June ramblings

July 4, 2018Leave a comment

A lot’s changed around me between May and June. The apple blossom and hawthorn had it’s day as did a number of yellow flowers that punctuate the rich green of late spring: archangel, broom, buttercup and what I think is garden rocket. The blues, pinks and purples of bugle, vetch, woody nightshade, speedwell, herb robert red campions and common spotted orchid appeared and were then upstaged by the whites of elderflower, dog and field rose, bramble and various umbellifers. The skies and views of the landscape were pretty special too. Distant thunderstorms provided light-shows at sunset in an otherwise cloudless sky. I sat and watched the mist creeping up the valley as the sun went down. Initially forming small pools, revealing depressions in the flood plain that usually go unnoticed, then silently enveloping each contour.

The fauna has been more overt than usual. Curious fox cubs have been beating the bounds. A lone roe deer spent the afternoon in the two meadows satelliting the house. Two cuckoos chased each other through the tree tops. Mindful from last year, I have been listening out for the nightjar. We heard it one evening and slipped out into the woods around 10pm and heard them churring and saw their kestrel-like shape darting between the trees and circling the clearing. I also paused on the track when a small blob-shaped shadow moved on the track in front of me. It turned out to be a young badger, which carried on past me within a few meters with no apparent awareness I was there. Another day, in the early evening, two young badgers chased each other across the track in front of us. The barn owl has also made a couple of rare appearances, patrolling the meadow boundaries and hedge-lines.

Simon from Beer Boars invited me along to chat about my project to the group. It was a great way for me to gather my thoughts and summarise what I’ve been doing and what I’m trying to do. Up in Hackney Wick we tasted 10 of my beers including some single flower ferments, blended ales and ales from the yeast blend. I asked them to fill in short feedback forms and a really appreciated the comments made by the tasting panel.

My urban yeast hunt from Brick Lane continues with Kill the Cat. The first samples weren’t hugely successful with a lot of mould and aromas I described as sweaty, bin-like, cabbage-like, nasty B-O, meaty….. some were more promising and kept. The sensory testing notes can be found here. The proportion of dirty samples was certainly higher than at home. Maybe the urban environment is just dirtier.

I stepped the more promising tubes up to 250ml with unhopped acidified wort pH 4.3 and left for several weeks….. and nothing happened; the gravity in all four samples stayed at 1.030 – very odd. Maybe the acid inhibited the yeast? All smelt sweet and pleasant. The sensory testing notes are here. The pH had dropped in two, including the dandelion which had what looked like a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), and I decided to give them a second chance with 500ml hopped unacidified wort. They are now fermenting. In retrospect I should have used unhopped wort because I’ve probably inhibited the bacteria that was promising. I also should have used 250ml starters again because the yeast hadn’t propagated in the previous step. I possibly should have given the others a second chance also and then maybe revived those promising saison-like aromas.

In the meantime I went back to Brick Lane and took more samples, this time with hopped wort. I collected field rose, red clover, mallow, elderflower and bramble and allowed to ferment for two weeks. These were more promising and the notes can be found here. The kept samples were stepped up to 250ml with hopped wort. All started fermenting quickly.

amateurish aseptic attempts

Tiny pellicle from red clover

Mould on elderflower

It may be relevant that the bramble was next to the roadside, so picked up more dust and grime. I have a little theory, completely lacking in any fact, that hop use in the 15th and 16th centuries might have coincided with the growing dirtiness of towns and hops were most effective at keeping ales clean while also tasting nice – i.e. it was hygiene and necessity that drove the hop takeover rather than tastes and style preferences. If there are any historians out there, feel free to put me back in my box. Maybe a study comparing hop usage to urbanisation and lack of sanitation across europe would be interesting.

Back to my own funky flowers, I tested and propagated wood sorrel, violet and primrose. The notes are here. Three were propagated up to 500ml with unhopped wort. I don’t think it’s conclusive whether the water bath encouraged acidity or not. New flowers have recently been collected. These were elderflower, bramble and field rose and were placed into centrifuge tubes with unhopped wort.

I’m tentatively optimistic about the 1950s Yorkshire yeast. Of the two initial samples, one did nothing but the other fermented quickly with a big krausen and floculated well leaving good clarity. The final gravity was 1.006, a pH of 4.1 and a fruity smell and taste. I’ve stepped this up to 500ml and have also started a third sample. Both are fermenting well. What I don’t know is how to prove these are the 1950s brewing yeast and not just a contamination.

My brewing time has been taken up by my cousin’s wedding beer. The last three brew days have been two trial brews and a double brew for the wedding. The trial beers were good. One was a hoppy pale ale under 4%. The other is a strongish Yorkshire bitter at 5%. I had thought it might be nice to use the resurrected Yorkshire yeast for the Yorkshire bitter but timing didn’t work out. I’ll have to brew something for the family post wedding. I have something in mind.

brew with a view

Clean fermented wedding beer in the making

Finally I went on a foraging course with Sarah from Wild Feast . We spent four hours exploring the meadows, hedgerows and woods of Sussex. I love the different perspective one gets when exploring at a different pace. In this case we slowed it right down and I appreciated just how much more there is to see. I learnt a lot from Sarah: identified plants I didn’t know; gained confidence with plants I sort of knew; discovered flavours from plants I knew but didn’t appreciate; and learnt ways to use them I hadn’t considered. Sarah brought some food, liquors and infusions she had prepared, which gave me ideas of how complementary favours could be transferred to beer. I really enjoyed the experience at it was a pleasure to meet Sarah. Hopefully I will brew up some foraged recipes in the coming months.

Swine cress – peppery

Cow parsley seeds – carroty

Sweet vernal grass – buffalo grass vodka-y

Angelica

Hogweed seeds – bitter orange and coriander!

May… be the beginning of something special…

May 10, 2018May 14, 2018Leave a comment

It feels as though spring accelerated rapidly after a slow start this year. The dandelions took me by surprise. Suddenly they were everywhere and just as quickly they seem to have gone to seed and blown away. Certain flowers seem to take over in waves. The buttercups have taken the place of the dandelions in the meadow, where blackthorn ruled the hedges hawthorn – mayflower – radiates, on the woodland floor the glorious bluebell’s time is passing and wild garlic’s white burst are illuminated the gathering summer gloom beneath the canopy.

Just a week ago the train line was starting to green up. The trees were were no longer sparse but voluminous. The void being filled and everywhere feeling closer. It has now settled into that state as if the change never happened. The leaf canopy that overhangs the road was a cold, lime green but now that colour has deepened to something deeper and richer.

Dandelion

Blackthorn

Milkmaids

Dandelion

Blackthorn

Last year’s forestry work seems to have displaced the nightingales. I can still hear them but they are now deeper into the wood and I am hearing snippets during the day rather than the long plaintive song. As part of the annual cycle, or as a one off change in the environment, gaps are made and filled and often space is found and filled where no apparent gaps were to begin with. Garlic mustard seems to be having a bumper year. That, or I’ve become more sensitive to it. The cow parsley is also now in full bloom. Bugle, greater stitchwort, Ale hoof, cow parsley and dead-nettle are all in flower. Primroses are still visible and I think I spotted an archangel.

Bugle

Ale Hoof

Scow Parsley

Greater Stitchwort

I’ve tried a number of variations on the theme of yeast harvesting recently; using the same technique in a London park, spontaneous fermentation under apple blossom and 60 plus year old takeaway dregs. This post documents them.

Dan at Kill the Cat, a beer shop on London’s Brick Lane, asked me to help him collect wild yeast from the Nomadic Community Garden. In the event, the garden was shut but we found loads of flowers in Allen Gardens. It amazed me how much was there when I stopped and looked. What at first looked like nothing but grass and hedges included dandelion, yarrow, dead-nettle, cow parsley, Alexanders that are non-toxic as well as butter cups and alkanet which possibly are. There was also hawthorn in the hedge. We took samples of the dandelion, dead-nettle, alexanders and hawthorn. I chickened out of cow parsley just in case it was hemlock. These samples were treated the same as those picked at home. 6 flowers were placed in individual centrifuge tubes with unhopped wort. The difference was that I prepped everything before leaving home; sanitising the tubes, boiling up the wort and carrying a spray bottle of sanitiser. Dan has some exciting plans for what he would like to do with the yeast, with potentially some collaborations, so let’s hope for a successful harvest! After a week in the tubes there are lots of bubbles, one or two with mould, and I will probably remove the flowers to prevent them spoiling.

Hawthorn

Dead-nettle

Experiment number two employed mini arboreal coolships – AKA small buckets of hot wort hanging in trees. I wanted to capture the moment of the apple blossom using a variation on Michael Tonsmeire’s ambient / spontaneous captures on The Mad Fermentationist. The wort was preacidified rather than hopped, to mitigate bad bacteria but not inhibit good bacteria. 1 litre of hot wort was placed in a 2 litre bucket, with muslin over the top and arched hat of A4 acetate attached to the bucket handle. There are four apple trees in the garden and a bucket in each of the three largest trees overnight. In the morning they were tipped into 1 litre Kilner jars with airlocks. After 24 hours there was activity in all of them with one, from the furthest tree from the house, particularly bubbly.

The third experiment was to reawaken very old beer dregs. My mother’s family live in Hull and an earthenware gallon beer vessel in a wicker carrier was found in a store cupboard at my gran’s house. For a number of years now my parents have used it as a door stop. I recently gave it a bit of a swish and could hear that liquid was inside it. I suspected it had been forgotten about sometime in the 1950’s, possibly a little earlier or later, between when my grandparents moved to that house and when my grandfather died. I think it was used to carry takeaways from a local pub or brewery. It says Moors’ and Robson’s breweries Hull on it, who operated between 1888 and 1960. At the weekend I sucked out the contents with a barrel thief. It was a black sedimenty sludge. This has been added to a hopped low gravity starter.

I also stepped up my previous flower captures – wood sorrel, violet and primrose. There was no great difference between the aromas coming from the room temperature and the water bath samples. Those in the water bath had been held at 35-40 deg C for 72 hours to encourage souring, as an experiment.

Of the wood sorrel at room temperature two had mild fruity esters and were kept. One had white mould with black spots and was binned. Of the warmed wood sorrel, one had mild fruity esters with a possible pellicle, one was fruity and creamy and one smelt of sweaty bum. The latter was binned. The four good samples were combined In a conical flask with 250ml of un-hopped un-acidified 1.030 gravity wort.

Of the violet, one was bubbly with an aroma of flowery perfume but possibly a bit sweaty. Two possibly had black spots of mold where the flowers were not submerged but didn’t smell bad. These two were binned. Of the warm violet, one was sweaty / cheesy (binned). The other two had a flowery perfumed aroma. These two were put in a bottle of 250ml unhopped wort and placed in a water bath at 40 deg C. The single room temperature violet sample was treated as the wood sorrel.

Of the three primrose at room temperature, all were flowery but subtle. Of the warmed primrose, one smelt a bit sweaty and one was a bit savoury – on the way to horsey or leathery maybe. Both were binned. The final tube was a bit flowery. The four retained tubes were treated in the same way as wood sorrel.

After 24hrs both the wood sorrel and the primrose were actively fermenting.

Back to back

April 18, 2018April 19, 2018Leave a comment

Over the winter I’ve been brewing a series of darker beers to age for next winter. These have included Flanders Red, Oud Bruin, Stock Ale and Old Ale. The second two were brewed to top up the first two when I racked them off the primary yeast cake, using low hopped portions of the wort. I’ve also brewed them to reuse my wild yeast blends. The Flanders Red was split and half was fermented with traditional commercial yeast and half fermented with wildflower yeast Blend 2. The Oud Bruin was also split with half fermented on the commercial yeast cake from the Flanders Red and the other half fermented with Blend 3 wild yeast. The stock ale was fermented with Sussex yeast in the primary and Brettanomyces Clausenii in the secondary. The Old Ale was then intended to use all three wild yeast blends (Blend 1, Blend 2 and Blend 3 from 2017) and therefore act as a yeast bank.

I brewed the Old Ale on 14 April. It ended up being another marathon brew day with back to back brews starting at 3pm and finishing at 3am… The first brew was a trial run for my cousin’s wedding this summer; a pale, sessionable, ale with shed loads of locally grown English Chinook and American west coast yeast. The second brew was the Old Ale and I wanted to make a better job of brewing a strong ale after winging it with the Stock Ale and not achieving the desired volume. It went pretty well but my mash tun is too small for that quantity of grain so I struggled to get it up to the desired mash temperature. I tried draining off portions and heating them up in a saucepan, which raised the temperature to 66 deg C but not 68 deg C as intended. The recipe’s below:

OG:1.078 ABV:8.6% SRM: 34 IBU: 50

61% Maris Otter
32% Munich Malt
2% Carafa 1
3.5% crystal malt (30L)
1.5% dark crystal malt (120L)

Mash at 68 deg C for 60mins. Boil for 150 mins.

I sparged 25 litres and split this, using 6.5 Litres for the Oud Bruin top-up and and 18.5 litres for the Old Ale. The Oud Bruin top-up was boiled for 1 1/2 hours with Bullion hops to 10IBU. The Old Ale was boiled for 2 hours with equal weights of Bullion hops at the start of the boil and 30 mins from the end of boil. After racking, the gravity was only 1.072 so it was put back in the kettle and boiled for a further 30mins (150 mins in total).

The Oud Bruins were both tasting nice still slightly sweet with mellow smokiness from the cherry wood smoked malt. The commercial yeast portion had a pH 4.3 and the Blend 3 portion was at pH 4.4 so not very acidic yet; hopefully that will go lower with time. The gravities were 1.010 and 1.008 respectively. Both were chestnut brown.

11.5 litres of Old Ale was racked onto the wild yeast blend of blends. After 24 hours fermentation started in earnest, shooting through the airlock.

About 2 litres of wort remained once the carboy were filled; a mixture of Old Ale and the Oud Bruin top-up. This was used as starters to feed Blends 1, 2 and 3 for a future pale ale.

I now feel I’ve come full circle. The wild cultures from 2017 are now house cultures for 2018 and will continue to be experimented with. The seasons have passed by and spring has arrived again. It’s been a slow, cold start for a few weeks primroses were the only flower, uncontested. Then wood anenomes slowly gathered momentum. But in the last week much of the flora and fauna has woken up. This included the birds and subsequently me. The dawn chorus woke me up at 5:30 the other day but it was worth listening to.

An area of woodland near the house was cleared last year. It needed doing but it left a stark scar. Now, however, it is being reclaimed. Plant that I haven’t seen there before are taking over: primrose, wood sorrel, violets, garlic mustard and wavy bitter cress. This motivated me to collect my first wild flower yeast captures of 2018. I realise I looked pretty weird out in the woods at 2230, head torch on, carrying a stainless steel bowl full of 18 centrifuge tubes and a pair of tweezers…. a possible error was to use the same tweezers for each flower so cross contaminating the samples.

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Last year I didn’t generate much sourness. This is mainly do to over hopping the brews but I though I would try an experiment to optimise lactobacillus production. I took 6 samples of each flower and half the centrifuge tubes were treated like last year – filled 2/3 full with 1.035 gravity wort, aerated and left at room temperature. The work was unhopped pale malt extract. The other 9 tubes were filled a little more, not aerated and then places in a thermos flask water bath at just under 40 deg C. I will leave them for a few days as if sour worting before allowing to cool to room temperature and aerating. Maybe this won’t work because it is not a pure lactobacillus culture and the high temperature may encourage off flavours or other bacteria – no harm in trying though. I also read somewhere that ground dwelling plants have stronger lactobacillus cultures, which is why cabbages lactoferment so easily. We shall see.

Spring awakening

March 16, 2018March 21, 20185 Comments

To recap, back in November I went to the London BrewCon and took part in the MegaBlend. For this Brewlab took away participants’ wild cultures, house cultures and bottle dregs, screened them, propagated the blend and distributed it around the world. My wild flower yeast blend 1 and 2 went into this. They did this all free of charge so it was an amazing effort by them. Last weekend I made my first brew with the culture and Emma Inch, a journalist and home brewer who had taken an interest in the project, came round to see what I was doing. The brew day was a week later than planned because of snow, which meant that the ingredients arrived too late and we were snowed in.

The brew day was a bit chaotic. I’m learning I’m not as good at multitasking as I would like. I attempted two overlapping brews – starting the second mash once the first was complete – and, with talking to Emma at the same time, my timings and attention to detail were a bit off. In the end the first brew went fine, the second was salvaged and the kitchen looked like a bomb site. It was really nice to meet Emma though and I look forward to reading her article.

Pellicle on the starter

For the MegaBlend culture I wanted to brew a pale farmhouse ale with some complex fermentables from unmalted grains and some extra body and mouth feel from rolled oats. Call it misplaced nostalgia but I also wanted a varied grain bill to add some preindustrial complexity and a sense of making do with what was available. The recipe is below:

OG:1.055 ABV:6.6% SRM: 7 IBU: 8

67% Maris Otter
10% Wheat Malt
10% Spelt Malt
8% Flaked Oats
5% Flaked Wheat

Mixed Bushel of Hops Heritage hops at 60mins and flame out
60min mash at 69deg C

I intended to add a little Epsom Salts and Precipitated Chalk to aid fermentation, as both magnesium and calcium are low in our moderately soft water, but I forgot… I also added 10 minutes on to the boil because the Protofloc went in late…

I had made a starter for the MegaBlend to ensure it was vigorous. Alison from Brewlab had told us it was big enough for 20 litres so cell count should have been fine. Because of the snow delay the starter had a week in the fridge following a week fermentation but it quickly became active again once I took it out. The aromatics coming off the starter were really appealing: there was an acetic acidity and depth of funk. Possibly wrongly, I didn’t pour away the starter liquid, mainly because the yeast was still active in suspension and also because the aromatics were so good.

Within 24 hours the airlock was very active and I opened the window to keep the room temperature below 20 deg C. After a few days the airlock had slowed to a regular bubble.

For my second brew I wanted a wort of similar colour, strength and character to top off the Flanders red. I had also become interested in stock ales from reading Country House Brewing in England by Pamela Sambrook and drinking Burning Sky’s Stock Ale. I intended to draw off 15 litres of wort and use 5 litres low hopped for the Flanders Red and 10 litres high hopped for the stock ale. I took far too little wort and so, post boil, ended up with 5.5 litres of stock ale and 3 litres to top up the Flanders red. I realised I had residual sugar in the mash so remashed and made a 5.5 litre batch of bitter. The mash had been left dry for at least an hour so I don’t know whether this will affect it. I think there was still residual sugar in the mash also. I clearly need to do some homework on brewing strong beers and parti-gyling. I started with the intention of brewing an entire ale and ended up parti-gyling. I realise I was winging it, messed up the volumes but I think the character and strength of the stock ale, flanders red top-up and bitter should be fine. I imagine the malt for country house brewing would be a bit less uniform than what we have today so I’ve used a mixture of Maris Otter, Chevalier (a heritage variety) and crisp amber malt to provide a varied complexity to the taste.

Flanders red top up OG:1.073 ABV:8% SRM: 24 IBU: 11
Stock ale OG:1.078 ABV:8.5% SRM: 23 IBU: 70
Bitter OG:1.040 ABV:4.0% SRM: 17 IBU: 45

39% Maris Otter
39% Chevalier
11% Crisp amber malt (25L)
5.5% crystal malt (30L)
5.5% medium crystal malt (75L)

60min mash at 67deg C.

Stock ale hops:

50:50 East Kent Goldings and Mixed Bushel of Hops Heritage hops at 60mins (49 IBU)
Mixed Heritage hops at 30mins (18 IBU)
Mixed Heritage hops at Flame out

Flanders red top-up hops:

Mixed Bushel of Hops Heritage hops at 60mins (11 IBU)

Bitter

50:50 East Kent Goldings and Mixed Heritage hops at 60mins (29 IBU)
Mixed Heritage hops at 30mins (22 IBU)
Mixed Heritage hops at Flame out

I took samples of the Flanders red before topping up. The batch fermented on commercial yeast was racked when I made the Oud Bruin. It tasted fine but not quite happy in its skin yet. It wasn’t very smooth and hadn’t developed much acidity. Hopefully the addition of fresh fermentables from the top up will feed the bacteria as well as the yeast. The batch fermented on my wild flower Blend 2 was a lot smoother. Still a bit sweet and young so I hope it becomes more savoury with age. It took a couple of days for these to start fermenting. As is consistently the case, the wild yeast ferments slower and for longer, and this is still the case compared to the Roeselare Blend.

I also recently bottled Blend 3 and the reuse of Blend 1. A portion of Blend 3 has been kept back for blending with Blend 1 and 2. Blend 3 had a gravity of 1.004 and a pH of 4.3 with a spicy, Turkish delight taste. Blend 1 reuse had a gravity of 1.003 and pH of 4.4. The taste still had some body, which was surprising for the gravity, and the taste was clean but tangy.

Tasting notes…. Blend 2 has a strong nail varnish aroma, which is probably beyond pleasant. I will leave it a few months and see if it improves in the bottle. Elderflower has a floral aroma, a biscuity taste and creamy mouth feel. I particularly liked this one. Dog rose had a softer floral aroma than elderflower, a slightly darker colour and a taste reminiscent of Turkish delight. Heather ale was pale gold, tasted of flower honey with a tangy finish. The head quickly diminished.

I am concerned about the oxidation from blending and head space. Blend 2 has definitely suffered because of this and Blend 3 might be affected. While I’ve enjoyed drinking Blend 1, the single flower ferments have a cleaner, less creamy taste to them. This year I will only Blend if the ales will benefit from balancing out. I will still Blend the yeast though.

The first flowers are now out with a scattering of snowdrops and clumps of primrose. It feels like spring is breaking through. The birds are more active and the dawn chorus streams through the window in the mornings now. I might revisit primrose after using them last year. I read somewhere that veg near to the ground has more lactobacillus present. I’m wondering whether the same is true with flowers and will try and encourage a sour culture from them soon.

Bruin Porter

January 24, 2018January 25, 20181 Comment

It’s dark, damp and misty out there. Still, the sky’s are lightening as I leave the house each morning and there are even a few flowers knocking about. Gorse is indefatigable, snowdrops are coming through and I think catkins count as flowers. With the full vibrant richness of summer stripped away I can also appreciate the subtler points that can now stand clear: The lichens are diverse in colour and texture; Moss carpets horizontal oak branches above the road; The pattern formed by the tips of branches are unique and distinctive.

My taste in beer tends to follow the seasons so at this time of year I have a yearning for darker ales: porters, old ales, stock ales, Flanders reds and oud bruins. I need to get better at brewing a desired style in advance of wanting to drink it. I’d love to be drinking my recent brews now but, with a bit of discipline, I will leave them alone until next winter.

The weekend just past was a marathon session of blending bottling and brewing. On Friday night I started by bottling the demijohn of Blend 1 on American oak chips. It had a soft, smooth, vanilla aroma and floral notes. The oak character might be better if it was more subdued. Let’s see how it develops in the bottle. I will be putting some of the blend of Blends 1, 2 and 3 onto oak but I might try light toast French oak for a subtle, more spicy character.

Blend 2 had developed a mega pellicle since November. I bottled 17 375ml bottles and retained a gallon demijohn to blend with Blend 1 and 3. There was a nail varnish and cherry aroma, though not unpleasant. Looking back I reported the same when I was propagating the the Rowan capture.

November

December

January

The remaining five single flower ferments were taste tested for blending. These were elderflower 1 and 2, rose, meadowsweet and heather. Again the character of each can be traced back through the stages.

Originating Flower	Gravity	pH	Tasting Notes
Elderflower 1	1.006	4.9	Clear. Light gold. Aroma of pea flower. Did not taste due to high pH. BINNED
Elderflower 2	1.006	4.5	Clear. Light gold. Astringent flower and honey aroma. Spicy taste. Slightly harsh aftertaste.
Rose	1.005	4.6	Clear. Light gold. Soft floral aroma. A bit soapy in the mouth. The most floral.
Meadowsweet	1.009	4.4	Clear. Golden. Somewhat unusual but pleasant aroma – like tutti frutti. Also sweet biscuit and honey. Fairly clean in the mouth. The most interesting.
Heather	1.006	4.0	Clear. Golden. Not so distinct after the Meadowsweet. The most honey-like

These demijohns were then blended and some bottles taken. As before there was no great contrast in acidity to balance out so I went for roughly equal measures. I bottled 4 Elderflower II, 4 Rose, 3 Meadowsweet and 2 Heather. The reason for the different number of bottles was that the 2.5 gal carboy wasn’t filling up enough. Elderflower I was binned because the pH was not low enough to be safe and the aroma of pea flowers wasn’t amazing. Some of the dregs from each demijohn were retained for the following brew. The dregs from the Heather had been kept in the fridge since it was racked off the plant matter.

Saturday morning was brew day. I wanted to brew something close to an Oud Bruin but with a nod to a brown porter that I brewed last year. That had been a clean fermentation but I had kettle soured half of it and it worked rather well – a sort of chocolate yoghurt; rich, smooth, cleanness.

For this brew I wondered if a bit of smoke flavour would add a nice complexity. I was concerned that I could end up with harsh, phenolic bitter flavours from the smoke, acidity and bitter roastiness so I asked others on Milk the Funk and Great Brettanomyces Facebook forums. I decided upon 15% cherry wood smoked malt. The consensus of opinion was that too little smoked malt would be indistinct and phenolic and the fruit wood smoked malts were less bacony. Oak smoked wheat was another strong recommendation. I also used Carafa I for a debittered roastiness.

Before Christmas I went to an open brewery event at Cellarhead, which is just down the road. The brewer, David Berry, recommended A Bushel of Hops. I’m so pleased and excited to discover this. Dorothy Hallamby is growing heritage varieties of hops and she’s based in my village. I’ve now got a big step closer to brewing local. I bought a blend of old English varieties that included Mathon, Cobbs, White Grape, Early Bird and Fuggles.

The recipes is below:

OG:1.060 FG:1.009 ABV:6.6% SRM:33 IBU:10 20L batch

44% Munich malt
26.5% Maris Otter malt
15% smoked cherry wood malt
5.5% Caramunich malt
2.5% Special B malt
1.5% Carafa I
5% rolled oats

18g Old English Blend (5.92% AA) at 60mins
Mashed at 68 deg C for 60mins. Boiled for 70mins.

Once chilled the batch was split, racking half on the slurry from last month’s Flanders red and half with with the combined wild slurry from Elderflower 2, Rose, Meadowsweet and Heather. The Flanders red was racked to secondary just before. To recap, this slurry was WLP565 Belgian Saison 1 and WLP665 Flemish Blend, which includes Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces yeasts with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus bacteria. I have read that the bacterial souring can increase when the slurry is reused so it will be interesting to see. It will also be interesting to see whether my wild yeast changes its character and whether it becomes more sour.

Down the line I am considering racking some of this onto Elderberries. It would be a nice nod to the source of the yeast. I think there is a dark elderberry ale called Ebulum but I’ve never had it. One to track down maybe.

London BrewCon Megablend update; Brewlab have packaged it all up and are sending it out so I need to plan what to do with it. It will be nice to see whether I can detect the character of my yeasts in the blend.

Year-end roundup

January 2, 2018January 25, 20181 Comment

London Homebrew Week and the BrewCon were the week of the 6th Nov. It was great to meet the brewers, James and Jack, at Redchurch Urban Farmhouse Bring the Funk event. James felt the Gorse sourced wild ferment had lacked oxygen during primary fermentation and had a slight off flavour as a result. I wondered whether this could have also been down to a low pitching rate of yeast. I only propagated a 250ml starter for the gorse. The general consensus on the Dandelion was very positive so I kept the bottle dregs and will try to keep the yeast going.

The highlight of the BrewCon for me was the MegaBlend, meeting fellow home brewers and meeting the team from Brewlab. They put Blend 1 and Blend 2 under the microscope so I was able to see the wild yeast and bacteria in the samples. Good to have confirmation that they’re there!

Taken by Brewlab

305A52CA-BA29-447A-9D01-DEBBB1DD7439

About 15 – 20 samples were brought to the MegaBlend; a mixture of bottle dregs and wild captures. Brewlab took them away, will screen each sample and propagate the blend before sending it out to us. The story can be followed on the Facebook page.

Brewlab streak plate Blend 1

Brewlab streak plate Blend 2

I’m now drinking Blend 1 and some of the single source bottles that have gone into Blend 2. Tasting notes below and in the sensory testing diagram:

Date	Originating Flower	Tasting Notes
10 Dec 17	Hawthorn	Low carbonation. Head ok. Rose gold rather than yellow gold. Medicinal aroma. Not astringent. Spicy fruity.
15 Dec 17	Rowan	Light amber. Spicy, possibly slightly smoky. Rich fruitiness when aerated in the mouth.
20 Dec 17	Blend 1	Floral creamy notes. Spicy, sharp, clean, dry.
22 Dec 17	Broom	Pea flower
1 Jan 17	Garden Apple 2	Little head. Low carbonation. Gold colour. Rose like aroma. Sweet and sour fruity taste.

I have wondered whether autolysis has influenced the flavour profile of the ales that went into Blend 1, which sat on the yeast for 5 months. If it has it is subtle and more akin to the positive attributes in Champagne making than brewing, where it is usually considered a bad thing. In Champagne it is associated with the creamy, buttery, biscuit and floral notes. In brewing it has been associated with marmite and rubber, which is not something I’ve detected in these ales.

On the 18 November I made some rosehip syrup. I did this after the first frost, which I have read can improve the hips, but this was the first opportunity I had had. I did this to learn the process and experience the flavour. I want to drink the cordial but also add it as a priming sugar to ale. I researched a few recipes including these links from the Guardian and eattheweeds. 500g hips and 1 litre of water were simmered in a pan for 20mins. As they simmered the hips were mashed with a potato masher. They were then strained and squeezed through a double layer of muslin before adding the pulp back to the pan with 1/2 litre of water and setting the juice to one side. The process was then repeated with the pulp and water. The combined juice was then put back on the heat with 150g of golden caster sugar. The resulting cordial is a very good source of vitamin C and I have found it restorative, although I may have imagined this. The syrup tasted quite sugary so next time I will reduce it further with a vigorous boil and use a brown sugar.

Last a Friday night I finally managed to squeeze in a brew while my wife was out. I brewed a Flanders Red recipe based on Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer. And split the batch of 20 litres, using half with commercial yeasts and half with Blend 2. I’ve been fairly liberal with the traditional style. I am primary fermenting the commercial batch with a single strain saison yeast, to use it up and will add a roselaere blend to the secondary. The recipe was:

OG:1.056 FG:1.008 ABV:6.2% SRM:19 IBU:11 20L batch

57% Vienna malt
28% Maris Otter malt
6% Caramunich malt
5% wheat malt
4% Special B malt

13g East Kent Golding (5.92% AA) at 60mins
4g First Gold (6.63% AA) at 60mins

Mashed at 65 deg C for 60mins. Added hops at first wort. Boiled for 90mins.

Evening brewing went well, allowing for more family time over the weekend. With water filtered, grain weighed out and kit prepared in advance, I started the mash just before 8pm and was cleared up by 1am.

The brew was chilled, aerated, split and yeasts added. After a week fermenting with WLP Belgian Saison Yeast Roselare Blend was added to the fermenter. I intend to rack these to secondary rather than resting on the yeast cake.

Other adventures into fermentation in the few months have been sauerkraut and ginger bug which might make their way into my brews at some point. I have also made a deconstructed compound gin kit which I plan to use to gain a deeper appreciation of different botanicals.

After three months, I racked the Heather Ale off the sprigs of heather. A very thin film had formed on top among the floating fronds. This had been an experiment to see what would happen if I cut out the propagation steps and sensory testing. It was a bit of a gamble, a bit lazy but also a way to “dry hop” the ale with heather as well as add a source of yeast. The gravity was 1.007 and the pH was 3.9. The ale had mostly cleared and tasted of a floral honey.

Blending into Autumn

November 9, 2017January 25, 2018Leave a comment

Since the last post the seasons have shifted into autum, the valleys have been cloaked in mists and now the first frost has come. The blackbirds chime together a tinking call like an engine cooling down after hard effort. The leaves have turned through a spectrum of colour and now mostly fallen, as have the apples, starting with our early tree and finally the cooker. I’ve retained some for cider if time permits. The woodland trails are a wonderland to run through; the hollow-ways carpeted in leaves, providing a secret solitude. Beachy Head Marathon was an exhilarating highlight of the last month. The view from the top of Windover Hill was stunning, with clear cold blue skies and the perfect undulations of the Downs unfolding to the sea.

The ale has been biding its time, slowly changing it’s character. A pellicle formed on Blend 1. I think this was because I ran out of carboy bungs so for a few days it was sealed with cling film allowing some oxidation. Some fermentation recommenced as different gravities combined with the different strains of yeast.

In the last month I have opened bottles of Gorse, Primrose, Wild Apple, Blackthorn and Dandelion, which were bottled on the 9 September. My tasting notes are below.

Primrose

Wild Apple

Dandelion

Date	Originating Flower	Tasting Notes
13 Oct 17	Gorse	Low – moderate carbonation. Pale gold. Aroma of heady funk. Floral, marzipan, coconut, pea flower – gorse. Not distinctly sour.
21 Oct 17	Primrose	Moderate carbonation. Pale gold. Floral and something almondy like meadowsweet – an astringent raw nut.
28 Oct	Wild Apple	Moderate carbonation. Gold. Fruity, clean.
4 Nov 17	Blackthorn	Moderate carbonation. Pale gold. Marzipan, softened by the carbonation
6 Nov 17	Dandelion	Yellow gold. Indistinct but floral aroma. Bitterness. Spiciness. Slight astringent aftertaste. A bit acidic – slightly mouth-watering pH 4.3 however.

On the 4 November, after two months in the carboy I bottled half of Blend 1 into 32 375ml bottles. At this stage it had a gravity of 1.003 and a pH of 4.25. There were aromas of marzipan as well as some higher alcohol /estery notes. The flavours were of pale fruit like apple or grape. The other half of the blend was split into two demijohns: one with 8g of medium toast American oak chips and one to eventually blend with Blend 2 and 3 once they are ready.

The same day I sampled and blended the next four demijohns – Garden Apple 2, Broom, Hawthorn and Rowan. They were sampled first at room temperature and then chilled.

Garden Apple 2

Hawthorn

Rowan

Broom

Originating Flower	Gravity	pH	Tasting Notes
Garden Apple 2	1.003	4.0	Clear. Golden. Hoppy, floral aroma. Dryer than the other samples.
Hawthorn	1.004	4.3	Clear. Rose gold colour. Not distinctly aromatic. Stone fruit. Creamy flavour. Chilled – Deep fruity.
Rowan	1.004	4.3	Clear. Straw gold. Subtle roselike aroma, stone fruit. Spicy Chilled – Astringent
Broom	1.007	4.0	Clear. Straw gold. Honey aroma, pea-flower. Tangy compared to the other samples. Chilled – Some medicinal, petrol aromas

4 x 375ml bottles of Garden Apple II, 4 of Hawthorn, 3 of Rowan and 2 x 330ml bottles of broom were taken from the demijohns. I bottled straights from the demijohns with granulated sugar in the bottles. While I normally decant what I’m bottling into a bucket with sugar syrup, it seemed logical with such small quantities to add dry sugar to each bottle. I also filled the bottles first so as not to disturb the trub at the bottom of the demijohns. I took a different number of bottles from each demijohn because I saw, half way through, that I was not going to fill the carboy if I filled 4 bottles of each. This left 2.5l of Garden Apple II, 2.5l of Hawthorn, 2.875l of Rowan and 3.34l of Broom to fill the 11.4l carboy. I was not aiming for a specific ratio for blending because each ale had a similar acidity and structure. The dregs from each demijohn were combined for the next brew. As I wasn’t able to brew the same weekend I have prepared a 500ml lightly hopped starter.

I’ve also retained the dregs from Blend 1 and a third of the dregs from the four demijohns (Blend 2) and fed them with 250ml of lightly hopped malt extract for the BrewCon London Megablend. Also, as part of brewCon London’s Homebrew Week , I’m taking a bottle of Gorse and a bottle of Dandelion along to Bring the Funk at Redchurch Brewery. I love their Urban Farmhouse range so it will be interesting to hear what people think of my brews.

Over the year I have recorded notes in this blog but it’s difficult to quickly reference and see how one observation has flown into the next. I have created a flowchart to chart my sensory tasting notes and brewing and blending process. I hope this creates a visually clear reference. A pdf is here and I will keep it up to date.

Tipping point

September 13, 2017January 25, 2018Leave a comment

It often feels like September can go two ways; an Indian summer or plunge straight into Autumn. This year the weather seems to be doing a bit of both, changing the mood, as it does. @circleofpines on Instagram quoted Tove Jansson from The Summer Book, better articulating this tipping point:

“It is still summer, but summer is no longer alive. It has come to a standstill; nothing withers, and fall is not ready to begin”.

A few flowers are still holding on: water mint, perennial sowthistle, common fleabane and heather are still providing colour. On the flip side there are now plenty of mushrooms and the apples are falling. I started collecting the apples this weekend. I love the peace of this annual ritual for me. There is always a stillness in the air after the buzz of summer, broken only by the occasional robin or blackbird pipping in the tree next to me. There is the smell of dampness, soil and decay in the air and I enjoy the meditative repetitive action: pick apple, inspect, wipe, bag, repeat. The apples will be juiced, I’ll make some cider and make some beer with the lees.

The family left me on my lonesome for the weekend, which gave me the space and time to blend and bottle a few of the single flower ferments from the spring and brew a batch for the yeast / trub left behind.

Before blending I took samples from the first seven demijohns, took gravity reading and pH readings before tasting. I tasted at room temperature and then again after they had been in the fridge. The findings were as follows:

Originating Flower	Gravity	pH	Tasting Notes
Gorse	1.010	4.6	Clear. Golden. Aroma and taste of honey and slight petrol (like some rieslings). Sweeter than blackthorn. Not much acidic structure. On second (chilled) tasting, marzipan/coconut-like gorse flowers. A slight astringency.
Primrose	1.005	3.8	Clear. Yellow gold. Flowery. Marzipan. Less zingy than Wild Apple. Honey like. Less marzipan like.
Blackthorn	1.005	4.8	Clear. Yellow gold. Less distinct. Most sloe gin-like marzipan character.
Dandelion	1.003	4.5	Clear. Golden. Really nice perfumed floral aroma. (this might be the higher hopping). Zingy hop bitterness.
Wild Apple	1.003	4.2	Clear. Golden. Slightly dirty on first tasting but this might have been in comparison to Dandelion. Pleasant fruity tang. Fruitier than Garden Apple 2.
Garden Apple 1	1.002	4.6	Clear. Golden. Zingy tang again. Fruity. Not as sweet as Wild Apple.
Garden Apple 2	1.006	4.0	Slightly cloudy. Sweeter than Garden Apple 1. Bitterness. Less aroma than first three.

Overall I was pleased they were drinkable and slightly surprised by the lack of variation. That said there were only three base brews for the seven samples and the recipes were similar. The Nelson Sauvin was the most distinct because of the relatively high rate of hopping. The level of hop bitterness in all three batches had likely inhibited lactic acid production and in future I need to be bolder and braver and reduce the hop level below 10 IBU. I knew it was too high but I wanted to replicate saison recipes that had previously been successful. The multiple sensory tests before the main brew probably also account for the lack of off flavours and funkiness. They are also still fairly young. More savoury brett character might develop over the next six months. There are also another eight single flower based ferments to blend over the coming months.

Following the tasting I decided to leave Garden Apple 2 to further clear and develop over time and to blend equal measures of the other six to combine the floral/marzipan aromas with the fruity zingy hop character, making 21 litres. That left two 375ml bottles of each unblended for comparison and yeast storage and 1000ml of yeast slurry / trub for the next brew. I used 400ml of this slurry in 10l.

1 litre of yeast slurry and trub from the first six demijohns

Next year I need to try and focus on a lactic acid culture in some of my wild capture starters. I will read up about it but I will probably minimise hop bitterness, exclude oxygen and keep the temperature around 40 deg C.

Standing forgotten on a shelf were four 250ml conical flasks from at least a month ago. Musk mallow had developed a thick gelatinous cap and fluffy mould so was binned. Blackberry 1 was cloudy and had an aroma of spicy fruit. The gravity was 1030 and the pH was 4.8. Blackberry 2 was clear with a thick gelatinous cap. Initially it smelt slightly cheesy but this passed. The gravity was also 1030 and the pH was 4.5. As little alcohol or acidity had been produced I decided to bin both. That left the final flask. The meadowsweet was clear and had the aroma of nectarines. The Gravity was 1008 and the pH was 3.6. The taste was tart, astringent and fruity – definitely a keeper.

For my next brew I decided to take elements of the grain bill from the 8-wired Nelson Sauvin recipe used in batch 3 and the European hops from the Burning Sky recipe used in batch 5, making a few changes to use up the grain I had available. My intention was to use 10 litres for the blended yeast slurry from the first six captures and 5 litres for the meadowsweet yeast capture and, for the final 5 litres, I collected a couple of large handfuls of flowering heather and put them straight in a demijohn. I thought it would be interesting to skip the propagation steps, increase the quantity of flowers, hopefully adding flavour as well as yeast and bacteria. The base recipe was as follows:

OG:1.056 FG:1.009 ABV:6.0% SRM:6 IBU:17 20L batch

53% Maris Otter malt
24% Pilsner malt
11% wheat malt
2% spelt malt
4% flaked wheat
4% caragold
2% acidulated malt

18g East Kent Golding (5.92% AA) at 60mins
18g East Kent Golding at 15mins
15g each of Saaz, Celeia and East Kent Golding at 0mins

I mashed at 65 deg C for an hour then sparged to 22 litres when the gravity was 1.010. 7 litres evaporated or were absorbed by the hops during the boil and, in a rush, I liquored back to 20 litres without taking gravity readings. When I then checked it was 1.048, so the ABV will be 5.1%, but I’m not going to loose sleep over it. I should have sparged a few more litres before the gravity fell below 1.010. Looking back over my brewing calculator the efficiency was set higher than I would normally set it, so that’s probably why. There was a couple of hours pause between chilling and racking to fermentors. While I would have preferred to avoid this it did allow the cold break to settle really well, allowing clear wort to be siphoned off.

So what next? I don’t intend to collect anymore flowers this year. I will continue to blend the beer I have when it is ready, bottle it, propagate the yeast and and report back on that process and the results. If the beers from the blended yeast is successful I will get a barrel and start ageing them – fingers crossed. Over the autumn and winter I would like to give a bit of time to pale ales, bitters, porters and maybe a stronger stock ale and will report back if I think they’re relevant to the blog. Looking ahead I have had some thoughts for next year but I think I will leave that for another blog post in a few months time.

And finally, proof that not every brew is a success. The braggot with saison yeast, strawberries and grains of paradise from a few months ago was a “Braison” failure. 5g of grains of paradise were added rather than 0.5g. I hope it might improve but it reached tipping point…

August – time out

September 2, 2017January 25, 2018Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I last posted, but summer travels got in the way of beer making. I spent a few days in Suffolk, where I grew up. While there I went on an early morning run in the sunshine around the local lanes. It was Sunday, it was quiet and the sun was shining as I set off at 0630. I covered 19 miles, training for a marathon, so lots of time to think. Some lanes I knew well and some not so well, even though they were reasonably close to home they were paths less travelled.

I had mixed feelings travelling that route. Some warm rememberances but some sadness at places that had faded: pubs I worked in in my teens now closed; houses where friends had lived now unwelcoming as they have since moved on; and other houses, once proudly maintained, now overgrown and up for auction.

In some ways I am spoilt in Sussex by the natural diversity but the silence of the large Suffolk arable fields, stripped of hedgerows, is a shame. Most notably birdsong but something is missing. That said there were still moments of wonder – there were hares! I love hares but never see them in our corner of Sussex and I don’t know why. On my early morning run one crossed the road in front of me, one sunk down into its form in the field as a I approached and another darted for cover in the yet unharvested wheat. There were also plenty of partridges. Fat hen and mugwort were growing by the roadside, which I find less frequently in Sussex.

Macfarlane’s The Old Ways and a Shield Bug

Macfarlane’s “The Old Ways” (my holiday reading) starts each chapter with an apparently random list of words and phrases, meaningless at the start of the chapter, but looking back they represent shorthand for the story now understood and flow together. This is much like how points on a map join together to make an integrated path when travelled. Similarly a run from disparate place to place becomes one fluid memory and while running the mind has the time to piece together memories with new ideas providing clarity of thought and deeper understanding.

While in Suffolk I was able to visit Little Earth Project brewery. It was great to meet Tom and inspiring to see what he is doing there. I found their approach a very honest and logical way to brew; wherever possible everything was of its place and, to my mind, if you can, why wouldn’t you brew this way. Any other way is just a collection of things from elsewhere brought together and a bit contrived. The brewery has a borehole for water, solar for heating, local renewable coppiced wood for fuel and a thoughtfully constructed building. The barley and hops are grown locally and organically in their own field and wild ingredients are foraged. Tom explained that the name for the brewery had come from a comment made in an interview he heard with Jester King brewery, that they were trying to create something from their little piece of earth. I think they are achieving it at Little Earth Project with a sustainable, self contained, nuclear brewery. As with the book, the map and running, the brewing ingredients and processes come together to form a meaningful beer.

I tasted a few of the beers at the brewery and took a few bottles home. They have a unique complexity of wild flavours. The flavours gave the beers a distinct identity that I doubt could be replicated by another brewery unlike a “clean” beer that could be reproduced anywhere. Some of the beer sampled straight from the barrel, including a porter on plums and a saison in a Chardonnay barrel tasted great, so I look forward to these reaching the shops once bottled. Of the bottled beers drunk so far the Glebe Organic was fantastic and the Elderflower Hedgerow Sour was great too. If I were to splitting hairs, a little more consistency between bottles would refine the product, but I’m really excited to watch, and drink from, this brewery as it progresses.

Back home the buzzard family have fledged and fly together, wheeling weightlessly overhead, free and with effortless grace. I’m noticing more bats but maybe it’s because it’s dusk now when I’m running home. I swear I can hear bats! They sound like a thumb nail being dragged across a comb. The thistles and rosebay willow herb are now downy. Hogsweed and meadowsweet are also now offering up their seed heads. Black knapweed and birdsfoot trefoil flowers are still holding on. Common Fleabane and Watermint are now plentiful and Lady’s Bedstraw is also growing in small patches in some areas. The heather is now beautiful in the woods and it would be fun to recreate an historic ale with it. I Think I identified some wild Angelica in the woods (might have to make some more bathtub gin!).

Heather

Wild Angelica

There’s glut of blackberries. Their evocative scent filled the air as I ran down one narrow path flanked by brambles. I made some fruit leather from them as a new experiment. I followed the River Cottage Hedgerow Handbook recipe. It was beautiful to look at, tasty and so didn’t last long. I also racked a gallon of saison onto 300g of blackberries. A little less fruit than I intended but let’s see.

Fruit leather

Saison onto blackberries

Watermint is also prolific in the woods at the moment. I would love to use it for something but I’m not sure what beer it would complement. I think I will make a cordial from it and then add to beer at bottling as priming sugar.

Fleabane and watermint

Water mint

More brewing, and blending, next time I promise.

My delight on a shining night

July 25, 2017February 14, 2018Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to collect meadowsweet and yarrow for a week or so. Meadowsweet especially as it’s been around for a while whereas the yarrow has some time yet, I think. With one thing and another it wasn’t until half ten on a Monday night that a slightly exasperated me set out into the woods to collect some. That night turned out to be such a rare treat, emphasised by my lack of expectation. I had never heard a nightjar before but as I walked further into the woods the repetitive cricket-like churring became louder and louder. The bird was in the bracken and I skirted round it passed the stream to where the meadowsweet grows. I didn’t find any yarrow but the meadowsweet, at chest height with a heady fragrance, was easy to feel for in the half light. I snipped flossy heads into sanitised centrifuge tubes. Something strange flew overhead that I still can’t place. It crackled and half roared like dragging a foot over gravel, reminiscent of a flare firing before it pops. It was maybe a bat or a large insect but not one I’m familiar with. I carried on over the hill and looped back round towards home. A juvenile tawny owl called and the soundless silhouette of the owl’s steady wing beat moved across the sky. I returned to the nightjars, which were now louder than before. One rose from the bracken, poised like a kestrel against the last light in the sky, before settling again into the undergrowth. One clapped its wings and moved its position when I got too close. As I headed home the full moon shone bright through traces of clouds and unseen creatures shifted their position, given away by the dry leaf litter.

That night I made a fresh starter for the elderflower and rose captured yeast with lightly hopped wort and also made a starter for some of the WLP 566 Saison Ale II, saved from last brew day. The dog rose had a moderate film pellicle on it and smelt of roses and perfume. I feel like that is stating the obvious but the dog roses had no significant scent when I picked them and are now two propagation steps removed from the flowers. Do any flower/fruit aromas come from the esters these microbes create? Clearly, I don’t know what I’m talking about and am stabbing in the dark (recently I picked up a satsuma with a mould bloom on it and the orange ester smell was amazing). The elderflower was floral but less distinct. One had a stonking pellicle, wrinkled and holding large bubbles. The other had a thin film.

Pellicle on rose capture

Pellicle on elderflower 2

That night I also racked the “Braison” off the strawberries. I had used 1.2kg of strawberries having read that there are 5g of sugar in 100g of strawberries. This quantity seemed in line with some recipes in Greg Hughes’s “Home Brew Beer”. This would have added 60g of sugar plus 140g of honey making the OG 1.062. Unfortunately I think the “Braison” is a failure. I knew I had put too much grain of paradise in and the flavour was very phenolic and reminiscent of pencil lead. I will leave it alone for a month and decide then whether to ditch it.

I squeezed in a brew day on Sunday (23 July). I tried to keep it fairly simple with a 20litre batch following the Burning Sky Saison Provision (one of my favourite beers), from Euan Ferguson’s Craft Brew. My recipe was as follows:

OG:1.052 FG:1.009 ABV:5.5% SRM:4 IBU:13 20L batch

85% Pilsner malt
5% wheat malt
5% spelt malt
5% caragold

16g East Kent Golding (5.92% AA) at 60mins
8g East Kent Golding at 15mins
17g each of Saaz, Celeia and Sorachi Ace at 0mins

The mash was held for 60mins at 65 deg C with a water grist ratio of 2.6 l per kg. 0.5g each of calcium carbonate and magnesium sulphate were added to the mash to improve my water profile for a heathy fermentation. pH was 5.5. I did an iodine test at the end of the mash to try something new and the starch was converted. 22l were sparged, which in retrospect was too little as the gravity was 1.020 and I only ended up with 18l at the desired gravity post boil and after liquoring back. This was enough however to fill four demijohns. Rather than chilling in the boiler I transferred to a bucket and chilled in there, which achieved a far better cold break. I struggled to separate the wort from the trub but I’ve read conflicting report of whether this needs to be done.

Pellicle on rose capture

Pellicle on elderflower 2

The four demijohns had rose captured yeast, elderflower 1 and 2 captures and WLP 566 Belgian Saison Ale II added respectively. The pellicles were really impressive again; wrinkly on the rose and bubbly on elderflower 2. Elderflower 1 had a very thin film.