British Pub Ale – Take 2

 

My first Pub Ale turned out a bit on the sweet side.  My wife said it was still tasty, and I liked it …but it wasn’t what I was looking to brew.  This next beer will be used to either blend with the first one or be served as a second beer.  I bumped up the gravity a bit and gave it a “church mash”. 

“Church Mash” -  Mashed in with the grains and let it sit while I went to church.  I started the mash early and got to it a bit later after church so the mash was 3 hours.  At the end of the mash it was pretty thick.  I added my first sparge water just above the mash temperature to bring the grain bed back up to 152* and then vorlof’d the beer and then drained.  My second edition of sparge water was at mash out temperature. 

I found some old Goldings in my freezer from last year.  They still smelled passable so I adjusted their AA rating down from 5.8% to 5.2% and used them as my bittering hops.  I used my fresh EK Goldings as my flavor and aroma hops.  This years batch seems to be quite a bit better than last years.

The beer is sitting in a corny keg in my garage and will be fermented either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I haven’t checked on the original pub ale in a week or so.  Maybe I’ll check on it and be surprised.  I can think of worse problems than having 10 good gallons of beer on hand!

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
8	Maris Otter
.5	Crystal 90
.25	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
26	UK Kent Golding	60
7	East Kent Golding	15
1 Oz	East Kent Golding	5
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	180 minutes
155F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Safale S-04
Stats
5.5 gal	80% efficiency	IBU: 36

Belgian Single/Apple Ale

 

This is the second beer that I have brewed for the Brew-n-Que event.  I brewed a larger batch of this beer to split and make a second beer with will probably be for my own use.  I recently tried a new ale on the market, Redd’s Apple Ale.  Although this beer was a little sweet, I liked it quite a bit.  I am hoping to make something similar to Redd’s with the second half of the batch.

For the Apple Ale I am going to take 2 gallons of Mott’s apple juice and 3.5 gallons of the Belgian single.  I am going to ferment this with S-04 and keg.  I am going to add apple juice concentrate to to the beer when I keg it to give it additional apple flavor and some sweetness.  Kegging seems my best option since the ale will be back sweetened but I don’t want it to continue to ferment.

The Belgian Single is a beer that I have brewed before.  This beer is a great session beer and should go over real well.  People who usually aren’t beer drinkers like this beer.  It is low on the bittering side, malty, and slightly sweet.  I brewed a bit extra to be able to do a real wort starter which is currently on the stir plate with the wlp400.  I have two 5 gallon kegs currently in the garage cooling down with the wort in them.  My no chill beers so far have been great.  I haven’t had an infection with them yet and my beer always clears really well after a couple of weeks in the kegerator.  Another plus with doing no chill is that when I rack my beer to a fermenter I leave a TON of break material in the bottom of the kegs.  I get very clean beer going into the fermenter which helps keep the beer clear through out the whole process.

 

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
11.75	Pilsner
1.75	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
16	Tettnanger	60
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
154F	60 minutes
175F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	White Labs WLP400 – Belgian Wit
Stats
10 gal		IBU: 16

1st Annual Brew-n-Que and British Pub Ale

 

This year I am starting a new tradition.  I am going to have a homebrew sampling and I am going to make some of my pulled pork.  People have been invite with a Facebook invite.  The Que part will be run as a potluck.  I am hoping that we will have a backyard full of people …Rain or Shine (I have large popup tents).   The first beer that I made is my British Pub Ale.

This pub ale is a higher gravity version that then session version I usually brew for myself.  This recipe was one of the first beer recipes that I created when I started brewing.  I actually had a year and a half old sample that I found over at my Grandpa’s house (he is an avid Old Milwaukee Light drinker and couldn’t bring himself to drink something else).  This beer was still great after all of this time.  I usually add Fuggles to this brew but have changed it for only East Kent Goldings.  I opened up a brand new package I got from HopsDirect.com and it smelled so good I decided to only use them.

I am doing this batch as a No Chill brew with a Real Wort starter.  The last few beers I have done like that I have really been happy with.  I don’t have to waste a ton of water chilling the beer down and I don’t have to keep DME in stock to make starter wort with.  It is a win/win situation

 

Malt Bill
Pounds	Type
9	Maris Otter
1.25	Crystal 60
.25	Honey Malt
Hops
IBU	Type	Time
24	East Kent Golding	60
6	East Kent Golding	15
1 Oz	East Kent Golding	5
Mash Schedule
Temp	Time
152F	60 minutes
175F	Batch Sparge
170F	Batch Sparge
Yeast	Wyeast London Ale III
Stats
6 gal		IBU: 32