Quick Indian Brown Ale and Abbey Grand Cru testing

Lots visitors drank  a few bottles of both these beers on saturday, feedback was excellent on the night, not quite as good the following morning though.

Abbey Grand Cru - another slight cockup

Bottled the Abbey Grand Cru, all went well but I forgot that I'd adjusted all ingredients for 60 bottles of 500ml and needed to top up the bottling bucket quantity to 30 litres with cooled boiled water. It was only when I counted the bottles at the end of bottling and found I had 51 bottles and not 60, that I realised the mistake. I did a quick calculation and it means that the ABV% will be closer to 11% and not 9% and the flavours more intense. I suppose there are a lot worse mistakes I could have made. I used champagne yeast in the bottling bucket so it should ferment in the bottles ok, with 7.5 oz sugar. I suppose it will be a bit fizzier that it should be also - hopefully there will be no exploding bottles! Still looking forwards to it.

Christmas Cake Ale - molasses top up

Fermentation now slowed down on the Christmas Cake Ale. Boiled a full kilogramme of molasses sugar for adding to the brew. That should make it the strongest beer I've made to date. I've brewed a lot stronger wines - hedgerow port got to 20%

Christmas Cake Ale - Brew Day

Recipe for 60 pints of Christmas Cake Ale

 - somewhat made up as the day progressed

3kg of Light DME Malt
3kg of Amber DME Malt
9 oz Crystal Malt 60L
18 oz Chocolate Malt
6 oz Special B malt
6 oz Biscuit Malt
10 oz mixed dried fruit
4 1/2 oz Hallertau hops added throughout the boil gradually
1 stick cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cloves
citrus peel
bit of grated nutmeg
Irish Moss
T58 Safbrew Yeast
1 kg molasses sugar, to be added a few days later

The boil was done with 22 litres water initially and then diluted. The hops were added throughout the boil gradually. The dried mixed fruit was mixed with some boiling wort and pureed and then added 10 minutes before the end. The spices and Irish Moss were also added 10 minutes before the end of the boil.The Safbrew T58 has a peppery spicy flavour which I thought would go well with the ingredients; it also will ferment up to 11.5% ABV.

 

 

 

 After recent experience with the previous two brews completely foaming over, I drilled a bung hole in the middle of a large grain bin to provide a greatly increased head room - it worked and didn't foam over. I think the weight of the foaming head squashes the foam structure back down again and stops it getting too big.

 As it was only 2˚C outside, it seemed a good idea to rapidly cool the wort outside with the hose in it.

 

 The yeast starter was done with half malt wort and half water with the T58 yeast. When it was fermenting like mad and the wort was cool, I tipped it in. 

 

Indian Brown - bit of a cock up

Don't know what I was thinking - I set up the bottles to bottle the Abbey Grand Cru, wasn't concentrating, picked up the wrong vessel and got the Indian Brown in the fermentation bucket instead - and bottled it after only 12 days. I've always wanted to try making an ale without bothering with the secondary maturing to see how it turned out. Tastes promising - obviously a bit raw yet, but nice nutty flavour. Here are the labels:

Rhubarb Fizz whilst sterilizing beer bottles

 We tried a bottle of rhubarb fizz tonight that I originally made as a rhubarb and orange wine with honey a couple of years ago. I tried some about three months ago and it tasted pretty awful - very acidic. But a few days later I tried some flat champagne and it tasted similar, so decided to try fizzing up the rhubarb wine. I did it in beer bottles rather than champagne bottles as I'm more familiar with the process. We used a champagne yeast and attempted to  get the same sugar as for carbonating 40 pints beer which is 5 oz, so for a gallon of wine that was 1oz. I was worried about slightly overdoing it and having exploding bottles, so erred on the side of caution. Think we under did it though and after a few weeks the wine was still flat. We tried one tonight though and it was pleasantly gently fizzy and tasted not bad. It's a bit strong though, think it's around 15% ABV. We're going to try carbonating a gallon of blackberry next.

Time to sterilize the bottles for the Abbey Grand Cru also. I soak them in bleach for a while, rinse them four times in water and then roast in the oven at 170˚C for an hour, with a gradual ramp up in temperature over an hour or so.

Indian Brown Ale - Molasses top up

The Indian Brown Ale settled down and nearly finished fermenting yesterday so I topped it up with 1 1/2 lb molasses sugar in 3 litres boiled-cooled water. Bubbling away again.

Indian Brown Ale - air lock modifications!!!

 

I think the solution is to use a much larger brew bucket and a large tube (1 inch dia) for an air lock if I'm going to avoid disaster next time. Thankfully it has now calmed down after less than 24 hours. When the bubbles have slowed down we'll add 1.5lb molasses sugar in some boiled-cool water.

Indian Brown Ale - AARRRRRH

Indian Brown Ale - Bit lively

Indian Brown Ale - Brew Day

Brew day for a recipe from Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing book

Recipe for 60 pints
3 kg light dried malt
3 kg amber dried malt
6oz amber malt grain
9 oz biscuit malt
15 oz crystal malt 60L
12 oz chocolate malt
3 oz roast barley
4 oz fuggle hops
1/2 oz Golding hops
2 tspn Irish Moss
Windsor Ale Yeast

Brewing went well. Brian (Hall) called in part way for coffee. I used more grain bags - 4 - than usual for better circulation. Added the hops at 60minute point, 30 minute point and 10 minute point. Total brew time 3.5 hours.

 Our new beer equipment cleaning plant

 Boiling the malt

 

'Cooked' Grain in the bags

 

 

   

 Brian stirring in the hops

 

 'Cooked' hops

 Cooling 2 litres of wort for the yeast starter

 

 Rapidly cooling the wort to reach fermentation temperature as soon as possible and to improve cold break

Getting yeast starter going to add later when the wort is cool

 

Denise pouring in the yeast starter.

Hopefully by making sure the wort is properly cool when the yeast starter is added will prevent it foaming over the next day - we'll see anyway

 

Abbey Grand Cru - racking off

 

Inside the brew bucket looked like something off an oil tanker - a good sign

 

 Can't believe how good it tastes already

Abbey Grande Cru - topping up sugar

Used Billington's Molasses sugar - really dark - to top up the beer with boiled cooled water, until the yeast looked as if it couldn't take any more. Think I got the ABV just past 9% in the end.

Abbey Grand Cru - Brew Day

Brew Day for the next beer, an extra strong Dark Belgium Style ale - Abbey Grand Cru. We're aiming at 9%, and a rich dark copper beer.

Recipe for 60 x 500ml bottles

3kg (6.6lb) light dried malt

3kg (6.6lb) amber dried malt

2.25 lb Special 'B' malt

1.5 lb Crystal Malt 60L

6 oz chocolate malt

6 oz biscuit malt

3 oz fuggles hops

1.5 oz Kent Golding hops

1-2 lb molasses sugar

Abbey Yeast Safbrew S33

2 tspn Irish Moss

I started out with the specialty grains in three cloth grain bags: 2.25 lb special B malt, 1.5 lb crystal malt 120EBC (60L), 6oz chocolate malt, and 6oz biscuit malt. 18 litres of water were added and the heat turned up. The 65C to 75C temperature was held for 15 minutes, then the grain bags drained and removed. The heat was turned up to boiling.

Brian (Hall) called round to help, well he called round for a coffee but I took his photo while he tipped the malt in: 3kg light dried malt, 3kg amber dried malt. The wort was returned to the boil.

  

I stuck with the Safbrew S-33 yeast which has been really good in the past for Belgium beers, nice and estery and  will ferment to around 11%.

 

After the Dried Malt had been added, I pulled half a gallon out, cooled it and then added the yeast to get a good yeast starter going.

 

The first 1.5oz of hops were added - Willamete - which are apparently bred from Fuggle but with distinctive blackcurrent and herbal aromas. After 30 minutes, 1.5oz more Willamete were added. After 10 more minutes, a couple of teaspoons of Irish Moss were added. After 10 more minutes, 1.5oz of Hallertau hops were added. The boil was kept going for 10 more minutes and then stopped. When cool enough I transferred it with a 2 litre jug through a straining bag into the fermentation bucket. At this point, I topped the level up to 23 litres (5 gallons). The total brew took around 4 hours to this point.

This load of ingredients might seem over the top even for a Belgium Grand Cru, but it will eventually be diluted to 60ish bottles (30 litres) 

By the evening the yeast starter was really foaming and we added it to the main wort

 

There is 1.5 lb dark molasses sugar are yet to be added but I'll wait until the current sugars are fermented down a little as I'm worried that the yeast will become stuck. I'm aiming at 9%

Runner Beans - personal record

The vegetable gardening has not been the best this year due to lots of rain and slugs etc.A few things have gone well though - runner beans have been superb. This is a White Lady, a personal record at 18 inches. The usual polestar variety I grow has been good with a  heavy crop (80lbs ish from 20 plants) but some of the White Lady beans, which seem slower to develop have been huge but delicate, no stringy bits, and tasting like a good French bean despite the size.

Baltic Porter Tasting

The baltic porter has been fantastic, really pleased with it. Had loads of very positive comments. The taste was obviously going to be complex but there was a vast range of chocolates and coffee which worked well.

 

  Here are the labels. The alcohol content is probably closer to 9% as I forgot about the carbonation sugar. It's very substantial and difficult to drink too many in one go.