Tipples of recent times

Here's an interesting tipple I picked up from the fantastic off license/shop at the Hog's Back Brewery - If you like Beer go there and buy some they have EVERYTHING. Delerium Nocturnum - A cracking dark winter style beer perfect for the recent cold weather. Strong at 8.5% and a substantial sweet malty mouthfull it is.













Now today was brewday at the Groovy brewery and English Pale ale was on the agenda:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU 4.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 85.71 % 0.45 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.57 % 0.12 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 2.29 % 0.03 kg Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 0.57 % 65.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (75 min) Hops 29.9 IBU 20.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 3.2 IBU 0.15 kg Dememera Sugar (2.0 SRM) Sugar 2.86 % 1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

I didn't go overboard with the hops even though I picked up 250gms of Goldings from the Hogs back and they were the most aromatic I've ever had - lovely!
Heres a pic of the second runnings in the mash tun:


I was planning for 25 litres at 1052 but got 22 at 1054 because I treat brewing as more of an art than a science - Yes I'm a bit thick.














Here is a pic of the wort going into the fermenter via the counterflow cooler. I did try immersion coling but it takes longer so I'm back with the hosepipe - It does do a very good job of cooling.

The Hog's Back

Took a trip to the Hog's Back Brewery near Farnham. Had intended to just visit the shop but we found on arrival that it was "Surrey Heritage Day" and joined a free tour of the brewery. Interesting to see the big, very big very shiny Mash tun and the enormous kettles they use but the proof of the pudding is in the guzzling and the samples at the end of the tour was most agreeable. This small brewery produce traditional english ales and very nice they are too, I sampled a bottle of "Brooklands" at 4.2% a decent pint. The real revelation was the shop which contained every beer I'd ever heard of and all the nice Belgians as well! Pay it a visit - For homebrewers they sell grain in the shop at reasonable prices. Apparently they will give a sample of yeat as well for a small donation but you have to arrange that in advance. I was looking forward to brewing an IPA but managed to break my hand the day after the Brewery visit sop no brewing for a month or so.

Christmas is Coming

So I brew a Christmas beer! Brewferm's Christmas beer to be precise. This one requires about six months in the bottle to reach it's peak and initial fermentation was like a bomb going off and it's been blamming away since. I hope to get this one to 7.5% as I added some candi sugar to get the OG to 1065.

This evening has been devoted to drinking a few beers and a new one on me is the Leffe Radieuse with the red foil. This is nice! A reddish tinge to the beer and a real hit of fruit after taste with a load of hoppy action going on (not a great taster I am but I know what I like). Again 8.5% wallop factor - Niiiice! as Borat would enthuse.

The next brew on the horizon is the Triple!

Tonight's Tipple

Well last night's bottling went well ably assisted by 10yr old son helper some 18 bottles of wheat beer were produced. A sly taste revealed a reasonable flavour with a good deal of malty body that I am hoping will mature nicely in the 5 weeks that must pass before it will be ready. It seems I was a bit shy with the sugar on initial brew so it might not be as strong as advertised. 150 gms Candi Sugar was used for bottling so I hope all will sort itself out in the long run.

In the meantime tonight's tipple is Hoegaarden Grand Cru which is a simply splendid beer. Malty rounded flavour and a 8.5% fall over rating. I could drink quite a lot of this quite quickly.

The next home brews will be Brewferm's Trippel and Christmas. I hope to document the process for this blog but will need to start getting hold of some more bottles - There's an excuse to buy more beer if ever I heard one! The Christmas must be made now to allow sufficient maturation for it to be ready in time for Chrimbo.