"jinxed"

today i brewed a biere de garde recipie from jimshomebrew memeber mysterio the recipe was ;

Biere de Garde Type: All Grain
Date: 28/12/2006
Batch Size: 5.00 Imp gal
Brewer: Geoff Boil Size: 5.72 Imp gal Asst Brewer: Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0
Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.10 kg Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC) Grain 92.4 %
0.30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 4.5 %
0.20 kg Aromatic Malt (51.2 EBC) Grain 3.0 %
30.00 gm Pearle [8.00%] (60 min) Hops 23.6 IBU 15.00 gm
Saaz [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.9 IBU 15.00 gm
Saaz [4.00%] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs European Ale (White Labs #WLP011) Yeast-
Ale Beer Profile Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Est Alcohol by Vol: 5.9 % Bitterness: 26.5 IBU Calories: 269 cal/pint Est Color: 20.0
EBC Color: Color

so away i went and without boring you with more pictures of the same process this is what happened to cause me to rename this beer "jinxed".
1) first thing i do is trip over in the kitchen , landing on the brew bin barking my toe.
2) i have decied to do a stepped mash so after the 30 mins at 50deg c i add boiling water to raise the temp . but due to the large amount of grain the bin is now full so i have to use the element.
3) despite vigouros stirring the grain burns onto the element and the mash gets too hot.
4) sparging is a nightmare as the grains completely fill the bucket and there is little room for the sparger arm which now sprays the kitchen as well as the grain.
5) once the boil starts i cant get the rolling boil i need as the element is playing up , even rewiring it to bypass the thermostat has no effect .
6) my thermometer goes mental and wont give me a sensible reading !
7) i needed 30gms of perle hops and ive ordered pearle barley ! have to use saaz hops to bitter as well which will alter the taste.
8) hop strainer comes off the tap so it takes an age to drain the wort.
9) final gravity of wart is a pathetic 1040 so i take a risk and boil up some of the wort with some spray malt to bring the gravity up to 1050 .

its now fermenting away but god alone knows what it will taste like . next time (i have enough grain to do two batches of this) i will use the right hops, forget the stepped mash and ensure that my element is spotless before i start the boil.

we shall see how it turns out , it will probably be the best beer ive ever made :-)

CHIMAY

I had some grain left over after the crest ale (which was spot on by the way !) and what with it being january , being skint and everything I asked the forum on jims beerkit what I could make with it . the most intersting answer was a Chimay, which is like a belgiun beer really.

the recipe for 14 ltrs was ;

6 1/2 lbs pale malt

1 oz black malt

12 oz dark soft brown sugar

8 oz honey

2 oz hallertauer hops

1 oz goldings hops

and ideally you would use yeast from a bottle of chimay but i used gervins ale yeast.

I also tried a stepped mash for the first time, this is apparently to give the proteins a rest before you suck the life out of them. i dont pretend to understand the science but basically it is supposed to give you a clearer beer. important if its complex or involves such adjuncts as maize or honey which could cause a haze.

so i threw the grain in at 55 deg C for 30 mins then added boiling water to bring it up to 65 deg. for another 45 mins then raised it again up to 76 deg to really dilute and thin the sugars to draw them off.

sparged as normal and boiled for a good hour after having the hops, sugar and honey thrown in .

after 7 hours i had 14 ltrs of lovely dark brown wort pitched with yeast and waiting to turn into beer. i had a little taste and i was a mixture of toffee/coffee and malt and very bitter . this will change over time of course .

I took the gravity before the yeast went in and it was about 1060 so should be about 4.5 to 5 % in the end depending on how low it goes in fermentation.

as for the last two brews, well the cresta was loverly but had a haze (probably due to it being served quite cool) this didnt affect the flavour at all but i lost that extra pride in having a crystal clear brew. the stout ? well lets just say i only had a pint of it and the garden smells lovely now. the o ring on the corny keg i used left a revolting taint to it and it was really weak and thin so i obvioulsy didnt extract much in the mash.

ah well live and learn.