HebridesRob Brewdays

[HebridesRob]

Right, so I added gelatine to fine as discussed, left for three days at 3.5 to 4.5 degrees C to cold crash & bottled yesterday. Bottles have been kept at 20C for 24 hours now. Take a look at this...
Photograph taken against back-lit newsprint, the bottle on the left has been shaken up to re-distribute the sediment.

 

[clibit]

It works! :thumb:

 

[HebridesRob]

It works! :thumb:

So it appears. I'll be interested to see how solidly the sediment sticks to to bottom of the bottle. Will be a while before there's an answer to that one.

 

[HebridesRob]

Four days after bottling. Carbonation not bad, obviously not really ready to drink, but...

 

[GHW]

Yes, that's my issue with this beer. The last time (the only time, actually!) I dry hopped I could barely see my fingers through the glass.

Sorry playing catch up on this thread, but I dry hop all of my pales (I think it's well documented on here that I love big hop bomb beers) and haven't noticed this clarity issue.

However, my dry hopped beers do have these strange particles that cling to the glass in the bottles. If you jiggle the bottle they clump together and start to drift down. I've no idea what it is. It falls out eventually in the cold.

Here's a pic of my green bullet pale, I just jiggled it and you can see the vertical streaks in the bottle are the particles clumping.

Any ideas?

 

[clibit]

That looks great Rob. Hopefully no yeast issues? Tasting good?

Gareth, I think it's hop dust, could be wrong.

 

[HebridesRob]

That looks great Rob. Hopefully no yeast issues? Tasting good?

The sediment stuck to the bottom of the bottle pretty well. Didn't leave too much beer behind. Can feel the alcohol when drinking it. Quite a full malt flavour- quite well balanced considering the amount of hops, less bitter than expected. Tastes a bit like a commercial beer I've drank a lot of, can't put my finger on it. Not ready to drink though.

 

[HebridesRob]

Making beer tomorrow, while the weather has eased off. Since I'm not home that much through December and January I'm going to make something that won't need much attention for a while. Bohemian Style lager.

Aiming for 20 litres batch. I've got 100g of Saaz hops that are labelled as 3.5% alpha Acid, which isn't enough to get the beer to high enough IBU so I'm using Northern Brewer as bittering hops, they're the most neutral bittering hops I have. I wouldn't normally use hops at 30 mins but it's apparently traditional.

Wondering whether to try a decoction mash to get more flavour in, or kreep the mash simple and use some (a little) aromatic malt.

Bohemian Pilsner:
20 Litre batch, Approx 1.048 OG, 80% brewhouse efficiency.
Fermentables
4Kg Dingeman's Pilsen Malt

250g Dingeman's Aromatic Malt(possibly)
​

Hops (IBU= 40)
60 min-20g Northern Brewer (9% AA) 50g Saaz (3.5% AA)
30 min-25g Saaz
10 min- 25g Saaz
Yeast
Saflager W-34/20

Anyone wanting to comment?

 

[HebridesRob]

Brewed that one ^ today. Decided to leave my IPA in the brew fridge a bit longer.

Things you learn on Brewday #501: Your beer doesn't cool very well if you attach your immersion cooler to the hot tap.

 

[clibit]

Brewed that one ^ today. Decided to leave my IPA in the brew fridge a bit longer.

Things you learn on Brewday #501: Your beer doesn't cool very well if you attach your immersion cooler to the hot tap.

We could make a great list of comedy cock-ups between us, I'm sure. :whistle: :lol:

 

[HebridesRob]

We could make a great list of comedy cock-ups between us, I'm sure. :whistle: :lol:

Not even sure I want to think about it. Much too traumatic. :-?

 

[HebridesRob]

My lager is conditioned now, just waiting for it to settle (some of the bottles were on the side in my brew fridge) before I start drinking properly.

New delivery of ingredients today so it's back on the horse. Making a bitter for my King Keg first up. As usual, uncertain about the hops. I could use EKG, Challenger, Target & Admiral in this brew but I thought I'd keep it simple and use Admiral to bitter and EKG for flavour.
When I actually brew it is dependant on when we get a delivery of flat-pack furniture, probably Sunday.

Best Bitter...
SG = 1046; ABV = 4.5; IBU = 35

Fermentables
Pale Malt, 4Kg
Light Crystal Malt, 250g
Torrified wheat, 400g

Hops:
Admiral, 25g 60 mins.
Golding, 30g Flameout

Safale S-04 yeast

 

[HebridesRob]

Lager, a tiny bit darker that it should have ben but I'm pleased with it.

 

[LarryF]

A very nice looking pint, crystal clear.

 

[HebridesRob]

A very nice looking pint, crystal clear.

It tastes as good as I could have hoped for but I cheated a bit. Let the bottle warm up before I poured it to stop frosting on the outside of the glass for the picture, which had the benefit of hiding the protein haze. :)

 

[HebridesRob]

My bitter transferred to the King Keg today so new brew tomorrow, trying to get my stocks up. Going to attempt a "Southern English" Brown Ale, which I've been thinking about for some time...

Batch: 22 litres OG: 1038 FG: 1009 3.6abv
Grist:
3Kg mild ale malt
200g medium crystal malt
200g dark crystal malt
150g patent black malt
Hops: 40g Fuggles, 60 min (18 IBU)
Yeast: Gervin GV12

Will be bottling this, going to add around 20g/litre lactose, depending on actual FG.

 

[HebridesRob]

Brown ale all done. Dough-in at 10:30. Yeast pitched and everything cleaned up by 3:45, pretty straightforward brewday.

OG spot on at 1036, volume slightly higher at just under 23 litres. Looks like this, which is considerably darker than the software seemed to calculate but fine for the style. I must look into to get the colours more like I want them to be.

 

[HebridesRob]

Pulled off a small glass of my beer just to check it is conditioning nicely. This is after two days in the barrel, I poured it about 20 mins before I took the picture, head retention seems ok. Tastes ok too, I think it'll be a good one. :pray:

 

[cheapbrew]

Looks good Rob, Turned out reasonably lighter than the wort anyway :thumb:

 

[HebridesRob]

Looks good Rob, Turned out reasonably lighter than the wort anyway :thumb:

Ah, different brews. The second was one I started a couple of weeks ago. the first was yesterday's effort at a brown ale. According to my software (Brewtarget) the colour should have come out significantly lighter than it is, I think I've worker that out now, so I should do better in future.