Ale, Beer, Stout appreciation

I recently discovered the Mother Kelly bottle shop on Church Street N16. The prices are a little high but they've got such a good range, I've never seen so many different kinds of beer in one place at the same time. There's even a cold room.

Also, I found a local mini supermarket that has a surprisingly good range, picked up an oak age blonde ale by Belhaven which is pretty good, like a toned down version of the Innis & Gunn. It reminds me of Belgian 'strong ale'.

Holla beer guros, I'm off to Belgium next weekend: Lille, Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, Geraardsberger, Tournai, Lille

Any breweries along the route below? I only know Westvleteren, which is just north west of Ypres, not sure we'll make it, times are pretty tight to allow for the detour.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15871877

In Bruges it's worth visiting De Halve Maan brewery http://www.halvemaan.be/

Worth taking a detour to check out Liefmans and Roman near Oudenaarde so you can go to the Ronde Museum too.

De Struise are near Ypres, also worth getting a pint of Poperings Hommelsbier in the area https://struise.com//

Rodenbach and De Dolle might be near your route between Ypres and Bruges. http://palm.be/nl/rodenbach http://www.dedollebrouwers.be/en/visit-the-brewery

Alvinne are not far from Tournai but only go if you're into the sours. Dupont are also nearby. https://acbf.be/breweryvisit/ http://www.brasserie-dupont.com/Dupont/en/presentation.html

We found it hard to visit most of the breweries as a lot of them are only open on Saturdays

As I'm off work today I decided to brew as I was too busy last weekend.

Wort and sparging (well... pressing on the bag with a pan lid really.)

oo whatcha brewing?

I'm brewing on Saturday

It's a test for the process (my first BIAB) and efficiency of my kit rather than for a specific beer really.

However its:

2kg Maris otter
12g Magnum at start
15g Cascade at +50 min
15g Cascade at flameout

with Safale US-05 yeast.

I'm just calling it Brew #1

Nice, good planning

Boil and first hops.

oo whatcha brewing?

I'm brewing on Saturday

What are you brewing?

I'm experimenting with a samphire gose using the samphire to salt it. We have a batch of it which it just way too salty to eat.

Might split 5l of the batch and put some dried Iranian limes in.

Chill some hot wort now to get an idea of efficiency / OG.

It's come out at 1.056, which is too high (pre-boil was 1.034). I'm boiling some water and leaving it to cool to bring it down to about 1.048.

Managed to evaporate 3L of wort during the boil.

I love Gose! That sounds amazing!

Chilling now and about to add some more water.

Chill some hot wort now to get an idea of efficiency / OG.

After using Brewers Friend the efficiency is:

Conversion 58.97%
Pre-boil 49.85%
Kettle 61.81%

and after topping up with water to bring the wort back up to 9L for an expected 5% beer

Brewhouse Efficiency 83.88%

So I need to look at sparging the grains to extract more sugars. Luckily I have a coolbox that can be converted to a mash tun.

I'm also going to need a 15L pot instead of a 12L I think.

And racked.

Less than I had planned for, I had wanted both full. However I'll learn from it and move on.

oh this bump reminds me:
Tenby do a beer called Black Flag it's got a hint of spiced rum and it's bloody lovely

Thank you for the extensive tips! All noted.

Route amended (counterclockwise now) to go through Oudenaarde rather than Tournai before heading to Geraardsberger.

We will swing by Ghent at lunchtime as we'll spend the night in Brugges, so probably won't have chance to see most of the pubs you listed in the other thread.

On the way back to Lille we'll see how we are doing with times, we are meeting a friend for dinner in Lille, not sure we'll have chance to detour for breweries around Ypres, also, it will be Monday by then, so probably most are closed.

Another tip, De Struise's beers are a lot cheaper in the shops in Ypres and all beers are more expensive in Brugges.

A good beer shop in Ghent is De Hop Duvel http://www.dehopduvel.be/engels/historiek.html

Would love to do a Belgian tour like that.

Stocked up a little:

Dipa v6 (Cloudwater)
Dipa v7 (Cloudwater)
PMA (Moor)
Restorative (Brewdog)

Can't mix the Moor "forces" as planned as no Jedi Green left, just the Red Dark Side.

Finished off with All Day IPA for some easier drinking.

Magic Rock tap takeover tonight at Bottle Shop, woooo

^ awesome, high messy potential?!

Forgot I'd picked up a can of Rule of Thirds in my stash too.

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Rule of Thirds and Cannonball on tap so yes very high messy potential. They also have the Cloudwater DIPAs in.

Those 4 alone would wreck me... Take it steady & enjoy!