Deathstar's Brew Day

Bit late in posting, however I did eventually get round to doing my first AG in 13 years on Sunday. Supported my LHBS (Leyland) and purchased all my grains and hops on the Saturday along with some bins.

I was very original and named this revival APA Style brew "Death to the Star"
So the Grain and Hop bill was as following.

4.9Kg of Pale Malt
0.4kg of Amber (90 EBC)
0.3kg of Crystal (50 EBC)
0.25 kg of flaked oats
22g Magnum for 60 min boil
44g Citra for 15 min boil
22g Amarillo 15 min boil
22g Amarillo Steep whilst cooling
M44 Mangrove Jack West Coast Yeast.

Possibly do a dry hop in a couple of days (still undecided).

According to Beer Smith I would get s Mash Eff of 80.9%, SG 1.057 for a 23L brew.
IBU 60.7
ABV 6.2

All went well, and it was great to get back into the swing of it again. I had to trawl the depths of my mind a few times. However fingers crossed it comes out well.

My actual efficiency was not as good as predicted, I was around 60% as I ended up with 19L at 1.056

I don't have any images to insert into the thread due to not having any sharing facility however some pictures of what I done are attached.

Only concern I have is the M44 yeast, seemed to take longer than expected to do anything until around 28 hours, then rose to the occasion with around a 2" Krausen by Tuesday morning, it was bubbling almost every second for another 30 hours or sow. Then began to slow down yesterday afternoon/last night. I was expecting a longer bubble...its still going but its slow. I will probably wait until Sunday and so a gravity reading as that will be the true guide.

Thanks for reading.

Hi make sure you are not mixing Mash efficiency up with Brew house efficiency as they are different and it may appear that your efficiency is worse than you think. Just a thought

Todays brew day not the best but fingers crossed - Story HERE

Any way decided to make a nice easy drinking Stout, with an estimated ABV of ~4.4%

4kg of Pale Malt
0.75 kg of Chocolate Malt
0.2 kg of Crystal (using inventory)
0.2 kg of Flaked Oats
0.1 kg of Amber Malt (using inventory)
0.1 kg of Peat Smoked Malt
56 g of Northern Brewer Hops

Gervin GV12 Yeast.

Pretty much hit all my Beer Smith estimations, which considering the curcumstances was lucky. OG at 21.3L is 1.045

I'll let it ferment for a couple of weeks, now and see how it turns out, with many things crossed!!

Well, I decided to try this after a few weeks of conditioning and chilling.
I will be brewing this again, I must say it’s absolutely awesome. I’d actually buy this in a pub.
Great level of bitterness, with a nice subtle level of smokiness. I’d maybe up the smoked malt a little the next time, but it’s nailed on in my opinion.

Well today was a new adventure, I christened the Grainfather. I spent the morning watching YouTube videos on how to set up and play then went balls in .

Decided yesterday to do a variation of James Morton’s Undead Pale Ale.
Pulled the Pale Malt back a little to 4.5kg, but all the rest of the fermentable’s were the same.
Went with
30 60 mins
20 10
20 5
50 Steep

I got 23L at 1.054, pitched with M44 yeast and now sat at 20c in the fermentation fridge.

Will dry hop at 50/60g in 10/11 days for 3/4. With a final cold crash before bottling.

All went well with the first attempt, probably a few tweaks on my technique, but all in all a success.
One thing I noticed was the amount of trub that came through, but that seems to have settled out already, with potential great clarity.

Glad the return to AG is going well. Let us know what you think of the "Undead" as it's one I've tried.

I stuck my nose in the fermentation fridge earlier, ooohh it smells nice.
I did notice whilst reading the Mangrove Jacks Dried Yeast book, it recommends that you pitch two packs of M44 for gravity's over 1.050, though I am only at 1.054. All looks good though.

For those interested, attached is the XML file.

Deathstar said:

I stuck my nose in the fermentation fridge earlier, ooohh it smells nice.
I did notice whilst reading the Mangrove Jacks Dried Yeast book, it recommends that you pitch two packs of M44 for gravity's over 1.050, though I am only at 1.054. All looks good though.

For those interested, attached is the XML file.

Click to expand...

What's this Mangrove Jacks Dried Yeast book you speak of?

JonBrew said:

What's this Mangrove Jacks Dried Yeast book you speak of?

Click to expand...

Indeed.

It came with my Grainfather, I am more than happy to scan it and upload it if anyone is interested.

I have that booklet its very good

Deathstar said:

It came with my Grainfather, I am more than happy to scan it and upload it if anyone is interested.
View attachment 23585 View attachment 23586

Click to expand...

Very kind of you.

Just found the following link to a PDF version:

https://shop.brewcraftusa.com/img/product/description/72539_NEW_V3_MJ_CS_Yeast_Bk_WEB.PDF

That is a later version, I have V1, that is V3.

I'd like to see V1, Deathstar, if it's not too much trouble. I think it probably has the old names and descriptions before MJ rebranded and renumbered its yeasts.

An Ankoù said:

I'd like to see V1, Deathstar, if it's not too much trouble. I think it probably has the old names and descriptions before MJ rebranded and renumbered its yeasts.

Click to expand...

Here you go

Deathstar said:

Well today was a new adventure, I christened the Grainfather. I spent the morning watching YouTube videos on how to set up and play then went balls in .

Decided yesterday to do a variation of James Morton’s Undead Pale Ale.
Pulled the Pale Malt back a little to 4.5kg, but all the rest of the fermentable’s were the same.
Went with
30 60 mins
20 10
20 5
50 Steep

I got 23L at 1.054, pitched with M44 yeast and now sat at 20c in the fermentation fridge.

Will dry hop at 50/60g in 10/11 days for 3/4. With a final cold crash before bottling.

All went well with the first attempt, probably a few tweaks on my technique, but all in all a success.
One thing I noticed was the amount of trub that came through, but that seems to have settled out already, with potential great clarity.

Click to expand...

Dry hopped today with the remains of my Citra (56gms). I am going to leave this until Friday and then cold crash down to around 9c for 24 hours or so. Going to see if this helps the protein haze anyway.
Or would someone recommend 1-2c?

Bottled my “Hop Along John” today, came out at 1.007, from 1.054.
Obviously I had to have a little snifter, this is going to turn out very nice.
Not as clear as I was hoping as I racked it off, but I only cold crashed for 1.5 days at 6c.

Hopefully it condition nicely under the dining room table for a couple of week, and clear as it settles out bad when it’s chilled.

Another brew day tomorrow, looks like I forgot to append this thread with my last brew of a Landlord Clone.
Anyway, going for a light hoppy blond ale. I’m having a little play with this one to use up some open (frozen) hops before I open up some new sealed bags.
Recipe attached. I’ll update tomorrow on how it goes.
PS My Hop Along John (Undead) came out well, probably not as hoppy as I was expecting but a nice brew none the less.

Tomorrow is bottling day for the above, and will be another brew day. Tomorrows brew is going to be a bit of an experiment to say the least!
It’s essentially a use up if all the dregs of malts I have in the freezer.
It will be interesting to see how it turns out.... it will either be dreadful or awesome. But that’s what brewing and experimenting is all about.

Remember to weigh out and note what malts and hops you do use, just in case it turns out to be awesome