Nicks90's Brewdays

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

AG 100
Its a Dubbel

Wow, 100 AG brews - who would have thought this hobby would have brought me such happiness and joy over the past 4 years and given me the oppotunity to take part in manufacturing, organic chemical engineering and energy conversion to solid state mass. Otherwise know as making batch brews, getting ****** and gaining a beer belly! So for this milestone brew I have gone to town and researched many different Dubbel recipes and tweaked and played until I have something that I feel will deliver a nice belgian beer that suits my taste buds. Its not a complete classic recipe and some may even frown, but I hope it will be a good one.

3.5kg Maris Otter
100gm Melanaoidin malt
200gm Special X
30gm black patent
250gm belgian candi (dark)

I have used Melanoidin malt in substitution for munich malt, as both give the same bready malt forward tasting notes, but i dont have any use for munich in my other planned brews, but will be using the melanoidin in a wheat beer, so made sense to substitute. Hopefully its a successfull experiment.
And the special X is just bestmaltz version of special B, so no issues there.

20l mash at 68C for 90mins, and a 3l 'dunked in a bucket for 10 mins' sparge
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV.

Hops
20gm hallertau mittelfruh @60min
20gm hallertau mittelfruh @20min
10gm hallertau mittelfruh @10min

I am hoping for and OG of 1.060 and 25ibu and 27srm. Should come out a fruity 6.2%
Yeast
Mangrove Jacks Yeast - M41 - Belgian Ale Yeast

No frowns here Congrats on your century!

 

[Nicks90]

Brew day 100 went perfect as normal, which means the fundamentals went alright, but still made a few muckups.

Mashing was fine, added the candi just after sparging and then put the lid on to start getting up to temp for the boil. Got distracted planting bedding plants and it hit the hot break with the lid on. Grey brown gunk all over the place and down the sides of the hot kettle - which after 60 minutes at boil temp has firmly welded it self on.
Then the garage electrics tripped out a few minutes before my 10 min hop addition, so I had to run an extension cable out from the kitchen to finish it off. Can't see it causing any issues as I am sure a 1c drop in temp below boil for 2 minutes won't have affected the ibus of the hops.

Other than that, went well and I hit my numbers exactly

So that's the century!!!!!

 

[foxbat]

Congratulations on 100 brews!

 

[Nottsbeer]

AG 94
Rochefort 8 trappiste

I treated myself to a bottle of this the other weekend when i was home alone and decided to decant it carefully so i could keep the yeast. On another thread someone confirmed it is a bottling yeast, but its the same yeast thats used for the main fermentation, so all was good. I've never brought on a yeast from a bottle before, and always had a mind to do a small brew - so i very simply topped the bottle up with some boiled wort from AG92 and left it. This resulted in a good finger width of what appears to be healthy yeast at the bottom of the bottle. Game on!
As i stole essentially a quarter of the wort from AG93, some of the figures are approx from that brew, with the rest measured up specifically for this one

1kg Maris Otter (ag93)
25gm crystal 145EBC (ag93)
25gm oats (ag93)
40gm carafa3 in a cold steep overnight
150gm dark candy belgian sugar

ignore the mash, as that was done at the ag93 stage...
So 5l of wort for a 60 minute very gentle boil on the stove and 4.5l in the FV

Hops
10gm hallertau tradition @30min
10gm hallertau tradition @5min

its currently sat cooling, but hoping for an OG of 1.065 and expecting 30IBUs, 7% abv and colour 25SRM.
This wont be massively simillar to a rochefort 8 - as i didnt add any special B, or coriander seed - and the alcohol content isnt high enough. But I am hoping it will still be a good 'trappiste style' dark beer

Hi Nick, I may have missed your write-up, but how did your Trappist style dark beer turn out?

 

[Nicks90]

Hi Nick, I may have missed your write-up, but how did your Trappist style dark beer turn out?

You know what, I have no idea!!!!
It's bottled and stashed away in the cellar and I have completely forgotten about it.

 

[Nicks90]

Just for @Nottsbeer
It's still developing and has a way to go - buts it's very drinkable and full of flavour - if a little darker than I intended.

 

[Nicks90]

Ag96 big bold ipa.
Now THATS a pint of beer! ******* that's a decent glass of grog.

I'd pay beavertown or brew dog money all day long for this.

Yes it's a bit lively as it's not fully chilled and there are lots of nucleation points in the glass. But it's not as fizzy as the picture depicts.

 

[moto748]

Ag96 big bold ipa.
Now THATS a pint of beer! ******* that's a decent glass of grog.

I'd pay beavertown or brew dog money all day long for this.

Yes it's a bit lively as it's not fully chilled and there are lots of nucleation points in the glass. But it's not as fizzy as the picture depicts.

Looks great! I just wonder, if you're doing that late addition thing with the hops, so most of the boil is hop-less, does it really still need the 55 minutes, or would a shorter boil do?

 

[Nicks90]

Probably not to be honest, but I have a 'routine' with my kit to produce my usual volume and that takes in to account a 60min boil. So it's just rinse and repeat that I do automatically now.

 

[moto748]

I reckon I'll have a go at this. I have a bag of Cascade leaf in the freezer than needs using up. The bit in your recipe about 'stealing 5 litres of wort'; I've proportioned my malts on the basis of a 19 litre brew, and the hops on the basis of a 14 litre brew. Running through the calculator tools, that gives a BHE of 66% and an IBU of around 50, so seems about right.

I may cut the boil down to half an hour!

 

[Nicks90]

@moto748 it probably won't do it any harm having a 30min boil, it's not like modern malts are crappy like they used to be.

Anyway, a sneak peak of ag99 spring time ale.
Also a damned good pint. Will benefit from another few weeks storage, but it's got a pleasant partially sweet but earthy nose and a malty spice to the first taste, with an floral after taste. Absolutely spot on with the hop profile. Even the burps taste good with a sweet hoppy nose hahahaha

 

[Nicks90]

AG 101
El Dorado IPA

I have plenty of ale and saison in the cellar, but the big bold IPA stocks are running low. So time to get a batch on for a typical easy drinking session IPA. Its been a while since i did an El Dorado IPA, which is one of my favourite american hops. Most people tend to use eld dorado as part of a more complex hop addition, but I find it stands up perfectly well used on its own, letting the big sweet stonefruit flavours come through, without being challenged by piney or citrus secondary hops.

3.5kg Maris Otter
75gm crystal 145ebc

20l mash at 65C for 60mins, and a 3l 'dunked in a bucket for 10 mins' sparge
Leaving 20l wort for a 30 minute boil (just for you @moto748 ) and 17l in the FV.

Hops
10gm El Dorado @30 mins
40gm El Dorado @5 mins

Yeast
Mangrove Jacks verdunt IPA

Hit my numbers exactly - OG of 1.048, should give me a final beer with 40IBU, 4.5% abv and a pale 7SRM

 

[Nicks90]

Ag100 Belgian beer, all bottled.
Looks, smells and tastes fantastic straight out of the fermenter.

 

[Nicks90]

AG 102
Yorkshire Mild

Havent done a mild before, and its a bit of a subjective beer. Traditionally it was very dark and about 7%, then it went the other way and got lighter and around 3% during ww2, and then it sort of floundered about until the eighties where its basically disappeared. There are a few that still get made - i am fond of the Theakstons dark mild and Rudgate brewery mild.
However i do like a good 'modern' mild in the mohogany low abv style (Theakies is very dark).
Tasting notes I am after:
Lightly hopped and a light fruit character. Not too cloying mouth feel, definitely thinner than a full on brown ale. Malty first taste and a little sweetness with a caramel/chocolate after taste.

So i have ended up with a fairly complicated grist (for me!!!), but i have high hopes this will deliver to the brief.

2.5kg Maris Otter
100gm crystal 145ebc
150gm candied sugar - dark
100gm melanoidin malt
50gm chocolate malt

Rationale behind the candi and melanoidin is to give it the malt, colour and fruit complexity, without making it very heavy.

20l mash at the higher end at 69C for 60mins, and a 3l 'dunked in a bucket for 10 mins' sparge
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV.

Hops
20gm Fuggles @60min
20gm Fuggles @10min

Yeast
Notty's finest!

Hit my numbers exactly - OG of 1.038, should give me a final beer with 20IBU, 3.5% abv and a pale 20SRM

 

[Nicks90]

Ag101 first taste.
Super stuff, you can't beat el Dorado for a face full of hop flavour!

 

[Nicks90]

Very early taste of Ag100 Belgian dubbel
Malty - check
Complex - check
Belgian yeast flavour - check
Very alcoholic - oh yes check
Classically Belgian - definitely!

Way to early for it to have conditioned fully, but it's already a wonderful beer and if I do say so myself, probably one my best ever 'outside the uk' beers I've ever brewed. And that includes ipas

 

[moto748]

That Big Bold: judging from your pic, @Nicks90, it's supposed to be clear!

Whereas mine is cloudy as a cloudy thing, except for the top inch or so of the bottle, and doesn't look like changing anytime soon (28 days in the bottle).

So maybe reducing the boil to half an hour wasn't such a good idea? Or maybe, more likely, I forget to add any Protofloc? I'm leaving it be a bit longer, but maybe this is one to retry.

 

[Nicks90]

@moto748 Sometimes I add half a protofloc tablet 10mins before the end of the boil, sometimes I forget.
However I dont get hung up on my beer being crystal clear. Sometimes it happens and its super dooper clear after 4 weeks in the bottle, others just refuse to be clear. Not bothered in the slightest as it doesn't affect the taste.
That big bold has never cleared. Very hazy, so I have just decided its my own take on a hazyjane and therefore it's perfectly in style :-)

 

[Nicks90]

AG 103
Summer Lightning IPA

Taking a slightly different slant on a summer lightning ale clone - and substituting american hops - so a tangy hoppy pale ale for the upcoming summer evenings in the garden.

3.5kg Maris Otter
100gm crystal 145ebc

20l mash at 65c for 60mins, and a 3l 'dunked in a bucket for 10 mins' sparge
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV. Back liquored to 19l for a more sessionable ale.

Hops
10gm Centennial @30min
10gm Amarillo @30min
20gm Centennial @10min
20gm Amarillo @10min
20gm Centennial dryhop @5 days
20gm Amarillo dryhop @5 days

Yeast
verdunt ipa yeast

Brew day went perfectly.
Hit my numbers exactly - OG of 1.042, should give me a final beer with 40IBU, 4% abv and a pale 7SRM

 

[moto748]

@moto748 Sometimes I add half a protofloc tablet 10mins before the end of the boil, sometimes I forget.
However I dont get hung up on my beer being crystal clear. Sometimes it happens and its super dooper clear after 4 weeks in the bottle, others just refuse to be clear. Not bothered in the slightest as it doesn't affect the taste.
That big bold has never cleared. Very hazy, so I have just decided its my own take on a hazyjane and therefore it's perfectly in style :-)

Thanks, Nick.

In that case , I'll take it as the green light to go ahead and drink it!