"Naughty Boy" Oat pale ale

Today we brewed a little experiment, a sub-4% pale ale brewed with 12% malted oat flakes, just to see what these would do to the beer's body and mouthfeel.  It's not a new idea, Brodies in Leyton have been doing this for years, but we thought we'd give it a go and see what comes out.

It's safely tucked up in FV3 now so we should have an idea as to what it's tasting like by early next week or so... we used a fair amount of hops, as we do, with Summit, Magnum, Citra and Mosaic being deployed but we've not decided on the dry hop yet!  or the name, come to think of it, but I'm sure we'll think of something.

Tomorrow we're brewing again, this time it's the return of Mosaic Plus in a yet again "new and improved" version with, you guessed it, more hops!  Hopefully it'll be a cracker, it certainly went down very well the last two times we made it... this time, however, it should be even better with yet more juicy blackcurrant and cattyness from the Mosaic hops ably assisted by Centennial, Magnum and maybe a bit of something else too; we'll decide on the details tomorrow!

Our first Collab!

Collaborations, or "collabs" as they're known by lazy people who can't be bothered to pronounce whole words, are all the rage at the moment in UK craft brewing. They began in the US when fellow brewers began to brew beers together and it's migrated, as with many things, over to our shores where we've put our own spin on it.

We meant to do loads of collabs with all the lovely brewers we know, but until now nothing has actually come off despite several tenuous plans... well, until last week that is!  We were joined by James Bendall of the soon-to-be-operational Axiom Brewing of Wrexham and John Winnerah of the lamented Art Brew of Dorset who closed the day after we brewed - for now.

One of the main ideas of a collab is that all collaborators have input on the recipe and so we all sat around the PC wondering what to do; Gazza and Tom had just driven back from Reading after a "meet the brewer" the previous evening and although we'd all talked about the brew on twitter and email a bit nothing had really been decided upon!  After some ideas bounced back and forwards we settled on a vague idea I'd put forwards the week before; a Belgian(ish) Black IPA which really is a bit of a strange beer to make but, hey, collaborations are all about pushing the boundaries!

The recipe was devised, the malts mashed in, dug, hops added, boiled, (lots) more hops added, wort cooled and finally stuck into FV4 with the yeast; sorted, and just enough time for some beers in Cardiff as a bonus!

So, massive thanks to James and John for their sociablilty and putting up with our shambolic setup and getting back late, the beer is now on chill (and at 5.8%) and tasting lovely; the whole sack of Special W malt (it's the German take on Belgian Special B malt) has given the beer a luscious fruitcake flavour to balance the hops and I'm very hopeful this will be an absolute cracker when it's finished in a week or two...

So, who's next then?

James, Gazza (not asleep, honest) and John

The yeast begins it's work!

Worker and supervisor dig the mash

John getting stuck in

I am the one and only...

.... cask of Hop Secret 4! I've been made as a special experiment using a new, untested and as yet unnamed British hop which is hoped can, after brewing trials such as this, make the British hop industry more competitive and, dare I say it, relevant in today's "big flavour" market; after all, we are in flavour country now!

I taste of honey malt, have a slight bitterness so as not to distract from the hop's flavour and aroma which is reminiscent of the soft, fruity New Zealand character; obviously it's not as in-yer-face as Nelson or suchlike, but it does have an intriguing tropical fruit to it and a citrussy, dry bitterness.

So, give me a go and see for yourself!  To do that you'll have to be at the Hopcraft "meet the brewer" event at the marvelous Nag's Head, Russell Street, Reading from 19:00 Wednesday where you can see Gazza, Tom and work your way through a dozen Hopcraft beers; go on, you know you want to...  see you there.

Behind the bar at the Nag's...

Beers this week

This week we have brewed a new pale session beer, "Chorister's Gold", which will be around 4.2% and hopped with Marynka (Poland), Admiral (UK) and Triskel (France) to give a soft, fruity beer ideal for a few pints.  This is a rework of an old Pixie Spring recipe which now bears little resemblance to the original!

Tomorrow we're crafting a new 4.5% or so golden brew with mainly south Pacific hops including Topaz (Australia) and Sticklebract (New Zealand); it doesn't have a name yet although "Cardboard box" is a possibility... or maybe not.

We're also transferring "Citraic" to conditioning tank and dry-hopping it, then casking up "Long Nines" and "Reign of Terroir" on Friday.

The beer must get through...

And it did.  Just about...

We've just got back after a day driving in apocalyptical conditions with howling gales, floods, hail, driving rain and I'm sure I saw a few locusts too.

We started at our mates Brodies down in Leyton, east Laaardan, before a flying visit to Meantime brewery in Greenwich courtesy of more mates (AB stainless who were working there) then drops at the Southampton Arms, Highgate, Nag's Head, Reading and finally the Shoulder of Mutton, Wantage before hitting the M4 back to Wales.

We're brewing another new beer tomorrow with South Pacific hops including Topaz and Sticklebract, as well as transferring "Citraic" (which is smelling lush by the way) to conditioning tanks with a load of dry-hop pellets, then we'll be casking up "Long Nines" and "Reign of Terroir" on Friday as some are due out next week!

Don't forget we're at the lovely Nag's Head in Reading next Wednesday 19th for a "meet the brewer" evening; there will be at least a dozen beers on sale including some special one-off beers just for the event; see you all there, it'll be good!  The beers will start coming on during the day and we'll be there from around 6 to talk about the beers, the brewery and answering any questions...

The tenuous beer list is thus...

1. The Beast 6.5% - golden, hoppy and a beast!
2. The Boss 4.4% - golden, multi-layered hops and bitterness
3. Pondicherry IPA - testbrew with Assam and Earl Grey tea
4. Reign of Terroir 4.9% - pale with the elderflowery French hop Triskel
5. Permanent Revolution 3.6% - Red "half" IPA, big for the strength!
6. Hop Secret 4 4.1% - brewed with a brand-new English test hop
7. Long Nines 6% - big bruiser of a stout
8. Sucker Punch 4.3% - "soft" IPA, low bitterness, big hop finish
9. Monky Business (whisky cask) 5.6% - our Belgian dubbel aged in a whisky barrel!
10. Cruxshadow 4.9% - dark and smoky winter beer
11. Black Nag - testbrew, a smoked black IPA!
12. Simcoe Plus 5.4% - very pale, clementine marmalade flavours!

Plus maybe a few more bits and bobs.....

Another week...

Now then hop fiends.

This week we've got a fair bit on; brewing twice - probably Chorister's Gold and a mid-4% hoppy amber beer maybe with Topaz and Sticklebract - plus delivering more beer to London, Wantage and Reading in preparation for our "Meet the Brewer" at the Nag's Head, Reading.

This event happens next week on Wednesday 19th; be there, it'll be fun!  We are presenting a dozen of our beers, including a few that won't be seen anywhere else, with the list looking something along these lines...

• The Beast
• The Boss
• Pondicherry IPA (with tea)
• Golden Pixie
• Hop Secret 4
• Long Nines
• Sucker Punch
• Whisky cask Monky Business
• Cruxshadow
• Black Nag Smoked Black IPA

Plus two more we've not decided on yet!  We'll be talking about the brewery and why we decided to get paid sod-all for working hundreds of hours a week, plus there will be a Q&A session.  I'm not sure what time this kicks off but I'm assuming not before 19:00 or so...  the Nag's is a superb pub and it's close to Reading station, literally not more than 10 minutes' walk.

See you all next week, in the meantime we'd better get brewing some more beer!!

Busy week.

Not massively more than usual, but as we're off to London Thursday we have effectively lost a whole day so we're squeezing everything into three, plus there's some extra stuff happening too!

Today we

• Brewed "Citraic", a 5.2%-ish pale and very hoppy,
• Brewed a testbrew with Assam and Earl Grey tea,
• Washed 50 casks,
• Dispensed advice and hops/malt to a local homebrewer,
• Did recipes for future beers,
• Sold beer in London for Thursday,
• And various other little jobs which all take time!

Tomorrow we'll mainly be...

• Brewing another beer, not sure what yet but it's probably "Chorister's Gold"
• Brewing another testbrew, this time a smoked black IPA (!)
• transferring "Long Nines" to the whisky cask, keg, cask and conditioning tank,
• transferring two other beers to conditioning tank,
• Dry-hopping beers in the tanks,

And then Thursday, before we leave for London, we'll be casking up "Sucker Punch" and maybe "Bang Tidy edition 3" too...

It's all go here, which is great!

Going into all manner of containers tomorrow!

And this one only into cask and keg!

And finally...

... meet our latest conditioning tank emblazoned with the mark of Lucifer!!!

Oh yes.

KNEEL BEFORE ME AND GIVE THANKS FOR MY BOUNTY!!!!

"Drop tests".

Two posts in a day?  I must be bored... actually no, I'm simply feeling particularly munificent and think I should show our readers and casual visitors more of what running a craft/micro/cask ale brewery is all about.

Us brewers do some funny things and "drop tests", or as they are correctly called "finings tests", are quite strange looking things appearing to the untrained eye to be a load of bottles lined up which may contain medical samples.  We all do it differently; some use pint milk bottles, some specially bought glass or plastic vessels, some cheapskates use second-hand pop bottles... but whatever you use it fulfills the same purpose in that it allows the brewer to see if the beer he's putting into cask/keg/bottle is going to clear or not.

<rant>

Personally I hate having to sell clear beer, I'd much rather leave out the fish guts (Isinglass, the final additive in cask beer to make it clear, is shredded sturgeon swim bladders... or "whale jizz" as some brewers have been heard to call it) but the public gets what they stupidly want I suppose.  Call it years of conditioning or whatever, but many people think a beer which isn't crystal clear is defective in some way when it's probably just some flavour-enhancing proteins and hop oils plus a bit of vitamin-rich yeast swimming around in their pint, heaven forfend it should actually taste of something; fining beer strips out a lot of mouthfeel and hop character so by having clear beer you're having worse beer.  Now you know.

/<rant>

Whatever, this picture shows the last week's drop tests all lined up on our "light box".  The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that it's not a light box at all but a girder with a strip light conveniently located behind it (actually it's not that convenient, you have to lean against a wall to get this view...) so you can see the beers on said light box in all their sparkling clarity.  Stripped down to basics, when we transfer a beer to either conditioning tank or cask we take a small sample, add (more or less) the correct amount of finings, shake it vigorously then leave it on the "light box" to await developments.  If everything works correctly - and you can see that these all have worked beautifully - after 15 minutes or so you'll be able to notice clumps forming in the beer; these are yeast cells being drawn to the bits of swim bladder by virtue of electric charge and forming clumps.

The theory is that yeast cells are bloody small and, by themselves, will take ages to settle to the bottom and leave the beer clear, but if they clump together then these clumps will be heavier and will sink faster, resulting in a clear beer much quicker.  There's plenty of books and stuff around if you really care exactly how and why all this happens but it's simpler to believe me that it works.  If it doesn't work, however, then the beer you're putting into cask won't clear in the pub cellar - this is basically an insurance policy as no brewer wants to send out 30 casks of beer not knowing if the beer inside will clear or not (although apparently many don't actually test their beer in this way!)

So there you go, yet another fascinating insight into the bits of brewing that you never see or hear about unless you know a brewer who jabbers on about it incessantly.  In which case I apologise.

Take one twice a day....

The latest bit of hi-tech kit!

OK, I'd be the first to admit that it doesn't look much.  Actually I'd be surprised if you had any idea what this thing is.

If I told you that this half-metre diameter piece of perforated stainless steel sheet is saving us up to an hour per day I dare say you'd be amazed, suspicious even... but believe me, it does.

This thing is the new filter plate in the bottom of our copper which the guys at Wobbly Brewery have made for us and it replaced the shoddy piece of crap which came with the brewery; put it this way, last week it took us 90 minutes to transfer 1450 litres of wort, today with the new plate it took 45 minutes pro-rata for our 2100 litre brew which, as you can see, is one hell of a time saving doing nowt looking at a digital thermometer and playing with water feeds and wort valves in a vain attempt to keep the temperature of the wort going into the FV constant.

So, all hail the new copper filter plate, yet another replacement part to make the brewday easier, shorter and less stressful.  We can't complain really, having got the brewing kit for a song (we did have to rebuild the whole thing from scratch though), so as and when we can replace parts then we will!

It's a filter plate.  Honest.

All in it together...

No, this isn't a rant about ham-faced tory cretin Cameron, but a missive on the camaraderie amongst brewers and others in the industry when you wouldn't expect it.

You'd imagine, with more and more brewers chasing the same (or slightly more) amount of free houses and guest accounts, that brewing would be a cutthroat business with brewers holding cards very close to their chest and keeping the counsel of Homer Simpson, that is "never help anyone"; you'd be wrong.  

Maybe this was the case in the past, and certain brewers I could mention still think we are in those times (and these are the same people who think you couldn't guess what's in a brown beer that tastes of toffee, twigs and grass), but the vast majority of brewers, publicans, wholesalers and others in this great industry are living the "big society" in a way which would probably make Dave C proud if we were making Claret or something equally poncy; someone's short of something or a cask needs a ride somewhere?  You can bet there will be a fellow brewer who can help you out for cost or, usually, for nowt.

A few examples; in Sheffield we found out someone had used our last pack of yeast but, after a quick appeal on social media - down with the kids, innit? - one turned up the next day.  Another time we found out someone had used all our shives... guess what?  A few calls and 50 arrived, gratis.  I could go on with tales of hops, malt, finings, caustic, space on the van for a cask to hitch a lift and suchlike being donated but I'm sure you can see what I'm gunning at here; (most) brewers are all too happy to help out a brother in need in the knowledge that, when they're in a similar situation, they'll get this good karma coming right back at them... and everyone has these moments when they urgently need something, believe me.

On that note, we're helping out a local-ish brewery this week and as Steel City, Gazza and Dave have helped many of the current crop of UK "cuckoo" brewers get started.  When you think about it not a lot in brewing is secret or only you know, so you may as well be the good guy and help out the people in need as, one day, they may be in a position to help you out.  Having friends in brewing is very useful and, after all, is one of the things which makes it such a great industry to be in.

As I said, we're all in it together.  Almost all of us.... 

Tidy Bitter - the making of a "simple beer".

Today we brewed Tidy Bitter version 5; when we first brewed Tidy we envisaged it as a straightforwards bitter which, by it's very definition, would be easy to create a recipe for and then brew.... hindsight is an amazing thing.

So now, after 6 months brewing with 39 gyles on the board, we're finally getting close to sorting out Tidy, and by that I mean getting the recipe right which has taken 5 attempts and I still don't think we're quite there yet; we've done amazingly complex hoppy beasts which I think we've nailed first time (or got pretty close to target) whilst Tidy remains a constant reminder that the simpler the beer style the less wriggle room you have in making it and the more exact you need to be in both recipe and execution.

The yeast is a simple one, we use Whitbread B (or S04 to give it's commercial name) which does near enough what we want except it has a tendency to give up working completely too soon without warning; one moment you've a huge fluffy yeast head - and S04 gives a huge fluffy crop - the next it's all gone and the beer is lying there limpid and ready, except it's not ready! To counteract this we may pitch in some US05, just a touch, to take advantage of that yeast's superior attenuation powers which means we may get the gravity down this brew!

The malt has been through lots of changes although I think we're almost there now; we've swapped the low-colour Maris Otter for normal Maris Otter to give a touch more body and flavour, Caramalt has been eliminated in favour of CaraGold as it's got a really nasty taste Gazza doesn't like (whereas CaraGold hasn't), Weyermann's exemplary CaraRed remains the mainstay of the colour/flavour stakes and a touch of German dehusked chocolate malt finishes off the flavour department.  We add a dose of torrefied wheat not because we like it - it tastes like popcorn - but because many "normal" bitter drinkers expect their bitter to have certain flavours so we've shamelessly caved in to popular opinion and used torrefied rather than our usual malted wheat; the public get what the public want!

The hops in Tidy have been through the mill.  Not literally, but figuratively.  The rock which is German Herkules has remained constant throughout every iteration of the recipe for the simple reason it's a superb bittering hop and matched perfectly to Tidy.  The other two hops have varied as we've experimented with different ones, always European, to try and get the flavour just as we want it with various varieties being tried and rejected (with Bobek and Saaz the main casualties); we've now settled on what we think is the final hop grist with UK Admiral (red fruit, robust bitterness, rhubarb and custard) and Polish Marynka (juicy, oily, hoppy, grassy) making up the recipe.

So, here's hoping that this time we're satisfied with our endeavours and the finished beer comes out as we want it.  It's a task made extra difficult as neither of us really likes bitter, or at least boring "normal" bitter, so we've tried to make this one as interesting as possible without going too far and veering off into the sphere of flavours we normally inhabit!

So you see, it's not easy getting a recipe right and doubly so if it's with a beer style you don't really care for!  Hopefully we can put this one to bed now, but we always welcome feedback on any of our beers at Hops@Hopcraftbrewing.co.uk so give us a shout; cheers!

Praise for yeast.

I still love seeing beer fermenting, even after brewing for nearly 5 years; it's the alchemy and wonder of it all.  In these enlightened time we know why it happens and no longer have to give thanks to a beardy bloke sat on a cloud, but even so it's still a magical process and I love it - I often look into the fermenter for a while imagining the millions, billions even, of yeast cells gorging on the sugars within and turning a sweet liquid into a delicious, refreshing, healthy (in moderation, obviously!! ) drink.

When I think back to brewers hundreds of years ago with no Antiformin or caustic, no Perecetic acid, no knowledge of bacteria and yeast, no temperature control, no infection control procedures, wooden fermenting vessels and much more I know just how easy we have it these days... it's still hard physical work but we know much of the how and why which is half the battle in making good beer.  

And then there's the hops; imagine having to buy hops by farms in Herefordshire or Kent when they're all the same (or very similar) strain rather than by variety from America or New Zealand... how times change, massively for the better in my opinion!  Just imagine a world without Citra, Nelson Sauvin, Simcoe, Centennial, Sorachi Ace, Columbus and many more... I'd rather not!

These two photos show yeasty activity on our latest brew of Golden Pixie and a testbrew for Charles Faram & Co Ltd, one is 1500 litres and one 75 but they're pretty similar.

Golden Pixie in FV2 just beginning fermentation

A testbrew in full ferment

Repeat brew!

We're brewing tomorrow and, in a very rare occurrence, it's a repeat beer!

Golden Pixie went down really well when we brewed it back in the Autumn and now, in a spirit of making affordable beer in the dark months of Winter, we're brewing it again but slightly different after some feedback and our own feelings about it; we've cut the bittering level down a few notches but that's about it, it's got the same hops (Summit, Citra, Cascade) and malt (Low-colour Maris Otter, Cara and Wheat) in it so should be the same easy-going hoppy golden beer again!

We're also brewing Thursday, this time a strongish stout at 5.5% or so, as yet unnamed.  Next week should see a brew of Tidy bitter (maybe the same as v4 which was the best yet we thought) and a new pale, hoppy beer which may be similar to Fleur d'Alsace or may not, we've not decided yet.

Keep the faith, hopheads.

It's back!  Well, it will be in a few weeks...

Back to it!

After a long break, well earned I must say, we're back in the brewery today!  

We've also picked up some new casks from the manufacturers and collected a load of malt and hops for the next 3 brews which will be Simcoe Plus, a 5.5% or so strong stout and a 4.5% or so pale & hoppy creation with as yet undecided hops from the stash.

This evening we've given the brewery plant a good caustic wash and flush through with water ready for the brewday tomorrow (Simcoe plus, can't wait for this one!) and the hot liquor tank is heating up ready for action...

Bring on 2014, here's hoping we build on what we've already achieved.

Cheers!

Have a good one....

Happy Yule / Christmas / festivities whatever you call it and a great new year to all our customers, suppliers, drinkers and supporters.

See you all next year!!

Final deliveries...

Almost done!

In the last 2 days we've dropped 32 casks in London and Reading at the following pubs;

• Nag's Head, Reading
• Southampton Arms, Highgate
• Fox, Haggerston E8
• Cock (Howling Hops), Hackney
• King William 4th (Brodies), Leyton

Tomorrow we're doing it all again;

• Nag's Head, Reading (two more!!)
• Alehouse (ex Hobgolblin), Reading
• Hope, Carshalton
• Shoulder of Mutton, Wantage

And that's about it for the year for us!  it's been an amazing 6 months with plenty of highs and lows but we feel that we've achieved way more than we thought and are looking forwards to really taking it up a notch next year.

Our beer quality has steadily improved to the point that even Gazza is fairly happy with it (!) and the last few brews (Beast, Boss and Citra Plus) were particularly pleasing; we're not resting on the proverbial laurels though, far from it, we know we can make even better beer and will be trying to do just that in the new year.

We'll be updating less frequently over Yule as we're not doing that much, so we'll take this opportunity to give out a massive thanks to everyone who's helped or merely put up with us during the past year of planning, building and finally brewing; we really do appreciate all the support and feedback so please keep the lupulous faith for 2014 and we'll see you soon - some Meet the Brewer evenings are being planned for the new year so you can come see us in person!

Have a good Yule and new year everyone, cheers.

Gazza and Tom, the brewers.

Final brew of the year and Whisky cask maturation update!

It may seem a bit soon, but we've just done our final brew of the year!  We've been brewing twice a week for a good few weeks now so we've built up a bit of a buffer to see us through until January; saying that, we're off to London twice next week with 50 (and counting...) casks so we'll need to be brewing straight off in January to replenish some stocks.  The thinking was we'd rather brew and sell fresh beer than sit on lots of older stock (hops fade very quickly so we want our beer from brewery to bar as quickly as possible) so that's it for 2013, 35 brews completed in our first 6 months; not bad to begin with.

The final brew was a rather unusual dark beer, not quite stout not quite wheat beer, with a generous dose of German smoked malts (both beechwood and oak) to add complexity and, as you'd expect in such a beer, the hop charge was (for us!) ludicrously low with Admiral, Marynka and Magnum being used more to add to the flavour than to add their own as is usually the case with our beer.  It should be pretty complex so look out for "Cruxshadow" in the new year...

We've got a good range of beers coming on sale now including The Beast, Permanent Revolution, Monky Business (of which more in a minute) and The Beast to name but a few, as well as last month's Bosun James Gray, Prospector and Lucifer Juice... oh yes, and Citra Plus which was tasting monumentally good on casking; can't wait to try that in the pub.

Brewing for the year may be over but the work isn't, oh no.  Today we racked Tidy, transferred and dry-hopped Bang Tidy (Centennial and Columbus), transferred Monky Business to tank and the Whisky cask then washed all the casks to rack The Beast tomorrow, plus all tanks have had their pellet trub disgorged.  Be a brewer and laze around drinking beer, they said...

Some photos of the week's events are below...

The "Double Hogshead" 500 litre ex-Whisky cask in situ...

And here being filled with "Monky Business"

With all these unusual beers we've been doing, the specialist malt store is overflowing with... well, specialist malts!  Some good stuff in there.

Our smokey dark stouty-wheaty-whatever it is!

It's our take on Belgian Dubbel... not perfect, but it's tasting interesting!

Does this make us "craft"?

As any fule kno, to be a craft brewer these days you've got to have a beard and wooden barrel-age everything in sight whether it suits the beer or not, plus declaring everything to be "awesome" helps too.

Tom has the beard but, until now, we didn't have any wooden casks... this situation has been resolved with the acquisition of a whisky cask which, provided it passes QC checks and doesn't leak beer all over the floor, will be used to barrel-age some of our Belgian Dubbel-style brew "Monky Business"...  more news as we get it!

We're brewing tomorrow and it looks like it'll be another "non-standard" brew for us in the shape of a dark smoked ale using Franconian beech smoked malt and a right mixture of other malts to produce a dark, wintery beer (it's not a stout although that's probably the nearest thing you could describe it as) and will be around 5% or thereabouts.

Our whisky cask in the van!

Brewing "Monky Business"

A few photos from today's brew, our first foray into Belgian-style beers, a 6%+ dubbel type thingy; the wort was tasting lovely running into FV1!  Now it's up to the yeast...

Adding Candi Sugar to the underback

Gazza adds the Candi sugar - it's easier to use in liquid form!

The biggest mash we've done thus far - 327kg of grain!

1500 litres of Dubbely goodness...