What did you brew today?

[BREWERS DROOP]

Afternoon brew day another nice ESB batch

 

[GerritT]

What sort of course is that?

5 Saturdays hands-on training from a brewmaster from a microbrewery. First day theory, second day brewing with dme, third day (4 weeks later) botteling, 4 day All Grain, 5th day tasting.
Ingredients provided by the brewer, hardware either your own or provided by the brewer (for a fee, �£25 for 2 buckets+thermometer+hydrometer+rack&tube)

 

[Slid]

I was not going to brew this weekend, but decided yesterday to do this Vanilla Bourbon Stout, as a 70cl bottle of JB Bourbon was on offer at �£13.

Once again, I had an issue with the hop filter on the GF. I had bought 35ml Jubilee clips from B&Q, and put on the end piece of the hop filter.

Just by way of variety, I managed to knock the whole thing off this week, although, with a tinge of irony, the silicon end piece stayed on beautifully.

So, out came the BIAB bag, and the PECO boiler used for heating the sparge water got redeployed as I bailed out the wort from the GF into the bag inside the boiler. Adds a lot of time to the brew day, but with the chance to squeeze the bag with the hops in it, it does not seem to kill brew-house efficiency. Got about 73% today, which if very good for me.

So 25.5L in the FV @ 1.065 from a 6.5kg grain bill and 500g of unrefined cane sugar.

The grain bill was not exactly (well, not at all, really) the same as Greg's, but the hops were Northern brewer and Progress, because they were opened & in the freezer.

Grain Bill:

Pale Malt 5000g
Brown Malt 613g
Wheat Malt 200g
Crystal 400g
Carafa 2 280g

Dark Brown Sugar unrefined 500g

Hops
Herkules 6g & Northern Brewer 26g @ 60m
Progress 25g @ 15m

Whole thing got much delayed by the counter-flow chiller getting blocked again, due to the filter having been knocked off completely. I was soooo careful as well. Used the Peco boiler and BIAB bag to filter out all the hops and trub and than bunged it all back in the GF to chill.

Other than that, the mash went poorly too, even with stopping it twice to re-stir it all up.

The Pale Malt was from HBC, maybe the crush on the grain was a bit fine?

Hard to blame anyone but me, really.

 

[MmmBeer]

I made an ESB clone yesterday. It was a bit of a cross between the recipes in Greg Hughes', Graham Wheeler's and James Morton's book, but hopefully it will come out nice.

Interestingly I read something in James Morton's book yesterday morning, which went against what I have been doing for my last few brews; it said 'don't make a starter with dried yeast.' For about a month I have been making a DME solution and putting half a pack of CML yeast in the night before I make my 10 L batches. In the end I mixed the other half pack with 200 ml of water at about 25 C, before starting and pitched with this several hours later.

Has anyone else done this? Does it really cause a problem? It's certainly easier to use plain water.

 

[alsch890]

Did the Big Basin Amber Ale from the Palmer book yesterday, more or less the exact all-grain recipe but I added 250g of Melanoidin malt and used US-05 Safale yeast.
So I am going to call it Great Basin instead. :-)

A pretty successful, no-dramas brew day, 18l in the FV.

I did realise once I got to work I forgot to put water in the airlock, doh. Will do it when I get home.

 

[BeerCat]

I have a Rye Kolsch on the go. Going to be hopping with whatever USA hops i can find in freezer to around 25%.

 

[pms67]

I made an ESB clone yesterday. It was a bit of a cross between the recipes in Greg Hughes', Graham Wheeler's and James Morton's book, but hopefully it will come out nice.

Interestingly I read something in James Morton's book yesterday morning, which went against what I have been doing for my last few brews; it said 'don't make a starter with dried yeast.' For about a month I have been making a DME solution and putting half a pack of CML yeast in the night before I make my 10 L batches. In the end I mixed the other half pack with 200 ml of water at about 25 C, before starting and pitched with this several hours later.

Has anyone else done this? Does it really cause a problem? It's certainly easier to use plain water.

What page is that on?

 

[MmmBeer]

What page is that on?

It's on page 100, about two thirds of the way down on the left. I wasn't sure if this was just the author's personal feeling, or it is a hard and fast rule.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Xmas 2018 brew on the go :smile:

500g ea. of rauchmalt,choc,dark crystal & roasted barley. 500g dark candi sugar & 450g golden syrup
2kg extra dark spraymalt 500g DWE & 500g extra light DME. bittering hop extract to be added after main fermentation :-)

just waiting for wort to cool to 28 so I can put the M47 rehydrated yeast in.

 

[Ajhutch]

Xmas 2018 brew on the go :smile:

500g ea. of rauchmalt,choc,dark crystal & roasted barley. 500g dark candi sugar & 450g golden syrup
2kg extra dark spraymalt 500g DWE & 500g extra light DME. bittering hop extract to be added after main fermentation :-)

just waiting for wort to cool to 28 so I can put the M47 rehydrated yeast in.

Let's see, 3kg of extract, 2kg of speciality malt and 950g of sugar. So that's a 10 litre batch for you right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Clint]

Devil's back bone ipa clone...
4 kg lager malt
700g maris otter (ran out of lager!)
400g carapils
400g torrified wheat
280g caramel crystal

30g cascade at start
15g Columb us and centennial last 15
30g simcoe flame out

Mash 65 1 hour

CML American ale

Mash on!

 

[Clint]

All done bar the clean up...got og 1050 was a litre short post boil....then topped up to 24!! I used a bag in the tun and squeezed it after the mash...got just over 69% bhe which is up around 3 points. Suggested og for the recipe was 1047 so not bad.

 

[Robsparky99]

Did a Coopers IPA last night with 1kg of Youngs brew enhancer. Used 2 x 7g coopers yeasts as I have a second can for a hybrid toucan.....

Used my new can opener, best £2.33 I've ever spent lol.

23 litres batch size
19.5C Pitch Temp
OG 1036 (ish bit bubbly and hard to read). I 'm finding 1kg of anything is about 1034-1036.
wizzed up the wort like no tomorrow and pitched both yeasts.

Nice quick and easy brew, checked it today and seems ok... will Citra dry hop it in about 10 days.

 

[MyQul]

Just finished up making a saaz cream ale using the second bag of posh corn flakes from H&B (buy one get one free/half price cant remember which) I bought several weeks ago and the last of my saaz which I didnt realize I had until I was looking for a different hop in the freezer

I made a starter from some notty trub from last brew to pitch tommorrow. I definately put too much slurry in the starter as I now have enough yeast to ferment about 200L -I only made a 15L brewlength :lol:

 

[MyQul]

I made an ESB clone yesterday. It was a bit of a cross between the recipes in Greg Hughes', Graham Wheeler's and James Morton's book, but hopefully it will come out nice.

Interestingly I read something in James Morton's book yesterday morning, which went against what I have been doing for my last few brews; it said 'don't make a starter with dried yeast.' For about a month I have been making a DME solution and putting half a pack of CML yeast in the night before I make my 10 L batches. In the end I mixed the other half pack with 200 ml of water at about 25 C, before starting and pitched with this several hours later.

Has anyone else done this? Does it really cause a problem? It's certainly easier to use plain water.

There's a difference between re-hydrating dried yeast (just putting it in some warm water) and making a starter. Supposedly you shouldnt make a starter with dried yeast as it come with all the nutrients it needs during the drying process. If you make a starter it uses up the nutrients. That's what I've read anyway, but I know loads of forumites have made starters using dried yeast, with no obviuous negative consequeces

 

[sdt7618]

Popped on a honey porter from St Peters, definitely smelled of honey when getting the malt out of the tins, like the little hoppy sachets it comes with. Used two lots of yeast as had one from another kit and am always worried I get a stuck brew. Og of 1.044 and a little short at 21l

Also put my first attempt at an extract into secondary, gave used all my own hops on this one. Now cold crashing for bottling tomorrow
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73516

Also moved my bad cat from bulldog into the cold for a few days to coldcrash before bottling. And sort d out my bottles, now have about 4 brews worth.happy days

Happy and productive brew day

 

[GerritT]

Choconut porter for the missus.

 

[JerryP]

Made a Foreign Export Stout today.

23 litre batch size, OG 1.073

6.275 kg Maris Otter
335g Black Malt
280g Crystal Malt
280g Pale Crystal Malt
224g Chocolate Malt

73.3g First Gold leaf 9.5% AA at 60 mins
15g Bramling Cross 6.3% AA at 30 mins

Using WLP013 London Ale made up in a 1.5 litre starter
Pitching at 18C, rising to 19C over first 24 hours

 

[Poochops]

Theakstons old peculier clone today, 90 min mash and 90 min boil. Didn't start till lunchtime that was one long arsed brewday!

 

[chthon]

Well, not today, but Friday evening I brewed a Westmalle clone, using a starter built from the dregs of a fresh bottle Westmalle. I have been growing it for two weeks. I was a little hesitant if there was enough, but the fermentation went off like a rocket.

Westmalle Yeast - Belgian Tripel (18C)
================================================================================
Batch Size  7,100 L             
Boil Size   10,110 L            
Boil Time   90,000 min          
Efficiency  80%                 
OG          1,074 sg            
FG          1,010 sg            
ABV         8,8%                
Bitterness  35,8 IBU (Tinseth)  
Color       5,5 ebc (Morey)     

Fermentables
================================================================================
Name                   Type   Amount     Mashed  Late  Yield  Color    
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel    Grain  1,740 kg   Yes     No    80%    2,5 ebc  
Corn Sugar (Dextrose)  Sugar  382,000 g  No      Yes   100%   0,0 ebc  
Total grain: 2,122 kg

Hops
================================================================================
Name           Alpha  Amount    Use         Time        Form    IBU   
Challenger     5,2%   11,300 g  First Wort  90,000 min  Pellet  19,1  
Fuggles        4,5%   15,000 g  Boil        20,000 min  Pellet  11,2  
Kent Goldings  3,5%   16,000 g  Boil        10,000 min  Pellet  5,6   

Yeasts
================================================================================
Name       Type  Form    Amount   Stage    
Westmalle  Ale   Liquid  0,00 mL  Primary  

Mash
================================================================================
Name                Type      Amount   Temp      Target    Time    
Conversion          Infusion  5,568 L  82,764 C  66,667 C  1 hr    
Final Batch Sparge  Infusion  6,189 L  89,307 C  77,000 C  15 min