Juggler
-
Posts
180 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Juggler
-
-
Well as the Festivals slowly approach I decided to go back to where it all began and a bottle of the first real ale I ever had!
As for the festivals here's the beer lists for next week's Winter Ales Fest and next month's Oakwood Real Ale Fest, I figure some of you might like to have a look. The previous 2 years at Oakwood have seen us taste over 100 different ales on each occasion between us so we have a target to beat this year!
http://www.winterales.uku.co.uk/beer-list.htm
and
http://www.realale-oakwoodtc.org/beer.php
It may not be anything special in the taste stakes but it still goes down rather well.
Wadworth's 6X the beer that's to blame!!!
-
Hey Bubba,
Well I'm still very much in the fledgling stages of my brewing career and the ChocOrange Stout was something suggested to me before I went to the All grain set up. The trick has been how to get enough of a hint of Orange into the brew but not too much that it over powers the other flavours. I started from a basic Oatmeal Stout recipe and then altered the ingredients. Initially I tried adding some Curacao Orange Peel to the fermentation Vessel but I found it gave it more of a spicy undertone rather than actual Orange. I also found the black malts coffee notes was also cancelling out the Orange to some degree. So version 2 dropped the Black, increased the chocolate and I also late hopped with some Cascade hops which have a citrus taste to them. That worked a bit better but still missing the Orange.
Version 3 was for a friend of mine and stuck fairly close to number 2 with a slight tweak of the amounts.
Version 4. Now this was much better. This time I grated some fresh oranges and added the zest to the mash as well as dicing the oranges and dropping them into the mash as well. I didn't late hop this time as I wanted to see if just the addition in the mash would work. I also left out the Curacao as I wanted just the Orange so I had a starting point. After drinking I found it was a lot better but it missed the zing of Curacao and I think the late hops help to bring out the flavour. So batch 5 has had a bit of everything! A kilo of Chocolate malt in the mash along with the orange zest and diced oranges. Late hopped it with some Cascade hops and dropped some curacao into the fermentation vessel.
Blimey! It's all a learning process but I'm really enjoying it and so far I've not brewed anything I wouldn't drink if I was out and about.
As for the Honey beer....WOW! Had to transfer that between vessels today and the aroma coming off the beer was just amazing. It was far better than I expected so I'm hoping it'll drink really well in about a months time when I take the beers with me over to my Uncles for the Rotherham Beer Festival weekend. The Stout and the Honey will be our before and after the festival drinking!
-
Not too much going on in blighty right now. Had a selection of Ales over Christmas courtesy of the CAMRA beer club which went down rather well. 19th Jan is the Winter Ales festival in Manchester so I shall be trawling the halls and sampling plenty of ales. Next month is the biggie with the Buzzards annual trip to the Oakwood Beer Festival in Rotherham. As usual with a good dozen of us meeting up at Sheffield Control we need plenty to drink so I had a busy few days brewing recently.
The new dispensing equipment has arrived and I've also tidied up the beer engines.
Bre Day 2. The Honey'd Ale during the boiling phase, just look at those hops?!
Brew Day number 1. This is the Mild being Sparged.
The latest batch of my own brew. ChocOrange Stout V4.
A rather pleasant Red Dragon.
CAMRA beer!
-
Talk about wetting the appetite!!!
I'll be out that way in June next year and now I'm looking forward to it even more.
Excellent report and photos.
-
We considered Kentucky Kingdom for a while but two of us have already been there back in 1999 and Beech Bend was deemed a better choice as it's smaller and we have a long day that day driving wise so wanted a small park just to break up the journey without being hard work.
Admittedly the Schwarzkopf looper is tempting but it's not enough on it's own to warrant a visit as the rest of the coasters aren't really up to much.
Thanks for the hint anyway.
-
Well it's a year later than planned, it's completely insane and it's gonna be one helluva trip.
Flights, Motels and car Hire is all sorted and four members of The BlueBuzzards are heading Stateside at the end of May next year. Anyone who wishes to join us at any time will be most welcome so here's the trip (and yes we know it'll be hard work!)
30th May - Fly in to JFK and drive to Harrisburg (DerekRX recommended the local hospitality in terms of Ale!)
31st May - Knoebels
1st June - Hershey
2nd June - Kennywood
3rd & 4th June - Cedar Point
5th June - Indiana Beach
6th June - Holiday World
7th June - Beech Bend
8th June - Dollywood
9th June - Paramount's Carowinds
10th June - Busch Gardens Europe
11th June - Paramount's Kings Dominion
12th June - Six Flags America
13th June - Six Flags Great Adventure
14th June - Six Flags New England (Thanks Zoom for cancelling the Saturday flight)
15th June - Coney Island and fly home
Yup it's a lot to do and we are not deluding ourselves about the distances involved. All of us have done 2500 miles plus Euro trips so we really do understand that this is no walk in the park (ahem!)
For those of you who messaged me in the early stages of getting this sorted many thanks for your advice.
See you next year?
-
Oh look. The bar is open and I have a Welsh visitor who is enjoying the ale!!!!!
Nodders, Juggler, two hand pumps and a beer each.
-
It's the first pint through the new bar kit time!
Up close and personal! 5.5% abv and very drinkable. All I need is a name for it.
Sampling time....OOOOOooooooo, VERY smooth and just the right amount of chocolate taste. A nice citrus after bite but not quite the orange tang I was looking for. A good starting point for my Chocolate Orange Stout.
That first pint looks dark. In fact it's very dark (Shame I'd just been doing the washing up, mind you at least it's not beer down the front!!)
Only got the one barrel ready at the moment so just the one pump on tap!
-
Been out of the loop for a while due to plenty of brewing and not enough sampling. However a recent PC build for my brother's father in law resulted in a thank you gift of six bottle conditioned ales from the Iceni Brewery in Norfolk.
and here's why it's a very LOVELY day. The joys of ebay turned up two barrels plus two beer engines (hand pumps) plus all the bits for £35 ($70 or thereabouts.)
Not bad, not bad at all.
It certainly has been a Lovely Day.
-
Already planned a short stay there so that we can push on and get near to Dollywood for the following day. Thanks for confirming the plan as a good one though.
-
Thanks, that's how I'm doing it for now.
-
Next question.
Anyone know any websites for getting a good deal on car hire? Ideally we'd like a minivan type of vehicle for the extra space but would settle for something a bit smaller. A lot of the companies are quoting Chrysler Pacifica or similar (in the smaller than a minivan category) so can anyone out there give some advice on that size of car given that there are four of us travelling plus luggage?
In fact any suggestions on what would suit our needs would be great so that I can at least go hunting knowing the sort of thing to go for.
Think 4 guys, 4 suitcases, 4 bits of hand luggage, some long drives.
-
Looks like there's a European invasion next May/June!
Our dates are set in stone now as it's a very circular route that we're taking so anyone in the area on the dates quoted would be most welcome to join us. I noticed a lot of people discussing PKI and it's one we did have on our list to start with but we ruled it out based on location and quality of rides. Easier to miss it out and do Indiana Beach instead before running down to Holiday World.
Rang Choice Hotels today for some info and I was amazed when they said we could book all the stops in advance with nothing to pay till we arrive at the Motel!! Plus we can change the itinerary up to two weeks before we go and we may also be able to wangle a few free nights as we're planning on using them for all our stops except for Cedar Point. Talking of Cedar Point anyone know when the room rates for next year are likely to be published?
Just a shame that as we're outside of the USA we can't book our Cedar Fair Passes now and get a free Jacket! SULK! Anyone know someone in management there that could maybe swing us a jacket each as we'd have paid for a pass now if we were allowed. GRIN!
So, Flights sorted, Motels nearly sorted, just car hire to do and that can wait a while.
Turned out nice again!
-
Dates confirmed as 30th May 2008 to June 14th 2008
Schedule
Fly Gatwick to JFK Friday 30th
31st - Knoebels
1st - Hershey
2nd - Kennywood
3rd & 4th Cedar Point
5th - Indiana Beach
6th - Holiday World
7th - Beech Bend
8th - Dollywood
9th - Carowinds
10th - Busch Gardens Williamsburg
11th - Kings Dominion
12th - Six Flags America
13th - Six Flags Great Adventure
14th - Possibly Coney Island before catching night flight back.
So there we go my first trip to the USA since 2001 is going to happen and I can't wait. So much has changed since I was last out there and just the thought of coasters such as Legend, Voyage, El Toro, Kingda Ka, Alpengeist, Apollo's Chariot etc. etc. is already getting me excited. I mean last time I was at Holiday World was the day they announced "The Legend" to the media!!
-
^ Looking good Juggler. You'll be up to Imperial Stouts in no time!
Well the actual method of brewing isn't all that tricky it just takes time. The real trick is going to be doing some true research into how to flavour the beers by using different malts and hops. I also want to look into how and when I introduce other flavours into the brew to produce unique recipes that I can hopefully take forward into a business environment.
As for Imperial Stouts....
Funny you should mention those seeing as there is a recipe for one in my brewing book!
-
Time for the results of the latest batch from your own residential home brewer. Moved from a standard bitter to an Oatmeal Stout for batch number two and it comes in at a drinkable 4.5% abv. It's been settling in the barrel for just over a week now and once again the difference in quality between the kits that I used to do and a full grain mash are there for the tasting. I'm finding the Full Mash produces a much smoother beer in general where as the kits could be quite harsh at times.
Yup, that's another success and maybe my plans to open a Micro Brewery aren't so daft after all....
Mmmm, a subtle hint of chocolate mixed with the distinct flavour of the Oats.
Well it's black so that's got to be a good start, hasn't it?
-
Hmm, Dream Theatre. Heard lots of good things about them and they're playing Manchester in October...
Weird Al Live - The Night Santa Went Crazy.
-
Nodders has arrived at Buzzard HQ and is still alive to tell the tale having sampled the "Thirst" Ale.
Nodders has beer but hold on, what's that in the background? It's a boiling wort with the Oatmeal Stout in production.
Ah yes. A discerning gentleman and a discerning beer.
# The first drink of the day...#
-
Working nights this week so the alcohol consumption has died until tomorrow at 7pm when I finish and promptly head up to the local Freehouse for a couple of ales.
However, during my freedom today I popped over to my local brewing supplies shop and picked up a recipe book and some more ingredients.
Now I know Derek and Heath will be keeping tabs on this as I'm about to embark on an Oatmeal Stout and if it wasn't for the slight issue of the Atlantic being in the way I have a feeling there'd be a knock on the door not long after it's ready!!
One table full of ingredients.
One recipe!
-
At long last I've completed my first full mash brew and to say the results where better than expected is an understatement. First time out and I was just hoping to make something that didn't taste like Yak Urine and was vaguely alcoholic. What I got was a perfectly quaffable light ale weighing in at about 4.2% and it's a vast improvement on the kits I've been using so far. Straight forward Crystal Malt with two hops (Fuggles and Goldings) has prduced an ale I'd be happy to purchase in a pub and I'd probably demolish several pints of the stuff.
So even though it's not fully cleared yet a small tastter has proved I can brew from scratch. Once Nodders gets up here in a couple of weeks time for Blackpool and Camelot I'll be able to get a considered opinion.
BlueBuzzards "Thirst" Ale. (Oh and my new puddy is there too!)
-
OK, not so much a last beer I drank but a last beer I brewed report. It's the first time I've done a complete brew from scratch using malt, hops and yeast.
It's just a basic bitter to start with so that I get used to the process and also the equipment.
Finally it's down to the right temperature and the boiler is emptied into the fermenting bin. Next the yeast is added and the fermenter sealed and left for 5 to 7 days.
So after collected and boiled with Hops for 90 minutes the wort needs to be cooled rapidly. The contraption in the wort is a cooling coil which has cold water running through it.
Now the tricky bit. Sparging! The mash needs to be rinsed with hot water. The liquid from this is collected in the boiler.
Here's the Mash prior to popping the lid on. Looks like a large batch of porridge. This is the grain mixed with 11.25 litres of hot water.
Close up of the grain.
Here's the kit. Boiler to the left (boiling up the mashing water), 4.5kg of malt grain central, Fermenting bin just to the right and the blue box is the Mash Tun.
-
OK, not been posting for a while due to a minor PC issue and lack of new bottled beer for the beer thread. However....
Date - Saturday 7th July 2007
Location - Old Trafford, Manchester
Weather - Dry and Sunny
Group - GENESIS
WOW!
OK, it's a week on from the event and I'm still on a high after seeing what was the best Genesis Gig I've ever been to. I was at Knebworth in 1992 on the last night of the "We Can't Dance" world tour and that was special but what I saw at Old Trafford blew me away. Those of you going to see them when they hit the US later this year are in for a very special treat.
Set List.
Behind the Lines / Duke’s End / Turn It On Again
No Son Of Mine
Land of Confusion
In The Cage / The Cinema Show / Duke’s Travels / Afterglow
Hold on My Heart
Home by the Sea / Second Home By The Sea
Follow You, Follow Me
Firth of Fifth / I Know What I Like
Mama
Ripples
Throwing It All Away
Domino
Drum Duet / Los Endos
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight / Invisible Touch
~Encore~
I Can’t Dance
Carpet Crawlers
So a very nice mix of old, not quite so old and fairly recent to keep everyone happy although with a back catalogue their size it's always a tricky job picking songs.
So onto the day.
Nodders (Regular in the beer thread) and another friend arrived Friday afternoon and we visited the local real ale pub to discuss travel arrangements for the Saturday. That took all of two minutes so we supped the local ales whilst talking about the forthcoming event. After a few beers we retired to my humble abode and watched some Genesis DVD's of previous tours including the aforementioned 1992 concert which was broadcast on Sky TV live.
Saturday morning dawned and I had a trip to the local home brew shop to make first so I could purchase the rest of my new brewing kit (see beer thread later) before heading home and then onwards. The weather wasn't good and had been wet all morning but all the website had it clearing later on so all we could do was hope. We left mine just before midday and we're in Manchester city centre for 1pm where I had to make sure I found the guy who had taken my other ticket off me. With that done it was time to watch the big screens erected for the Live Earth broadcast as Genesis were opening the London Gig. In fact quite a few fans had had a similar idea and there was quite a crowd gathered in the sunshine as they hit the stage. Now they sounded mighty good and the anticipation levels went up yet another notch. With the set finished in London the three of us went for a nice sit down lunch in "Old Orleans" which went down extremely well.
That finished we went back outside and watched a bit more of the concert before finally deciding it was time to catch the tram down to the stadium.
The tram was packed with fans as it trundled down to Old Trafford and you could sense that everyone was already really up for this gig. So a short walk followed up to the stadium and although it was a good two hours before they were due on stage the surrounding area was packed with fans. The pubs were overflowing, the streets were at a standstill and everyone was smiling. A quick look round the merchandise and then into the stadium.
Now I was one of the lucky ones who got tickets on the pre-sale offer through the Genesis forum and therefore we were three rows from the front just left of centre. As we walked into the stadium itself I was just gobsmacked by the size of the stage. IT'S HUGE, not just big but HUGE. It easily filled the width of the pitch and it reached up into the sky. Now I'd seen the pictures but to actually see it in person was something else. A NINE million pixel LED backdrop stretched the entire width of the set flanked by two oval HD screens at either side. However the group themselves were on a tiny stage in the centre dwarfed by this immense technological backdrop.
Skip a couple of hours and the intro music starts up, a decent low level at first but slowly the volume cranks up too an immense crescendo as the LED wall blips into life with clips of Genesis displayed on the back then BANG. Genesis launch into Behind the Lines/Duke's End going into Turn it on Again. What followed was over two and a half hours of musical perfection from one of the greatest groups ever (IMHO of course.) Highlights for me were "Ripples" which I had never seen live, "In the Cage" another song I'd yet to see, "Domino" which I love live as the studio version is pretty tame and boring compared to the live one and finally "The Carpet Crawlers" which brought the show to a close.
All I can say is that this was a very special gig and one that will live me forever.
Pictures at http://www.bluebuzzards.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=25
Enjoy (I did)
-
It's going to be a while before I get started but it'll give me plenty of time to read up on the whole process. The first beer will probably be a basic bog standard bitter just as a test. No point in getting too carried away to start with!
Hopefully I'll have two or three brews behind me by the end of the year and then I can start experimenting in time for our annual trip to the Rotherham Beer Festival. I usually brew up a couple of barrels for the weekend as we tend to start drinking on the Thursday night, have more than a few more Friday and then visit the festival Saturday before finishing off whatever we have left in the barrels Saturday night.
I already have a few ideas about some of the flavours I'd like to try in the beers and Stouts are VERY high on the list. Chocolate Orange Stout anyone?
-
OK, that's it. When the Buzzards get out there next year I DEMAND an audience and a trip to one of these joints!!!!!
As for the last beer I drank, nothing much really just a small selection of ales already mentioned so I shall refrain from posting those.
However, I have just purchased the first few bits for my new brewing setup and now have the Boiler and Mash Tun. Next month I'll pickup the Sparging arm and wort chiller and then I can start on a proper ALL GRAIN brew.
I've got bored with the kits now and can pretty much get a successful barrel of Ale everytime but there's no craft to brewing the kits and I'm now eager to start working on my own recipes (any ideas?)
I shall of course keep the beer drinkers of this forum up to date with my work and when I finally get round to my first batch with the new kit I shall post a "Brew Report"
What Was the Last Beer You Drank?
in Random, Random, Random
Posted
Well I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and I know I should give it a few more days but what the hell it's cheaper than buying bottles. So I pulled my first pint of Mild this evening since I set the hand pumps up properly and WOW! I wasn't sure what to expect as I've not brewed a Mild before but I wanted something that wasn't too heavy for the coming weekend.
A nice deep red colour, a wonderful malty nose, sweet to the taste with a little hoppy after taste.