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Today I made my version of Yorkshire Terrier Bitter, not really full pedigree as I used Australian Compass Schooner base malt, might call it Blue Heeler Bitter.
Mash base and Gladiator malt for 60 minutes. At 77 C for 15 minutes add 250g of dark crystal.
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Cool and fill fermenter, windy day so covered with tea towels.

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Finished on target for volume, and aiming for 1,043 gravity, and nailed it

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Going to add 25g Challenger for dry hopping.
Blue Heeler is a great name!
 
Brew night just starting, hopefully should a simple enough brew day.
Brewing a Trappist Single for the 2nd time, I haven't really changed the the recipe apart from using golden syrup instead of table sugar

16l batch~ EST IBU 38 ~ EBC 8
OG- 1.047
FG - 1.005

Weyermann Barke Pilsner Malt~ 90%
Dingermans Biscuit Malt~4%
Golden syrup~6%

Magnum~ 60mins~ 21ibu-12g
Mittelfrueh ~15min~ 12 IBU-35g
Saaz~5 min~4 IBU-35g
Saaz- whirlpool ~ 15min- 30g

Mangrove Jack's M41
 
Yesterday I bottled a supermarket red grape and apple juice wine (wilko yeast) and poured another ltr of red grape juice and 1.5ltr apple juice onto the yeast cake.

I've since read (unlike the cider I have brewing doing the same)
That it isn't recommended to re use wine yeast cake 🤔🙁
Oh well,
Be interested to see how it turns out but will stick to using fresh yeast for now.

Interestingly the one I just bottled using wilko yeast and the other i have brewing with identical ingredients, apart from crossmyloof yeast, are different shades of red 🤔
 
This weekend I've done the latest incarnation of my 'house' bitter (very loosely based on TTLandlord). 2kg MO, 1kg Munich, 125g flaked barley, 35g chocolate 90min mash @67 then 20g styrian golding 25g EKG @40 min, 20g SG @10 min, 30g SG @0min. Preboil volume of ~22L so about 18L to fermenter. MJ M42 yeast. OG was 1040 so good for just sub 4%.

I've upped the late Styrian Golding, used 1kg of Munich instead of all MO & tried a different yeast. I should probably only make one change at a time but I'm not quite at minor refinements yet.
 
This one's a complete shot in the dark. I've been kicking 5Kg of out of date Brown Malt around for a number of years wondering what to do with it and have finally taken the plunge. Durden Park recipe 116 Original Porter. A SMaSH with Brown Malt and Fuggles. Mashing overnight at 60C with 0.75ml Amyloglucosidase 300 per target litre of wort. Fuggles to 42 IBUs. No idea if this is going to work, but nothing to lose. I'll stay in touch.
 
Got this one mashing right now, it's been too long since I brewed a tripel...
Vow of Silence
Belgian Tripel

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 20
Estimated OG: 1.079
Estimated FG: 1.011 (°P): 2.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 8.9 %
Colour (SRM): 5
Bitterness (IBU): 33

Grain Bill
----------------
5.500 kg Pilsner (82%)
0.120 kg Melanoidin (2%)
0.065 kg Acidulated Malt (1%)
1.000 kg Clear Candi Syrup (15%) - Boil Addition @ 15 Minutes

Hop Bill
----------------
30 g Magnum @ 60 Minutes
15 g Hallertau Mittelfruh @ 30 Minutes
15 g Hallertau Mittelfruh @ 5 Minutes

Misc Bill
----------------
3 g Crushed Coriander Seed @ 1 Minutes (Boil)

Notes
----------------
Mash:
63C for 20 Mins
66C for 20 Mins
69C for 20 Mins
77C for 10 Mins

Water:
90 calcium
10 alkalinity
80 sulphate
120 chloride

Fermented with Abbey Ale Yeast WLP530
Pitch at 19C and raise by 1C per day up to 24C
This has had 2 weeks now and gravity is at 1.011, so I'll ramp down the temp to 10C and leave to clear for another week before bottling. Tasting very promising out of the trial jar, a bit more yeast character than my dubbel from a slightly warmer fermentation, with a lovely spicy lemon flavour.
 
This one's a complete shot in the dark. I've been kicking 5Kg of out of date Brown Malt around for a number of years wondering what to do with it and have finally taken the plunge. Durden Park recipe 116 Original Porter. A SMaSH with Brown Malt and Fuggles. Mashing overnight at 60C with 0.75ml Amyloglucosidase 300 per target litre of wort. Fuggles to 42 IBUs. No idea if this is going to work, but nothing to lose. I'll stay in touch.
Running off the wort this morning- it's like treacle. Diluted a few drops so I can see through it and do an iodine test: conversion successful. I don't know if I needed to use so much enzyme, but the instructions recommend between 0.3 and 0.8 ml per litre of wort. Anyway, it'll all be denatured in the boil. Using hop pellets in a stove-top boil and, as I'd just made up an AIPA kit for a mate, whose hop bags haven't arrived yet, I suggested he cut the legs off a pair of tights (vacated tights, I should add) I thought I'd do the same. A quick boil to get any filler or free chemicals out of them reveals that the cheapest lot are scented and the colour runs. A couple more boils and they're ready for use.
Edit 1700h:
Collected 7 litres of wort instead of the 6.4 L that I reckoned 3 Kg of malt would yield. OG 1070 instead of 1081, so if I'd got less wort I'd have still missed the target OG by 4 degrees or so. Not bothered in the least- the intensity of flavour means I wouldn't want it any more concentrated. The acridity of the unboiled wort seems to have mellowed a good deal and I think we might end up with something drinkable.
If not, I can always creosote the fence with it.
 
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After enjoying their Razorback trying the Festival Summer Glory golden ale, now sitting in the fridge.

Earlier in week I bottled Young's European Pilsener brewed with MJ M84 and barreled MJ American IPA now conditioning but carbed already though a little hazy.
Will be tucking into these over Xmas :beer1:
 
Got three brews done on the weekend, two geterbrewed ag kits, Oatmeal Stout and Irish Stout and a random mild, learning on the fly with how much boil off to allow for and how much to sparge etc led to varying outcomes.

The first, Oatmeal didn't boil off as much as expected so ended up with too much wort and a lower OG by 5 points

The second was the unknown mild, which I assumes was going to be a session beer, but with a high OG could well be a feisty little number.

The third Irish, after some discussions with my mate Clive, I was going for a longer mash in and better calculated my volumes for sparging etc and a slightly longer boil ending up a few points up on the OG, so it will be interesting to see where they all end up.
 
Got three brews done on the weekend, two geterbrewed ag kits, Oatmeal Stout and Irish Stout and a random mild, learning on the fly with how much boil off to allow for and how much to sparge etc led to varying outcomes.

The first, Oatmeal didn't boil off as much as expected so ended up with too much wort and a lower OG by 5 points

The second was the unknown mild, which I assumes was going to be a session beer, but with a high OG could well be a feisty little number.

The third Irish, after some discussions with my mate Clive, I was going for a longer mash in and better calculated my volumes for sparging etc and a slightly longer boil ending up a few points up on the OG, so it will be interesting to see where they all end up.
I always aim to brew a couple of litres short and then liquor back to my target OG. It doesn't always work out (see above) but that's the plan.
 
If you do that post boil, do you use boiled and cooled water?
Yes. If it's only a litre and a half or less, I'll use a fresh bottle of mineral water. (the bottles contain 1.5 L) and I'll do it before pitching the yeast. So I'm working on the premis that the target OG is more important than the batch volume, but if the OG is 1 or 2 points either side, I'm not that bothered. Trying to control the FG is a bit more difficult, my brews invariably attenuate more than the recipes suggest they should anyway as I tend to do long mashes to fit in with the rest of my day.
 
Yes. If it's only a litre and a half or less, I'll use a fresh bottle of mineral water. (the bottles contain 1.5 L) and I'll do it before pitching the yeast. So I'm working on the premis that the target OG is more important than the batch volume, but if the OG is 1 or 2 points either side, I'm not that bothered. Trying to control the FG is a bit more difficult, my brews invariably attenuate more than the recipes suggest they should anyway as I tend to do long mashes to fit in with the rest of my day.

Great idea thank you.

My mate Clive said he cant use kits as his mash efficiency is so high with longer mashes he calculates his own grain bill, I did a far longer mash and boil with the Irish stout which is still fermenting, it came out three points over, but I didn't liquor back, so I assume it will be a bit stronger than it should finish, would that also add an extra harshness to the taste?

Two of the beers have fermented out in two days, left them al one for another couple of days but both down to 1010 after blowing out through the airlock and one blew part of the lid off!

The Oatmeal stout I over sparged has come out at 3.15% and not a lot of taste and the Mild is 4.75% and has a nice rounded taste with some character.
 
Just heating up the strike water to try an overnight mash for the first time... Hoping that with a shorter boil and no chill I can make it a super easy brew day tomorrow morning.
 
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Mash safely tucked up for the night athumb.. Just hope my partner doesn't find out that her fleecy pyjamas are part of the insulation :laugh8:
 
So up early this morning and I was very pleased to see that the mash had only dropped from 69deg to 55deg over 11 hours.
IMG_20201212_072133.jpg

That was as good as it got though as the sparge was well and truly stuck, even my usual method of sticking a wire back up the open tap and through to the false bottom didn't work and after 20 minutes or so I got fed up and scooped it out with a jug and through a mesh filter.

Boil went well and all was looking up until I opened the tap on the kettle to transfer to the fermenter and that was stuck too! Second brew in a row this has happened aheadbutt So back to the jug method again. Then, right as the last bit of wort was going in, the mesh filter and colander I use to filter the trub fell into the fermenter, dumping all the gunk I had just filtered out back in! aheadbutt

Anyway I now have 19 litres of wort no-chilling out in the shed. I'm not too worried about the mishaps as I know wheats are quite forgiving - it will probably end up being the best one yet!
 
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