September Belfast Meet - Brew Day at the Hudson?

[Bazza]

Hi All,

Following the success of our brewday back in May, we're gauging interest in making our September meet another Saturday brewday down at the Hudson.

Possible dates are 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th, so please vote on a day that suits you best. The sooner we decide on a date, the sooner Matthew can get in touch with the guys at the Hudson to confirm it's a go-er.

Also, if you could start thinking of what we could brew; a nice nut-brown Autumn ale, a thick bodied porter for the winter nights, or a balls-out hopped to hell IPA to fly in the face of the seasons.

Probably be the same setup as before, i.e. 32L or thereabouts, and split her 3-4 ways depending on who wants to  condition it, try different yeasts, dry hop, infect, etc.

So start voting and start thinking. I can only do the 21st and 28th and my vote is for a nice autumn ale with fuggles and styrians in the mix somewhere. But, being a boring, approaching middle-age, brown-jumper-wearing old fart, I would say that.


Cheers,

-Barry

[Bill_00]

21st or 28th for me. Should be good craic!

A nice brown ale would be really good, maybe a porter...but it may be a bit heavy on the grain bill.

[sub82]

Can't make any of these dates but a brown ale would definitely be my choice. Would be interesting to see how different yeasts would affect that style of beer.

[mr.drankin]

28th for me PAYDAY 

[belfastbrewer]

will try my best to get down to this but might have footy match

ANy ideas on a rough time for it all?

[Bazza]

ANy ideas on a rough time for it all?

If I remember correctly from May we shot for an 11am kick-off but it was closer to 12 or 1 by the time we were mashing in. Noon seems like a decent time to aim for this time around. Wouldn't want to leave it much later, given that the days are getting shorter.

If you've got plans on the Saturday I'd still encourage you to drop in when you can, at whatever stage. The beauty of brewing is there's always plenty of waiting time that can be used for drinking, introductions, drinking,  sharing tips & advice, drinking, comparing techniques and, of course, drinking; we're brewing in a pub after all

Speaking of the Hudson, we were down there for a sneaky pint on Thursday afternoon and there's a lot of work going on in the yard at the minute. Matthew, I think it'd be wise to check with the Michaels that we're not going to be in the way of the joiners, plasterers, feng shui gurus, etc. We don't want to see hilarious scenes of men with long planks on their shoulders turning round and inadvertently knocking equipment, brewers, or the wrong choice of hops into the boil.

If you took the poll results at face value it would mean we've only 3 definites for the current front runner of the 28th. I'm guessing there's more interest than that but to keep things moving I'm going to end the poll on Thursday or Friday and then get definite names for the winning date, and also who can bring what in terms of equipment and ingredients.

Cheers,

-Barry

[matthewdick23]

still waiting to hear back form michael s. have been waiting for a bit. will be down there on fri and will look out for him

[Will_D]

So you've had a few brew days in the last while and already they have made so much extra wonga that they can now afford a makeover!

Way to go the Belfast Home Brewers!!

[BrewBilly]

Hi Chaps, I'm keen for Septembers meet, need to check dates with SWMBO so I can be there for a good stretch.

Are we also bringing the cider for competition/review?

Also got a Golden ale and pimped stout to bring along.

Cheers
Andy

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[Bazza]

Hi Chaps, I'm keen for Septembers meet, need to check dates with SWMBO so I can be there for a good stretch.
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Good man. Try and make a day out of it. It can be loosely defined as 'work', if you need justification.

Are we also bringing the cider for competition/review?

I hadn't thought about it. I'll have to defer to other Belfast members on this one. I'd, ahem, encourage you to bring a sample along regardless. If the stuff you brought to the June meet is anything to go on it'll be a good 'un.

Also got a Golden ale and pimped stout to bring along.

Nice one. All samples are heartily encouraged. There's so much waiting about in this hobby


Cheers,

-Barry

[BrewBilly]

Great, I'm in for the 28th - got the all clear from SWMBO.

brew day and seeing everyone again is going to be cracking

Cheers
Andy

[Bazza]

So after some delay I've finally gotten round to ending the poll. Looks like Sept 28th is the winner by a landslide (if the land in question was a low grass verge or a small rockery). 14th is looking a little dubious at this stage.

Next steps are for me to contact the Hudson to confirm the date and formulate a recipe that we can tweak and agree on. Then we can work out who brings what for the brew day.

I'm assuming that the idea of a nice brown Autumn'y ale is still the forerunner, but this could change based on your replies.

I think a 3 (or 4 max) way split is the most realistic in terms of taking home to ferment, so please state here if you'd prefer to take 8-10L home with you to yeast, dry-hop & pimp in any way you see fit.

I can provide base malt (& a little crystal) and a few odds and ends of bittering hops (Target, Galaxy, Magnum, Chinook, etc - I'm out of Goldings or Fuggles, the sort of flavour/aroma hop needed for the suggested brew; need to do a big order soon) so if anyone can contribute then please let me know.

Was it around 32L: we did the last time, Matthew? - in which case we may need your gas & boiler, maybe even your mash tun. I can bring hose & copper coil & hlt & other things we think we might need.

Cheers,

-Barry

[sub82]

Sounds good man! We're thinking of doing something like this at home soon - would be interested to see the recipe.

[belfastbrewer]

Great to see your beer on tap at RDS chris/Sub82

I'll try and get down to this at some stage depending if im off or have footy match

[Bazza]

Okay. I had a quick go on Beersmith and came up with the following as a provisional base recipe.

Maybe we could add a little Styrian or something else with a little fruity twist at flameout.

I put Target as the bittering hop, but I have some Bramling Cross I'm trying to use up, so maybe use that instead, or possibly Magnum or Chinook.

Anyway, just something to get us thinking:


Recipe: Belfast Brewers BBC#2
Style: Special/Best/Premium Bitter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 36.30 l
Post Boil Volume: 33.80 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 32.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 32.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.043 SG
Estimated Color: 26.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 29.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.2 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                                      Type          #        %/IBU         
5800.00 g          Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC)                  Grain         1        93.5 %       
300.00 g            Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC)     Grain         2        4.8 %         
100.00 g            Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC)                       Grain         3        1.6 %         
20.00 g              Target [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min               Hop           4        21.9 IBUs     
30.00 g              Goldings, East Kent [5.49 %] - Boil 15.0    Hop           5        6.4 IBUs     
20.00 g              Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min                 Hop           6        1.4 IBUs     
1.0 pkg              Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml]          Yeast         7        -             


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 6200.00 g
----------------------------
Name              Description                                  Step Temp  Step Time     
Mash In           Add 15.22 l of water at 73.5 C       66.7 C        60 min       

Sparge: Fly sparge with 27.28 l water at 75.6 C
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers,

-Barry