AG#5 Sambucus (Elderflower Beer) Some Pics Inc

[Tequilla6]

Hi Guys,

As promised some pictures of my latest AG brew which I decided to call Sambucus as it's Elderflower

Gyle Number: AG#5
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Lager Malt 2.5 EBC 6 lbs. 9.8 oz 3000 grams 62.8%
Pale Malt 5 EBC 2 lbs. 10.3 oz 1200 grams 25.1%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 0 lbs. 14.0 oz 400 grams 8.4%
Crystal Malt, Pale 60 EBC 0 lbs. 6.3 oz 180 grams 3.8%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Simcoe Whole 12.9 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.0 oz 30 grams 12.4%
Elderflower Whole 0 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 4.1 oz 120 grams 49%
Amarillo Whole 9.5 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 15 grams 6.1%
Elderflower Whole 0 % 0 mins 0 lbs. 2.7 oz 80 grams 32.5%

Yeast Type Nottingham (Rehydrated 500ml Starter)

Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 39.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 82 %
Bitterness: 38.4 EBU
Colour: 7 EBC

GW WT Calc Dry Pale Ale

It's a nice light colour ale using the same hops as for my AG#3 Smiley Sam as I thought the bittering from the Simcoe and the Floral notes of the Amarillo would maybe complement the sweetness and fragrance of the Elderflower. The rest of the recipe is based on the conversations at the last Cambridge beer meet where it seemed to be a consensus to try some very light and dry beer styles. So the water profile is based on GW's Dry Pale Ale default.

Well the Grain bill and other stuff would have been photographed, but when I tried to turn the camera on I found the batteries to be dead. So started brewing and put the batteries on charge. It was just in time to record my mash PH.
WooHoo!!!! This is the first time I have used both CRS and all the other associated salts that are mentioned on GW's Water Treatment calculator and this is also the first time my mash PH is in the right ball park. I a very happy chappie.

Been using the faithful old Aluminium sheet with holes in , but always seemed to forget to get it set up in time for my fly sparge. Found this in a hardware store and as it was stainless steel and had holes in it I thought it would be perfect as a sparge defuser. I guess before long I will add an internal sparge defuser to the top of my coolbox mashtun.

Sorted out my Elderflower and Hop schedule.

Boiling away nicely so added my first hops for the 90min boil.

In with the immersion chiller you can see the Elderflowers floating around

Hit the post boil gravity spot on and also got a little under 26L of wort in the FV so an extra two pints to celebrate the finish of the brew with...lol

And a nice Icecream in the FV.


I was very happy with the brew day having started at 12:00 I was finished by 20:00 and had a very easy brew day with not fretting or disasters to contend with. Sambucus is currently in the garage where it is fermenting away nicely. My Brewing crib sheet done in Excel really helped and I am getting all the steps completed and not forgetting anything. Its also the first time using Beer Smith for a brew along side GW Beer Engine. The problem I have now is I like some of beer Engines features but cannot get away from the simplicity and ease of use of GW beer engine. I can see me using both in parallel for while.

Anyway job done and from the taste of the test sample it's going to be a real cracker. I only hope that addition of 15gms of Amarillo has not overpowered the Elderflower. Time will tell

[simple one]

Thanks for the pics, brewdays thread was beginning to be a bit bare of brew porn!

Looks good. Two quick questions... Did you pick the small flowers of the stalks, or wang the lot in? + Did you lose alot of wort to the volume of the flowers?

cheers,
Matt

[Tequilla6]

Stalks and all went in, although I did clip the majority of the larger stalks away and was left with the smaller stalks and flower heads. As I was using less hops than normal as they were being replaced by the Elderflower I noticed no discernible difference in the boiler losses in fact I ended up with a Litre over expected final FV volume. However my main concern and my focus was on the fly sparging for this brew as I'm not happy with the fly sparging method. (See other posts on the fly sparge debarcle )

[simple one]

I find a clean watering can does wonders. I use the kettle to bring the water up to 80 (stop it before it rolls). Its easy and economical.

You getting stuck sparges?

[RabMaxwell]

Lovely news i have 1.200g of elderflowers in the freezer enough for one of my 120 litre brews Hopefully i will get some good weather to pick more before i go back to my work.

[Tequilla6]

No sparging is going great, no stuck sparges yet. It's just that I am trying to understand the actual process and based my total liquor volumes on various beer software but end up using up the defined sparge water quantities and being so short in the boiler I feel I must be doing something wrong or not understanding the fly sparge process properly. Instead of going through the issues again I'll just point you to the post where Chris-x thinks he is hitting his head against a brick wall... talking to Mr Thicko here

Fly Sparge Question

[simple one]

Heres a tip from one who had massive sparging dramas. Once you have finished sparging. Taste the grains from the base of you mash tun. If they are still sweet, there is a problem with the mechanics of your sparge. Either construction of the tun (manifold too high) or incorrect procedure. PM me if you want more advice Chris and the gurus are all good at getting it right, but they aren't as good as me at getting it wrong!

[Tequilla6]

Well it's been seven days and the brew has finished fermenting and is down to a very respectable 1.006. Seems the trial to get a really dry beer has worked and the Nottingham's done the job.



The only question or comment I would add is that the brew itself is showing signs of cloudiness I presume from the Elderflower as the Elderflower Champagne I an fermenting is still a yellow white and has not cleared at all yet. I wonder of anyone has any experience of using Elderflower. Does it clear eventually or were finings necessary to get a clear brew?

Anyways it will be racked off and left for a few days in a cold place. My beer fridge I guess in this lovely weather I'm having and if that doesn't work I will resort to finings.

[Tequilla6]

Just posted my latest AG brew and mentioned the Elderflower beer and thought I would bump this one up with an update as I have presented this one to the Cambridge tasting session, (arranged by my mate Jubby,Thanks for organising again) and although at the time it was very young the potential could be seen straight away. I'm currently drinking this one too fast and would say that it had a distinct taste and aroma of Elderflower. Having 25Lts of Elderflower Champagne to compare it with makes it very easy to identify. The beer is crystal clear and I am very impressed with it. Now that is has matured into a real fine brew, I will probably take another bottle to the next Cambridge tasting session. I can not recommend this recipe highly enough its only annoying that I will have to wait another year before I can try this brew again. Never mind I guess I need to look forward to the Elderberries instead which will be coming on tap soon.