Favourite pubs of Bristol, part one.

Last night I decided to take the long way home from work and visit a couple of pubs en-route. I drank some of the best beers I've had in ages (that weren't homebrew, of course!) and it inspired me to put some of my favourite Bristol pubs up here. Now, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but when I was deciding which places to go to for good beer on the way home, these were the places I chose.

First off is The Three Tuns in Hotwells. It's an Arbor Ales pub, so it's always got a good selection of Arbor brews, but it also sources some of the best craft brews from all over Britain. Last night I started, perhaps in a foolhardy fashion, with a half of the Double Citra IPA from The Kernel brewery. A truly stunning beer! I followed it up with another great beer from the Moor Beer Company, and a chat with Henry behind the bar. Turns out he's a homebrewer too - always a good sign!

The Hillgrove in Kingsdown is another favourite of mine. It's owned by the Dawkins brewery, so expect a few of their beers on tap. Thankfully, their beers have got much better since they took on a new head brewer, and they've started experimenting with a few more styles too. I had their ruby mild the other day and it was delicious. They also stock local bottled beers as well as having a few guest ales on pump. All the beers are listed on chalkboards with tasting notes too, so picking your poison is a little less pot-luck! The Hillgrove also has a lovely little courtyard garden out the back.

The Hare on the Hill (or on twitter here) has been a favourite pub for a while but, as a Bath Ales pub, they were only allowed to stock Bath Ales beers. As a result I found myself going there less often. I find their beers less to my taste now, though I used to like them a lot. Whether that's down to their beers getting worse or not is a much discussed topic in Bristol (my opinion is that Gem is not a patch on what it used to be). Nowadays, however, the landlord has been given a bit more freedom to stock some good guest beers too, so it was my absolute pleasure to order a Magic Rock High Wire the other day. A lovely pint it was too! It's clear that the landlord here knows his beer, as evidenced by the Kernel Table Beer in the fridge. So it was no surprise to find out he's a homebrewer too!

So, that's the first three pubs in my favourites list. It's great how the staff at these places are embracing twitter and facebook to get the punters involved, and to provide a up to date list of what beers they've got on. A pub should be proud of it's beers! To be continued...

Photos lifted from google images, will be replaced with my own when I remember to take some!

Saison time again

Summer has finally arrived in Bristol! Or is this just a late spring heatwave? It seems like so long since the sun came out I can't remember what season this weather is most representative of. But whatever the case, yesterday was hot so I brewed OUTSIDE! That's right, alfresco brewing has come to Bristol. Though it was only halfway through the brew day that I decided to move outside, so rather than being a relaxing day in the garden, there was a significant amount of scrabbling around for extension leads and general flapping about to get ready in time!

Ingredients

Amt Name Type # %/IBU 2.64 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 1 58.3 % 0.88 kg Maris Otter Low Colour Pale Malt (2.5 EBC) Grain 2 19.4 % 0.76 kg Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC) Grain 3 16.7 % 0.25 kg Corn, Flaked (2.6 EBC) Grain 4 5.6 % 67.00 g Hallertauer (2012) [2.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 24.4 IBUs 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 6 - 25.00 g Saaz [4.15 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 3.6 IBUs 33.00 g Saaz [4.15 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 8 3.0 IBUs 46.00 g Saaz (2012) [3.10 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs 8.00 g Saaz [4.15 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 10 0.0 IBUs 1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.28 ml] Yeast 11 -

So, it's another saison using the 3711 yeast but this one has no sugar addition. The two recipes I've made so far both had sugar additions, and I'm not sure whether I like this. There's a slightly sharp, cidery taste in the beer that I think might come from the sugar. I've heard from another source that the 3711 doesn't perform too well with sugar additions, so I looked around for a recipe without one. Happily I found this recipe on the mad fermentationist's blog here. It's his Lomaland saison recipe and so I have high hopes! Plus, the flaked corn is not something I've used before, so following this recipe I should be able to put together a recipe of my own that I'm happy with.

Alfresco boiling!

Brew day went smoothly but boiling outside may have resulted in greater boil off, as the final volume was down one litre on expected to 22L. Actually, this may also be down to the amount of hop material in the boiler. I used a total 179g of hops, so this probably absorbed quite a bit of wort. Minor panic with hops again as I didn't have the correct alfa acid percentages in beersmith. Had to re-jig the amounts to take account of this, but worked it all out in time.

The only other problem was that one of the extension leads I was using tripped out. I hadn't unwound it fully and I think it overheated or something. Switched to the other element for the rest of the boil, but don't think the extension lead has recovered. Might be time to get a new one!

Post boil, the wort went into the fermenter with O.G. 1.046, which is only one point above expected.

And if you're interested in such things as water treatment:
Lactic Acid: 9ml to mash to bring pH down to 5.46.
Gypsum: 4g to mash water, 4g to sparge water.
Epsom salts: 2g to mash water, 2g to sparge water.
Water left out overnight for chlorine to evaporate. Campden tablet added to drive off any chloramine.