Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire

Time shifts so much when you are busy. It seems like our torrential summer was only last week yet now the Christmas music is playing in Morrison’s. Since my last update my Autumn Red has won Supreme Champion Beer of Cornwall, which was nice. James’ and my Project Wheatcore is flying out to pubs and bars across the land. James is supercharging some of it back at Camden for release in keg.

Sometimes in brewing things don’t turn out how you expect and this was the case for Project Wheatcore. I was aiming to make it big, bold and fit for winter but it has come out light and fresh providing more refreshment than satisfaction. The concept of WIGIGs is all about experimentation so this kind of surprise is not unwelcome.

Next up in the WIGIG series is a single hop pale made with Citra used as a first wort hop and then as a dry hop. The malt is pale ale malt with some low colour carapils for roundness. The beer was fermented cool to limit ester fruits and then dry hopped for 6 weeks at just above freezing. Because of the generous rate of dry hopping the beer will have a slight haze.

The beer could be described thusly. The aroma is an effusive mix of fresh tropical fruit, sweet nettle and candyfloss. The flavour is light on malt with a crisp fruitiness leading to a long aromatic finish.    

I am brewing the next WIGIG with the splendorous Melissa Cole on Friday. It is planned to be a Sea Buckthorn Pale Ale with plenty of US hops. More details will follow as things develop.

At the end of the month comes my first playing away WIGIG which is going to be a Hopfen and Blumen Wiesse brewed at Tap East. If you are around Stratford on the 30^th why not come and Join Jim and I for some brewing fun? I want to involve as many people as possible in this beer. It should be a great day of brewing and sampling.