mjwilliams
New Member
Started on 1st January, my first batch! I'll run you through it in general. I'm new so forgive me if I make any mistakes :lol:
Amber ale -
(5 Gallon)
3.3lbs Cooper's Amber Malt Extract (liquid)
12AAU Nugget hops
5AAU Cascade hops
2 sachets of Nottingham style yeast
(as you may have realised it loosely follows an example recipe in John Palmer's book).
The reason for the 5 gallon batch and ending up with only 36 bottles consumable was thanks to losing some of it whilst bottling to the floor, via siphon. By accident of course!
Boiled wort for 1 hour (1 hour for Nugget hops and 15 mins for Cascade)
Primary ferment at 20 deg. celsius for 14 days.
Potential ABV 3-3.3%
I cracked open the first bottle for tasting another 14 days after bottling. My observations were that it was still too young and needed more ageing due to the fact it had a slight eggy aroma to it, the fact that despite how carefully I poured it, it was 90% head, and the fact that the bubbles remaining in the bottle with about half of the beer left in it were "breathing". However, I must say despite the fact the bubbles had no staying power at all, I can tell it's going to taste decent once finally ready.
Any idea how long it might take? I've put half of the bottles out in the porch where it's as cold as the fridge (not suitable for some ales granted), and left half at room temperature to compare results. (They were all at around 20 celsius prior to this for the 14 days).
I'm already trying to decide what I would like to do for my next batch but waiting to see what I need to improve on with this batch first. I'm considering wheat beer or pilsner style lager which I both very much enjoy.
I have a problem initially however... water quality.
I've looked at our local water analysis (Severn Trent Water are our providers), and as I suspected, we have chloromine in our mains water as opposed to chlorine. Unfortunately having concentrated on other stuff first, I've already made this batch without filtration or treatment apart from boiling, which isn't good for removal of chloromine on a domestic level.
I've investigated a few possibilities. A charcoal filter is basically a no due to cost at the minute. Purchasing water is my most favoured option at the moment, but it is of course restrictive, and can become a tad expensive. (Thank god for Tesco selling water dead cheap, and having home delivery!). From my research it seems that a lot of brewers actually favour the dead cheap value waters at supermarkets due to their almost neutral mineral content, is this so?
My other option is of course campden (potassium metabisulphite) tablets, which are nice and cheap from Wilko and are a darn sight lighter than lots of supermarket water! My only concern with this is will it affect anything else, such as taste? I'd like to keep the number of artificial chemicals to a minimum really.
Water hardness here... like a lot of British towns it's pretty hard alright. So my taste for stuff like stout, no problem! But as for Pilsner, going to struggle with that without something like gypsum. Anyone used this too?
I've rambled a lot again... apologies! :lol:
Amber ale -
(5 Gallon)
3.3lbs Cooper's Amber Malt Extract (liquid)
12AAU Nugget hops
5AAU Cascade hops
2 sachets of Nottingham style yeast
(as you may have realised it loosely follows an example recipe in John Palmer's book).
The reason for the 5 gallon batch and ending up with only 36 bottles consumable was thanks to losing some of it whilst bottling to the floor, via siphon. By accident of course!
Boiled wort for 1 hour (1 hour for Nugget hops and 15 mins for Cascade)
Primary ferment at 20 deg. celsius for 14 days.
Potential ABV 3-3.3%
I cracked open the first bottle for tasting another 14 days after bottling. My observations were that it was still too young and needed more ageing due to the fact it had a slight eggy aroma to it, the fact that despite how carefully I poured it, it was 90% head, and the fact that the bubbles remaining in the bottle with about half of the beer left in it were "breathing". However, I must say despite the fact the bubbles had no staying power at all, I can tell it's going to taste decent once finally ready.
Any idea how long it might take? I've put half of the bottles out in the porch where it's as cold as the fridge (not suitable for some ales granted), and left half at room temperature to compare results. (They were all at around 20 celsius prior to this for the 14 days).
I'm already trying to decide what I would like to do for my next batch but waiting to see what I need to improve on with this batch first. I'm considering wheat beer or pilsner style lager which I both very much enjoy.
I have a problem initially however... water quality.
I've looked at our local water analysis (Severn Trent Water are our providers), and as I suspected, we have chloromine in our mains water as opposed to chlorine. Unfortunately having concentrated on other stuff first, I've already made this batch without filtration or treatment apart from boiling, which isn't good for removal of chloromine on a domestic level.
I've investigated a few possibilities. A charcoal filter is basically a no due to cost at the minute. Purchasing water is my most favoured option at the moment, but it is of course restrictive, and can become a tad expensive. (Thank god for Tesco selling water dead cheap, and having home delivery!). From my research it seems that a lot of brewers actually favour the dead cheap value waters at supermarkets due to their almost neutral mineral content, is this so?
My other option is of course campden (potassium metabisulphite) tablets, which are nice and cheap from Wilko and are a darn sight lighter than lots of supermarket water! My only concern with this is will it affect anything else, such as taste? I'd like to keep the number of artificial chemicals to a minimum really.
Water hardness here... like a lot of British towns it's pretty hard alright. So my taste for stuff like stout, no problem! But as for Pilsner, going to struggle with that without something like gypsum. Anyone used this too?
I've rambled a lot again... apologies! :lol:
