Beamish clone reflections

First let's recap what was different about this compared to the last Beamish clone I tried:

1. I used Simpsons Maris Otter as the base malt instead of Crisp Ale malt
2. I used Pacman yeast instead of US-05
3. I added a level teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate to the water treatment
4. I served it on my new handpump

And the reasons:

1. My LHBS didn't have Crisp Ale, and I use Simpsons Maris Otter for most ales, so thought I would stick with it.
2. I had wanted to use Pacman the first time round, but couldn't get my hands on it.
3. I did notice a slightly unpleasant acidity at low temperatures with the previous version, and some reading up on water treatment told me that carbonates can help to cover this up when using lots of dark malts/roasted barley.
4. I didn't have a handpump the first time round.

I've been lucky with this recipe, it was given to me by Will from perfectpint.blogspot.com, and he had obviously put a bit of time and effort into it's creation. The first version was excellent, but had a little room for improvement. This version is an improvement on it. I think that each of the four changes I made had a detectable impact on the final product.

The Maris Otter gave it's usual biscuity background. I thought this might get lost among the chocolate and roasty notes, but it's definitely there. The Pacman yeast has contributed an amazing mouthfeel to the beer, and is probably the single biggest improvement. There's a slight but restrained fruity note too, which is probably coming from the yeast.

I couldn't detect any unpleasant acidic flavours, and my mash ph was spot on, so I have to conclude that it was worth adding the sodium bicarbonate - certainly it did no harm.

Finally the handpump adds a bit of magic as well as increased body and mouthfeel to the beer. I didn't 'cask condition' this as such. I just carbonated it to about 1.5vols of CO2, and then pulled it through the line, giving a small amount of CO2 whenever it was needed. The results were really satisfying.

What I have ended up with is a relatively low alcohol session beer, with loads of flavour from the chocolate malt and roasted barley, a pleasant and assertive bitterness, and incredible body and mouthfeel. It's not a dead on clone, but rather a reimagining of Beamish as a sort of premium stout - the stout equivalent of a Best Bitter perhaps.

Needless to say, I'll be brewing this again, and soon. 

Ah, Beamish!

I've got a significant birthday coming up soon, and it's tax back time in Australia, so I've gotten myself an early birthday present.

It's a beauty, an Angram CO, 1/2 pint jacketed beer engine. Something needs to be done about the Scrumpy jack clip, but otherwise it's in perfect working order and ready for action.

The first beer I'll be dispensing through this is a Beamish clone. I've brewed this before but there are some subtle changes this time round. First off I'm using Maris Otter as the base malt. I don't think Beamish is brewed using anything as fancy, so mine will be a sort of upmarket version. Also this time I'm using 'Pacman' yeast (Wyeast 1764). I wanted to use this last time but couldn't get my hands on it, so I'm looking forward to trying it out. The fermentation plan for this is: half pack of Pacman yeast in a 500ml starter (just to wake it up), followed by a 1.5L starter, then pitch to the main batch. I'll ferment at 17C, which is what a lot of homebrewers on homebrewtalk.com use for Pacman. I'm hoping to turn this around pretty quick, but that will depend on how it's tasting. Here's the recipe:

3.5kg Simpsons Ale - Maris Otter
0.25kg Simpsons Roast Barley
0.13kg Simpsons Chocolate
0.35kg Joe White/Maltcraft Malted Wheat


47g East Kent Goldings at 50mins

No chilled (poured into a water container and sealed, allowed to cool slowly)

In addition to my usual water treatment, I added a level teaspoon of baking soda to up the carbonate content a little (remember I'm on very soft water here). I did notice a certain harshness to the last batch of this I did, so I think this may help to soften it a bit.

I read a recent post on aussiehomebrewer.com where somebody reported better attenuation when using yeast nutrient. This would seem to be due to increased yeast health. I picked some up at the home brew shop and used it on this batch. The dose is a half teaspoon dissolved in hot water 10 minutes from the end of the boil. Apparently the Pacman is quite the attenuator, so I have to be careful not to over attenuate this one. I'll be keeping an eye on the mash temp (66C).

I found this beauty on youtube, "sound man Brendan!"

Next up is mounting the hand pump, should be fun!

Paddy's Stout

The last beer Aidan (my brew buddy) and I brewed was a Beamish stout clone. I went to University in Cork, and lived there for about 10 years in total, so became intimately acquainted with this beautiful stout. One of my favourite pubs in the world (The Oval) is directly across from the old Beamish brewery, and there was a particular satisfaction in drinking beer brewed just across the road. Unfortunately the brewery ceased operations a few years back, just before I left Ireland. I guess it was another reason to leave!

I came across a post on homebrewtalk.com outlining what looked like a well researched Beamish recipe. It turns out that the poster maintains an excellent blog at perfectpint.blogspot.com and has been perfecting the recipe for a few years. After some communication between us I settled on the following recipe:

beamish clone

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L):          22.50    Wort Size (L):     19.00
Total Grain (kg):         4.22
Anticipated OG:          1.043    Plato:             10.70
Anticipated EBC:          77.9
Anticipated IBU:          29.1
Brewhouse Efficiency:       75 %
Wort Boil Time:             60    Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name                          Origin        Potential EBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 82.8     3.50 kg.  Pale Ale Malt (2-row)         Great Britain      1.037      5
  5.9     0.25 kg.  Roasted Barley                Great Britain  1.029   1523
  3.0     0.13 kg.  Chocolate Malt                Great Britain  1.034   1258
  8.3     0.35 kg.  Wheat Malt                    Australia        1.038      4

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 50.00 g.     Willamette                        Pellet   4.00  29.1  60 min.


Yeast
-----
Safale US-05

I used Williamette hops just because that's what I had. The malts used were; Crisp Ale malt, Simpsons Roasted Barley, Simpsons chocolate, and Joe White wheat malt.

We made this on February 26th, and fermented at 18C. It reached FG (1.010) in four days, and was left at room temperature (~20C) for a further week. I then put it in my keezer at 6C for another week.

When I see a need for fining beer, my standard operating procedure is to clarify with gelatin (2tsp in 200ml sterile water) in the fermenting vessel, leave for a day or two, and then transfer to keg. Here it wasn't so obvious whether fining was needed or not, but I decided to do it anyway as I have found US-05 yeast to be a poor flocculator. Also, I was going to serve this at a Paddy's day party, so I wanted to make sure people saw this beer at it's best.

We tapped the keg the night before the party, and it was obvious that I had made some errors with the serving setup. I had over carbonated the beer, and it was too cold. Some vigorous shaking and venting, and raising the temperature to 10C improved it immensely.

I started serving the beer at 2pm last Saturday, and by 4:30pm it was gone. Luckily Aidan and I (and our other halves) had managed to sneak a few in on the Friday night too, so we got a good impression of the beer.

Taste wise, it's not easy to compare with the commercial product. I think the influence of the nitro pour is difficult to ignore. However I can say that it's pretty close to Beamish, or certainly the Beamish that I am used to. There's a particular mix of delicate chocolate/coffee with roasted barley which you don't get with other Irish dry stouts. This is in contrast to many of the new world stouts which slam your palate with dark heavy flavours. For me stout is an easy drinking session beer, a thirst quencher and conversational lubricant. I'm happy to say that I can now brew it.