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SamBrewster

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Well after watching for a year or more, time to do my first brew day posts.
After skimming through the live brew day of Dudes Brews

I have decided to make a version of All Together IPA tomorrow.
https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-all-together-ipa/Has anyone else tried this? I can't find any commercial versions in Essex to 'compare' so maybe swaps are in order later in the year!
I have made a "whirlpool" arm - usually I use a hop spider, no idea if these will work together but it should help with uniform cooling... Will take some pics tomorrow.
Running out of ingredients so my recipe will be:
4600g Pilsner & Pale Ale Malt (got 1.5-2kg Pilsner left).
200g Crystal Malt
800g Sainsbury's Porrage Oats
60g Northern Brewer @ 60mins
40g Citra & 28g Cascade 80'C Whirlpool for 20min, using new gadget 😁
CML US Ale yeast
Dry hop with 100g Citra, 43g Cascade & 43g Summit
Had no success yet with hoppy IPAs so we'll see, gotta be better than the potato beer I put on yesterday - never knew spuds smelt so bad...
Critique welcome.
More tomorrow...
 
Well after watching for a year or more, time to do my first brew day posts.
After skimming through the live brew day of Dudes Brews

I have decided to make a version of All Together IPA tomorrow.
https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-all-together-ipa/Has anyone else tried this? I can't find any commercial versions in Essex to 'compare' so maybe swaps are in order later in the year!
I have made a "whirlpool" arm - usually I use a hop spider, no idea if these will work together but it should help with uniform cooling... Will take some pics tomorrow.
Running out of ingredients so my recipe will be:
4600g Pilsner & Pale Ale Malt (got 1.5-2kg Pilsner left).
200g Crystal Malt
800g Sainsbury's Porrage Oats
60g Northern Brewer @ 60mins
40g Citra & 28g Cascade 80'C Whirlpool for 20min, using new gadget 😁
CML US Ale yeast
Dry hop with 100g Citra, 43g Cascade & 43g Summit
Had no success yet with hoppy IPAs so we'll see, gotta be better than the potato beer I put on yesterday - never knew spuds smelt so bad...
Critique welcome.
More tomorrow...


Looks nice!

... potato beer?😗
 
Well, almost out of malt and thought there was plenty of sugar in spuds. Boiled some up, blended, steeped with some crystal & chocolate malt overnight. OG 1.027ish this morning - disappointed. Chucked in some sugar, home grown hops and a few frozen bullace. Hopefully the magic wild yeasts will get going in a few days. Currently a smelly sludge but who knows what it'll be like in a week or two...
Should get some more malt next week...
 
Well, almost out of malt and thought there was plenty of sugar in spuds. Boiled some up, blended, steeped with some crystal & chocolate malt overnight. OG 1.027ish this morning - disappointed. Chucked in some sugar, home grown hops and a few frozen bullace. Hopefully the magic wild yeasts will get going in a few days. Currently a smelly sludge but who knows what it'll be like in a week or two...
Should get some more malt next week...
I'd of thought you'd need some diastatic malt in there to get the right enzymes to break down the starch in potatoes. Don't crystal and highly roasted malts like chocolate have no enzymes present? Hope it works for you, fingers crossed.
 
I'd of thought you'd need some diastatic malt in there to get the right enzymes to break down the starch in potatoes
You're right, with the lack of malt I hoped the crystal would be enough...
All Together IPA - currently boiling after the expected stuck mash. More later.
 
Not the best brew day. Started well, everything heating up & weighed out at 8.30:
IMG_20200424_081702.jpg

Mashed at 68C for an hour (to All Together recipe), then tried to mash out, recirc and sparge. Due to the oats, expected stuck mash:
IMG_20200424_103147.jpg

Lost 90 minutes here...
Pump struggling a little but that's normal.
Boil ok, then set up for the exciting whirlpool:
IMG_20200424_123403.jpg

Ahhhhh. Pump knackered, heat caused pipe to fly off, whirlpool arm siphoned out of kettle, wort everywhere...
Soooo, steeped hops at 80?; ha, no idea, 58 after 20 mins.
Recovered, cooled, target 1056:
IMG_20200424_135751.jpg

Close enough.
Recon pump is rated about 65C, oops - seals were 'inside out'.
Ended day with new beers - The Flowers at Box Mill (ok, a little sour but not as bad as expected from smell when bottled), Pale Mountain (disappointed, well conditioned but a bit flavourless) and my faithful home hopped beer:
15877605718226022314841895494872.jpg

Cheers all, have a great weekend in drinking your beers 😁🍻
 
Ahhhhh, attack of the potato sludge monster:
IMG_20200426_094927.jpg

Well at least the wild yeasties are doing their magic.
 
After watching What is the best beer you have brewed thread, Landlord was popular so I thought I would give it a go. Using recipes from both the books I have:
Pale Malt - 4257g
Black Malt - 43g at end mash.
Mash out & sparge.
EKG & Styrian Golding 30g each @ 60min
EKG 20g @ 10min
Styrian Golding 25g @ 0min steep 40min
Cool, CML Midland Yeast.
So I will call this Inn Keepers Incompetence...
The pump I "ruined" last batch I took apart, cleaned up and it was 'good as new 🙂'. It was full of grain so I reinstalled the bazuka filter i had discarded many months ago to protect it.
First mistake. Filter blocked immediately so I forgot to mash out and fotgot to add black malt to mash. Chucked it onto the grain and sparged through. *IDEA* Connected a hand pump and backflushed filter with air. Magic, pump working so recirc after sparge until wort ran clear and darkened a little.
IMG_20200501_101504.jpg
Boil - no issues.
Decided to try the whirlpool arm again (to aid cooling). Had to backflush again but set up prior to steep to sanitise and worked great.
IMG_20200501_122057.jpg
That is until cooling.
Cool to drop sediment, recirc to aid cooling, sediment blocks filter - STUCK.
Nothing coming out if tap so siphoned as much as I could, about 3l lost...
Oh well, target 1040:
20200501_132744.jpg

Recovered?
Drinking some darker beers tonight, these get better with time😀
Enjoy your weekend.
 
Potato beer update:
Potato sludge monster escaped twice so moved him to bigger tank.
He is calming down now, starting to mellow a little, less aggressive but does smell very strange. First potato, then old man, then damp...
Thinking about severing the monster from the 'beer' next week...
20200430_134745.jpg
 
Today was time to sever the monster from the 'beer' although I'm not sure I should call it that...
IMG_20200504_100823.jpg

Ahhhhh, what a mess. Twice through the sieve, twice through a mesh bag; the monster continued to try getting away across the garage floor.
The remains in the bag looked like SMASH but tasted burned and disgusting. Not sure if I burnt the spuds during boiling or if they 'extracted' some burnt flavour from the pan...
Ended up with about 2.5l of liquid, chucked in some more home hops and left in the garage to settle. Lots of work for 4 or 5 bottles.
IMG_20200504_130403.jpg

My other wild beer is looking and tasting much better. No grain or hops in this. Made with honey and weeds (alehoof, Dandilion & yarrow - I hope). Racked to clear, bottle soon.
IMG_20200504_125612.jpg
 
All Together IPA bottled. Hit FG so 5.3%. I usually brew lower abv and less bitter so looking forward to this. Got to fill my birthday present too 😁
IMG_20200505_164115.jpg
 
Today a light beer for summer, batch 100...
Pale Malt - 3000g
Pale Rye - 260g
Flaked Barley - 140g (what does flaked barley add? Used it because I have some left over from another recipe!)
Jarrylo - 20g @ 30min (60 min boil)
Jarrylo - 20g @ 10min
Sugar - 500g @ 10min (to dry beer a little and save malt after reading a recent thread about sugar)
Jarrylo - 20g @ 80C whirlpool for 20min (yes determined to get this thing working)
Jarrylo - 40g dry hop.
No hop spider used for first time!
Often buy a random hop to try, today Jarrylo.
Uneventful brew, everything worked as it should so no pics. Did mess up the weighing of hops though and on opening decided that the subtle aroma would add nothing at dry hop so ended up:
10g @ 30, 42g @ 10 and 46g @ whirlpool - increases bitterness to about 48.
Less clearing up with no spider...
FG a few points higher than expected 1044.
That's the last brew for a few weeks, all kegs and bottles full with 2 batches in FV. If summer starts that could be it until September... Have my eye on a big freezer in the empty house next door when it gets cleared.
Plenty to try with a new batch coming ready most weeks to July. Have Greg Hughes on order so will follow a few recipes from that and my clones book to help improve technique.
Will report back on wild beers and tastings.
Enjoy the long weekend 😊
 
Inn Keeper's Incompetence.
This was the longest I have left a beer in FV - 14 days, the last 3 with heat off so down at garage temp. Clearest beer bottled - 16x500s, 1x750 and a 10l plastic keg (which I hope will hold pressure for once), 4%, tastes great:
IMG_20200515_141502.jpg

Need to get drinking to free up bottles for Batch 100 next week.
The Informer is ready today, made with John Ford hops, can't wait 🙂🍻
 
Potato Monster
I will never do this again:
IMG_20200515_092124.jpg

Got 3 tiny bottles of what I think will be undrinkable from the top half, I think it's a lousy 3% or so...
In the background you will see my other honey wild beer, this however I have very high hopes for. Tastes good, primed quite high, looking forward to trying next month, about 5%. Both wild beers, one of the 9 honey and ALL of the "spud you don't like":
IMG_20200515_141546.jpg

🥔
 
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