Homebrew recipes are back! 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 April was ‘fools’. As always, we had some really great beers on the day, both as part of the challenge and others. The favourites, as voted for by the homebrew club are below.
The best non challenge beer chosen by the club was from Will and Mike. This beer started off as an imperial stout but with the addition of a stave from a barrel bought from Wild Beer it became something else entirely - a mix of Duchesse de Bourgogne and a barrel aged stout perhaps. Probably impossible to recreate again, it was still a spectacular example of what aging and wild yeast can do to a beer…
Grain bill (23L batch at 70% efficiency)
- 9kg Maris Otter
- 570g Crystal malt
- 570g Chocolate malt
- 300g Roasted Barley
- 250g Carapils
500g dark brown sugar in the boil
Mashed and sparged on a bed of barley straw
Hops:
40g Challenger at 60 mins
50g Challenger at 10 mins
Yeast:
US-05
After 1 month added 2 vanilla beans soaked in bourbon, 1kg cherry puree, and 100g Wild Beer stave (which introduced bugs/wild yeast and took it way out of imperial stout territory)
Left for another 6 months before bottling
............................................
Dan and Pete aka Wrong Side Of The Tracks brewed a black IPA for the challenge and it was an almost perfect example of the style - slightly roasty, hoppy and delicious!
SPC Black IPA
Black IPA
6.2% / 14.2 °P
All Grain
Default
72% efficiency
Batch Volume: 23 L
Boil Time: 70 min
Mash Water: 21.19 L
Sparge Water: 11.83 L
Total Water: 33.02 L
Boil Volume: 28.5 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.051
Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.011
IBU (Tinseth): 56
BU/GU: 0.97
Color: 63 EBC
Mash
Temperature — 65 °C — 60 min
Malts (5.895 kg)
5.5 kg (93.3%) — Crisp Finest Maris Otter® Ale Malt — Grain — 6.5 EBC
225 g (3.8%) — Bairds Chocolate Malt — Grain — 985 EBC
170 g (2.9%) — Weyermann Carafa Special III — Grain — 1400 EBC
Hops (195 g)
15 g (22 IBU) — Columbus (Tomahawk) 14% — Boil — 60 min
15 g (20 IBU) — Simcoe 13% — Boil — 60 min
30 g (14 IBU) — Citra 12% — Boil — 10 min
45 g — Amarillo 9.2% — Aroma — 0 min hopstand
45 g — Citra 12% — Aroma — 0 min hopstand
45 g — Citra 12% — Dry Hop — day 4
Yeast
1 pkg — Fermentis US-05 Safale American 81%
Fermentation
Primary — 20 °C — 14 days
Carbonation: 2.4 CO2-vol