Sunday 30 September 2012

Beer #26 - Best Bitter


Having just recently had a couple of lovely pints of classic best bitters at The Blake, another pub that's local to me, I decided to make something along those lines for the second beer of my double brewday. Again more or less winging it recipe-wise. 

  • 3.25kg Maris Otter
  • 0.2kg Pale Crystal
  • 0.2kg Pale Wheat
  • 0.41kg Dark Crystal
  • 20g Northdown @ 60
  • 10g Northdown @ 15
  • 10g East Kent Goldings @ 15
  • 20g East Kent Goldings @ 0
Got a little more from this batch than the last because of the lower hopping. OG was 1044, pitched S04 but awoke to no activity - perhaps I hadn't cooled enough - so I've chucked a packet of Nottingham in this morning. 

Beer #25 Red ale


With the other half off working surveying for bats, I decided I might as well try and get a double brewday in. I was going to try and get an overnight mash done to get a headstart on the day, but met a friend after work. She's a bad person and made me spend most of the night in the pub. Nonetheless I still managed an early start, so had the liquor heating up by 06:30. Because I'm a bit lazy this ended up being a very relaxed and unorganised brewday. I decided I wanted to make a lovely red coloured ale, but fairly bittered with US hops. So this is what I came up with, mainly based on what was in the malt box. This was also the first time I'd used the first wort hopping technique, so it'll be interesting to see how that turns out

  • 0.27kg Pale Wheat malt
  • 0.5kg Caraaroma
  • 0.5kg Carared
  • 4.5kg Maris Otter
  • 15g Columbus @ FWH
  • 15g Simcoe @ FWH
  • 10g Columbus @ 60
  • 10g Simcoe @ 60
  • 10g Columbus @ 30
  • 10g Simcoe @ 30
  • 10g Columbus @ 15
  • 10g Simcoe @ 15
  • 20g Cascade @ 15
  • 20g Cascade @ 0
This had a couple of litres sparged through, which I was glad about because the hops did soak a fair amount. I think I need a bigger boiler, although I struggle enough getting things boiling on the hob at the moment. Collected 16L at 1061 and pitched 2 packets of Nottingham, which may have been overkill.

Beer #24 - Wrong Tim's Aussie Summer


My friend and former work colleague came to visit for Sheffield's excellent Tramlines. So following the festivities I gave him a bit of a lesson in how I brew. I have to say I probably wasn't the best tutor because of the raging hangover from a weekend's massive over-indulgence. However we did manage to get a beer out of it. This time I decided just to do a straightforward single-hopped beer with the Australian hop Summer - mainly because I had some kicking around and also because Tim's local brewery makes a commercial beer with this hop, so he can do a comparison.
  • 0.27kg Pale Wheat malt
  • 0.3kg Pale Crystal malt
  • 2.75kg Maris Otter
  • 20g Summer @ 60
  • 20g Summer @ 30
  • 60g Summer @ 0

Mashed for 60 minutes @ 64.5 C. Ended up with an OG of 1044 onto which US05 was pitched. For various reasons I didn't get to bottling this until 3 weeks after pitching and it had dropped right down to 1004, for about 5.3% ABV, which is a bit more than I was aiming for. I need to send some bottles down to Suffolk for Tim to try.

Beer #23 Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale

The idea behind this beer was because I'd been drinking a lot of Thornbridge Kipling in one of my local pubs, The Hallamshire House. Unfortunately when I came to make it I realised I had no Munich malt in the box, which I know is in the actual recipe. I had planned to chuck in a bit of Pale Crystal for interest, which I weighed out, but forgot to add it. I've left it out of the following recipe.


  • 0.3kg Wheat Malt
  • 3.43kg Maris Otter
  • 17g Nelson Sauvin  @ 60
  • 12g Nelson Sauvin @ 30
  • 50g Nelson Sauvin @ 0
  • S04

Ended up at an OG of 1050 and a FG of 1008 for about 5.6% ABV, slightly higher than Kipling. I probably should have dry hopped, however this was widely lauded by friends as the best beer I've done yet. Early tasters were like drinking grapefruit juice. Nelson Sauvin will definitely get an airing again.

Bit behind

For whatever reason I've not managed to post the last couple of brews I did. I shall endeavour to fix that in the next 10 minutes or so.