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Stocks in the Montjoye beer cupboard are getting dangerously low. There are plenty of things that I want to make, but I only have equipment for one at a time. I am resisting buying more gear, not only due to cost, but I’d have to find homes for the extra kit.
Anyway, I bottled this year’s harvest cider on Wed May 22nd. It is pale and cloudy. Very strange. Density at bottling was 1.004 but neither I nor Weaver remembered to take a starting density. Is it pale because we used Campden tablets? I’ll be interested to see Weaver’s versions to compare. He used Camden in only the first batch. Flavour is still a bit sharp but no where near as acidic as last year’s batch. No crab apples this year, we didn’t have people to spare to go pick them. 25L starting volume – one shy of 6doz stubbies.
So the fermenter was free and I had an unbooked weekend. Thusly on Friday night late, I ordered the grain for the Scottish Ale I have been wanting to brew. I love that one can submit an order in the middle of the night and still go pick it up the following morning! I’m glad this is a simple brew, ‘cause I woke all hazy and work-hungover on Saturday. Went down to the brew shop and said “I’ve had two beers and still can’t wake up”. Of course I meant coffees, not beers, which just illustrates how hazy I felt. I’m still thick headed today actually.
Set up the urn at about 9:30am, heated to nearly boiling. Then went to pick up the grain and yeast. Finished the mash and boil, to wort in cubes by about 4pm. (did a bunch of other domestic stuff in all the waiting time)
Recipe: Scottish Heavy 70/- (but target alcohol only 3.2%) from “Brewing Classic Styles”.
Scottish ale is clean and malty, with only low bitterness. This is the sort of style that got me over the hurdle of starting to drink beer. I thought it might be interesting to offer to some of my non beer drinking friends, plus I like the idea of having some to drink myself in winter months. Sadly it is said to improve with several months conditioning, so not a good brew to quickly restock the cupboard, but it is what I felt like making.
Temps, volume:
Started with 27.5L water by my roughish sight tube markings. Ended with the target 22L (two full cubes)-first time! I’d need more water for a stronger brew- more grain soaks up more water. Used 2 kettles of water for sparging.
5deg high for temp prior to mash worked (75 dropped down to the target 70deg after adding the cold grain).
Density, grain:
Transferred to the fermenter today and pitched the yeast (Safale US-05). My starting density was 1.042, recipe says only 1.038. Some of my grain translations may not have been quite right. It’s a bit of a challenge converting the grains listed in the book to ones I can actually order. For example below: recipe(ordered)
British pale ale malt (Joe White Traditional Ale) 2.95kg
Munich (Joe White dark Munich-maybe I should have used the light Munich?) 225g
Crystal 40L (Joe White Crystal) 450g
Crystal 120L(Joe White Dark Crystal) 115g
Honey Malt (Bestmalz Melanoidin- this choice was the result of some googling) 225g
Pale Chocolate 200L (Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate) 85g
Hops- only 21g of East Kent Goldings- which happily I had already, left over from previous brews. So this brew is fairly inexpensive- ~$23 for what should end up as ~20L/5doz stubbies/2.5 cases of (hopefully) tasty beer.
This time I waited longer after the whirlpool stir for the post boil sediment to settle. Maybe 15min? This did work better, the wort was much clearer with still no noticeable sediment after cooling.
Anyway, I bottled this year’s harvest cider on Wed May 22nd. It is pale and cloudy. Very strange. Density at bottling was 1.004 but neither I nor Weaver remembered to take a starting density. Is it pale because we used Campden tablets? I’ll be interested to see Weaver’s versions to compare. He used Camden in only the first batch. Flavour is still a bit sharp but no where near as acidic as last year’s batch. No crab apples this year, we didn’t have people to spare to go pick them. 25L starting volume – one shy of 6doz stubbies.
So the fermenter was free and I had an unbooked weekend. Thusly on Friday night late, I ordered the grain for the Scottish Ale I have been wanting to brew. I love that one can submit an order in the middle of the night and still go pick it up the following morning! I’m glad this is a simple brew, ‘cause I woke all hazy and work-hungover on Saturday. Went down to the brew shop and said “I’ve had two beers and still can’t wake up”. Of course I meant coffees, not beers, which just illustrates how hazy I felt. I’m still thick headed today actually.
Set up the urn at about 9:30am, heated to nearly boiling. Then went to pick up the grain and yeast. Finished the mash and boil, to wort in cubes by about 4pm. (did a bunch of other domestic stuff in all the waiting time)
Recipe: Scottish Heavy 70/- (but target alcohol only 3.2%) from “Brewing Classic Styles”.
Scottish ale is clean and malty, with only low bitterness. This is the sort of style that got me over the hurdle of starting to drink beer. I thought it might be interesting to offer to some of my non beer drinking friends, plus I like the idea of having some to drink myself in winter months. Sadly it is said to improve with several months conditioning, so not a good brew to quickly restock the cupboard, but it is what I felt like making.
Temps, volume:
Started with 27.5L water by my roughish sight tube markings. Ended with the target 22L (two full cubes)-first time! I’d need more water for a stronger brew- more grain soaks up more water. Used 2 kettles of water for sparging.
5deg high for temp prior to mash worked (75 dropped down to the target 70deg after adding the cold grain).
Density, grain:
Transferred to the fermenter today and pitched the yeast (Safale US-05). My starting density was 1.042, recipe says only 1.038. Some of my grain translations may not have been quite right. It’s a bit of a challenge converting the grains listed in the book to ones I can actually order. For example below: recipe(ordered)
British pale ale malt (Joe White Traditional Ale) 2.95kg
Munich (Joe White dark Munich-maybe I should have used the light Munich?) 225g
Crystal 40L (Joe White Crystal) 450g
Crystal 120L(Joe White Dark Crystal) 115g
Honey Malt (Bestmalz Melanoidin- this choice was the result of some googling) 225g
Pale Chocolate 200L (Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate) 85g
Hops- only 21g of East Kent Goldings- which happily I had already, left over from previous brews. So this brew is fairly inexpensive- ~$23 for what should end up as ~20L/5doz stubbies/2.5 cases of (hopefully) tasty beer.
This time I waited longer after the whirlpool stir for the post boil sediment to settle. Maybe 15min? This did work better, the wort was much clearer with still no noticeable sediment after cooling.
