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 May 2023.
Kat brewed an absolutely brilliant Baltic Porter, well worth cloning if you’re looking to brew one!
Baltic Porter
20 litre batch
3.5kg Pale Malt
1.5kg Munich Malt
340g Caramunich
70g Aromatic
350 Carafa I
350g Carafa II
270g Wheat
Mash at 64
40g jester at 60 mins
Ferment with Mangrove Jacks Bohemian Lager yeast between 10-15 degrees
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The challenge for May was low percentage beers (including Mild). Alban brought in a great Smoked Coconut Mild! Check it out…
Smoky Coconut Mild
Smoke, Coconut, Mild…what’s not to like! Just made a small test batch to see if it would work at the lower ABV. Testing out HBC 472 Hops in the hope of matching or enhancing the toasted coconut added post fermentation.
Mashed 1675g of grain in 7L of untreated tap water at 71C for a sweeter, fuller-bodied beer. Sparged at 76C with another 8L, collecting approx 11.5L with the grains accounting for 3.5L.
Fermentables:
25.4% Maris Otter pale
14.9% Pale Wheat Malt
25.4% Golden Promise
6% Biscuit
6% Dark Crystal
6% Medium Peat-smoked Malt
6% Dextrine Malt
4.5% Malted Oats
Hop Schedule:
6g HBC 472 @ FWH
10g HBC 472 @ 12 mins
Collected 10.5L in the fermenter having lost 1L to the boil. Started fermentation at 25C.
Once fermentation slowed, added 300g toasted coconut. Organic coconut flakes were desiccated in the blender, put in a tray lined with baking paper and toasted at 205C for 8 mins with a stir in the middle to ensure an even colour. Used a fine-mesh bag for the coconut in the fermenter and after a day or two realisation struck that getting pre-desiccated coconut would probably have prevented the fine layer of coconut floating on the surface. Bottled after 2 weeks, priming with brown sugar.
It took a couple of weeks for the coconut to mellow out and I would’ve liked the smoke to come out more, but otherwise it seems a pretty decent Mild.
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waterintobeer homebrew club takes place on the first Sunday of every month, starting at 2pm.