Today’s brew day was my overdue Russian Imperial Stout that should have been done in March, but fits in nicely with the Olicanabrew challenge.

The Recipe is only slightly modified from Last years , which I mistakenly didn’t add the 500g of Brewing sugar to the boil. This batch I added just short of  1Kg of Amber Candi Sugar to the boil and decided to use a different yeast to the one listed in my original Recipe

the OG came in a little under the predicted  but I ended up with a full 25L,  Did I lose count and push An extra 2L through the sparge ?…

Dough In..	Nice bit of Black Treacle

Smelling Nice	Og 1.094

Yesterday evenings meeting was very well attended lots of new faces and old ones. As usual the quality of the beers were high  although not all were the Traditional bitters as set down in the last meeting, quite a few weren’t ready, which suggests we should be aiming to set a challenge and then present them at the next but one meeting. Toms BDIPA from the Columbus challenge  was a bit tart /sour at first tasting but once my palate adjusted you were left with a nice blackberry after taste.  Gaz’s Anchor Steam clone which he brought in lieu of his  bitter wasn’t as bad as he first thought, Rob & Jarrod’s joint brew and Pete & Al’s joint brew both excellent but young, it’d be nice to taste them in another week to two 

We were set another challenge by Ilkley Brewery’s  Head Brewer, Chris..

This is an either or challenge, Brew a Russian Imperial Stout with a minimum 10%ABV  or  a Fruit Beer with fresh fruits. Since I have just placed a well overdue order for supplies to re brew my RIS for a christmas batch,  I’ll be doing that and then think about a Real fruit Beer…

Just like to Say thanks to Bar T’at for hosting us and for the nice cheese n Biscuits. 

Last Sunday was a brewday, I decided to make up a recipe with what  I’d  got in, so it just called EXP1 at the moment.

Here’s the recipe.

It’s been brewed, still is fermenting to a profile using the Brewpi .

Just Finished building another PID controller, this one using PT100 probes and a SSR instead of a relay for a the HLT swap around once the boiler arrives.

Speaking of which! I need to get my head around tiling the worktop in the Shedquarters, I need to fireproof/heatproof it somewhat for when I start using the Gas ring.. anyone recommend what adhesive/ tile cement to use on the melamine worktop ?

The Purpleogre Castle bitter is just about ready to transfer, took the SG last night and it had dropped to 1.010 so that will be this evenings task… although it’s a bit too close to the next meeting @olicanabrewing for my liking ! I normally like it to settle and condition for 20-30 days…

I Finally Decided on a new Boiler  capacity and so I have also been in touch with Mark at Homebrewbuilder to get a new 70L boiler Sorted…. although this week it seems to have gone strangely quiet. I think I need to give him a gentle prod to see if my last email went into his spam folder…

A comment from Gaz  has led me onto thinking about Pellet hops and whirl-pooling,  I normally use whole leaf hops and  if I try them  my immediate thought is what Flow rate do I need to get the whirl pool to pile those bits of trub in the middle…. I feel a bit of research in the offing mind you I have several other projects in hand one of which I REALLY ought to get finished but thats not a brewing project…

Time to Brew the second beer set down at the last OlicanaBrew meet  just over 2 weeks ago a Bitter below 4%ABV using English Hops …

HLT is on whilst I drop @neilcouper off at LBA for a weekend in Amsterdam .

Todays Brew is loosely based on Castle Edens Bitter, I decided to go completely Traditional It’ll be good practice….

The Week that Was and what a full week !

The early part of the Week

started in Bruges, A lovely old City and lots of Belgian Beers ! Some of which I managed to sample in the Staminee De Garre a lovely small bar hidden down an alley in the centre of the City.

Tripel Van De Garre the in House special 10.5 %ABV	Duvel Tripel Hop 2012

The Tripel Van De Garre Brewed especially for the Bar was excellent and the cheese accompaniment  really showed it off..
Mary and I also Managed the Bruges Idiot tour…..

I must have had a notion about the belgian beer as the friday afternoon before we went I made some Candi Sugar…

	All a Bit Walter White but Hey….

Wednesday

When back at the shedquarters I checked on the Simcoe IIPA, it should have been ready to dry hop but to my surprise was only slowly fermenting and the S.G. was only 1.030…
I decided to give it a slight boost ! A quick addition of Candi sugar dissolved in boiled water,ad addition of 50g of  Simcoe Hops and a standby sachet of Safale S-04 and it’s off fermenting again, a gurgle every 1-2 second.. I’ll add the other 75g of hops when it’s finished fermenting  

Thursday

Lets get water to my Shedquaters….

&

Olicanabrew Meeting at Sandinista Bar Leeds,  This was our Columbus Hop Brew Challenge evening , not every one could make it so the decision about the winning beer was deferred, Bit of a shame the other guys couldn’t get their brews to Nick ahead of the evening ! There were some Jovial comments passed about the absentees and beers not ready/fit  but  hey ho … The beers that did make it to the initial judging were all very well received , some were a bit young and needed to condition more but all had the potential to be great beers. I like mine to be left for 3-4 weeks unless its a style Like Gaz’s Dark Wheat,( I should have had more of that !) I wasn’t at all sure of Nicks experimental Brew, I’m sure there’s a reason for that fuggled rhyme in my memory about grape and grain, i’ll have to try and remember it…..

Friday  & Saturday

Water supply trench , it turned cold …. and by saturday I ached , boy did my 52 year old body ache…. my arms and shoulders … much more and they wouldn’t obey…

Under the Wall, Day 2	A Surprise Drain Find….

Thats it …Sunday , Guests and a day of Rest  !

Saturdays Simcoe IIPA #BrewDay went very well , The new Kettle element performed well & didn’t leak !

The Recipe was one of @beersmith s cloud sourced, scaled to my equipment, but with one or two quantities changed so suit my inventory on the day. The OG Came in at 1.074-76 and as I was taking the SG I noticed there was quite a lot of Cold Break material settling out. I had re circulated the output of the Plate chiller back into the Boiler hoping to leave it back in the boiler  but it looks like it didn’t work..

I also ended up with the wort cooler than I wanted , 13˚c partially due to restricted flow , I think I need a better Hop filter than the current copper tube ! I plan to get a better one when I add my Shiney new SS Boiler. when I back flushed the plate chiller lots of Hop debris came out, not good…

Speaking of new Shiney things, Whilst looking at the Cam Lock Couplings that HomeBrewBuilder supply, it occurred to me that Guyson in Guiseley might stock similar fittings as they stock Hanson fittings for the in/out posts for Cornelius Kegs as I had to replace a damaged one.  Sure enough , they do Hanson Cam Lock

ps. here’s the Simcoe IIPA recipe i’m guessing the FG will be around 1.014 …

After my pre birthday #Brewday woes the boiler is fixed and some of my equipment got bigger 

Although I’m not ready to use it yet ! as I Still need to get a bigger pot to use as my boiler ! I think a 70L will suffice, that should be just enough to do a 9 and a 5 in the same batch! unless I’m told otherwise !
The next decision get it from @themaltmiller    (   themaltmiller.co.uk )or I’ve seen some equally nice ones from @homebrewbuilder (   homebrewbuilder.co.uk )

Tomorrow is #BrewDay 

Friday 21st was to be a pre Birthday #BrewDay, I was all set to do a Simcoe Double IPA  I Got up early opened up the shedquarters before I had my breakfast, Rinsed out  the HLT and then I promptly Burnt out the element
I thought I’d got away with it but it took too long to heat the Liquor..

1/2 of the element had burnt out !….I’d Had to modify the boiler to maintain a rolling Boil otherwise the thermal protection would have saved it…
I spent the rest of the day looking for a spare but finding it was listed as obsolete and then contemplating should I get a 70L or 100L boil pot and propane ring. I couldn’t decide!

Saturday was my Birthday and I had a leisurely day , a few beers in Coopers of Guiseley and then home for a nice Curry from IndianSpice also in Guiseley and some Sticky Buns..

Sunday Back in the shed.. 40mm hole cutter in one hand and £5 kettle and assorted ‘o’ rings in the other. The Kettle Element stripped out and into that 40mm hole but No Joy I just could’t get a seal….

Back to searching  ! I think this will do the job until I decide on what to get….

So there’s still a Big un answered question, Do I get a 70L of 100L pot?

Just got some hops from @themaltmiller, Nice and quick delivery using DPD , I love the tracking system.

I ordered some Citra, Simcoe,and Columus Hops, the Simcoe were a twitter special 500g, that should be enough to try  a couple of brews. Although I did forget to add a us-05 standby Yeast to my basket -DOH 

Lets see if I can do  a single hop like the Mikkeller  Simcoe  I tried last year.  Those hops even though they are sealed the aroma is seeping out yum… best get them split , re sealed and in the freezer soon…

I have a couple more brews in mind one with Juniper berries but I’m not sure if to go light (IPA) or Dark (porter)  and another with Vanilla and coffee, BTW the 4g of whole bean coffee in that 2L pressurised PET of Black IPA  that I left infusing  for 1 week tasted great, I’ll be definitely trying small scale infusion trials with other brews…

I also spiced up the Dana’s Delight with Corriander and Orange Zest with a post ferment infusion of 28g crushed.ground coriander seeds, Zest from 3 oranges left overnight in  several measures of Gin and then topped up to 1L with Boiling  water and left to soak for a day, strained and then added to the cornie keg…