Lest We Forget........

It's great that a lot of breweries are making super-hoptastic beers with loads of flavour, there are some great beers out there, but do we run the risk of forgetting what beer actually tastes like?

I'm not talking about bland lager or tasteless bitter, with corn syrup added to cheaply bump up the alcohol content and leaving the drinker wondering if there is actually any hops or malt on the ingredient list.  No, I'm talking about a proper, well-balanced pint of something with great aroma, a solid malt backbone and nice bitterness and hop flavours, that's easy to drink and hits the spot.  I've tried a lot of beers lately and some are great, but some are less than great.  It seems to me that a lot of breweries are just chucking loads of hops in the boil, adding even more to dry hop with for aroma, but forgetting that it should be backed up with a decent malt backbone.

I recently got into a conversation about Brewdog with a brewer friend (a proper, full shiny stainless steel commercial brewery owner, not just a dabbler like myself) and he reckons he was extremely disappointed with Punk IPA when he tried it as, though it has an amazing smell and powerful hop flavour to start with, it dies off very quickly and leaves nothing behind.  In other words, it has no balance with the malt.  Is this because the recipe calls for loads of hops rather just the right amount of bitternes to balance flavours?  Or does the amount of bitterness that initially hits your taste buds mask any other flavours that could be present?  I'm no expert on beer tasting (though my brewer friend is) and I hadn't tasted Punk IPA properly in the past.  I'd drank it on a couple of occasions but hadn't actually thought about what I was tasting.  Add to that the fact it's too bloody expensive to buy regularly, and don't get me started on those 330ml bottles that all the 'cool' breweries seem to be using, I like a pint, not almost a pint, BAH!  Anyway, I purchased a couple of bottles and sat down to taste them.  He was right; the beer tastes and smells lovely but, once it's swallowed - nothing.

I recently went to a small beer festival held in a pub, and sampled a couple of local Yorkshire beers.  One was absolutely lovely; amazing flavour and aroma and, despite being 5.4% it went down very well.  Another beer I tried was an over-hopped IPA and I had a couple of pints as it was quite nice to start with despite being very bitter, but it started to be unenjoyable halfway through the second pint. I didn't buy a third.

Other breweries have managed to get the balance right.  Try a pint of APA (American Pale Ale) from Windswept brewery (Lossiemouth, NE Scotland) and it has a big grapefruit hop flavour and aroma, but it's backed up with an equally large (and complex) malt flavour.  Very nice it is, too!

Rothes Brewery (Rothes, Speyside) has just started up recently and makes some very good beers.  They are not overly hoppy, but are very nice, balanced drinks.  Just as beer should be, in my opinion.

A recent trip to the National Brewery Centre in Burton had me sampling a pint of Reservoir Pale Ale from the Burton Gate brewery and, again, a very decent beer and full of flavour.

There are probably thousands of examples of great, balanced, flavoursome beers from small breweries all around the world, so you don't need to fall for the brashly marketed, brashly hopped beers from any one brewery. Try a few, or as many as you can, then maybe you'll see what my problem is!

I shall stick to making my own balanced beers, and drinking good beers from other small breweries.  I'm sure some would call them 'bland', 'tasteless' and 'uninspiring' but that's their opinion.  Equally, all that you read above is mine.  What's yours'?

Summer Lightning Update

My first all grain beer has now completely cleared (although the pic doesn't make it look clear) and is tasting lovely!  Unfortunately, it's nearly gone.

Not a problem as AG#2 (another Summer Lightning clone but only 5.2% this time) is priming in bottles as we speak and #3 (my own Blonde ale recipe) is ready to be bottled in a couple of days.

#4 will be brewed mid-week, a Hobgoblin clone.  Pics to follow.....

Earlier in the week, I strained off the banana wine into a demijohn and it now looks like this;

 

 

 

 

Not very appetising at the moment, is it?  Banana wine needs more racking than other wines due to dropping a lot of sediment.  Once it does clear, it will be a lovely golden colour.


My Summer Lightning is also in the keg and priming as we speak.  In a couple of days, it will go into my cool garage to condition for a few weeks.  That's the plan!  It is tasting lovely, even at this early stage, so it might be a problem keeping my hands off it!!

Raspberry Beer

Just tasting the raspberry beer I mentioned here

It's very nice and is quite dry (much like real raspberries).  The only problem is lack of fizz.  I batch primed the 2 gallons, bottled, and left at 20 degrees for a week but still no fizz.  It is not quite flat as there is a bubbly feeling on the tongue.  At first, I thought that pressure may have been leaking from under the caps on the bottles, but the plastic bottles (which did feel firm as though they had some pressure behind them) were the same.   Oh well, back to the drawing board!



Quick Update....

This is what I woke up to this morning.......!

 



 

 

 

The yeast is obviously doing its job well.  Also, the bitter aroma it had yesterday has been replaced by a lovely fruity/spicy aroma.  If it tastes half as good as it smells, I'll be chuffed :-)

 

 

 

Between all the beer-making shenanigans yesterday, I managed to mince the wheat to add to my banana wine.  

It has formed a crust on top of the wine and will need stirring once or twice a day to keep everything moist and get the flavours working.  I'll ferment it 'on the pulp' for about a week before straining into a demijohn. 

All Grain Brew Day #1 - Summer Lightning Clone



I chose this recipe after reading about 'Demon Valley' brewery's first all grain brew day and, seeing as the ingredients are fairly straight forward, decided it would also be my first brew.

 

Ingredients;

•5kg Pale Ale Malt
•46g Challenger Hops @ 90 minutes
•15g Goldings Hops @ 15 minutes
•9g Goldings Hops @ Flameout/Poweroff
•Safale S-o4 yeast

I set my alarm for 0700 this morning but was awoken by a bad dream, in which my boiler wouldn't boil and kept cutting out (see how this brewing lark affects you?).

I got out of bed and measured out 16 litres of water.

0700 - The water goes into the boiler to be heated to 71.6 degrees for mashing.

The most important step in brewing and wine making is, of course, sterilising everything to avoid infection.  But is it?  Surely this is the most important first step?



 

 

My instructions/steps for the day, in case I forget anything;

 

 

 

Everything ready and prepared

 









And ingredients



 07:25  -  The water (liquor in brewing terms) reaches 71.6 degrees and is now added to the mash tun



The mash temperature I am aiming for is 66 degrees so, once the grist (malt) is added, this cools the temperature down to where I want it

 



I now mash at this temperature for 90 minutes which, I'm pleased to say, my new mash tun has managed without dropping a degree. 

 

Meanwhile, I heat up 20.86 litres of liquor to 75.9 degrees for sparging.

 

0900 - Time to sparge (rinse the sugars from the grist)

 

 

 

 

The first runnings.  This is returned to the mash tun until it comes through clear.......

 





 

 

 

.......Like this

 

 

 

 

Pre-boil gravity is 1.032



10:00 - The wort is now transferred into the boiler to give it a rolling boil for 90 minutes.  This drives off any unpleasant enzymes and sterilises the wort.  Hops are added at various times for bittering and aroma. 

 

10:50 - The wort is finally boiling so 46g of Challenger hops are added for bittering.



 

 

12:05  -  More hops are added, 15g of East Kent Goldings for aroma.  Also, the wort cooler is now added to the boiler to sterilise it for the last 15 minutes of the boil

 

 



12:20 - Time to cool the wort down to around 20 degrees.  Ideally, this is done as quickly as possible so the yeast can be pitched, and there will be less chance of infection



12:40 - Just 20 minutes to cool down 26 litres down to pitching temperature.  I'm happy with that!

 

The wort is now transferred to a fermenting vessel and, after being thoroughly aerated (to encourage yeast growth), the yeast is pitched

 



 Original Gravity is 1.052.

 

 

13:30 - Everything cleaned and tidied away! 





 

 

 

Problems:  The only problems I noted were the fact that my OG should have been approx. 1.043 whereas the actual OG is 1.052.  I'm not sure if this is down to a dodgy hydrometer!  The other problem was that hops got stuck in the tap, blocking it, when transferring from the boiler to the FV.  I had thought this might happen so prepared by sterilising a sieve and jug to transfer manually

Banana Wine

After the success of the banana wine I made a couple of years back, I have decided it's time I make some more.

The initial recipe called for 4lb of bananas which I purchased, but then ate a pound of them.  So, I have decided to make up my own recipe.

3lb bananas (plus half a pound of skins)
1lb wheat (it needs using up as it's been in the cupboard for a few years)
1/2lb sultanas
2 1/2lb sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
yeast
yeast nutrient

Boil up the sliced bananas and skins for about 20 minutes.  Strain onto the sugar and minced sultanas and add the wheat (which should ideally be soaked overnight and minced).  Bung all the other ingredients in and ad the yeast and nutrient.

Boiling the bananas



 

 

Soaking the wheat



I didn't plan this ahead so I will have to add the wheat tomorrow as it is still soaking. 

Bottler!

I have been busy bottling today.

First, I bottled my carrot wine.  It has been maturing in the demijohn since May 2012 and tastes lovely, very much like a slightly spicy white port.

 

I also bottled some raspberry drink.  I'm not sure what to call it as it was made from some Lowicz Malina raspberry syrup I found in the Polish foods section of my local supermarket.  I made 2 gallons using 2 bottles of syrup and added sugar which has taken the ABV to 5.1%

 

It tastes and smells nice, but will benefit from a few weeks in the bottle to mature.  I added some priming sugar to the batch, bottled it,  and the bottles are now standing in water which is kept at 19 degrees by my new aquarium heater.

 

 

 

 

The tiny amount of yeast left in each bottle will feed on the sugar creating a bit of fizz.





Rhubarb Wine

My first wine of 2014 is my old favourite, rhubarb.  I have used just under 3 pounds of rhubarb and 2 and a half pounds of sugar.  I am going to boil up a pound of bananas and top up with the strained juice.  This should add some body and, hopefully, a different aroma and flavour.

 

 

Unfortunately, the lovely pink colour will drop out as the wine ferments.

 

I don't have a source of free rhubarb any more so had to buy 3lb for £3.  I'm not sure how this compares to the supermarket price but it's grown locally and, though not certified organic, is grown without chemicals. Add this together with 35p (approx.) for the bananas and £1 for the sugar, it works out at 72p per bottle.  Not as good as 20p obviously, but cheap all the same.

 

More on rhubarb wine can be found here



King Keg Sparkler Tap

I never really got on with the standard fit drum taps on my King Kegs.

The taps seem to have 3 settings;  full on, dripping, or off.

Actually, 'off' is a harder option than it seems and you'll find yourself wrestling with the keg trying to hold it down (especially when under half full and not weighing much), all the while gripping the tap as hard as you can (usually with a towel) to turn it off that last hundredth of a turn to stop it dripping all over the floor.  By this time you've worked up quite a sweat so the beer is swiftly drunk, only then the process has to start over again.

Pouring a decent pint is hard work too as you'll end up with either a pint full of foam, or a half hour wait whilst the beer drips into the glass.

I recently purchased 2 sparkler taps, and what a difference it has made!! 

They fit the King Keg perfectly, it's a simple case of locating the tap in the original hole (making sure the seal is in place) and tightening up the nut at the back.  Then, fill the kegs with water and pressurise with co2 to check for leaks. 

Here is a video of mine in action.  The head on the beer is slightly larger than I would normally pour, I was just trying to demonstrate how quick and easy it is to pull a pint  :-)

 

The nozzle can be adjusted to give different pouring speeds for more/less head which is ideal as it can be adjusted to suit the lower pressure in the keg as it empties and, with the lever in the forward position, the tap will remain open.

They are easy to find, just Google 'brewgas deluxe sparkler tap for king keg' or click here

It's Been A While.....!

I've not really made much wine or beer over the last year or so, only managing a couple of gallons of Rhubarb wine and three gallons of Blackberry (plus one Blackberry and Apple which smells delicious!)

 

It's a great time of year to be starting again too, with Dandelions almost ready for wine.

 

I have also decided to have a go at all-grain brewing and I'm just getting the gear together

to start my first brew.

 

There's a lot to learn and I'll keep you posted with the ups and downs of the process.

 

First things first;

 

Buy some books and read them.  Then read them again.

 

Visit one of the online forums like this one

 

 

This is going to be my new 'brew shed'

 

 

 

 

Over the next couple of days, I will give it a coat of paint and add some electrics.

I'll also stick a worktop and some shelves up too.



More Bitter Bitte! (This is getting silly now)

43p per pint

I thought it might be a good idea to make a second batch of Young's Harvest Yorkshire Bitter, but this time using medium Spraymalt instead of Beer Enhancer.  This raises the cost by £5.01 for 40 pints, so it will be interesting to see if there's any real difference in taste.

Look out for a taste comparison soon!!

Bitter Bitte! (Part 2)

It's been a week since the beer was left to ferment, and now

 looks this this ======>

It smells good, has kind of a flowery aroma to it.  If I was going to bottle this beer, I would check that fermentation has finished using a Hydrometer, thus avoiding burst bottles.  Seeing as I'm going to barrel the beer, it's not really necessary as the barrel has a pressure release  valve. 

The Hydrometer can also be used to define the strength of the finished beer but:

 a) I don't really care, it's usually strong enough to do the job and

b) it's a whole heap of sterilising and grief to use. 

I have got one, can use it, I just choose not to for most of the time.

It is now time to siphon the beer from the fermenting bucket into the barrel.

 

Warm up a cupful of water and add to it 2oz of sugar, stirring until dissolved.

This is for priming the barrel ie adding pressure.  Basically, the still active yeast in the beer will ferment on the new sugar (secondary fermentation), which creates Carbon Dioxide, which will build up pressure in the sealed barrel,  allowing the beer to flow through the tap under pressure, giving the beer a good head in the glass and also a bit of fizz on the tongue. 

Add the sugar to the sterilised barrel, then, using a sterilised siphon tube, siphon the beer off the sediment.  Note clever use of a clothes peg in the top of the picture.

Once all the beer is in the barrel, stick a bit of Vaseline round the O-ring of the lid, and screw up tight, sealing the barrel.  Give it a bit of a shake and put in a warm place for about a week, checking periodically that no beer is leaking from either the lid or tap.

This Is A Picture Of My New Float

It connects to the tap on my barrel, and the float stays on top of the beer,

so waiting time is reduced, as it's drawing cleared beer from the top (rather than waiting for all the barrel to clear, as bottom tap barrels do).  A word of warning : Be very careful when rinsing out your barrel.  See the little see-through plastic thing on the far right? That has a habit of coming loose, and if you empty the sediment from the barrel down the toilet, as I do, and don't realise that it's not attached anymore, well, bye bye, it's through the water and over the bend before you know it!!

A Handy Tip

It's a lot easier to have a straight piece of plastic tube in the beer when siphoning off, so well worth trying to get hold of one.  They are usually available from Homebrew suppliers.  A floppy tube in the beer is a right pain as it often curls round in a 'U' shape, comes out the top of the liquid and starts to siphon air, which means having to start the process over again.  The straight pipe stays put, making the whole process a lot easier, and a lot less messy.

Bitter Bitte! (Part 1)

(36p a pint)

Well, not German, but Yorkshire Bitter.  Young's Harvest Yorkshire Bitter to be precise.  I haven't tried this kit before and, in addition to this, I am also substituting my usual Spray Malt for some Geordie Beer Enhancer.  A 1kg bag of enhancer costs £4.49, instead of £4.75 for 500g of Spray Malt (of which I would need 2), thus a saving £5.01. The beer kit cost £9.99.

Boil up about a gallon of water.

Put beer kit and beer enhancer into a sterilised fermenting bin.

Add boiling water, using part of it to rinse out the beer kit tin.

Give the mixture a good stir.

Fill up with cold water to the 5 gallon (40 pint) mark.

Rehydrate the yeast in lukewarm water for a few minutes.

Pitch the yeast and give the liquid a good stir, adding some air to aid fermentation.

It should now look something like this =====>

Put the lid on, leaving one part cracked open to allow

Co2 to escape (or cover with a large towel).

Leave for roughly 5 days in a warm place to ferment.

Some people recommend you scrape off the layer of 'scum'

that appears on the top after a couple of days.  I have never bothered,

and don't really think it will make any difference to the beer's taste.  

I could be wrong though.

TBC..........



How To Make Rhubarb Wine

(approx 20p per bottle)

Yesterday, I was kindly given some Rhubarb.

After weighing it, I discovered there was 30lb of Rhubarb, which is enough to make 10 gallons of wine.

Although I am making 2 x 5 gallon batches, the method is the same as for making 1 gallon. 

The basic recipe is 3lb of Rhubarb & 3lb of sugar per gallon, water, yeast & yeast nutrient.

Sterilise a fermenting bucket, rinsing thoroughly. 

Wipe the Rhubarb, or rinse it under the tap.

Cut or slice the sticks into smallish chunks and put them in the fermenting bin.

Cover with all the sugar and leave for 24 hours.

It should now resemble this picture ====>

It's worth getting your (clean) hand in and making sure all the sugar is off the sides of the bin and there are no lumps underneath the Rhubarb. 

Give it all a quick mush round and leave for a few hours longer if necessary.

Once all the sugar has dissolved, strain off the juice into (sterilised) demijohns or a larger fermenting vessel, depending on what volume you have made.  You don't actually have to strain the juice, just try not to let any Rhubarb into the fermentation vessel.

Once all the juice is strained off, add some water to the Rhubarb , swill it round and strain again.  Do this until you have filled your fermentation vessel with the desired amount.

Add all purpose wine yeast and nutrient to a small amount of lukewarm water, and leave for a few minutes to rehydrate.  Add this to the juice and stir.

After about 3 months, the wine will have finished fermenting.

At this stage it should be racked off into a fresh vessel, and again a couple of months later once clear.

It can then be bottled. It will be ready to drink when 9 months old but will improve if kept for a year or so.



Start Up Costs For Making Beer

Having been quite surprised by the final figures for starting up in wine making, I thought it only right that I should find the cost for making 40 pints of beer.

Again, my figures are based on buying everything from new.  I use King Keg barrels, which are more expensive than other barrels, but I have read that they are one of the best barrels for homebrew.  You can, of course, buy a cheaper barrel, or even a secondhand one.  Also, the price of beers kits can range from £8 to £22 or more, but most kits are around the £12 mark.

I use Spray Malt, as it gives a better flavour and more body, but if you are on a budget you can use 1kg of sugar instead.

King Keg Pressure barrel  £45.99

Fermenting Bin  £8

Beer Kit (incl yeast)  £12

Spray Malt  (1kg)  £9.50

Sterilising Powder  £2.75

So, that’s £78.24 for the lot, which is £1.95 a pint!  Still as cheap as buying a bottle of beer from the supermarket.  Subsequent brews will cost 53p per pint. 

It certainly beats paying the government MORE money, surely?

Equipment

It’s strange where bits & pieces come from.  I have picked up demijohns from charity shops and free ad papers.  I saw a pressure barrel in a charity shop once, but decided against buying it as the seals looked dry and cracked and it may be difficult (or impossible) to get more.  It’s always worth keeping your eyes open though.

I recently got the offer of a fridge, that a friend knew of which was going to be thrown out.  I said I’d take it, with the intention of using it as a fridge (what else?)  But, by the time it came into my possession, it was no longer working. So, I decided it would be a great place to store bottles of wine.  It now stands in the garage, keeping all my bottled wine at a near-constant temperature.  Wine (apparently) tastes better if kept constant, so this is ideal.

It is well worth putting the word about to friends and family if you start up this hobby.  I have received countless offers for free fruit that people are glad to see put to a good use rather than rotting.  It’s always appreciated if you hand over a bottle of wine made with the fruit once it’s ready!  And often, people will notice demijohns etc in the charity shops that I don’t look in.  Just the other day, I got 2 free demijohns given to me.  I always appreciate this, and you can never have too many as you don’t know when one may break, or you need another one for that bumper crop of Apples.

Starting Up Costs For Wine Making

I was wondering earlier, how much would it cost to actually start wine making, starting from scratch and buying everything from new?  It seems like an expensive hobby to start, but the figures below suggest otherwise.

What you will need to produce 1 gallon of Rhubarb wine (not including wine bottles which you can save instead of recycle, and not including the cost of Rhubarb, which a kind neighbour gave you for free)

Fermenting Bin    £8

Glass Demijohn    £6

Sterilising Powder    £2.75

All Purpose Wine Yeast    £1.99

Yeast Nutrient    £1.09

3lbs of Sugar    £1.48

Bung & Airlock    £2

TOTAL           £23.31

So, you'll get 6 bottles out of 1 gallon.  This means a grand total of £3.88 a bottle!! 

This means that if you don't enjoy it, and you never touch the equipment again, you've still only paid £3.88 for a bottle of wine.  This is comparable to a cheap bottle of plonk from the supermarket (to which your Rhubarb wine will be far superior, of course).  If you were to compare this to a commercial bottle of Rhubarb wine, you'd be saving roughly £2.12 on each bottle.

Also, bear in mind that you will have plenty of yeast, nutrient and sterilising powder for later use.  You'll even have over half a bag of sugar left for making the tea.  The equipment, obviously, can be used again and again and again.

Your second batch of Rhubarb wine will only cost you the price of just over 1 bag of sugar (if you don't have some left over from last time).  This gives a rough total, per bottle, of 20p, as will all subsequent batches until you need to buy more yeast, nutrient or sterilising powder (they should give you around 20 gallons from a pot)

Don't forget that demijohns can often be found for free (try Freecycle etc) or for a pound or so at your local charity shop.  Most of mine have come from this source.  Those that have been bought from other sources have cost maybe £2.50, try your local free ad paper. Always check that they haven't been used for cleaning paintbrushes, and they are not cracked.  A chip on the top edge is not usually a problem.  I have never paid for a new demijohn, and never will!  Of course, fermenting bins can also be found from sources other than new, again, make sure they are in good order and don't smell dodgy.

So, it begs the question, WHAT'S STOPPING YOU???!!!

Oz & James Drink To Britain

I recently borrowed this whole series from Lovefilm and enjoyed it.  Except, that is, Oz going on and on about French wine makers coming to the south of England, buying up acres of land to grow grapes, and making the most fabulous champagne style wines etc (or whatever other pretentious descriptions he came out with).  Wasn't that all covered in the very first series, albeit in France?

Anyway, other than that, I am very disappointed that there was absolutely NO mention whatsoever of fruit wines. Fruit (or Country) wines have been made in England for many, many years, as grapes weren't grown.  So, wine was made with whatever ingredients could be found or scrounged.  There are numerous good fruit wine producers in the UK from Cairn 'o' Mohr in Scotland, to the Lurgashall Winery in Sussex. 

Another disappointment was the lack of homebrewers.  They did pop in on a lady that brews beer in her garage, but she produced gallons of the stuff each week and it was sold in pubs local to her.  That's nice to see, but if they'd edited out all the boring French wine nonsense, they could have found room to fit in a homebrewer that makes beer in his or her shed like me, and many others like me, for the fun of it. 

I believe the programme would have been a fairer representation of Britain's ability to produce it's own quality drinks, rather than aspiring to be something it's not (and never will be).

Rack Off!!!

Sounds like an Antipodean insult, but is actually a necessary process in wine making, and to a lesser extent in beer making.  Racking off is basically the process of siphoning off the nice clear liquid from a demijohn, while leaving the sediment behind.

The first racking is normally done once fermentation has ceased (about 3 months) but the wine does not need to be clear.  This will stop the sediment from giving the wine off-flavours, which can ruin a good wine if left for too long.  The next rackings are to make sure the wine is clear for bottling.  Some wines only require a couple of rackings, others need 3 or 4.  There is no limit to the amount you can do, and it won't spoil the wine.

It is also a good time to have a little taste of each wine to see how it is progressing.

Today, I racked off 2 gallons of Rhubarb, 2 gallons of Elderflower and 1 gallon of Gooseberry.  These will all be ready to bottle soon, so I'll leave them to see if any more sediment drops over the next month or so, just to make sure.  I often don't bottle straight away as wine is supposed to mature better in bulk, as there is less temperature fluctuation than in a bottle.  For me personally, I don't have enough empty bottles lying around so tend to only bottle a wine when I have spares (it also takes away the temptation to drink a wine before it's matured, unless of course you drink it straight from the demijohn, in which case you've got a serious problem and probably shouldn't be making wine in the first place).