Coopers APA partial mash split into 3

Did this last night, mashed some grains and then split wort evenly into 3 pots and used different hops in each. Used the kit pretty much as malt extract with some bitterness. I'm out of base malt so used up some Munich, plus wheat malt, torrified wheat and Caramunich II.

Coopers APA kit brewed to 22 litres
Munich II 750g
Caramunich II 200g
Wheat malt 170g
Torrified Wheat 170g
Brew enhancer 1kg

Mashed at 68C for 45 mins.

I was aiming for OG 1045 ish with 500g brew enhancer but only got 1040 so added the other 500g which boosted it to 1049. I'm never far off target with AG brews, strange to miss by so much when using a kit, I guess the absence of base malt affected conversion. I expected the Munich and wheat to convert ok. Seems not.

I went to the pub after flameout and left the hops steeping in the wort, with lids on. Bit cavalier perhaps, cos I was away for three hours! Transferred to FVs when I got back and pitched yeast at about 24C, bit high, but it was late! 22C this morning.

Boil 1:
14g Bobek @15 mins
14g Bobek @ 5 mins

Boil 2:
14 g Motueka @15
14g Motueka @5

Boil 3:
5g Summit @30 (I wanted to increase the bitterness of this one for variety)
14g Summit @ 5
14g First Gold @ 5

I got about 4 litres in each FV and topped up to just over 7 litres.

Pitched the kit yeast in the Summit brew, US-05 in the other two.

Looking forward to seeing how they turn out, it's all a bit experimental. I like Bobek, not used Motueka before but read good things, and I believe Summit and First Gold work well together. The Caramunich and Munich will hopefully work well against the hoppiness.

Btw, if you think I can only get three beers out of this, think again! By blending the three beers I can get three more by blending two, and another by blending all three. So potentially seven in all. All similar, but different, and a way to explore hop blends as well as individual hops.

1. Bobek.
2. Motueka
3. First Gold/Summit
4. Bobek/Motueka
5. Bobek/First Gold/Summit
6. Motueka/First Gold/Summit
7. Bobek/Motueka/First Gold/Summit

Very interesting. Like the idea of the beer blending

I wonder if commercial breweries blend their beers, at a complete guess, I'd say no.

I'm a big porter fan and it seems porter may have come about from blending older mature beer with newer greener beer.

As a complete aside how do you control the fermentation temps on your smaller brew lengths? Do you have a brew fridge? It's a lot easier to control temp fluctuations with a full 23L than it is on a smaller 5L brew length. if you don't have a brew fridge, I struggle some times

I recently made an oatmeal stout in two 5L FV's that had a definate astringent tang. Having googled what can cause astringency in a beer there seems to be a number of possible causes, ironically non of them being temperature. I have never however had this problem in my 23Lbrews and have had it in more than one of my 5L brews. I think I may know what caused it but will have to do some some 5L brews to try to narrow it down

I think some breweries do blend beers actually. I'm not sure which though, although Newcastle brown used to be made from a blend, probably isn't now. Here's one from America...

http://www.oregonlive.com/beer/index.ssf/2014/12/oregons_two_biggest_breweries.html

I made a beer with Chinook once that was too bitter and pungent even for me. I ended up blending some bottles in the glass with another beer that was too bland.

Don't ask me about temp control! I don't use any kind of equipment at all other than my house! I don't have space for a fridge, and I can't be bothered with faffing around with water tubs etc.

However, this is largely because I am pretty successful at getting temps close to what I want without any of that. And at difficult times of the year I have used temperature tolerant yeasts. I have found US-05 to be tolerant of a wide range, and Mauribrew Ale yeast, for example.

My house is a mid-terraced and does not cool down quickly. The lowest temp I've ever had on my heating controller is 14C. And with the heating off, it has rarely been above 23C even in hot spells. Until recently I have always kept my heating set to 21C, and off at night. I have a new woman on the scene though, who is cold at 30C. So I'm finding it more difficult, but I have located cooler parts of the house. I currently have my three brews next to the single-glazed patio doors in the middle downstairs room, at 17C! The Coopers ale/lager yeast blend with the APA kit requires a temp of 16-18C.

I have to box clever....

Apart from now, in winter I use a water bath but only ever to cool down as the flats I live in seem to be extremely well insulated and my little brewing corner of the kitchen is never below 20C.

Have you used the Magrove Jack work horse yeast before? It has a temp range going up to 32C and you can even lager with it as it has a a lower temp range of 15C

I bought some the other day to keep in my fridge until summer, as I bet when I would come to buy some in summer It would be all sold out

Not used any Mangrove JAcks yeasts, but Mauribrew Ale yeast sounds similar to the Workhorse. From their website:

"Thanks to its high temperature tolerance Mauribrew Ale can ferment from 20°C up to​

The Workhorse yeast from what I've read is more of a neutral/clean yeast

Would you say the Mauribrew gives a good ester/fruity flavour to beers?

I'm looking for a dried English Ale yeast to use in Bitters, I read some of your posts mentioning this yeast before and was considering it

MyQul said:

Would you say the Mauribrew gives a good ester/fruity flavour to beers?

I'm looking for a dried English Ale yeast to use in Bitters, I read some of your posts mentioning this yeast before and was considering it

Click to expand...

Yes it does. I've used it a few times and below 20C you get less esters, at 22C you get a good fruity flavour. It attenuates and floccs well, has never got stuck, only issue is loose yeast, a bit like US-05. I rack the beer off the yeast and cold crash to minimise the sediment. I'm sure there are better liquid yeasts, but I made one of my favourite pale ales so far with Mauribrew Ale yeast. And I've used WLP002 a few times.

Was just reading a post on another forum about 514 where the poster had contact with a commercial brewery who used it. What the brew said echo's your experiences with it. I take particular note of the fact its cleaner at 20C but more fruity at 22C wonder if this is true of any other yeasts.

I dont want to go down the liquid yeast route (not yet anyway) as I can't be bothered with the faff of making starters

Where did you get you 514 from? looked at a couple of online shops, cost a couple of quid for the yeast but a further few quid for P&P!

It's not clean at 20C, just less fruity. This is true of other yeasts, but each yeast reacts differently to temp variations of course. I've bought it in Manchester Home brew stores, but none stock it now, and have bought it online when buying other stuff. But they should send a pack of dried yeast at minimum postage rate, try phoning them.

You actually don't need a starter for liquid yeasts. Just make a beer below 1060 (I'd go for 1040-45 so as not to stretch it), or make a smaller batch. Then harvest yeast and use again.

https://www.wyeastlab.com/faqs.cfm?website=1#r19

see Q7

Having read a few threads on american and Aussie brewing forums, experiences with Mauribrew Ale yeast seem to vary a bit. It does seem to be very tempertare tolerant though, as I have found. But some think it provides esters at higher temps, others have found it to be very clean whatever the temp.

My FGs with it have varied between 1010 and 1014 (I also made a 1080 beer with it which finished at 1020). It may be that what I perceived as fruity esters was just a higher FG providing more sweetness, I remember an ale that finished at 1014 having a pleasant fruity sweetness which complemented the hops well.

But other brewers experiences seem to suggest that you do get fruity esters at 22C and above.

Anyway, I've used a number of dried yeasts and the two that have produced consistently enjoyable beers for my taste have been US-05 and MauriBrew Ale 514.

I've only used WLP002 of all the liquid yeasts, I'm now planning on trying Wyeast 1318, 1187 and maybe 1469. Over the next few months, And I will try to culture some bottled conditioned beer yeasts too. I have also been meaning to ask the Marble brewery for a yeast sample for ages. Or a brewery they have passed it on to. I've dabbled with dry yeasts while getting my methods sorted, I'm now aware that yeast is crucial, and I want to find the right yeasts for me.

BTW, I found this on another forum which is a quote from a commercial brewery that used Mauribrew Ale yeast for a while and then stopped using it:

"We pitch the yeast at 20C and hold it at that temperature until fermentation is close to complete. (With the mauri yeast this was between 72 and 96 hours,) at which point we would drop to 12C for 48 hours and then down to 7C for 24 hours to clear out.

The reason we decided on another yeast was the fact that had problems with the yeast dropping out. Due to the set up at our brewery we have been unable to skim yeast [off] the top, so instead we let it settle to the bottom. Having the beer sitting on top of the yeast adds to the flavour anyway. Only problem was that the mauri yeast didn't pack tightly to the bottom remaining loose and partly in [suspension.] Therefore when casking our beer we had quite a lot of yeast going in which became a struggle to clear even with isinglass finings. I can also note that we have achieved better head retention with other yeasts. Otherwise the flavour profile is pretty good, quite fruity when fermented at slightly higher temperatures (23-24C - prior to our thermostatic temperature controls being installed). Towards the end of fermentation it gave off a quite pungent sulphur smell. This dissipated almost every time once casked, vented and cellared for a couple of days. Not sure how it would do sealed in a keg or bottle.

So in short, I would suggest that if you were going to use this yeast you skim off the top to help with clarity. Otherwise i would say the yeast was quite consistent in producing clean tasting beers."

I also found this comment:

"I know im not going to be overly popular for saying this, but try coopers or mauribrew ale yeast. I have brewed with them in the summer here in thailand where ambient temps are 32c with good enough results."

So handy for summer brewing without temp control.

Bottled these three today, 28 days after brewday. They've cleared well, and taste promising. The Summit/First Gold brew is very bitter, the long hot steep has upped the bitterness beyond what I planned - but I like it. It's not too much. The other two are nicely balanced, slightly sweet, but that'll be the priming sugar!

Sampled a couple of bottles of this last week, after 7 and 10 days. The coopers yeast bottle had carbonated more than the US05 bottle, interestingly. The munich and caramunich have given this a rich sweet maltiness, which is probably more malty and sweet than I would normally go for, but plenty of hops which offset the sweetness well. I would do this again with pale malt, which was the original intention, I just decided to go ahead before I ordered more pale malt. It's obviously not an all grain beer, liquid extract makes a difference, it will be interesting to see how time changes it.

My next kit plus mini mash will be a Youngs Harvest Pilsner with pale malt, and added hops, not sure which hops yet. Got plenty in stock. Probably choose from Northdown, Brewers gold, Summer, Simcoe, Green Bullet and Sterling. I've used all of them before except Summer, and enjoyed all of them as flavour hops.

Here's the adapted Coopers APA brew:



The Munich and Caramunich have made it into a rich malty ale, and there's plenty of bitterness and hop flavour too. Quite intense.

Just drinking a bottle of the Motueka version of this brew. It's lovely, really recommend Motueka hops.

I'm just drinking the penultimate bottle of his batch. I never labelled them and they got mixed up, so i'm not sure which hops it is! But I reckon it's the summit/First Gold batch, because of the bitterness and the flavour. Just posting to say this is the best bottle yet, it's really good. 9 months in the bottle, and now no signs of the kit whatsoever, it's like an AG brew, and extremely clear. Crystal clear.