Well I have had a long summer break with not much brewing related happenings.. Largely due to distractions but also partly due to the fact there wasn't much beer ready for drinking. I did drink one of my IPAs I had done quick and easy in PET bottles for the annual camping trip. It was good but not my best. Still more drinkable than the pilsner I had attempted early winter. A few friends described a celery flavour? Not sure how that happened. Maybe I should have boiled the super alpha pellets longer. I still drank all of it and I have to say it improved with age. Either that or I got used to it.
My stout has turned out well. Very rich and creamy. I would have preferred a dryer flavour, it has a mild syrupy almost molasses-like hint of sweetness. Next time I will try some black roasted grain and maybe some hops to add to the bitterness.
Now for the IPA with all those cascade hops. Normally I would wait a little bit longer before trying a beer but I couldn't wait. From initial perspective the beer seems very clear with a lot of sediment. No doubt from all the hop pellets from the dry hopping I did. I didn't have a bag to use but I will likely use one for the next brew with dry hops. This beer was bottled in flip-top bottles which I have found to be rather energetic when opened. A loud pop on opening is always a good sign of a well carbonated beverage. This time there was quite a lot of bubbling. Quite a bit of sediment was stirred up and the beer ended up cloudy in the glass. First thing I noticed was the wonderful aroma of cascade. Exactly what I was trying to achieve with this beer. Tasting the beer made me realise that I had nailed the exact flavour I was looking for too. I am completely stoked. This is easily the best beer I have made. The bitterness is perfect and the flavour is slightly fruity while still having a nice malt flavour. I will make this beer again for sure.
Of course in true home-brew tradition I can't wait to share this beer with all my mates.
Saturday 24 March 2012
Saturday 14 January 2012
I will start off with a brief overview of the last few brews I made.
First up we have a stout. I have had a few goes at making a stout but all have been less than satisfactory. All have been very tasty but they just didn't have the texture of a stout.
For this latest attempt I used, from my memory, a Munton's Irish Style Stout 1.8Kg kit with A 1.8Kg can of Munton's dark liquid malt extract. I also used 500g of dry corn syrup (maltodextrin) to give the beer that thick, wonderful texture we all love. Yeast was Safale S0-4. A brewers' liquorice stick finished off this simple recipe to improve the head on the beer. Final volume was made to 18.5 litres. The stout was bottled in swappa crate bottles (745ml) around a month ago now. I will leave this to condition for a reasonable amount time as I have found stouts really benefit well from it.
Second we have an IPA I bottled about 4 days ago now. This IPA had lots of cascade hops added. I love hops. The recipe used a Munton's IPA Biter kit, a Brewcraft Beer Enhancer #70 1Kg pack, 500g of hopped light spray malt, Safale US-05 yeast, 100g of cascade hop pellets and a 15g amarillo finishing hop teabag.
Boil times for the hops were 30g of cascade at 60min, 30g cascade at 10min, the amarillo bag at 0 min. The remaining 40g of cascade was used for dry hopping a week before bottling. I bottled into 745ml flip-top bottles. I also used beer finings prior to bottling.
Finally, yesterday I started brew of a Munton's Premium Gold Smugglers' Ale. This is an interesting kit as it comes with two 1.8Kg cans of hopped liquid extract along with a sachet of Munton's Gold yeast. There is nothing else to it. My recipe book describes this kit without giving any recommendations to improve it like it does with other kits. This will be interesting. One thing I did differently this time was to rehydrate the yeast before pitching. 1 cup of water at 40C while I mixed the brew up. I have noticed this brew smells like it has a lot of cascade and possibly some fuggles/goldings hops in it. I'm really looking forward to trying this one. Will likely bottle in some swappa and a few flip-tops. Possibly some 500ml bottles too.
First up we have a stout. I have had a few goes at making a stout but all have been less than satisfactory. All have been very tasty but they just didn't have the texture of a stout.
For this latest attempt I used, from my memory, a Munton's Irish Style Stout 1.8Kg kit with A 1.8Kg can of Munton's dark liquid malt extract. I also used 500g of dry corn syrup (maltodextrin) to give the beer that thick, wonderful texture we all love. Yeast was Safale S0-4. A brewers' liquorice stick finished off this simple recipe to improve the head on the beer. Final volume was made to 18.5 litres. The stout was bottled in swappa crate bottles (745ml) around a month ago now. I will leave this to condition for a reasonable amount time as I have found stouts really benefit well from it.
Second we have an IPA I bottled about 4 days ago now. This IPA had lots of cascade hops added. I love hops. The recipe used a Munton's IPA Biter kit, a Brewcraft Beer Enhancer #70 1Kg pack, 500g of hopped light spray malt, Safale US-05 yeast, 100g of cascade hop pellets and a 15g amarillo finishing hop teabag.
Boil times for the hops were 30g of cascade at 60min, 30g cascade at 10min, the amarillo bag at 0 min. The remaining 40g of cascade was used for dry hopping a week before bottling. I bottled into 745ml flip-top bottles. I also used beer finings prior to bottling.
Finally, yesterday I started brew of a Munton's Premium Gold Smugglers' Ale. This is an interesting kit as it comes with two 1.8Kg cans of hopped liquid extract along with a sachet of Munton's Gold yeast. There is nothing else to it. My recipe book describes this kit without giving any recommendations to improve it like it does with other kits. This will be interesting. One thing I did differently this time was to rehydrate the yeast before pitching. 1 cup of water at 40C while I mixed the brew up. I have noticed this brew smells like it has a lot of cascade and possibly some fuggles/goldings hops in it. I'm really looking forward to trying this one. Will likely bottle in some swappa and a few flip-tops. Possibly some 500ml bottles too.
Welcome to my home brewing blog!
Hello! My name is Simon and I have been home brewing for about a year now. I make regular posts to my Facebook page about what I get up to with it and now I've decided to turn it into a blog.
I will be going into detail about each brew I make as well as possibly posting links to cool beer related stuff I come across. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes!
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