Wednesday 31 August 2011

So...that's how you make a lambic...

Unscrewed the top off the barrel of the latest brew to be greeted with a good 'Pssshhhhh...' followed by a slight waft of sour beer. Pouring in the finings and giving the beer a little stir, the smell was reminiscent of lambic beer, or Gales Old Ale, or even a porter I once had - that had been made in the now seemingly forgotten tradition of mixing green and stale beer to give a slight sour aftertaste

Now I'm partial to all of those beers, but I was a little worried. Firstly, I had 9 litres of the stuff to drink, and I bet that even Stuart Heron (one of many erstwhile GBBF co-visitors, with a passion for seeking out the weird and wonderful) couldn't manage that shift! Secondly, I was a tad concerned as it wasn't SUPPOSED to smell like that, and the stuff had only been in the barrel for 3 days!

Then, I found the issue...the top of the barrel had cracked. Clearly a little air had got in and oxidised the beer (not strictly what tends to happen in sour beer like lambics). Fortunately, the pressure seal must have been doing some good, as the release of gas from priming had given it that 'Pshht' upon opening.

So, what to do??? Well cue a trip to the Hop and Grape webpage. Even if I had to fret for three days, that's better than nothing! Bits ordered, I wandered around the corner to Holland & Barrett, just in case! Weirdly, this place on Shirley Road still stocks home brew stuff. Even more weirdly, it was open on a Bank Holiday Monday. But uber-weirdness of all, it had a spare pressure barrel lid.

The moral of this tale is, as I have suggested before, even a health food shop can provide a better service on the brewing front than somewhere local designed to fit the bill!

Fingers crossed no more leakage, and a decent beer to sample. It had better be, it is due to be tapped on my birthday!!

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Beware the dirty element...

It's been almost a fortnight since I started a brew day that I thought would never end. Loving these Amarilo hops, I had chosen to brew a nice pale ale, and followed Wheeler's clone of Exmoor Gold, but added a few Amarillo for the last few minutes of the boil, plus a dry hop in the fermenter.

Since I have been brewing, I have used one of these for boiling, and now mashing (using BIAB). Apart from me being dense and switching it on for the first time without water in, thereby shorting the element, it's been fine. But this time, it decided to be a royal PIA. Mashing went fine (more of that later), and, as I went to lunch, I set the thermostat to max to get the water to a rolling boil. Back from lunch...nothing. Left it a while longer...starting to boil......bit longer.....nothing.

So, the element worked, but obviously started tripping at too lower a temperature. A quick visit to the Internet and I found that I was by no means the only one with this problem. Basically, if the element gets dirty and scaled, it trips......and I live in a chalky water area!! So, I had to decant 20 litres of wort into a spare bucket (THAT'S what I'd bought it for!!), deconstruct everything, and get cleaning. 20 mins with a wire brush later, and I switched everything on tjust o short all the electrics in the house! BUGGER.

Obviously a bit of water had got into the wiring, so it was time to drag out a hairdryer (THAT'S what she brought it for!!). Back on....fine!! So, fellow brewers, the moral of the story is avoid dirty elements at all costs. The rest of the boil proceeded as planned, and I have just taken a FG reading 12 days later.....think it's time to barrel.

One note on the mash. You'll see I got an efficiency of 64% via Hopville. That's substantially better than I had experienced before. My BIAB calculator reckons this is an end of boil efficiency of over 80%. Now THAT'S more like it. Unfortunately (!), I had planned on my previous efficiencies, so over catered on the malt. Thus, instead of a nice drinkable 4.6%, I'm nearer a slightly more pokey 5.6%. Life's tough. Why the change, well I chose to step infuse rather than mash at one temperature: 15 mins @40C, 15 mins at 55C, 60 mins at 65C, and a final 15 mins mashout at 70C. Looking at the theory, this all about increasing efficiency (and hopefully balance). The lowest temperature fluidized the mash, so the grain and water mixed better. The next step gets outs highly ferementable sugars (so the beer is stronger but thinner). The main step is where most of the sugars you want are extracted, and the mashout gives you that little bit of less fermentable sugar, which adds little to alcohol but gives he beer a bit of sweet body. It didn't seem too much faff - I didn't add water as you might in full mashing, I just turned the heat up. And it seems to have worked.

To test that view, it will be time to start another brew soon....looking at a Banks's Mild Clone to see what I can do!!

Tuesday 9 August 2011

IPA?? Not pale, not that bitter....still tasty, mind

There has been a bit of a debate about what actually constitutes an IPA. Surely, they need to be hoppy, golden, strong? Well, if there is a Dark IPA available, am I worried about this beer as being described as such.

Well, yes....kind of. Four weeks from bottling it was time to uncork this Amarillo IPA. Firstly, it looked nice an coppery, not golden. Untick. Secondly, it only came out as touch over 4.5%. Untick. And hoppy? Kind of, but not mouth puckeringly so! Untick.

So, is this really what it says on the label? Well, after a month, it has cleared quite well, without finings other than Irish Moss:

I completely buggered the priming up, and this is a bit flat, which does detract from the enjoyment of what isn't a bad beer. Yes, it is fully of punchy Amarillo hops; nose-wise and palate-wise they are there. I just expected a bit more 'Ooomph'. Maybe, getting the mash right next time up, might give me a bit more body and hop? What with that, and the lack of 'fizz', it's a bit easy to drink.

I just don't see the need for the caramber malt in this; it seems to make the beer sweeter, when actually the balance should be the other way round (IMO). On chilling, some of this sweeter malt goes, which perhaps is the way it was designed to be drunk.

It actually improves down the glass; not a 'warming' issue, almost like it starts to 'breathe' a bit. Anyway, not convincced this is an IPA...you can't just call it that if it has citrusy flavours!!

What it has made me think of is making this beer again, but with pale malt alone, and adding some nice spicy Goldings in the boil, and Amarillo post boil for that great aroma hit. Mmm, sounds good. Need also to sort out this bloody mash temperature, and think I might go for a 40/60/70 mash, or at least something more bottom end to up the strength and let the hops sing over the malt a little more.