An important part of WIB since its inception has been our homebrewing community. We never cease to be amazed by the creativity, talent and sometimes utterly bizarre creations they come up with, using the ingredients from our shelves. We've often said we wish we could share the brews that make it to our monthly homebrew club with the rest of the world, so now we are!
These recipes are from August and September 2023
In August the challenge set was to brew something using something that was home grown. James North brought in a brilliant Saison with home grown basil, peaches and nectarines. Here’s the recipe.
Basil, Peach and Nectarine Saison
23 litre batch
14.3 litre mash water
16.9 litre sparge water
Mash 63°C
Cl 50 : SO4 100
OG: 1.039
FG: 1.005
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 27.3
EBC: 5.7
(Figures taken from the Grainfather recipe creator, so are approximate.)
0.5kg Vienna malt
0.5kg wheat malt
50g Czech Saaz @ 60
30g Basil @ flame out
50g Czech Saaz @ flame out
2 packets of Lallemand's Belle Saison
2.5kg mix of frozen peaches and nectarines @ day 3 of primary fermentation for 7-10 days.
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Nathan brought in a cucumber, ginger and lime small beer, which went down incredibly well with the group, check out the recipe below.
Cucumber, Ginger and Lime Small Beer by Nathan (Nlangdon at gmail)
I make a lot of low ABV beers. Probably about 30% of all my beers are low alcohol. It all started because I felt that my spent grain was still sweet to taste and I liked the idea of second runnings to really get the most out. I call these my weekday beers because they are light and refreshing for drinking on the weekdays.
I have now pushed the making of these beers to use mostly second-use ingredients. I upcycle the grain, then primary ferment on second-use yeast, then secondary ferment on second-use vegetables or fruit that was for a previous beer. The hops I use are from a block of frozen previously used dry hops from a NEIPA I made. The water, salt and lactic acid are first-use, I promise. 😉
I apologize for the recipe being vague. The point of the small beer is to re-use grain, yeast and secondary fermentables...so try anything.
Here is the recipe:
Batch size: 8L primary fermented, then split with into 2 demijohns.
Grains:
Recipe needs grain from two previous brews.
Beer #1 make 9L of gose, freeze the grains after sparging and secondary ferment it on cucumbers, dill and mint. See my Roasted Beet Gose recipe variation from September further down this blog.
Beer #2, make a beer that requires dry hopping. Pale beer of your choosing, set the grains aside after sparging.
The dry weight of my grains for above was 4kg.
Defrost your grain on the counter overnight, or use the grain the same day as a previous brew. I heat up some mash water to 70C. I use a blender in increments with the grain and mash water to further break down the grains. I then pour the slurry into a bag in the mash tun. Be careful not to use too much water. After about 4L, I stir around the slurry then drain out the "wort" into a pot. I then use this wort for more blendering with half wort, half water. In the end it is about 7L of 70C water.
Check your mash tun, heat back up to 55C for 30min, then 65C for 30min
Sparge:
1.5L H2O at 70C
1.0L H2O at 70C
Approx. 9.5 L at start of boil
Boil:
10g Chamomile
10g Maldon Salt
5g crushed coriander seeds
5g crushed fenugreek seeds
30min. Volume ~9L
Whirlpool: 40g "wet" dry hop (Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe). Chill to 25C. Add lactic acid to PH3.5 (50ml). OG=1.014
Fermentation #1:
Re-used yeast: Safale K-97
Demijohn #1: I was bottling Beer #1 (described above). I pitched 4.5L of the small wort onto previously used cucumber and trub. I added 30g of fresh grated ginger.
Demijohn #2: your choice.
Give a good shake
Ferment for one to two weeks more.
Bottling:
Before bottling squeeze half a lime into a glass with a spout. Bottle and prime as you normally would. Pour in a little lime juice into each bottle before capping. Wait two weeks and enjoy. Here are the actual dates of my brew:
FG: 1.008 (1.3%ABV)
Brewed and soured : 31 March 2023
Yeast pitched: 31 March 2023
Bottling: 15 April 2023
Drank at WIB: 6 August 2023
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The challenge for September was ‘hoppy.’ Will and Adrian got together to brew a West Coast IPA - an excellent exemple of the style, if you’re looking to brew something similar check out their recipe.
Will & Adrian's West Coast IPA
Adrian and I have done a few collabs and this is definitely one of the best. We overboiled a bit so it came out stronger than we intended (the dangers of drinking while brewing) but the result is great. Chewy, I think is the word.
Highly recommend Adrian as a brewing partner, by the way. Not just because you're always guaranteed great BBQ (pictured) but he's also in the .1% of people who enjoy bottling, so he'll take care of the most tedious part of the process for you.
This recipe was intended to be for 20L but we overboiled and only got 18L.
Malt bill:
6kg Maris Otter
1kg Munich
200g Chit Malt
FWH:
25g Magnum
10 mins:
15g Simcoe
15g Azacca
Flameout
35g Simcoe
35g Azacca
Dry hop
30g Simcoe
30g Galaxy
Yeast:
OG 1.066
FG 1.008
7.6% ABV
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Nathan (who’s becoming a bit of a regular on these blogs with his excellent brews if you haven’t noticed!) brought along a brilliant beetroot gose, check it out!
Gose with roasted beets, cherries and allotments basil by Nathan (Nlangdon at gmail)
This beer came together from a love of the one-off beet version of tzatziki sour by Orbit. It was one of the first beers I had at Cask when I moved to Pimlico. I was hooked.
I like to have a first fermentation with lactobacillus, then I pitch a yeast to finish off the sugars. This beer I boiled off the lactobacillus, but I have since stopped that in my process because I don't mind a little lactobacillus in the end beer.
This is my fifth beer with added vegetables. I use them in the mash and during fermentation, but this beer had them only in secondary. With root vegetables I typically dry roast them in the oven for an hour, eat half of them for lunch and let the rest cool for the beer. With the cherries, I have some frozen cherries from a successful foraging day, store bought is also ok. Mine were picked pretty late, so they come with extra protein 😱, I cook them for 5-10min in a sanitized pan then let cool. With herbs I typically give them a dunk or two into starsan before using. All the vegetables, herbs and fruit go into a sanitized blender and they are puréed and added to the demijohn at 7 days into fermentation.
Here is the recipe:
Batch size: 8.5L primary fermented, then split with adjuncts into 2 demijohns.
Water:
Tap (Pimlico), no adjustments.
Grains:
920g Best Malz Vienna
600g Torrefied Oats with Husk
340g Dingemanns Pale Wheat
150g Flaked Oats
2010g Total
Mash: (7L H2O)
20min at 40C
20min at 60C (10min heat up)
40min at 70C (5min heat up)
95min total
Sparge:
1.5L H2O at 70C
1.0L H2O at 70C
Approx. 9.5 L at start of boil
Boil #1:
No hops (in boil), no salt, no coriander
20min. Chill to 35C. Check OG, I forgot, but it was probably 1.06. Volume ~9L
Infect with Lactobaccilus:
30ml of Malt Miller Lactic Acid to PH4
Pitch in (6) crushed chewable acidophilus tablets
Seal your bucket or fermenter really well. Leave in a dark warm place for (6) days, if you have the patience and are willing to sacrifice some ABV go for 8 days. I have a closet in my flat where the central heating pipe enters. My closet is always about 30C. Open the fermenter to a fruity lightly soured wort. Skim off the pellicle with a sanitized mesh strainer.
Boil #2:
This Gose I boiled a 2nd time for 60min I have now started to skip this step and chill to 20C then pitch my yeast. The benefit of the boil is an opportunity for bittering hops.
Boil adds:
8.5g Maldon salt (0.1%) taste as you go.
5g crushed coriander seeds
30g of second use hops for 10min and whirlpool (Citra, Simcoe and Cascade) that were previously only used for a 4 day dry-hopping. I have worked out that this is about the same as 7g fresh of pellets. Just for a little hop aroma.
Chill to 20C Check gravity again. Mine was 1.044. Notice the sugar sacrifice to lactobacillus.
Fermentation #1:
Yeast: Safale K-97
Ferment for one week
Fermentation #2:
Add adjuncts into two demijohns
Rack in beer (approx. 4.5L to each)
Give a good shake
Ferment for one week more.
Adjuncts into demijohn #1 (see prep note):
330g Roasted Beets, cooled
220g Cherries cooked down, cooled
5g allotment basil (mine might be chocolate mint) it has this woody earthy basil quality. Add something fun!
Adjuncts into demijohn #2:
Your choice. My variation: cucumber, mint and dill.
Bottling:
Bottle and prime as you normally would. FG 1.015 (3.9%ABV). Wait two weeks and enjoy. Here are the actual dates of my brew:
Brewed and soured : 11 March 2023
Yeast pitched: 15 March 2023
Adjuncts and secondary 19 March 2023
Bottling:25 April 2023
Drank at WIB: 3 September 2023
Revisit at WIB: six months? One year?
If you give this a try, let me know. I'll bring one of mine to compare.
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waterintobeer homebrew club takes place on the first Sunday of every month, starting at 2pm.