Bradford Beer Festival & IPA Bottling

This weekend was the anual Bradford Beer Festival which is held every year at the Victoria Hall in Saltaire. As usual i took the friday off work to go the the free session on friday afternoon (Free as in not requiring tickets otherwise i’d be in hospital) there’s a merry little bunch of about 10 of us that do this every year, mainly so we can send picture messages to our coleagues at work to annoy the hell out of them

With well over 100 Ales, not to mention Ciders, Perry’s and continential beers to choose from i was spoilt for choice but my Fave beers of the festival were

Leeds Pale 3.8%
Leeds New Moon 4.3%
Naylors Crystal Wheat 4.5%
Naylors Old Ale 6.2%
Northumberland Pit Pony 3.8%
Old Spot Ginger Beer 4%
Ossett Big Red 4.2%
Osset Snowdrop 4.2%
Salamander Fire Cracker 4%
Glencoe Wild Oat Stout 4.5%
Wentworth WPA 4%
Wylam Northern Kite 4.5%
Yorkshire Dales Buckden Pike 3.9%

I tried loads of other but these were my fave’s. Needless to say i got completely destroyed on Friday as me and the missis had tickets for the evening session also, so after a brief interlude at the Shipley Pride for a game of Killer Darts and a couple of stunning pints of Tim Taylors Landlord Me and Nicky headed up to meet some friends and then back to the beer festival for round 2. Things got kind of hazy from here. I can not remember getting home at all, and as expected Saturday was a writeoff… Roll on Next years festival

Sunday was spent cleaning, de-labelling and sterilising bottles and racking the IPA. I took a gravity reading of the brew just before bottling and it finished at an amazingly low 1.002 I dont know how this will affect the brew but the ABV came in at 4.93% which will do for me. I had a quick taste of the ale and everything seems ok so into the bottles it went

The next brew will be the Coopers Bavarian beer i put on a few weeks back. Me and Nicky both loved that one so i’m doing it again. Also next week I’m finally going to delve into winemaking. Should be a fun one

IPA Rocket Fuel. Day 3

Well everything seems to have calmed down now. The brew is fermenting away happily at 23 degrees. The gravity has dropped an amazing 33 points from 1.039 to 1.006 after only 3 days. The brew is currently at 4.4% ABV and there’s still sugar left to ferment Thank god it’s not spoiled.

Yeast Head Geyser

Well after last night’s fun and games with the yeast head pouring through the air lock things seem to have calmed down a bit. I popped the lid off to check on everything and clean the air lock out before sealing everything again. The fermentor is now bubbling away hapily. I also tapped off some of the brew to check the gravity which came in at 1.016. The beer started 2 days ago at 1.039. I am amazed to see the gravity drop so quickly. I’m starting to think i’m brewring up a batch of rocket fuel here.  I also tasted the ale from the trial jar and it’s sill quite sweet with a nice bitter after taste,which means there is still plenty of sugar to ferment. This could be in interesting brew

In hindsight, 1Kg of dextrose may have been a bad idea…

Ahem…. I may not be using so much of that stuff for brewing again. I have checked the taste and temperature’s and no thing seems amiss apart from the yeast head pouring out of the airlock. As long as bubbles are coming out there’s nothing getting in. I’ll keep a close eye on it. Well funny though. It floored me laughing we i saw it Hopefully the beer gods are looking down on me.

On a lighter note the Bavarian lager/bier has turned out stunning… It tastes like a cross between Warsteiner and Ayergerbrau Pills. Me and the missis love the results. This will be deffinately brewed again. It came from a Coopers Bavarian beer kit if you fance having a pop at it

Wheat Beer racked, Coopers IPA next

Yesterday i set to the task of bottling up the wheat beer i’ve had fermenting for the past week. The beer was ready to bottle on Saturday but i was busy decorating a mates house all day. The original gravity of the beer was 1.038 and finishing gravity of 1.008 resulting in a nice 4% abv beer. As usual i set up all my sterilising kit in the bathroom and set to the task of cleaning and sterilising everything prior to bottling. I dont particularly enjoy this task but it is a necessary evil.

Once everything was squeeky clean and dry i set to the task of bottling the beer. This is now becoming a well rehersed procedure, made a damned site easier with the use of the bottling stick i bought a few weeks ago. I primed the beer with 3/4 teaspoon of light spray malt and quickly capped the bottles as the beer fobbed up on contact with the malt. In no time at all i had 40 pints of Wheat beer ready to go into the airing cupboard for secondary fermentation.

Once these were transfered into the airing cupboard i set about cleaning and sterilising the fermenting bin and all the equipment ready for the Coopers IPA a picked up from the local brew shop on Saturday.

Once everything was cleaned up (I need to buy shares in VWP judging by the ammount i go through) I mixed up the ingredients, I didnt have any beer enhancer left so i picked up 1kg of dextrose powder from the supermarket when i bought the 24 litres of water for the brew. Once everything was mixed in i took the Original gravity reading which came out at 1.039 and pitched the yeast and left for half an hour while the yeast re-hydrated and i had a sneeky beer Once the yeast was ready i mixed the wort throughly, Sealed the fermentor, attached the airlock and fitted the brew belt. All set now just sit back and wait for nature to take its course. I’m looking forward to trying the IPA, if it comes out anywhere near as good as the Yorkshire Bitter i did a few brews back i will be really happy.