IainM's brew day

Awesome! Well done, it was a very tasty beer. :-)

I did a second dry hop of the black IPA and the Belgian(ish) IPA. I couldn't help myself, 11g citra and 30g amarillo in each, just to use them up. They've both been bottled. Got 19.5L of the black and and 19L of the Belgian. Otherwise, there was a brew comp at the pub down the road last night, judged by the head brewer of Nene Valley Brewery, with the prize for best beer being invited to brew their beer at the Cambridge Brewhouse brew pub for sale. The bottles were then opened up to the public to taste. My Triple came third, and was beaten by a really juicy NEIPA and a delicious, and surprisingly delicate, smoked porter. Good times, well worth the hangover.

Right, the fv is empty and has been for too long. Just as well that I've got a delivery from the Malt Miller arriving tomorrow, with all I need for the next five brew. Hopefully this week or weekend, I'll be able to do another double brew day, this time a lambic-style funky sour, and a NEIPA, then later on I'll do a dubbel, a mild and a barley wine.

Funky sour, 25L
I've never done a sour, and never used brett, so for my first I'm going to use a mixed culture, Sour Batch Kidz from Imperial, which has a mix of saison saccs, brett and lacto. Apparently, they have a higher cell count than white lab and wyeast, which is just as well because I'm not going to make a starter in order to keep the balance. Otherwise this recipe is a simple lambic-style, though with malted wheat instead of raw wheat. I might split it into 5 DJs and do something with each, maybe one straight, one with cherry, one with peach, one with rhubarb and one with elderflower. Not decided yet. Anyway, I'm going to mash high so that the sacc doesn't munch through everything and instead leaves plenty of carbs for the brett and lactobacillus. I'll age this a fair few months. OG should be about 1.045, giving about 5%. Apparently, water profile isn't particularly important for this style, but I'm going for a balanced verging on malty profile, with fairly high mineral content to match Belgian water.
Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2
171.1 4.7 74.4 152.0 122.0

60 minute mash, 68C
3.8kg (70%) pilsner
1.6kg (30%) wheat
60 minute no-hop boil
Imperial Sour Batch Kidz blend

NEIPA, 20L
This will be a hoppy one, what with 470g of hops in total, and nothing before the 10 minute addition. Grist is classic NEIPA, and I'm going to go for twice as much chloride as sulphate in the liquor, the opposite of a normal IPA profile, which will hopefully bring out some smooth juiciness. I'm also going to use an Imperial yeast on this one, called Juice, as I've heard good things. It should come out at around 6.3% abv.
Ca+2 Mg+2 Na+ Cl- SO4-2
148.1 7.8 73.4 149.9 79.8

60 minute mash at 65C
4.5kg pale
600g wheat
600g oats
180g caravienna
60 minute boil
20g citra (13.1%) pellet 10 mins
20g amarillo (8.9%) pellet 10 mins
20g simcoe (12%) pellet 10 mins
10g nelson sauvin (11.9%) pellet 10 mins
0.5 protofloc 10 mins
16g galaxy (13.1%) whirlpool
24g mosaic (11.5%) whirlpool
26g citra (13.1%) whirlpool
26g amarillo (8.9%) whirlpool
16g centennial (9.6%) whirlpool
16g simcoe (12%) whirlpool
16g nelson sauvin (11.9%) whirlpool
17g galaxy (13.1%) 7 day dry hop
23g mosaic (11.5%) 7 day dry hop
27g citra (13.1%) 7 day dry hop
27g amarillo (8.9%) 7 day dry hop
17g centennial (9.6%) 7 day dry hop
17g simcoe (12%) 7 day dry hop
17g nelson sauvin (11.9%) 7 day dry hop
17g galaxy (13.1%) 3 day dry hop
23g mosaic (11.5%) 3 day dry hop
27g citra (13.1%) 3 day dry hop
27g amarillo (8.9%) 3 day dry hop
17g centennial (9.6%) 3 day dry hop
17g simcoe (12%) 3 day dry hop
17g nelson sauvin (11.9%) 3 day dry hop
Imperial Juice yeast

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the imperial yeast - they have a few which look interesting.
Are you going to pitch without making a starter?

dan125 said:

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the imperial yeast - they have a few which look interesting.
Are you going to pitch without making a starter?

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Yes for the Sour Batch Kidz, but I'm not sure about the Juice yet. They claim 200 million cells and say pitch within 3 months of manufacturing. Then again, I don't know how they were stored on the way from the US. I guess I'll take a look at the manufacturing date tomorrow and pitch straight if it's under a month old, otherwise I'll make a starter. Too expensive a brew to cock up with poor pitch rate, which is a more important consideraion than overpitching and losing some esters.

mate,
I like the look at your NEIPA...looking fwd to your 7, 3 day dry hops m8.
not new to hops..but new to ammounts I'm getting used to...
I've only done 4-5 day hops.....but as you know I'm learning as much as I can and fathom out what's what.
I made a sour last year...never again wasting grains n yeast etc...bloody awful..chuffed it was a 10l batch.
never used caravienna in my brews...
later m8,
Bri

Manxnorton said:

mate,
I like the look at your NEIPA...looking fwd to your 7, 3 day dry hops m8.
not new to hops..but new to ammounts I'm getting used to...
I've only done 4-5 day hops.....but as you know I'm learning as much as I can and fathom out what's what.
I made a sour last year...never again wasting grains n yeast etc...bloody awful..chuffed it was a 10l batch.
never used caravienna in my brews...
later m8,
Bri

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Yeah the 7 day hops will go in while it's still fermenting. Apparently the way the hops and yeast interact does something good for this style.

Good luck with the sour, I’ve got one on the go at the moment, it’s early days but it’s progressing quite nicely. Keep your straight up DJ and do a gueze project like @strange-steve!

Ajhutch said:

Good luck with the sour, I’ve got one on the go at the moment, it’s early days but it’s progressing quite nicely. Keep your straight up DJ and do a gueze project like @strange-steve!

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Thanks. I'd love to do a proper lambic project and blend, but this beer will be testing my patience as it is! Perhaps we can swap sours in 6 month or so.

Hi Iain, how the Epiphany Tripel turned out? I just tasted the Dubbel from BLaM and it's looking very promising.

Zephyr259 said:

Hi Iain, how the Epiphany Tripel turned out? I just tasted the Dubbel from BLaM and it's looking very promising.

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Yes mate. Really good. Best Belgian I've done and came third in a comp. Didn't hit my target efficiency though, so had to add some DME. Doesn't seem to have hurt it mind.

EDIT: The dubble I'm doing is from BLaM too.

Zephyr259 said:

Hi Iain, how the Epiphany Tripel turned out? I just tasted the Dubbel from BLaM and it's looking very promising.

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Can do a swap if you like.

Brewed the sour and the NEIPA today. Sour was a breeze. Overshot my efficiency so got a bit spare to chuck into a DJ after boiling some more with hops, and added a pack of s33 I got as a freebie. The NEIPA not so good. I forgot to attach the bazooka. Pump clogged, ended up with only 19L at 1.060 instead of 20L at 1.062, plus a load of break material and hop debris. Then there was some scorching on the bottom of the BB. Annoying because this is probably my most expensive brew to date.

After 4 months without brewing, I'm finally back on the game. The NEIPA turned out well and didn't last long. I took the sour beer out the fv last week. Definitely what I was looking for. Good sourness and brett funk. I ended up putting a gallon away which I will bulk age for a year or two, maybe blend with another at a later stage. I also put a gallon on a kilo of cherries, and another on a large tin of mango pulp. They've been bubbling away nicely and are just starting to slow down. The rest was bottled. I also put a brew on this evening, a modification of the Centennial Mild in the recipes section. The pump on the BB didn't work, but I still got a decent 85% brewhouse efficiency. Trial jar tastes decent. This one will be kegged and I'll serve it on the bar at the Brew Con '18 club night after Brew Con in November.

22.0L, 1.041 - 1.008, 4.3%, 29.2 IBU
2.6 kg Maris otter
0.4 kg wheat
0.2 kg dark crystal
0.1 kg light crystal
0.14 kg roasted barley
0.04 kg chocolate (1.15%) got

15.0 g centennial (9.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
15.0 g centennial (9.6% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil)
15.0 g centennial (9.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
Mash @ 67 for 60 mins
US-05 x 2, well oxygenated, as I will be using the trub from this for a barley wine.

I went with twice as much chloride as sulphate, to emphasise the malt.
3g calcuim chloride and 7.5ml lactic acid, for ca 142 mg 4.7 na 11 cl 70 so4 32

I got 22L of 1.042, so 85% brewhouse efficiency.

Welcome back, glad you're brews turned out well. I'm going to start my own sour project in a couple of weeks. Big batch of pale sour which I'll age for 6 - 12 months then see what I want to do with it. Very cool splitting yours 4 ways.

Looks like a tasty mild, hope it turns out well.

Zephyr259 said:

Welcome back, glad you're brews turned out well. I'm going to start my own sour project in a couple of weeks. Big batch of pale sour which I'll age for 6 - 12 months then see what I want to do with it. Very cool splitting yours 4 ways.

Looks like a tasty mild, hope it turns out well.

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Cheers Zeph. Hopefully it will come good. Our brew club smashed it at the Brew Con club night last year, before I joined, with great feedback and every keg drained. I've got to keep the standard up! Good luck with your sour. Perhaps we can do a swap.

IainM said:

Cheers Zeph. Hopefully it will come good. Our brew club smashed it at the Brew Con club night last year, before I joined, with great feedback and every keg drained. I've got to keep the standard up! Good luck with your sour. Perhaps we can do a swap.

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No pressure for you then. :-) Sure, always up for swaps, might take a while though....

So, last night I brewed a hefeweizen with a work buddy. It was his first all-grain batch. Everything went smoothly. We hit the numbers right on the head, and now I'm going to lend him some equipment so he can get started doing his own batches of AG.

22.5L, OG 1.052
2.5kg low colour maris otter, milled at 1.1mm
2.5kg wheat malt, milled at 0.9mm
a few oat husks for lautering
20g tettnanger 4.5%AA, 60 mins
WLP300 Hefeweizen, 1 litre starter
Balanced water profile: ca 138 mg 5 na 28 cl 67 so4 74.

Another brew went on today, a user-upper barleywine to dump onto the yeast cake of mild. Efficiency was terrible, as expected. I was hoping for 1.100 and ended up with 1.094, but it should still get to 10% abv.

15L, OG 1.094
6.83kg Pale, a mix of MO, low colour MO and a couple of bags of pale
170g munich
70g light crystal
100g caramalt
60 minute mash @ 62C
500g hopped DME
90 minue boil
30g admiral 16.7% 60 mins

IainM said:

So, last night I brewed a hefeweizen with a work buddy. It was his first all-grain batch. Everything went smoothly. We hit the numbers right on the head, and now I'm going to lend him some equipment so he can get started doing his own batches of AG.

22.5L, OG 1.052
2.5kg low colour maris otter, milled at 1.1mm
2.5kg wheat malt, milled at 0.9mm
a few oat husks for lautering
20g tettnanger 4.5%AA, 60 mins
WLP300 Hefeweizen, 1 litre starter
Balanced water profile: ca 138 mg 5 na 28 cl 67 so4 74.

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I have been brewing a similar wheat recently but no boil. I throw some un malted wheat as well in to keep it cloudy. Keg it after 6 days and drink it.
What temp do you ferment at? Seems to be a difference of opinion as to high or low. Been fermenting mine at 24c and trying to under pitch. The most banana i have tasted was from a sample taken after 48 hours. By the end of the week though the flavour had faded.