have you got your Christmas brew done?

[Personal91]

I seem to have a little of quite a few things. It'll be interesting what I have in stock next year since I'm getting a Grainfather for Christmas so won't be restricted to 8L batches in my 10L stockpot and brewing will be a lot easier.

Currently got:
15 Fruitcake Barleywine, although at 10.8% a 330ml bottle tends to do 2 drinks.
5 Blackforest Porter (330ml)
8L of "Head in the Clouds" NE-IPA getting bottled on Monday.
6 sparkling orange blossom mead (500ml, 8%)
3 autumn spice mead (the above blended 3:1 with a spiced tea)
4 turbo-cyser (500 ml)

Also I have 6 bottle each of traditional mead and blackcurrant wine which should be drinkable but would probably be best left for another couple of months.

Was thinking of throwing together a turbo cider or 2 but with only 3 weeks to go they'd probably only just be drinkable for new year.

Have faith in the TC - dissolve your sugars/honey in a hot pan of your apple juice and use a good champange yeast like ec-1118 to ensure a good and vigorous fermentation plus it settles quite well so don't worry about disturbing the yeast cake when transferring ya brew

 

[Ale]

Could just be the common denominator eg your local water or fermenter. If you have brewed a cider in yur FV it will likely have tainted it by the very ph of the solution

The cider will be acidic which will have eaten away at the plastic - affecting all other brews after:|

Thanks for the support/encouragement from those that commented.

The home brew twang has been all beers since I started and includes FV before and after cider, tap and bottled water. I think it is something else, could be the fermenter. Maybe I'll get another and use this one for second fermentation.

I'm getting the temptation again to try a small AG brew as well.

 

[Gerryjo]

My number's are decreasing everyday.Hmmmmm I wonder why?

Sent from my ALE-L21

 

[Zephyr259]

Have faith in the TC - dissolve your sugars/honey in a hot pan of your apple juice and use a good champange yeast like ec-1118 to ensure a good and vigorous fermentation plus it settles quite well so don't worry about disturbing the yeast cake when transferring ya brew

Might swing past the LHBS on my way home tomorrow and pick up some yeast, used young's cider yeast last time but EC-1118 should power through it. Do you bottle a TC as soon as it's done fermenting or leave it aan extra for a secondary fermentation like with beer?

 

[Personal91]

Thanks for the support/encouragement from those that commented.

The home brew twang has been all beers since I started and includes FV before and after cider, tap and bottled water. I think it is something else, could be the fermenter. Maybe I'll get another and use this one for second fermentation.

I'm getting the temptation again to try a small AG brew as well.

You could pick up a new fermenting bucket for about 10 quid, just leave water in it over night to get excess finish/smeg out of the plastic and then just clean it how you normally would :)

 

[Personal91]

My number's are decreasing everyday.Hmmmmm I wonder why?

Sent from my ALE-L21

Good homebrew doesn't last long hehe

 

[BeerisGOD]

You could pick up a new fermenting bucket for about 10 quid, just leave water in it over night to get excess finish/smeg out of the plastic and then just clean it how you normally would :)

Thumbs up to the word 'smeg'. I'm sure all the red dwarf fans will have smiled to this

 

[Personal91]

Might swing past the LHBS on my way home tomorrow and pick up some yeast, used young's cider yeast last time but EC-1118 should power through it. Do you bottle a TC as soon as it's done fermenting or leave it aan extra for a secondary fermentation like with beer?

I would give it a good shake leave a few mins then repeat, now put it somewhere warmer (if it's been somewhere cold/mild) as there could be sugars/fermentables that haven't been broken down yet and you don't want bottles bursting.

What was your OG and your current gravity reading ? That's the important question as EC-1118 has gotten my gravity just below 1 before

This yeast can get to around the 19% area, so depending on the abc you want you will be covered up to that, to get higher alcohol content trickle feed it sugar rather then putting like 6kgs of sugar in at first

Leave your turbo cider on the yeast cake to clean up any unwanted flavours for a while after, leaving it 2-3 weeks after fermentation will only add to flavour and add character to it, but it will be ready to drink alot lot sooner then that

If it's got a high abv it will keep aswell as foreign microbes will not be able to cope with the alcohol content:whistle:

 

[BeerisGOD]

My number's are decreasing everyday.Hmmmmm I wonder why?

Sent from my ALE-L21

You're now committing yourself to the phrase 'liquid lunch'

 

[Covrich]

American IPA bottled last friday its grapefruity and hoppy so should be ready to go as soon as its carbed as its clear already.

Did an Apple TC bottled 9 bottles there
Also have a blueberry TC on the go bit more should get about 12 out of this one.

Have about

25 Centenial Brown Ales
30 + Oatmeal stouts


I plan next week to get a pseudo lager steam beer going but that will not be ready obviously..

 

[DoctorMick]

American IPA bottled last friday its grapefruity and hoppy so should be ready to go as soon as its carbed as its clear already.

Did an Apple TC bottled 9 bottles there
Also have a blueberry TC on the go bit more should get about 12 out of this one.

Have about

25 Centenial Brown Ales
30 + Oatmeal stouts


I plan next week to get a pseudo lager steam beer going but that will not be ready obviously..

How much Centennial did you use in that one? I've got one on the go at the minute which used 38g at 5 mins but I'm not getting a huge amount of hop flavour or aroma through from it. It is still in the FV mind so maybe I'm being impatient.

 

[Graz]

Yeah, got 34 bottles of Young's Mocha Porter maturing, a King Keg full of Brewpaks Almondbury Old, and at least 24 bottles of Coopers stout left.

I'll probably need to tap the keg soon though as my previous draught brew is getting a bit low. Need to get another kit on the go.

Early next year I going to make a Brewferm kit (probably Christmas) for drinking next Christmas, should have matured nicely by then!

 

[Covrich]

How much Centennial did you use in that one? I've got one on the go at the minute which used 38g at 5 mins but I'm not getting a huge amount of hop flavour or aroma through from it. It is still in the FV mind so maybe I'm being impatient.

From my notes I have

20.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.1% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
25.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.1% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)
25.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.1% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)
30.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.1% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (1.3 g/L)

I left the 0 minutes to steep for 20-30 mins.

It took a few weeks to blend after bottling but its a balance of s bit darker chocolate and the citrusness..

the Citrus has slightly diminished but its still there and is a nice drop..

 

[Manxnorton]

Belgian Amber Ale.
Just a few bottles, the rest has gone to my pal.
Thinking the Amber Ale will balance out.
So far it has a nice aroma, hops taste is a bit weak..but that what I like.
Clearing up nicely.
Thinking of a another dark stout for the new year...but I change my mind so many time could be that something that take my fancy.
A small batch of lager I fancy doing in the gf.

 

[Cwrw666]

Williams Bros have a Christmas spruce IPA (called Nollaig I think) which I'm desperate to try (my local indie booze shop is doing 1L bottle conditioned swingtops, and I believe Aldi are doing 330ml bottles) with the thought of trying to do similar next year (with piney/resinous hops). What do you do with the Christmas tree? Just snip off the tips of the branches and stick them in for part of the boil?

There's a recipe for spruce ale in the Greg Hughes book. I didn't follow it but just did a brown ale brew and chucked in 150g of spruce tips for the whole boil. I did a heather version of this awhile back that was very nice. I used US 05 yeast which was all I had left which I think was a mistake.
At bottling it was dry enough to `suck your face off' and there was a strong pine flavour that totally overpowered the brown ale flavour.

I've got a recipe from 1796 from America which is basically hops, molasses and spruce tips. No malt at all. So more like an alcoholic coca cola really.

 

[MickDundee]

There's a recipe for spruce ale in the Greg Hughes book. I didn't follow it but just did a brown ale brew and chucked in 150g of spruce tips for the whole boil. I did a heather version of this awhile back that was very nice. I used US 05 yeast which was all I had left which I think was a mistake.
At bottling it was dry enough to `suck your face off' and there was a strong pine flavour that totally overpowered the brown ale flavour.

I've got a recipe from 1796 from America which is basically hops, molasses and spruce tips. No malt at all. So more like an alcoholic coca cola really.

That's great, thanks - so did you just cut the tips off the branches and lib them in? I have plenty of time to research.

 

[BeerCat]

It's already done me. Had an 11%er Xmas special the other night by mistake. Helps Bells. So strong I can't even tell if I like it.

 

[IainM]

That's great, thanks - so did you just cut the tips off the branches and lib them in? I have plenty of time to research.

I've never brewed one, but Christmas trees can be pine, fir or spruce, so I'd try and find out what you've got first. I remember reading this post on reddit, where the guy thought he was brewing a pine beer but used yew needles instead and hospitalised himself.

 

[MickDundee]

I've never brewed one, but Christmas trees can be pine, fir or spruce, so I'd try and find out what you've got first. I remember reading this post on reddit, where the guy thought he was brewing a pine beer but used yew needles instead and hospitalised himself.

Maybe I'll just stick with piney and resinous hops and no actual pine trees. I don't fancy 24 hours in intensive care!

 

[Gerryjo]

It should be new growth spruce pine needles.
https://youtu.be/FDwFMck_z9E


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