Smoked Oatmeal Porter

Grain Bill
% KG MALT OR FERMENTABLE
71% 4.600 American Two-row Pale
8% 0.520 Oats, Flaked
7% 0.450 Chocolate Malt
6% 0.380 Crystal 60L
5% 0.350 Amber Malt
2% 0.100 Smoked Malt
2% 0.100 Carafa III
80 EBC (black)

Hop Schedule
60 mins 50g mystery unlabelled (Chinook?) leaf hops 13%AA (estimated
FO 15g Centennial & Goldings mixed (15 min steep)
50 IBU

Gravities (estimated)
OG 1.080
FG 1.020 (predicted)
7.5%abv (predicted)

Fermented with US-05.

This was a total cock-up of a brew from start to finish.

The recipe was dictated by what I had left over, so while the grain bill looks carefully designed, it's basically what was left in various bags, although the smoked malt was donated by Dean - I didn't want to go overboard with it, as too smoky is worse than not smoky enough (in my book). The hops were definitely high-%AA American, judging by the price sticker - the name label had gone missing, sadly.

The boiler I was using kept cutting out before it got to the boil (sorry Tom), and so I had to split the batch between 3 saucepans on the stove, and divide the hops between them. I had to transfer the hot wort to the fermenter and chill it, rather than chill in the copper, which wasn't really a problem, although my 'hop filter' turned out to be a slotted spoon holding back the hops and hot break. Was too focussed on getting things right to remember to take gravity readings.

A niggly brewday that was very challenging, although quite rewarding given the problems that had to be overcome. I'm interested to see what US-05 will do to such a low-hop, malt-heavy beer.

Blanche de St. Oswald

Grist

2.043kg (39.3%) German Premier pilsner malt (Weyermann)

2.043kg (39.3%) Wheat malt

424g (8.2%) Oat malt

340g (6.6%) Flaked Oats

243g (4.7%) German spelt malt

102g (2%) German acid malt

Hops & Additions

20g German Tettnang (4.5 %) Whole hops FWH

30g Czech Saaz (3.0%) Whole hops 15 mins

7g fresh orange zest 15min

7g coriander seed (ground) 15min

1 tbsp. Seville marmalade 15mins

4g pure camomile flowers at flame out

Yeast

Safbrew T-58

Water

Adjusted to ‘general purpose’ as per http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/water/water.html

Method

Mash at 68 degrees for 60 minutes

Boil for 60 minutes with additions as above.

Cool to 20 degrees and pitch yeast

Target Specifications

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.012

ABV: 5.3% ABV

IBU: 14.5 (Tinseth)

SRM: 3.5

Mash efficiency: 80%

Batch Size: 20L

Comments

After visiting Bruges in May I was fascinated by how varied this

style can be. I wanted to try and emulate the fine balance of flavours that good Belgian wit beers such as ‘Blanche de Namur’ and ‘St. Bernardus Wit’ demonstrate.

I chose to include camomile in the spices as I hope it will add a herbal note without being overpowering the other additions, or the fermentation characteristics.

I’m hoping to get another version of this beer brewed with WLP410 (Belgian Wit II) and with more flaked, unmalted grist additions before the Leeds HB meet for a comparison.

Contributor

Neil Gardner (Leedsbrew)

Embryo-Faced Assassin

Grist
3.5kg Maris Otter (97%)
75g Crystal 40L (2%)
50g Amber Malt (1%)

Hops and Additions
15 mins - 30g Citra leaf 13.8%AA
10 mins - 10g Protafloc granules
5 mins - 40g Citra leaf 13.8%AA
1 min - 70g Citra leaf 13.8%AA

Yeast
Rehydrated Safale US-05

Method
Mash at 66 degrees for 75 minutes
Collect 25 litres
Boil for 75 minutes, making additions as above
Cool to 25 degrees, splash aerate and pitch yeast

Target Specifications
OG: 1.041 (actual 1.048)
FG: 1.010 (predicted 1.015)
ABV: 4% (predicted 4.5%)
IBU: 40
SRM: 7
Mash Efficiency: 75%
Batch Size: 20 litres

Comments

I think I undercollected on this one - I lost a bit in the boil, and didn't top-off enough. Also, I think I lost a fair bit to hop absorption, yielding about 17 litres to FV, hence the higher than expected OG.

This is my attempt to turn Tom Fozard's (now of Rooster's Brewery) near-legendary Baby-Faced Assassin, a strong IPA with a metric shedload of very late hops, into a more sessionable beer, hence the slightly odd name.

It's a really wasteful way of using hops to make beer, but the results can be amazing if done right. Tom's latest homebrew exploit (and I hope he won't mind me saying this) has taken late hopping to it's illogical conclusion, with 400g of Chinook added at 1 minute before flame out. I hope he'll be good enough to share the recipe and results with us soon.

Thanks also go to Tom for the loan of the boiler.

Contributor
Zak Avery