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All prepared for tomorrow’s brew of another batch of Belgian Tripel. Water and grist ready, yeast starter coming on nicely, timer set for 6:15 am to heat the mash water. Time for a coffee in this glorious sunshine while I ponder on which beer to start the day 😉

Happy Sunday folks! 🥳

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This morning I kegged another batch of my Summer Breeze. I had a couple of litres left over so put it in a 2-litre bottle, force carbed it and put it in the fridge for later.

I also brewed another batch of my Belgian Tripel today as planned. No issues and all numbers hit.

In other news my new Pilsner glass arrived today so I’ll be making use of that later.

And finally, heard today that we can start to socialise from next month. Woo Hoo! 🥳

Not a bad day in the end.
 
HB advice please.
I've got Summer Breeze scheduled for March 21 litres.
Would you bottle or keg or a bit of both as I have a 10 litres keg as well as 19 litres cornies.
Cheers
 
HB advice please.
I've got Summer Breeze scheduled for March 21 litres.
Would you bottle or keg or a bit of both as I have a 10 litres keg as well as 19 litres cornies.
Cheers

Hi Chesh,

I don’t bottle much (just for comps and swaps really) so I put mine in a cornie keg. It would be absolutely fine in bottles though if that’s your preference. It’s even okay in a pressure barrel if you’re happy with light carbonation.
 
Another exciting day in the life of a home brewer! I have good news, news, and bad news...

The good news is that my Summer Breeze, kegged on Monday, is already starting to clear and looks less murky.

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The news is that today I kegged my “Vintage Ale” and the MJ New World Strong Ale yeast attenuated far more than it’s supposed to. This beer is now 9.2%. I put some in a bottle and force carbed it so I’ll show you what it looks like in a while.

The bad news is another brew-shed challenge. My cooling works very well but I now have another problem to resolve...

7DFC1E9A-6291-4E6C-8DC9-854405E634D3.jpeg

Yes, the moist air being blown through the heat exchanger is freezing! I need to think about how I’m going to solve this one now 🤔
 
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I think I’ve decided how I’m going to tackle the freezing heat-exchanger. The solution I’ve settled on is quite simple really, a defrost cycle! I’ll have to hack an electronic timer and build it into my control panel so the coolant flow to the heat-exchangers is diverted to the python periodically to allow them to defrost.

I switched off the cooling to see how long it would take to defrost and it was 30 minutes. I might start with 30 mins each night in the early hours and keep an eye on it as the summer warms up. I may have to extend the defrost time and even need several short (15 min?) defrost cycles through the day but experience will inform that thinking.
 
Another exciting day in the life of a home brewer! I have good news, news, and bad news...

The good news is that my Summer Breeze, kegged on Monday, is already starting to clear and looks less murky.

View attachment 41994

The news is that today I kegged my “Vintage Ale” and the MJ New World Strong Ale yeast attenuated far more than it’s supposed to. This beer is now 9.2%. I put some in a bottle and force carbed it so I’ll show you what it looks like in a while.

The bad news is another brew-shed challenge. My cooling works very well but I now have another problem to resolve...

View attachment 41995

Yes, the moist air being blown through the heat exchanger is freezing! I need to think about how I’m going to solve this one now 🤔
MJ New World- very good for clear west coast DIPA's I would say from experience. Had a job lot of it from maltmiller but gone off of it for most beers as the attenuation is off the charts
 
MJ New World- very good for clear west coast DIPA's I would say from experience. Had a job lot of it from maltmiller but gone off of it for most beers as the attenuation is off the charts

I was hoping for about 80% which would have given me a beer at 8% and an FG of 1016. Instead it reached 92% attenuation so I have a beer at 9.2% and an FG of 1006. It will now have a little less body and be a little more dry than planned. 😢
 
This is the vintage ale I kegged this morning. Like the Summer Breeze on the day of kegging, it’s quite murky looking. It’s dark brown and is nicely carbonated. The aroma is strong chocolate and then fruit, no alcohol is obvious from the aroma despite it being over 9%. The taste is also chocolate and fruit. There is a little alcohol but it’s subtle and definitely not giving away it’s potency other than a swimmy head one third of a pint in 😂

I gave my wife a taste and cracked up laughing as she took one sip, then another, then smiled and took another sip. She likes it and wants a small glass later this evening. I’m going to take that as an omen. Wow, I’m starting to feel it now after half a pint.

I’m actually a little excited about this and starting to doubt it will ever reach a “vintage” age.

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