What did you brew today?

[BeerCat]

Planned on doing a BIPA again but its raining cats and dogs so that out of the question. Bottled up a 10.7 Belgium Dark Ale yesterday. Wondering if its still fermenting as was quite fizzy in the bottle even after 5 weeks.

 

[JFB]

Planned on doing a BIPA again but its raining cats and dogs so that out of the question. Bottled up a 10.7 Belgium Dark Ale yesterday. Wondering if its still fermenting as was quite fizzy in the bottle even after 5 weeks.

Luckily I laid patio slate tiles in the conservatory so she can do mucky gardening and I can brew on rainy days:thumb:

 

[Jcdonnan]

Jus done a simcoe ipa from Brooklyn brewshop book, Belgian Pilsner malt, caravienne, biscuit and aromatic malts with just simcoe at different stages of boil. Everything went well but my mash temp control is terrible, lost 6c in 30 minutes so got it back to temp and mashed a bit longer. Waiting on it to cool now.

Just bought a cool box, gonna convert it this week to hopefully help with holding temp during mash.

 

[dad_of_jon]

something belgian with mj's belgian ale yeast 4.5kg of dme 500g dark candi sugar can of golden syrup and 1.5kg of grains

recipe to follow!

doing a seperate hop boil atm, mash has 30 mins to go. about to re-hydrate the yeast.

 

[dad_of_jon]

5 mins left of a 15 min boil, hope my frozen water will get the temp down as I want a quick ride on my bike before it gets dark!

 

[JapanBrew]

Last week re brewed my #15 (which I've brewed 3 times already) but only 7 liters.

Today, I brewed a ... A beer. 3.5 kg of Pilsner and 350 grams of cara-pils. Brewed 18 liters and hit everyone of my goals. Nice!!! In the end, I split it to 3 8 liter fermenters and pitched 3 different yeasts. S05, s04 and the 33. Hops I used cascade, 60 min, 8 min, and when the wort hit 80 degrees. But at the 8 min mark I put in 30% Fuggles. See what I get from that.
I got a 9 liter corny keg, those hefty duty looking ones, coming, going to put one of the batches and pressure carb it.
But I have to get my but going. Have 0 bottles of beer now! Have 4 FV going but still have 8 empty.

 

[JFB]

Accident at work involving a sharp knife, a cabbage, my fingernail and nail bed Means I have a few days spare:thumb:
So out with the propane.

Meantime porter clone, 23l BIAB with a dunc sparge then no chill.

3.047 pale ale malt
1.489 munich 1
.498 brown malt
.498 rauchmalt
.284 crystal malt
.284 terrified wheat
.139 chocolate malt
.069 black malt

Messed about with the hop additions to compensate for the no chill.
75 min boil

24.1 FWH fuggles
21.6 50 min fuggles
Irish moss 15 min
24.1 dry hop fuggles

No idea of targets as I didn't write them down.
Wilkos yeast to add tomorrow.

Also pithched yeast in to a raspberry wheat beer I had chilling. this hit 1058 when the target was 1050, I had added a bit extra larger and wheat malt. Going to bottle in 330ml bottles as raspberries are expensive so a higher abv should be cool.

 

[JapanBrew]

Jfb has caught on to secret of digits and brewing. You only need a few to brew!!!
Spray some star San on it and tell us your thoughts!
Hahaha

 

[Jcdonnan]

Coffee and donut stout from Brooklyn brew shop book done late last night. Everything went perfect except I forgot to add the oats to the mash, will do it with them next time to see if it makes a difference. First time ever my temps held fine for the hour mash! Recipe called for s-33 yeast, didn't get on well with that yeast the one time I used it before so we'll see how this goes.

It stalled last time and I just bottled so the beer is full of sediment, about an inch per bottle and they need opened very slowly or they just froth everywhere! Anything anyone recommends if this yeast stalls again?

 

[JapanBrew]

Ok. Where do we start!?
Oats.
They give a very creamy body. But hard as hell to mash. I believe they need a protein rest. Sensei above me, show me wrong.
Yeast. That's where 80% of the beer taste comes from. Got to make the yeast happy or they'll kick you in the face!
Gushers is a problem. 2 reasons for this.
1. Over priming. Key amount is 5 grams per lit.
2. Infection. Wild yeast, that is stronger than your s-33. Yeast rare territorial. Some strains you can mix. But wild strains are very big a holes. They don't play well with others.
Sanitize and steralize are not the same. Sanitize only kills bacteria. Wild yeast still grows. Steralize kills EVERYTHING. Boil or what I do, spray everything with 77% ethanol.

 

[sven945]

Jus done a simcoe ipa from Brooklyn brewshop book, Belgian Pilsner malt, caravienne, biscuit and aromatic malts with just simcoe at different stages of boil. Everything went well but my mash temp control is terrible, lost 6c in 30 minutes so got it back to temp and mashed a bit longer. Waiting on it to cool now.

Just bought a cool box, gonna convert it this week to hopefully help with holding temp during mash.

How much water are you using for mashing? Unless it's a tiny amount, losing 6ºC in half an hour seems odd. Do you mash outside? Do you stir the grains properly when they come into contact with the water, and then take the initial reading then? I mash about 16l of water in a steel pot wrapped loosely in a blanket and I tend to lose only one degree over an hour. If that.

 

[Slid]

Today I did the California Common recipe from GH's book, This is also called a Steam Beer.

Some variants were US 05 as the yeast, 500g each of Munich & Vienna, as I used the other 500g Vienna elsewhere, and added 10% to the grain bill as I brew to 25L in the FV.

Seemed to go well. 17th Grainfather effort since buying in March this year. I am a lot happier with it now than I was after the first 6 or 7!

 

[adajam4]

Seemed to go well. 17th Grainfather effort since buying in March this year. I am a lot happier with it now than I was after the first 6 or 7!

Would you say the GF is a must have?

 

[Jcdonnan]

How much water are you using for mashing? Unless it's a tiny amount, losing 6ºC in half an hour seems odd. Do you mash outside? Do you stir the grains properly when they come into contact with the water, and then take the initial reading then? I mash about 16l of water in a steel pot wrapped loosely in a blanket and I tend to lose only one degree over an hour. If that.

Only doing small batches so it's usually a 2.5l mash with a 4l sparge, temps were dropping a lot but I worked out if I put my cooker to the lowest setting it holds between 65c to 67c no prob, my last 2 brews temps and efficiencies have been good. Though the cool box has been modified as per guide on here ready for a bigger brew this weekend!

 

[Slid]

Would you say the GF is a must have?

No, not at all. A GF is a toy for those who think they can afford it.

I got the BIAB stuff from the HBC and would have been fine with that, except that I went around in circles a bit with the chiller, as I am not a DIY sort of a guy (SWMBO does that stuff).

The one beer I did make using the PECO boiler etc was excellent, although the efficiencies were such that I dropped a one can kit in as well.

I also got very good results from Partial mash brews - a 10-13L stove top AG brew plus a Coopers (or similar) kit.

So, no, the GF is by no means a "must have". Nor is any other expensive brewing toy.

 

[JFB]

Today I did the California Common recipe from GH's book, This is also called a Steam Beer.

Some variants were US 05 as the yeast, 500g each of Munich & Vienna, as I used the other 500g Vienna elsewhere, and added 10% to the grain bill as I brew to 25L in the FV.

Seemed to go well. 17th Grainfather effort since buying in March this year. I am a lot happier with it now than I was after the first 6 or 7!

Ive got that one on the to do list. I'm going to use the mangrove jack M54 Californian yeast and then hopefully reuse for a cream ale.

 

[Slid]

Ive got that one on the to do list. I'm going to use the mangrove jack M54 Californian yeast and then hopefully reuse for a cream ale.

I'm a big fan of re-using the slurry from a new pack of dry yeast. I use 250ml PET bottles (lemonade). If you can sacrifice 1L of not very promising looking green beer, you can easily get 6 starter bottles, stored under their favourite medium - green beer!

Yeast washing with boiled water is a similar approach, but I am pleased with the results using the last 1L of beer from the primary. This will store OK in the fridge for 2 or even 3 months, though obviously any risks of infection or yeast cell die-off are going to increase over time.

 

[JFB]

I'm a big fan of re-using the slurry from a new pack of dry yeast. I use 250ml PET bottles (lemonade). If you can sacrifice 1L of not very promising looking green beer, you can easily get 6 starter bottles, stored under their favourite medium - green beer!

Yeast washing with boiled water is a similar approach, but I am pleased with the results using the last 1L of beer from the primary. This will store OK in the fridge for 2 or even 3 months, though obviously any risks of infection or yeast cell die-off are going to increase over time.

do they need bringing back to life after being in the fridge? or do you just pitch straight from the bottle without doing anything special

 

[Slid]

do they need bringing back to life after being in the fridge? or do you just pitch straight from the bottle without doing anything special

Just bring the bottle out of the fridge to warm up for an hour or two, shake it up a bit before opening, to get most of the contents out, then chuck the bottle in the recycling after pitching.

Seems to work. Main focus is on sanitising the stuff that comes into contact with the slurry between the original and the final FV.

 

[JapanBrew]

do they need bringing back to life after being in the fridge? or do you just pitch straight from the bottle without doing anything special

I take mine out 2 days before. After 12 hours, they're at room temp. Then I start feeding them getting them ready. Like a starter.
As for washing, I used to until I read that Brulosophy article and also having a batch that was dead that I had washed a few months ago. The ones I left with beer on them, were fine.