Rosemary and Bay leaf Ale

[Grand gris]

This might sound silly but: I have been looking at different Malts for this recipe and it appears that many use Dry malt extract instead of Liquid and believe it is a better product. Is this the dry spray malt you get from the homebrew shop? :wha:

I also read that you need less DME - is this right :hmm:

 

[gl0ckage]

By the way, tescos are supposedly doing 2 bay trees for £20. Im struggling to find it in the wild, found some mint and a few other berry bushes but no bay

The bay tree offer is also on olive trees, not that it would produce edible olives!

 

[GeorgeSalt]

You'll struggle to find bay in the wild, but if you look in areas of old garden you might find some. I've seen some very impressive bays in people's front gardens. Usually overgrown, neglected and unutilised.

Must give my bay a re-pot this year, and try and get a few cutting established.

 

[Unclejona]

I might give this a go, and Andy's book gives an insomniac some great ideas in the wee hours

 

[Atlantis01]

I made a batch of this back around cristmas time i think it was. Hang on i'll find my notes.... ah yes, It was early march!

yeh i made a ten litre batch as a tester and it came out rather well.

6 dried bay leafs, smallish ones.
4 sprigs of rosemary about 4'' long each
Sugar to desired alcohol content
1/2 packet of wilko ale yeast (how expensive is that)!
1 jar of Holland and Barrat malt extract or around 400g
1/3 cup of tesco value honey

i had an OG of around 1.040 which finished at 1.005 so a nice 4.5 ish beer.

Primed bottles etc, 5 days later i grew impatient and wanted to try it.

it was sweet, very floral and tasted very strong in alcohol. Smelt like a standard IPA with a decent rosemary aftertaste. as is id treat it like London Porter, one pint and thats enough, just taste very strong.

Next batch coming up...

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I made a batch of this at the weekend.
I nearly stuck to the recipe in the book but threw in a whole jar of honey (500g) and probably way too much rosemary and probably way too much bay.

The OG was 1048 at 25c, it's bubbling away in the living room.
I had to remove my usual glass S bend bubbler as it was blowing the water out.
I have now got a top hat type one that gives a satisfying clatter every 40 - 60 seconds.

The brew looks nice and pale and smelt good during the boil.

 

[Atlantis01]

yes so the next batch i modified slightly...

increased to a 20 litre batch, would have been 25 but i smashed half a crate of bottles (go team me)!!

so 12-14 bay leaf
only 6 sprigs of rosemary as it was so strong last time.
800g sugar.
Ale yeast.
2x post of malt extract from Holland and barrat. aka 850g
1 jar tesco value honey (330g)
500g Medium DME
50g Fuggles Hops.

I will say this is the first time ive ever used hops....

so everything into the FV except the yeast and hops

after some googling i did the following with the hops.
Boil 25g for 10mins for the bitter and aroma. remove from heat.
add last 25g for 2-5mins for flavour. i just threw these in off the heat, left it to sit for 5mins and added to the FV.

one thing i did find with this was that the malt i used probably had a low sugar content and as such i had to use more sugar than i usually would have. and yes, i used Tate and Lyle granulated sugar, so sue me!


End taste, tasted like a floral and very bitter IPA with a rosemary hint at the end. I took a crate to a friends house who it a Becks drinking pig-dog and he quaffed half the crate! so i did something right.

ill try it at some point with proper brewing malt but ive no shop nearby so i do what i must...

 

[Atlantis01]

I made a batch of this at the weekend.
I nearly stuck to the recipe in the book but threw in a whole jar of honey (500g) and probably way too much rosemary and probably way too much bay.

The OG was 1048 at 25c, it's bubbling away in the living room.
I had to remove my usual glass S bend bubbler as it was blowing the water out.
I have now got a top hat type one that gives a satisfying clatter every 40 - 60 seconds.

The brew looks nice and pale and smelt good during the boil.

what type of malt did you use?

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I made a batch of this at the weekend.
I nearly stuck to the recipe in the book but threw in a whole jar of honey (500g) and probably way too much rosemary and probably way too much bay.

The OG was 1048 at 25c, it's bubbling away in the living room.
I had to remove my usual glass S bend bubbler as it was blowing the water out.
I have now got a top hat type one that gives a satisfying clatter every 40 - 60 seconds.

The brew looks nice and pale and smelt good during the boil.

what type of malt did you use?

2 x 500g packs of Muntons Extra Light.

 

[Atlantis01]

hmmm, maybe ill make an all DME brew next time...

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I checked last night and it's down to 1006.
It tastes surprisingly lemony for some reason - quite pleasant though.

I'll leave it for a couple of days and then drop it into a keg or some bottles if I can empty enough of them in time.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Just dropped it in to a pressure keg, there's a bit of fermentation still going on but it's now down to 1000.

Surprisingly complex in flavours but there is an aroma/hint of rosemary.



It's screaming out for some hops!!

 

[Atlantis01]

Just dropped it in to a pressure keg, there's a bit of fermentation still going on but it's now down to 1000.

Surprisingly complex in flavours but there is an aroma/hint of rosemary.

It's screaming out for some hops!!

you can see why i added the hops then?
next time im going to scale back the hops as i think they were a little too strong, as the batch has matured its become a bit to dominant for my taste (and i like hoppy beers)

to be honest i like the beer enough to have invested in a little bay-leaf bush for future brewing needs, Everyone give this beer a try!

 

[Titus A Duxass]

I'm going to add hops for the next batch but I'm going for 23lts.

Just got tweak the recipe.

 

[Titus A Duxass]

After 5 days in the keg @ +20c it looks like this.


It has cracking head retention, lots of mouthfeel, still very citrussy.

It's now in my conditioning cellar Ca. +6c.

 

[graysalchemy]

Fooking ell not had a head looking like that since..........................


The dim distant past drinking Boddingtons cream flow out of a tin

 

[Grand gris]

This is looking good

I am bottling mine this weekend.

I had a sneaky taste and not too bad at all :

 

[Titus A Duxass]

What does yours taste of?

 

[Grand gris]

What does yours taste of?

Sorry for the late reply I thought I'd let it mature a bit.

Its not a bad Ale. The rosemary aroma gives off the smell of a light summer ale but this does not come through in the taste(which I think is a good thing. It tastes like an ale but with a hint of heat a bit like ginger. Its nice on its own but would make a nice cold shandy I believe

 

[Titus A Duxass]

No problem.
I agree with the rosemary aroma but I don't have the heat.
I find that it is best served colder than an ale - the wife loves it.