Barrelling: Yorkshire Terrier

I finally got around to putting the Terrier in a barrel today after three weeks in the fermenter.  All seems to have gone well and the beer tastes pretty good at this point.  Just got to wait a couple of weeks now for it to build up some CO2 and probably mellow out the hop flavours a bit.

Here are just a couple of shots from the barrelling process:

Next up I'll be starting a batch of Fixby Gold, which I'll put on as soon as the boiler room is free again to get the beer stock rolling.

Thanks for reading!

Update: Yorkshire Terrier

I got back from a lovely weekend in Northern Ireland (or Norn Iron as the natives call it...), which incidentally is a total dry spot for real ale. If anyone knows of any decent breweries in the County Tyrone or County Derry areas it would be great if they could let me know.

Anyhow, I've just tested this brew and it is down to 1.014, which is showing good progress.  I guess I'll check it again in a couple of days then put it in a barrel at the weekend, all being well.  Had a cheeky taste from the test jar and it seems to be losing quite a bit of the harsh bitterness it had when it first went on.

Brewing: Yorkshire Terrier

So it's been ages since i posted anything here, because it has been ages since I brewed anything.  Various things have happened to stop me from doing anything but now they have all calmed down I figured I should get back to it, even if just to do a kit and get my beer stocks back up.

Handily, I had a kit knocking about that the old housemate (She Who Must moved in the other week...) bought me for my birthday.  It was Yorkshire Terrier by York Brewery, so I stuck that on.  It was pretty much a standard kit apart from it had a pack of hop pellets to steep first.  They didn't come in any sort of permeable bag so I whcked them in a hop bag I had knocking about so I could yank them out when the steeping was done.  Not sure if this was the right thing to do as the instructions were very vague, but I'm sure it won't change much.  Other than this the main memory I have of this brew is how much of a pain it is to dissolve spraymalt.  It took ages and all the stirring I had to do made a bit of a mess, but it got done in the end.

I pitched a pack of Safale S04 by just sprinkling it on (normally I rehydrate but actually read the packet this time which said just to sprinkle).  Checked it this morning and there's a massive head of foam in the fermenter, so it's all good I guess.  I'm a little worried as I had a taste of the wort before pitching and it was very hoppy, almost astringent, so I hope this doesn't turn out like the St Peter's brew that I did last which had such a weird after taste (probably from the hop powder) that I only drank half of it...

Anyhow, we'll see how it goes.

First Taste: 'I Agree With Nick' Summer ightning clone

I cracked open a bottle of this honestly not knowing what to expect last night and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  It wasn't overly carbonated, which I quite like and is probably down to bottling method (the real test of this beer will be when I tap the mini keg).  The colour is a bit darker than Summer Lightning is, which I think is due to the boiling of the extract, I'm looking into ways of avoiding it next time. Taste wise, it is very light in the mouth and not overly bitter.  It has a wonderfully pleasant hop aroma and taste that is nicely balanced (I'm starting to dislike overly hopped light ales because they are everywhere, so this is a good thing).

All in all, I'm very impressed and will now forge on ahead with extract brewing, knowing that I can produce genuinely good results.

Update: 'I Agree With Nick' Summer Lightning clone.

I'm already kind of regretting the name of this brew, but don't want to change it really.  Anyway, politics aside, I put this into bottles and a mini-keg last week but forgot to blog about it.  Really, it was such a hassle I didn't want to write about it at the time, but feel like I should now.

I started off with 10litres in the fermenter, and the plan was to put half into the keg and half into bottles.  I've got a 10litre fermenting bucket with a tap on that I used as a bottling bucket of sorts.  I basically had a length of hose on the end of the tap to deliver the beer to the bottom of the bottle.  It kind of worked in theory as a crude bottling stick, but was a lot of hassle and I will therefor be getting a bottler before the next brew. By the time I had syphoned the brew into the bottling bucket, it was down to 8 litres on account of there being a whole pile of grossness at the bottom.  I guess this was mostly cold break material as this brew wasn't crash cooled.  Again, before the next brew, I need some way of cooling it quickly. Filling the keg went without incident but the bottles ended up being a pain and I only got 5 filled before I got too annoyed with holding the bottle and tipping the bucket etc.

Anyway, it's done now and I just have to wait about 4 weeks to tap the keg and see if it was all worth it.

In other news, the St Peter's Ruby Red is tasting pretty nice.

Update: St Peter's Ruby Red

I've been tasting small amounts of the Ruby Red every now and then since it went into the barrel and I have to say I started out disappointed.  It had a very harsh, almost astringent hop aftertaste to start with.  Tried a bit today and it seems it is starting to get better, so here's hoping for it being really nice in about two/three weeks.

Update: I Agree With Nick (Summer Lightning clone)

Gave this a test this evening.  The SG is down to 1.016, which seems a little high so might leave it another day or so.  As ever, I tasted the sample and it had a good level of sweetness and was very bitter (probably something to do with the slapdash way I measured the hops), but this should mellow after some conditioning.

My main worry is that it looks very cloudy and there were large chunks of what appear to be spraymalt floating about in it.  I guess this is down to me not mixing the extract in well enough before the boil but I don't think it will effect the beer particularly.  I really hope it clears well in the keg, or it'll be a bit disconcerting to drink.