Home Brew Forum

Noticed there was no posts in here and this beer is too good to not merit a mention.

Bottled on the 17/4 so still fairly young for a porter. Great aroma of sweet, chocolatey dark malts with a nice spicy/earthy aroma from the hops (this one was hopped with Columbus). Absolutely stunning taste, rich malts and a delicious bitterness, really well balanced. The hops really come through at this age and their spicy/earthiness really complements the malt bill. Sweetness cut short by a slight dryness which is an amazing combination and something I love in a lot of styles. These guys are really brewing some fantastic beer
Some pictures for you, sorry about the messy desk.







A perfect bed time beer after a 12 hour shift down the pub

Love their beer! Tried most of the range now and not come across one I dont like!!

I've had it too, though I think their batches sound like they vary a bit - deliberately, with some tweaks. My bottle was very good. If I was being harsh, my one just lacked a bit of body and any really distinguishing feature...But I am being particularly critical. It didn't pour as nicely as the one in your photo and the head quickly disappeared.

I'm keen to try more of their hoppy paler stuff.

From what I've heard/read they vary they constantly vary the malt bill and hop additions between batches. Their pale ales and IPAs are absolutely stunning but they will most certainly be different hop varieties everytime you buy them (they display them on the front of the bottle).

walrusdunne wrote:From what I've heard/read they vary they constantly vary the malt bill and hop additions between batches. Their pale ales and IPAs are absolutely stunning but they will most certainly be different hop varieties everytime you buy them (they display them on the front of the bottle).

I prefer it that way! I haven't brewed many batches yet, maybe about 10 but I've never brewed the same thing twice. Brew it, love it, move on!

walrusdunne wrote:From what I've heard/read they vary they constantly vary the malt bill and hop additions between batches. Their pale ales and IPAs are absolutely stunning but they will most certainly be different hop varieties everytime you buy them (they display them on the front of the bottle).

They have some sort of standard methods for different styles but they vary widely within these. If you write to them they always answer back with recipes! I should be able to post their IPA framework if people are interested.

Skittlebrau wrote:.....I should be able to post their IPA framework if people are interested.

Please do, I'd be very interested to read that

Mr. Dripping wrote:

Skittlebrau wrote:.....I should be able to post their IPA framework if people are interested.

Please do, I'd be very interested to read that

I asked for a recipe after tasting a very tasty batch of Black IPA from them. I didn't know at that point that they brew different every time. They sent me the following as a file attachment along with advice to add 4% Carafa Special III to make it black. I brewed along those lines and got a stunning beer as a result, although I ended up sprinkling another 1% worth of CS3 into the sparge as I didn't feel the wort was dark enough.

India Pale Ale

Disclaimer:
The recipe is only a small part of what makes a beer. The processes that are used are much more important, but, because everyone has different equipment, it is very difficult to translate. I have written my reasoning at the bottom, which I think is more important than the recipe itself. Regardless, here is the recipe that we use on our equipment:

OG: 1.065
FG: 1.013
ABV: 7%
IBU: 50

Grist:
100% Maris Otter Malt

Hop:
Additions at:
0.6g/l @ 60min
1g/l @ 15min
1.4g/l @ 10min
2g/l @ 5min

Ferment:
Clean American ale yeast (WLP001, Wyeast1056, Safale US05)

Dry Hop:
5g/l for 3 days before bottling/kegging.

Add priming sugar at 3.5g/l for approximately 2.4volumes CO2. Or force carbonate to 2.4volumes

Condition for 10-14 days at 15-20'C for the beer to carbonate properly if priming.

The main aim for this beer is to showcase the hops. We try to keep the yeast character minimal, so a clean ferment with a yeast strain that has a subtle character is important. The grist is similar in that we want to give the beer a good base to accentuate the hops. We like Maris Otter, but many base malts would work. Because of the higher alcohol content, which gives the beer a richer body and a perceived sweetness, it can be good to try to lighten the body of the beer, and reduce the sweetness. You can compensate for the extra alcohol by reducing the unfermentables in the final beer. This can be achieved many ways, e.g. adding sugar, low colour pale malt or reducing speciality malt. You could add some caramalts for more colour, texture and sweetness, or some rye, wheat or oats if you want to experiment, but it is good to start simple.
Finally, hops: The hop additions work with our system, but if you want to add flame out, whirlpool, or hopback additions, then go ahead. We vary the variety of hops with every brew, so feel free to change the hop additions to suit the hops you use. The most important thing about getting the most out of the hops is to get the rest of the beer right. If you get the base beer just right, you can use hops from any part of the world to produce a great beer.

The key to making a good beer is in the slow improvement of it's progression. Take time to analyse and evaluate the aroma, flavour, texture and the overall balance of the beer. Try to decide what you like and dislike about it, what you think might cause these, and how you will change things the next time.

I had one of these the other day and they really are making amazing beer. They really manage to mix the dark malts and hops together well.
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The post above is fantastic. Not only do they give you a recipe, but all that information. It only serves to reinforce my believe that they're not only one of the best, but also one of the nicest breweries around.