What did you brew today?

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I brewed a pale ale last night/ this morning. I mashed 4kg of MO last night and steeped 250g of crystal this morning. Hopping was 35g of Target for bittering then nothing 'til flameout and cooled to 80C. I then whacked in 100g of Chinook pellets, cooled to 20C and added some GV12 yeast from my previous brew. 22.75l @ OG 1.050. Don't think I'll dry hop, it'll be quite tangy as it is.
 
I brewed for the first time in no the today. Making a porter for the first time too so was good fun.

I based the recipe on Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black (or the recipe I could find for it anyway) and swapped about the hops and malts a little.

Very smooth brewday..even finished in time to chill out for a bit before my Wif comes home too!
 

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Timothy Taylor Boltmaker; supreme champion beer of Britain in 2014. Wheeler recipe; was sad to hear he died recently. Although I tend to prefer Belgian styles, I can't pass up the supreme champion. Got to.

Volumes fully tied down, all steps. Have hit target pH right on the head on my last 3 brews; got that tied down now too. I cheated on the brewhouse efficiency, with 66% in my recipe, so oops, I overshot SG by 5 points. I'll probably start to be more honest with that in future recipes, maybe -2%, just in case. I actually hit 74% brewhouse, and 86% mash.

One other variable I'm just starting to get to grips with, is boil off rate. I boil outside and have been seeing anything between 13% to 26%. I now realise that this is linked to time of year, so almost certainly, ambient temperature. I now realise that to get to grips with this, I must record both boil off rate and ambient temp. Anyway, based on the records I do have, I guessed 14% today and actually hit 13.7%. Yes, very precise, but the point is, I got very close. So I hit exactly 23l in the fermenter.

Can you tell I'm a bit of an analyst?
 
Had a leftover box of Bulldog Cider. Replaced the yeast+sweetener with 2 sachets Lalvin 71b-1122, added a teaspoon of nutrient, lb of honey, lb of brown Belgian candy sugar. SG 1052
Already bubbling away after 1 hour....
 

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First brew of the year, double cans of brewferm abbey, with a can of golden syrup and 300 grams of sugar.

Hopefully once brewed and bottle will be able to keep my mits of till Christmas:beer6:
 
Lemon & Lime Saison today..
Mo, Pilsner, and flaked wheat base.
Lemon drop hops, lemon and lime peel, coriander seeds.
And first time using Crossmyloof Saison yeast.
 
Simply Pale Ale, 250g medium spray malt, 250g light brown sugar, 500g brewing sugar. Topped up to 22ltr with bottled water.
Probably my favourite kit this one.
 
Not brewing today...tomorrow or Saturday but got kegging and or bottling to do. JB dark ale finished at 1011,consistent for a week,and my two weeks fermenting gh Yorkshire bitter has gone to 1008 with the CML ale yeast. The JB tastes like liquorice and definitely needs conditioning whereas the gh Yorkshire bitter tastes great and will be good on carbonation. A definite comparison opportunity between kit and ag!
What next....?? If I can get both brews packaged it'll likely be another hoppy pale plus a dry stout....
 
Made something of a bitsa today, using up bitsa this and bitsa that. Basically it was an English IPA,but with a touch of American hops right at the end for citrus aroma.
It gave me the chance to test out the stockpot insulation I made out of a roll of radiator foil and my new infra-red thermometer. The insulation was great, only dropping from 68°C to 67.5°C in an hour. The thermometer was convenient to use, but perhaps slightly limited in its usefulness. I found that the reading compared with a probe style digital thermometer could be up to 2° lower and when approaching the boil, it could be further out, as all it can see is the foam, which is an insulator and about 15-20° cooler than the liquid below.
Even though I miscalculated the water quantities and ended up with 13 litres in the FV rather than 11, the OG was still 5 points higher than Brewers Friend predicted, at 1.055. Chilled to 19° and pitched a sachet of Wilko Gervin that had been rehydrated at 35°.
The only issue I had was when carrying the overfilled pot to connect up the chiller, I splashed some boiling wort onto my front, OUCH!
 
...............

Even though I miscalculated the water quantities and ended up with 13 litres in the FV rather than 11, the OG was still 5 points higher than Brewers Friend predicted, at 1.055. ...........

The only issue I had was when carrying the overfilled pot to connect up the chiller, I splashed some boiling wort onto my front, OUCH!

On BrewersFriend, I discovered that if I adjusted the efficiency it moved the SG to what I had achieved.

Okay, I know it's a "Doh! What else would you expect." moment, but I thought it was worth mentioning as I only found that gem of information a few weeks ago!

"OUCH!" indeed! Spilling wort over your foot is like nicking a jam tart straight out of the oven. It's hot, hot, hot!:gulp:
 
My brew day is also fraught with the possibility of spilling the hot wort as I carry the boiler across to the sink to attach the chiller. Not good! My remedy will be a trip to Wilko for a hose and some connectors which will be used to make some quick connect extensions so chilling can be done in situ on the stove top and the chilled wort dropped straight into the fv from there. Lifting the fv isn’t a bother..securing the hoses to the sink needs thinking about as does any drips from the connects should they occur..but anything is better than dropping that boiler!
Edit....hose and connectors purchased...
 
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On BrewersFriend, I discovered that if I adjusted the efficiency it moved the SG to what I had achieved.

Okay, I know it's a "Doh! What else would you expect." moment, but I thought it was worth mentioning as I only found that gem of information a few weeks ago!

"OUCH!" indeed! Spilling wort over your foot is like nicking a jam tart straight out of the oven. It's hot, hot, hot!:gulp:
No harm done, my jumper absorbed most of it. There was just a panic moment, when I thought 'how quickly can I put this pot down and take this jumper off?':mad1:
 
Hopefully this evening going to make a raw stout. Shouldn't take much longer than 2 1/2 hours if things go well. Last brew day was a disaster when i threw in the flameout hops at 15m. Then i a state of shock i threw in the 15m addition and chilled. Later i realised the protofloc had not had long enough to do its thing and i did not get a cold break. Would not of minded if it was not a lager. Its in a cube now. I think i might just add so pale ale yeast and loads of hops instead.
 
Cobbled together my pipes instead of lumping the boiler across the kitchen....cost about £12..extra 5 minutes to set up...no leaks and no bad back or horrific burns!
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Now you've said that I think I'll give their bitter kit a go, what did you add to it Larry?

Simply Yorshire Bitter
23L - 04/09/16 - 25/09/16
Mangrove Jacks Workhorse M10(hot weather yeast) 1tsp Yeast Nutrient - Made a starter
1Kg Muntons Brew Enhancer +65g honey.
30g Polaris hops 20m boil, tea and hop bag added to FV for full ferment.
OG:1054 - FG:1005 - 6.6%.

My tasting notes are: "This is a very nice dark brown ale, not clear" and then later added "Must do this again"

I have trouble clearing beers in the heat of summer as the shed never drops to a temperature that allows for it but my memory of this was that I was very sorry indeed to see it go.
 
EKG/Challenger bitter today

It was supposed to be a EKG bitter but when I was weighing out the hops I realized I didnt have enough EKG so I made the short fall up with Challenger. I also only realized that I had forgotten to change the attenuation on brewmate from 80% (from when I used CML Real Ale yeast for the last brew) to 75% for my Gales house yeast and then up the grain bill to compensate. So this beer will be about 3.5% instead of 3.8%
 
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