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.

Northern Craft Brewers: English IPA Competition

Adrian of Northern Craft Brewers has flagged this event up - it might be of interest for anyone with a penchant for historical accuracy! They are running an English IPA competition in tandem with their March meet-up. There are more details on their website.

There's just about enough time to brew an IPA, stuff it in a barrel with a couple of kilos of hops, and warm-mature it for a month before bottling it for the competition.

Good luck!

First Meet Up: SUCCESS!

A very belated thank you to all the people who turned out for our first meet last month. To everyone who brought along beers to try - thank you, the standard generally was very high, and I hope you enjoyed sharing your beer in an atmosphere of positive support.

Special thanks must go to Dean at Mr Foley's for giving us the time and space to hold the event, and also to James from Summer Wine Brewery for coming along and sharing his experiences of moving from a home-brewer to a pro-brewer, something that I'm sure everyone in the room listened to with great envy!

The next meet is scheduled for mid-January, and we'll start taking submissions for people who want to showcase their beers at the start of January. Let's aim for 6 or 7 people presenting their beers, over the second hour of the meet. If others want to bring anything to share after that, fine, but the feedback received suggests that giving a smaller number of people 8 or 10 minutes to present their beer and get feedback worked well.

Onwards and Upwards!

Broadford Black IPA

Grist:
Maris Otter Pale Malt (5.45kg) – 77.9%
Munich Malt (1kg) – 14.3%
Crystal Malt (350g) – 5%
Carafa III (200g) – 2.9% (I added a further 300g Carafa before I sparged.  Aiming for maximum colour, minimum roastiness).

Hops:

Magnum 45g – 12.7% @90mins
Chinook 20g – 12.4% @20mins
Cascade 20g – 7.6% @20mins
Chinook 20g – 12.4% @5mins
Cascade 20g – 7.6% @5mins
Chinook 20g – 12.4% @0mins (steep 20 mins)
Cascade 20g – 7.6% @0mins (steep 20 mins)

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.069
Final Gravity: 1.017
Alcohol Content: 6.8% ABV
Bitterness: 79.2 IBU
Colour: 100 SRM
Yeast: Safale US-05
Mash: 90mins @ 67c
Boil: 90mins
Water treatment: 4g gypsum, 2g epsom salts, campden tablets.

A long awaited brewday (night!) and one that I decided to coincide with local fellow brewers @brotherlogic and @pdtnc #blackipaoff.  This was my fifth full mash brew (AG#5). The Brief was to brew a Black IPA, swap some bottles, taste, discuss.

Beer styles are always a topic for discussion and I know that the oxymoronic Black India Pale Ale is a debate in full flow.  I’m not here to discuss it, just to brew a beer, but I was interested to see what others had said on the subject Stout Fellow, Called to the Bar,  Into the Brew, Craft Beer and Hop Press.  All things considered I’m sticking with Black IPA.  If it’s good enough for Kernel, Brodies, Windsor Eton Brew, Thornbridge and Buxton then it’s good enough for me!

I’ve now brewed with this setup a few times and I’m really happy with the results this time around.  On day 3 of the fermentation the hydrometer reading is down to somewhere between 1.030 and 1.020 (difficult to tell through the krausen and I’m not messing around dipping trial jars. One of these days I’ll treat myself to an FV with a tap!).

You can see some pics of the brew night here.

Looking forward to the next Leeds Homebrew meeting in January 2012.

Contributor: David Bishop (@broadfordbrewer)

Guest Speaker Announced

Ladies and gents, we're pleased to announce that for our first meet on the 20th October, James from Summer Wine Brewery has agreed to come along and say a few things about, well, whatever he wants really, but hopefully about beer and (home)brewing.

We're especially delighted as we know that James was a keen, nay, fanatical homebrewer before founding Summer Wine Brewery with his business partner Andy. Should you need any further proof of his credentials, please see the picture below, and the accompanying comment! (twitpic link here)



"this is what my kitchen looked like when i knew my hobby had got out of hand!!"

Running Order - Thursday 20th October

Here's a draft format for the evening, based on some suggestions received from a member of the London Amateur Brewers. None of this is set in stone, so if you have any strong feelings either way, please let us know.

The hour slot from 19.00 to 20.00 is intended to be a bit of a structured part, and maybe we can persuade one of the many great brewers close to Leeds to come along and say a few words about how they got started in brewing. If anyone is reading this and fits the bill, particularly if you got going through an interest in homebrewing, please email our admin Zak Avery (zak (at) thebeerboy.co.uk)

18:30 Arrive and get a beer
19:00 Welcome / Talk / Q&A
20:00 Tasting of members' beers
21:00 Meeting adjourned. Carousing optional.

What has also been suggested is that we limit the tasting slots to around 6, spread over the tasting hour. We'd like to allocate the slots on a first-come first-served basis, although we could also draw lots if we are oversubscribed.

Again, please let us know which you think would be better - if you'd rather a more free-for-all bottle swap type event, we can do that too!

First Meet-Up Confirmed - Thursday 20th October 2011

I'm happy to announce that the first meet-up for readers and contributors to this blog will be Thursday 20th October, at Mr Foley's Cask Ale House on The Headrow in Leeds.

Dean, the manager of Mr Foley's (and blog contributor) has very kindly offered us space in the pub. I'm unsure yet as to whether his hospitality will extend to dropping the bottles off beforehand!

The format of the evening is as yet undecided, but will certainly involve drinking each others homebrew, and giving constructive and supportive feedback. Exactly how that will pan out, I've no idea, but let's use that as a guide, and see how far it gets us.

Any comments on how the evening should work are welcomed.