Monday 26 March 2012

Beer #20 - Lightly Smoky

I finally got a malt and hops order in, went a bit crazy in the end and had 86kg of stuff sent! Although that's not all for me -Daz will be diving into the stash too.

So with all that waiting, and it being a pea souper, I couldn't resist getting a brew on. Daz appeared on the scene just after the mash had finished so I had another pair of hands, which was useful. Because Gemma likes Rauchbier, specifically Schlenkerla, I'd ordered 500g of rauch malt which in hindsight may have been too little, but hopefully will give a lightly smoky taste to the finished beer. Certainly when tasted from the sample jar there was a hint under the sugary maltiness. I used a mix of Pilsen and Munich malts as the base with a touch of wheat for body and a pinch of chocolate to add some colour.

  • 50g Chocolate malt
  • 160g Wheat malt
  • 500g Rauch malt
  • 1kg Munich malt
  • 1.6kg Pilsen malt
  • 32g Hallertauer @ 60 minutes
OG: 1040, 20L into the fermenter.
FG: 1010, 3.9% ABV

Saturday 10 March 2012

Beer #19 - Bottled

Fortunately, I'd managed to sup just enough bottles to allow me to bottle, after 3 weeks in the fermenter, the crazy user upper brew. I'm determined not to crack into it too early.

Unfortunately the need to bottle came just prior to my birthday. I say unfortunately because as a gift I received an 80 capacity bottle tree and a bottle rinser (Avinatore). This would have come in handy and shortened the washing and sanitising of 60-something bottles. I've just assembled the thing and taken it for a test run on the empties that were building up in the kitchen. I reckon it'll be a boon - with such a small kitchen and lack of sink and drainer space, I normally have to ferry armfuls of bottles back and forth. This will let me do a large batch at the kitchen table.