This beer is hopefully the last kit, or hopped malt extract beer I brew. I added steeped grains and hops to the kit to help freshen the flavour of the final product. Sometimes kit beers can taste a little stale or tangy. Despite the problems I had with cooling and high brewing temperatures this beer turned out well. The alcohol content was not has high as I feared it might be and did not end up dominating the flavour profile of the beer. I would brew this style again using malt extract, grains and hops (not a kit). I would also brew in a cooler climate or artifically cool the fermenter during brewing to help preserve the ale yeast.
This beer was brewed as per the method described in 'The How to Brew Digest', except as described below.
In order to achieve a higer gravity, the recipe on the tin of Munton's Scottish Style Heavy Ale called for a total brewing volume of 17, rather 20 litres.
I didn't have the correct equpiment on brew day (large enough boiling pot, wort chiller) and consequently fouled up the cooling process. The brew was slighty too hot when the yeast needed to be pitched. Given time constraints I had no choice but to pitch yeast at sub-optimal temperature. In future I will always allow plenty of time for brewing and get the right equipment for the job.
The brew was put down on 1 December 2008. An excellent krausen formed within 24 hours. The beer contined to brew at a moderate rate for three to four days and then declined. Very slow bubbling observed from this point on. At this time it was mid summer with high night and daytime temperatures at the top-end of Dry Ale yeast's range. The yeast eventually 'topped-out' in the high heat and fermentation stalled. Internet research revealed that Champagne yeast might help re-start fermentation as it works well in high alcohol/high temperature conditions. Pitched Champagne yeast three weeks after start of original fermentation. Fermentation successfully re-started and continued for a another two weeks. I took the final hydrometer reading which revealed a gravity of just above 1000 (i.e.: same gravity of water!). This reading indicated the Champagne yeast had done its job and converted much of the sugars to alcohol. I was concerned I might have left the fermentation go too long before taking final hydrometer reading and produced an overly dry beer, lacking flavour (risk of using final Champagne yeast)
The beer was bottled after over five weeks in the primary fermenter and racked-off to the secondary fermenter immediately before bottling to reduce the amount of sediment that made it into the bottle. No off-smells or flavours were noted immediately prior to bottling, so likely no infection was introduced during pitching of the Champagne yeast.
Courtesy of PS.
My first reaction was that this reminded me of The Kettlehouse's well-received, award winning Cold Smoke. Then I remembered that Cold Smoke is more of a "light black" than a deep amber or reddish brown. I also remembered that, despite it's popularity, critical acclaim, and my love for the Kettlehouse, I typically hate Cold Smoke. I think it's low hoppiness and the extreme maltiness that make me think "cough syrup" rather than beer.
This, however, I would drink again. Actually, of the Scotch Ale's that I've consumed, this is probably one of my favourites. Take this as a compliment or a point to work on: I don't tend to like Scotch ales, but I enjoyed this one. Maybe you messed up and produced something better (for me)? On the other hand, this did immediately remind me of a Scotch Ale, so maybe it's not too far off the style?
I'm drinking this reasonably warm and slowly, and I'm looking for off flavours. I'm really not tasting anything bad in here. Actually, it's tasting quite good just a hair below room temp. For reference, my pour temp was ~10 degrees Celsius.
This beer is not God's Style (i.e. strong hops), but is tasty nevertheless (PS is a fan of highly hopped, Pale Ales - GdW).
I think you need a wort chiller. A wort chiller should help you get some of the haze out of the beer. This batch isn't bad, but I think you might be happier with a little higher clarity.
Good work, I'd give it a good solid B+
]]>This was the first Extract/Speciality grain beer I brewed. The recipe below was recommended by Arch Missoulian, PS, and orginates from a craft Brewery in Montana called The Kettlehouse. The recipe calls for some ingredients which might not be readily available. As you can see from the notes below, I left out some of the grains and substituted another. I also had to swap New Zealand Stickbract for the unavailable (at my Home Brew Shop, anyway) Bullion hops. Given all these substitutions the end result will not resemble the beer orginally crafted by the brewers at The Kettlehouse. It was nevertheless a very enjoyable beer and I would recommend any fan of dark beers to try out this recipe.
This beer was brewed as per the method described in 'The How to Brew Digest'.
I was unable to source Black Patent or Black Barley. Chocolate malt grain was used in the place of roasted barley. Also, Bullion hops were unavailable, so New Zealand Sticklebract was used, as this variety had similar bitterness (Alpha 11.9) has Bullion.
I used Munton's dark malt extract.
An immersion chiller was used to rapidly cool wort.
The brew was put down around October/November 2008. As it was approaching the middle of summer the beer brewed towards the mid to top end of yeast's range, i.e.: 18-21 degrees Celsius (probably a little on the warm side. I'll consider cooling the fermenter if brewing in similar temperatures).
The beer was bottled after three weeks in the primary fermenter and racked-off to secondary immediately before bottling to reduce the amount of sediment (of which there was a lot) that made it into the bottle.
If my memory serves me right, this attitude was best exemplified by our brewing methodology. Straight away we deviated from our original plan to brew beer, and instead opted for cider. While browsing the Home Brew shop's range of tinned cider extracts we hit upon the idea of adding a wine kit to the mix. We reasoned that if one can of cider extract was good, then adding a wine kit could only make things better.
Our knowledge of basic brewing procedure was so poor that to us it might as well have been a lost art. Our approach to sanitation was shoddy, and in hindsight likely contributed to some bottles of cider evacuating their contents immediately on opening. In these instances the loss of our valuable fermentables was only moderately offset by the spectacle of seeing 330mls of cider-wine form a quick and perfect column in the air before spilling over the floor.
These early batches clearly left me deeply scarred as I didn't attempt beer brewing again until around 2006. AK and LD had very kindly bought me complete home brewing kit, including a how-to book. I dutifully followed the instructions in the book, added the sugar, pitched the yeast, brewed the beer for 11 days, and then bottled the resulting liquid. I then conditioned the beer for three months before sampling it. While the tasting notes have long since been consigned to the bin, I can safely say I managed to produce a very off-flavoured and likely infected beer.
I know I'm not alone in this. I've overhead other brewers at Home Brew shops speak of the same miserable outcome. So how should you properly brew your own beer? First of all, I strongly recommend you read John J. Palmer's How to Brew. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the latest edition from my brewing mentor PS. The first edition is available free online. This book provides a comprehensive background on the brewing process and steps the reader from extract brewing to all-grain brewing. Once you've digested that information you might find useful the following 'cheat-sheet' on brew day (this method assumes you are brewing an extract beer using speciality grains). You will have more than enough to do on the day without having to flick through a book or navigate a website to check for the next step in the brewing process.
As Mark Humphrys so ably puts it, "your family tree tends to either (a) end in obscurity after a few generations, or (b) goes on to connect with the vast, inter-connected web of medieval royalty and nobility in Europe, from which millions of people are provably descended (i). My personal experience is that a promising line of research tend to lead to option 'a'; an abrupt halt.
Sometimes it is possible to restart a formerly dead line of inquiry. New information can make relevant facts that otherwise pointed nowhere. A new database might become available, as was recently the case with the 1911 Census of England and Wales (though at the time of writing much of the data pertaining to Wales is yet to be loaded into that site). Eventually, these sources are exhausted, or worse, yield no new information. When that happens the family historian might write a page like this one. A page which lists those blind-alleys, mysteries and frayed ends which trail off towards obscurtity. Of course, the hope is that you might see a link between your history and this one. If this is the case, then get in touch.
Gwenllian gave birth (ii) to David Lewis Walters on 22 July 1888 at the Union Workhouse, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire. At this time Gwenllian resided at Market Street, Llanelly and worked as a Domestic Servant in Mount Pleasant, Llanelly.
David was for a time known by the nickname 'Dai Sam' as he was fostered by Thomas and Margaret Samuel. Margaret was Gwenllian's older sister. Once this sibling relationship was established it was possible to know Gwenllian's place and date of birth (Margam, 1868) and ancestors (see the 'Walters' page for more information).
What is unknown is precisely what became of Gwenllian after 1888. Did see marry, emmigrate or die? There is no good eveidence that she married or died in Britain and so might have moved overseas. The 1891 Cenus of England and Wales does list (iii) a G. Walters working as a servant and probably also living at the Thomas Arms hotel, Old Road, Llanelli. This G. Walters was born at the right time and place to be a likely match for Gwenllian. Gwenllian is not listed in the 1901 Cenus of England and Wales, and I don't yet know if she is listed in the 1911 Census.
Do you have any information relating to Gwenllian Walters born about 1868, Margan, Glamorgan, Wales? If so, please get in touch.