Tuesday 9 September 2014

Gyle 41 - Smashton's Classic Beer, a collab with Arlo

I've been a bit remiss about updating this blog, for that I'm somewhat apologetic. Only somewhat mind. This brewday took place on the 18th of August, and the premise was that my dear friend Arlo Sunny Attenborrow Greenway from Port Street Beer House would come round and we would brew a beer.



I was going to let him choose all aspects of the brew, but we had to decide on yeast before, in case I had to do a yeast starter to build up the viable and pitchable amount. After discussion Arlo decided on the WLP 650 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. I know, a totally left field choice on this blog. ;-)

When it came to the brewday, well Arlo had been working the day before, so was running a bit late. I took the liberty of putting together a grain bill that would give us the rough sort of beer we had discussed, Marris Otter base, a decent wedge of dark Crystal, some wheat, and just for fun, a touch of rye.


When Arlo turned up we mashed straight in at 69ÂșC, and then looked at what hops to use. Arlo decided that he fancied a mix of Citra, Centennial, Sorachi Ace, and Ahtanum. Quite traditional. We talked about how to add the hops, and after some discussion we went for a hop stand addition. I'm liking them at the moment.


After 21 days the beer was down from the original gravity of 1.056 to a final gravity of 1.004 to give an ABV of 6.8%. Lucky the mash was a higher temperature so that it had some body left in it. ;-)

I didn't add Sorachi to the dry hop as I don't have any pellets, but the others I did, so it's smelling fantastic at the moment. I will be putting the beer into the fridge to cool and drop the hops ready for bottling. Exciting times.

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