Notts beers days

[Nottsbeer]

So, after reading so many other beer day threads, thought I'd add my own.

I'm back in the game relatively recently after too many years of not brewing! I think life got in the way and things stopped. Previously I had made kits and progressed to extract brewing with some good success. I also used to make wine kits, even being bold enough to make white and red wine for my wedding (exported to the Netherlands for the big bash!). My wife was stuck for a b'day present this year and suggested a wine kit.....the kick that finally got me back in to this, I mean, how could I go to a home brew shop and not check out the kits

So, my first problem was where to brew. I love the smells associated to brewing, but my wife doesn't, thus quickly ruling out the kitchen (and generally anywhere in the house). My only refuge was the shed....

A bit of work was needed!! After 4 months of pottering (and fitting a new kitchen/complete redecoration of the downstairs area) I have a workable space (just)!

As others will agree, you don't need a big space for good beer

So, having started on a couple of kits, I found the excellent AG thread on here and I was inspired. I can't believe I didn't make the transition to this when I brewed many moons ago.

My first brew was a simple golden ale (Goldings hops, MO and Crystal malt; 18 x 500ml bottles). I bottled it on the 22/6 and resisted touching it until last night. It has carbonated but lacks a satisfying Psssss when opened, plus no head to be seen. The taste was good, so it's gone away again for a couple more weeks. It's getting moved somewhere cold(er) next week. I may have to slightly up the priming sugar for my next batch?

My second brew was a Big Lamp Bitter clone (from the Graham Wheeler book - 1998 edition). I previously made the malt extract version (c.20 yrs ago) and remember it being very nice. Before starting I googled and search here to see if anyone else had made this. The only thread I found (another site) had used the same hops but in different quantities, thus I was a little unsure how to go. I opted for GW and used 41 g Fuggles and 8g Goldings (13L batch). The other recipe I found suggested mainly using Goldings with Fuggles as the lower quantity. After boiling and cooling, a taste left me wondering if I'd picked the wrong option as it was very bitter (GW noted a bitterness of 30, i presume 30IBU, whilst Brewfather suggested my brew will be 53IBU). Thankfully, on day 8 (today) it has mellowed nicely (and nearly hit FG). I will dry hop with Fuggles (8g) 3 days prior to bottling (not as per GW, but another post).

Am looking forward to this bitter. Planning a stout next....can't wait till next brew day.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Bottled the Big Lamp Bitter last night. Looking very nice, and tastes great. I dry hopped with 10g Fuggles for 3 days before bottling. I now have 26 500ml bottles conditioning. I used caster sugar for priming, hoping I added enough this time compared to my first AG brew.

I decided that my bottling process needs refinement. Currently I transfer the beer to a pressure barrel with a bottling wand tap attached , and bottle from that. It goes fine until I hit tap level, too much to tip, keep the barrel steady and bottle. Have decided to get another 15l fermentation bin to use and fit a tap. I read somewhere of another member who also has a tap on their fermenter to which they attach a hose to run the beer into a bottling vessel easily. Excellent idea I'm going to use . Hoping to get a stout on this week, looking forward to this one.....

 

[Nottsbeer]

Bottled the Big Lamp Bitter last night. Looking very nice, and tastes great. I dry hopped with 10g Fuggles for 3 days before bottling. I now have 26 500ml bottles conditioning. I used caster sugar for priming, hoping I added enough this time compared to my first AG brew.

I decided that my bottling process needs refinement. Currently I transfer the beer to a pressure barrel with a bottling wand tap attached , and bottle from that. It goes fine until I hit tap level, too much to tip, keep the barrel steady and bottle. Have decided to get another 15l fermentation bin to use and fit a tap. I read somewhere of another member who also has a tap on their fermenter to which they attach a hose to run the beer into a bottling vessel easily. Excellent idea I'm going to use . Hoping to get a stout on this week, looking forward to this one.....

Testing the Big Lamp bitter to ensure carving up well . After 9 days in the bottle it is wonderful. Lovely colour, head and taste. This is a very easy drink and can easily lead to a few more glasses. Will keep my mitts off for another week.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Brewed the Oatmeal Stout listed in the GH book last Thursday - little delay in adding this! I had fancied this for a while and picked up the grain recently in the brew shop. With not being fully decided on doing this brew or the cascade single hop initially, I ended up getting confused about what hops I had (maybe checking pre-brew decision would have helped!). I decided on the stout and pick together the recipe to make a 12l batch. Pre-boil gravity was above my target, must remember to change my BHE as it's around 77%. I then found out that I didn't have the Challenger hops required...doh. had gotten into my head that the cascade hops were what I needed. I ended up having a quick rethink and substituted Fuggles instead. Played with the figures until I had the same IBU then went for it. The wort had a lovely bitterness to it. My final batch was 13l volume, happily fermenting away with M44 yeast. Maybe next brew I will check what hops I have prior to starting!! Am looking forward to this one

 

[Nottsbeer]

This one should be titled "Notts Scrounging Day"!! Am running low on bottles as I've reached capacity. I had noticed that my local bottle bank was full and I collected 30-40 Budweiser bottles that had been left next to the bin, however I realised once home that the bottles had a screw thread rather than the normal top . However, our bin collections have been disrupted due to the pingdemic and glass collections have been missed. A neighbor had 2 bags full of perfect bottles I've just kindly re-homed. They were mostly 330ml bottles perfect for a Trappist brew I'm planning. Just need to find a neighbor who likes beer from 500ml bottles now . Once I've made some room in my beer cupboard I can crack on with my next brew

 

[Nottsbeer]

When I got back into brewing earlier in the year one aim was to make a Taylor's Landlord clone. I lived in Huddersfield for many years and have lots of good memories drinking this in various pubs (especially the Slubbers Arms - @pilgrimhudd have been there? Guessing your from the general area?). After reading a few reviews about inaccuracies in the GW recipe book, I found a good recipe on line (tho not too dissimilar to GW). I used 3.5kg golden promise, 90g crystal 150, 39g Styrian Goldings @60, 27g fuggles @60, 12g EKG @15 and 12g Styrian @15 to make a 18l brew. Wyeast 1469 was used. I was supposed to use crystal 120 but couldn't get some and 10g black malt (decided against as I may not use it again in other brews). I ended up with 18.5 l so my efficiency slightly increased...I bought some marigolds to save my hands when squeezing the bag I use!!

This is my first use of a liquid yeast, and hoping I get good results, with a taste somewhere close to the original. Have even bought a bottle of landlord to compare it to, tho guessing hand pulled landlord will be slightly different to bottled. Will report back in a few weeks with an update on this one

 

[Nottsbeer]

I bottled the landlord today. Can't wait to try this one when ready as it tastes great flat! I've primed 12l with 60g sugar (using a priming barrel). I've had a few issues with by beer priming, but I'm now convinced it's just a temperature issue. As I don't have lots of space, my beer goes into a room which is slightly cooler than ambient temperature, thus it's taking a little longer to prime. May need to wait at least 3 weeks before trying this one, but will probably crack after 10 days to see how it's going!

 

[rui]

Testing the Big Lamp bitter to ensure carving up well . After 9 days in the bottle it is wonderful. Lovely colour, head and taste. This is a very easy drink and can easily lead to a few more glasses. Will keep my mitts off for another week.

Looks beautifull!!

 

[Nottsbeer]

Th

Looks beautifull!!

Thanks. It was only my 2nd AG brew and I was very impressed with it. Sadly I've nearly drunk them all now (and given a few away for comments). I would highly recommend it

 

[Nottsbeer]

I fired up the boiler today, first brew in 4 weeks. I've been planning this one for a while and really happy to finally have all of the ingredients together to do it. Bit of background info first.

Sometime last year my wife bought me a surprise box of Trappist beers, containing the usual suspects, plus a bottle of Tynt Meadow - a UK Trappist I'd never heard of. I found that beer the best of the bunch and very easy to drink. When I started brewing again this year one aim was to make something along the lines of that beer. An internet search for a recipe in that style led me to an American site where someone had delved into this beer and had tried to strip the recipe down. This was a very interesting read, especially as they noted how they deducted what may have been used, and why. They posted their recipe, final beer pics and suggested it was a nice drink (naturally!). Surprisingly, they also requested the monks send them a bottle of their beer so a comparison could be undertaken!

At the time I put the ingredients into my brewmonk app and then experimented AG brewing using other recipes. As I tend to shop at my HB shop rather than online I had to wait until I placed an order to get the specialist ingredients. A few weeks ago I finally had everything and started to look for the link again for the beer - IT'S GONE!! I've tried all search options and I cannot find the original post. So, based on my bad memory and the recipe I noted down, I brewed a Tynt Meadow Style beer today. If it is half as good as the Monk's beer I'll be over the moon!

The recipe I used was - for a 13.5L brew (though I was 0.5L short at the end):
3.8KG M.O
428g Crystal 60
229g Brown malt
53g Dark English Crystal (added at 10 min during boil)
53g D-90 candi syrup (that was from memory, could have been darker in the original recipe)

18g Challenger @ 60min
17g Challenger @ 20min
17g EKG @ 5 min

Protofloc - 0.5 tab @ 15 min

Yeast - Nottingham
O.G. target was 1.072 (my reading was 1.072-4, I found it hard to read the hydrometer)
F.G is 1.018.
7.1% ABV

This was my first use of Nottingham. As it's never in stock in Wilko's I bought a pack from the HB shop. Was surprised to see reference to making a starter for this using warm water. Happily followed the instructions and added 3/4 (or just over) of the solution into the wort. My thinking here is that its a high gravity beer so more yeast is better.

I do BIAB and this was the first time I've heated all of the water at once. Previously I had heated half of the volume to do the mash, using the other half to dunk the bag into. Using it all at once saved a bit of time and still seemed to get good recovery, though I was 0.5L short at the end (though I would have been closer if I'd topped up a bit more to get the 1.072 spot on).

The wort tasted great, with a nice bitterness. The colour looks good (sorry, forgot to get a pic) and the smell was great. Fingers crossed the yeast does it's job and I have a nice bubbling brew tomorrow.

 

[moto748]

Can I ask what yeast you used for the Big Lamp Bitter? I recently bought the GW book, but I have the 2009 edition. Interestingly, the recipe there for BLB calls for 37 g EKG and 7 g Fuggles for a 19 litre batch size, so mostly EKG.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Can I ask what yeast you used for the Big Lamp Bitter? I recently bought the GW book, but I have the 2009 edition. Interestingly, the recipe there for BLB calls for 37 g EKG and 7 g Fuggles for a 19 litre batch size, so mostly EKG.

Hi Moto, I used US-05. From memory it did a very good job, hitting FG after 8 days. My GW book is from 1998 and asks for 80g Fuggles and 15g Goldings. (23l batch). I guess the recipe I found online was based on the GW recipe you have....I suppose one recipe is wrong due to the major differences! I opted for my recipe as I had brewed it previously to good results. I have a note to try EKG written in my book, and to dry hop with Fuggles. I think that must have come from info I also found online. I didn't have EKG but I did dry hop. I also have a note to try US-05. I'm not sure if this is because I wanted to try this with this brew, or if it was recommended . My IBUs were 54 and 6.1 EBC. I hope that helps. If you use the recipe you have I can send a bottle of my brew for comparison....and welcome feedback

 

[moto748]

That does seem odd. But there's not a massive difference in strength between Fuggles and EKG, is there? Looking at the ones in my freezer, the Fuggles are rated 4.4% and the EKG 5.1%, But if there was a big difference between the figures quoted in one edition, and those in a later edition, it seems logical to assume the first version was an error, which was corrected in later editions. Can't be certain of that, though, of course. IBU of 54 does seem on the high side, though. FWIW, the bitterness quoted in my edition is only 30. I haven't run that through a calculator or anything.

Anyway, I've got this tentatively pencilled in as the brew after next, so if I get round to it, I'll be in touch at a later date!

I like and use US-05 a lot (although mostly in stouts), so I'll go with that.

 

[Nottsbeer]

That does seem odd. But there's not a massive difference in strength between Fuggles and EKG, is there? Looking at the ones in my freezer, the Fuggles are rated 4.4% and the EKG 5.1%, But if there was a big difference between the figures quoted in one edition, and those in a later edition, it seems logical to assume the first version was an error, which was corrected in later editions. Can't be certain of that, though, of course. IBU of 54 does seem on the high side, though. FWIW, the bitterness quoted in my edition is only 30. I haven't run that through a calculator or anything.

Anyway, I've got this tentatively pencilled in as the brew after next, so if I get round to it, I'll be in touch at a later date!

I like and use US-05 a lot (although mostly in stouts), so I'll go with that.

The bitterness on my edition is also 30, but the figure using the brewfather app for my recipe was 54. I just presumed that a different scale was used in the book? As you say,both hops are similar in %. I did note in my log book that it was tasting very bitter when tasting the wort before pitching the yeast (I noted that I may have used too much Fuggles), but that it had noticeably decreased on day 8 when I took a gravity reading. I haven't had a bottle of this for a while so will crack one open later to check the bitterness....any excuse

 

[Nottsbeer]

That does seem odd. But there's not a massive difference in strength between Fuggles and EKG, is there? Looking at the ones in my freezer, the Fuggles are rated 4.4% and the EKG 5.1%, But if there was a big difference between the figures quoted in one edition, and those in a later edition, it seems logical to assume the first version was an error, which was corrected in later editions. Can't be certain of that, though, of course. IBU of 54 does seem on the high side, though. FWIW, the bitterness quoted in my edition is only 30. I haven't run that through a calculator or anything.

Anyway, I've got this tentatively pencilled in as the brew after next, so if I get round to it, I'll be in touch at a later date!

I like and use US-05 a lot (although mostly in stouts), so I'll go with that.

You got me thinking...the numbers you gave earlier for your recipe are notably lower than those I used. For a 19l batch mine would be around 65 g and 15g. I quickly dropped the 65 g in my app to 37g and the IBU dropped to just over 30. The values in my edition must be quite off. Made a nice pint tho.

 

[moto748]

37 g sounds more reasonable. Looking at the other recipes in the book alongside it, and considering he mostly uses not-that-strong UK hops like EKG, Fuggles, Challenger, Target, most of the recipes have around 35-45 g for a 19 litre batch. None have as many as 65 g!

 

[Nottsbeer]

I fired up the boiler today, first brew in 4 weeks. I've been planning this one for a while and really happy to finally have all of the ingredients together to do it. Bit of background info first.

Sometime last year my wife bought me a surprise box of Trappist beers, containing the usual suspects, plus a bottle of Tynt Meadow - a UK Trappist I'd never heard of. I found that beer the best of the bunch and very easy to drink. When I started brewing again this year one aim was to make something along the lines of that beer. An internet search for a recipe in that style led me to an American site where someone had delved into this beer and had tried to strip the recipe down. This was a very interesting read, especially as they noted how they deducted what may have been used, and why. They posted their recipe, final beer pics and suggested it was a nice drink (naturally!). Surprisingly, they also requested the monks send them a bottle of their beer so a comparison could be undertaken!

At the time I put the ingredients into my brewmonk app and then experimented AG brewing using other recipes. As I tend to shop at my HB shop rather than online I had to wait until I placed an order to get the specialist ingredients. A few weeks ago I finally had everything and started to look for the link again for the beer - IT'S GONE!! I've tried all search options and I cannot find the original post. So, based on my bad memory and the recipe I noted down, I brewed a Tynt Meadow Style beer today. If it is half as good as the Monk's beer I'll be over the moon!

The recipe I used was - for a 13.5L brew (though I was 0.5L short at the end):
3.8KG M.O
428g Crystal 60
229g Brown malt
53g Dark English Crystal (added at 10 min during boil)
53g D-90 candi syrup (that was from memory, could have been darker in the original recipe)

18g Challenger @ 60min
17g Challenger @ 20min
17g EKG @ 5 min

Protofloc - 0.5 tab @ 15 min

Yeast - Nottingham
O.G. target was 1.072 (my reading was 1.072-4, I found it hard to read the hydrometer)
F.G is 1.018.
7.1% ABV

This was my first use of Nottingham. As it's never in stock in Wilko's I bought a pack from the HB shop. Was surprised to see reference to making a starter for this using warm water. Happily followed the instructions and added 3/4 (or just over) of the solution into the wort. My thinking here is that its a high gravity beer so more yeast is better.

I do BIAB and this was the first time I've heated all of the water at once. Previously I had heated half of the volume to do the mash, using the other half to dunk the bag into. Using it all at once saved a bit of time and still seemed to get good recovery, though I was 0.5L short at the end (though I would have been closer if I'd topped up a bit more to get the 1.072 spot on).

The wort tasted great, with a nice bitterness. The colour looks good (sorry, forgot to get a pic) and the smell was great. Fingers crossed the yeast does it's job and I have a nice bubbling brew tomorrow.

Update on my Tynt style brew. Yeast kicked in very quickly, had a foamy head firming within 12 hrs. After 1.5 days it's like a train, chugging away like there's no tomorrow. As I've pushed the lid on early this time (usually after 4 days), I have no idea if this is normal for my brews. never noticed bubbles before in my air lock like this. I'm just hoping I haven't over pitched on this one. Will see how it's doing in a few days.

 

[Nottsbeer]

I bottled by Tynt style brew today. Hit the FG of 1.018 making this around 7%. It has a good taste with an aftertaste of something I'd associate with strong Trappist brews, so am happy. Will see how it is once conditioned. Decided to prime using demerara sugar. As this is in my brew fridge for a week to start conditioning I'll have to hold off from my next brew just now.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Brew #8 Cascade Single Hop

Finally found some time to brew again. This time went for a Cascade inspired bitter. The ingredients were:
1.5kg Golden Promise
1kg MO
0.275 kg Carapils malt
10 g Challenger @,60
15g Cascade @ 15
20g Cascade @ 10
40g Cascade hopstand @,85oC for 30 mins
OG 1.047
Yeast US-05

Although I called this a single hop, I used some Challenger for bittering. Forgot to update the name once I tinkered with the recipe!

All went well for the most part. I hit my numbers and was 1pt over the OG. Came out with 13l.

I recently made a coil cooler and put it to use for the first time. Very impressed on how quickly the wort cooled. My system (see pic) is gravity based using water from my water butt...trying not to waste tap water. This went well until the end. For unknown reasons I decided to remove the water feed before transferring the work from the boiler. I may have let a drop or two of dirty water get into the brew . Am hoping this won't spoil the batch....will find out soon enough. Apart from that issue, all else went well. Brew days are getting easier each time, and very enjoyable

 

[Nottsbeer]

Bottled my cascade bitter yesterday, have 24 bottles conditioning out of sight. Thankfully there was no evidence of contamination from my butt water. This brew is not very bitter at the moment and not sure yet about the taste. Hopefully after a few weeks it'll be a good one. Time to start planning my next brew