Nicks90's Brewdays

[Nicks90]

Brew day went well, slightly higher boil off than normal for some reason. Either my heating element was feeling energetic, or i got my timings wrong.
Either way I've got a Brix of 14 which is 1.057 and only 13l of wort. should be 1.047 and 16l.... so nothing a bit of dilution wont sort out and it works out about right for 70% efficiency!!!
Smells blummin great and a lovely colour!

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 39

Lockdown Lager
Its been ages since i did a lager and i specifically ordered some lager type hops in my last delivery from the HBC to do this brew. its going to be a 'faux lager' as i dont have temperature control as such, so it will be what it will be.

3kg Irish malt
200gm caramalt

18l mash at 64c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
30 g Hallertauer Tradition 60 min
20 g Hallertauer Tradition 15 min
20 g Hallertauer Tradition whirlpool

Yeast, reusing half the trub of notty from my previous IPA SMASH.
As its going to be brewed in my cellar, its stays at a steady 15C and i want a decent 'starter' to get it going. Previous experience with notty is that it will brew quite happily at those temps, but it needs a bloody good dose to get started. Rather than wasting 2 new packs of notty, i may as well re-use some washed yeast from a previous brew and really give it a big hit at the start.
My washing process was simple, gather half the trub and pour in to a 1l flask. add cooled boiled water and swirl it about and let it settle. Poured off all the yeast layer leaving behind the darker trub and then ended up with approx 3" of creamy white yeast in the bottom of a 500ml PET bottle.
I'm reckoning 2 weeks in the cellar and then a week at room temperature to finish off.

Should be about 4.5%, 27 ibu and srm of 6

 

[Nicks90]

Bang on target

 

[matt76]

AG number 39

Lockdown Lager
Its been ages since i did a lager and i specifically ordered some lager type hops in my last delivery from the HBC to do this brew. its going to be a 'faux lager' as i dont have temperature control as such, so it will be what it will be.

3kg Irish malt
200gm caramalt

18l mash at 64c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
30 g Hallertauer Tradition 60 min
20 g Hallertauer Tradition 15 min
20 g Hallertauer Tradition whirlpool

Yeast, reusing half the trub of notty from my previous IPA SMASH.
As its going to be brewed in my cellar, its stays at a steady 15C and i want a decent 'starter' to get it going. Previous experience with notty is that it will brew quite happily at those temps, but it needs a bloody good dose to get started. Rather than wasting 2 new packs of notty, i may as well re-use some washed yeast from a previous brew and really give it a big hit at the start.
My washing process was simple, gather half the trub and pour in to a 1l flask. add cooled boiled water and swirl it about and let it settle. Poured off all the yeast layer leaving behind the darker trub and then ended up with approx 3" of creamy white yeast in the bottom of a 500ml PET bottle.
I'm reckoning 2 weeks in the cellar and then a week at room temperature to finish off.

Should be about 4.5%, 27 ibu and srm of 6

FWIW @Nicks90 you don't need sophisticated temperature control to make a lager (I don't have any either);

Agreed, you can use a neutral ale yeast - done that with good results.

Some lager yeasts (WY2124 aka W-34/70; also some Cali Common ones) are good up to about 20degC. I've used these in the cool of the garage in winter, and even in late summer with FV sat in a crate of water swapping ice blocks now and then to keep the temp down to about 18degC. I think your cellar at 15degC would be perfect - keep the FV there for a week then room temp for another week to finish off and let the yeast clean up.

More recently though I realised my beer fridge will do the job - if I clear out a few shelves I can fit an FV in there. Then I just set the cooling knob to minimum (i.e. warmest temps) which will hold it around 8-10degC or so which works fine for most lager yeasts. A week in the fridge followed by a week at room temp for the diacetyl rest. Then back into the fridge on the coldest seeing to cold crash for a few days. Crude but it seems to work fine.

 

[Nicks90]

@matt76
I've used room temp lager yeasts before , mangrove Jack M54 California lager yeast with Pacifica hops back in AG19. It was ok and worked a charm in terms of clarity and speed to brew.
But I don't think it gave anything that notty yeast can't replicate when brewed at lower temps.

 

[Nicks90]

Slightly unusual brew day today, as it's not an AG but instead the mangrove jacks brut IPA kit I won on the other thread giveaways!

Couple of points immediately spring to mind
Whilst I could feel the hop pellets in the main package, I couldn't see how to get them out! It was only when I cut the top off the package that I found the yeast, hops and instructions in a little 'dry pocket' in the main pouch.
Unfortunately I didn't see anything on the front of the pack to say this and I had cut about an inch down from the top. This meant that some lme spilt in to the dry pounch part and made a mess.
No harm done as the dry hops where transferred to a food bag and the yeast got dumped in the brew straight away - but I think this needs a redesign...

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 39

Lockdown Lager
Its been two weeks since this went on, so its time to bring this up to room temp to finish off for 5 days before bottling.

 

[Nicks90]

Ag38 general purpose session bitter!
Not bad if I do say so myself!

 

[cushyno]

Ah, the Swiss Army knife of beers

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 40
BrewDog - IPA is dead
As I got a big pack of El Dorado hops in my last hbc order - decided to have a go at one of the BrewDog recipes.

3.5 Irish malt
300gm caramalt
50gm crystal 360ebc

18l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
5 g El Dorado 60 min
12.5 g El Dorado 30 min
35 g El Dorado 5 min
50 g El Dorado dry hop

Yeast, as usual I'm opting for Notty
I also question the colour numbers in their recipe, as when i punch all the numbers in to brewersfriend, its basically the same colour as a normal English bitter (30ebc) which seems mighty dark. So although I have basically left the same amount of dark crystal in the recipe as they have, the colour is coming out at 17 EBC. I've also decided not to try and hit Brewdogs others numbers either, as this is supposed to be a 6.7% and thats too strong for me. So its been adjusted slightly to give a more moderate 5% abv. However interestingly when i add basically the same hop volumes as they do, I get a much more sensible 35 IBUs and not the 70 IBU they do. Which I am ok with, as 70 IBU is face puckeringly bitter!

Anyone else notice big disparity in figures between Brewdogs published recipes and what they actually get in brewersfriend?


Edited to add: Didnt have BF config'd correctly. The last hop edition had 5% util at 80C programmed in, which is incorrect. Edited the recipe on BF to make it 30 gm El Dorado as a whirlpool edition at 80C at 5% util and now have an IBU of 55 - still very high for my usual tastes, but lower and more sensible than BrewDogs recipe. So decided to change the overall boil time to 45 mins, meaning 15 minutes less for both first and mid addition hops and this has reduced the IBU to 45, which is way more to my tastes.
Nothing like changing everything on the fly whilst the bloody thing is mid boil!!!

 

[Nicks90]

Mangrove jacks brut IPA bottling day.
It's been stable all week and been on the dry hop for over a week.
Disappointing that the FG finished at 1.010, as it's my understanding that this should have finished lower and hence much drier...but heyho...
Let's see what it's like in a few weeks

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 41
'Honey I'm Home' Bitter
Another day, another brew. This time i fancied a bit of a waggle dance type summer ale affair and experiment with some local honey. So time to get the classic combo of Pilgrims and challenger on to the case! Pilgrim should match the honey very well and challenger just cant be beaten as the quintisential english hop. I know proper waggledance uses fuggle and EKG, but I like pilgrim and whilst it will be a bit different, it's not meant to be a direct clone.

4kg Irish malt
100gm caramalt
100gm crystal 120ebc
100gm oats
300gm local honey

18l mash at 68c for an hour followed by a 5l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV


Hops
10 g Challenger 60 min
10 g Challenger 15 min
10 g Pilgrim 15 min
10 g Challegner 5 min
10 g Pilgrim 5 min
Honey added at 5 min as well

Yeast, as usual I'm opting for Notty - this time a fresh pack and not reclaimed, as the only reclaimed yeast i have is from ag40 - an el dorado hop bomb!
I am expecting this to need some significant back liquoring - as I think it will currently be 1.075 and 35IBU - and thats almost a wine! But i reckon diluting to 22l will give a sensible 5% and 25IBU and 7SRM
Will report back tomorrow once its cooled down.

 

[Nicks90]

Mangrove jacks brut IPA bottling day.
It's been stable all week and been on the dry hop for over a week.
Disappointing that the FG finished at 1.010, as it's my understanding that this should have finished lower and hence much drier...but heyho...
Let's see what it's like in a few weeks

Had a sneaky taste of the brut IPA. Hmmmmm not sure. Now I've never had a brut IPA before so I have no reference point. But it's very tango coloured and has a real citrus sour taste. Really in your face. Not face puckering, but can certainly see the correlation with a champagne style dryness. Not entirely sure I like it. Might grow on me over time. Let's see after another couple of weeks conditioning in the cellar.
I saved some of the trub in case I fancy having a go at my own all grain version. We'll see

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 41
'Honey I'm Home' Bitter

I am expecting this to need some significant back liquoring - as I think it will currently be 1.075 and 35IBU - and thats almost a wine! But i reckon diluting to 22l will give a sensible 5% and 25IBU and 7SRM
Will report back tomorrow once its cooled down

Turns out my efficiency was slightly off - always seems to be the case when I do a bigger grain bill - but hey ho...... Took a reading and had to dilute to 20 liters to get to target OG. I can live with that.

 

[SteveHatton]

Slightly unusual brew day today, as it's not an AG but instead the mangrove jacks brut IPA kit I won on the other thread giveaways!

Couple of points immediately spring to mind
Whilst I could feel the hop pellets in the main package, I couldn't see how to get them out! It was only when I cut the top off the package that I found the yeast, hops and instructions in a little 'dry pocket' in the main pouch.
Unfortunately I didn't see anything on the front of the pack to say this and I had cut about an inch down from the top. This meant that some lme spilt in to the dry pounch part and made a mess.
No harm done as the dry hops where transferred to a food bag and the yeast got dumped in the brew straight away - but I think this needs a redesign...

Hi mate.

Have you had any more of this yet to decide how you like it?

I put the same kit on last night but have modified the sugars. It calls for 600g lme but this was out of stock so recieved spray malt instead. I recieved 3 1kg packs so didn't want to waste the stuff and used 800g in this kit, and will use 1.2kg in another tomorrow. Only afterwards did I realise that I should have reduced this weight due to the fact its dry. Kit would have required 480g spraymalt so this is nearly doubled.

I feel like I need to buy another 30-50g mosaic so achieve the same IBU, but will I also need to add additional yeast to ensure all that sugar is converted?

And advice on adding that ow amore wait to see if fermentation stalls?

Any advice would be massively appreciated
Steve

 

[Nicks90]

Sorry Steve I don't know.
Not sure what yeast this kit uses so don't know how far it will go in terms of alcohol tolerance. It might still brew right out, in which case if you leave it as is, it'll be rather strong. Although looking at what extra you put in, should only equate to an extra 1% abv which would probably be ok.

I did have another one tonight, purely for scientific testing you see..,....and I am still really not sure.
Now the first time you have a proper gauze or sour, you're like 'wooooaaa', but then after a few sips it's like 'my god that's good' ( eg cantillon), but with this I'm reaching the end of my pint and still trying to suss it out.
Is it beer?
Is it champagne?
Is it citrus?
Is it sour?
It's just really none of the above but all of the above. Have to admit it's slightly intriguing

 

[cushyno]

Lovin' how you've put this @Nicks90 .
@dad_of_jon sent me a sour last year for winning one of his competitions and it still intrigues me so much. It was one of those horizon expansion moments when your whole world view changes. At first I was like 'What the feck is this?' and then it morphed into 'gimme more, it's a new experience'. It must be about 18 months later and I can still taste that sour. Mission accomplished DOJ.

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 42
SuperFly Stout
Another day, another brew. Stout it is then! Not done one in a while and fancied a nice heavy pint.

3kg Irish malt
200gm carafa111
200gm chocolate malt
200gm oats


18l mash at 68c for an hour followed by a 5l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV


Hops
10 g Challenger 60 min
10 g EKG 30 min
10 g Challenge 10 min
10 g EKG 10 min

Yeast - i'm reusing the yeast cake from the Honey I'm home bitter that i have just bottled
OG 1.052 and pitched at a slightly warmer than normal 22C
24 hours later and its at 1.010 - OMG never had something brew out that fast before!

 

[Nicks90]

Update on AG number 40 - BrewDog - IPA is dead
What a blinding pint of beer!!!! So juicy and tasty - really incredible pint and probably one of the top 5 brews i have ever done.

 

[Nicks90]

Crappi pic of my el Dorado IPA.
It's an absolute cracker and I've just realised I've drunk the vast majority of it already! Don't want those hop flavours to die out now, do we?