Woodville NanoBrewery

Brew 23 - Boris Boogie Woogie IPA Brew Day: 27/11/2021 Bottle Day: 13/12/2021   A birthday present to my Dad. He selected the style and recipe via the Brewdog DIY book and I adjusted to suit the malt and hops we could get. He selected recipe #311 - Sonic Boom. This is a German Hopped IPA that had some interesting hop varieties that I hadn't used before (including Ariana, Huell Melon, German grown Comet and Cascade). I couldn't get any Ariana hops so with a quick bit of research decided on a suitable substitute in the form of Hallertau Blanc (another hop I haven't used before).  This recipe is seriously well hopped with large additions throughout the boil and a huge dry hop later on. 30g of bittering hops (Columbus) looked set to whack up the IBUs well above 70. We picked a Saturday for brewday, giving plenty of time to sort this out and pressed on using the new brew kettle for single vessel brewing. We mashed in as follows:  25 litres strike @ 64deg for 90mins (trying to ge

Brew 22 - Plym Pale (Garden Grown Hop Pale Ale) Brew Day: 23/09/2021 Bottle Day: 07/10/2021 Last spring (2020), I planted out some hop seeds that were a Christmas present, just to see what became of them. That summer gave no flowers and no harvest and the plant died back. The following spring, hop bines started to sprout again so I put the pot against a trellis and left it to grown. The bines grew fairly slowly but by the end of summer I had managed to train the bines to wrap around the fence and small flower like buds had begun to form. Interestingly, my Dad had taken a cutting the previous year and his hop plant had grown much stronger. Initially we thought his plant had flowered but it turned out that his flowers were in fact the male variant which wouldn't be useful in brewing. Not long after this, the flowers in my garden became cone like and before I knew it (around Late August/Early September) I had flowers that were ready to Harvest.  I have little experience with hop growi

Brew 21 - Gardener's Gloves (Back by Popular Demand!) Brew Day: 30/06/2021 Bottle Day: 14/07/2021 The last batch was a real win. Much loved by all who tried it and I quickly ran out of beer. I really enjoyed making this beer and the refinement of the original recipe really gave it an edge. I've recently upgraded my brew kit again and a new digital boiler means I can truly brew in a single vessel. This is a bit of a trial of the new kit so using a tried and tested recipe makes sense to me. I've not brewed in a while either so I'm hoping I'm not too rusty. I start the mash with 23 litres of strike water, 1/2 campden tablet and 2tsp of Burton crystals. I set the boiler to 65 deg C and let it hit temperature. This doesn't take long at all. In goes the malt bill inside its bag and a 90min mash begins.  I notice that the boiler fluctuates in temperature, perhaps a little too much malt, but I'm able to stir the mix well and keep temperature as consistent as possibl

Brew 20 - Summer Sunshine (Bru-1 IPA) Brew Day: 12/04/2021 Bottle Day: 26/04/2021 Another brew and another new hop variety. I was having a bit of a scout on Get 'Er Brewed's website and there seem to be a lot of new hop varieties available. I wonder if this is due to the fact that industrial breweries are making less beer, leaving more for us mini brewers to access?  I looked at Medusa, Talus, Sultana but settled on a variety called Bru-1. This variety imparts a pineapple flavour - something a little different so settling on a basic pale ale recipe to find out what this hop can do. A slight change to my usual malt bill, I'm using Vienna Malt alongside old faithfuls Maris Otter and CaraMalt.  I'm also going with a liquid yeast again - Wyeast 1056 American Ale.  Brew day arrives and mash goes on as follows:  23 litres strike water at 73 deg C  Preheated mash tun with boiling water  1/2 Campden Tab + 2tsp Burton Crystals 60min mash @ 64-66 deg C Recirculated the wort over

Brew 19 - Gardener's Gloves MkII  Brew Day: 13/03/2021 Bottle Day: 27/03/2021 I first made Gardener's Gloves with GHNB in June 2020 - blog here . A recipe that offered up the chance to add flavour to the brew in the form of adjuncts - Orange and Grapefruit zest. We both really enjoyed this beer and it provided a fine summer ale. A brew that we promised to make again with some changes to the recipe. So, here we are. Brew day beckons and a few changes to the bill will give us a different take on the original beer. Firstly, we want more zest, more citrus and more hop. Secondly, we want haze. We adapt the malt and hop bill accordingly, increasing the dry hop dosage, planning to add more fruit zest and chucking in some rolled oats should bring this brew to life. We preheated the mash tun with boiled water again, this worked really well on the last brew and helped the temperature hold for longer. 23 litres of strike water were added at 73 deg C and mashed for 90mins at around 65 Deg

Brew 18 - Screaming Carrot Demon (American Pale Ale) Brew Day: 17/02/2021 Bottle Day: 03/03/2021 One of the big problems I find with with brewing is the constant worry that you are going to run out of good tasting beer. My cupboard is full and I have 5 different brews still in stock but still, I find that I want something else to drink. Flicking through Chris Coleby's Homebrew Bible and I'm drawn to something sessionable, perhaps another IPA or even better, an American Pale Ale. Chris has provided an excellent recipe for an APA on pg 126 (Stellar's Jay PA) where he suggests playing around with the hop bill to suit your flavour desire. His recipe uses Magnum and Cascade to give a citrusy profile. I don't mind citrus but I actually prefer a piney/resinous profile. I swap the Magnum bittering hops for Chinnock and trade the Cascade hop 5mins from the end with Simcoe. I'm keeping the Cascade hop at gas off and will be using it to dry hop on day 4.  Brew day was smooth,

Brew 17 - Worlds Collide (Kveik IPA) Brew Day: 19/01/2021 Bottle Day: 30/01/2021 I have 2 kilos of malt sat waiting to be used so I feel a mini 7 litre batch is needed. I've ordered some hops and yeast to try out.  Firstly, 200g of Sabro Hops. I've only recent come across this hop variety thanks to a local brew (Pneuma by Steel Brew Co.) and it blew me away. Such sweet, fruity and tropical flavour.  Next, I've ordered some Kveik yeast to try it out. I understand that this yeast can brew at some seriously high temp and speed and have tried some really tasty brews including one by North Brewing Co. I'm aiming to brew at 30 deg C to see how this yeast goes - hoping for a rapid primary fermentation. I spent a bit of time adjusting the immersion heater in some water to get it to switch on and off at 30 deg C - I'm hoping this isn't affected much by the size of the vessel but let's see how it goes! So, just waiting on the items to arrive and we can get cracking! 

Brew 16 - Pilgrim Brother (2nd Running's Experimental)  Brew day: 09/01/2021 Bottle Day: 30/01/2021 Whilst at the end of the mash for Brew 15 (Son of Cornwall), I decided to try something out.  Usually at this point I would squeeze the bag and discard the malt. This time, I intended to re-infuse some hot strike water into the mash tun in the hope of extracting the rest of the fermentable sugar held within the grain bed. As I don't usually sparge there should be some at least.  I added about 10L of hot water (77 deg C) back into the mash tun with a view to washing more of the sugars from the grist. This is the temperature that a sparge would usually lift the grist and wort up to - making the wort more viscous and allowing it to move more freely to the base of the mash tun.  I then recirculated the new wort a few times over the grain to increase yield.  The resulting wort had a gravity of 1.049 which was well above what I expected. I decided that this wort would be used to make a