Brewday 30/4

[Bryggmester]

The weather report for the North Sea coast is sunny with a N.E. breeze keeping things fairly cool, ideal brewing weather, so I thought I should use the opportunity.

Beacon Hill Amber Ale

9 lbs Marris Otter
1 lb amber malt
1 lb cane sugar
3 1/4 oz Mount Hood in the boil
3/4 oz Mount Hood 5 minutes from the end.

Irish Moss 20 minutes before end of boil.

Mashed 1 hr 20 minutes @ 66
Boiled 1hr 15 minutes.
Nottingham yeast

So far everything gone without a hitch FV is in the bath cooling ( I really must get a cooling coil) and I am hoping for a brew of about SG 55 or slightly above. I would have liked to have tried it with Amarillo hops but I have run out.

The idea with this brew is that as a fairly robust ale it will stand a period of two or three months in the barrel maturing, which will provide me with beer in "the nice warm weather"
when I have to give up brewing for the summer.

I remember in the eighties having bought a cooling jacket for HB barrels consisting of a lagged barrel cosy with pockets inside for freezer blocks, the sort you use in cool boxes. It did work but there was a lot of condensation and it fell apart fairly quickly. When I tried to get hold of another I found they had been discontinued, perhaps it was a design fault. Anyway I will try freezer blocks attached with elastic bungee doofers, perhaps with a surrounding of bubble wrap, to cool the barrel when it gets really hot.

While waiting for the brew to cool I am supping a pint of my Triple A, and conditioning in the barrels are 5 gallons of Challenger Ale,9lbs M.O. 1/2lb crystal malt, 1/2lb amber malt and 1/2 lb cane sugar. 1 3/4 oz Challenger hops with 3/4 oz Goldings 5 minutes before end of boil, Safale yeast. SG 50.
Also Wellsian Gold, 10lbs M.O., 1.5 oz Challenger and 0.5 Goldings in the boil with 1oz Goldings added 5 minutes from the end of the boil. Yeast is Charles Wells brewery yeast and SG 44. Both very promising.

The next project will be my first attempt at turbo cider.

[Bryggmester]

Thanks DaaB. I shall look into it. Perhaps I won't have to give up brewing in the summer after all

[Scooby]

I used to get a meat box delivery that had sheets of those in, wish I had kept them now

I've been planning a single hop strongish pale ale using Amarillo (never used them before) but haven't got round to it yet, 6.5kg pale malt, 30g all of boil, 30g @ 60min, 10g @ 30min 10g@ 10min. As you have experience of them Bryggmester what do you reckon?

[Bryggmester]

Scooby: Yes that looks as if it should be good, but perhaps with such a large amount of grain the hops should be increased a bit. My last Amarillo brew had 1.5 oz Amarillo at the start of the boil and 0.5 5 mins before the end with 9lbs Pale, 0.5lb crystal and 0.25lb amber malt plus 0.75 lb cane sugar and that was about just right IMO. Give it a try, I regard Amarillo as a super Goldings. I am already suffering withdrawal symptoms having run out 3 brews ago. must get another order in.

Just pitched the yeast, SG was only about 52 but hey, never mind. Probably the hops could have done with a bit more sparging.

[Scooby]

The hops I have are 8.0% AA which I guess is higher than average anyway it works out at 44 IBU.

I've recently stopped sparging my hops and just make up for it with a little extra grain