Brew 3 - Chocolate Hop Nob (Black IPA)
Brew 3 - Chocolate HopNob (Not-so Black IPA) 
Brew day: 27th April 2020
Dry hopped: 2nd May 2020
I am keeping another load of bottles for my next batch; which coincidentally, I wasn't planning on doing for a few weeks. Removing the label from the Proper Black bottle, made me think about how much I enjoyed this brew. Spur of the moment, I decided that a Black IPA should be my next brew.
Again, quite new to the all grain brewing lark, I scoured the Brew Dog Recipe Book for a Black IPA. A few stuck out. #347 - Technicolour Black at 6.5% was tempting but a little strong for something I am aiming for. #61 - AB:06, an Imperial Black IPA at 11.2% is a little out of my reach at the moment and I'm not a huge fan of beers this strong - maybe one for later. #74 - Shareholder Black IPA at 7.1%, another interesting brew with the addition of toasted oak chips - something I might struggle to find with the current lock down in place. Again, maybe another day.
I settled on #210 - Arcade Nation. Something that mixes the Porter and IPA styles of previous brews and range of hops (which lifted the price of the order a little!). I love Citra hops, so the addition of this hop variety along with Simcoe and Amarillo as a dry hop was really appealing. I last did a dry hop in October 2019 after making a Stoat from an extract kit and adding some Bramling Cross as an experiment to the bottom of the brew bin (about 5 Litres) - turns out I should have added hops to the whole batch as the experimental beer was far better...
Further to this, I want to try some tweaks to my method. After reaching out to the Homebrew Community on Facebook, I purchase some reusable veg bags during a visit to LIDL. The bags are a fine polyester mesh and would make for a good alternative to a hop bag. I want to avoid previous issues with syphon blocks encountered when moving the wort to the fermenter.
Brew Day - 27th April 2020
With lock down in full swing and Get 'Er Brewed reporting a 7 day wait for order to be processed, I decided to get the brew in full swing (my malt and hops arrived on the 26th April). Having toyed with an over night mash, I decided to go with my usual 75min mash which I started before dinner so that I could crack on throughout the evening. The 2 batch method seemed to work well on brew day 2 so this method was reused.
My daughter Alice was again keen to get involved so I took the opportunity to do some counting practice as she chucked the sterilising tabs into the fermenting vessel.
She also really enjoyed smelling the hop varieties with me as we measured them out.
The hops arrived in pellet form and were vacuum sealed. I haven't used this much hops in one of my own brews yet and the last brew was lacking a bit of punch. Most of this batch of hops go in as a dry hop so there should be some awesome flavours and aromas to enjoy in a few weeks!
When I opened the malts, I was reminded of Chocolate Hobnobs - (hence the beer name!) which coincidentally are my go to biscuit at the moment. Working from home as a lecturer has to have it's occasional treat.
The 2 pot method used on Brewday 2 was a success and helped raise my batch size so I opted for this again. Strike water was heated to around 75°c before adding half of the malt bill to the bag and leaving for 75 minutes.
Once ready to boil I prepared my hop bags. I tied the top drawstring before tying the whole bag in the middle - this made the bag small enough to fit in each kettle with room to move around and allow the hops to diffuse into the wort (like a tea bag).
The bags worked well, keeping much of the spent hop material remained in the bags. I decided to test 2 experiments during the boil. Firstly, I reduced the timing to a 45-50min boil. I've heard that some professional breweries do this and a test is always an idea.
Secondly, I kept the kettle lids in place for the bulk of the boil. This article discusses the issue well and I decided to plump for a larger batch on the basis that the taste is generally indistingishable.
Adding the hops was a good challenge. I decided to keep one bag for each hop (helped by the fact that only Simcoe went in at first). Retrieving the hop bag using some tongs and then adding the middle hop at around 25 mins.
I then added the end hops at about 15mins before flame out. Again, having looked into it after the lack of hop flavour in my last brew (Lockdown IPA) - I decided to put the 'end hops' in a bit sooner to give them time to diffuse. Having tasted the wort, there is definately a bitter kick to this one - will have to see how it works out once the yeast has worked it's magic.
The first batch gave me around 7.5 litres which was around my target and this more than doubled with the addition of the second batch giving me just over 15 litres to play with. 2 downsides to the brewday - 1, I managed to melt my sediment trap (which I wasn't even using...) and 2, the wort missed target gravity. I recorded 1035 before pitching my yeast. A lot lower than I wanted but I am not overly upset as the dry-hop should add a lot of flavour to this brew.
In hindsight, I think leaving the lid on the kettle may have given me more to play with but has resulted in a less concentrated wort. This process is all about learning and reflecting and in the long run no harm is done if the resulting brew is a little less stronger than planned. I'll be able to drink more of it in one sitting!
I will update once I have more to say - the primary fermentation is well underway and the yeast is bubbling away. I am aiming to leave this one for at least a week before considering dry hopping and then probably another week before bottling. I will be using the hop bags to complete dry hopping as well so will update on that.
Bottling day: 7th May 2020
Background
I picked up a personal favourite during a shopping trip to Tesco - Proper Black by St Austell Brewery. I love this beer enough to have given it 5 out of 5 on Untapped. A beer as black as stoat to the eye but as hoppy as it's golden cousin - Proper Job (another fave).
Background
I picked up a personal favourite during a shopping trip to Tesco - Proper Black by St Austell Brewery. I love this beer enough to have given it 5 out of 5 on Untapped. A beer as black as stoat to the eye but as hoppy as it's golden cousin - Proper Job (another fave). I am keeping another load of bottles for my next batch; which coincidentally, I wasn't planning on doing for a few weeks. Removing the label from the Proper Black bottle, made me think about how much I enjoyed this brew. Spur of the moment, I decided that a Black IPA should be my next brew.
Again, quite new to the all grain brewing lark, I scoured the Brew Dog Recipe Book for a Black IPA. A few stuck out. #347 - Technicolour Black at 6.5% was tempting but a little strong for something I am aiming for. #61 - AB:06, an Imperial Black IPA at 11.2% is a little out of my reach at the moment and I'm not a huge fan of beers this strong - maybe one for later. #74 - Shareholder Black IPA at 7.1%, another interesting brew with the addition of toasted oak chips - something I might struggle to find with the current lock down in place. Again, maybe another day.
I settled on #210 - Arcade Nation. Something that mixes the Porter and IPA styles of previous brews and range of hops (which lifted the price of the order a little!). I love Citra hops, so the addition of this hop variety along with Simcoe and Amarillo as a dry hop was really appealing. I last did a dry hop in October 2019 after making a Stoat from an extract kit and adding some Bramling Cross as an experiment to the bottom of the brew bin (about 5 Litres) - turns out I should have added hops to the whole batch as the experimental beer was far better... Further to this, I want to try some tweaks to my method. After reaching out to the Homebrew Community on Facebook, I purchase some reusable veg bags during a visit to LIDL. The bags are a fine polyester mesh and would make for a good alternative to a hop bag. I want to avoid previous issues with syphon blocks encountered when moving the wort to the fermenter.
Brew Day - 27th April 2020
With lock down in full swing and Get 'Er Brewed reporting a 7 day wait for order to be processed, I decided to get the brew in full swing (my malt and hops arrived on the 26th April). Having toyed with an over night mash, I decided to go with my usual 75min mash which I started before dinner so that I could crack on throughout the evening. The 2 batch method seemed to work well on brew day 2 so this method was reused.
My daughter Alice was again keen to get involved so I took the opportunity to do some counting practice as she chucked the sterilising tabs into the fermenting vessel.
She also really enjoyed smelling the hop varieties with me as we measured them out.
The hops arrived in pellet form and were vacuum sealed. I haven't used this much hops in one of my own brews yet and the last brew was lacking a bit of punch. Most of this batch of hops go in as a dry hop so there should be some awesome flavours and aromas to enjoy in a few weeks!When I opened the malts, I was reminded of Chocolate Hobnobs - (hence the beer name!) which coincidentally are my go to biscuit at the moment. Working from home as a lecturer has to have it's occasional treat.
The 2 pot method used on Brewday 2 was a success and helped raise my batch size so I opted for this again. Strike water was heated to around 75°c before adding half of the malt bill to the bag and leaving for 75 minutes.Once ready to boil I prepared my hop bags. I tied the top drawstring before tying the whole bag in the middle - this made the bag small enough to fit in each kettle with room to move around and allow the hops to diffuse into the wort (like a tea bag).
The bags worked well, keeping much of the spent hop material remained in the bags. I decided to test 2 experiments during the boil. Firstly, I reduced the timing to a 45-50min boil. I've heard that some professional breweries do this and a test is always an idea.
Secondly, I kept the kettle lids in place for the bulk of the boil. This article discusses the issue well and I decided to plump for a larger batch on the basis that the taste is generally indistingishable.Adding the hops was a good challenge. I decided to keep one bag for each hop (helped by the fact that only Simcoe went in at first). Retrieving the hop bag using some tongs and then adding the middle hop at around 25 mins.
I then added the end hops at about 15mins before flame out. Again, having looked into it after the lack of hop flavour in my last brew (Lockdown IPA) - I decided to put the 'end hops' in a bit sooner to give them time to diffuse. Having tasted the wort, there is definately a bitter kick to this one - will have to see how it works out once the yeast has worked it's magic.
The first batch gave me around 7.5 litres which was around my target and this more than doubled with the addition of the second batch giving me just over 15 litres to play with. 2 downsides to the brewday - 1, I managed to melt my sediment trap (which I wasn't even using...) and 2, the wort missed target gravity. I recorded 1035 before pitching my yeast. A lot lower than I wanted but I am not overly upset as the dry-hop should add a lot of flavour to this brew.
In hindsight, I think leaving the lid on the kettle may have given me more to play with but has resulted in a less concentrated wort. This process is all about learning and reflecting and in the long run no harm is done if the resulting brew is a little less stronger than planned. I'll be able to drink more of it in one sitting!
I will update once I have more to say - the primary fermentation is well underway and the yeast is bubbling away. I am aiming to leave this one for at least a week before considering dry hopping and then probably another week before bottling. I will be using the hop bags to complete dry hopping as well so will update on that.
Dry hop day - 2nd May 2020
Ingredients
Malts: Pale Ale, Caramalt, Carafa Special Type 1, Crisp Light Crystal 150.
Hops: Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra.
Yeast: Fermentis Safale US-05 Yeast (Dried yeast)
Batch size: 15L (28 Bottles - various size)
OG: 1035
FG: 1010
ABV: 3.3%
Notes: #210 (Arcade Nation) in DIY Dog Recipe.
The hop bags worked very well during the brew so I decided to use them again for dry hopping. I'd read that this can impact the final flavour of the beer but having tasted a small amount of the wort, I felt that the brew had sufficient aroma and flavour to negate any losses during dry hop.
I sterilised the bags in boiling water before putting the remaining hop pellets into a bag each (around 45g of each). Alice then helped me chuck them into the fermenting vessel. The smell was immense and I can't wait to see the results.
Bottling Day - 7th May 2020
Ok, Patience is key right? I've been impatient again. I think it's because I'm at home and I keep wanting to look in the vessel to see how the beer is doing. The gravity of the brew has stabilised at 1010 so I've decided to bottle. I think once I'm back to work properly I will be better at leaving it for longer.
I decided this time to try an new method of bottling - adding the priming sugar to the beer, then transferring it into a pressure keg and finally decanting in the bottles. My aim was to get as much out of the vessel as I can. After my sediment trap accident on brew day and previous issues with hop blockages, I decided to try another new trick that I had seen on an online forum - putting the hop sock on the outflow of the syphon rather than the inflow. It really did the trick. The flow of the beer into the keg as quick and the sock trap a tonne of hop and other trub that was now not going to make it into a bottle.
The beer had a really sweet bitterness and was lovely and hazy. I would hasten to add that the final product isn't as Black as I hoped - more of a 'mud pie' as my wife called it. I might rename the brew once it has been tasted. Bottling was a real success and a record 28 bottles filled. I will leave them now for a few weeks (days...) before tasting.
Update: Overall, this beer was a let down. I had high hopes but I think it was a really useful learning curve for me and my method. I rushed the beer from start to finish and it showed in the end product. The beer is still cloudy/hazy (I know this is fashionable but it is a bit unappealing), it smells ok and I have had a few bottles fizz everywhere when I've opened them (even after chilling). I'd definately like to try this recipe again, probably with a bit more dark malt and a lot more patience. Overall Beer Rating: 2/5 (try better next time - more the brewer than the beer).
Ingredients
Malts: Pale Ale, Caramalt, Carafa Special Type 1, Crisp Light Crystal 150.
Hops: Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra.
Yeast: Fermentis Safale US-05 Yeast (Dried yeast)
Batch size: 15L (28 Bottles - various size)
OG: 1035
FG: 1010
ABV: 3.3%
Notes: #210 (Arcade Nation) in DIY Dog Recipe.
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