Rebel Rising

My first real exposure to craft beer was way back in 2001 when I first visited the Franciscan Well brewery in Cork. Microbreweries were very new to Ireland at that time, and a completely new experience for me. Having grown up in a pub (My grandmother was a publican), I was used to the usual suspects in the beer lineup; Guinness, Murphys, Smithwicks, Heineken, Budweiser, Bulmer's Cider, and maybe Beamish, Harp and one or two more in the bigger establishments.

The whole idea of a smaller craft brewery was intriguing. It helped that the Franciscan Well produces pleasant easy drinking beers - a light fruity Kolsch, an interpretation of the Irish Red Ale, and a stout (plus a few others). I suppose you could call these "gateway" beers - they help open up the palate to possibility, without overwhelming with unfamiliar flavours and aromas. Quickly I developed a keen thirst for Rebel Red, their "Irish red ale". The whole Irish red ale thing is a bit of a mystery to me, I have no idea where it comes from. Smithwicks, the only widely available Irish beer even approaching the "Irish Red Ale" idea, would not qualify as one under the BJCP guidelines. Anyhow doubts about the origins of the style never stopped me enjoying Rebel Red, and I'm out to recreate it, well sort of anyway.

Rebel Red clocks in at about 4.3%, and from memory I think that they use fuggles and goldings hops. Hop aroma is fairly muted, but it is there. It is subject to some variation in sweetness, ranging from very dry to moderately sweet. I'm really guessing here, but I would estimate an O.G. of around 1.045ish, finishing at 1.012ish. IBUs around 25 or so. I would guess that they use a neutral ale yeast of some sort as there is no obvious yeast character, and also the founder is an American microbrewer.

I'm going to change this up a little, I'm interested in making a version of Rebel Red to suit my tastes, which involves a little bit of yeast character. I'll use WY1968, the Fuller's strain, and I will again use a little invert sugar to help get down to my desired finishing gravity - 1.012. I have had trouble with this yeast not attenuating as much as I would like, and I'm hoping the invert will help. Rebel red also has a slight caramel character, possibly diaceytl, though maybe something else. Invert no.2 should help to develop this character.

Anyhow, here's my recipe.

3.6kg Simpsons Maris Otter
310grams Simpsons Dark Crystal
   75grams Simpsons Roasted Barley
300grams Invert no 2 (well 300g raw sugar inverted)

50/50 mix of Williamette and E.K. Goldings to 25IBU at 60mins
10g Williamette, 10g E.K. Goldings at 15mins

Wyeast 1968, pitched at 18C

I'll be brewing tonight after work - my first weekday brew! I will no chill this one, so hop additions are at 45mins and at flameout.

Hot Break - You can see the ruby red colour

Brakspear Bitter

In choosing my latest recipe I had two criteria, that it came from my new book "Brew your own Real Ale" by Graham Wheeler, and that it would have a quick turn around. I'm all out of beer at the moment, and those kegs won't fill themselves. I chose to try the Brakspear Bitter recipe from BYORA because I had a good quantity of washed WY1275 Slurry from a previous brew. Also I've been keen to try using some invert sugar in my recipes, based on the experiences of mine host at perfectpint.blogspot.com. Invert is a traditional ingredient in British Ales, and it would appear that it has the dual benefit of adding flavour and decreasing the turn around time for the beer.

The BYORA book lists white sugar as an ingredient where the actual brewery uses invert, in the belief (stated in the introduction) that it adds no flavour to the beer. Several influential brewing bloggers dispute this, and claim that it does indeed add flavour and other characteristics to beer that white sugar can't provide. See http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com.au for lots of information on this.

To make my invert, I took 400ml of tap water to the boil, removed from the heat and slowly mixed in 350g of raw sugar. I also added a heaped tablespoon of glucose to help prevent crystals. To this I added a quarter teaspoon of citric acid and then put the mixture back on the heat. Once it was boiling I waited 20 minutes and then removed it from the heat and allowed it to cool. I ended up with something quite reminiscent of Lyle's Golden syrup, but less viscous.  It certainly has more flavour than a simple white sugar syrup, with some tannic notes.

This is the invert ready to use

I kept things pretty simple equipment wise for this brew, and I've gone back to no-chill just for convenience. As my yeast slurry was getting sort of old, I decided to take around 2.5L of wort into a conical flask to serve as a starter. I also added the finishing hops to this starter since it was going to cool a lot quicker than the bulk of the wort. Hopefully this will preserve most of the finishing hop aroma.

The malt bill is pretty simple, Maris Otter with a little Dark Crystal (all Simpsons malt). I added the invert with the irish moss addition approximately 15 minutes from the end of the boil. My equipment stood up to the job really well, and I think I have a pretty reliable boiler now. I'm toying with the idea of turning my big keg into a double batch BIAB rig using a gas burner. This would mean I could do a single batch on the electric rig and a double batch on the gas, 3 kegs from one brew day - nice! We'll see how that idea develops.

Mash in Progress

My starter was a little slow to take off, about 30 hours, so I'm really glad I decided to use a starter. That has now been pitched to the main batch and things have kicked off with a rocky head appearing after about 12 hours.

Here's the recipe:

3.86kg Simpsons Maris Otter
0.13kg Simpsons Dark Crystal
0.35kg white sugar - I substituted invert as per instructions above

54g Target (I subbed 45g Challenger) at 60mins
11g Styrian Goldings at flameout

"Dry hop with a few cones of Goldings" is the final instruction, whatever that means.

Quick update

Well it's been a tough month or two. Since my element blew on the last brew I have been investigating a replacement. Not trusting the build quality of the units I have been using, I have researched some other elements, but I can't seem to find what I want. In the end I decided to rebuild the element which blew. I've done some testing and I'm confident that I now have a safe and reliable element for brewing far into the future. Next brew will be a simple english pale ale, using some invert sugar for the first time. This should happen later in the week.