#26 - Christmas Ale MK2 [All Grain]

This year I decided to do an all grain version of my Christmas Ale that I previously made using extract. The previous beer had been very popular at beer tastings due to its subtle level of spicing and liberal contribution of cascade hops. I used the same amount of 'Carafa 1' grains along with 6kg of base malt and 500g of torrified wheat to aid head retention. I also added a small amount of chocolate and black malt to add some additional complexity to the beer. Given that I was using 2011 harvest (1 year old) hops I decided to up the hopping regime significantly with the addition of Columbus hops in addition to the cascade in the original recipe. 

First runnings with a much thinner mash my normal level

I have been having consistently poor efficiency since I have started all grain with efficiency's typically in the 45 to 50% region which is very low. I have spoken to other brewers with the exact same mash tun as mine and they are getting efficiencies in the mid to high 70's so it is definitely down to either the ingredients or the water that is causing my low efficiencies. For this brew I bought a tub of the PH 5.2 buffer solution as my previous all grain mash seemed to have a slightly higher mash PH of 5.9 rather than the recommended 5.2. Unfortunately it didn't make any difference as the pre-boil gravity indicated that the efficiency was still below 50%. 

Ingredients

Warming up the yeast

 

Here is the final recipe:


Recipe: Christmas Ale MK2 TYPE: All Grain
Style: Fruit Beer
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 61.8 EBC SRM RANGE: 9.8-98.5 EBC
IBU: 50.5 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 5.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.081 SG OG RANGE: 1.030-1.110 SG
FG: 1.018 SG FG RANGE: 1.006-1.024 SG
BU:GU: 0.622 Calories: 476.4 kcal/l Est ABV: 8.3 %
EE%: 70.00 % Batch: 19.00 l      Boil: 26.38 l BT: 60 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------
Taste of Christmas! 
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
1.00 tbsp             PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins)       Water Agent   1        -             

Total Grain Weight: 7070.00 g Total Hops: 165.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD WATER CHEMICALS BEFORE GRAINS!!<<<<<<<
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
6000.00 g             Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)         Grain         2        84.9 %        
500.00 g              Carafa I (663.9 EBC)                     Grain         3        7.1 %         
500.00 g              Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC)               Grain         4        7.1 %         
50.00 g               Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC)               Grain         5        0.7 %         
20.00 g               Black Malt (Stout) (1333.0 EBC)          Grain         6        0.3 %         


Name              Description                  Step Temperature       Step Time       
Mash Step         Add 24.02 l of water at 165. 154.0 F                60 min          

---SPARGE PROCESS---
>>>>>>>>>>-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 61.0 F/120.0 F
>>>>>>>>>>-ADD BOIL CHEMICALS BEFORE FWH
Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 11.94l) of 168.1 F water

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.068 SG Est OG: 1.081 SG
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
15.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop           7        18.7 IBUs     
60.00 g               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 45.0 min         Hop           8        23.2 IBUs     
0.45 kg               Honey (Boil 45.0 mins)                   Other         9        -             
1.00 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins)              Fining        10       -             
2.00 Items            Star Anise Petals (Boil 15.0 mins)       Spice         11       -             
4.00 Items            Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins)      Spice         12       -             
3.00 Items            Cloves (Ground) (Boil 10.0 mins)         Spice         13       -             
2.00 tsp              Vanilla Extract (Boil 10.0 mins)         Spice         14       -             
0.50 Items            Cinnamon Stick (Crushed) (Boil 10.0 mins Spice         15       -             
40.00 g               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           16       3.4 IBUs      
50.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 2.0 Hop           17       5.3 IBUs      


---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 05/12/2012 - 14.00 Days at 67.0 F
Secondary Start: 19/12/2012 - 10.00 Days at 65.0 F
Style Carb Range: 2.00-2.80 Vols
Bottling Date: 19/12/2012 with 2.4 Volumes CO2: 
---NOTES------------------------------------
Heated strike water to 175. Mashtun already heated with hot tap water. 
Temperature a little high at 156, added ice to bring it down to 154. All day mash

#16 - Coopers Ginger Beer [Kit]

First brew of 2012! At one of my previous beer tastings, one of my friends (who is also a brewer), brought a few samples of a coopers ginger beer that he made. Needless to say it was the hit of the night and everybody loved the taste including my girlfriend who kept going on about it and wondering when my friend was going to bring more over again. Naturally this was prime opportunity for a Christmas present and her first brewing opportunity. :)

Coopers Ginger Beer

Sure enough I got it for her along with 500g of extra light and 500g of light spray malt. Along with the contents of the can, this would bring the alcohol content of the beer to between 3 and 3.5% which should lead to a light and refreshing brew. 

Making the brew was not much different from that of a normal kit except for the fact that less water is needed. The kit is mixed with 2 litres of boiling water and then mixed with the malt extract. It is then topped up to 19 litres compared to the conventional 23 litres as is common with other kits. 

It is now in the fermenter with an OG of 1032, which is a little on the low side and will probably result in a final gravity of 1010 giving just under 3% alcohol. When carbonating the sugar might add on another 0.25 to 0.5%. The instructions on the back recommend using 1kg of raw sugar which would have a higher fermentability than malt extract at the expense of body. If making the kit again I would make it with the raw sugar and compare against the malt extract to see which gives the better flavour. 

#15 - Ronk Christmas Bock [Extract]

Since its getting close to the festive season I went searching for a Christmas beer that sounded tasty. Seeing as I was still quite new to extract brewing and I had just started using BeerSmith (#14), I went looking on their website for a recipe. I went through the various recipies and came across "Happy Holidays Ale" which attracted my attention due to the simplicity of the ingredients and the addition of a speciality grain called 'Special B Malt'. It was great to see something that wasn't the same old iteration involving crystal grains.

Steeping grains

As was the case in the previous brew (#14), some of the ingredients were not available in the home brew store. I had to substitute the grains with something so I literally guessed that Carafa Special I Roasted Caramalt would do the trick. 

The resulting taste of this brew has been very good. Fairly good head retention which I reckon could be improved a lot with the addition of some flaked Oates. As it was a Christmas beer I would have liked a bit more of the cloves and cinnamon to come through. They were very much in the background and I couldn't detect them. The next time I think I would double their addition size to increase their potency. The hops come through very well in aroma and taste. They are not overpowering but are still upfront enough to be enjoyable. Overall a recommended recipe. :) 

Recipe: Ronk Christmas Bock TYPE: Extract

Style: Fruit Beer/Bock

---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------

SRM: 31.3 SRM SRM RANGE: 5.0-50.0 SRM

IBU: 21.4 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 5.0-70.0 IBUs

OG: 1.059 SG OG RANGE: 1.030-1.110 SG

FG: 1.013 SG FG RANGE: 1.006-1.024 SG

BU:GU: 0.365 Calories: 169.1 kCal/12 oz Est ABV: 6.0 %

EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 5.02 gal      Boil: 3.69 gal BT: 60 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------

Taste of Christmas! 

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

3.96 gal              Dublin, Ireland                       Water         1           -             

Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------

Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.088 SG Est OG: 1.059 SG

Amt                   Name                                                 Type           #        %/IBU         

6 lbs 9.8 oz          Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)                  Dry Extract   3        85.7 %        

2.00 oz               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 45.0 min           Hop           4        19.3 IBUs     

0.45 kg               Honey (Boil 45.0 mins)                         Other         5        -             

1.00 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins)                    Fining        6        -             

4.00 Items           Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins)      Spice         7        -             

2.00 tsp              Vanilla (Boil 10.0 mins)                         Spice         8        -             

0.25 tsp              Cloves (Ground) (Boil 10.0 mins)           Spice         10       -             

0.25 tsp              Cinnamon (Powdered) (Boil 10.0 mins)   Spice         9        -             

1.00 oz               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min            Hop           11       2.1 IBUs      

#10 - Basic Mead [Extract]

While the other Mead #7 was brewing I was eager to get another Mead in the pipeline given that a Mead pipeline can be measured in years rather than months for beer. I had been reading around and felt that the previous brew had been unnecessarily complicated. I reduced the amount of ingredients and made my own guide to brewing the must so that it would be clearer in future. 

Simple Mead Recipe

•  1.2kg     pure raw honey                  (for sweet, stronger Mead)

• 5              Litres spring water            (Bottled, not tap unless chlorine free)

• 1              tsp. yeast nutrient            (Citrix Additive)

• 1              tsp. Nutmeg                       (main flavour)

• 5              tsp Mellon balls                (stuff for yeast to eat)

• 3              slices lime                           (stuff for yeast to eat)

• 1/4          tsp. Irish moss                   (to clarify Mead)

• 1/2          packet yeast                      (ale yeast)

Bring 1.5L of water to the boil. Take off the heat, add the honey and stir in until dissolved. Add the nutmeg, yeast nutrient and put back on the heat. Skim off the protein scum as it forms and boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to prevent boil overs if necessary. Add Irish moss and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. More scum, protein and clumps will form due to the Irish moss. Skim all of this off. Take off the heat and add all of the fruit. Allow the liquid to cool for 60 minutes.  

Add 0.5L of cool water to a sanitised demijohn; this prevents thermal shock when hot liquid added. Using a funnel and sieve, pour the mixture into the demi john and top up the liquid to the 1 gallon mark leaving enough head space for the krausen to form. Fill a sink with water and ice and gently lower the demijohn into it. This will cool the mixture to a temperature which is suitable for pitching the yeast. Add the yeast once the temperature has dropped below 25oC. 18-20 oC is preferable if you have patience. Bung the demijohn and shake the mixture to mix the yeast and aerate the mixture. Insert air lock and store in a cool, dark location for a month before racking to secondary. 

OG should be in the 1090 – 1100 range, FG should be 1000 or less

I racked the yeast after one month and took a small sample for tasting. If you compare this sample to that from brew #7, it can be seen that this one is a lot cloudier. This is to be expected as it was only fermenting for 1 month and hasn't had the same amount of time to settle. The taste from this recipe was delicious and was completely unexpected this early on! I figure the sweetness was due to an unfinished fermentation and the fact that I used ale yeast this time instead of the nasty champaign yeast. In theory the ale yeast shouldn't be able to ferment to the same level and should begin to die at 8 or 9% volume?  I don't have full faith in that assumption as it didn't work to well with the cider in brew #4. 

I am considering stabilising the fermentation to maintain the flavour as I feel it tastes great now and doesn't need any more. I will leave it go for another month and rack it again and taste it again to see what it is like. If it is still ok I will stabilise and perhaps add some bentonite to clear it further before bottling. 

Stats:
Started - 11.7.11
Racked -  28.8.11
Finished - NA
Bottled - NA
Code - 1010
Yeast Brand - Coopers Ale Yeast
Yeast Code - 19310 IPA
Y-Temp - 25.0
Beer/Product Type -   Basic Mead
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.2kG honey + limited Flavours
Volume -  5L
OG - 1091
FG - NA
Proof  - NA

#8 - Red Wine* [Juice]

At this point I decided I was confident enough to attempt a small red wine batch. I started looking for grape juice in my local supermarket but the closest I could find at the time was a juice which was 70% red grape with the rest a mix of raspberry and cherry. I also bought some blackberries for a late addition. 

Wine Recipe

Wine Recipe & Guidelines

• 1 tsp of allspice

• 550g Caster Sugar

• 4L Red Grape And Raspberry Cherry (Not From Concentrate)

• 500ml Bottled water

• 300g Blackberries  

Add the allspice granules to 500ml of water and allow it to boil for 10 minutes.Then add the sugar in portions while stirring.This will cause the sugar to dissolve into the solution.Leave this solution to boil for 5 minutes.  

Crush, juice or grind all of the blackberries into a pulp. Take the solution off the hot plate and add the pulp to the hot water and stir in gently. Put the solution back on the hot plate and bring to the boil then turn off the heat and take it off. 

Thankfully I didn't go to bed early the night I made this brew. It was the first time I have ever had to use a blow off tube. I was minding my own business, reading home-brew forums probably and I glanced over towards the freshly made brew (2 or 3 hours I would say). Sure enough grape and cherry trub as spewing out though the airlock! Normally I would have started having a heart attack at this point but thankfully my months of reading forums and watching YouTube videos finally paid off. The solution was to simply use a blow off tube and bottle of water which did the trick.

I recently tried the wine after letting it age in bottles for 2 months. It was bloody disgusting! That was what I get for using the last of the champaign yeast for this batch. I now officially HATE champaign yeast and will not buy it again and I really don't know why it is recommended for recipes above a normal wine yeast! The wine itself was very very slightly carbonated but it tasted like champaign which I don't really like at the best of times. Basically it was rocket fuel which homeless men one the street wouldn't even drink. Another batch down the drain unfortunately but valuable lessons learned.

Stats:

Started - 6.6.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 15.6.11
Bottled - 7.7.11
Code - 1008
Yeast Brand - Young's Champagne
Yeast Code - 28032013
Y-Temp - 24.0 
Beer/Product Type -  Red Wine
Malt/Sugar Type - Grape, Raspberry, Cherry & Blackberry Juice with 550g of sugar
Volume -  4.8L
OG - 1094
FG - 998
Proof  - 12.87%

#7 - Viking Mead [Extract]

Years ago, when I went to Wacken in Germany I was introduced to mead for the first time. It was absolutely delicious! From what I can remember it was definitely a sweet mead, which had a slightly red colour to it but I cant remember tasting any spices. I would speculate that it had low alcohol content (5% at a guess) as I drank a lot of it over several days and never really got drunk from it. My guess would be that it was racked to secondary with a load of cherries to give it the red colour.

I spent a lot of time searching around for a nice Mead recipe. There aren't that many sources of 'Viking' recipes and inevitably I came across a good recipe on one of the less well known mead websites. This recipe is for a 19L batch but I didn't want to brew something that large while having now idea how it would turn out. I instead attempted to scale back the recipe to suit a 5L batch.

The Ingredients for a 5L Batch of Mead

Mead Recipe

• 1.2kg pure raw honey (for sweet, stronger Mead)

• 5 Litres spring water (Bottled, not tap unless chlorine free)

• 1 tsp. yeast nutrient (Citrix Additive)

• 1 tsp. acid blend (combination malic/citric acid)

• 2 oz. sliced ginger root (1 finger's length)

• 1-2 whole cloves (optional, as desired)

• <1 vanilla beans (optional, as desired)

• <1 cinnamon (optional, as desired)

• 1 Allspice (optional, as desired)

• <1 crushed fruit (peaches, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, apple & others)

• 1/4 tsp. Irish moss (to clarify Mead)

• 1/2 packet yeast (Ale yeast )

The process of preparing the mead can be seen in the instructions on the original recipe but my main advice is don't try to make this in a 2L pot!  I ended up making the mead using 2 pots, I spilt bits of it everywhere and the entire kitchen and living room table was sticky for several days despite cleaning!

This is the stages of the mead over several months, it has a slightly red hue which goes away while the yeast is active during the initial fermentation and then is visible again once it beings to clear. In the 3rd image I was racking it for a 2nd time after 2 months ageing. It was at this point that I took my first sample.

It looks a a lot clearer in the glass than when it is in the demijohn but after the first taste I immediately regretted using the champaign yeast. It was extremely dry and I forgot to take a SG reading but I would guess it was at or below 1000 giving an alcohol content of over 12%. I don't think any amount of ageing is going to make this mead taste better. I am considering stabilising the fermentation and adding some dextrose to back sweeten but that mightn't be enough to save it. The spices mainly contributed to the aroma but it has definitely faded over time. I read somewhere that its sometimes recommended to make a 'spice tea' later and add it to the brew which I may consider the next time. Either way it is still ageing in the demijohn while I decide what to do with it.

Stats:

Started - 4.6.11
Racked - 7.7.11
Finished - NA
Bottled - NA
Code - 1007
Yeast Brand - Young's Champagne
Yeast Code - 28032013
Y-Temp - 26.0 
Beer/Product Type -  Viking Mead
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.2kg Honey + multiple flavours
Volume -  5L
OG - 1092
FG - NA
Proof  - NA

#4 - Pomegranate Honey Cider [Juice]

I can't remember where I got this recipe for this brew but it was really an experiment and my first time to make a smaller batch in a 5Litre Demijohn. I felt a bit guilty that I was making all this beer and SWMBO only really drinks very specific brands of cider. So this was my attempt to make a drink that she would like and I got her to make most of it too. :)

Everything that I used for the recipe can be seen above. I made sure to get pure pressed juice that didn't have any preservatives as this doesn't agree with the yeast too well apparently. It wasn't that much expensive than the concentrate so all was fine there.

Unfortunately after this point everything went to complete shit. I forgot to boil the sugar and honey to pasteurise them and I just dumped the two of them in on top of the juice like an animal! This didn't seem to matter in the long term as no noticeable infection occurred as a result. I gave everything a big shake, checked the temperature, took the gravity reading and then WTF 1081 !!!!! All my gravity readings up until this point had been in the 1040 - 1050 region and this one completely blew it out of the water. I had been expecting it to be on the high side but not that high,  I read around on the internet and deluded myself into thinking it would be fine and the yeast would simply die in the high alcohol content.

It didn't die.

It kept fermenting all the way down to 1004 giving a final alcohol content of nearly 11%!!! I bottled it and thought it would be fine after 3 or 4 weeks 'aging' in the bottles. It wasn't fine. When I opened the first bottle I poured it out into a glass, I didn't even have to sniff the glass I could smell it from a distance. It smelt vile. The taste was out of this world in terms of disgusting things I had consumed! I gave some to SWMBO and I thought she was going to start crying the taste was that bad!

If I was ever to attempt this recipe in the future I would take gravity readings on the 3rd or 4th day of fermentation and see what the gravity was. When it got to a value that would give a 5% alcohol content I would then stop the fermentation by killing the yeast. Unfortunately I don't know how I would carbonate the bottles if I did this.

Stats:

Started - 15.5.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 28.5.11
Bottled - 30.5.11
Code - 1004
Yeast Brand - Coopers Standard Ale Yeast
Yeast Code - 15310W
Y-Temp - 22.5
Beer/Product Type -  4L Apple Juice, 07L Pomegranate Juice
Malt/Sugar Type - 300g Honey, 300g Sugar
Volume -  5L
OG - 1081
FG - 1004
Proof  - 10.8% (Including 0.5% for priming)