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fury_tea

Landlord.
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Thought I'd start logging my beers on here.

Starting with yesterday's brew, had this in my mind for a while now and finally got round to brewing it. The idea is ALL British ingredients, malt, hops and yeast. I wanted to see if I could kind of approximate something like a lager but all British. Aiming for light, fresh, quaffable in the sun and around 5.5%.

British 'pseudo lager' (SMaSH)

5kg extra pale Maris Otter
20g Opus (experimental British hop) @ 60 mins
20g Opus @ 10 mins
Yeast: 22g Nottingham (Gervin)

For this one I decided on a 3 step mash to wring as much out of the grains as possible and hopefully leave it a little drier than if I just stuck to a single temperature.
Step 1 was 50c for 30mins (although I got side tracked and it stayed there for more like 50mins), step 2 was 63c for 40mins and step 3 was 68 for 40 mins with mash out at 75c.
I also got round to using my new Swan boiler as a sparge water tank, and before I started I changed the old leaky tap for a new ball lock.
IMG_20200407_185510.jpg

After that I boiled for 70 mins, then used the no chill Jerry can, into the fridge overnight and emptied/aerated into a clear carboy the following morning.
Fermentation temp is 15c for around 10 days (depending on how it's looking), then I'll turn it up to 20c, dry hop with a little bit more of the Opus (maybe another 20g) for 2-4 day, remove hops and cold crash/'lager' for a couple of weeks, all in primary.

Target gravity was 1.056 and the wort measured a hair above 1.060 for some reason. Could it be that it boiled for an extra 10 minutes?
Screenshot_20200410-013205.jpg

The yeast was just poured straight from the packets and shook in, and it took off within 2 hours!
 
Got some Wheat DME sent to me (in place of regular DME), so thought I would knock together a small partial mash wheat beer with some leftovers I had in. No wheat beer yeast in stock so I decided I'd use some Kveik Voss that I had left over.

Recipe (12L):
Wheat DME 500g
Wheat malt 300g
Torrified oats 300g
Pilsner Malt 500g
Golden syrup 454g
20g Hallertau Blanc @ 30mins
40g Hallertau Blanc @ Whirlpool (80c)

Gonna dry hop it with 40g Hallertau Blanc once the Kveik is done.

Yeast: Kveik Voss (fermenting at 37c, with a heat belt and a greenhouse heater on)

I smashed my hydrometer so not sure exactly what the SG was but at a guess it's around 1.045 ish. I have the recipe on Beer Smith so I'll just pretend that's right. It won't be far off anyway.

12 hours later and it was going like the absolute clappers!

Update on the British Lager, kegged it a few days ago, force carbed and let it settle a bit. It's really nice. Needs another weeks or 2 but I'm well happy with it.
 
IMG_20200507_175318.jpg

The British 'Lager' is just getting better and better by the day. Ended up 6.5% as well which is a little more than I was expecting. Absolutely drinkable now, which is under a month since I brewed it. I'm sure it will get better but it's hard to stop drinking it. Staying upright might be a challenge that I'm happy to accept.

Hydrometer arrived and I just checked he Kveik (no bubbles on the airlock any more). It's done. Went like a wizz popper for 36 hours then nothing. Tested the gravity and it's 1.008. probably low from the highly fermentable sugars. It smells amazing. I'm crashing it now. Unsure whether to dry hop, I'll decide in the next few hours.
 
IMG-20200521-WA0016.jpeg

Knocked out a cherry/berry cider tonight. Wizzed the fruit up in a blender beforehand and just added everything in together.
That 'cherry good' juice has sweetener in but it's only 1/11th of the total volume so hopefully after backsweetening it won't be too noticeable.

The OG was 1.037 so reckon it'll finish around 5% so it should end up a nice drinkable summer cider.

Update on the Kveik Wheat beer: it has a really weird taste. Almost musty/mouldy on the finish, that sticks to your palete. It's basically undrinkable at the moment. I didn't do anything different than usual the only things I can put it down to is either:
1. The Kveik yeast pack was open (sealed in a baggie) in the fridge for a couple of months...
2. I took a hydrometer reading when it was completely finished then didn't keg it for a few more days - could have got oxidised or contaminated at that point or...
3. I used a different supplier for the grain than usual and it could have been contaminated.

I'll leave it in the keg to see if the taste dissipates but if it's no better by the time I need that keg I'll just dump it out. Maybe I'll bottle a few just in case it gets better with age but don't have high hopes for it at all.
 
NEIPA day today. I wanted to start working through some of the supplies I have so it's a bit of a mish mash, not exactly an 'NEIPA by the books' but it uses up my ingredients and hopefully should turn out ok, unless I completely eff something up (which I might've).

Grains:
Maris Otter extra pale - 3kg
Pilsen - 1kg
Torrified oats: .7kg
Wheat: .7kg

Whirlpool hops
28g each of:
Eukanot
Mosaic
Cascade
El Dorado

Yeast s04

Dry hop #1 (3 days)
56g Mosaic
28g each of:
Eukanot
Cascade
El Dorado

Dry hop #2 (6 days)
56g Mosaic
28g El Dorado

Treated with salt and Calcium Chloride, and corrected with lactic acid.

I messed a few things up - as per. I forgot to campden my water (that's the first time I've ever forgotten that) and ended up dropping some in after the sparge was almost done. I think that could be too late for chlorophenol production but damage limitation n all that... I also forgot the bottom filter on my robobrew but doesn't look like it made much of a difference on this one. I've had crud burn to the bottom through the filter but this was a luckily a fairly crud free brew.

Something I've learnt though... Rice hulls really are worth the money. In the past I have spent over an hour sparging. Once a sparge gets stuck it just gums up and it's hard to do anything about it but wait it out. My sparge today took 10 minutes and that's with potentially gummy wheat and oats.

1.5hrs since I pitched and it's off already! Happy days (for now)...
 
Hey FT! Thanks for posting these - I’m really enjoying them! Can I ask what percentage/how much rice hulls you used in your mash?
 
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interesting note about the kveik, i had similar experiences with both voss and hornindal kveiks. they have a musty, mushroomy
earthiness that ruined the beer for me. i was very dissapointed with them and initally thought it was from fermenting them at ale temps, guess not. i was going to give them another shot this summer but maybe not.
 
Hey FT! Thanks for posting these - In really enjoying them! Can I ask what percentage/how much rice hulls you used in your mash?
Cheers Session! I just eyeballed it really, I put around 200g I think and added it in 'layers' - 50g rice hulls, 1/4 of the grist, another 50g rice hulls etc then mixed it all in. I noticed the effect almost immediately, the wort was draining through the grain bed quicker than usual meaning I had to adjust the circulation more than usual, and I had a super clear wort in around 10 mins. Definitely going to be trying bit again next time as I always had problems with slow sparges in the past.

interesting note about the kveik, i had similar experiences with both voss and hornindal kveiks. they have a musty, mushroomy
earthiness that ruined the beer for me. i was very dissapointed with them and initally thought it was from fermenting them at ale temps, guess not. i was going to give them another shot this summer but maybe not.
Yeah mushroomy is the flavour I'm getting. I drank a few last night and it is fading but it's definitely still there and it's not enjoyable at all. I might try a commercial one (got mine from ebay) but I would definitely try it on a small batch in future. I feel that flavour could work on a dark beer, maybe a lightly smoked porter or something. I've heard of people getting really clean ferments but that was not my experience.
 
IMG-20200523-WA0009.jpeg

Here's a pic I took of the wheat beer by the way. It's a bit foamy because it was the first pint that day, but it looks lovely. Just a shame about the taste...
 
its still young though so maybe with time the off flavor will drop out, i would imagine its somewhat connected with the flavor of the actual yeast.
 
Update on Kveik Wheat: I've been drinking the odd pint here and there and i'm getting used to it, it's definitely not what I was aiming for but 'drinkable' now.

NEIPA was kegged last night, dry hopping schedule was a bit different to how I planned, left the hop bags in until I kegged:
Dry hop #1 (3 days)
28g each of:
Mosaic
Eukanot
Cascade
El Dorado

Dry hop #2 (7 days) - plus a few teaspoons of dextrose.
56g Mosaic
56g El Dorado
22g Cascade (the rest of the pack)
20g Eukanot (the rest of the pack)

I forgot to purge the keg before I transferred which was a bit of a rookie mistake with an NEIPA, only remembered half way through the transfer. I put a pinch of sodium metabisulphate in, hoping that will drive off any oxygen.

Pre-carb taste was basically mango and pineapple juice. Force carbed last night so will probably be drinking it within the next couple of days. Can't see it lasting long so better get another one on soon.

IMG-20200605-WA0013.jpeg


Also kegged the cherry and berry cider, tastes great too. Added campden and sorbate last night and I'll probably backsweeten it tomorrow with some cherry concentrate and 20 teaspoons of sugar (around one per pint) for the 10L keg. That leaves it a little bit dry but takes the edge off.
 
Brew day yesterday. User upper pseudo lager, 20L:

2.6kg Pilsner
1kg Munich
1kg white rice (cooked for 30 mins)
250g Rice hulls

15g Sorachi ace 60min
20g Sorachi ace whirlpool
15g Sladek whirlpool
10g Hallertau whirlpool

Gervin yeast (2x 11g) @17c

OG 1.056

I'll DH with the rest of the Sorachi Ace, there's maybe 30g left.

Installed a new cooker hood too so it was the maiden voyage of that, at the same time the fluorescent strip light went in the garage, so was glad of the extra light under the hood. Nicked the Mrs' bedside lamp and the standard lamp from the living room and struggled through.

The cooker hood does an ok job but it drips from time to time. Not fun when you're cooling and it starts dripping condensate into the brew!

IMG-20200610-WA0009.jpeg


I also took the opportunity to get an LED lightbulb instead of a fluorescent one, including the driver. Should slot right in and should be instant instead of waiting ages for it to come on

NEIPA is really nice, here's a pic I took the other day, I was so happy with it that I made it into my Avatar pic!
IMG_20200607_192744.jpg
 
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The cooker hood does an ok job but it drips from time to time. Not fun when you're cooling and it starts dripping condensate into the brew!

I know that feeling. It's panic inducing when you see those first drips plopping into the brew. I've tried brewing indoors over the winter and our cooker hood extractor is a beast, but can't handle the volume of steam from a good rolling boil.
I'm currently trying to construct some sort of hood arrangement through an opening window of the garage, not fan driven but free flowing. I'm anticipating plenty of drips from that too.
 
I know that feeling. It's panic inducing when you see those first drips plopping into the brew. I've tried brewing indoors over the winter and our cooker hood extractor is a beast, but can't handle the volume of steam from a good rolling boil.
I'm currently trying to construct some sort of hood arrangement through an opening window of the garage, not fan driven but free flowing. I'm anticipating plenty of drips from that too.

There's no window in my garage and I never open the main door because I wedged insulation in there, so on previous brews I basically created a sauna room. The hood is definitely a massive improvement on that. I think next time I might remove the grille so I can just wipe the fan off with a towel when needed.
 
I did 2 brews yesterday, a beer and gingery cidery thing. Been a little while since I brewed anything, so I've had an empty fermentation fridge for over 2 weeks! Got an empty keg and 2 nearly empty kegs.

Ordered 25kg of Maris Otter extra pale, 2kg of Vienna, 2kg of Munich and a kg each of chocolate, roast barley and crystal (wasn't labeled but think it's 80 as the EBC is 157).
All grains uncrushed because I have a grain mill now. Tried conditioning the grain but I don't think I added enough water as it still ended up a bit floury. Could also be the speed of my drill as it won't run slowly.
I have a few brews coming up in the future, a Baltic Porter, a stout I plan to age and a few hoppy things like pale ales or hopped lagers, so watch this space.

Brew #1... Kveik IPA (30 min boil):

OG 1.055
4kg Maris Otter extra pale
1kg Munich
100g Crystal

35g Herkules (30mins)
35g Cascade (Whirlpool 80c)
35g Ekuanot (Whirlpool 80c)
35g CTZ (Whirlpool 80c)
70g Cascade (Dry hop 2 days)
70g CTZ (Dry hop 2 days)
??g Any open stuff that needs using (Dry hop 2 days)

Yeast Kveik Voss (2/3 of a pkt) + yeast nutrient
IMG_20200709_155505.jpg

Went for a commercial kveik this time to see if that works out any better than last time (bought on eBay and tasted like a musty old book).

Brew #2 was kind of impromptu. I had some wort left in the bottom on my robobrew so I decided to use it up in a ginger ale/cidery thing I had planned to make weeks ago. It's just thrown together but hoping for around 5% and easy drinking with some ice in the sun. Not got super high hopes but I'll backsweeten with elderflower cordial and sugar and maybe add fresh squeezed ginger juice or ginger cordial. Should be drinkable.

OG 1.035
About 1L wort (bittered and whirlpool hopped as above)
2 bits of ginger, peeled a wizzed up in sanitised blender (didn't weigh but I'd guess 200g)
1 tin golden syrup
2L cheap apple juice
1.35L posh apple and elderflower juice
Topped up to 11L with campden'd water heated to 50c
Bit of nutrient
Kveik Voss (1/3 of a pkt)

It's sitting in my ferm fridge above the main fermenter so hoping the temp is similar. While I was aerating it I accidentally knocked the grommet in so just wrapped the airlock in foil and jammed it in. No bubbles as of this morning but I'll assume it's fermenting away anyway as the other one is blasting through.

Update on the mish mash pseudo lager from post #12:
IMG_20200709_153659.jpg

It's lovely, super light and drinkable. I wish I'd dry hopped it though because it's lacking any real hop flavour. There's a very mild fruitiness to it but it's mostly a nice malty flavour I'm getting.
 
Brewday today, I Saved the trub from the Kveik IPA to do a pseudo Vienna lager type thing. I was going to do 2kg Munich and 1.5kg each of Vienna and Maris otter extra pale, but realised I don't have any Munich so made a last minute change so the grist is as follows:

2kg Vienna
2.5kg Maris otter
100g chocolate
100g crystal 80

Hops will be 14g of magnum at 60 mins then I'll throw in the rest of my Sorachi ace and Opus in at whirlpool. Hoping for some fruity notes from those.

It looks really dark as it's recirculating. I don't think I should've put the crystal in but I panicked last minute. I should've thought about it, less chocolate and no crystal would have been better. I'm going to mash it for extra long (stepping up 2c every 15 mins from 64c) to work at the sugars in that crystal.

Update the Kveik IPA I brewed last Thursday, so less than 7 days ago. It's really drinkable already - had a few pints last night (6 days since brew day!) and I really enjoyed it. Fruity, not as bitter as I was expecting but definitely has some hop bitterness to it as opposed to the NEIPA I did last time. The body and malt backbone are just what I was aiming for. I'm loving this Maris Otter extra pale too. Brings a lovely flavour without being overpoweringly biscuity or sweet.

IMG_20200715_172730.jpg
 
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"Kveik Dark Lager" is in the fermenter now (that's what I meant to make.. honestly!)

I wasn't sure how much Kveik to put in, and the yeast was unwashed so there was a fair bit of trub in it, so I just went with 3 tablespoons.

Fermenting at 31c so I'll see how it turns out, it's a bit of a calamity this one but might end up being ok
 
Had a brew day this week for the first time in about 2 months. 3 empty kegs and only a couple of bottles of cider left.

First was a pseudo wheat lager thingy 1.054og:

2.5kg MO pale
1kg Wheat
500g white sugar

Hallertau Blanc 10g @60min
Hallertau Blanc 15g @15min

Wilko Gervin yeast

Plan on dry hopping with about 50g of H Blanc

When I transferred it, I still had about 3L (+trub) left in the Robobrew, so I threw in a 1.5kg can of Wilko lager that I had in, topped it off to 13L and brought to the boil. Added 20g of cascade for 15 mins, cooled and transferred to my small fermenter.
OG was 1.048, I'll DH with more cascade and maybe CTZ and call it an APA.
Bit of an experiment and not really cheap but an easy way to extend a brew day and fill those empty kegs.
Baby on the way so thinking higher volume brew days might become the new norm!
 
I had a busy couple of weeks with work, so I didn't get round to dry hopping either of the last 2 beers. Instead of risking oxidation on finished beers I thought I'd have a go at keg hopping.

The 19L keg of 'wheat lager' got a teaspoon of gelatin (dissolved) and 30g of Hallertau Blanc suspended in a tea strainer by cotton thread, and the 12L (in a 19L keg) of "pale ale" got 30g CTZ and 30g Cascade suspended in a hop bag.

In other news I found some sloes while out walking so helped myself to 430g (was aiming for 500g so not far off). Washed and sorted them, pricked with a fork and added to a 2L jar with 100g Demerara and 150g white sugar, and a litre of Lidl London gin. Should be ready for Christmas!

IMG_20200929_101349.jpg


There was an abundance of apples, blackberries and dewberries as well. I didn't have room in my bag to get anything else but could've definitely made a good few bottles of berry cider with all I saw!
 
Golden Grahams stout today, should be on for Xmas: 19L

1kg GG
4kg Maris Otter extra pale
500g oats
200g chocolate malt
100g roasted barley
300g lactose

8g fuggles

2 pkg Windsor

IMG_20201108_102602.jpg


1kg GG in the mash, wondering if I should dry hop with the remaining 125g or just eat them.
I had the idea around a year ago but couldn't find them anywhere. Saw them on Sainsbury's online so bought 5 packs, 3 for the stout and 2 to eat.

Think the should end up around 7-8%
 
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