dave_77 Brewdays- 2023 and beyond

[dave_77]

Been thinking of starting a brewday thread for a while now. First brew of 2023 so thought I would finally start.

I use Brewfather for all of my brewing so I will just post links to the brew sheets for each brew.

I have the first 2-3 months brews planned and grains and hops have been purchased so going to be a busy few months brewing every couple of weeks.

January and February I have 2 x American pales, Italian Pils, Altbier, hoppy Belgian pale and a Cold IPA so a little variation.

 

[dave_77]

So today I brewed American pale which I had planned to be similar to Sierra Nevada pale ale in malt character but with a slightly increased hop flavour.

Had to pop out with the family which was meant to be for a hour so I thought I would put the mash on and leave it without out the pump running.

Ended up being close to 2 hours, temp of the grain bed in the brewzilla was still 61-65c so not too bad. Gave it a stir and recirculated for 15 mins whilst heating the sparge water.. efficiency was spot on so no issues

SG gravity was also a couple of points over at 1.053 with the target volume as planned.

Little experiment with yeast ,using a common yeast that you can ferment cleanly at a lower temp. Looking to dry hop when the fermentation is 85-90% complete at 15-16c. Then after a couple of days I will ramp the temp up to 19-20c before cold crashing.
I had tried cold dry hopping a couple of time without ramping the temperature and I have got diacetyl so im hoping this overall lower fermentation/dry hop whilst still giving room to raise the temp may help with hop aroma and flavour from the dry hop. Worth a go anyway.

https://share.brewfather.app/K3yOGChUNQK1yx

 

[Pennine]

Finally! Glad you took the plunge.

 

[dave_77]

I'm a big fan of brewfather and I really like the integration with ispindel type hydrometer's.
Below is the log overnight and you can see from the subtle angle changes that even though there is no visible signs of fermentation the yeast is alive and kicking

 

[dave_77]

Time to dry hop the American pale this morning

Going to leave it at 16c for a couple of days before a couple of days at 19c

70g Amarillo, 50g cascade and 50g Citra

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I had tried cold dry hopping a couple of time without ramping the temperature and I have got diacetyl

This is super interesting as that happened to Jim too! Had no idea you had to ramp afterwards!

I think this is going to be one of my favourite threads and I'm looking forward to nicking your wisdom Dave!

 

[Stu's Brews]

This is super interesting as that happened to Jim too! Had no idea you had to ramp afterwards!

I think this is going to be one of my favourite threads and I'm looking forward to nicking your wisdom Dave!

Without wanting to de-rail Dave's thread...

Raising the temperature towards the end of fermentation is always a good idea to allow the yeast to clean up diacetyl precursors. Whether you dry hop before or after this is open to some debate.

It sounds like Dave suffered from hop creep before when dry hopping after the diacetyl rest, where the enzymes present in the hops can actually further break down some of the unfermented sugars in the beer and kick off the whole fermentation process again. Dry hopping before the diacetyl rest means that if this happens you're still giving the yeast a chance to clean up after itself.

For more West Coast-style IPAs I prefer to dry hop after fermentation is complete at a lower temperature, in my case 12deg as I've found it produces less astringency/grassy notes from prolonged contact. However, I wait until I'm 100% confident that the fermentation is complete and the yeast has cleaned everything up before I drop the temperature (including doing a forced diacetyl test). I then drop to 12deg, dry hop and leave for 24 hours before cold crashing for 2-3 days and transferring to the keg. So far I've had no (known) issues with diacetyl from doing this - that may of course be more to do with good fortune than anything else!

 

[dave_77]

This is super interesting as that happened to Jim too! Had no idea you had to ramp afterwards!

I think this is going to be one of my favourite threads and I'm looking forward to nicking your wisdom Dave!

I'm no expert on the hop creep from dry hopping and extra risks of getting this with high dry hopping cold.
I can't remove the yeast before dry hopping which I think helps, so whenever I have dry hopped cold I have just crashed to 4c after a couple of days. Both times I have had diacetyl issues, whenever I have dry hopped early or late in fermentation and increased the temp for a diacetyl rest...no issues(that I know of)..

It's nice to share info and hopefully we all learn together

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Think I will stick to dry-hopping with there's between 5 and 10 gravity points left lol

 

[dave_77]

Busy day today

Kegged the American pale, smelt lovely let's hope it stays that way
Finished at 1.010 for 5.6%

 

[dave_77]

Today's brew day was another Italian Pils this time using Kazbek & Mittelfruh, hoping to get some extra lemon flavours from the Kazbek whirlpool with Mittelfruh planned for the dry hop.
Odd brewday, it went well and was easy brew but for some reason the efficiency was really down.
When ever I have a really quick sparge runoff the efficiency suffers
https://share.brewfather.app/X98WqRiWjrwTAS

 

[samale]

Busy day today

Kegged the American pale, smelt lovely let's hope it stays that way
Finished at 1.010 for 5.6%
View attachment 80752

What hops did you use
Sorry just seen the recipe above

 

[dave_77]

Latest Italian Pils has now got going. Didn't realize that CML Hell had a recommended range of 12c upwards, maybe the first 24 hours at 10.5c slowed it down a touch..

 

[Stu's Brews]

Latest Italian Pils has now got going. Didn't realize that CML Hell had a recommended range of 12c upwards, maybe the first 24 hours at 10.5c slowed it down a touch..

I haven't brewed much with lager yeasts but I always start off a couple of degrees below the main fermentation temperature for about 24 hours and then raise it up so I'd guess it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I read somewhere (probably the 'Yeast' book) that letting the yeast adapt to it's new environment at a slightly lower temperature helps it build up strong reserves before fermentation starts in earnest.

 

[dave_77]

All good then..I got see from the Ispindel logging that the fermentation had slowly started..it just interested me as the fermentation seemed slower to start than the previous batch using that yeast with a similar pitch rate.

I haven't brewed much with lager yeasts but I always start off a couple of degrees below the main fermentation temperature for about 24 hours and then raise it up so I'd guess it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I read somewhere (probably the 'Yeast' book) that letting the yeast adapt to it's new environment at a slightly lower temperature helps it build up strong reserves before fermentation starts in earnes

 

[Leon103]

Latest Italian Pils has now got going. Didn't realize that CML Hell had a recommended range of 12c upwards, maybe the first 24 hours at 10.5c slowed it down a touch..
View attachment 80862

How many packs. I have been fermenting at 10c with Hell and had no problem.

 

[dave_77]

How many packs. I have been fermenting at 10c with Hell and had no problem.

2 packs in this one..in 21 litres of 1.043 wort. Which worked out at 16g based on their pitch rate guide so 2 packs should be plenty

 

[dave_77]

So yesterday evening had a productive kegging and brewing session.

Although the brew day went well I made a school boy error which may lead to a dumped batch..fingers crossed I will be lucky.

 

[dave_77]

Next batch of Italian Pils was the beer to be Kegged, this was hopped with Kazbek and Mittelfruh. Sample out of the fermenter seemed to have a nice hop profile and clean fermentation.

Finished at 1.008 for 4.6%

 

[dave_77]

Tuesdays brew was a first attempt at a Cold IPA. Hops were Columbus, El Dorado and Comet.
Although school boy error could lead to the beer being infected. Whilst cooling the beer I had noticed that I had forgotten the flameout whirlpool addition. Dumb ass forgot to check the temperature which had dropped to 50c, I noticed this after adding the hop bag..let's hope we don't get a wild yeast infection from the hops or unsanitised hop bag

https://share.brewfather.app/GXfYJkGjTZSGLh