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!
Here are our favourite recipes from January 2023.
Alban brewed a delicious double treacle porter..
Double Treacle Porter
Having had moderate success with using treacle in a mild I decided to see how far I could take the treacle in a treacle porter. It was being brewed in August and I was hoping for something that would be a suitable Christmas beer.
Mashed in approx 15L of unadjusted tap water at 65.5C which dropped to 64C over the hour. Sparged at 77C but no vorlauf this time so efficiency was lower than usual.
Fermentables:
48.6% Golden Promise [3.5kg]
13.9% Pale Wheat Malt [1kg]
12.6% Black Treacle (late boil addition) [908g]
5.6% Roasted Barley [400g]
4.2% Biscuit malt [300g]
4.2% Beech Smoked Malt [300g]
3.5% Cara Gold malt [250g]
2.8% Munich [200g]
2.8% Malted Oats [200g]
2.0% CaraMunich [144g]
Boil Schedule:
15g Columbus @ FWH
20g Simcoe @15 min
20g Tettnager @5 mins
908g Black Treacle @ 10 mins after flameout
Collected around 28L of wort which reduced to 23L during an hour's boil. Cooled to 25C and pitched a pack of Lallemand London - English Ale yeast. OG was 1.064
Initially I experienced the most violent fermentation I have seen, exacerbated by the high summer temperatures, peaking at around 28C at the height of fermentation, higher than I wanted. Once the weather calmed down the temperature dropped to 20C and fermentation continued…and continued…and continued…
Two months later, the ale finally finished at 1.012 with the ale weighing in at about 7% once priming sugar had been added. It’s the longest I’ve ever had for a non-brett beer, but it seems the treacle just kept on giving. Half-way through I tested and had a taste and thought I’d over-done the smoked malt as it tasted like a liquid bacon sandwich, but by the time fermentation had finished the smoke had almost completely gone, which was a bit of a shame really. So as an afterthought I added a pack of whisky barrel staves which ended up not adding much if anything to the flavour.
The final beer has a strong treacle presence, good head and is suitably rich in flavour to be a top choice for the winter months. If I were to brew it again I would probably add half the treacle and increase the smoked malt, also I would see if I could get hold of some peat-smoked malt rather than beech as I think it would sit better with the treacle and the selection of malts.
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James North brewed an excellent Dortmunder - this recipe is definitely worth considering if you want to brew this style.
Dortmunder
23 litre batch
16.3 litre mash water
15.5 litre sparge water
Mash 65C
Cl 50 : SO4 200
OG: 1.047
FG: 1.006
ABV: 5.4%
IBU: 30.4
EBC: 7.3
(Figures taken from the Grainfather recipe creator, so I'm not sure how accurate they are.)
4kg lager / pilsner malt
0.5kg Vienna malt
0.25kg light Munich malt
50g Hallertauer Mittelfruh @ 60
25g Hallertauer Mittelfruh @ 15
25g Hallertauer Mittelfruh @ hop stand
2 packets of SafLager S-23
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Kat made a brilliant rhubarb wine using the hedgerow wine kits we sell in wib, have a look at her recipe and have a go yourself with fruit of your choice!
Rhubarb Wine
I used the Hedgerow wine kit to make this, it makes approx. 4.5 litres
Chop 1kg of rhubarb into small chunks, wash and add to a sterilised 5l demi-john
Add 1 litre of hot tap water and swirl (if using glass do not put your hand over the top as the can cause the glass jar to act as a pressure container)
Add 400g sugar and swirl for 2-3 minutes to dissolve the sugar
Add enough cold water to cover the fruit, swirl and leave to cool to 50 degrees, add the pectolase sachet and swirl and leave for 1 hour
Top up to 3.5l with cold water, swirl and add the wine yeast, leave for 1 hour and then add the nutrient sachet and swirl.
Add a sterilised bung and airlock and leave to ferment for 3 days.
Remove the liquid from the fruit either via a siphon or by pouring through a muslin bag
Siphon/pour liquid into a new sterilised demi-john
Dissolve 500g sugar in 800ml tap water and add to the demi john when below 40 degrees
Replace the airlock and leave to ferment for 3 weeks at around 24 degrees.
Add the stabiliser sachet, swirl and leave for 2 days.
Add the chitosan sachet and swirl and leave for 2 hours.
Add the finings sachet and gently swirl for 10 seconds and then add finings 3 sachet and swirl again for 10 seconds
Leave the wine to clear (usually 2 days)
Siphon off into a new demi-john and add the oak barrel effect sachet
Leave for 3-4 weeks and then bottle.
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waterintobeer homebrew club takes place on the first Sunday of every month, from 2pm.