Brewery tour

[greenxpaddy]

Reports say Skinners tour is really hospitable.

In regard to hops, there seemed to be a lot of northdown and celeia in stock but these were being stored in very high loft temperatures so hard to see they are true stock. Maybe just for show.

Yeast.They use the same for all and acid wash every two weeks.

Barreling. No priming just barrel chilled and use residual C02.

Late hopping, hop back of giant proportions.

[greenxpaddy]

Actually those hops look like the bittering hops only. The aroma hops semed to be stored out of sight

[Troutman47]

I'd love to do the tour at Skinners, Kegman and myself are trying to clone Betty Stoggs.

I found this article on another site, can you add anything to it?

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/ski ... ewery-tour

Cheers

[Matt12398]

I've done the tour a few times as once a year there is a networking event held there where you can drink as much as possible with a pasty provided completely free. Tends to be quite emssy.

Paddy, I only live up the road. If I'd known someone from the forum was so close by you could have come round and told me what on earth was wrong with my AG brews. They don't taste very good.

[greenxpaddy]

I've done the tour a few times as once a year there is a networking event held there where you can drink as much as possible with a pasty provided completely free. Tends to be quite emssy.

Paddy, I only live up the road. If I'd known someone from the forum was so close by you could have come round and told me what on earth was wrong with my AG brews. They don't taste very good.

Pm me your mobile, you never know I may be able to find a small window....

I also have my own supplies with me.

Bought some bottles from their shop too....not Skinners, other local breweries.
Wooden hand brewery Stout was very good. Their pirates gold was a disaster. Somehow the bottle was gloop like from a horror movie.think there must have been a gelatine error or something didn't drink it. That seemed very unfortunate, but did worry me about their care in procedures. I've never done anything like that.

Driftwood spars red mission. Thoroughly cloudy in a bad way and thoroughly horrible. Too bitter and sour.

[pas8280]

Have you been on a brewery tour paddy ? Seems like a post is missing from the start of this thread

[Matt12398]

Are you just down for a holiday?

Wooden Hand have never really been my favourite local brewery. All their beers have a weird hop twang to them but I've not tried the stout. Their Cornish Steam is quite nice.

I've not tried Driftwood Spars but they have a pub in St Agnes where they brew the beers opposite. From what I'm told it tastes much nicer in the pub.

If you're sticking around St Austell Brewery is a good tour. Much bigger and much older than most of the other Cornish breweries.

The two AG I've done so far have been BIAB so not sure if that's a factor but they just have no depth of flavour. I also wonder if there's some oxidation. SNPA clone and GW Wadworth 6X clone.

[greenxpaddy]

Obviously there are many potential reasons.

One guess is your water. Skinners burtonise because the water is so soft. Do you?

[greenxpaddy]

Next up, another Cornish brew from Castle Brewery, Lostwithiel. Moat Mild.

Very amateurish label, foretelling the contents. Not like any mild I have ever drunk. Acidic and sharp. Suspect it's turning and aceto is growing. Either that or they completely overdid the bitterness. The clue is in the name. Mild. Best before is November 12.

I am a bit of a mild snob though, born a brummie .....

[Matt12398]

I know that my water is very soft but didn't want to get into treating water at this stage because it's an added variable. My understanding was that water treatment can make the beer that much better but you can still make good beer without doing that and it's something to think about once you know what you're doing? I might give it some more time as it might still be a bit green after the 2-3 weeks it has been left so I'm going to see what it's like next month. It's drinkable but definitely lacking something. Part of me thinks it might be due to aerating the wort when it was slightly too warm at around 30 deg C.

Moat Mild is one of the single worst beers I have ever tried. You don't have to be a snob to work out this guy is doing something very wrong. From what people have told me he is a one man operation and brews on a very small scale. The bottle I drank had some clarity issues and had an almost muddy flavour.

[greenxpaddy]

You can't cause oxidation at yeast pitching stage. In fact aerating at 30 may even deprive the yeast of oxygen. Wait til 20 degrees for sure.

Your mash ph is guaranteed to be too high without burtonising additions. it's easy to add water treatment. My water is very soft too so if you just followed my additions it would be better than none at all if you are worried about calculations.

[Matt12398]

What do you mean when you say that you can't cause oxidation at yeast pitching stage? I don't quite understand. Is 30 deg cool enough not to cause massive issues?

So do you think high mash pH could be a large part of the reason for the poor results?

[darkonnis]

Matt, you have hot side aeration (or oxidation depending on where you read) generally caused you splash your mash liquor into the boiler causing it to absorb oxygen, which can cause a conversion which in turn produces off flavours, apparently it taste like wet cardboard. I did this on my first brew and no side effects, some people reckon its a myth, others swear it exists, for me jury is still out.

Then you have oxygenating, when the cool wort comes out the boiler you splash it about, this helps oxygen become trapped in the wort which is needed for yeast growth and a healthy fermentation. I did a double brewday and i needed the boiler sharpish for the next batch, I transfered it to the FV at 32c and waited for it to cool. No problem.
You can get water reports online for your area, typically from your suppliers website or via email.
Not saying you aren't suffering either of these, but if its a bland flavour thing, I'd look at your ingredients first, might be worth using bottled water for a run as it should say what pH it has and then you can alter it quite accurately and easily (bottled water isn't much and its better to spend another £1 than save it and then throw away £10 of beer)
Also, what recipes you been doing? I've found some of mine are nothing short of bland, with an additional scoop of bland for good measure, then the next is jaw droppingly awesome.

Just some thoughts,
Cooky

[greenxpaddy]

I would doubt hot side oxygenation is a real flaw in procedure. The amount of oxygen absorbed at 65 c will be very low indeed and anyway will be rereleased within a short time as you reach boil.

Gas absorbed versus temp of solution varies hugely as temp rises so I would advise waiting until cooled wort reaches 20 c as per commercial practice otherwise your yeast may not get enough 02 for multiplication.

[greenxpaddy]

Next up on draught Trelawny by St Austell

Best pint this week