River Road Brewery

AG #17 - Furious IPA II - Recipe

2012-11-03T18:05:00.000+00:00

A little later than expected but tomorrow I will do my first of two Christmas brews. This is pretty much a carbon copy of Furious IPA, however I have changed some hops and yeast based on what I had in stock. Hoping for a strong and malty IPA.

Furious IPA II

14-B American IPA
Author: Mark/Surly Brewing
Date: 04/06/2011

Size: 24.7 L
Efficiency: 67%
Attenuation: 76.3%
Calories: 183.83 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.055 (1.056 - 1.075)
|=======#========================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 - 1.018)
|==============#=================|

Color: 34.53 (11.82 - 29.55)
|============================#===|

Alcohol: 5.54% (5.5% - 7.5%)
|========#=======================|

Bitterness: 75.2 (40.0 - 70.0)
|==========================#=====|

Ingredients:

6000.0 g Maris Otter
336.0 g Belgian Aromatic
408.0 g Crystal Malt 60°L
68.0 g Roasted Barley
17 g Target (11.1%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
34 g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
10 g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m
8 g Cascade (7%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m
8.0 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2.0 m
8 g Target (11.1%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m
8 g Cascade (7%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 m
8.0 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 m
8 g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 m
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15.0 m
1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Brewing for Christmas

2012-10-25T21:26:00.001+01:00

I know we should not be using the C word yet, however if I want to have some beer for the Christmas holidays then I need to get brewing. Got delivery this week of 11kg of grain and about 200g of hops to boost the inventory. The two beers for Christmas will be a pale ale or IPA and a strong amber ale.

Still finalising the last few details for the recipes but will post them both up soon. I know neither of these recipes will be very festive; there will be no spices, however they may have the strength that you would usually associate with a Christmas ale :-)

AG #16 - Yeast Starter

2012-09-07T15:16:00.002+01:00

When I last posted I expected to be brewing the third version of my house stout the following week, however that was over a month ago and still no brew! August turned into a hectic month and so brewing got put on the back burner (excuse the pun). However with our recent spell of good weather I am hoping to get to brew this beer on Sunday. However the one problem is that my liquid yeast (Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale) has been sitting in my beer fridge now for nearly two months and I am not absolutely sure that this yeast is still viable. Due to the fact that I have no back up yeast available I decided to do a yeast starter today (pictured), by Sunday I should know if the yeast is fit for purpose.

If you need to make a starter this is what you do:

Put 200g of DME in a pot and add 2 liters of water (this will produce a 1040 starter)
Bring this to the boil while stirring
Boil for 15 minutes, it is also a good idea to add a few leafs/pellets of the hops you will be using for the main brew
After 15 minutes*, cover the pot and place in cold water to bring the temperature of the wort down to 25c
Put the cooled wort in a container (5 litre glass demi-john pictured above is perfect or you could use a erlinger flask)
Add your yeast and give it a good shake (you can also shake periodically over the next day or so to get some oxygen into the solution).
When it comes to brew day you can either dump the whole mixture into your fermenter or alternatively you can decant off the liquid and add only the yeast slurry to your fermenter

* always remember that this is essentially a mini brew and so sanitise as you would on a regular brew day.

The benefits of a yeast starter are that it can make sure that the yeast you have is viable (if your starter doesn't ferment, the yeast is probably dead) and secondly it increases the cell count of the yeast thus ensuring a healthy fermentation for your main batch.

Barring any last minute delays I should have a nice stout lined up for October, now to start thinking about what I want to drink this Christmas......

AG #16 Standard Stout the 3rd

2012-07-29T13:23:00.000+01:00

Have been happily enjoying my two latest beers on Keg over the last couple of months, unfortunately last night the BBQ Pale Ale keg ran dry and my Red IPA does not have a whole lot left. Hoping to brew the following this week to boost stock levels. This is the third version of Standard Stout, the original of this was one of the best beers I have ever brewed and so with this recipe I am trying to replicate that original version.

Standard Stout the 3rd

13-B Sweet Stout
Author: O'Flainnegain/Mark

Size: 20.16 L
Efficiency: 73.0%
Attenuation: 72.1%
Calories: 141.2 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.042 (1.044 - 1.060)
|======#=========================|

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.012 - 1.024)
|=======#========================|

Color: 62.65 (59.1 - 78.8)
|==========#=====================|

Alcohol: 4.0% (4.0% - 6.0%)
|=======#========================|

Bitterness: 20.1 (20.0 - 40.0)
|========#=======================|

Ingredients:

2600 g Maris Otter
420 g Barley Flaked
420 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
320 g Roasted Barley
210 g Chocolate 1060 EBC
150 g Munich Malt
30 g Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 ea WYeast 1084 Irish Ale

AG #15 BBQ Pale Ale

2012-06-14T18:33:00.000+01:00

BBQ Pale Ale
10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Mark

Size: 20.16 L
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 72%

Original Gravity: 1.046 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 17.74 (9.85 - 27.58)
Alcohol: 4.3% (4.5% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 46.4 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
4000 g Maris Otter
200 g Crystal 30 (60 EBC)
200 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
18 g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
23 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 m
10 g Apollo (19.8%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
16 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
15 g Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Brewing update

2012-06-12T16:46:00.000+01:00

Lots happening on the brewing front over the last couple of weeks, but unfortunately no time to blog about it and so here is a quick update:

- Have been drinking my House IPA II that I brewed back in April. It's nice but I am not overly happy with it. I changed around the hops and also a little bit of the grain bill. Will probably roll back on one of these changes in the next version and see what the result is like.

- I brewed Red Hopper II and fermented and kegged this, currently carbonating in the kegerator. This fermentation went very smoothly 1056 OG and finished right on the money at 1014 to give an ABV of 5.5%. Looking forward to sampling this in a couple of weeks.

- Brewed another beer last weekend that I am calling my BBQ Pale Ale, why, because it is a pale ale and I brewed it for a BBQ I am having at the end of the month! I will post the recipe for this in a couple of days. What I was going for here was simply a light sessionable pale ale to balance out the hefty flavor of the other beer I will have on tap at the BBQ, Red Hopper II. This beer is currently being fermented in my new 5 Gallon glass carboy, this is the first time I have fermented in glass. It's pretty cool as it lets me see the fermentation in action:

AG #14 Red Hopper II

2012-05-26T14:24:00.001+01:00

Brew day tomorrow, however the weather is scorching and so this might give a high initial fermentation temp. This is as the name suggests version two of Red Hopper. This is a highly hopped red ale based on Randy Mosher's India Red Ale (unfortunate acronym!). I have changed very little from the initial recipe except for the yeast, using California Ale V this time around instead of 1272. Also for this brew I am reverting back to a three vessel set up, I have not been happy with my efficiency using a two vessel set up and hence the change.

Red Hopper II
14-B American IPA
Author: Randy Mosher/Mark
Date: 27/05/2012

Size: 20.16 L
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.061 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 35.3 (11.82 - 29.55)
Alcohol: 6.04% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 82.0 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
3000 g Maris Otter
2400 g Munich Malt
340 g Crystal 60 EBC
220 g Crystal 100 EBC
50 g Black
50 g Cascade (5.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
60 g Cascade (6.3%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
60 g Goldings (5.2%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
1 ea White Labs WLP051 California Ale V

AG #13 - House IPA II - Recipe

2012-04-19T14:51:00.000+01:00

I really liked the my House IPA I that I brewed back in January. The one thing I identified for change was the fact that I thought the combination of the aromatic malt and Crystal 75 gave it a bit too much sweetness. With that in mind I have made a few alterations and hope to brew this version over the weekend.

House IPA II
14-B American IPA
Author: Mark

Size: 20.16 L
Efficiency: 63.0%
Attenuation: 71.4%
Calories: 194.29 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.058 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 24.74 (11.82 - 29.55)
Alcohol: 5.44% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 77.0 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
5500 g Maris Otter
500 g Crystal 30
250 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
10 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added first wort, boiled 60 m
20 g Apollo (19.8%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15.0 m
10 g Apollo (19.8%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
10 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
10 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m
13 g Apollo (19.8%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m
10 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
1 ea WYeast 1272 American Ale II™

Notes
From House IPA I, deleted the Belgian aromatic and crystal 75, replaced with Crystal 30. Also replaced the Columbus additions with Apollo

New Kit in Action

2012-04-06T20:11:00.001+01:00

Here are some pics of my new kit in action:

The new mash tun worked a treat. I overestimated the amount of temperature drop in transferring the strike water through the new pump set up, but once I added a little cool water I got a mash temp of 67c. The mash tun maintained this temperature for the full hour.

As I have previously mentioned I decided to go with a two vessel set up and so I mash-in with the full volume of water required and then simply drain this to the boiler once the mash has completed. Overall I was happy with the way this worked, in terms of moving the liquids around. However I was disappointed with the efficiency achieved, only 63%. I have a few ideas on how to improve this that I will try out on my next brew.

Cooling the wort after the boil. I was worried that my small immersion chiller would take for ever to bring the wort down to pitching temperature, however it was pretty good.

Aerating the wort. An aeration stone is submerged in the wort and then a pump diffuses air through this. Give this 20-30 minutes before you pitch your yeast and it makes a very welcoming environment for the yeast cells.

Fermenter safely tucked away, blow off tube attached.

Brew shed tidied up, brew day from start to finish was 5 hours 45 mins. Not too bad, however as I get more accustomed to my new set-up this will decrease.

AG #12 - Hippity Hop Pale Ale II - Recipe

2012-03-20T20:12:00.000+00:00

This is a revised version of a recipe I previously made in extract form. This was also my first go at brewing on my new system and I'll do a separate post on that.

Hippity Hop Pale Ale II

10-A American Pale Ale

Author: Mark

Size: 22.75 L

Efficiency: 63.12%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Original Gravity: 1.040 (1.045 - 1.060)

Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.010 - 1.015)

Color: 21.99 (9.85 - 27.58)

Alcohol: 3.88% (4.5% - 6.0%)

Bitterness: 41.1 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:

4200 g Maris Otter
205 g Crystal 30
145 g Crystal 55
250 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
19 g Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
16.0 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 m
22 g Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
27 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m
1 ea White Labs WLP008 East Coast Ale

Its nearly ready....

2012-03-09T16:08:00.000+00:00

It has been a bit quiet on the brewing front recently and there is a good reason for it. Over the last few months I have been slowly pulling together all the pieces for my shiny new SS home brewery. I have pretty much gotten everything at this stage and have done some work converting the garden shed into a brew shed. Next steps are to put everything together and give it a test run. New additions to my brew equipment include:

A 50 liter stainless steel mash tun.
A 40 liter stainless steel kettle
A solar pump
Quick disconnects

The pics are to give a snapshot of current progress, hoping to give everything a test run this weekend (water in the system only) and then to have my first brew day on the new equipment over St Patricks weekend.

You may notice that there are only two brew vessels instead of the standard three. I do have a 33 liter bucket kettle that I can add to the system to act as a HLT, however with the new set up my plan is to try the no-sparge AG method. This, as the name suggests, means that you put all of the required brewing water in the mash tun and then drain to the kettle. The downside is a slight loss in efficiency, probably down to 70-73%, however I feel that the benefits outweigh this. If it does not work out I can always add the 33 liter HLT into the system.

AG #11 - House IPA I - Brew Day and First Pour

2012-02-16T21:31:00.002+00:00

Homebrewing can be a funny hobby, you spend your time trying to be very careful about everything, ingredients, sanitation, process etc and then something like this happens. Here are the two entries in my brew log that cover the brew day and first taste of my House IPA I recipe that I brewed last month:

13/1/2012 - My first ever disaster of a brew day. All was going well until I went to drain the wort from the kettle into the fermenter. Hop filter must have become dislodged and the tap blocked. Next try was with the auto-syphon, however I never realised that the filter was missing and could not figure out why that didn't work (obviously it was also getting blocked by hops, ended up scooping the wort out with a measuring jug. Got only 15 litres into the fermenter, and this was full of hop debris. Would be amazed if this wasn't infected, if it isn't i will be very surprised if it is drinkable. Note to self, make sure hop filter is securely attached to the kettle tap!!!!

Lessons for next brew:

- When using so many whole leaf hops I should probably use a hop bag

- Check that all connections/taps are connected properly

16/2/2012 - Have been drinking this beer for about a week at this stage and I have to say it is lovely, I cannot believe that such a nice beer was made on such a disasterous brew day. Nice light amber colour with good head retention. Hops are very to the fore with great melon and sweet fruit aroma, a real thirst quencher and would be a breat beer to make for the summer.

As I said home brewing is a funny hobby. I have always been so particular about how I brew, maybe from now on I shouldn't be.

PS: Go Big Blue.....

AG #11 - House IPA I - Recipe

2012-01-13T14:31:00.000+00:00

Brew day tomorrow. Here is my attempt to create a nice house recipe IPA. I am looking for an American style IPA, hoppy, but with a nice malt background:

House IPA I

14-B American IPA

Author: Mark

Date: 17/01/2012

Size: 20.16 L

Efficiency: 72.65%

Attenuation: 76.3%

Original Gravity: 1.051 (1.056 - 1.075)

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.018)

Alcohol: 5.13% (5.5% - 7.5%)

Bitterness: 62.7 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:

4000 g Maris Otter

300 g Carapils®/Carafoam®

164 g Belgian Aromatic

250 g Crystal 75

92 g Crystal Malt 60°L

10 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added first wort, boiled 60 m

20 g Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m

1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15.0 m

10 g Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m

10 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m

10 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m

13 g Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m

10 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1 m

1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

AG #10 - Standard Stout II - Review

2011-12-30T11:23:00.000+00:00

I brewed this sessionable beer with the hope that it would be ready for Christmas Day and it was. It proved to be a perfect beer for what proved to be a long day. Very drinkable and smooth and without the big strength that most of my beer's come with.

The taste was nice, very malty with the dark malts very much to the fore, however I was a little bit disappointed with the contribution of the American C hops at the end, there was not much present. This is now the third stout that I have brewed and I have to say that although number two and three have been good, none of them have compared with number one, the original Standard Stout. With that in mind I think the next time I brew a stout I will try and replicate that original recipe and if I can, I will make that my annual stout recipe.

AG #10 - Standard Stout II - Brew day

2011-11-30T07:57:00.000+00:00

Lots of Chocolate Malt &
Roasted Barley in the
grain bill.

So finally after 5 months of a brewing hiatus I got to brew a beer last weekend. I decided on a version of my Standard Stout recipe that I had brewed previously and that I was really happy with. This time round I gave it more of an American Stout twist by adding some late addition hops. Here is the full recipe.

Brew day took a little while to get going as I started to work out how to brew in my new surroundings. Eventually decided to take over the shed for the day and set everything up in there. This worked out quite well and I ran a water hose and extension cable from the outside water and electricity points at the back of the house. I was a little worried that the single outside electricity point would not be able to handle a 60 minute boil with two x 2 kw elements on the go, however all went well and resetting of trip switches was not required.

I have not yet become fully accustomed to my new surroundings and so there was a little reorganization of brewing vessels as the day went on, however I have learned from this and will have a proper three tier set up for my next brew.

Wort aeration system in action.

The brewing went very well with no particular issues. However I did introduce one new technique into my brew day that I have to say gave great results. A couple of months ago I ordered a few brewing gadgets from the US, one was a refractometer, the other a wort aeration system. The wort aeration system comprises of an air pump, filter and aeration stone. Basically the air is generated by the air pump, passes through the filter, down a tube and through an aeration stone that you submerge in the wort for 10-20 minutes before attaching your blow-off tube. This seemed to work very well as about 8 hours later the wort was fermenting away and continued solidly for three days.

The 'Brew-Shed'

As mentioned I think I learned a lot from this brew day about how my new surroundings can be used better to make brew day a little easier. I will certainly construct a three tier gravity fed set-up in the shed before my next brew day and that should mean that there will be no need to be shuffling vessels around during the brew day. Also I think the aeration system will be a very worthwhile addition to my brewing equipment. Another change that I have made is to change the volume of beer I have will be brewing. Ordinarily as home brewers become more competent they tend to increase the amount of beer they make on a brew day, however I am doing the opposite. Fed up with bottling and all that that entails I have decided to brew 19-20 liter batches and then just keg the resulting beer. My system can cope with up to 27 liters and so if I could get my hands on a 1/2 corny (9.5 liter) I could increase once again and be getting one and a half kegs per batch. The only problem is that those 1/2 corny's are so hard to find :-(

Finally, a brew day comes around.

2011-11-19T20:57:00.000+00:00

It has been nearly six months since my last brew day. Moving house, starting a masters course and being hectic in work has seriously curbed my brewing exploits. Come hell or high-water tomorrow I will be brewing the following stout recipe which should be ready just in time for the festive holidays.

With this beer I am aiming for a smooth, creamy stout with a little twist of American hops at the end which I hope will balance out the dark malts and the bitterness of the Goldings hops.

Standard Stout II

13-B Sweet Stout

Author: Mark

Date: 20/11/2011

Size: 22.0 L

Efficiency: 75.0%

Attenuation: 72.1%

Original Gravity: 1.044 (1.044 - 1.060)

Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.012 - 1.024)

Color: 63.85 (59.1 - 78.8)

Alcohol: 4.19% (4.0% - 6.0%)

Bitterness: 22.5 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:

3000 g Maris Otter
475 g Barley Flaked
475 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
400 g Roasted Barley
245 g Chocolate 1060 EBC
36 g Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
5 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 m
5 g Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 m
5 g Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 m
5 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 m
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

It makes you proud to be Irish....

2011-11-02T15:11:00.000+00:00

I promise I will get back to blogging about brewing soon, work and family just keep getting in the way at the moment :-)

In the meantime here is a good news story:

Irish Bartender wins

International Master Bartender Competition 2011

Dubliner, Fearghus McCormack, a third generation barman in the family run Merrion Inn, Dublin, has beaten stiff competition from across the globe to carry off the title of Pilsner Urquell International Master Bartender 2011. During a highly-competitive week-long final in the Czech Republic this month, he claimed the victory against an impressive group of finalists representing 15 countries.

Fearghus claimed the title in Prague earlier this month in a gala final he likened to ‘the Oscars of beer’. Commenting on his win Fearhgus said: “I can’t begin to express how excited and proud I am to win this title. The Merrion Inn always prides itself on quality, from the staff in the bar, to the food we serve, to the beers we stock. To have been internationally recognised & awarded by a brand of the pedigree of Pilsner Urquell is amazing. Pilsner Urquell is a real beer lovers’ favourite in The Merrion Inn..."

Boston Beer...ahhhhhh

2011-09-22T19:20:00.000+01:00

Just back from a trip to Boston and you got to love American bars. The choice of beer is truly staggering, you can choose your craft beer type bar and have a selection of 10-20 draft beers, some specials and then an endless bottle beer selection. Even if you are unfortunate to be dragged to a bar with no beer selection, they will probably still have Harpoon IPA on draft and a few Sam Adams selections.

Here is just some of the beers I got to try, all on draft unless it says otherwise:

Beer menu from The Other Side,
sorry for the poor quality pic.

Harpoon IPA : Whales Tale Pale Ale (bottle) : Clown Shoes Black IPA : Goose Island Honkers Ale : Boulder Mojo IPA : Stone Ruination IPA (Bottle) : Sierra Nevada Tumbler : Sam Adams Boston Lager : Pretty Things Jack D'Or Saison : Green Flash West Coast IPA : Gritty's Blackfly Stout

I also managed to stumble across a Sam Adams tasting session in my hotel bar and got to try bottles of their Oktoberfest, IPA and Irish Red.

The highlight of the trip from a bar point of view was finding Bukowski Tavern, it is on Dalton Street near the Boylston Street junction. From the outside it looks like a tiny dive bar, inside doesn't alter this perception much, however the staff are great, the music is good, and they have a selection of about 100 beers. Included in this are about 20 on draft and a cask offering specials. If you are in Boston make sure you check it out. Honorable mention also goes to The Other Side, it can be found just over the bridge at the junction between Newbury and Mass Avenue.

Pelle, comes to town

2011-09-12T16:55:00.000+01:00

Humulus Lupus and some
members of Beoir.

Last week, Pelle Stridh from All About Beer was in Dublin with his beer club (Humulus Lupus) and we managed to meet up for a few beers and general beer discussion, joining us was Reuben and Richard from Beoir. I had suggested meeting up in the Bull & Castle and I do not think the guys were disappointed.

Over the course of four hours we managed to update them all on the current state of Irish Craft beer and quite a few Irish beers were sampled, including Metalman Pale Ale, Galway Hooker, O'Hara's IPA, Trouble Or, Howling Gale and also Black Rock Stout which was on Cask. Metalman Pale Ale seemed to be the stand out beer.

Pelle also managed to bring me over a few bottles of beer that I am looking forward to sampling. They both come from his local brewer, Eskilstuna Olkultur AB, and the brewer Lars Ekstron was there in person so that I could pick his brains. The beers are great as they are something that I would never be able to get in Ireland, one is a Double IPA and the other an Imperial Stout.

Well in a few days time I am off to Boston for a wedding and I hope to be sampling some great beers, I might also fit in a brewery tour or two if time allows.

I also also determined to get back brewing once I return from my trip. The brew day for Furious IPA seems only a distant memory (early June) and so I am keen to get back into it.

Lager Yeast, from Argentina!

2011-08-23T13:00:00.000+01:00

Interesting article on the BBC News website today.

Scientists have identified a yeast that led to the discovery of lager. The researchers isolated the new species in the frozen forests of Patagonia in South America.

Read the full article.

Delays, delays.....but something to look forward to

2011-08-20T08:41:00.000+01:00

It has been nearly a month since I posted my recipe for Standard Stout II, my lack of an update is not down to posting lethargy, but rather the fact that I have not brewed it. Why I hear you cry, well because in the last month we have decided to move house to a new town, said house has been found and we are moving next week.

The Brewing implications of the new house are significant!

Three things brewers look for in a house:

An outside building
Outside access to electricity
Outside access to water

Check, check and check. The new house has a decent size shed at the back of the garden and also has an outside tap and electrical socket. More than this my new town (Bray, County Wicklow, about 12 miles south of Dublin) has one of the original brew pubs in Ireland, The Porterhouse. It also has one of the best off-licenses for craft beer in Ireland, Holland's. The next couple of weeks are going to be a bit hectic, however I will report back soon on how the shed/brewery set up is going :-)

AG #9 - Furious IPA - First Pour

2011-08-01T14:37:00.001+01:00

I have been very patient with my Furious IPA beer that I brewed at the beginning of June. Based on Surly Brewing's Furious (pic below). Two weeks fermenting and a further 4 weeks conditioning in the keg and the results of that patience have been very pleasing.

Pours a murky redish-brown colour with a creamy thick head.

Hints of yeast off the nose initially and an ever so slight metallic taste can be gotten with the first taste, however as the beer warms up its true character emerges, a sweet malty base is nicely counterpointed by a strong hop aroma and flavour. The malty characteristics are a real success, Belgian Aromatic, Crystal and Roasted Barley blend together really well. The body is perfectly medium bodied, carbonation nice and low, very smooth mouthfeel.

The hop characteristics are strong but wonderfully smooth, no doubt this is down to the first wort hopping, a technique I will certainly be using again in my IPA's and APA's.

Defining characteristic is just how well all of the traits of this beer come together, sweet malty base, smooth hop bittering, nice high level of late hop flavour and aroma all brought together in a wonderfully smooth mouthfeel. Really happy with the way this turned out and will definitely be brewing this again.

Furious IPA:

Recipe
Brew Day
Fermentation & Conditioning

AG #10 - Standard Stout II - Recipe

2011-07-23T16:23:00.003+01:00

I have been contemplating my next brew for a few weeks now and I have decided to brew a beer that I made last year, but this year I am adding a little twist. Standard Stout was brewed last June and I was really happy with the results, beaming at the time that it was my best beer to date. For this years version I have decided to keep the grain bill the same, the bittering hop addition the same, the yeast has been changed based on my current inventory, however the significant change is that I have decided to introduce some American hop characteristics into the flavour and aroma. This will be achieved with a single late boil addition of Ahtanum, Simcoe, Columbus and Amarillo (5g each). This should give a light and subtle American hop flavour and aroma.

Standard Stout II
Author: Mark

Size: 25.2 L
Efficiency: 74.34%
Attenuation: 72.1%
Calories: 142.33 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.043 (1.044 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.012 - 1.024)
Color: 62.15 (59.1 - 78.8)
Alcohol: 4.03% (4.0% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 20.9 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:
3000 g Maris Otter
500 g Barley Flaked
500 g Carapils®/Carafoam®
432 g Roasted Barley
260.0 g Chocolate 1060 EBC
38.0 g Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
5.0 g Ahtanum (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
5.0 g Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
5.0 g Columbus (15.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
5.0 g Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15 min
250 g DME
1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Mash @ 67c

AG #9 - Furious IPA - Fermentation & Conditioning

2011-07-02T19:18:00.002+01:00

The brew day for Furious IPA went very well and in this post I just wanted to give you an outline of my fermentation and conditioning schedule. Here is the timeline:

Brew day: 4th June
Primary Fermentation: 4th - 18th June

On the 18th I kegged one corny (19 litres) and 9 x 500 ml bottles.

Keg
Keg Conditioning (room temperature): 18th - 25th June
Keg Conditioning (fridge temperature): 25th - 30th June
Force Carbonation: 1st July - 8th July

Bottle
Bottles will condition for 2-3 months at room temperature and then get a week of cold conditioning before being ready. With a session beer, bottle conditioning can be done in 2-3 weeks, however with this beer being 6% ABV it will benefit from the extra time in the bottle*.

* to be honest so would the keg, but who is going to be able to leave a keg condition for a couple of months, especially when my keggerator is empty!

So a pretty straightforward fermentation and conditioning process. Keg is typically one week conditioning, one week cold conditioning and one week force carbonating. For bottles a minimum of two weeks conditioning and then the longer you can hold off the better the beer will taste, most bottled beers will probably be at their peak between two and four months old. The above can be used as a rule of thumb but obviously adjust based on your set-up and the beer you are brewing.

Really looking forward to trying this beer next weekend. I'll report back on how it turned out.

AG #9 - Furious IPA - Brew Day

2011-06-18T17:16:00.000+01:00

Over the June bank holiday weekend here in Ireland I got the opportunity to brew, the recipe is based on a clone recipe for Furious IPA (by Surly Brewing) that appeared in BYO. The thing I like about brew days is trying something new and on this particular brew day, an additional piece of equipment allowed me to try out two new techniques.

Three Tier Gravity Fed
Set Up

The new piece of equipment was a HLT (hot liquor tank), having a dedicated vessel for heating my strike and sparge water allowed me to brew using a three tier gravity fed system. Basically your three main brewing vessels (HLT, Mash Tun and Kettle) are set up so that you can move the liquid from one vessel to the next during the brewing process using only gravity. In the picture to the right you can see this in action. HLT can be seen with the foil insulation, blue cooler box mash tun in the middle and then my kettle at the bottom.

The great advantage of this set up is that it allows me to try out a new technique which was continuos sparging. This in essence means that once your mash has completed (in my case after 60 minutes), instead of draining off all of the wort and then filling the mash tun again with water (known as batch sparging), you can simply open the tap from the HLT to your mash tun and then the tap from your mash tun to your kettle. As the wort drains into the kettle, new water is replacing it in the mash tun. This technique is great as a time saver and also gives you a really good grain bed in the mash tun to filter your wort through. The one slight downside some people find with this technique is that mash efficiency can drop, mash efficiency calculates how efficient your process is at getting fermentable sugars from the grain into your wort. However I have to say that I did not find this to be the case, I achieved an efficiency of 73%, which is pretty similar to what I get when I batch sparge.

First Wort Hopping

Due to the fact that I now could use my kettle purely for boiling wort (before I had a dedicated HLT it also doubled up to heat my strike and sparge water) I can also try out another new technique, first wort hopping. First wort hopping entails placing hops in the kettle and then starting the flow of wort from the mash tun into the kettle. It is another technique for getting hop flavour into your beers and it is said to give a nice balanced bitter flavour and not the harsh bitterness you sometimes get when too much bittering hops are used.

This beer is a bit of a hop monster, with over 100g of hops used for the 7 gallon batch it has IBU's in the region of about 70 and an ABV a touch over 6%. I transferred this to the keg today and had enough left over to fill about 10 bottles. The clarity of the beer was perfect, which was something I struggled with in my last beer, but I am glad to see that the few tweaks I made to my brewing process seem to have solved this issue. The taste was fantastic, very hoppy with a nice malt base. I am really looking forward to trying this beer, however I am going to be patient. A week conditioning at room temp in the keg will be followed by a week of cold conditioning, I will then force carbonate for a week. Will report back next month with some tasting notes.