More beer

We have averaged a beer every fortnight since we got the brewatron. We tend to go a spell without doing one at all because the weather is good for other things and then do one a week in other periods.

Normally we aim to brew on days when the weather is less good for strimming, mowing and other outdoor things. It is much nicer in good weather though - though in summer it is a bit hot.

The actual brewing happens outside and the bottling inside. The awning is a bit improvement as the bottler isn’t dazzled and melted while doing their job (also good at other times not to be dazzled and frazzled!)

What to do during dry January?

We are trying to brew once a week during (dry) January to get stocks up a little bit. This is bottling a Dark Mild and we made a Wheat beer using a new interesting yeast (meant to give hints of banana and cloves), we'll see

Brewing beer

Sun sun sun. It is like summer!

Brewing a 70 shilling and bottling a RyePA (we invented it - it is like IPA but with some rye malt in it)

Clearer beer

Our recent brews since we got the braumeister have come out quite cloudy. Up to a point this is not a problem but we decided we wanted to try for a bit clearer so we have tried adding a clearing agent. I think it is made from seaweed - it works by helping the bits clump together so they fall out of solution.

This is just after the boil and looks promising. Normally we would just see a cloudy glass at this point.

Homemade Stout

Finally ready for tasting.
The recipe was aimed at being like Guinness, so we tried it alongside some bottled Guinness and it was surprisingly similar.

Stout Stout Stout

We bottled one stout and brewed another one all in one day! We also have the ingredients for a third on order. We didn't perhaps mean to brew quite so much stout, it just happened, but we do like it so it will all be ok. 

This is a dry stout, hopefully a bit Guinness like

We added a little bit of lactic acid along with the sugar as we bottled it, this is meant to give a more Guinness like taste - originally apparently it was brewed with some lactobacillus to form the lactic acid but now days as it is made in such volume they just add the acid.

The stout we brewed uses an oatmeal malt and should be less dry, it is a lot less dark also.

Hop Harvest

The hops have been in a few years and all but one have failed to make it. These are the fuggles. The poor things don't do great, probably because they get swamped with weeds every year.

We are planning on making an IPA using them shortly.

In the background you can see more plants I am trying to root from cuttings. They are likely to die too as we have brown fingers ;)

'Half Our Lives' present

We have been saving up to buy one of these for many years.

We were kind of waiting until the house was done, but as this year is our 10th wedding anniversary AND this year we have been together half our lives. As it is clearly some years until the house will be finished we decided to get it now.
It makes making beer from scratch (with barley and whatnot rather than kits or malt extract) much more easier as the whole process happens in this one container (up to the point you start fermenting).
We haven't made a huge number of all grain brews as it is a big faff over a gas burner and having to strain the super hot liquid in to different containers etc.
Now we hope to do LOADS. We are a bit stressed as the recent couple of beers we made (both on the same day) went bad during fermenting. Possibly because the yeast was old..We shall see if it is an ongoing problem.

The first brew we made is a light pale ale with corn and rice
https://beercalc.org/?t=177368

The second is a porter.
https://beercalc.org/?t=177362

Some lovely dark crystal malt

Braumiester in action

German Pislner Beer

We have made several of these brupak beers. The kit has malt extract, hops, some speciality grain and yeast and you then need to add a further 1kg of sugar in some form which can be more malt or just sugar. We have been using sugar, but I think they would be better with more malt.
They are not the best kits in the world, but they are very convenient as I can bring them hand luggage and they don't take any boiling. You just have to soak the hops and grain in some boiled water 3 times then fill up the fermenter and add the yeast.

The bottling is always the big hassle and I also got round to doing that for one that Doug put on a few weeks ago. 

Unfortunately in my rush to tidy up so I could dash off for the flight, I managed to stub my toe on a huge and hard piece of kitchen work surface.

It is rather painful to walk on. Hopefully not more than bruising. 

Then to add insult to injury the stupid flight is 2 hours late anyway so I really needn't have rushed!

Two beers in one day

We were super keen today and brewed two beers. Our stocks of homebrew have run down to almost nothing as we have not found the time to do it for ages.

We made an all grain 'quaffing beer' which is made by heating up malted wheat, maize and rice then straining it and boiling the liquid with hops. This is quite an effort and takes a lot of time. 

The other is made with spray malt which is where someone else has done the boiling up of malted wheat (no maize and rice in this one) and then dried out the results. You then just have to boil with hops to make the beer. This second one is going to be an IPA which means we will add more hops as it ferments (called dry hopping).

Poppy got bored during the many many hours it took to make the all grain

We had a previous brew when we were finished to celebrate

They will now frment for a week or maybe a bit more and then be bottled with a bit of sugar to give fizz. They will be ready a couple of weeks after that. It lasts several years in the bottle usually.

Making beer

Although it was a million degrees in the sun, we decided to light the super powerful gas burner to make beer to heat us up just a little more...

We haven't made a brew since May last year (!)and have been meaning too for AGES. It will be fermenting for maybe a week in this temperature and be ready in a couple of weeks after that (just letting you know so you can time your visit). It is a Three Crops or 'Quaffing beer' which is a nice light summer ale, with maize, rice and bittering hops which are boiled but non added later for aroma.

We need to stock up on some beer kits which are easier/quicker to make so we can fit it in with working and the renovation.

Quaffing Beer Recipe

The idea of this beer is that it is a nice light beer with a delicate flavour.

Sorry there is no explaination of what to do in each stage, there are plenty of good brewing resource on the internet that can explain much better than I can. We are still amateur at full mash brews.

Mash

22l water at 70C

3kg Pale Ale Malt (we use Crisp from www.themaltmiller.co.uk)

500g flaked rice (or 'minute'/quick cook rice from the supemarket)

1kg flaked maize

Hold at 65C for 90mins (we don't have an insulated mash kettle so we heat intermittently so doesn't matter if not exact)

Sparge

12l water at 80C to get 30l wort

Boil

Boil for 30 mins

Add 30g Willamette hops

Boil for further 60 mins

Cool with wort chiller to temperature that yeast can be pitched

Put in to fermenter and top up to 24l

Pitch sachet of Safale US 05 (11.5g) yeast

Ferment as normal. We ferment for around 2 weeks or until the gravity has not changed for about a week

Bottle with 100g of sugar. We syphone from the fermenter in to a plastic barrel with a 'little bottler' and add the sugar which has been boiled in a little water. We then bottle using the 'little bottler'

3rd all grain beer - Three Crops Ale

Our first two all grain brews were not good. They both suffered from the same problem - ie they both taste of vinegar - and not in a good way like lambic beers!
We were very careful with sterility (as much as is possible with a dog and a rather dusty rustic house). We were too depressed to make a third attempt for some time, we didn't know what had gone wrong, so we didn't know what to fix. Between the 1st and 2nd batches we changed our sparge technique (we bought a new brew pan with a tap rather than using a pillow case...)
We have made some kit beers in the mean time, but overall the rate of brewing slowed down due to this setback and the effect it had on team moral.
We decided to change two things 1st we bought a copper cooling coil to quickly cool the wort - the beer is called that before you add the yeast and it becomes beer - it is a very welcoming environment for wild yeast and bacteria, particularly when it is warm so it is important to cool it as quickly as possible after the boil.

The 2nd was using different yeast. We felt with the first two brews that fermentation had got off to a very slow start. You want it to start quickly to out compete and wild yeast or bacteria that might have snuck in while cooling the wort.
While I was in London Doug put on our third attempt . It is a three grain beer with barley, rice and sweetcorn. Our plan is that it is a cheap beer to make and is nice and light in taste, a good beer for every day (er not that we plan on drinking it *every* day of course), then we will make some more specialist (expensive!) beers for special occasions. We have just bottled it and it has escaped the blight of the first two. We are so happy! Of course something else can still go wrong, but at least we are making progress.
We need to make a few changes to the brewing process as the rice and sweetcorn had to be cracked and mashed before the main brew was started which took a couple of hours - on top of the 5 hours or more of the main brew this is quite a burden. If we get flaked corn and minute rice we can miss this step.

Planting the hops

I mentioned it briefly in a previous post, we FINALLY planted the hops out in the potager. The poor things have been sitting in pots since they arrived a few months ago while we decided where they were going to go and how we were going to support them as they grew. We have four varieties: cascade, challenger, east kent goldings and fuggles. We built two 'W' shaped supports up the banks either side of the potager. The top and bottom are posts and there is string forming the 'W' shape between them. The hops are planted by the two bottom posts. Hopefully they will have survived the abuse and flourish.

(Allegedly) Fail Proof Mead Recipe

This is a recipe from the 'Got Mead' website, hopefully they won't mind me reproducing it below.
I mentioned that we have tried to make mead before and failed to make anything drinkable. Hopefully this one will come out more drinkable. I am intrigued by fruit and country wines, but our experience so far is not good. I can't quite give up yet though! They are much less satisfying than beer to make though as the turn around is so slow.

Ingredients

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove (or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional (a pinch of nutmeg and allspice)(very small)
1 teaspoon of Fleismanns bread yeast (now don't get holy on me--- after all this
is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon

Methods/steps

This is one I have shared before but it may have got lost in the rebuild. It is so simple to make and you can make it without much equipment and with a multitude of variations. This could be a first Mead for the novice as it is almost fool proof. It is a bit unorthodox but it has never failed me or the friends I have shared it with.Process:
Use a clean 1 gallon carboy
Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy
Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its ok for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts)
Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water (need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)
Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.
When at room temperature in your kitchen. Put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. (No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)
Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's)(Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.
Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch
After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80).
If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away). If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make a different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make a good ancient mead.
Enjoy, Joe
-- submitted by Joe Mattioli

Honey Ale/Mead

The nettle beer bubbling away on the table inspired me to wonder what other fruit/plant 'beers' we could try. I haven't found and other ideas to try yet, but I came upon mead several times during my search. We tried mead a couple of years ago. We still have it (out of scientific interest) although it was frankly one of the most unpleasant tasting things I have ever tried. It felt like it was ripping the inside of your throat out as cheap whisky does, but then left a much more unpleasant after taste. After two and a half years it has 'mellowed' so that some of the throat ripping sensation is gone, but there is still a little burning and an unpleasant taste that isn't at all remenicent of honey as mead is meant to be.
I am thinking of giving another batch a go as so many people seem to find it a very pleasant drink. 

However before that I fancied trying a honey ale (or maybe it is a mead as it doesn't have any grain in it...) which being lower alcohol should be ready to drink sooner and perhaps has less scope to go wrong... perhaps... we shall see.

Makes approx 4.5 litres

1 gallon fermenting container (with airlock preferably)
400g honey
20g hops (I am using Willamette - they are a bit old)
1 lemon (zest and juice)
1tsp yeast (i used Safale us-05 dry ale yeast as that is what we happened to have - but some people use bread yeast)

25g of sugar for priming (adding the fizz)

Approx 1.5 litres boiled and cooled water

3 litres of boiling water

Boil 1 litre if water and let it cool down somewhat (maybe below 70C), dissolve the honey in it and put in fermenting vessel. The boiling it before hand is to sterilise it.
Boil 3 litres of water and add the lemon zest and 15g of hops, boil for 30 mins

Turn off the heat and add the remaining hops, stir and leave for 1 min
Strain (through a sieve is fine - or a cloth) in to the fermenting container and discard hops and lemon zest
Top up container to to 1 gallon (4.5 litres) with water you have boiled and cooled (should be a few inches from the top of the container)
When cool add the lemon juice and yeast
Leave until fermentation is complete 

Syphon in to a clean container and add 25g of sugar dissolved in a little boiling water

Bottle and leave for a few days for fizz to develop before sampling. 

According to mead buffs 3oz of honey in 1 gallon gives 1% alcohol, so 400g (14oz) should be between 4 and 5%. 

My original gravity reading was 1022 which seems quite low - it is hard to get the liquid out of the demi john to try the reading again so I will just leave and see what happens.

I will update shortly...

Nettle Beer

We have so many nettles it sounded like an interesting thing to try... it is raining today, so it was something we could do mostly indoors (Doug and Poppy braved the elements to collect the nettles and I made the brew)

1 large bag stuffed with nettles (some recipes say 1kg)

5 litres if water

430g of sugar for brewing

20g of sugar for secondary fermentation in the bottles

Juice of 2 lemons

50g cream of tartar

1/2 sachet of beer or cider yeast

Large pan (approx 10 litres or more)

Cram the nettles in to a pan with the 5 litres of water. It might be a tight squeeze, but as soon as they start cooking they pack down a lot.

Bring to the boil (can take some time) and boil for 15 mins

Strain the liquid in to another pan or bowl

Mix in the 430g of sugar and stir until dissolved

Add the cream of tartar and lemon juice then leave to cool

Pour in to a demi john and when the liquid is cool enough add the yeast (follow yeast packet instructions for starting and pitching temperature)

Add an airlock and leave until fermentation completes (3-5 days or possibly more depending on temperature)

Syphon out of the demi john (leaving the yeast residue behind) in to a container (pan, bowl etc)

Melt the 20g of sugar in a little boiling water and add to the liquid.

Bottle and cap as you would for beer.

Ready to drink in a few days.

I was thinking it might be a bit greener - I suspect it might be if the nettles were boiled less... apparently boiling damages the chlorophyll. I will let you know how it tastes in a while. Initial indications aren't too great :)

Hops

A while ago we bought some hop rhizomes (bits of root that new plants will grow from), we planted them in pots because we couldn't decide where to put them (and we were a bit worried about frost when they are so small). They have decided it is spring and started growing. We better decide where they are going and provide them with something to grow up pdq. We have a wee while before they outgrow the pots I guess.

We have Cascade, Fuggles, Challenger and East Kent Goldings. Obviously we plan on using them in our beer. It could be next year until we get a harvest I think.

Beer and Birthday party

We have put a couple more beers on to brew in an attempt to get ahead of ourselves so we can age some for longer. One is a brown ale (apocolypse brown ale) and the other is a mild (goat tag mild - we brewed it on the day we helped tag goats). We will see how that goes.

I mentioned a little while ago that we brewed some for a birthday party, the party was yesterday. Don - who's birthday it was - is also a keen brewer so they had set up a little pub with our beer as the 'guest beer'! Our beer seemed very popular. A number of people expressed some enthusiasm for brewing their own too so they could get something closer to 'proper beer' than you can get round here.
We met a number of people that we have heard about (from other british people we know) but not yet met and some new people too.

Social whirl and other things

We have been quite sociable recently, partially due to the run up to Christmas I suppose. We went skiing with some friends and to yoga, some others came round to get some holly as we seem to have some of the only holly still with berries locally

We took the 'Don Anniversaire' beer round to Don - who's birthday we brewed it for. We hope it will have time to settle and clear in the next week before it is needed.

We have spent time - as always - walking and training Poppy. Mostly she is pretty good and only shows us up occasionally (attacking a goat skin rug at someones house and setting off to kill their Christmas turkey a little early). She is getting pretty big now.

We asked the vet about a few things when we were getting her worm medecine. We were a bit worried she is thinner than she should be, but the vet says she is fine and will fill out a bit when she stops growing in height in a couple of months time. She also says she should have her first heat any time now - which we are looking forward to (not). We will have her sterilised, apparently this should be a couple of months after her first heat.

The weather has been very warm after the cold snap that brought all the snow. The snow is disappearing at a concerning rate, but we have still had fun skiing and Poppy still loves the snow and loves running around the ski area making friends.