A Modern Day IPA sea voyage by Ship (nothing at all to do with The hunt for the NorthWest passage).

 I have to start with an apology to all who read this.

Sorry, but there are no tall ships in this blog post and we didn't go near the equator.
Or India..
You will also notice the total absence of Oak Barrels,
Stunsails(love that name) or indeed any time machines.
Deprivation never raises its emaciated head.

Nonetheless, Strange are the thought processes of the beer geek, you may yet find some entertainment in the following......

Twas a dark and stormy night and i was abed, aharrrrrr (sorry couldn't resist). Actually, it was evening and the sea was flat calm with excellent visibility to the horizon! I was off shift and finishing Hops & Glory by Pete Brown for the 2nd time.A Hugely enjoyable read. Pete's a bit of a wimp in the beginning. hats off though, he seems to have wrote it the way happened and he toughened up and got on with it eventually!

I digress, while reading the book i realised that by a remarkable co-incidence that there were two bottles of my IPA's aboard the ship.One of each of the recipes below.


Hop Bomb Double IPA(5 gallon, Dec 2009) 
4.25 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter
2.00 kg Wheat Malt
0.80 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK
0.80 kg Munich Malt
3.50 oz Glacier (90 min)
3.50 oz Northdown (90 min)
1.50 oz Pearle (60 min)
1.50 oz Styrian Goldings (10 min)
1.00 oz Bramling Cross (5 min)
3.50 oz Styrian Goldings (1 min)
2.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)  

US-05 yeast 

ABV 7.3% 

Bitterness: 204.9 IBU
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 White Star IPA(6.5 gallon batch, June 2010)
5.00 kg Pale Malt
2.00 kg Munich Malt
2.00 kg Wheat Malt,
0.15 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
30.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)
1.00 oz Chinook (90 min)
3.50 oz Bobek (90 minFWH)
1.80 oz Styrian Goldings (90 minFWH)
1.00 oz amarillo(90 min FWH)
1.00 oz simco(90 min FWH)
1.00 oz Chinook (15 min)
0.45 kg Honey last 10 minutes of boil
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold(3 min)
1.00 oz Simcoe(3 min)
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold(1 min)
2.00 oz Simcoe (1 min)
2.00 oz Amarillo Gold(Flame out)
1.50 oz Chinook (Flame out)
2.00 oz Simcoe (Flame out)
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (Flame out)
0.95 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min)
2.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
3.1 oz Whisky barrel Oak Chips ( 5 days)
1.5oz simco dry hop (5 days)
1.5 oz amarillo dry hop (5 days)
US-05 and Whiteshield Yeasts
ABV 6.2%
IBU 105

Notes from memory on these beers

The White Star IPA is a nice mix of American and British Influence. I think this is the last bottle in existence. When i made this beer i was imagining what an IPA onboard the Titanic may have been like. Last time i tried it the beer was nice and complex with a lot of the Hops still present. Becoming nicely balanced.

The Hop Bomb Double IPA is a more traditional take on a Scottish 1800's IPA. it was cold fermented during Winter 09. Last time i tried it (4 bottles left after this one's gone) it was a super smooth beer with a nice citrus twist. It was in fact reminiscent (slightly) of Lockets throat lozenges. Hey this isn't a bad thing just a hint of what i was getting! I'd put this beer up against anything from Belguim, that's how good i think it is.

Both beers were bottled with live yeast and are crystal clear. Currently they are acclimatising to the atmosphere here in The Baltic in a workshop.

Further waffle

These IPA's arrived aboard the ship on the 24th Oct 2010 so have been here for just under 7 months. In that time they have traveled from Norway to Russia (Vyborg), via Sweden and then on to Denmark, they have also been to the shores of Northern Germany and just skiffed past the edge of Estonia whilst thumbing their noses at the gunboats.

For those whom Geography is not a strong point this means the IPA spent seven Months on the Baltic Sea.

SO, what do you call a beer that was brewed in its original form for the Indian market in the 19th Century.. Instead, this beer was brewed in the 21st century for no market whatsoever and went for a half year journey up North. Is it now a Baltic IPA? Not sure at all as the ships i work on are air conditioned and have a good level of stabilisation so i can't say that the journey will have had any impact on the beer..

Cards on the table now. There's no way i am trying to draw any real comparisons between the changes that go on in an Oak cask on a wooden sailing ship heading to India a century and a half ago and a beer brewed and bottled in Scotland, cellared for up to a year then flown across the North Sea to Scandanavia brought aboard a ship. Taken to Sea for Seven months and then opened...... IPA's got no chance!

Long live BIPA!

In truth of course it doesn't matter what we call it as its just beer, BUT there is (to my mind at least) a seductive side to IPA which is inextricably bound with the history of the beer. I like the romantic idea of sailing to India on a wooden hulled sailing ship stuffed full of top class 'improving as we go' ale. Gloss over the scurvy, East India company, exploitation, interesting Tropical diseases, early death and it does seem romantic! I guess that's why i wrote this, i see the slight lines of comparison but don't take them seriously, just tickled by the co-incidence.

Fair enough but this leads me onto the bit i really like about beer. The social aspect. I am planning to open these two bottles when the ship gets to port (hopefully Friday 20th May). I expect that i will be able to stretch the taste session out to maybe 8 participants, most of whom don't have a clue about 'real' beer. I can't wait to see their reactions and what if anything has changed in these beers during their air conditioned stabilised (mostly) 1/2 year voyage. 21st Century IPA, doesn't need to look back to ground itself or to move forward, this is as legitimate as it gets!

Back onto the subject of the social aspect of brewing. A couple of years ago i was in Amsterdam and i went to 'De Prael' brewery. The beer was excellent but that's not the reason i mention it. The brewery owners employ a number of people who are ex-patients recovered/recovering from mental illness. It works as a step in reintegrating people back into the working world in a nice stress free environment.. 

deprael

I have to admit i was slightly freaked out by the experience especially when i was down in the wet slightly dark brewery conditioning cellar with a few people who didn't appear to be 'all the way back yet'. I gave myself a mental slap (no pun intended) and put a great big smile on. I didn't do too much direct eye contact and asked some questions about conditioning time in the tanks for the beer!

The brewery tour guide on the day was brilliant and i'll be going back next time my feet hit the Amsterdam cobbles and i've got a bit of time to spare. Its a great brewery, its got a brewpub just round the corner, the beers great and its only 5 minutes walk from the red light district heading towards centrall station.

Another excellent example of the social aspect of brewing and helping some of those who need the help to come back the most. Cheers, i'm looking forward to Friday night. I'll post a couple of photo's after and see if i can get some opinions out of the tasters without them swearing too much! No promises though.....

Edit 19/05/11- Both beers opened and sampled. Both very nice, The White Star was still slightly bitter whereas the Hop Bomb was smooth beyond expectations. Half the testers preferred White Star while the other half preferred Hop Bomb! All concerned thought both were excellent beer and nothing like they were expecting. Great result all round but sadly there was no big change in the beers for being onboard a modern ship for 7 months! Sorry no photo's but it was spur of the moment and i don't wish to incriminate the guilty. Cheers! :-)

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Frabjous Saison starts

One of my prime enjoyments in the whole brewing malarky is letting my wheels spin over a period of time while a recipe slowly comes together. This is a big part of where the 'art' in The Art brewing is for me. Its a bit like a low grade itch in the middle of my head when its going on, great!

As i said in an earlier entry i am going to make a Saison to attempt to wean myself off the IPA's(Hah, fat chance)!. I had a read online and then on the advice of Steve at JBK(Jim's Beer Kit) i bought the brew book farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski. I enjoyed the book and have been returning to the wine like qualities of Saison.

With this in mind i bought a couple of kilos of dried Apricots while i was in Turkey the other week. You may ask what Apricots have to do with wine like qualities in Saison? I would of course then distract you with an IPA and hope you forgot your question!

 Dry and seriously attenuated with high carbonation in a Saison makes me think of champagne, this leads me on to Peach Belinis which have nothing in common with champagne but come to mind through Randy Mosher book 'Radical Brewing' and how to make a peach flavoured beer(use Apricots). I will be departing these fine Scottish shores for The Baltic sea in the next few days. I decided i should 'fix' the apricots into a preservable form before going.

While shopping in the market in Turkey i also bought some Oranges and a Lemon straight off the trees.

We start the preservation process(and further additions) to the apricots with a stainless pan, added some boiled water and started liquifying the Apricots.

Once i knew that the Apricots would liquify as expected i just went for it!

Then some more.

The secret to this is to keep the heat as low as possible and stir like crazy.

While doing this i found some time to remove the zest from my Citrus fruit collection.

Quite a lot of zest in fact.

By this point the apricots were well liquified and the solution had become as we scientists call it 'gloopy'. I managed to catch a quick sample while adding water to reduce gloop factor. The vast majority of the sample taken is water with a minimal volume of the liquidish Apricot.I have no way of measuring what amount of sugar is added to the party by using 2kgs of dried Apricots. My extremely rough calcs guess at around 1 kg of sugar. As this is a Farmhouse Ale i am going to go for the rough and ready 'not really bothered approach' coupled with the ever popular 'well you know this particular style of beer is famous for its winelike qualities' line of utter waffle to mask my lack of true ABVness.

Following on from this liberating mindset i decided to throw caution to the wind and use my last almost Kilo of homemade Belgian Style Orange flavoured candi sugar.

In it went and i still think the colour of the candi is great!

Swiftly topped off with the fruit zest and the juice of the Lemon to sterilise but only long enough for that and not to lose the zesty aromas.

After a few minutes i realised that 'Gloopy' had come back to bite me again. Knowing all too well the damage that burnt sugars can do to a beer i used my discretion and called a halt to the proceedings. All was decanted to a large plastic sealable tub and left to cool before being frozen.

The beer itself won't be brewed for over a month and today's endeavour will be used in a slow secondary fermentation to hopefully lock in some of the flavours and colour. As i am 'Through the looking glass' with this beer i decided to borrow Mr Carrols word for the beer name. Hence 'Frabjous' in the title. Since we are in the company of these Belgian Farmers, Hatters and Dormice i though we could keep with Saison tradition and add a little spice. As so much of this beer will be influence by Turkish flavour components i thought it only fair to continue the theme(the Hatter would approve).

Its only a touch of Red but we all know its there!

The grain in this beer is going to be a Marris Otter/Wheat split at 70/30. The hops in this beer will be some of my own homegrown 'First Gold' for bitterness while aroma will come from a smattering of Hallertau Tradition. I am absolutely gagging to get on with this beer but i must learn discipline. :)

Thanks to Bangladesh, The Phillipines, Guernsey, South Korea, Latvia and Macedonia for adding to the List of countries with brewers geting out and about on the web and adding to their own Lore or just laughing quietly at my folly!. Hope you guys are brewing good beer there!

The most exotic brewer of the Month award has to go to the Guy or Gal from Nepal who read The Blog! Isn't it great? From the plains, forests and coasts of our respective countries to the high mountains of Nepal you can smell the mash is on!

Randy Mosher rocks!

 
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Gasp, horror etc. A beer that's not an IPA!

We tried the Oceania IPA over the past couple of nights. Its a cracking refreshing IPA that has highlights of spicy limes with a sherbety brightness while chilled. As it warms another layer of tropical fruit starts to come out to play. Its bitter and its still young. It is a tad overcarbonated but we are happy to live with that. All in all, its a great beer and can hold its head up anywhere!

While we were there we thought it was time to try my Kingsland Dark IPA for comparison. It has mellowed nicely and is smooooooooth as silk with a sweet chocolate thing going on in amongst the hops. Outstanding and now officially moreish.

So that's two excellent beers that can stand up anywhere. I think it's time to change direction on the beer brewing! With this in mind i asked one of my brewpals at JBK if he could send me a sample of his Saison Dupont yeast from a brew he was completing. Very nice man and this he duely did. The Saison yeast is descended from a red wine yeast so is nothing like my favourite 05 yeast. The Saison needs to be fermented at 30 to 35 degrees to achieve its best profile. I am a cold fermenter with my US-05 yeast and i am not(normally) set up for artificially heated beers.

Maybe  i should say i 'wasn't' set up for these beers. One inverted glass vase, one lava lamp base with bulb and a digital thermometer and i am off and running with a nice wee microclimate boosting the yeast sample up to something useable for a 5 gallon batch!

This is one of the things i like about beermaking. It doesn't have to be fancy to get it to work! I am going to put together a simple recipe for the Saison. it will use the remainder of the  belgian candi sugar i made a few months ago. I am aiming for a lowish ABV(4.5%) highly refreshing Summer drink with an Apricot overtone. I've never made a Saison before so it's going to be fun. I'm off to Turkey tomorrow to buy dried Apricots, I will update on my return. Cheers!  

 
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Escape Trajectory

Hello to you all,

I am currently offshore in Saudi Arabia. I have been here for just under a month. We had a couple of nights onshore before coming out to the job. As i'm sure you know, there is no beer in Saudi Arabia. With this in mind its coffee, tea, doughnuts and big walks all round (no hangover so there is a bonus)!  Really enjoyed getting out and about in Dammam. It gave me the chance to see THE most ostentatious shop i have ever seen. It's a furniture shop in the Al Khobar district of Dammam. It had silver chesterfields, huge chandeliers, great big purple sculptures, everything was HUGE and totally over the top! Nonetheless, the shop entertained me and pulled back the curtain slightly on how a mega millionaire would furnish their home, so i'll give them a link! There is also a picture of my current work platform. Its the big ship in the middle!

Midas

As expected there's not much beer related shenanigans to be had in SA so i have fallen back to online research for my next brew. There seems to be a lot of online excitement about the hop Citra. I had a search around (isn't Google just great) liked what i read and bought some. When i say 'some' i really mean 1.5kgs of various hops! Citra,Simco,Amarillo,Cascade. As you can see my American style IPA jag has not yet run its course!

In addition i also bought a split 25kg sack of crushed wheat and Munich malt to keep the body and head where they should be for the next few brews. I bought from a new supplier (new to me). Their prices are good and hopefully the quality will match.Excellent hops stock also grain and a good basic yeast selection. No extraneous stuff which would drive the prices up. Just my sort of place! Link below if you are looking to restock.

worcesterhopshop 

Reports from home say that Oceania IPA is the best beer i have ever made! My wife and son are my tasters when i am away (its a hard job but they soldier on)! I respect their judgement so i am REALLY looking forward to arriving home next Friday to try it for myself. I will update the blog with some pictures and taste notes once i've tried it.

The blog passed the 3,000 view point this month. This is a big deal to me as i really enjoy writing this and a large part of that enjoyment comes from the idea that you guys 'n' gals have a bit of entertainment and hopefully learn something new or trigger a thought process or two from something you read here.
 That's one part of it.

The second part is where you are all from. This month the blog had views from UAE, it also had views from Israel. Views from Japan (hope you guys got a much needed laugh), Lithuania, Argentina, USA, Belgium (i'm embarassed, don't shout at me, i know i'm not worthy), Germany, Azerbaijan, Chile, Great Britain, Russia, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, India, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Singapore, Malaysia. Nothing from China which is surprising! Maybe All Grain hasn't taken off there yet? I'm sure the chairman liked beer!

Basically, you guys 'n' gals are EVERYWHERE and i'd like to say a huge thank you to you all for taking the time out of your lives to read the blog. Any suggestions for the next beer name to reflect the world audience? Unsurprisingly its going to be an IPA. All we need is a name!

 
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