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AG#21 AnAnk's Dark Malt Hefeweizen - Update

Still quite early? But wanted to test carbonation.

Been force carbing at 35ish for about 4 days. After a day it wasn't fizzy enough. I think it's quite nice now. Sort of soft and fluffy. Not at all harsh.

Flavour and aroma wise, a bit fruity. Not overly. May be a hint of banana. Little to no clove. Generally, quite refreshing.

Can't say too much more on it. I wasn't sure what the darker malts were bringing to the party. @An Ankoù - what are your thoughts? And how does it look colour-wise?

20211201_191045.jpg
 
Beer looks good and colour as expected. I found the darker kilned wheat malt much more full of flavour and richer than the pale, in some ways like Munich adds a depth to a beer, but rather more subtle. This is irrespective of whatever banana/clove additions you've got from the yeast.
Give it another week to come together, but I'd happily drink it now.
 
AG#22 Coffee Choc Stout - Update

This has been cool conditioning for three and a half weeks.

20220119_180710.jpg


It's a bit under carbed for my liking, but still keeps an amount of bubbles on top to the end.

No massive aroma.

Tastes great. Not surprisingly getting good coffee and chocolate. I'd still up the amount of coffee in this one. No gushers, which is what I got the first time I added a cold brew coffee.

Pretty happy with this one. It seems that the 'samey' background taste that I was struggling with has gone. I need to check through my notes as to what it might be.
 
Today's brew was a user upper brew and the ingredients I had lent itself to a Marzen / Oktoberfest so seeing as I'm a couple of months early, (and I also don't have a cave to lager it in) I'm going to call it:

AG#23 Januarzen - User Upper Brew
Brewfather: Link here
Märzen
6.2% / 13.7 °P
All Grain

BrewZilla 35L - 11LitreBatch
70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 12 L
Boil Time: 40 min
Mash Water: 17.46 L
Total Water: 17.46 L
Boil Volume: 15.21 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1050

Vitals
Original Gravity: 1056
Final Gravity: 1009
IBU (Tinseth): 19
BU/GU: 0.34
Colour: 31 EBC

Mash
Temperature — 65 °C720 min

Malts (3.18 kg)
1.42 kg (44.7%) — Crisp Dark Munich Malt — Grain — 44 EBC
900 g (28.3%) — Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner — Grain — 4 EBC
500 g (15.7%) — Weyermann Dark Wheat Malt — Grain — 13.8 EBC
360 g (11.3%) — Simpsons Aromatic Malt — Grain — 60 EBC

Hops (28 g)
8 g (13 IBU) — Northern Brewer 9.5% — Boil — 40 min
12 g
(3 IBU) — Hersbrucker 2.75% — Boil — 15 min
8 g
(3 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Boil — 15 min

Miscs
5.5 ml — CRS/AMS — Mash
1 g
— Canning Salt (NaCl) — Mash
1 items
— Protafloc — Boil15 min
2 g
— Yeast Nutrients — Boil10 min

Yeast
60 billion cells — Fermentis W-34/70 Saflager Lager 83%
2.1 L starter
206 g DME / 252 g LME
100 billion cells overbuild: 0.6 L (29%)
Pitch Amount: 1.5 L
348
billion yeast cells
1.54 million cells / ml / °P

Fermentation
Primary — 16 °C14 days

Notes / thoughts / musings

Ingredients
- A couple of you suggested ditching the brown sugar that I was originally going to put in this one. It turns out that I had more grain than my electronic inventory thought I had, so I was easily able to use the grain up and get more bang for my buck without the need for sugar. I think I was also able to increase my batch by half a litre or so.

Mashing - I'm trying to speed up my brewdays, or split them so that it doesn't take up the whole day. I read another thread on here that talks about overnight mashing, which I have not done before. So on Friday evening I started off a standard, single infusion mash off at 66c ish degrees, and when it finished, I wrapped the 'Zilla up in a sleeping bag and set it to 50-odd degrees c overnight.

Next morning I attempted to get the boil done, but it wasn't ready before I had to pop out, so it got up to 97c and by the time I got back had dropped to 76c. Standard boil then with boil additions and completed mid-morning. When I pumped the numbers in to Brewfather it was giving me an 82% BHE (up from <70%) with 1.5 litres more into the FV and an expected ABV of 6.3% up for 6.2%, so an interesting experiment. Let's hope it tastes ok.

Yeast - I overbuilt, what was supposed to be, 150bn cells when I brewed my Peroni Gran Riserva clone back in October. After three months in the fridge, I ended up with about 20ml of compacted yeast slurry. Multiply this by the 3bn/ml that I've found cited on a couple of sites (which of course may be way off) and that's 60bn cells to pitch in a starter. Using Brewfather yeast calculator and accounting for another 100bn overbuild, I pitched the original 60ml into a 2.2L starter for a couple of days (it's actually still spinning but should be good to pitch tomorrow) I did have a sulphury smell but further research leads me to believe that this is nothing out of the ordinary, and moreso for lager yeasts. Every day is a school day.

And on the yeast starter front, I was wondering whether I should cold crash and decant off the starter or just pitch it complete. Well, Brulosophy to the rescue. It would appear that, on that evidence, just pitching the whole thing is not detectable. So I'm going to do that as it seems I dont need to cold crash and I will end up with even more beer! Result!

Edit: I'm also seeing reports on Brulosophy that W34/70 works well at ale temps, so I'm going to run this at 17c

Cheers
 
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AG#23 Januarzen - Update

Two weeks in the keg and I could not wait any longer. Just a tester / taster . . . But that ended up being a couple of glasses!

I have no experience of a Marzen. I just happened to have ingredients that sorta matched a Marzen. Ish.

20220220_175218.jpg


Nice dark amber to brown. Off white foam. Pretty clear considering only a couple of weeks sat in the keg.

A sort of malty aroma, but not really sure whether bready or God knows what.

Tastes a little sweet (not a bad thing in my book), but this could be what might be described as 'malty'. Frankly no idea. Then there is a floral taste which I can't quite describe. I think it's quite a clean brew.

Could probably do with another one to compare to. And I'm sure it will improve as time goes on. Pretty happy with this one considering there were a couple of things I hadn't tried before.
 
It's been far too long again..... my latest brew is from the Graham Wheeler BYOBRA book.

AG#23 Gales Festival Mild
Dark Mild
All Grain
No sparge

70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 18 L
Boil Time: 45 min
Mash Water: 22.89 L
Total Water: 22.89 L
Boil Volume: 20.63 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1038
12ml CRS and 2g CaCl

Vitals
4.7% ABV
Original Gravity: 1046
Final Gravity: 1010
IBU (Tinseth): 22
BU/GU: 0.47
Colour: 48.5 EBC

Mash
Temperature — 67 °C45 min

Malts (3.43 kg)
3 kg (82.6%) — Warminster Maris Otter — Grain — 6 EBC
200 g (5.5%) — Muntons Black Malt — Grain — 1035 EBC
130 g (3.6%) — Simpsons Crystal Medium — Grain — 179 EBC
100 g (2.8%) — Thomas Fawcett Wheat Torrified — Grain — 3.9 EBC

Other (200 g)
200 g (5.5%) — Brown Sugar, Light — Sugar — 15.8 EBC

Hops (45 g)
35 g (21 IBU) — Fuggles 4.2% — Boil — 45 min
10 g
(1 IBU) — Fuggles 4.2% — Aroma — 10 min hopstand
Hopstand at 80 °C

Miscs
0.5 items — Protafloc — Boil15 min
2 g
— Yeast Nutrients — Boil15 min

Yeast
CML Hog Norsk (top cropped from a stout brew in Dec 2021)
150 billion cells — 75%

Fermentation
Primary — 19 °C14 days

Notes:

I again did an overnight mash. just under an hour 67°C and then 12-ish hours overnight at 55°C lagged with a sleeping bag.
BHE came in at 75%. So it does look like efficiency improves as a result of overnight mashing. OG ened up being 1052 so six points higher than planned, plus about a litre more in to FV.

Yeast was top cropped from a prev. stout brew three months ago. That was a really good ferment and there was loads of yeast to harvest.

I pitched 3-5 good teaspoons into a 1.2 litre starter. It eventually started to show signs of life on the stir plate after ~40 hours and I plan to eventually pitch after what will be about 44-48 hours.

EDIT: Bugger - just realised I forgot to add SMB / campden.
 
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Right quick update

I've not been brewing for a while as I have been hurtling myself towards a great lump of rock whilst the weather has been nice.

To get something on, I thought I'd try a kit brew, so I got a Tom Caxton's Best Bitter from Wilko.

I brewed short because I only had a 15l FV. I used a full pack of Lallemand Voss kveik because the weather was so warm and I didn't want to use too much leccy in cooling the brew. It ended up fermenting about 28-25c which is at the bottom if its range . Fermentation was vigorous and I manged to top crop a load of lovely creamy yeasties for next time.

I racked off to keg at the weekend and burst carbed it. I had a taste on Monday and it's a bit meh. Tastes a bit like homebrew. Its still very early days and I am sure it will improve with age.

Oh - the other thing I did was liquored back into the keg. I wasn't sure if this would work - but I think it does. My notes tell me I started with 13 litres of 7.2% strength and added 2.6 litres of cooled, boiled water giving 15.6 litres of 6% strength.

Edit: The other thing I noticed as that there wasn't much trub in the bottom of the FV. It actually looked like a thin (less than ~0.7 litre) and compacted layer of creamy yeast. Having not done that many kits, I dont know whether this is something to do with the kveik yeast, or a characteristic of kit brews. If anyone reads this I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
 
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And a bit like waiting for bus - two come at once.

So having kegged my kit, I also brewed my next AG brew

Me and my neighbour both love Belgian brews, so he said he'd like to help me with a Leffe Blonde. Except he slept in and I was pretty much done by the time he came around! Never mind.

Standard, no dramas brewday I think.... Mash was a little high at 67-68c for the first 20mins. I ended up with a bit more than I had planned at about 22 llitres into FV. It took a while to naturally cool, so I pitched the hydrated CML Monk the next day.

I give you - and with thanks to @Cheshire Cat for his recipe of - Leffe Blonde Clone

AG #25 Leffe Blonde

Belgian Blond Ale
6.3% / 15.6 °P
All Grain

BrewZilla 35L - 20LitreBatch

70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 20 L
Boil Time: 40 min
Mash Water: 26.58 L
Top-Up Water: 0.61 L
Total Water: 27.19 L
(18.5% diluted with 5.03 L Caledonian Water)
Boil Volume: 23.54 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1052

Vitals

Original Gravity: 1064
Final Gravity: 1016
IBU (Tinseth): 21
BU/GU: 0.34
Colour: 12.4 EBC

Mash

Temperature — 66 °C60 min

Malts (5.1 kg)

4.1 kg (73.2%) — Crisp Europils Malt — Grain — 3.4 EBC
450 g (8%) — Crisp Flaked Torrefied Maize — Grain — 0.5 EBC
370 g (6.6%) — Munich Malt — Grain — 17.7 EBC
180 g (3.2%) — Weyermann Melanoidin — Grain — 59 EBC

Other (500 g)

410 g (7.3%) — Lyle's Golden Syrup — Liquid Extract — 0 EBC
90 g (1.6%) — Brown Sugar, Dark — Sugar — 98.5 EBC

Hops (47.2 g)

27.2 g (19 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — First Wort
10 g (2 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Boil — 15 min
10 g
(1 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Aroma — 15 min hopstand

Hopstand at 80 °C

Miscs

16.5 ml — CRS/AMS — Mash
0.8 g
— Canning Salt (NaCl) — Mash
0.22 g
— Sodium Metabisulfite (Na2S2O5) — Mash
1 items
— Protafloc — Boil15 min

Yeast

1 pkg — CML Monk 69%

Fermentation

Primary — 19 °C14 days
 
And a bit like waiting for bus - two come at once.

So having kegged my kit, I also brewed my next AG brew

Me and my neighbour both love Belgian brews, so he said he'd like to help me with a Leffe Blonde. Except he slept in and I was pretty much done by the time he came around! Never mind.

Standard, no dramas brewday I think.... Mash was a little high at 67-68c for the first 20mins. I ended up with a bit more than I had planned at about 22 llitres into FV. It took a while to naturally cool, so I pitched the hydrated CML Monk the next day.

I give you - and with thanks to @Cheshire Cat for his recipe of - Leffe Blonde Clone

AG #25 Leffe Blonde

Belgian Blond Ale
6.3% / 15.6 °P
All Grain

BrewZilla 35L - 20LitreBatch

70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 20 L
Boil Time: 40 min
Mash Water: 26.58 L
Top-Up Water: 0.61 L
Total Water: 27.19 L
(18.5% diluted with 5.03 L Caledonian Water)
Boil Volume: 23.54 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1052

Vitals

Original Gravity: 1064
Final Gravity: 1016
IBU (Tinseth): 21
BU/GU: 0.34
Colour: 12.4 EBC

Mash

Temperature — 66 °C60 min

Malts (5.1 kg)

4.1 kg (73.2%) — Crisp Europils Malt — Grain — 3.4 EBC
450 g (8%) — Crisp Flaked Torrefied Maize — Grain — 0.5 EBC
370 g (6.6%) — Munich Malt — Grain — 17.7 EBC
180 g (3.2%) — Weyermann Melanoidin — Grain — 59 EBC

Other (500 g)

410 g (7.3%) — Lyle's Golden Syrup — Liquid Extract — 0 EBC
90 g (1.6%) — Brown Sugar, Dark — Sugar — 98.5 EBC

Hops (47.2 g)

27.2 g (19 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — First Wort
10 g (2 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Boil — 15 min
10 g
(1 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Aroma — 15 min hopstand

Hopstand at 80 °C

Miscs

16.5 ml — CRS/AMS — Mash
0.8 g
— Canning Salt (NaCl) — Mash
0.22 g
— Sodium Metabisulfite (Na2S2O5) — Mash
1 items
— Protafloc — Boil15 min

Yeast

1 pkg — CML Monk 69%

Fermentation

Primary — 19 °C14 days
Looks a good recipe look forward to the updates, do you jump at Hinton by any chance?
 
I did / have. I pretty much started my first couple of years at Hinton (in fact I popped in there yesterday morning) Then a few more years at Weston. Most recently been jumping at Langar, Notts.
very brave! my wife and daughters all did a tandem jump on the same flight, the biggest girl in the family was holding their coats gazing up in awe lol.
 
very brave! my wife and daughters all did a tandem jump on the same flight, the biggest girl in the family was holding their coats gazing up in awe lol.
Not brave. It's all a mixture of risk / reward / calculated risks / training / equipment / awareness / skill

It does feel quite a strange thing to think about flinging yourself out of a plane 2 miles above the earth, but no more strange than any other sport / pastime / hobby, like hitting a ball towards a hole and chasing after it yourself.
 
AG #25 Leffe Blonde
Belgian Blond Ale
<snip>
AG #25 - Leffe Blonde - Update

I kegged this only last week and had to have a try on Monday.

It's still a bit cloudy out of the keg, but I expect it to clear given time. The bottled ones are already pretty clear, but still need some time to carb and condition so I've not touched those.

Certainly has that Belgian-y smell and taste to it. No harsh / off flavours that I can discern and no fusels, especially as it's 7%

Pretty happy with this, given that it's quite young. No doubt there will be an opportunity to try side by side with the real thing, but nevertheless, it's a pretty good brew.
 
AG#26 - The imaginatively titled Made Up Stout

Made Up Stout

Oatmeal Stout
6.6% / 15.5 °P
All Grain

BrewZilla 35L - 17LitreBatch

70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 17 L
Boil Time: 40 min
Mash Water: 24.21 L
Total Water: 24.21 L
Boil Volume: 20.42 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1058

Vitals

Original Gravity: 1063
Final Gravity: 1013
IBU (Tinseth): 38
BU/GU: 0.60
Colour: 84 EBC

Mash

Temperature — 67 °C45 min

Malts (5.12 kg)

1.5 kg (29.3%) — Crisp Vienna Malt — Grain — 7.8 EBC
1 kg (19.5%) — Munich Malt — Grain — 17.7 EBC
900 g (17.6%) — Crisp Europils Malt — Grain — 3.4 EBC
870 g (17%) — Simpsons Crystal Medium — Grain — 179 EBC
320 g (6.3%) — Weyermann Melanoidin — Grain — 59 EBC
250 g (4.9%) — Crisp Chocolate Malt — Grain — 1045 EBC
200 g (3.9%) — Oats, Flaked — Grain — 2 EBC
80 g (1.6%) — Crisp Roasted Barley — Grain — 1200 EBC

Hops (60 g)

20 g (24 IBU) — Northern Brewer 9.5% — First Wort
20 g (8 IBU) — Celeia 4.2% — Boil — 30 min
20 g
(6 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — Boil — 10 min

Miscs

0.5 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
0.3 tsp
— Campden Tablets — Mash
1 items
— Protafloc — Boil15 min
160 g
— Cacao Nibs — Primary

Yeast

0.5 pkg — Mangrove Jack's M84 Bohemian Lager Yeast 69%
50 ml — Lallemand (LalBrew) Voss Kveik 80%

Fermentation

Primary — 19 °C14 days

Brewed this a week and a bit ago on Saturday. Nothing particularly ground breaking on brew day.... Just checking my notes.... Oh yes - There is.

First time cold steeping dark grains. Roast barley and choc (330g) in 2 litres cold (tap) water for 18-odd hours, and then poured ~1 litre steeped water (?) into the boil at about 10 mins.

I also did a Shaken not Stirred (SNS) yeast starter on the prior Friday, giving it a shake every time I passed the 5 litre container. Yeast was a top crop Lall Voss (originally dried) from a Tom Caxton kit bitter brew in mid Aug. I had about 15ml of compact yeast slurry (not trub) in ~1.1 litres of 1040 gravity starter. It seemed to have fully fermented out by the Sunday afternoon.

I also added an old half packet of dried rehydrated MJ Boho Lager yeast, just in case the Voss wasn't enough. And to use it up.

Full starter added to the FV. Fermentation started within 24 hours and I again top cropped the yeast about day 3.

I latterly roasted 16g of cacao nibs at 120c for 15-20 mins and added to the FV on day 7.

Then the fun started....

Either through my top cropping escapades, or adding an iSpindel or adding the nibs (or for some other reason) I seem to have introduced an infection.

I have now kegged this and its on CO2 to carb up. A quick smell and taste does not suggest anything bad, but it's a bit dry. Not tart, sour or vinegar-y.

So I will give it a while and see what turns out. Hopefully not a chuck-er.

Just about to blitz my FV and kit in Milton.
 

AG #27 Fuggy Helles

Munich Helles
5.0% / 12.2 °P
All Grain

70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 22 L
Boil Time: 80 min
Mash Water: 21.9 L
Sparge Water: 8.84 L
Total Water: 30.74 L
Boil Volume: 27.29 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1043

Vitals​

Original Gravity: 1049
Final Gravity: 1011
IBU (Tinseth): 21
BU/GU: 0.43
Colour: 11 EBC

Mash​

Temperature — 66 °C45 min

Malts (5.05 kg)

3 kg (59.4%) — Simpsons Pale Ale Golden Promise — Grain — 5 EBC
1 kg (19.8%) — Munich Malt — Grain — 17.7 EBC
500 g (9.9%) — Crisp Vienna Malt — Grain — 7.8 EBC
550 g (10.9%) — Crisp Flaked Torrefied Maize — Grain — 0.5 EBC

Hops (50 g)
32 g
(18 IBU) — Fuggles 4.2% — First Wort
10 g (2 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Boil — 15 min
8 g
(1 IBU) — Saaz 3.4% 3.4% — Boil — 7 min

Notes

Another "use what ya got" brew. It will be close enough. I see many helles using non pilsner malts, so I think this will be ok.

Temp started a little too high and was 68c for about 5 mins until it dropped and was then 66 for the remainder of the mash. I usually do smaller batches with no sparge, but this time decided to up the volume so had ~8 litre sparge with 58c water.

I decided to use the spent grain to make some starter wort. I dunked the bag in about 3.5 litres of water and let it soak for a while. Ended up with ~3 litres of 1028 wort which I then boiled and used the boil off calc to get to ~2 litres of 1040.

The reading up I did says to boil vigorously to get rid of pre-cursors to DMS and because of this I boiled off about 1.2 litres too much. When I tried the wort, it tasted a little too bitter. I hope it improves with the ferment and the lagering I've got planned.

Let this cool naturally overnight in the BZ and then rehydrated and pitched two packets of CML Hell this morning at about 10c
 
AG#27 Fuggy Helles - Update

I have not tried this. It is lagering at just above 1c and has been for the last four weeks.

I am a good boy (but it is killing me).

I need the ferm fridge back for the Old thumper, so this will go in the serving fridge at about 7c. I may try it out next week.
 

AG#28 - Old Thumper

Strong Bitter
5.3% / 12.7 °P
All Grain

BrewZilla 35L - 22LitreBatch

70% efficiency
Batch Volume: 22 L
Boil Time: 40 min
Mash Water: 22.28 L
Sparge Water: 6.98 L
Total Water: 29.26 L
Boil Volume: 25.63 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1048

Vitals

Original Gravity: 1052
Final Gravity: 1012
IBU (Tinseth): 31
BU/GU: 0.60
Colour: 30.5 EBC

Mash

Temperature — 66 °C40 min

Malts (5.175 kg)

4.5 kg (87%) — Maris Otter Pale Malt, Maris Otter — Grain — 4 EBC
300 g (5.8%) — Simpsons Crystal Medium — Grain — 179 EBC
285 g (5.5%) — Thomas Fawcett Wheat Torrified — Grain — 3.9 EBC
90 g (1.7%) — Crisp Chocolate Malt — Grain — 1045 EBC

Hops (50 g)

22 g (22 IBU) — Northern Brewer 9.5% — Boil — 40 min
10 g
(4 IBU) — Celeia 4.2% — Boil — 40 min
11 g
(4 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — Boil — 10 min
7 g
(1 IBU) — East Kent Goldings (EKG) 6% — Aroma — 60 min hopstand

Hopstand at 80 °C

Miscs

14 ml — CRS/AMS — Mash
1 items
— Protafloc — Boil15 min
5 g
— Yeast Nutrients — Boil15 min

Yeast

1 pkg — Mangrove Jack's M36 Liberty Bell 76.5%

Fermentation​

Primary — 19 °C14 days

Notes


Mashed for 40 mins at 66c but in reality, when I measured it, it was actually nearer 64c, so may end up a bit thin. I then did an overnight mash for 12 hours at 55c. Then mashed out at 75c early morning for sparge and boil. I think I had a stuck sparge. I may have had the recirc on too high and may have taken a lot of the wort from the deadspace under the false bottom. It was really slow and I had to stir it to get it moving again. I had amount of grain pass by the BIAB. Fortunately the false bottom caught most of this and I then used the pump to recirc through a hop sock to filter it out.

Brewhouse efficiency was really high, up at 80% which is the same as my previous experience with overnight mashes.

I also ended up with a little more wort than I had expected even though the boil off seems to have also gone up (3.75l/h)

First time adding hop stand hops. I added EKG for 20 mins once the wort had cooled to 80c. I don't chill, so wort will stay in the kettle overnight and I will pitch my yeast tomorrow morning, with any luck. I hope it's man enough for the 5.9% wort that I appear to have created.
 
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