#ybhbc

As this, frankly unphotogenic, sight means, I bottled the Grinning Mouths coconut, kaffir lime, chilli oatmeal stout (otherwise known as jumping the craft beer shark). So, what changed since it hit the fermenter? Well, firstly, I left it for a week with 20g/l of lightly toasted coconut chips in a hop bag. This, as you might expect, gave a nice robust coconut and vanilla edge to the beer, which I hope survives conditioning because it’s glorious. 

I also added approximately one fuckload of kaffir lime leaves to the beer for 24 hours. I don’t know how many, check the picture and divide by 7.5l for an exact ratio. Stone put on their blog that they would use two leaves steeped to make a tea, so I tried this, and was unhappy with how it tasted. The quick boil, and following hot steep, extracted some unpleasant tannin bitterness, like over brewed tea. Really not what I was after. After trying a cold extraction I realised that this was the way to go - the vibrant lime character remains intact and no bitterness was imparted. Ace. I decided not to add the leaves as a tea however, because I didn’t want to dilute the beer any further nor that wonderful coconut character. 

The chilli was, however added as a tea - approx half a pint of boiling water with a handful of dried chillis in it. This was left a few hours and was pretty damn spicy. This doesn’t initially seem to be enough however - the beer is not spicy at present, but we’ll see if it comes through more once the beer and adjuncts have mellowed a tad in the bottle. 

OK so hands down this marks my biggest brewing gaff yet. Maybe. I kinda ruined my own efficiency by... forgetting the second batch of sparge water. In my defence we were watching Twin Peaks at the same time so... that kinda takes priority over all my other thought processes.

Anyway down to business - this beer is for yorkbreweryhomebrewclub‘s May challenge - Ruiseart’s ‘Favourite Band/Song/Film/Book/Whatever’ challenge. A tough one, and one that required some thought and consideration - we didn’t want to just brew a rauchbier and say we like Smoke on the Water after all (mainly because it’s so far from our favourite song it’s not even funny).

So after much consideration, Annis and I reached the conclusion that a beer inspired by the Isis track ‘Grinning Mouths’ might be in order, and quite fun. Also it’s an incredible song that closes out what is, pretty much, the closest to a wholly perfect album we've found to date.

You can listen to it here, if you’re curious.

The main things we wanted to express were the considered, layered complexity of the song, it’s rhythmic, rumbling rounded bass lines, it’s crisp, melodic lead guitar parts, and overall sense of substance. It’s a heavy, multi-faceted song that gathers momentum and ends in a blaze of glory. The conclusions we made were, it should be dark and full bodied, with bright aromatics, and a surprising, energetic finish. But we’d just done a black IPA so a fruity BIPA was not an option. Instead we opted for something far more adventurous.

A kaffir lime, toasted coconut, and chilli oatmeal stout.

The lime leaves were intended for a witbier at some point, but we have tonnes of them at the minute, so they need using up. They will hopefully add the brightness, complexity, and delicate layering of the song, tying themselves to the oatmeal’s silky body with their characteristic smoothness. The coconut will bring depth, character, and toasted aromatics, while the chilli will add fruitiness and a subtle zing - the gathering momentum and energy of the song as you drink.

Anyways, enough waffle - the recipe:

Malt is a fun mix:

Maris Otter - 70%, Flaked oatmeal - 15%, Caramalt - 5%, Crystal Malt - 4%, Chocolate Malt - 4%, Black patent malt - 2%. We didn’t want this one too roasty or acidic, smooth and full bodied is the name of the game here.

These were mashed in at 50c to break down the oatmeal’s notoriously gummy protein, we didn’t want a stuck mash. 6 litres of mash were then drawn off and brought to the boil and returned to the mash to reach 69c for the sacch. rest - full bodied, like I said. This stage was only 30 minutes, so all being well the FG should be nice and high.

Somewhere between here and the sparge I forgot one water addition - not sure if it was the mash out or the sparge liquor itself, either way I ended up with far less wort than anticipated, and I didn’t notice until post boil. Eurgh.

Hops were a pitiful 10g of Centennial pellets as FWH then boiled for 60 mins. This should provide around 25 IBUs.

Finally after the boil I ran the beer through a fistful each of toasted coconut, kaffir lime leaves, and dried chillis in the hop rocket. This has added some beautiful aromatics, mainly of the lime leaves, which will probably mostly get scrubbed off during fermentation. I’m planning on adding more of all elements in secondary, and possibly even a lime leaf tea at bottling just to provide a final fresh lime push at the finish line.

So yesterday I brewed a new batch of lambic - the first tastes a bit... rough, but it’s bottled and might round out or develop more pleasing characteristics over time. It’s about 2 years old now, so it’s either do or die time - if it doesn’t stand on its own I might blend it into something else at some point. Anyways, onto this batch. SUPER SIMPLE RECIPE:

Malt Bill was simply 75% Maris Otter, 25% wheat malt. The Hops were some 2 years old Topaz I’ve left open in a drawer near a radiator. So yes, they’re old, dry, cheesy, yet retain a subtle touch of that beautiful berry nose underneath it all. Of course, you won’t taste that because the beer is going to age, and the boil was long.

Last time I did a proper turbid mash, following Cantillon’s process to the letter, but this time I didn’t bother. Why? Well, thinking it through, I didn’t need a protein rest because my wheat was malted, I didn’t want a ferulic acid rest, so it’s just Sacch. rest and that’s it. An hour at 67c to provide a reasonably fermentable wort that will keep enough dextrins for weird yeasts and bacteria to chow on, aiming at an O.G. of 1.055.

I boiled 40g of aged skanky hops for 90 mins, and will liquor back the wort once the initial fermentation is over (last time the carboy let it gush everywhere, so i’m fermenting less beer initially and topping off to minimise oxidation). 

The interesting thing here is the Yeast - my primary fermenter is a culture I gathered from some local crab apples and plums. It’s wild York yeast - the malt extract starter (pictured above) tasted spectacular after only 4 months - like a really fruity, medium dry cider with a touch of funk and some acidity. It only attenuated to 1.012, so I’ve chucked some Orval dregs in too so attenuation can go further... because what is beer without Brett?  So there we have it - real Yorkshire wild beer, and once the initial ferment is done (read, in a month or two) I’ll start adding bugs from Cantillon bottles etc. to help with complexity and attenuation. Should be fun - probably won’t be ready for yorkbreweryhomebrewclub‘s September meeting, but I’ll bring some of batch one and whatever this is like along for educational sampling. And a Gose/Berliner/similar most likely.

It's been too long since my last brew day, I know, but Christmas and my birthday, and submitting my thesis all got in the way. Speaking of my birthday; lakeandtreeandme got me a hop rocket, and I used some treat money I got to finally replace the Burco's shitty tap with a ball valve and hop strainer so I could hook up the entire system with 1/2" silicon tubing. So it's basically mandatory that I make something hoppy now to get that hop rocket into use (though some spiced and fun adjunct beers are now on the menu I suspect...).

Black IPA it is then, but because it's me, I had to add rye to the mash for that nutty complexity. I love a good IPA, but sometimes there's no complexity in the malt bill, and that's something I'm hoping the rye will remedy for me here. This also needs to qualify as my yorkbreweryhomebrewclub IPA challenge brew, so there's no crystal malt, as was stipulated. I even swore at the beer in order to make it a 'Big fucking IPA' but forgot to get a picture. I did, however, get a picture of the moment following the swearing, which shows a lovely puddle of BIPA wort all over my kitchen floor.

The Malt Bill is fairly fun for an IPA: 65% maris otter, 10% each of rye and Munich malt for depth and residual sweetness, then 6% wheat for mouthfeel, 5% cara, and 4% carafa 3 added to the sparge for colour. This is my first time using this approach, but as the picture shows, while the runnings were light and lemony before it went in, they soon turned dark enough. 

The hops were also fairly simple: 5g of Centennial as first wort hops, then 14g of Experimental 366 (or Equinox, as it is now), 9g of Centennial, and 7g of Columbus steeped after flame out. The wort was then run through a hop rocket containing 30g of the hop formerly known as 366, chilled and pitched with Saf04.

I opted for Saf-04 over 05 because... well, it will actually add flavour to the beer. While an IPA is a great time to use clean yeast to showcase hops, I think a BIPA requires a yeast that will work well to meld the roast malt and hops together. Also, because Saf-04 doesn't tend to attenuate as well, I hope to get a little bit of residual sweetness; I want this reasonably full bodied for an IPA, to avoid that pissy, astringent flavour found in the shittiest of BIPAs.

Dry hop is going to be heavy handed. Aiming at 8g/l with a 50/25/25 blend of 366, Centennial, and Columbus going in for 3 days when the fermentation is nearly complete. Then it's rack, bottle, and enjoy.

Yorkie Brown is hopefully a major step in the right direction from the previous batch. Gone is the ahtanum and we're onto straight, unadulterated cascade for that classic American hop flavour. Also rained back some of the speciality malts, mashed hotter, and used an English ale strain - the goal here is to develop some complexity and fruity malt flavour behind the hops, pretty much the only complaint I had about the last batch. This combined with the extra residual sweetness from mashing hotter and shorter should hopefully make this a lovely brown ale for ready consumption.

Ingredients are:

Maris Otter - 83%

Caramalt - 8%

Crystal Malt - 3%

Brown Malt - 2% (tasting this just before I brewed revealed exactly why this needs to be so low - it's MUCH roastier than I thought...)

Chocolate Malt - 2%

Biscuit Malt - 2%

Like I said - the aim here is layers of malt complexity without going too roasty (which I didn't like in my last attempt at the style) whilst adding a bit more residual sweetness to the beer which was lacking from the last version.

The Hops are just 10g of Cascade as First Wort Hops (pictured above) and 30g of flameout Cascade. The dry hop jury is out at the min, I'll see how it tastes post-ferment, but I almost certainly will at about 3g/l.

Mashed at 66c for 45 minutes to pull a relatively unfermentable wort as opposed to last time's 60 minutes at 65c.

Chilled to 22c and pitched a sachet of rehydrated Saf-04 with some yeast nutrient, full krausen achieved in about 8 hours. Doesn't it look like the happiest krausen you ever did see? It's all smiley! Must be a good sign.

Yes, indeed, that gravity test does mean that today I finally brewed my first batch of EPIC FUCKING STOUT (The name isn't set in stone yet).

I've been wanting to make something big and rich for the coming winter and thought it best to get some age on this before I drink it. It's looking at about 8.4% so it should be something to see me through a few dark nights anyway.

My Fermentables were as follows:

50% Pale Malt (Maris Otter)

20% Peated Malt

9% Crystal Malt

7% Chocolate Malt

5% Flaked Barley

4% Black Malt

3% Carafa III

2% Biscuit Malt

The Carafa III was originally going to be roasted barley but I managed to lose my bag of that somewhere between the cupboard and the mash tun. So I assumed I didn't actually have any... anyway after a quick sub for some Carafa I soon found the barley hiding behind a bottle of starsan so... oops. Should make the beer a little less acrid however; it could be a Happy Accident, to quote the late, great, Bob Ross.

Otherwise the rational was essentially I wanted complexity, I wanted body, and I wanted peat smoke. 20% should be present but not overbearing - but then I'm a tad skewed by Nogne O's 100% Peat Smoked Pale which, while lovely, still wasn't 'too peaty' for me.

Mash was a simple single infusion at 67c for 45 minutes - we're after body here after all.

15g of Columbus in as First Wort Hops for around 100IBUs (theoretically), and that's it. Boiled for an hour, chilled, and chucked in the Yeast: Saf US-05 (I realised only too late that I had run out of Saf-04, the second recipe change I had to make on the fly). Turns out I only have that and the Belle Saison in the cupboard, and I wasn't quite fancying a farmhouse peated imperial stout tbh.

Aerated the hell out of it, until my arm could take no more, and over-pitched massively in order to give this a fighting change of a clean, quick ferment. This is the highest gravity brew I've done and I don't want to be messing around coaxing the yeast out of a nap - it's bad enough when you wait a month to drop a saison from 1.03, I'd go spare waiting for this to drop from 1.05!

Estimated Final Gravity is showing as around 1.023, so... sweet and full bodied. Awesome.

Tiffany Lou - Cali Common

So after a lot of umming and/or aaahing about whether to risk using the S-23 for a Cali Common or splashing out on a massively over-sized smack pack for my batch size, I just went with the cheap option. Spoiler warning: it went well. Perhaps in part because I went for 'massive over-pitching' (read: 11.5g for 1.5gal instead of 5g).

So, Fermentables:

80% Maris Otter

 9% Munich Malt

 5% Crystal (80l)

 4% Caramalt (20l)

 2% Biscuit malt.

I settled on this grist after brewing the brown ale and deciding it was too dry and roasty for its hopping rate. This malt bill isn't too disimilar at base as a result; I wanted this dry and drinkable with only a touch of crystal and cara to keep the body reasonably dry but still flavourful. I added the Munich and biscuit for bready and malty fullness. 

I'm aware this is a slightly complex malt bill for the style - as homebrew-agony aunt/yeast beast Mr. JK (thanks for all the advice!) pointed out, Anchor Steam is just pale malt and 10% crystal - I just wanted to push the style a little further away from that burnt toffee flavour that sits a little too much in the 'sometimes food' category for me to always enjoy.

I totally ignored the 'traditionally hopped with Northern Brewer' part of the style too, my Hops stood as:

Pilot FWH to 22 IBU

Ahtanum to 5 IBU as steeping hops

Pilot to 10 IBU steeping.

This went completely out of the window once I realised I a) didn't have any Pilot after all, and b) that what I'd assumed was the last of my Celeia was actually the last of my Bramling X, which has double the AA. Some frantic recalculation resulted in this:

Bramling X to 40 IBU at FWH (oops!)

Ahtanum steep for 60 minutes @ 65C for 0(ish) IBU?

I usually steep at 80C but I didn't want the flameout to add much bitterness at all after the initial mess-up. The result was longer and cooler steeping - we'll see how it works out.

I've just added the dry hop now, after the yeast attenuated to 1.011ish in 3 days. I added in the remaining Bramling X (works out about 2g/l) and Ahtanum at 3g/l - thinking a short dry hop (2-3 days) and bottle before a month or so of conditioning. May require a little longer due to the slightly excessive dry hop.

So my Vital Statistics:

OG - 1.052

FG - 1.011 (5.4-.5%)

45 IBUs (approx, depending if any isomerization occurs at 65)

20 EBC/ 40SRM.

The sample I pulled before the dry hop went in tasted nice and bready, a lovely nuttiness and grassy bitterness. A touch of tangerine too, which is always welcome. The S-23 fermented at room temp seems to have produced moderate fruitiness, but nothing overwhelming, perhaps due to the crazy-high pitching rate.

So after 6 months of stewing away with a modest innoculation of Brett. Brux. cultured from Orval bottles (the most delicious way to get cheap Brett I know) I've finally bottled the split portion of the Treacle Baltic Porter I made for our inaugural challenge brew at York Brewery Homebrew Club.

The initial beer was a bit young when we drank it initially, and while it has indeed become much better with age the original does lack body to an extent. A few tweaks to the malt bill and I should be there, but adding brett has actually put a fun spin on this one: it's dropped the gravity a further 8 points, down to 1.010, and yet rather than feeling even thinner, it's made it somehow more umami and rich.

It tastes and smells somewhere between the characteristic funk of Brett Brux and some sort of red wine and cocoa concoction, with an edge of gravy browning. It's different, and I'm sure when it's carbonated it'll be a fun comparison between this and the original.

So I've primed to 2.1 vol of CO2 and added a touch more Saf-05 from a half used sachet left over from the Berliner Weisse, in order to counter the drop in viability long aging and increasing alcohol will have had upon the original yeast population. This is also to counter the fact that brett takes bloody ages to carbonate beers in my experience.