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recipes

Mulled beer attempt 1

We followed the Wikihow advice for our first experiment, egg yolk and all. We took a bottle of London Pride, added spices, ginger, honey and warmed it up. We then added an egg yolk & sugar mixture.

The result looked like tea, smelled like mulled wine and tasted like a hot cross bun with hops. Drinkable, but would be better with a less hoppy beer.

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homebrewing recipes

Recipe and instructions for Belgian Witbier

Our wit sitting in the sun
Our wit sitting in the sun

When we wrote about our blackberry beer a week or so back, we mentioned that we made it using a witbier base. We thought we’d also share how we made the witbier.

We owe most of the recipe to Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing — a truly inspirational homebrewing book, although not really one for beginners as it is rather erratically laid out at times. But we’re constantly using it for new ideas and it has been worth every penny.

We’ve had a couple of goes at this, refining the second recipe to make a beer that’s a little tarter and more to our tastes. We’re extremely pleased with the final result, which as you can see from the picture looks reasonably authentic. It’s very refreshing and drinkable, and wonderfully weak too — our second version was a mere 3.5% (more by accident than design).

Categories
homebrewing recipes

Pimp my stout

orange.jpgOur latest homebrew is nearing the end of primary fermentation. We’re aiming for a “chocolate orange stout” – not so much Terry’s chocolate orange, but more something bitter and rich with a hint of citrus. A bit like our impressions of Yeti Imperial Stout, which in turn reminded me of an 85%-cocoa-solids hot chocolate I had in Spain once. That’s what we’re going for. We’re not ambitious or anything.

Anyway, we’ve had a sneaky sample, and it’s already showing a lot of promise. We’re going to bottle some just as it is, but we’ve got some smaller carboys, so we could do a range of experiments with secondary fermentation. So if you’ve got any ideas for what to do next, whether based on experience or pure fantasy, let us know after the “jump”, where you’ll find the full recipe so far.

Categories
homebrewing recipes

Update on extract brew "Old Malty" – plus recipe!

We posted yesterday on our stuck fermentation problems, and how we’re trying an experimental batch with a kit to try and identify where in the process it’s all going wrong.

Obviously, having tried all-grain mashes, there was no way we were just going to follow the recipe – we had to tinker. Because we love the open-source ideal, here’s our recipe;

  • 2 cans of Muntons Gold – Old English Bitter (hopped extract)
  • 1lb carapils & 1 lb Munich malt, steeped in sub-boiling water for 20 minutes
  • 2lbs of light malt extract
  • Hops: 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (5.6%) for 60 minutes (at boil), 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (5.6%) for 20 minutes, 0.5 oz Cascades – 5 minutes
  • Gervins English ale yeast (sachet, re-hydrated)

Instructions follow after the jump.