Well I think I need to try doing this one again.. The first attempt at a low ABV has flopped dramatically …. OG1.038 FG 1.006 =4.2%ABV not the 2.8%ABV I was aiming for..Next time I’ll do the mash higher,I’ll up the temp to 72˚c .
My initial tasting …Quite Thin and not very Blackcurrant…
Saturday 7th Feb..
A shed day, Cleaning and repairing also transferring the Simcoe -Citra to the secondary F.V. and Dry hopping it even tough it hadn’t quite finished, the S.G was 1.01 so thats 7.4% ABV . I also moved the hinges on the Fermentation Fridge to the right so it opened against the wall, much better…but had to repair it in the process….
Monday 09th Feb.. #Brewday
After the N.C.B. day and challenge to make a 2.8% Ale I decided to do a trial run ..A Blackcurrant Pale Ale
Mashed it at 68.5˚c as I was uncomfortable going higher in the first instance , Shane from N.C.B suggested 72˚c if this doesn’t work out i’ll try higher…
the O.G. was 1.038 slightly higher than BeerSmith predicted (1.032) and it was soon bubbling away with a 3rd generation US-05 starter. Fermentation Temp is set to 18.5˚c and I’ve already had to change the Blowoff water twice…
Cheers Dad – 3 years already….
Sunday 18th of Jan saw me doing my 47th Allgrain Brew, another Simcoe Citra IIPA, I decided to do this Hop monster again due to the popularity it gained from my work mates…
I roughly followed the same recipe as last time but didn’t have any Candi sugar to hand so added the same amount of Lyle’s Golden Syrup. The day went without a hitch and on getting the OG of 1.066 I was a little disappointed until I saw the previous brew sheet and that only achieved 1.067 so I won’t complain just yet… I am keeping the ferment on the cool side down at 15˚c for the first 7 days and Rising to 16˚c for the second. I shall up the dry hopping quantities to the full amount called for by the recipe this time , the previous brew I only used 50G of each of the Simcoe and Citra but this time I’ll try the full 75g.
Wednesday the 28th was a meet the Brewer night at Northern Monk Brewery’s refectory in collaboration with the Leeds Home Brew Collective, Nice to meet everyone, the Food and Beers were both excellent but personally I found the backround noise too distracting during the talk and unfortunately missed quite a lot of the narrative 
. The Refectory will definitely be getting some future visits 
so will Bundobust, the food in there smelled great when we popped in for a quick pre meeting drink.
Saturday 31st of Jan I was invited along to a Northern Craft Brewers day out to White Rose Cooperage at Thorpe Arch and then their Meeting at the Junction in Castleford, a pub that is actively keeping its ales in the Wood. The visit to the cooperage was short but quite informative. There was a Very large vat being made, I can’t tell you which brewery it was for, but it was replacing one thats been in service since 1814
Huge VAT underway
Back at the Junction in Castleford, the beers were on top form and i’d like to thank Neil for letting the NCB members tour his cellar, It’s the first time i’ve been in a cellar believe it or not….
anyway…That’s it for this post… oh nearly forgetting to mention ….my best ever Christmas present from my two lads, a selection of embroidered t-shirts, polo shirts and sweat shirts.
Since my last post back in October I have only managed to put in a few Brews.
This is still awaiting to be tasted as I used a combination of the US-05 Yeast and harvested Wild/WLP500, It was transferred to the secondary after 5 Days and moved to the House Cellar and it’s slowly fermenting at the lowish 17˚c Temperature . I will be curious as to the result as I have decided the Belgian Triple Brew’s WYL500 yeast was dead ( it was 2 months past its useby and I was rushed so didn’t make a starter) and the resulting ferment was due to wild Yeast. I plan to put it into a Keg very soon…
I Decided to stray from the Recipe ever so Slightly and not add the final amount of Brewing sugar of the previous incarnations so the final ABV will be lower. This was using the Fawcett malt and didn’t quite make the estimated SG of 1.067 instead turning in at 1.064. I also used a 2nd generation WLP007 ( Dry English Ale) starter kept from the RIS back in March. This will alter the final taste a little and this yeast doesn’t attenuate as much as the American Ale so the FG was a little higher at 1.014 still a nice 6.5% ABV beer. I decided to do a little trial and bottled some before being dry hopped and then dry hopping the bulk for 7 days whilst in the Cornie using a fine mesh nylon Bag. I managed to hobble down to the shedquarters and take the hops out on Sunday and then re-gas the cornie. looking forward to sampling this over the Christmas period.
This is the New Year Brew…
SG came in at 1.048 and is still in the fermenter. It shouldn’t need much conditioning and I’m hoping with a little help from someone to do the heavy lifting to get it into a cornie just after Christmas.. I don’t think it will last long as it’s a family favourite…
That ‘s it for 2014 apart from probably posting the FG of the Wheat Beer so have a great Christmas and all the Best for 2015..
Sunday saw me do my 43rd Allgrain #homebrew
I started off on Saturday Lunchtime taking stock of ingredients for another Black IPA in readiness for December, possibly for Christmas. I soon realised that I had enough ingredients to do a regular Bitter based on the now Defunct Castle Eden Brewery’s Bitter. So a starter was prepared saturday afternoon using harvested and rinsed Yeast from the Addingham Pale…
link to me oxygenating the satrter https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1544629592449792&l=8819799905800758869
Sunday the HLT was on Early but then I got totally Side tracked and didn’t start the Dough in until late morning I subtly changed the recipe …
The Brewday went without a hitch and the OG came in at 1.035/ 1.036 if you are feeling generous…
I Aerated the wort with pump and airstone and got the usual Foam Monster 
I’m Quite happy with the Boiler and hop filter combination from MrLard (homebrewbuilder) . It has very little deadspace.
The Brew is fermenting out in the Cellar as the @BrewPi fridge is occupied with the Belgian Triple but i’m using the second @BrewPi to just track the ferment….
Yesterday Was a Brewday, A slightly un-prepared Brewday, I should have had a yeast starter on the go friday or saturday but was just too tired after Thursdays Shedquarters session with a couple of workmates…and then Saturday I just ran out of time before we set off for my Brothers 50th Birthday Bash up near PeterLee. So that Out of date WLP500 Still hadn’t started when I checked on it this morning.. Fingers Crossed…..
So yesterdays brew for a Duval type clone went well but slightly below the OG that I was hoping for, due to the Lid on the Boiler slipping back into place whilst I went for Lunch and so having a closed boil…. in retrospect I should have let it boil for another 30 mins as it didn’t have the late Hop additions in it yet….
Still 1.086 isn’ t too shabby but below the 1.096-1.099 predicted lets hope it ferments out lower than 1.024 as per the recipe…
Saturday the 4th of October saw our Olicanabrew club give a Brewing Demonstration for Addinghan Beer Festival. It was well attended, the organisers reporting the numbers for Saturday afternoon were well up on previous years. Gaz did most of the Presenting with Nick doing a bit, I even surprised myself and explained a bit of the Barley Malting Process whilst helping out with the Vastly expedited Brew process! a big Well done to Gaz and Nick for Holding it together. The Club or Brewing Collective as we were introduced as.. brought along 4 beers for the Festival goers to sample, Peter and Al’s Pineapple IPA , Brommo’s Gods Own IPA, Nicks Hibiscus IPA and mine and Gaz’s Addingham Pale ale. I have been a bit lax and forgot to note their ABV’s, Sorry Guys…
We seem to have a running theme common with the beers for the meetings lack of conditioning time.. I’m not sure the Cask ales had time to condition and settle properly for the festival, as the samples that I had before the demo were a bit Cloudy as they had only had a day and 1/2 to settle after their journey !
Mine and Gaz’z Pale was the one and only Keg on at the Festival, so I had to bring along the CO2 , a regulator and party Tap…! . I also tried to make sure it would dispense properly by taking along a coolbox with 10Kg of ice and one of my F.V.s to stand it in iced water, it worked to a fair extent and cooled it considerably but still fobbed a little without a flow controlled tap ….
During our demonstration our beers were hawked around the main hall and offered up to willing quaffers..and on the whole think they were well received, one guy even came up and personally praised mine and Gaz’s Pale Ale .. chuffed..
Nick announced that he was trying to organising a Collaboration Brew some time in the new year with a local Brewery, looking forward to that and He also has the idea of expanding on that to get more collaboration Beers on the go with other breweries and get a Home Brew Collaboration Beer Festival organised, If that comes about it’ll be fantastic. ..
Gaz announced he was hiring a lock up to do his brewing in that should Save his back, no more carrying FV’s etc down his hall into the bathroom … When it’s up and running I’d like a tour and do another collab brew…
Monday 13th I have taken off and plan to have a BrewDay, I’d best get the planned Belgian Tripel done, Planned earlier in the summer but just not done… yeast starter needs doing as the yeast has been in the fridge since march so I’d best make sure its still viable..
With the help of Jake (my youngest) to do the lifting, I transferred the American Pale Ale into the Secondary FV. And on taking the S.G. Decided to Dry Hop at the same time and commence a cold crash ! The S.G was 1.006 so those yeasties have well and truly been busy it was supposed to be a 4% ABV beer this makes it 4.49%…
The hops used for Dry hopping were 12g Centennial, 22g Cascade and 25g of Ella (aka Stella)
Here’s the modified @Brewpi Profile..
I also harvested the Yeast Slurry and rinsed it, here it is after a night of settling in the fridge..
Here’s hoping it’ll be ready for Addingham Beer Festival
Tuesday 9th was a collaboration #BrewDay with Gaz for the Olicanabrew club presence at the Addingham Beer Festival. I’d like to start off by thanking Gaz for doing all the heavy work, I’m suffering from Sciatica at the moment so I Dont think the day would have happened without him, If it was a day later it wouldn’t have happened at all….right…. on to business.
The club meeting happened whilst I was away in Keswick and Gaz and I have been tasked with producing a session pale ale, we met the week before and settled on an American style pale ale, using Cascade & Centennial hops. I could only get hold of 100g of the Centennial hops so a last minute substitution of Ella (previously Stella) was made for the 18g of hops at the five minute to flame out addition.
Since I have started to do Recirculated mashing, We chose a Temperature Mash, 1 step, Light Body profile for the recipe using Beersmith.
Mash and Sparge went well part from we were too busy taking and over filled the amount of sparge water, only being alerted by the sound of the HLT element starting to sizzle, luckily No harm was done and we took out the overfill amount using my 3L Jug.
It was the usual 60 minute boil but at the end we decided to use my flat plate chiller instead of the immersion coil but pump the cooled wort back into the copper to avoid any DME. The wort chilled to 21˚c very rapidly , slightly before I’d finished sanitising the FV….
Once cooled we got the OG to be 1.040, spot on according to the Beersmith prediction …
We will be using the Following Temperature profile for the Ferment using my BrewPi controlled Fridge
The Yeast starter a second generation made from rinsed slurry from my previously brewed Simcoe IIPA was active as a starter and is just as active in the Brew.
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Well after sitting in the sun writing the last update on the iPad with the WordPress app, I feel let down, it only published the first paragraph … Lost the rest of the blog Argghhh 2hrs wasted …
