Double brew day, 4 hop APA and 3 crystal stout

[Clibit]

Exactly what Seymour said. "lots of hops at flame-out gives you lots of hoppy flavour and aroma, and is easier, and leads to clearer finished beer."

I spent some time in a brewery a couple of years ago and their beers were first wort hopped and flame out hopped and nothing else. Seems this is fairly common commercially. I tried it at home and liked the results, lots of aroma and flavour and good clarity. And dead simple.

If the aroma hops are low alpha I throw them in at 100C and stir. High alpha go in at 80C, after one beer I made got too bitter. I still use hops at times like 20, 15, 10, 5 though, I just vary it. These were all lovely fresh hops with tons of aroma from new packs so I decided to use this schedule. The smell at bottling really was wonderful.

[Clibit]

Some feedback on these two brews. The pale ale is good, very fruity, head retention could be better, and I'm wondering if a more interesting yeast would have improved the depth of the beer if that makes sense. Nice beer, not perfect.

The stout is excellent. Everything I wanted has happened. It's easy to drink, not heavy, but it's complex at the same time, all the malts contributing, the special B adding that different twist. The 05 yeast works well in this one.

[seymour]

...The stout is excellent. Everything I wanted has happened. It's easy to drink, not heavy, but it's complex at the same time, all the malts contributing, the special B adding that different twist. The 05 yeast works well in this one.

Sounds great, and just in time for winter enjoyment. Do you have a fireplace? Cheers!

[Clibit]

...The stout is excellent. Everything I wanted has happened. It's easy to drink, not heavy, but it's complex at the same time, all the malts contributing, the special B adding that different twist. The 05 yeast works well in this one.

Sounds great, and just in time for winter enjoyment. Do you have a fireplace? Cheers!

I'm afraid not. I live in a little old house and a previous occupier took the fireplaces out to make the rooms a bit bigger. I'd have them back like a shot. Central heating and winter ales to warm the cockles.

[seymour]

Sounds great, and just in time for winter enjoyment. Do you have a fireplace? Cheers!

I'm afraid not...Central heating and winter ales to warm the cockles.

Too bad, I don't either, I have to stay warm the same way you described. Cheers!

[GeeThom]

After reading the initial post and taking the advice given above I made my Plum porter with Special B and it turned out to be really good.
I went with 6% special B with endeavour and Bramling cross ( see earlier post in this thread) and it came out a nice deep fruity/christmas cake type porter. Just bottled it about 10 days ago and already it is the best porter I have made, a real chocolate edge to go with the fruit almost but not quite rum,and a slight bitter aftertaste.
I bottled 20 bottles as it is and then added 15 ml plum flavouring to the rest and it does have a nice plum flavour and aroma. In reality I prefer it without the plum but hey it's Christmas and I am sure it will go down well. I also used dark Muscovado sugar to prime and I think this has enhanced the depth of flavour and also slightly darkened the colour which is now a deep ,deep ruby red colour.

No need to buy any Christmas presents now and I will definitely make this again but without the Plum

[Clibit]

Sounds really lovely that GT. And we have to try things to find out what works. I stick to grain, sugar, hops, yeast and water in my brewing, so many things you can do without adding other stuff. I must have some German DNA.