Collaboration Recipe Honey Wheat Beer

Here's the thing, my friend Phil has harvested his honey and we're going to make a Honey Wheat beer. Here's the next thing; I've not a clue what I'm doing. My last Wheat beer was infected and it is a style I hardly ever drink but then I drank a Lovibonds Gold Reserve. It's a honey wheat beer, not especially cloudy but one of the only beers I've ever consumed where you can actually taste the honey. 


And there's the problem with a honey beer, if you want the flavour to come through you have to take a risk. Honey harbours loads of wild yeasts so, unless you add it to the beer in the boil, the likelihood of an infected beer is increased. Of course if you add it to the boil, the flavour is largely boiled off. I'm prepared to take a risk (it is only a 19L batch after all) and add it to the beer after the initial fermentation has died down.


But, all I've got as far as a recipe goes is 2.5 kilos each of wheat malt and maris otter and a kilo of honey. I want some input from my readers (and let's face it - anyone else) who reckons they know a bit about this kind of beer style. So let's open up some suggestions and debate on a recipe.


I'm looking to make this beer in the next two to three weeks so give me time to propagate a yeast strain (preferably Wyeast as they're most easily available to me) and let's use hops that are readily available in the UK at this time. 


In terms of inventory I have the following hops in stock. Ahtanum, Apollo, Atlas, Amarillo, Cascade, Cluster, Citra, Columbus, Challenger, First Gold, Fuggles, Green Bullet, Hersbrucker, Northdown, Saaz, Simcoe, Sorachi, Willamette. 


So, please leave your comments below and we'll have a recipe by collaboration (or not) in a couple of weeks time. 

Ten Things I'd like To Do Before I Die

I'm not planning on dying any time soon, I should add, but I'm coming to the time of life when I should hopefully have the time (if not the money) to at least try and save up for some of these. I've been a husband and father (by choice, I might add) since I was twenty so am anxious to do what some of my friends did in their twenties before I'm too old to do them.


I'm blogging about it here but they aren't all beer related so I apologise for that. They're not listed in any particular order.

1. Buy a holiday home in Normandy: I love it there and will certainly be going back at the next available opportunity. Hopefully a place like this would pay for itself in 10 years or so as I would let it out during the peak times. Obviously there would be a barn or cellar type place in which to brew. 
2. Attend the Boxing Day test in an Ashes series. I know that, unless I want to get divorced, I will never achieve this. My wife hates cricket and would never agree either to accompany me or allow me to spend so much family budget away from her. 
3. Motorhome across the USA. This is actually a more concrete plan for when we retire. For me this would obviously involve visits to as many craft breweries as I could fit in during the trip which we plan will take 12 months. 
4. Build a shiny new brewery. Another one that is fairly achievable, this will allow me to do much temperature controlled mashing. I'm currently working out whether or not to go for propane or electricity. Whatever happens, it's not going to happen overnight. 
5. Drive through France and Spain on a culinary tour in a camper van. 
6. See a Test match at Lords. I've only been twice, once was in 1987, the year my mother died when the local publican, my father and I went to see the Saturday of the England v Pakistan test. It rained all day and not a ball was bowled. Later that year, they got tickets to the Saturday of the Oval test but I couldn't get the time off work. The only other time I went to Lords was to see what must have been a centenary test match where I saw Malcolm Marshall bowling to Sunny Gavaskar. 
7. Visit every racecourse in the UK and Ireland. I love a bit of horse racing but admit that ticking them all off is a bit nerdy. 
8. Brew one beer that is so awesome a commercial brewery picks it up and runs with it. 
9. Get to more county cricket matches at St Lawrence. I've not been since 2009 and it really is something I must address.
10. Avoid cancer and dementia long enough to see my children achieve their dreams. My eldest has embarked on a successful career in insurance and the pleasure it gives me is immeasurable. Yet, medically, cancer and dementia are our biggest challenges and, as we live longer, only become more prevalent. I'm not convinced I have either the courage or fortitude to live through either. I just hope the younger two manage to achieve their dreams whilst I'm still old and well enough to see it. 

What To Do With 58 Budweiser bottles?

Budweiser bottles, bless them, they've had a sad life; mass produced and then force fed tasteless over carbonated beer. What better thing to do, then, than re use them. I filled mine with and Imperial Stout made with all English hops but with T-58 yeast.


I'll be honest, I'm really pleased with the results; velvety smooth with a moderate (for RIS) level of alcohol. I bastardised a recipe on BeerSmith to reflect the ingredients I had in stock. Carafa I for Black Malt may have enhanced the overall smoothness. I also added 450g of Dark Muscovado sugar and I used the T-58 yeast because I'd not bothered to make a starter for my Irish Ale yeast. 


You may be wondering how 58 Budweiser bottles came to be in my house in the first place. The answer lies in the fact that I am a parent of teenage sons and Tesco's happened to have them on special offer. Alex was 18 the month before last and everyone seemed to turn up with a case of these. Clearing up after the party I thought to myself that a 300mm bottle would, in fact, be an ideal receptacle for a 7% beer. And then there was the irony of the previous contents. 


Recipe 


Brewlength 19L
IBU (EST) 51
EBC (EST) 97
OG 1075
FG 1020
ABV 7%




Grain Bill
Pale Malt 5450g
Crystal Malt 450g
Roasted Barley 450g
Carafa I 350g
Chocolate Malt 230g


Boil Ingredients
450g Dark Muscovado Sugar
40g Northdown (7.20%AA) FWH
43g EKG (5%AA) @ 30 mins
14g Fuggles (5.22%AA) @ 5 mins
1 x protofloc


Yeast  - T-58


Water treatment
55ml CRS, 
8g table salt added to boiler
14g Calcium chloride added to boiler

Beer. Wine. Saturday Kitchen.

I wasn't watching Saturday Kitchen today but I was watching my twitter feed with some interest as it filled with tweets about matching beer instead of wine with food. 


The argument, beautifully put by Dave Bailey in his blog, is that a publicly funded broadcaster should not, almost exclusively, match wine with food when beer which, as many of us know,  goes just as well (if not better). This bias is made all the worse when we consider that beer is our national drink. Beer is what made Britain great; it is right up there with Rolls Royce, British Airways, BT and BP.


Only last month we were being reminded of the export heritage that was Russian Imperial Stout and how British brewers are taking that beer style back to St Petersburg. So why are we allowing our national broadcaster to eschew our national drink in favour of a largely foreign beverage, and promote supermarkets in the process?


Would we be as forgiving if, switching on BBC1 on a Saturday evening in November, we were to find handball or volleyball on the TV instead of Match of the Day? It couldn't possibly happen could it, after all football is our national game, right?


What I love about Britain is its diversity; I love it that I can walk down Whitstable High Street and choose to eat Indian, Thai, French, Italian, seafood and so on. However our national broadcaster fails to reflect this diversity by solely sticking to pairing wine with food. 


Learning to home brew has opened my taste buds to a world of wonderful flavours, largely not available in supermarkets. To a degree I could argue that it has ruined my appreciation of beer; I'm drinking a beer now that I used to think was the mutt's nuts but now I find I can't finish it and I'm drinking a pint of Red Rye home brew instead. How did this happen? The beer I always loved didn't suddenly get crap, my taste buds evolved and they evolved by embracing the diversity that is the British beer scene. Our national broadcaster would do well to do the same.

New Recipe - Imperial Stout

I was watching BBC Breakfast News yesterday when I saw this film about a group of British brewers taking Imperial Stout back to Russia. I've only done one Imperial Stout before, a version of Thornbridge's St Petersburg. 


This recipe is bastardised from one of the recipes on the excellent Beer Smith website, which reminds me, I must  download the new version of Beer Smith (2). It uses slightly more traditional hops and there's no smoked malt at all in there. 


My own modifications are to replace the black malt with Carafa 1 to try and make it a little smoother and to add 450g of dark muscovado sugar in the boil.The mash schedule is also rather unusual in this one; it includes a 30 minute protein rest and a 30 min saccrification step.


Recipe


Batch Size 19L
Estimated OG 1087
Estimated IBU 50.4
Estimated Colour 97.1


Grains


5450g Pale Malt
450g Crystal Malt
450g Roasted Barley
350g Carafa Special 1
230g Chocolate Malt


Boil Ingredients


450g Dark Muscovado Sugar
Northern Brewer 8.5%AA - 33g FWH
EKG 5.22 AA 43g 30 mins
Fuggles 5.41%AA 28g 20 mins
Fuggles 5.41%AA 14g 2 mins


Yeast


SafBrew T-58


Mash Schedule


Protein Rest - 10L at 57C; Mash at 50C for 30mins 
Saccrification  - 10L at 95C; Mash at 70C for 30 mins
Mash Out - 9L @ 90C; Mash at 75.6C for 10 mins
Sparge with 4L @ 75.6C

Review - Dred Penguin's Oatmeal Stout

I've been looking forward to trying this for as while. I love dark beers, especially oatmeal stout and I was intrigued to see what Sorachi Ace would impart to the beer. 


I popped up to Gregg's place while he was getting a brew on. As it was a couple of days before the Derby, there were plenty of no parking signs. I can't remember what he was brewing but it sure smelled good. If it turns out as good as good as the Oatmeal stout it'll be well worth trying. Of course, if there's the tiniest bit of chill haze, that'll be my fault. I distracted Gregg while he was brewing and he forgot to add the irish moss.


So to the beer. It pours bible black with a tan head and medium carbonation. I love the full mouthfeel of the beer and the slight treacle taste I got at the back of my mouth. I had some fresh bread and mature cheddar for my supper and it went very well. Gregg's not the first to try Sorachi in a stout; Thornbridge's St Petersburg imperial stout uses it amongst others but it's a completely different animal. I can't really tell what Ace imparts to the beer other than a relatively smooth bitterness.


To read a bit more about Gregg and see some of his excellent photographs pop along to abeeronthedowns.blogspot.com

First Attempt at a Rye Ale

I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about this beer style other than I like it very much. I've only tried three; Zerodegrees RyePA, London Brick and Founders Reds Rye which was easily the best of the three.


I looked up a few Rye PA recipes on the net but ended up bastardising a Whispering Bob recipe thus:


Batch Size - 23L
Estimated OG - 1068
Estimated Colour  - 23 EBC
Estimated Bitterness - 61 IBU


Grain Bill
5000g Maris Otter Pale Malt
500g Aromatic Malt
500g Pale Rye Malt
350g Caramunich 
300g Carapils 
150g Crystal Wheat Malt


Hop Schedule
FWH - 25g Apollo 18%AA
FWH - 20g Amarillo 10.4%AA
Late Hops (last 10 mins) 5g Apollo, 5g Amarillo
Steep Hops (20mins @ 80c) 30g Apollo, 40g Amarillo
Dry Hops 20g Amarillo


Water Treatment
40L Water
50ml CRS
1.5g Gypsum added to Mash
1.5g Gypsum added to boiler
6.5g Epsom Salts added to boiler


Miscellaneous
1 x Protofloc Tablet @ 5mins


Yeast
1 x Wyeast American Ale #1056 in 1L starter


Mash Schedule
Mash In - 18L @ 77C
Hold Mash @ 70C for 60 mins
Mash Out - 7L @ 91.5C 
Hold Mash @ 75C for 10 mins
Sparge with 15L @ 75C
Add water to achieve pre-boil volume 30.5L


I ended up with an OG of 1062 and a volume of 25L so I must have added too much water at some point (my boiler isn't terribly well calibrated) but, if it ferments out to 1010 I'll have a beer at 6.8%.