Brewday 08/12/2017 Another Porter

Brown Stuff

I had one last opportunity to brew in 2017 so chose to make a porter. I had some dark malts in stock and I could use some more homegrown hops and free up some space in the freezer. 

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 90 mins at 66°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 28lt
• Pale Malt 3.5kg
• Munich Light 0.5kg
• Crystal 60L 200g
• Chocolate Malt 240g
• Black malt 60g 
• Rolled Oats 250g
• Northdown 7% 15g (60 mins)
• Northdown 7% 25g (15 mins)
• First Gold (homegrown) 25g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• Cascade 4.2% 25g whirlpool 75°C for 30 mins
• First Gold (homegrown) 63g dry hop for 3 days 
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

The whirlpool addition is a bit of a misnomer, I just chilled the wort to 75°C, added the hops, gave it a stir and left it for 30 minutes before finishing chilling. This should get more aroma from the hops as opposed to adding at flameout when the wort is still at boiling point.

Results 18/12/2017

I bottled this after 10 days in the fermenter.

OG 1.049 (efficiency 70%)

FG 1.009

ABV 5.17%

I'll give it a couple of weeks conditioning and try some in 2018, hopefully it will be good, the sample I tried from the gravity reading was very tasty!

Update 31/01/2018

Yep, still tasty!

Brewday 17/11/17 Kolsch

Impromptu Brewday

Due to a work cancellation I found I had the opportunity (and more importantly, the ingredients) to brew some beer. I had plenty of German malts so I decided to make another Kolsch.

Recipe BIAB:

• Mash water vol 28lt
• 3kg Pilsner Malt
• 1kg Vienna Malt
• 250g Wheat Malt
• 150g Carapils Malt
• 25g Perle 4.4% (60 min)
• 25g Perle 4.4% (15 min)
• 5g Irish moss (15 min)
• 1 pk Safale K97 German Ale Yeast
• Mash for 90 mins at 68ºC
• Boil for 1 hour
• 21.5lt into the fermenter

Results:

After recent poor efficiency scores I did a bit of research to see how I could improve things. One suggestion I came across was to mill the grains much finer than normal but since I buy all my grain pre-crushed that wasn't an option. Another common idea was mashing with a smaller quantity of water and then sparging. There are various options; cold water sparge, warm water sparge, dunk sparging, trickle sparging, all of which seem to have worked for other homebrewers. However the most straightforward suggestion was simply to extend the mash time to 90 minutes, which I did and it worked! I got a higher OG than anticipated due to the higher efficiency score, I was only expecting 1.045 at 70% efficiency.

Efficiency 75%
OG 1.048

FG 1.011
IBU 23

ABV 4.82% (expected)

So it's now fermenting away, I'll leave it for about 10 days before bottling. 

Update 28/11/2017

The K97 yeast has an ideal fermentation range of 15-20ºC, I pitched at 18ºC which was as low as I could reasonably get with my immersion chiller and 12ºC ambient water temperature. After 24 hours I noticed the temperature of the fermenter had risen to 20ºC, meaning I needed to chill it somehow. Short of emptying the fridge which wouldn't have been too popular I had to resort to a  more basic method. By wrapping the fermenter in a wet towel and standing it in a pan of cold water the temperature came down to 18ºC within 24 hours and stayed at 17ºC for the duration of the fermentation period. Luckily for me my fermenting buckets fit neatly inside my pan.

Hi-tech cooling system

Update 31/01/2018

After several weeks conditioning in a temperature controlled area (under the stairs - temperature 10-12ºC in January) I tried this beer and have to say am well pleased with the result. It's crisp and clean but with that distinctive Kolsch-y flavour. I think the attention I paid to temperature for fermentation and conditioning has paid off.

Unfiltered and unfined!

Brewday 01/11/17 Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

Using up free hops

A local microbrewery kindly offered my homebrew club some surplus hops, obviously we took advantage of this and found ourselves in possession of a substantial amount (by homebrewing standards) of Northdown and Cascade. After splitting them between us we had to decide what to do with them so it was proposed that we all attempt to brew a clone version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and bring it along to taste at the December meeting. 

There are plenty of recipes online and most of them share a few common traits; A simple malt bill of pale and crystal, and lots of cascade hops.

Recipe:

• 4.5kg Maris Otter
• 0.3kg Crystal Malt 45L
• 24g Northdown 7% (60 min)
• 23g Northdown 7% (25 min)
• 21g Cascade 4.2% (10 min)
• 50g Cascade 4.2%(0 min)
• 130g Cascade (dry hop 6 days)
• 1 pk Safale US05 Ale Yeast
• Mash for 1 hour at 68ºC
• Boil for 1 hour
• 18lt into the fermenter

I've gone a bit over the top with the dry hopping but these hops were pretty old and had a very low alpha acid content.

Results:

Once again the efficiency was disappointing, down at 64%. 

OG 1.054

FG 1.013
IBU 44

ABV 5.4%

I bottled this on the 13th November so it will have over 4 weeks to condition. I hope it turns out well, it certainly tasted good during bottling.

Update 22/12/17

I've been drinking this over the last couple of weeks and it's quite a pleasant drink. Compared to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale I find it more bitter and not quite as hoppy but at least it's the right colour!  

Brewday 25/09/17 - Red Rye Ale

It's rye time I did this...

I always enjoy any beer that features rye but I've never brewed with it myself until now. This beer also includes some of my homegrown First Gold hops so it's a double first - I hope it turns out well.

Recipe:

• 3.15kg Irish Ale Malt
• 0.5kg Red X Malt
• 0.5kg Rye Malt
• 0.5kg Munich Malt
• 100g Chocolate Malt
• 25g Northdown (60 min)
• 25g First Gold (15 min)
• 44g First Gold (0 min)
• 50g Cascade (dry hop 4 days)
• 36g Mosiac (dry hop 4 days)
• 1 pk Safale S04 Ale Yeast

OG =1.045 (efficiency 68% - still not very good)

Anyway it's in the fermenter, I plan to bottle it later this week.

Update 06/10/17

I bottled the beer today, FG was 1.010 (exactly as predicted) giving an ABV of 4.57%. A quick taste suggests this beer will be a very pleasant drink once it has finished conditioning.

Brewday 18/09/2017 - Black Coffee Stout

Black Coffee in Beer

With the nights drawing in it was time to brew a dark beer, and in a radical move I decided to add an extra ingredient to the usual line-up of water, malt, hops and yeast. This beer also contained coffee, and just to make it extra crafty I used cold brewed coffee. As this was a bit of an experiment for me I only brewed a small batch of nine litres split into two demijohns.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 13.6lt
• Pale Malt 1.35kg
• Crystal 15L 160g
• Chocolate Malt 110g
• Black malt 50g 
• Rolled Oats 180g
• Northdown 25g (60 mins)
• Northdown 25g (0 mins)
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• 100ml cold brewed coffee (added to one demijohn)
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Naturally things didn't go totally as planned, firstly my efficiency was way down at 61% (usually I get around 75%) which meant I was going to end up with an ABV of 3.95%, a lot lower than what I wanted. I also managed to miscalculate the hop additions, this was a scaled down recipe but I didn't reduce the hops at the same rate as the malts resulting in a higher IBU rating than originally expected. Obviously I couldn't do much about the hops but I decided to increase the ABV by adding some brewing sugar (dextrose) to the fermenters. I made a solution with 80g of dextrose and 200ml of boiling water, allowed it to cool and then split it between the two demijohns. I have never done this before but it seemed to work. I made the addition after two days fermentation and there was certainly some increased airlock activity and a final gravity reading of 1.010 would indicate a theoretical ABV of 4.42% which is a bit of an improvement. The downside of adding sugar is it tends to make the beer taste thinner and less full-bodied but hopefully I've got the balance right by just adding a small amount. 

I made the cold brewed coffee by mixing 50g of coarse ground coffee with 350ml of water in a sterilised mason jar and leaving it in the fridge for 24 hours. I then filtered it several times to remove all the grounds and added 100ml to one of the demijohns after four days of fermentation. I left this for another week and then bottled both beers. Each demijohn contained 4.25 litres so I primed each with 20g of brewing sugar. Now I have 12 x 330ml of each stout conditioning, one with coffee and one without. It will be interesting to see how they compare and whether the coffee actually improves the beer. 

Homegrown Hops

Grow It Yourself

Hops are expensive, for homebrewers 100g of dried hops can cost anything up to £6+ a pack. This makes brewing super hoppy American style pale ales quite an expensive process. So in my never-ending quest to spend less money I bought and planted two hop plants (Prima Donna or First Gold variety) early last year. After 3-4 weeks of nothing happening there was a sudden burst of activity, several shoots appeared from the ground and rapidly scaled the fence. The blurb which came with the plants warned me to expect very little in the first year, which was fortunate as very little was precisely what I got. It is not until the third year that the plant will reach its full potential so I was not expecting much extra this year. Once again in early March several shoots appeared and grew rapidly up and along my fence, however this year I picked over 1.6kg of fresh hops which I dried in a food dehyrator down to a dry weight of 350g.

The hop fence

There's something quite satisfying about growing your own hops for brewing although given that the hop plants cost £18 I'm still out of pocket as 350g of First Gold only costs about £14. Next year I should get a bigger harvest and I can also split the hop rhizomes to get more plants, so over time I should save a bit of money. I also found hops growing wild near me last year so in early March I dug up some rhizomes and planted cuttings in my garden. I don't know the variety but they do smell great, were free and for a first year's crop I've done pretty well, far better than last year's bought plants. These hops aren't quite ready to pick yet but when they are I'll brew a green hop beer.

Wild Hops

Last year I dried my meagre harvest on the window sill, but this took too long and the end result was poor. This year I have used a food dehydrator which has given great results. I dried 500g of fresh hops down to 110g in 10-12 hours, with the dehydrator at the lowest heat setting of 35°C. Higher temperatures than this risk burning off the much sought-after but volatile hop oils.

Food Dehydrator

My total harvest was just over 2kg (1.65kg First Gold and 400g of the wild variety) which I dried down to 450g and froze for future brewdays.
In conclusion I have to say that growing hops is very straightforward, they require very little special care and hopefully I'll get to brew some great beer.

Strong Bitter Tasting

Extra Strong, Extra Special

It's a glorious hot summer's day in sunny Manchester so the perfect opportunity to drink a chilled glass of Extra Strong/Special Bitter (ESB).

Hazy!

This is the beer I brewed on 9th June (recipe here) and took to Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Expo after only two weeks conditioning. Ideally I should have left it for a few more weeks so after more than four weeks in bottles I think it's time for another taste.

Disappointingly it's still a bit hazy but that aside I am very pleased with this. At 5.1% abv it has a bit of a boozy kick but is still very drinkable, which is a slight worry as it's not exactly a session ale. It's not hoppy, but neither is it too bitter at 35 IBU's. The malt flavours are more prevalent but it's not too sweet, overall a very pleasant, traditional style ESB.

Clear!

Quick update, after another four weeks the beer is now crystal clear! Once again standard homebrewing rules apply; if it's not right at first just leave it for a while, it won't get any worse and might just improve.

Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Expo

Free Beer!

Manchester Beer Week finished on Sunday 2nd July with the now regular Homebrew Expo organised by Manchester Homebrew and held at Beer Nouveau in Ardwick. 16 homebrewers presented free samples of 50+ beers, covering all styles, to discerning drinkers. There were two competitions; "A Beer For Manchester", judged by a distinguished group of drunks experts and a Best in Show award voted for by expo visitors.

A piss up in a brewery

I brought along an exciting range of traditional bottled beers but there was also loads of keg and even one cask beer. A few highlights for me were a Banoffee Wheat Beer (it actually tasted like banoffee!), a Rye IPA (I must use some rye malt soon) and the beer judged to be winner of the Beer for Manchester competition, "Cosmetically Challenged" a New England IPA brewed by Tom, which would stand up to anything made by a commercial brewer. The Best In Show beer was another great example of a NEIPA, "Lazaretto" brewed by my fellow Chorlton Homebrewer Simon. There were loads of other great beers as well, too many to mention. The overwhelming impression I got from the expo was the sheer high quality and vast range of homebrewed beer and it has definitely inspired me to try a few new things.

Winner!

I took samples of five beers and even made the effort to label them using Beer Labelizer once I had thought of names for all five.

Four of my five beers (the Alt bier is missing)

The beers I took to the Expo were:

• Altbier "Alles Klar"
• Porter "3rd Prize"
• Another Pale Ale "Muddy Waters"
• Best Bitter "Boring Brown Beer"
• Strong Bitter "Strong & Stable"

I'm pleased to say that all five were well received and I was really thrilled with all the positive feedback I got from visitors and judges alike. My highest scoring beer in the Best in Show award was my most recent brew, the strong bitter "Strong & Stable" which achieved an average score of 7.8/10. If I had been able to give it a bit longer to condition it may have scored even higher.

Special thanks have to go to Connor and Jai for organising Manchester Beer Week, Steve at Beer Nouveau for the use of his brewery and Craig and Rich from the Manchester Homebrew group for arranging the expo.

Bottling - Strong Bitter

No Caps!

Time to bottle the Strong Bitter brewed on the 9th of July. Fortunately I realised just before starting that I only had silver caps which I'd already used on my Best Bitter previously. Since I normally can't be arsed with labels I tend to use different coloured caps to distinguish between beers, especially important for two beers similar in colour. So after a quick trip to the local homebrew shop I was ready. The final gravity was 1.010 (exactly as forecast) - giving me 5.1% abv. I filled 28 x 330ml , 21 x 500ml and one 750ml swing top as I almost ran out of bottles.

Best Bitter Tasting

This is better best bitter

After the slightly disappointing result of my previous homebrew effort I was hoping that my recent attempt at a best bitter would deliver a more acceptable outcome. Fortunately it has! This is much better, nicely balanced, not too sweet and not too bitter. A very traditional tasting English ale, and totally clear as well!

Look! You can see through this one!

Another Pale Ale Tasting

Hazy, Cloudy, Murky

Time to finally report on the Pale Ale brewed on April 27th. I have tried this a few times since I bottled it but left it until now in the vain hope it might clear. Unfortunately it hasn't done so.

Usually I can see the logos on the other side of the glass through the beer, but not in this case so something is not quite right. Admittedly I did forget to add the Irish Moss to the boil but I've done that in the past and the beer has always cleared up a lot more than this one. On the bright side it is still quite drinkable, there is a bit of hop aroma and the carbonation is ok, but it has that hint of homebrew tang that reminds me of cheap kits brewed with sugar. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong and hazy beer is not a bad thing in itself. If I'd planned to brew a cloudy beer it would be fine, but I didn't so it's not.

Murky!

Brewday - 09/06/2017 Strong Bitter

Leftover Beer

I had sufficient spare ingredients left for one more brew, so I decided to make a strong bitter.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 4.4kg
• Crystal Malt 150g
• Carapils 140g
• Chocolate malt 12g 
• Saaz 50g (60 mins)
• Saaz 25g (15 mins)
• Goldings 20g (15 mins)
• Cluster 20g (15 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Goldings 22g (at turn off)
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Cluster 22g (dry hopped 4 days)
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results:

I got 23lt in the fermenter, the OG was 1.050 (slightly higher than expected!) and hopefully it should finish around 1.010 (5.1% abv) with 35 IBU's.

 Fermentation is going well!

Bottling - Best Bitter

On The Eighth Day ...

... it was time to bottle the Best Bitter brewed on the 24th of May. 

Final Gravity was 1.010, ABV 4.6% and IBU 38. I think my recent brews have been a touch over carbonated, which is not good for a best bitter, so I primed this batch with 80g of sugar (about 1.8 vols of CO2) and bottled 21 litres in total. A quick sample tasting delivered a sweet malty flavour, pleasantly bitter with a little bit of hops in the background. I hope that after a couple of weeks of conditioning this will be a really nice beer. 

Brewday - 24/05/2017 Best Bitter

Not Craft Beer

After the excitement of making my own invert sugar I felt inspired to brew a traditional English Best Bitter, using just fuggles hops as I had some spare.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 3.5kg
• Carapils 125g
• Black malt 40g 
• Invert Sugar No. 1 450g (30 mins)
• Fuggles 50g (60 mins)
• Fuggles 50g (15 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Gervin GV12 English Ale Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results:

I got 23lt in the fermenter, the OG was 1.045 (exactly as expected!) and hopefully it should finish around 1.011 (4.5% abv).

Invert Sugar

DIY Invert Sugar

To brew proper boring brown beer (ie traditional English bitter) you need to use invert sugar. This is not an ingredient easily available to homebrewers, although Lyle's Golden Syrup is a reasonable substitute as it is a partially inverted sugar syrup. However it is fairly straightforward to make it at home. I have just made 500g using:

Unrefined cane sugar 500g

Water 250ml

Cream of Tartar ¼ teaspoon

Bring the water to the boil and remove from the heat.
Next dissolve the sugar and add the cream of tartar and when fully dissolved return to hob, stir well and heat to 115°C.
Reduce heat and simmer without stirring for 20-30 minutes. Boiling for longer results in a darker colour. 

While it was simmering it gave off a pleasant aroma similar to a can of liquid malt extract, which must be a good sign! Once cooled it tasted like toffee.

Next job is to brew a best bitter!

Beer Audit

Beer, Beer everywhere (and quite a lot to drink)

As I rapidly approach my sixth decade on the planet I find I'm brewing faster than I can drink. Bearing this in mind I conducted a stock-take, with the following results.

• Alt Bier 11 x 500ml
• Pale Ale 6 x 500ml
• Porter 30 x 500ml
• Another Pale Ale 33 x 500ml, 21 x 330ml
• Enough ingredients (except 1 pack of yeast) to brew another 45 litres (two more brewdays)

So 90 odd litres of beer in one form or another.

I have entered two homebrew competitions so I will probably send my most recent pale ale to those and I'm also involved with the Manchester Beer Week Homebrew Exposition which takes place on Sunday July 2nd. This event involves several homebrewers giving away free beer (free beer!) so I might need a fair amount for this. Looks like I need to brew some more beer.

Bottling - Another Pale Ale

More Bottling Fun

Time to bottle the pale ale made last week. It's been in the fermenter for eight days, dry hopped for the final three days. There had been no apparent airlock activity for four days so I took a couple of gravity readings over two days using my recently acquired specialised sampling system (or turkey baster as it's more commonly known) and both results were the same. The FG reading was 1.014, a bit higher than expected (1.011) giving an ABV of 4.2%. I tend to always aim for a theoretical ABV of 4.5%+ knowing that I will still get well over 4% even if things don't turn out exactly as planned.

Brewday 27/04/2017 Another Pale Ale

Yet Another Hoppy Pale Beer

I like dark beers and I like pale beers, last time I brewed a porter so it has to be a pale ale this time.

Recipe (BIAB):

According to my extensive research (several whole minutes online) head retention is aided by carapils malt, so I've used some in this beer.

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 32lt
• Maris Otter 4.3kg
• Carapils 250g
• Crystal malt 150g
• Simcoe 20g (at start)
• Simcoe 30g (15 mins)
• Cascade 30g (at end)
• Simcoe 50g (dry hopped)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Fermentis Safale S04 Yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

I am aiming to get 22lt in the fermenter, OG 1.049 and 5% abv - hopefully.

Results:

I must have miscounted when filling the pan and actually used 32lt of water, as I got 25lt in the fermenter and OG 1.046. I expect a final gravity of 1.011 and around 4.6% abv. 

Porter Tasting

First Tasting 

Time to sample the Porter I brewed on March 23rd. 

First impressions: good carbonation, a rich roasty flavour, slightly sweet and very smooth with an almost oily texture. Not as hoppy as I thought it might be, I was expecting a bit more aroma but overall I am very pleased with this. The only downside is very poor head retention. It's not at all flat, if anything it's slightly too fizzy but the head rapidly disappears after pouring. I'm not sure if the oats have made any difference but I think it is definitely a bit smoother than previous brews so I'll put that down to using rolled oats for the first time. 

In conclusion: very drinkable!

Tesco are selling craft beer

Good or Bad?

Tesco have significantly increased the range of craft beers available in all their stores from the big Tesco Extras right down to the small Tesco Expresses. This has coincided with a rejection of an attempted price increase from Heineken and the subsequent removal of several Heineken brands from the shelves. Consequently customers can now find products from UK craft brewers such as Brewdog, Vocation and Redwell, plus American imports from the likes of Sierra Nevada or Goose Island amongst the more traditional lagers and ales. The newly available craft beers are mostly available in 330ml cans and are priced from £1.75 each, or three for £5. This expansion of availability has caused some consternation in the craft beer community largely based around the assertion that Tesco's prices are too cheap and will threaten the existence of independent bottle shops. Some people have even tweeted that Tesco are selling below cost! The reality is that breweries are investing and expanding, thus reducing costs and increasing output. Tesco's listings are simply a reflection of this growing business sector. 

Brewday 22/03/2017 - Porter

American Porter 

Time to brew a porter I think. I have plenty of American hops so this will (hopefully) be a nice hoppy American Porter.

Grain Bill:

3.9kg Maris Otter
250g Chocolate Malt
100g Roasted Barley

125g Carafa III

230g Rolled Oats
I have used standard porridge oats, not flaked oats as usually used in homebrewing. Oats should add a creamy texture and a bit of body to the beer so I hope this works.
Recipe in Brewers Friend

Hops:

15g Galena 13.2% - at start of boil
45g Cascade 8.1% - 15 mins from end
20g Mosiac 12.5% - dry hop for 4 days
25g Cascade 8.1% - dry hop for 4 days

Yeast: Fermentis Safale S04 - 1 pack

Mash:

This was a BIAB recipe as usual.

Mash water volume 30lt

Mash for one hour at 66°C

Results:

I got 23.5lt in the fermenter, a bit more than anticipated but at least I get more beer. OG was 1.047, efficiency 77% (very good for me). I should end up with around 4.7% abv.

Update 31/03/2017:

The final gravity reading was 1.013, a couple of points higher than anticipated, so I got an ABV of 4.42%. Now conditioning so I'll taste it in a couple of weeks. 

Homebrewing Costs

How Cheap is Homebrewed Beer?

Talking in the pub the other day I was asked how much it costs to brew my own beer, to be honest I didn't really have a clue so I thought I would try to work it out. 

Ingredients and Packaging

I buy most of my ingredients online, currently from The Homebrew Company who seem to be pretty competitive on pricing. A delivery charge of £6.95 is applicable but if I add that to the malt cost I get the following prices.

• 25kg Pale Malt £25.63
• 1kg Crystal Malt £1.47
• Gervin GV12 Ale Yeast £1.50
• 100g Cascade Pellets £3.16
• 100g Chinook  Pellets £3.96
• 100 Crown Caps £1.78

So this gives everything I need to brew and bottle a straightforward American Pale Ale, I don't buy bottles as I just re-use old ones.

Recipe 

This is for a simple hoppy American Pale Ale, about 5% abv.

• Pale Malt 4.4kg - £4.51
• Crystal Malt 400g - £0.59
• Cascade 75g - £2.37
• Chinook 75g - £2.97
• Gervin GV12 Ale Yeast - £1.50
• 42 bottles + caps - £0.75
• Total ingredient cost = £12.69
• Cost per litre £0.60
• Cost per pint £0.34

The hop prices are pretty cheap (2015 crop) but even if they were doubled the cost would only be about 84p per litre, around 48p per pint! I've also used a cheap dried yeast but even if I used a liquid yeast the cost would still be around £1 per litre. Alternatively I could brew a weaker session ale (<4% abv) reduce the hopping and get the price down to less than 50p per litre.

Energy Costs

Of course there is also the cost of energy to factor in. I use my gas hob to heat the water and boil the wort. My current gas price is 3.37p per kWh, about £1.68 per day. For the mash I need to heat 30lt of water from about 12°C to 70°C and for the boil I need to heat about 28lt of wort from say 64°C to 100°C and maintain a rolling boil for 1 hour. For my most recent brew I took a meter reading before heating the mash water and again at the end of the boil. I didn't use any other gas appliances in the meantime. According to the meter I used 0.9m³ which equates to 10kWh, about 34p!

Equipment Costs

If I were to start from scratch I would need to buy all the necessary equipment. To replicate my current setup would require:

• 40lt Aluminium pan and lid £75.00
• Brewbag £25.00
• Thermometer £4.00
• Immersion chiller £37.00
• Fermenter £10.00
• Airlock + grommet £2.00
• Adhesive Thermometer Strip £3.00
• Hydrometer and sample jar £6.00
• Steriliser £2.00
• Syphon £3.00
• Little Bottler - bottling wand and tap to attach to bottling bucket £6.00
• Bottling bucket (a second fermenter) £10.00
• Capper £10.00

A total cost of £193, but I got my pan for nothing as I found it at work, and home brew equipment is often available second-hand. I also made my own immersion chiller for about £20. Brew once a month for two years and the equipment costs can be amortised at around 40p per litre. 

If I was considering home brewing simply as a way of saving money it would make sense, I could easily brew enough beer for me to drink for around £1 per litre and that would include paying for all equipment over two years. Of course, like most home brewers, I do it because I enjoy the hobby not just because I am a tight-fisted sod (although I am that as well).

Commercial Costs

Looking at how much my small scale home brewing costs made me think about what professional brewers spend. Steve at Beer Nouveau has given a detailed breakdown of the costs associated with brewing a batch of his West Coast IPA in his blog here. His recipe is similar to mine but he will achieve greater efficiency and benefits from economies of scale, so his ingredient cost is around 35p per litre. It is interesting to see how the cost of materials only forms a small part of the overall production cost, duty and overheads significantly exceed the value of ingredients.  

Pale Ale tasting

More Hard Work

Time to test the Pale Ale I brewed on February 7th. I suppose I should call this an American Pale Ale as it contains all American hops and was brewed to style type 18B (American Pale Ale) according to the Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines. This is not something I've ever bothered about before but members of my local homebrew group are attempting to brew this style which will then be evaluated by a certified beer judge, so I have made the effort to brew the beer according to the parameters specified, which are:

OG 1.045 - 1.060

FG 1.010 - 1.015

ABV 4.5 - 6.2%

IBU's 30 - 50

SRM 5 - 10 

Fortunately this beer ticks all the boxes (according to Brewer's Friend and my hydrometer readings); 

OG 1.050

FG 1.011

ABV 5.1%

IBU's 46.3

SRM 8

Which is great, but more importantly does it taste good?

Short answer, yes!

The style guidelines state it should be "pale, refreshing and hoppy" which it is, but with a little bit of malty sweetness to balance the bitterness. It's also very clear.

I like this one, I may take more notice of style in the future.

Scottish Pale Ale tasting

First Tasting

After 11 days of bottle conditioning it's time to check the Scottish Pale Ale brewed on Jan 31st.

It's excellent, I am really pleased with this. It is beautifully bitter and full bodied, very smooth, very clear and extremely drinkable despite the strength (5.8%) I might make this again. It's going to be even better after a few more weeks conditioning. I must remember not to drink it all as I am entering it in the Stockport Beer Festival Homebrew Competition, and they want four bottles! 

Update 23/03/2017

Just tasted this again and it's got better. Very crisp clean taste, extremely clear and well carbonated. I find it almost tastes like a strong European lager. The Edinburgh Ale yeast is exceptional.

Altbier tasting

First Tasting

It's time to taste the Altbier I brewed on Jan 24th. It's only been in bottles for 18 days but I think it's time to try it. Although 6-7 weeks conditioning is recommended I'm too impatient to wait that long.

It's smooth and malty, a bit ester-y, but hopefully that will drop out over the next few weeks, and very clear. I actually tipped the bottle right up (forgetting about the sediment) but the yeast remained stuck to the bottom of the bottle. Overall I'm pretty pleased with this, I'll try it again in a couple of weeks.

Bottling - Scottish 100/- Pale Ale

Bottling Day

Once again I have managed to be sufficiently organised to manage some bottling on a brewday. The Scottish Pale Ale I brewed on Jan 31st finished at 1.015 resulting in 5.84% ABV and 72.5% apparent attenuation. This was supposed to match an 1879 recipe from William Younger but my OG was 10 points lower than forecast at 1.060. Fortunately the FG was also 10 points lower and apparent attenuation 10 percentage point higher so the final ABV was an exact match for the historic recipe.

Pale Ale brewday 07/02/2017

Pale Ale brewday 07/02/2017

This is similar to the pale ale I brewed in November 2016, but this time I will bottle it rather than put in the pressure barrel.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Maris Otter 4.4kg
• Carapils 200g
• Crystal malt 70L 200g
• Galena 20g (at start)
• Amarillo 30g (15 mins)
• Amarillo 45g (at end)
• Citra 20g (dry hopped 3 days)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Gervin English Ale Yeast 11g pack

Hopefully I should get 21-22lt in the fermenter.

Results:

I ended up with 23lt in the fermenter and 1.050 OG, exactly as predicted! Hopefully I 'll get a final gravity reading of 1.012 giving 5% ABV.

Update 15/02/17

Actual FG was 1.011, so ABV = 5.1% and attenuation = 78%.
Final bottle count was 42 x 500ml, should keep me going for a bit!

Bottling - Altbier

Another Bottling Run 31/01/17

In addition to brewing my historic Scottish 100 shilling ale I even managed to bottle the Altbier I brewed on 24/01/17. The FG reading was 1.012 giving an ABV of 5% and apparent attenuation of 75%. Now I just have to leave it to condition for about 7 weeks. I'll condition at room temperature for a couple of weeks to get the secondary fermentation and then move it somewhere cooler.

After such an intensive bout of brewing activity I need a beer!  

Brewday 31/01/2017 - Scottish 100 Shilling Ale

William Younger 1879 100/- Scottish Ale

This is a historic recipe provided by top beer writer Ron Pattinson whose blog Shut Up About Barclay Perkins is a great source of old ale recipes. I'm brewing this 100/- ale as part of a homebrew event where members of Manchester homebrew club and my group Chorlton home brewers are brewing several of these 19th century Scottish ales to bring to a tasting with Ron at Beer Nouveau in Manchester on April 2nd. I'm not sure how we'll know if they taste authentic but hopefully they will all be great beers.

Recipe

This is a very simple recipe!

Pale Malt (I used Golden Promise for extra Scottish authenticity) 5kg

Cluster 90mins - 58g

Goldings 30mins - 58g

Yeast - WLP028 Edinburgh Ale Yeast

OG should be 1.070 and I'm aiming for 17lt into the fermenter.

Results

Not brilliant, I got 16lt in the fermenter but an OG of only 1.060. That's only 62% efficiency, I usually get about 75%. Hopefully the yeast will achieve 70-75% attenuation resulting in an ABV of 5.8% which is close to the original recipe specification. The difference between my recipe and the brewing record is the level of apparent attenuation, the historic recipe has apparent attenuation at 63% which is low for this yeast strain.

Brewday 24/01/17 - Altbier

First Brewday of 2017

One advantage of being temporarily unemployed is having plenty of time to make some beer. Now I've finished decorating the hall I can concentrate on more important issues. I've got a bit of a thing about German ales, I've made Kolsch a couple of times but never an Altbier so this is my first attempt.

Altbier recipe BIAB

• Mash for 1 hr at 66°C
• Boil for 75 mins
• Mash water volume 30lt
• Munich malt 2kg
• Pilsner malt 2kg
• Carapils 300g
• Caramunich III 500g
• Carafa III 60g
• Halletauer MF 80g - whole leaf (at start)
• Saaz 25g - pellets (30 mins)
• Irish Moss 1 tsp (15 mins)
• Fermentis K97 German Ale yeast 11g pack
• Recipe in Brewers Friend

Results

Ended up with 20lt in the fermenter and pitched yeast at 18°C. A bit less volume than I intended but there was a fair amount of hoppy gunk left in the pan which I discarded. 

OG was 1.050 which is exactly as forecast! 

I've been hoping to use this yeast for a while but I haven't seen it in 11g packs before, only the 500g size seemed to be available in the UK until recently.

Cloudwater abandons cask ale

Keykeg or Red Barrel??

When I first read about Cloudwater abandoning production of cask ale to concentrate on keg and cans I was initially disappointed, but my second reaction was a quick realisation that I didn't know they actually produced any cask ale. I've only ever tasted one bottle of Cloudwater beer, a DIPA and I've never had any on draught, cask or keg. Given my lack of exposure to their beers I'm in no position to judge any of their products but I'm pretty sure they make great beer judging by the wealth of positive opinion they generate.

So why am I concerned about their withdrawal from the cask beer market? Well I suppose I'm worried this might be the thin end of the wedge, if a shiny, modern, cutting edge outfit like Cloudwater consider cask ale to be commercially unviable where does that leave the rest of Britain's micros? I can't see a sudden demise of cask but until recently it would be inconceivable for a British brewery to have a reputation for making high quality beer while not producing any cask ales. When I started drinking in the mid 80's cask ale was my craft beer. I was in a small minority in preferring draught Bass to Carlsberg or Stella, but for discerning drinkers today there is a much greater choice of quality beers, within which cask ale forms just one component.

As a cask fan my worry is the cask ale market could get squeezed from two directions, by craft brewers like Cloudwater, Beavertown and Buxton offering high value niche keg brands on one side and, potentially, a larger brewer switching an established cask brand to keykeg to create a value offering to a larger market. Traditional CAMRA stalwarts tend to dismiss all non cask draught beers as keg piss but modern keg isn't red barrel, it offers the commercial advantages of old style keg bitter but with the added attraction of being a higher quality product for which consumers are willing to pay a higher price. Cask is commercially vulnerable which is why it nearly disappeared in the 70's. It has a short shelf life and requires careful skilled handling. The difference between now and 40 years ago is that modern alternatives are not necessarily inferior products. There should be plenty of room in the market for all sorts of styles and dispense methods but a problem arises when the commercial pressures generated by a combination of (comparatively) low retail prices, higher handling costs and an intrinsically more fragile product make cask ale less attractive to newer breweries, with higher overheads and reduced economies of scale, compared to more established producers. Put simply, the likes of Cloudwater may want to produce cask ale but business reality makes it economically hard to do so, which in itself gives them a further incentive to prioritise keg over cask.

Beer Brexit

The second reason given by Cloudwater for pulling out of cask production was the issue of maintaining quality. Namely that once their beer had left the brewery it's quality was reliant on the pub or bar storing and serving it correctly and poor cellar management was unfairly diminishing their reputation. Although this is undoubtedly an issue I don't think that is a sufficient reason to stop brewing cask beer. Surely, if you have a great product then address the poor cellar management and if necessary only supply establishments where good practice is the norm. Anyway pubs which consistently serve poor quality ale due to their own deficiencies won't be serving beer for too long - will they? Well actually that may not be strictly true, Cloudwater's other gripe was that their unfined naturally hazy beer was getting rejected by consumers while poorer quality (but clear) brews were drunk without complaint. Consumer choices are largely governed by preconceived expectations, and for traditional cask ale drinkers that means beer must be clear. Of course this works both ways, craft beer afficionados will happily knock back the latest keg offering from their favourite brewery while ignoring alternative cask options safe in the knowledge that (to them) most cask ale is poor. This polarisation of opinion among discerning beer drinkers is a concern, especially if younger people turn away from cask in favour of keg. Most modern craft beer bars (as opposed to traditional cask oriented pubs) have more keg lines than cask so keg is already achieving a higher profile in this (admitted small) sector of the market. My concern is that if a younger generation of discerning beer drinkers and more new breweries are choosing keg over cask this will have a detrimental effect on the future of real ale.