What did you brew today?

[BeerCat]

Thanks going to use the rest of mine up tomorrow. I really like the Ireks German Pilsner malt from geterbrewed. Really good stuff. Had a sample of my Lager before bottling and was excellent.

 

[MyQul]

Thanks going to use the rest of mine up tomorrow. I really like the Ireks German Pilsner malt from geterbrewed. Really good stuff. Had a sample of my Lager before bottling and was excellent.

I'm going to try some 'base malt tasting experiments' tomorrow. I'll post up what I'm going to do and any results on the forum

 

[Gerryjo]

I'm going to try some 'base malt tasting experiments' tomorrow. I'll post up what I'm going to do and any results on the forum

I just ordered some Minch Irish whiskey malt with some chocolate malt to try another stout but who knows how that will turn out.
I've never used or heard of anyone mashing with whiskey malt before so thought I would give it a try.

Sent from my ALE-L21

 

[Slid]

I just ordered some Minch Irish whiskey malt with some chocolate malt to try another stout but who knows how that will turn out.
I've never used or heard of anyone mashing with whiskey malt before so thought I would give it a try.

Sent from my ALE-L21

I would have thought that the divergence came later in the process.
In that, to get whiskey, you mash, boil and ferment much as per beer. Then it gets distilled?

Not sure that calling it Whiskey malt makes a lot of difference, except that it might be more lightly kilned?

 

[dps51]

another john bull best bitter kit from the last Tesco sale off

 

[suffolk]

I did my first yeast starter on thursday and I brewed a german wheat beer with it today.
My first time using wheat and a starter

 

[dad_of_jon]

just took out the amarillo & galaxy 5 day dry hop bag from my galaxy hop beer.

me are mrs doj spent quite some time sniffing it. :lol: awesome!

the hop bag smelt quite nice too... :rofl:

going to do a repeat dry hop then add some gin at bottling time. As I've tried juniper berries a few times and never had the result I wanted :-(

"gin & orange" ipa :whistle:

 

[DoctorMick]

I would have thought that the divergence came later in the process.
In that, to get whiskey, you mash, boil and ferment much as per beer. Then it gets distilled?

Not sure that calling it Whiskey malt makes a lot of difference, except that it might be more lightly kilned?

I'm sure I read somewhere that the difference is the quality of the malt, for beers the best quality is used but for spirits it isn't so important so they use less high quality grains...although I could be entirely mistaken.

 

[AntKlesk]

Brewed a huge IPA last night, OG 1.104.

Bit of a mistake as i didn't finish until 2am due to needing an extra 2L boil off and the Grainfather pump taking an age to transfer to the fermenter, but bubbling away nicely this morning.

First time using MJ M42, good signs so far.

 

[Linalmeemow]

I'm chilling the Greg Hughes oatmeal stout to pitching temperature at the moment after a morning of brewing. Hope it comes out as well as the GH American Wheat which is a lovely pint!

 

[Slid]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the difference is the quality of the malt, for beers the best quality is used but for spirits it isn't so important so they use less high quality grains...although I could be entirely mistaken.

That would make sense, for sure.:thumb:

 

[Spapro]

just took out the amarillo & galaxy 5 day dry hop bag from my galaxy hop beer.

me are mrs doj spent quite some time sniffing it. :lol: awesome!

the hop bag smelt quite nice too... :rofl:

going to do a repeat dry hop then add some gin at bottling time. As I've tried juniper berries a few times and never had the result I wanted :-(

"gin & orange" ipa :whistle:

Absolutely love galaxy, got some for an upcoming brew. Not tried it with gin, juniper or orange though :grin:

Good luck your brew

 

[MickDundee]

I've had a disaster of a brew day. I got part way through the mash when my wife shouted through that my son wasn't himself. We ended up at out of hours (tonsillitis) so I had a 2 and a half hour mash. It then took ages to get up to the boil that I'm now sitting upstairs trying to put my son to bed while my wort has been boiling for an hour and a quarter and I haven't put my late additions in. I'm thinking 5 mins or so with my late additions when I get down then onto flame out that way my IBUs will still be where I want them.

 

[Slid]

Up early for a Saturday. Doughed in at circa 8am with a Robust Porter Exmoor style brew, inspired by the recent Tesco sale with a Coppers Lager kit @ £6.

The Grainfather is great at what it does, but a big grain bill at over 8kg seems to make for a problematic mash, an awkward sparge and a long day.

So the grain bill was to mash up:
Maris Otter 4.4kg
Brown Malt 720g (I had 1kg more than I realised)
Crystal 400g
Chocolate 275g

Then add some Admiral (18g) for bittering and 25g Bobek for a laugh @ 15m.

Coopers lager kit in the FV - the one with the big dent in it and then the wort on top. Total IBU may be ~ 43

With the kit and some boiling water to rinse it out, I ended up with a couple of litres of what I regarded as decent looking wort left over, so I added it to a John Bull IPA kit @ 13.5L in the small fermenter. I may add a dry hop later to this half brew.

Used US 05 for the Porter and MJ Workhorse for the kit brew.

I don't think that MJW is marketed any more, but there seems to be a bubble film already.

 

[Dutto]

I've had a disaster of a brew day. I got part way through the mash when my wife shouted through that my son wasn't himself. We ended up at out of hours (tonsillitis) so I had a 2 and a half hour mash. It then took ages to get up to the boil that I'm now sitting upstairs trying to put my son to bed while my wort has been boiling for an hour and a quarter and I haven't put my late additions in. I'm thinking 5 mins or so with my late additions when I get down then onto flame out that way my IBUs will still be where I want them.

I would be sympathetic of your woes ... :thumb:

... but ... :lol:

... it will probably be one of the best brews you will ever make and impossible to replicate. :whistle:

On the other hand, give the lad my heartfelt sympathies. Tonsillitis ain't funny, ... :nono: :nono:

... especially on a weekend when he can't even get a day off school.

 

[Ajhutch]

I've had a disaster of a brew day. I got part way through the mash when my wife shouted through that my son wasn't himself. We ended up at out of hours (tonsillitis) so I had a 2 and a half hour mash. It then took ages to get up to the boil that I'm now sitting upstairs trying to put my son to bed while my wort has been boiling for an hour and a quarter and I haven't put my late additions in. I'm thinking 5 mins or so with my late additions when I get down then onto flame out that way my IBUs will still be where I want them.

Hope your boy gets better soon, that sounds rough.

I'm just getting my 'kitchen sink' bitter up to the boil. My wife is out for the evening which is my normal time to get a brew on once I've got my little boy to bed. This one is using up a bunch of my speciality malts basically with some EKG and Challenger

 

[MickDundee]

I would be sympathetic of your woes ... :thumb:

... but ... :lol:

... it will probably be one of the best brews you will ever make and impossible to replicate. :whistle:

On the other hand, give the lad my heartfelt sympathies. Tonsillitis ain't funny, ... :nono: :nono:

... especially on a weekend when he can't even get a day off school.

He's only 18 months so no school.

I ended up getting a whopping 80%+ efficiency, so topped up my FV with water to get 1.062 instead of 1.074. Because of the Clarks maple syrup having caramel colouring in it, my IPA looks like being the colour of a brown ale,and I managed to pitch the yeast too hot.

This is guaranteed to be the best beer I've made!

 

[Clint]

Yeah it's awful when the little monsters aren't well...had my fair share of out of hours and casualty. ...hope all is well for you and yours..I'm sure the beer will be fine...get if named. ..

Cheers

Clint

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
My first AG brew yesterday - Greg Hughes' Milk Stout. I was so tired I forgot to post last night!
I planned on conditioning the grain, underletting the mash and doing a hochkurz mash with a "wet" mash - 3.5l per kg
I conditioned the lighter coloured grains in one of those underbed storage boxes - it was ideal for the job.
Milling: both cordless drill batteries died on me so the rest was done by hand-cranking. That wasn't easy - I'm going to adapt the table in my brew shed so that I can fasten the grain mill down - everything moves, the mill and the bucket!
Underletting: I put the flaked barley in unmilled to form a filter bed then added the milled grains. I underlet the mash - it worked brilliantly. Recirculated the wort. Absolutely no problems with the pump - it worked fine. There didn't seem to be any large particles being circulated and it didn't miss a beat.
I realised I had the voltage regulator turned up to maximum. After I adjusted it the temperature fluctuated by about a degree above and below - I suppose it needs to autotune again, given different inputs.
30 minutes in I upped the temperature to 70°C, milled the dark grains and added them for the final 15 minutes of the mash, then mashed out at 75°C.
Ran off about 14l of wort and put it in the small boiler to begin the boil. Batch sparged with 12l @ 75°C, stirred the mash and recirculated until the wort ran clear. Ran off about 11l, cleaned out the ACE and put all of the wort in it.
The boil was disappointing - it looked more like a heavy simmer than a vigorous boil. I had planned to boil for 75 min but kept on going as the volume didn't seem to have reduced by much. After 90 minutes a quick calculation based on a dip with my mash paddle showed that there was just over 22l in the boiler so I transferred to the no-chill cube.
Just about to transfer into a FV and pitch the yeast.
Colin

 

[Dutto]

......... After 90 minutes a quick calculation based on a dip with my mash paddle .......

It's a lot less messy to knock up a small Ullage Gauge to effectively measure what isn't there!

That way, all you have to do is to lower the gauge to the top of the liquid and read off the contents from the rim of the pot.

The system is regularly used on black-oil tanks on ships, refineries and tank farms. Instead of having to clean a hundred-foot long tape all you have to do is to clean the bottom of a one-foot long Ullage Ruler. :thumb:

Particularly related to your "so tired I forgot to Post" comment! Remember ...

"Old age is when you spend all night doing what you used to do all night!"
:lol: :lol: :lol:​