Nicks90's Brewdays

[Nicks90]

Ag41 honey I'm home bitter.
Early taste test is very positive, good malty flavour with a distinct honey undercurrent of sweetness. Very pleased with this one!

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 43
Weak Kneed IPA

Another day, another brew. Big thing with this one is I completely screwed up! Always check you have ingredients before putting your brew on. So this one is going to be pisspoor for an IPA - but it will still be beer.

3kg Irish malt
200gm Oats
100gm crystal 113 ebc

20l mash at 65c for nearly 3 hours (got caught up on a high priority incident with work) followed by a 2l sparge and a good bag squeeze. Interestingly the tea urn with the usual sleeping bag wrapped around it was still at 61C after those 3 hours....
Leaving 18l wort for a 60 minute boil and 15l in the FV


Hops
10 g Summit 15 min
10 g Apollo 15 min
10 g Summit 5 min
20 g Apollo 5 min
Then i realised i had run out of hops. I thought there was WAY more in those bags and not a poultry amount of each.
So for an IPA, its gonna be a bit thin on hop flavour, but i am sure it will still be a nice drinkable pale summer ale at approx 5% abv, 45 ibu and 6 SRM

Yeast - i'm taking a flyer with this one. I rescued a good amount of usable yeast from the mangrove jack brut IPA brew. So decided to give that stuff another whirl and see what happens. Maybe it will impart the same tangy citrus sour note that it did for the kit brew and make up for the rubbish amounts of hops I've used..... Who knows. Either way, its lockdown, it will get drunk in an astonishingly short amount of time.


[really need to stop drinking 3 or 4 pints a night]

 

[Nicks90]

Ag41 honey I'm home
It's only been a week since my first taste and it's now turned in to a corker.
Pretty dry (almost flinty) but with a distinct honey smell and lingering sweetness.
Wayyyyyy too drinkable

 

[Nicks90]

Sneaky taste of my stout from ag40
Still some way to go carbing up and conditioning, but it's definitely got that complex flavour profile without any burnt astringent black malt taste.
Quite a hoppy after taste too.

 

[Nicks90]

Jesus Christ on a rubber wobbly cross! My beer stocks ain't lasting long at the moment....
I can't even blame lockdown, as my wife is still working (teacher) and I work from home anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But in other news, my latest stout is going down a treat even though it's way too young and I know I will be kicking myself massively when I get to my last lot and it starts to really shine.
My honey bitter is nearly all gone, but I have to admit I started to get a bit sick of it. Not my finest effort, bit too dry, but still a good beer.

My funky experiment with an IPA base brewed with cantillon dregs has been bottled and is currently carbing. Nearly 4 months i think since I put that on. Can't wait to see if that has any funk to it, or if it's just turned in to a tasteless yellow liquid.
And whilst not applicable to here - my second batch of fruit tea cider is carbing up nicely. Good thing about cider, you don't have to wait for it to carb up - bit flat? Naaar, that's just traditional mate!

 

[Nicks90]

bottled AG43 weak knee'd IPA yesterday. hmmmmm
its got that same really funky taste as the MJ brut ipa. hardly surprising as i reused the same yeast!!! Still not sure i like it, but its done now.

anyway
AG44
'Friends and Family' Best Bitter

3kg Irish malt
200gm crystal 225 ebc
200gm carared
100gm torrified wheat (shredded wheat)

18l mash at 68c for nearly 2 hours, followed by a 5l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze.
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV


Hops
10 g Challenger 60 min
10 g EKG 15 min
10 g Challenger 15 min
10 g EKG 5 min
10 g Challenge 5 min
Yeast is Wilkos finest gervin, pitched at 19C

Bang on my numbers - OG of 1.045, which should give a nice 4.5% bitter, colour of 10 SRM and 29 IBUs

 

[Nicks90]

AG45
Summer Lightning
Shamelessly stolen from other posts on this forum, time for a summer lightning in the vain hope we actually get a summer! Cant believe I havent done this clone before now!!!

3kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 114 ebc
100gm torrified wheat (shredded wheat)

18l mash at 66c for nearly 2 hours, followed by a 5l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze.
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV


Hops
20 g Challenger 60 min
10 g EKG 5 min
10 g EKG dry hop

Should be an OG of 1.045 and SRM 7 and IBU 32 - which seems to fit with other peoples recipes on here
Yeast will be good old Wilkos Notty.

 

[Nicks90]

Update on the above now its cooled. ooops. i seem to have measured incorrectly on my grain. I thought the grain bag looked a little small when i went to clear it all up this morning and put it in the composter. I measured out 2.5kg of grain and not 3kg
So my OG is 1.037
Decided thats no bad thing, it'll come out at 3.8% abv which is fine in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Nicks90]

AG 45 Summer Lightning has been bottled, finishing off at 1.009 giving a sensible 3.7%
looks and smells lovely, so looking forward to getting some sunshine in a couple of weeks and having a taste of this outside on a nice balmy afternoon. Who am i kidding....

anyway, on to
AG 46
3C's IPA clone
I;ve been wanting to brew this one for a while and now my HBS delivery has arrived - time to do a TripleC Brewing company IPA clone.

4kg Irish malt
200gm crystal 114 ebc
100gm Oats

18l mash at 65c, followed by a 5l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze.
Should as usual leave 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV


Hops
15 g Chinook 30 min
20 g Chinook 5 min
20 g Citra 5 min
20 g Centennial 5 min

Brewed with Safale S-05 and then add a dry hop on day 5 with
15g Chinook,
30g Citra
30g Centennial

Aiming for 6%, SRM of 9 and 50 IBUs
If this doesnt pack a grapefruity, citrusy, malty punch - I'm giving up!

 

[matt76]

Aiming for 6%, SRM of 9 and 50 IBUs
If this doesnt pack a grapefruity, citrusy, malty punch - I'm giving up!

I know what you mean! I had a similar feeling recently when I made my "Get Even" Simcoe & Chinook IPA but I'm really pleased with the result - if you want a hoppy beer, you gotta add lotsa hops!

Only comment I'd make is I'd have left out the crystal as I've found it really mutes the hop character in a number of beers I've made this year - but I was using it at 10% of the grist or more and you're less than 5%.

 

[Nicks90]

Brew day went well, it's sat cooling and tomorrow I'll check the OG and see where we're at. Only got 15l in the fv, so maybe the boil was a bit vigorous and might have to dilute a touch.
Must get round to putting in a voltage regulator on my tea urn, as it really does BOIL instead of a rolling boil

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 47

Bits and Bobs Lager
Its been ages since i did a lager and as I have run short on Hallertau hops, i am doing a bits and bobs lager using some left over chinook hops for bittering. Its not unusual anymore to put an american hop in to a lager, after all campdens Showoff lager has mosaic, chinook and simcoe in it!

4kg Irish malt

22l mash at 66c for an hour followed by a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV

Hops
10 g Chinook Tradition 30 min
30 g Hallertauer Tradition 15 min

Yeast will be notty's finest and it will be brewed in my cellar - which has been hovering around the 15-16C for the past month. Whilst not a true 'Lager', I have done it this way before and using notty at that temp has provided a very clean faux-lager. My LockDown lager on ag39 was fab, so why not do it again?
Should come out about 20 IBU and 5.5% and nicely pale 5 SRM
Fingers crossed it'll be a fine session lager for a late Indian summer on the porch.

 

[Nicks90]

Got my mojo on this week! Second brew in 2 days

AG number 48
Twang-a-licious IPA
This is going to be very very similar to the 3C's IPA clone i did on AG46 - 2 reasons 1) IT FRIKKIN AWESOME!!!! 2) ITS FRIKKIN AWESOME
However with such a massive dry hop, its a real hazy-jane. Not complaining, but it is very hazy. So this time i will be putting all the hops in to the kettle and not dry hopping at all, just as an experiment to see if and what dry hopping gives to the party over very late additions.

4kg Irish malt
200gm crystal 40

18l mash at 65c, followed by a 5l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze.
Should as usual leave 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV

Hops
10 g Chinook 30 min
25 g Chinook 5 min
30 g Citra 5 min
30 g Centennial 5 min

Yeast will be Mangrove Jacks M36 Liberty Bell - which might give a little something to the brew over and above the usual US-05 that i tend to default to for IPAs.
Should come out about 45 IBU and 5.5% and nicely pale 7 SRM

 

[Nicks90]

Twang a licious IPA has come good
Whilst it's not like the 3C IPA it's based on in terms of hazy Jane massive citrus hit, it's still incredibly fruity but a LOT smoother.
So in terms of difference between last minute kettle addition and dry hop addition - seems to be more muted but not as 'raw' if that makes sense.
Very very pleased

 

[Nicks90]

AG49
Proper beer bitter ale pint

Yep, time for some proper beer again!!! Weather is turning, days are shorter and all that foreign crap can get sacked off. Time for a beer you eat with a knife and fork and not some pale watery citrus crap.

3.5kg Irish malt
200gm crystal 224 ebc
50gm chocolate malt
300gm rolled oats

18l mash at 67c for nearly 2 hours, followed by a 5l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze.
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 17l in the FV


Hops
10 g EKG 60 min
20 g EKG 15 min
10 g pilgrim 15 min

Should be an OG of 1.055, but as I dropped my hydrometer I had to use my refractometer. That said 13, so near as damn it bang on the numbers. and SRM 15 and IBU 24 - which seems to fit the requirements of a hearty beer!
Yeast will be good old Wilkos Notty.

I'm expecting this to come out at about 5.5-6.0%, so not a session bitter! But the strong malt flavour should counter that alcohol content

 

[matt76]

Hey @Nicks90 , you seem to use Notty for pretty much everything - have you used it in an AIPA and if so how do you rate it in that style?

(Reason for asking is I detected something about CML Midland which made me think it might be worth trying in an AIPA - and the consensus is that it's the same strain)

 

[Nicks90]

I have a lot of love for both Nottingham and US05 yeasts

Both are clean, let the hops and malt shine through and also flocculate very well.
Now if I was to get a 'favourite' recipe, I would probably experiment with more yeasts, just to experiment with the yeast flavour profiles that you can get... But 50 brews in and I'm still playing.

I do occasionally use something else, but for decent session IPA and bitters, 05 and notty cover 90% of what you need IMHO

 

[matt76]

I genuinely envy the way you've got it paired down to just two yeast strains! No dilemmas for you over which strain to choose

 

[Nicks90]

Don't get me wrong @matt76 theres about 6 ale yeasts I would like to compare if I had the time and inclination to make the same recipe one after the other and compare. But my memory is rubbish and I'd not remember the subtleties after brew 3 and it would be pointless.
Or alternatively i would also love to do 2 full size brews in a day and split them between 6 demijohns and brew them all at the same time dosed with a different yeast in each. Then carb and condition together, to genuinely do a side by side comparison.
But getting 2 full brews done in a day and spending that much on yeast (not to mention the waste of yeast only brewing 5l of each) means it's tough to sort.

 

[Nicks90]

Well I never
I put a brew on and completely forgot to record it! I cant even remember what really went in to it.

AG50
Whats left IPA

I remember the intention of this brew was to use up the remaining american hops I had in the freezer and make something fairly straight forward as a session "Shipyard" type IPA.

some Irish malt
some pale crystal

some centennial hops at the beginning
some citra at the end
about 30gm citra as a dry hop

Using MJ west coast IPA yeast.
No idea what the OG was, or the IBUs - nothing. oops. Its been in 2 weeks now, with the dry hop going in on day 10 - so it should be ready to bottle.