Boxshed Brewery: Re-opening Summer 2013

Watch this space….

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Back to Black: Seasonal Boxshed brews coming soon…

It may well be the backend of October already, but most of the handpumps around these parts are still busy serving a range of distinctly Summery golden ales, with just the occasional musty cider or conker-coloured seasonal starting to break through. It’s time for a change on the homefront.

We’ve got a lot of work on here sprucing the place up, cleaning out forgotten vessels and planning an inventive brewing schedule that’ll churn fresh brews out in the ol’ Nick of time for the Christmas break.

No recipes to share just yet, but anticipate a stout or two and a stab at a festive red.

Back with more to report soon, promise…

Boxshed Brewery: primed and ready for action!

Can it really be a whole year since we last updated The Boxshed Brewery website? Pretty unforgivable perhaps, but actually in such a fast-moving world it can sometimes be pleasant to take time out from writing about daily life to sit down with a pint or six and just enjoy it!

Many seasonal brews later, it’s April 2011 and life in the Boxshed is much the same as it was this time last year. It’s Dark Ale time once again in the brewery, while milds, porters and stouts are also fobbing away at my local. None of this beer is going to mash or drink itself – time to get back to black.

We’ll be posting some more updates soon enough, beginning with the outcome of this dry Suffolk stout, currently conditioning in the shade during a surprisingly hot and sunny East Anglian spring. In the meantime, get out in the sunshine yourself, visit your local community pub and check out the dark stuff coming onto taps and stillage.

It’s probably your round…

Always fun using a proper firkin

Racking the black stuff

Stone banged in, tester bottles primed and waiting

Stout Times and Dark Ale Days…

Life’s been a whirlwind over the last month or so, but on the brewing front it’s all been about creating an interesting stout.

A test brew and full-on firkin-size brewday culminated in a complex stout which we’re fortunate enough to have on tap at a local ale fest.

The Dark Ale Days festival at The White Horse pub in Edwardstone, Suffolk opens in around an hour’s time at midday Friday 30 April, and runs until Monday afternoon. There are bands every day providing a suitable soundtrack to complement a selection of over 30 milds, porters and stouts from far and wide, including one brew from the Boxshed.

The as-yet-untapped Penny Black Suffolk Stout features eight types of grain as well as three hop varieties grown at the Boxshed. It tasted pretty good in testing and direct from the fermenter, but of course we actually have no idea how it will arrive in the glass. Fingers crossed and many thanks all the fine people at The White Horse and attached Mill Green Brewery who will be working their ale-drenched socks off all weekend serving up all that dark stuff.

See you there?

More details on the brew itself another time.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble…

In the cask! WooO00o0oOt!

Bit of a departure for the pump clip attached to this ale…

Do visit The White Horse. Great Mill Green ales always on tap, and if you bring a tent you can collapse in the adjacent camp site

Update #2: Boxshed Snow Drop

Time to wrap up the updates for Snow Drop ahead of a couple of looming brews (more about those very soon). This one has actually been conditioning for some while. I’ve even had a couple of sneaky bottles. Just to check it’s okay, you understand…

The Snow Drop fermented out as expected and was moved into secondary for a further five days. We added a good chunk of Goldings dry hops in both fermenters at a rate of 100g to 50 litres. After hoiking these at the end of secondary, we racked 20 litres into a Cornie, filled 24 glass beer bottles and put the rest into clear bottles for ‘test drinking’ over the next few weeks!

One week priming with light Spraymalt in the warm then four weeks cool conditioning.

Anyway, here are the last few photos for this brewday before the next one, which will get its own overdue post in a few days…

After primary fermentation it’s a good idea to get the beer off the old yeast cake…

…and into a nice clean secondary

Nine gallons or so transferring from primary to secondary

In it goes…

…leaving behind the dry yeast slurry

We use weighted muslin bags to dry hop. First boil and sanitise some hefty marbles, some thread and the muslin

A ten minute rolling boil in a saucepan should do it

Here are the Goldings, weighed to provide 100g per 50L of fermenting beer

Bag ’em up with nice clean hands

Tie ’em up with sanitised thread

Dunk the bags in gently

They’ll sink if weighted, but rise again with expansion over next few days

Hoik ’em out after five days or so and you should smell the difference immediately

These hops aren’t completely spent but have done their job. Have a taste so you can judge the effect

As you can see, a week in secondary also allows the beer to drop clearer still

We racked 20L to a Cornie, filled a couple of crates of glass bottles, and several plastic cider ‘test’ bottles for monitoring haze etc…

These will be drunk at a friends 40th in late March