PilgrimHudds Brewdays

[pilgrimhudd]

Brewday disaaaaaaaster darling.

Though I'd try a Dark American Wheat beer today, I bought some cascade and simcoe a little while ago but I've got a few pales on the go at the moment so thought I'd do something different.

First off the bag had a hole in it, unbeknownst to me...this meant that I had decant the wort into buckets to sieve through the grain before I boiled. Massive pain in the butt. The tap blocked and because I had so much crud I had the e4 message a couple of times. I had meant to cut the grass and a few other jobs while boiling and mashing but had to nurse the brew through the brewday. During cooling I accidentally had set the boiler at 68c so it was simultaneously heating and cooling at the same time.

Anyway 7 hours later, brew finished, yeast pitched and in the brew fridge.

2.5kg wheat
1.5kg pale
500g Vienna
200g chocolate
200g caradextrine
50g black and an extra 50g for the last 10 mins of the mash.

Hops
10g magnum at 60
25g cascade @10
20g simcoe @5
30g of each hopsteep @75c for 30 mins.

Og 1056, yeast 05

 

[Twostage]

Brewday disaaaaaaaster darling.

Though I'd try a Dark American Wheat beer today, I bought some cascade and simcoe a little while ago but I've got a few pales on the go at the moment so thought I'd do something different.

First off the bag had a hole in it, unbeknownst to me...this meant that I had decant the wort into buckets to sieve through the grain before I boiled. Massive pain in the butt. The tap blocked and because I had so much crud I had the e4 message a couple of times. I had meant to cut the grass and a few other jobs while boiling and mashing but had to nurse the brew through the brewday. During cooling I accidentally had set the boiler at 68c so it was simultaneously heating and cooling at the same time.

Anyway 7 hours later, brew finished, yeast pitched and in the brew fridge.

2.5kg wheat
1.5kg pale
500g Vienna
200g chocolate
200g caradextrine
50g black and an extra 50g for the last 10 mins of the mash.

Hops
10g magnum at 60
25g cascade @10
20g simcoe @5
30g of each hopsteep @75c for 30 mins.

Og 1056, yeast 05

I find an early issue is an indication of things to come

 

[Galena]

It could be a fortunate mistake where you make your best brew ever. Then of course you will need to precisely repeat this procedure

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I find an early issue is an indication of things to come

I had similar thoughts!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

It could be a fortunate mistake where you make your best brew ever. Then of course you will need to precisely repeat this procedure

I'll make sure to clear my diary!

 

[Nottsbeer]

Finished nights again this morning had a little sleep and woke to an empty house, what to do? NZ pale! This one has has the old Taiheke and Motueka hops I got from the Worcester Hop Shop.

3.5 kg Pale
800 Pilsner
200g Wheat

Mashed for an hour at 62c. Raised temp to 75c for 15 mins then mashed out, sparged with 4l of water. Squeezed hell out of bag and brought to boil.

Boiled for 30 mins

Taiheke 30g @30
Taiheke 30g @15
Motueka 30g @15 (arrgh meant to throw this in at 5 but tiredness got me confused!)
Motueka 30g @flameout

Left it for 10 mins to cool a bit then into FV and into brewfridge to finish cooling.

Yeast not pitch yet but will be MJ Hophead.

Finished up at 1063 so added 3.4 litres of boiled water to bring it down to 1052 in 20l. Aroma was good, not quite pine but fir tree like? Barky? Not sure if that sounds nice or not.....

Hi, how did this brew turn out? I've 30g Motueka and 60g Taiheke sitting in the freezer to use. Don't think I've any pilsner or wheat malt, but do have some MO or Golden Promise to use. Thinking of an easy summer ale.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Hi, how did this brew turn out? I've 30g Motueka and 60g Taiheke sitting in the freezer to use. Don't think I've any pilsner or wheat malt, but do have some MO or Golden Promise to use. Thinking of an easy summer ale.

Hiya, i'm not sure that Taiheke is my favourite...especially not as a bittering hop, mine is quite harsh though still drinkable! Do you have anything else you could use to bitter, something neutral like magnum or something it might turn out better. Aroma wise mine is quite nice but as I say the bitterness is quite harsh.

 

[An Ankoù]

Hiya, i'm not sure that Taiheke is my favourite...especially not as a bittering hop, mine is quite harsh though still drinkable! Do you have anything else you could use to bitter, something neutral like magnum or something it might turn out better. Aroma wise mine is quite nice but as I say the bitterness is quite harsh.

That's my experience with many NZ aroma hops even if they are marked "dual purpose". Maybe it's a thing on that side if the world, Australians using PoR is equally coarse in my book.
On the other hand, I find NZ Green Bullet and Pacific Jade (not pacific gem) to be first class bitterinf hops.

 

[Nottsbeer]

Thanks both. I found a recipe I did last year (Hazy John NZ IPA) with these hops. Didn't make detailed notes, but I did include it in a swap and had good feedback (due to my lack of notes I had presumed this failed ). I don't have enough motueka to repeat that one. Other hops I have are Northern Brewer, E K Holdings, Fuggles, Tradition and Sty. Goldings. I may dig out Wheelers book and see if I can make something from there instead. Just looking for a user upper for the weekend brew.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

That's my experience with many NZ aroma hops even if they are marked "dual purpose". Maybe it's a thing on that side if the world, Australians using PoR is equally coarse in my book.
On the other hand, I find NZ Green Bullet and Pacific Jade (not pacific gem) to be first class bitterinf hops.

Yes I had the same with Southern Cross, very harsh, though did mellow out after a few months and became more drinkable.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Thanks both. I found a recipe I did last year (Hazy John NZ IPA) with these hops. Didn't make detailed notes, but I did include it in a swap and had good feedback (due to my lack of notes I had presumed this failed ). I don't have enough motueka to repeat that one. Other hops I have are Northern Brewer, E K Holdings, Fuggles, Tradition and Sty. Goldings. I may dig out Wheelers book and see if I can make something from there instead. Just looking for a user upper for the weekend brew.

Ahh well if you have sty holdings and ekg have a look at one of the exe Valley pales in wheelers book, I did it last year and it was lovely.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Thanks both. I found a recipe I did last year (Hazy John NZ IPA) with these hops. Didn't make detailed notes, but I did include it in a swap and had good feedback (due to my lack of notes I had presumed this failed ). I don't have enough motueka to repeat that one. Other hops I have are Northern Brewer, E K Holdings, Fuggles, Tradition and Sty. Goldings. I may dig out Wheelers book and see if I can make something from there instead. Just looking for a user upper for the weekend brew.

My write up of it, this was 2 years ago and I still talk about it so it must of been decent! Northern Brewer might work to bitter.

And here be my Exe Valley Pale. Taken from Graham Wheelers book.

This ended up at 1048 og, IBU 24 for 19l in the FV.

4kg Pale Malt

20l of water treated the night before with 1/2 camden tab and 3 tsp gypsum.

Mashed at 65c for a couple of hours.

Sparged with 8l of water at 75c

Brought to boil, 24g Target @60, 1/2 protofloc @10 then 10g Styrian @5, quickly cooled and pitched CML Midland.

Dry hopped with 20g ekg.

Finished at 1010 4.4%

I think the styrian makes all the difference here giving it quite a limey citrus flavour. I was really pleasantly surprised with it thinking it would be really dull given the single malt and small amount of hops. It's been an eye opener in how you can make something really quite tasty with not a lot!

 

[Nottsbeer]

This sounds nice. The trouble with Wheelers book is that once I open it I want to make 3-4 of the beers and can never make up my mind . I love the Big Lamp Bitter I've made in the past, and I think I made a great Boddies about 20 yrs ago from his recipe. I may go with the Exe Valley using Fuggles and Styrian. I like the dry hop idea. I have Midland yeast in the fridge. If it turns out well I'll send a bottle your way.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Another brew, this time a bitter.

I went with the same grist as my First Gold Bitter, brewed late last year.

4.5 kg pale ale
200g biscui
200g cara gold
100g dark crystal
50g chocolate

Boiled for an hour

20g First Gold @60
20g Fuggles @30
25g Fuggles @15
50g EKG Hopstand at 75c for 20 mins.

Checked the gravity 1060 for 20l!! Where did that come from?? So I added 1.7l (kettle capacity) into the fermenter which will bring it down to 1055. I mashed high at 68c so hopefully will finish around 1014 ish making it 5.2-5.

Will pitch cml midland once cooled down a bit.

And just before I go on holiday tomorrow I bottled this one up, finished at 1014, so 5.2% which is fine, beautiful and clear. Taste, not quite as bitter as I thought it would be, let's see how it turns out.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

This sounds nice. The trouble with Wheelers book is that once I open it I want to make 3-4 of the beers and can never make up my mind . I love the Big Lamp Bitter I've made in the past, and I think I made a great Boddies about 20 yrs ago from his recipe. I may go with the Exe Valley using Fuggles and Styrian. I like the dry hop idea. I have Midland yeast in the fridge. If it turns out well I'll send a bottle your way.

There's some cracking recipes in that wheeler book, I like the victory clone I did. And have brewed a mild from it which was lovely.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Absolutely beautiful day yesterday which combined with a half price electricity offer and my wife and kids going out for a few hours meant a brewday was on!

I wanted something easy drinking, looking through the forum and what ingredients I had I settled on copying @Nicks90 challenger pale.

So this for a 18l batch had

3.8kg of pale
250 crystal 115
50g roast barley

Sparge with 6l

30 min boil,
25g challenger @30
20g challenger @5
15g challenger hopsteep @80, allowing to slowly cool for 20 mins.

Cml Atlantic pitched at 22c, no temp control, just left it to do its thing in the utility. Bubbling my bedtime. Og 1046. Bit darker than I expected but wort lovely and clear.

 

[Nicks90]

It's a cracker and isn't as dark once it's in a pint pot!
Not used cml Atlantic before, what's it a copy of?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

It's a cracker and isn't as dark once it's in a pint pot!
Not used cml Atlantic before, what's it a copy of?

According to CML it's a 'rounder' US05. I won't get the ale flavours from a proper English ale yeast but it does usually make a decent pint and it was the best I had!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Absolutely beautiful day yesterday which combined with a half price electricity offer and my wife and kids going out for a few hours meant a brewday was on!

I wanted something easy drinking, looking through the forum and what ingredients I had I settled on copying @Nicks90 challenger pale.

So this for a 18l batch had

3.8kg of pale
250 crystal 115
50g roast barley

Sparge with 6l

30 min boil,
25g challenger @30
20g challenger @5
15g challenger hopsteep @80, allowing to slowly cool for 20 mins.

Cml Atlantic pitched at 22c, no temp control, just left it to do its thing in the utility. Bubbling my bedtime. Og 1046. Bit darker than I expected but wort lovely and clear.

Bottled this yesterday, finished at 1010 on the nose, abv 4.7%.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I have this planned for tomorrow, going to start early so getting it prepared tonight.

I typed into chat GPT asking it to give me a Dark Pilsner recipe and it gave me this:

For Yeast i'm going with CML Hell but otherwise sticking to the suggested recipe, sounds like it should be ok.

• Malt
  • 6 lbs (2.7 kg) Pilsner Malt - The base malt for crisp, clean fermentable sugars.
  • 2 lbs (0.9 kg) Munich Malt (10L) - Adds malt depth and slight sweetness.
  • 0.5 lb (0.23 kg) Carafa III (dehusked) - Adds dark color without harsh bitterness.
  • 0.5 lb (0.23 kg) Caramunich Malt - Adds a hint of caramel sweetness and body.
  • 0.25 lb (0.11 kg) Chocolate Malt - For light chocolatey notes and further dark color.
• Hops
  • 1.5 oz (42 g) Saaz (3-4% AA) - Bittering (60 minutes).
  • 0.5 oz (14 g) Saaz (3-4% AA) - Flavor (15 minutes).
  • 0.5 oz (14 g) Saaz (3-4% AA) - Aroma (5 minutes).
• Yeast
  • 1 packet Wyeast 2124 (Bohemian Lager) or White Labs WLP830 (German Lager). Dry yeast option: Saflager W-34/70.