#ISBFX #Brewday5 : Feels Like Home
“Why don't you take my hand
Come away, come out of your blues
Boy, everything you give
So I give something to you
I'll take you down, deep down where the love lives….”
“Where Love Lives” - Alison Limerick
For me & mine, this week is emotional. The welling up, sighing, sagging shoulders.
What helps, is keeping busy, being with friends, people who understand.
That's Stuart, Karen, Adrian…. And North Riding.
That vista would lighten any spirit.
The pub, the brewery, they both feel like home. My beer home. And remember, this is coming from a militant Lancastrian!
And the ritual Glaves Breakfast Butty feels like a tummy bursting Homecoming present.
Glaves. The shop of legend.
Having mashed in a metric f ton of Extra Pale Malt (with a relatively small amount of Wheat malt), the butty was wolfed and the hops were selected and 1st addition made ready for bittering, German Magnum
Bittering hops added by Stu, we had some Cow Chow to package. With Stu's skills and my enthusiasm for digging, we soon had sacks filled with the hot, moist malt that had generously given its sugars up…
Shortly after, the call for hops to be broken up was heard. An onerous task (I lie) as the Chinook pack was sliced open for the beautiful, sharp, fruity aromas to leap out. Breaking them up was an awful (AWFUL I TELL YOU) job, all sticky and aromatic.
As we headed towards the end of the boil, that helicopter (No. The hops you idiot! Ed) needed chucking in for the flavour/aroma addition. Given that fuel & metal is never a good flavour, I reached for the box containing 5 kilos of freshly broken up leafy stuff…
If you've never brewed a beer at a commercial brewery, you are missing out. The smells as the Chinook (no. Not the helicopter…. Ed) hit the hot wort were simply divine. So citrussy.
I do love the sensory joy of a brewday. Just heavenly smells, from the steeping barley (beautiful, bready aromas) to the hop additions.
What I also adore is the Technobase evisceration of timeless classic tunes, with The Fugees “Ready or Not” & Marc Almond's “Days of Pearly Spencer” given the whacked out Techno treatment.
The following statement is, indeed, true…
Transfer to fermenter ongoing, yeast pitched, the brewday was almost over, bar the cleaning and hop dig out.
The oily, piney goodness of the Chinook was the last thing to be transferred, with the daunting task of removing what looked like a vast amount of hop leaf next up….
Hops cleared quickly - mostly by Stu - all that remained was to lid the FV, a quick spray down of vessels and the future addition of large quantities of Centennial & Columbus dry hop into the FV next week.
So. What have we got for you?
An absolutely SMASHABLE West Coast Pale at around 4.3% abv.
And where will you get it first in Manchester? (Do you REALLY need to ask?
Thank you to Stu & Karen for putting up with me (I always sleep well at the NRBP!). My happy place. And one of the finest pubs in the UK. This beer is going to be right up my street!
I know it's BORING, but you can get the few remaining tickets via this link…..
Today (Tuesday) comes Brewday 6!
Back soon. Be kind to one another.
Jim x
(I didn't mention the quiz team win on the Thursday evening and the FIVE Kernel lines? No? How rude! 😁)