There was something a bit odd with yesterday’s brew. Spending the hottest day of the year so far creating a beer that I won’t be drinking until winter seems a bit perverse, but as one of my friends pointed out, when I do open it it’ll remind me of that summer sunshine.
This was a brew of firsts for me. The first time I’ve mashed for lass than ninety minutes. The first time I’ve only done a one hour boil. The first time I’ve added anything other than hops or irish moss to the boil. As a result, I was pretty nervous.
My grain bill included black malt for the first time so I was expecting a darker wort, but I didn’t realise just how little of it you need to make such a difference. When the first runnings came out I was shocked, it was much darker than I expected, but the more of it that came out as I started sparging, the better it smelled and the less I cared.
Only one photo this time, I was too busy brewing. This is the first runnings, look at that colour!
The boil was the bit I was most nervous about as this one had loads of additions. Being a Christmas beer I wanted a bit of spice and festive aroma to it, and the recipe I ended up with meant adding star anise, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, orange zest and honey.
A whole lot of honey.
In the boil.
Yes, in the boil.
I wondered about the honey, as I’ve always heard of it being added to the fermenter, and definitely not the boil! Oh no, add it to the boil and it’ll all go wrong and your legs will fall off and god kills a kitten, or something like that anyway. However, I did some of my own reading, not just using the rants of people on brewing forums. I read a write-up on a mead brewing site where they did a double-blind taste test between two brews; one boiled, one not. In fact it turned out more people liked the boiled! The other important factor for me is that I’m not making a honey beer. Yes, it’s got honey in it, but it’s more for general sweetness and a bit of aroma, not for a strikingly honeyish flavour.
So in went a jar of honey for an hour in the boil. I was more nervous about the 15 minute additions, which included all the spices and other bits and pieces I mentioned above. There’s no turning back once they go in, and I was a bit apprehensive. Fortune favours the brave though, and faint heart never won fair maiden, so in it all went while I wringed my hands for quarter of an hour.
After boiling I transferred it all to a no-chill and moved it to its customary cooling spot in the corner of the kitchen. When I went to clean out the boiler there was still a little wort in the bottom which I sampled with a spoon, and it actually tastes nice! Sweet, rich, dark and malty, with a spicy aftertaste. It also smells fantastic. I’m pitching the yeast tonight, when I will no doubt drink the sample jar after I take the OG reading.
Good times, and something to look forward to once the evenings start drawing in again.