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!
The challenge for our homebrew club in August was fruit beers, we had some really great beers on the day and the brewers did well to get through them; it was a smaller group than usual due to summer holidays and we had a lot to get through. We’ve included the recipes for three of the fruit beers below.
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Daniel Young returns for a second month in a row! This time he brought a brilliant Berlier Weisse aged on mixed berries.
Berliner Weisse with Mixed Berries
Volumes:
13.5 litre boil, 11 litres in the fermenter
Fermentables:
0.74kg Pilsner Malt
0.74kg Wheat Malt
Mash:
60 mins at 56c, 15 mins at 66c, 5 mins at 75c
Boil:
60 min – 14.94g Hallertauer Hersbruker
Fermented at 21c with White Labs Berliner Weisse Blend WLP630 for 8 months, then added a packet of frozen mixed berries and bottled a month later.
OG: 1.031
FG: 1.005
ABV: 3.4%
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James Bois, star of last months brewer interviews returns to our weekly recipe blog with a wonderfully tart and easy drinking gooseberry saison.
Goosebery Saison
Brewer: J.Bo Beers (AKA James)
Beer: Gooseberry Saison
Method: BIAB
Batch Size: 5 litres
Bitterness: 34 IBU
OG: 1.041 FG: 1.001
ABV: 5.1%
Malt:
280g Crisp Extra Pale Marris Otter
267g Dingemans Pilsen
175g Wheat Malt
57g Flaked Wheat
40g Dextrose
Hops:
2g Hallertauer Mittlefruh - 60mins
2g Citra - 10mins
2g Citra - 5mins
10g Citra - Whirlpool
Yeast: Mangrove Jack's M29 French Saison
Other:
1ml Lactic Acid
1g Yeast Nutrient
200g Gooseberries
Method:
Mash in 5L water at 65C for 60 minutes.
Sparge with 2.5L water at 70C
Mash Out at 75C for 10 minutes
Ferment at 25-27C for 7 days
Heat gooseberries, sugar and a little water in pan, hold at 65C for 15 mins
Add to fermenter in hop sock for 7 days Bottle condition for 2+ weeks
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Matt Meynell brought five new beers to August’s club – all were worthy of appearing here (as were a number of other beers on the day) but we decided to include all challenge beers this month as the standard was so high. One of his other beers was an imperial stout that was bottled too early and then re-carbonated with raisins after finishing fermentation using balloons (see photo at the end of the blog).
Raspberry Grisette
All Grain (18.93 l) ABV: 3.51 %
OG: 1.033 FG: 1.006
IBUs: 26.1 Color: 7.3 EBC
Ingredients:
Wheat - 0.25kg
Torrified wheat - 0.1kg
Pilsner - 2kg
Rye - 0.25kg
Munich - 0.5kg
Saaz - 50g - 60 min
EKG - 15g (used to hit IBU - not enough saaz) - 60 min
Saaz - 30 g - 5 min
EKG - 30g - 0 min
Yeast - Lille Saison Crossmyloof
Split 20l batch in two. The base grisette was delicious. Bottled 8 litres and added 700g Funkin raspberry purée to the remaining 12l.
I'd make it again, very slightly up the alcohol and mash slightly hotter (68 rather than 66) for more body. I think mine came in at 1.032 as OG and finished at 1.007 for the base version. Would aim for 1.035 for the next batch.
