melon 35g @ 15m
Huell Melon 35g @ 0m

Added some tangerine peel for a couple of minutes along with the flame out addition.
Might have finally (!) nailed the grain crush as it went smoothly and got good efficiencies at ~ 78% again.

Magic secret on the Grain Crush? Same as David Heath says - credit card thickness. Here is the "knowledge" -All credit cards and similar are punched from the same thickness of plastic. A Bank credit card has the name etc raised from the main body of the card and the gap in the mill you want is the card plus the raised bit. When you push the credit card through the gap in the mill, at both ends, it should turn the rollers without slipping.

 

[Zephyr259]

Hi Slid, are you drinking the Durden park beers yet? I'd love to hear what other think of them.

I made the 1880 Bitter and 1850 Porter this year too. The porter is lovely, one of my best brews, but the bitter is weird. I initially thought the West Yorkshire yeast had served its time and was stressed out (OG was a bit high at 1.069) as it tasted a bit weird but then a "pils" using a Scottish ale strain did the same, think my small fermenter has some 3522 Ardennes clinging to it. The bitter is very bitter which might be clashing with the slight belgian flavour, but it's no were near as smooth as the porter which is funny given it's 53 IBU vs the porter at 65. I also used Simpons Imperial rather than make pale amber.

 

[Slid]

Hi Slid, are you drinking the Durden park beers yet? I'd love to hear what other think of them.

I made the 1880 Bitter and 1850 Porter this year too. The porter is lovely, one of my best brews, but the bitter is weird. I initially thought the West Yorkshire yeast had served its time and was stressed out (OG was a bit high at 1.069) as it tasted a bit weird but then a "pils" using a Scottish ale strain did the same, think my small fermenter has some 3522 Ardennes clinging to it. The bitter is very bitter which might be clashing with the slight belgian flavour, but it's no were near as smooth as the porter which is funny given it's 53 IBU vs the porter at 65. I also used Simpons Imperial rather than make pale amber.

Not tried either yet, other than the hydrometer sample at bottling, which is never ready. Used US05 for both, as it was summer and also because I just don't brew much with English yeast strains, as the house is too warm (damn women!) and I actually ferment my beers upstairs.

I think, from reading the little pamphlet, that the over-hopping with low alpha hops gives a distinctive "lush" flavour, which is only apparent after long ageing. As I am currently drinking a Dry Stout that was pitched on 14th September 2019, I should be in a position to leave these Old Beers for quite some time. The Dry Stout in question came out at ~ 7% ABV and was packaged in a 2L bottle that formerly held cider.

I home made the Amber and Brown Malt for the same reason we now have a bread maker again - it's all part of the fun.

 

[Slid]

Yesterday was another Patersbier. 5kg MO (any other base malt would do fine, I expect) and a 900g jar of marmalade, made from the "make at home" marmalade from Lakeland (Bowness-on-Windermere), where the females spent plenty earlier in the week, on kitchen tat that no-one actually needs.

Used the Lallemand Abbey yeast again plus Mandarina Bavaria hops - 15g plus 15g @ First Wort and ~10mins.

 

[Zephyr259]

Not tried either yet, other than the hydrometer sample at bottling, which is never ready. Used US05 for both, as it was summer and also because I just don't brew much with English yeast strains, as the house is too warm (damn women!) and I actually ferment my beers upstairs.

I think, from reading the little pamphlet, that the over-hopping with low alpha hops gives a distinctive "lush" flavour, which is only apparent after long ageing. As I am currently drinking a Dry Stout that was pitched on 14th September 2019, I should be in a position to leave these Old Beers for quite some time. The Dry Stout in question came out at ~ 7% ABV and was packaged in a 2L bottle that formerly held cider.

I home made the Amber and Brown Malt for the same reason we now have a bread maker again - it's all part of the fun.

I suspect you might be on to something with the bittering hop quantities. I made a pilsner with 100% Styrian Goldings as I wanted to use them up before my summer break from brewing. 50g over the last 15 mins (Foxbat's schedule) and the remaining 75g at 60 min. For a pils malt smash lager it's got a load of character which can't just be from the late additions.

 

[Slid]

Brewed another "just drinking" sort of a beer today with US pellet hops.
MO 5kg
Crystal 250g

Simcoe 22g and 20g @ FW / 15m
Centennial 20g @ 15m
Rest of the hops -50 or 60g as a dry hop perhaps.
Re-used US05

Feel another Durden Park could be next. A parti-gyle with 10-12L of a strong old english beer and a 20L+ beer. Andy Hamilton's Brewing Britain contains a guide to brewing a Parti-Gyle towards the end - Barley Wine and a Stout, which I have borrowed from before. Oh, the excitement!

 

[Slid]

Well, the excitement of the Parti-gyle has to wait. SWMBO has recently annexed the territory known as #2 daughter's bedroom and is converting it into her study (mini-empire). I am enslaved to do painting and furniture moving for the next 3 days, but took today out to watch the magnificent Exeter Chiefs see off the might of Racing 92 (tried and failed to do a Likely Lads style attempt at not knowing the outcome). The game came later, before this morning's beer:

MO 4.75kg
Medium Crystal 250g
Sugar circa 600g

Warrior 20g @ FW (these hops looked very brown and a bit rubbish)
Mosaic - 15 / 15/ 20 grams @ 15 / 5 / 0mins.

US 05 re-used as the yeast.
Extraordinary looking efficiencies today @ circa 82%, but why believe the improbable, when it's more likely that I just measured the wort at the wrong point in the process. I always re-sparge the GF with another 1L of water whilst the Malt Pipe is balanced on the Wilko 15L pot. The contents get boiled, usually with whatever sugar goes in the FV.

I am increasingly of the view that "All Grain" brewing may be a strange affectation that relates to a former reality and mindset. 10% simple sugars in the bill of fermentables seems to be very much in the tradition of English and Belgian beers. Not to mention that the end product seems often to be rather more palatable.

 

[Zephyr259]

I've been reading Guile Brews by Peter Symons and you're right, most of the beers have between 5 - 20% sugar added as various shades of invert. I'm going to try making a brown ale or something similar using a homemade dark invert. Also amusing to see the common practice was quite a good dose of hops at the start of the boil and not much later on. Makes me think the common wisdom of bittering hops giving no flavour is wrong. My recent lager would also defy that as the huge flavour can't be solely from the small late hop when there was 75g at 60 mins.

What are you planning on parti-gyling Slid?

 

[Slid]

I've been reading Guile Brews by Peter Symons and you're right, most of the beers have between 5 - 20% sugar added as various shades of invert. I'm going to try making a brown ale or something similar using a homemade dark invert. Also amusing to see the common practice was quite a good dose of hops at the start of the boil and not much later on. Makes me think the common wisdom of bittering hops giving no flavour is wrong. My recent lager would also defy that as the huge flavour can't be solely from the small late hop when there was 75g at 60 mins.

What are you planning on parti-gyling Slid?

Apologies for the late reply - Mon/Tues/Wed I was on leave and we were painting what was a bedroom and is now SWMBO's study. Was actually working again Th/Fri and wasted today so far making beer. So:
Dark invert syrup is easy, just caramelise it a bit more than for golden syrup. Did a load for my Belgian Dark Strong beer from a while back. Was supposed to be a Westveleveren 12 Clone and it was OK, but not the best beer in the world, just a tribute.

Parti-gyle wise, I have put back this plan until next brew day, at least. Vague notion is a 7kg base malt to start with and then doing a 12-15L strong beer from the first runnings, using 100g of low alpha hops - I have Progress, EGK and some ancient Boudicea (2015) I could use. I have a 10L carboy (holds 11L to neck) that I have been using to blend and save strong beers brewed to about half length at 11.5L (Add contents of carboy to new strong beer in secondary, return half the contents to carboy and bottle the rest). Will use this for as long as I don't get bored with the results.

Second runnings beer could be a dark beer using a cap of 800g - 1kg of Black/Choc/RB/Carafa3, or a pale beer with a cap of crystal malts. Have made very good stout and also quite hoppy beers in the past. My experience is that the first runnings is weaker than expected and the second runnings beer stronger. My expectations are from Randy Mosher's suggestions that the first will be twice the strength of the second. Interestingly, Martin Keane (taking the HB challenge to brew 99 beers in 99 weeks) found much the opposite, with a dreadfully heavy first and a pathetically weak second. For some reason the great sage (MK) did not seem to come up with the simple plan of chucking the one into the other to cut his losses.

 

[Slid]

Today's beer was a dry stout, GH's recipe, which I've done before, to 25.5L:

Maris Otter 4.26kg
Roast Barley 500g
Flaked Barley 550g
Choc Malt 114g

Challenger 8% 40g @FW
US05

BHE 78% - all went well, except I carried the first half of it upstairs and when I got back in the kitchen the red tube that is the exit flow from the counterflow chiller was on the floor and not the sink. 8 towels later...the floor was more or less dry again. Big mess.

 

[Zephyr259]

Yikes to the flood not so good.

I'm not sure where the half and half extract on partigyles came from as I've been using a mash and lauter calculator and the figures really don't match. Maybe you have to fly sparge for it to work like that and even then it would be very dependant on mash thickness and total runnings.

I've been watching Martin's videos too since I found then at the start of the year. His partigyle just seemed like a good example of what happens when you don't blend the worts.

I like your plans. I've a couple of brews in the works then I'm gonna try some kinda old ale / mild mix, or might be a stronger brown ale and a bitter. My existing batch has fermented out, not as low as expected but hopefully they're both good.

 

[Slid]

The weather forecast for today was dreadful, so I got away with another brewday. Aiming for an English Golden Ale / Bitter, but using New World hops for the late additions:

MO 4.28kg
Crystal 230g
Sugar 500g

Challenger 20 @ FW
Simcoe 16g @15m
Mosaic 17g @ 15m
Mosaic 35g @ 5m

Nottingham Ale yeast. This Lallemand yeast reached Bolton via Canada and Switzerland. Talk about taking the scenic route...
Only 23L in the FV so, may add a hop tea or something.
The late additions just used up open bags.

 

[Slid]

The Parti-gyle will be the next time I have 2 FVs empty, which could be 2 wks time. SWMBO wants "us" to decorate next weekend . Can't wait.

Hi Slid, are you drinking the Durden park beers yet? I'd love to hear what other think of them.

I made the 1880 Bitter and 1850 Porter this year too. The porter is lovely, one of my best brews, but the bitter is weird. I initially thought the West Yorkshire yeast had served its time and was stressed out (OG was a bit high at 1.069) as it tasted a bit weird but then a "pils" using a Scottish ale strain did the same, think my small fermenter has some 3522 Ardennes clinging to it. The bitter is very bitter which might be clashing with the slight Belgian flavour, but it's no were near as smooth as the porter which is funny given it's 53 IBU vs the porter at 65. I also used Simpsons Imperial rather than make pale amber.

I rather liked the Simmons bitter. The Whitbread London Porter is also very good, a bit sharper tasting than the Fullers recipe from GW.

 

[Slid]

Another Patersbier today.

MO 4.5kg
Marmalade 900g jar

Challenger 20g @FW
Mandarina Bavaria 20g @ 15m
Lallemand Abbey yeast

Very good efficiencies today but the FGF cut out at 72C on the way to mash-out.
Made more marmalade afterwards.

 

[Slid]

The coming weekend is the next Parti-gyle (subject to approval from SWMBO).

Aiming for an Old British beers sort of strong beer and (bizarrely) a Belgian Bruin/Dark sort of effort.

First Mash something like:
Pale Malt (MO / Minch) 5.8kg
Pale Amber (Home made) 1.2kg

Cap for second:
Carafa 3 / Black Malt 320g
Crystal 300g - 500g?
Other steep ~ 200g?

Will hop the first heavily with low Alpha (for the genre) and the Belgian lightly (pour le genre)

 

[Slid]

Grains are crushed (as roughly per above) and Brew Day is tomorrow, Deo Volente.
The first clone of Leffe Bruin I brewed at the end of August is quite pleasant to drink, but ridiculously strong, so am hoping for something a bit less OTT.