Woodville NanoBrewery

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 wo...

Brew 15 - Son Of Cornwall (Wee Heavy) Brew day: 09/01/2021 Bottle day: 29/01/2021 New year, new beer. The first malt order for 2021 has arrived and a new beer style awaits. I received 2 brewing bibles for Christmas (Greg Hughes and another by Chris Colby). Flicking through I have picked up lots of tips and ideas and consequently decided to brew one of the recipes.  I've a real love for Scottish beers and remember sampling a range of shilling beers during my time in Scotland in 2019. My Dad and I also love McEwan's Champion (weighing in at 7.3%) and often drink it in memory of my Grandad Roger (who also enjoyed this tipple). A fine, fitting beer style to emulate then. The name 'Son of Cornwall' derives from the poem/prose that my Dad wrote about Roger for his eulogy and was read at his funeral. Roger was a true Cornishman and this beer will be dedicated to him.  This style poses a lovely big malt bill, a smallish hop bill and a really high original gravity that requires ...

2020 - A Year in Brewing (Review) It has been a funny old year and one that many will probably try to forget in a hurry. Nonetheless, it has given me an opportunity to hone and develop my brewing skills and methods alongside some family members.  Looking back to my first brew of 2020 (Lockdown IPA), I feel that I have learnt a lot and along the way and now is as good a time as any to reflect and look forward to 2021 with a little 'awards' ceremony:  Best Light Beer: I think over the lighter coloured brews made this year and there were some great results. Lockdown IPA gave me a real taste for brewing again and offered up a really sessionable beer. I really enjoyed making No More Lands with my Father in Law and the beer turned out exactly as we intended (but perhaps lacked a little hop zing for my liking). Bramble IPA in its 3 versions allowed me to experiment with a highly underrated hop whilst mixing up different methods to see how this effected flavour. Off the Cuff IPA was a...

Brew 14 - Alice Porter Revisited  Brew day: 28/11/2020 Bottle day: 21/12/2020 Brew day beckons again and this time I'm revisiting my first ever all grain brew - Alice Porter. A superb Brewdog recipe that I tried in Edinburgh last year. I love a porter at this time of year so a good chance to brew a slightly bigger batch before Christmas.  Slight variations to the recipe - no Magnum hops so Northern Brewer go in as a bittering hop and then East Kent Goldings before a dash of Soraci Ace at the end. Nice! New mash method working well and first batch pre boil gravity is 1.038 (potentially 80% efficiency... watch this space). Temperature control is so much better with the hob and stirring the mash regularly to distribute the heat. The first batch seems to have most of the darker malts and the wort is seriously dark. Need to think about how I can distribute the malts from the bag between batches.  2nd batch is looking good - perhaps a little lighter, the balance of malts seems ...