Here’s the Recipe I used:
2.4 kg Marris Otter
2.3 kg Wheat Malt
270g Munich Malt
200g Porridge Oats
Mash 90 min 67 degrees Centigrade.
94 g Hallertauer Hersbrcker (2.1 % aa) 90 mins.
last 15 mins: 20 g Hallertauer Hersbrcker. 8g Irish moss. 11g crushed corriander seeds. 10g orange peel.
Brew day at the Lab as Fendog and I set up an IPA using the recipe below. Again, we use the church’s Burco boiler (made more efficient after a good descaling). We must remember next time either to do the boil outside or use the extractor fan. By the end of the one hour boil, there was beer dripping from the kitchen ceiling.
The recipe was adapted from one found on Beertools.com except that the original recipe used Glacier hops rather Willamette. But I couldn’t get hold of Glacier. According the Beertools analysis this should be a pretty hoppy IPA, but it didn’t smell like it. So who knows how it will turn out.
Off to visit the Outlaws for a week tomorrow, so it’s a perfect time to set up a brew at home as the fermenter wont be anyone’s way for the coming week. (Space is at a premium at Chez Trenchfoot which is why most of the brewing takes place at the Lab).
Fendog is also away at the moment so I’m flying solo for this one – my first adventure in speciality grain. First problem – something big enough to do a 5 gallon boil. Thankfully I remember the old church urn which is no longer used as the tap unit has perished. With a couple of flanged corks from my wine-making supplies and some brute force, I manage to block the tap. Bingo – the perfect thing to use for a boiler (in fact lots of homebrewers use these Burco boilers).
I used the recipe below for an Imperial Stout which I found on Beersmith. Of course, the SRM of the grain and the alpha acidity of the hops don’t exactly match those on the original recipe. I’m not sure if I should have done some maths and changed amounts to achieve the same colour and bitterness. I guess its hard to tell if you’ve never tasted it. I will just have to see what this is like and go from there if I want to perfect the recipe.
Can’t wait to see how this turns out!
Ingredients:
I have discovered that there is actually specialist software to help you with your beer brewing! The two best that I have seen are Beertools and Beersmith. Both allow you to design, adapt and scale recipes, calculate final colour, bitterness, alcohol content and cost, produce brew sheets, and hundred of other things. They both also have a huge database of different ingredients, recipes, and beer types with information about them. These are going to prove really useful and I am sure you will see us using them in future brewing exploits.
Not content to let Trenchfoot hog the limelight, I am finally back and ready for action after my compatriot has laid down the gauntlet with his ‘turd in a jar’ mead. I’ve had some tinned strawberries in the cupboard for quite some time now, desperate to have a go at a wine from tinned fruits following Trenchfoot’s quite outstanding plum wine cracked out at the Church christmas party. I’m going for a rather simple recipe:
2 x 400g tin of strawberries
1 kilo sugar
2 medium lemons
1/2 teaspoon tannin (or leave a tea bag to soak in a little water)
Pectolase (helps to clear the wine)
Yeast nutrient
Wine yeast
Water to 1 gallon
Drain off the syrup from the strawberries, and put to one side. Mash strawberries in a bucket. Dissolve the sugar in c. 4 pints of boiling water. Add syrup and sugar to strawberries, top up water to gallon and allow to cool. Add Tannin, pectolase, yeast and yeast nutrient and cover bucket. Stir daily for 4 days before throwing into a demijohn via a nylon sieve allowing fermentation to be completed.
I’m still sore that Fendog stole my idea of making mead. So whilst he’s busy preparing his Leviticus sermon, I thought I would get one on the go this weekend so we can have a good old fashioned brew-off.
Although Fendog’s mead is now in bottles and looking good, it tasted pretty rank at the racking stage, and I’m confident that I can make something far superior.
I’ve gone for a much sweeter recipe than Fendog, although the Tesco Value honey could prove to be my downfall…
1.9kg Tesco Value honey
~4l water
15g citric acid
1tsp wine tannin
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp wine yeast
I added enough water to the honey to dissolve it and boiled it for a few minutes then skimmed off the scum. This sterilises it and gets rid of the impurities. Then added water to make it up to 4.5l and added the other ingredients (you could start the fermentation in a smaller glass or bottle, but I couldn’t be bothered). Then shoved it all in a sterilised demijohn with a clean airlock. The hydrometer reading was 1.1
It looked strangely beautiful, but not like anything you would ever want to drink. It was a lovely clear golden liquid with weird jelly-like solids suspended in it with the yeast particles. There’s going to be one heck of a lees. I’ll be surprised if I get 5 bottles out of this.
Finally got round to bottling the banana wine thats been knocking around in a demijohn for goodness knows how long. Fendog was unavailable to help with the siphoning as he was getting his nostrils plucked. As a result, I disturbed the impressive sediment and the last bottle looks like a milkshake.
The others look great but I unfortunately I forgot to taste some. Will just have to wait and see.
This is the recipe I used:
2kg over-ripe bananas
4.5l water
1.1kg granulated sugar
250ml white grape juice concetrate
2 lemon (juice + grated rind)
1tsp pectolase
1tsp yeast
1tsp yeast nutrient
1tsp tannin
The recipe was from Turner & Turner (except I used grape concentrate instead of raisins) but it wasn’t clear if you were meant to peel the bananas or not. I peeled but I reckon that might have been wrong.
Its a fun recipe to make – I’ve never boiled a banana before. They look like a pan full of floating white turds, but they smell a lot better. In fact the whole house smelt of bananas for days (which does not happen when you boil a pan of turds, believe me).
We set up our first beer brew today following the Mentor’s instructions and using the ingredients he bought for us. He has been brewing for years but tends not experiement these days. This is his standard tecnique which is designed for speed, simplicity and ecomony which supposedly gives a pleasant lager with a bit if bite.
Its a really really simply method, takes les sthan three weeks, and is very cheap (less that £9 for 40 pints). Can it really be this easy?
Equipment
Ingredients
Method
We’ve called it Olde Badgers Crack, and its probably the simplest and cheapest method you’ll find (outside of buying a beer kit)
Using cartons, bottles or tins of fruit juice is probably the easier way to make wine. With the variety on offer these days, you can make some really interesting wines with very little effort. There is no need for straining, mashing, peeling etc!
Some recommend boiling the juice first it if contains preservatives or additives. I’m not sure what this is meant to achieve, but I did make an Orange juice wine onee without boiling it and it was proper minging. It is also advisable to add some grape juice concentrate to add body or “vinosity” to the wine. (Alternative you could add 250g of chopped raisins).
Here is a basic recipe for making 1 gallon (4.5 litres) of wine from the equivalent amount of fruit juice…
Equipment:
Ingredients:
Put the fruit juice, grape concentrate and sugar into the demijohn and stir/shake until dissolved. The sugar content can be adjusted depending on how drt or sweet you want your wine to be. Test with a hydrometer for more accuracy.
Add the other ingredients, stir and then fit the bung and airlock. Leave to ferment for about 3-4 weeks until bubbling stops. You can check for a hydrometer reading close to 1.000 to make sure the fermentation has stopped.
Clear and rack as necessary, then bottle. Leave for about 3 months before drinking.
Making wine from tinned fruit is a easy way to make some interesting wines – especially as it is so easy to buy a wide variety of tinned fruit in supermarkets these days.
This is a basic method that you can use to make 1 gallon (4.5l) of wine from a couple of standard sized (approx 550g) tins of fruit. (You actually use just 1 tin and adjust the sugar accordingly, but I find better tastes a produced using two).
Equipment needed:
Ingredients:
Strain the syrup off the fruit (but keep it for later!), put the fruit in your bucket and mash it well. Then add the chopped raisins – this will increase the body or “vinosity” of the wine which can be a bit watery otherwise.
Dissolves half the sugar in 3 litres of boiling water, add it to the bucket and leave to cool. Then add the syrup, pectin-destroying enzyme, tannin, yeast, yeat nutrient, and the crushed campden tablet. (If the pH is greater that 4 you will also need to add some citric acid or lemon juice).
Cover and leave to ferment for four days, stirring daily. (To cover, I use florist cellaphane tied round with string).
Strain through the sieve into the demijohn. Dissolve the rest of the sugar in 0.5 litres of boiling water and at to the must. Top up with water to the gallon mark if necessary.
Fit bung and airlock and leave in a warm place until fermentation finished (about 3-4 weeks). You can test with a hydrometer that the specific gravity is close to 1.000.
Clear and rack as necessary and them bottle. Leave for at least three months before drinking it.
