A list of all my brews so far...
Brew 29: Gingerbread Porter
Brew 28: Californian Steam Beer
Brew 27: Black Gold Dry Stout
Brew 26: Gobhoblin Best Bitter
Brew 25: Jimmy's Brown Ale
Brew 24: Dr Jim's Pale Ale
I needed to fill a keg, so brewed a Coopers Pale Ale clone, same recipe as before.
Recipe
Coopers Pale Ale v3
Australian Pale Ale
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 21.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.675
Total Hops (g): 23.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.045 (°P): 11.2
Final Gravity (FG): 1.007 (°P): 1.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.01 %
Colour (SRM): 5.0 (EBC): 9.8
Bitterness (IBU): 27.0 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 65
Boil Time (Minutes): 90
Grain Bill
----------------
4.400 kg Pale Malt (94.12%)
0.230 kg Barrett Burston Wheat Malt (4.92%)
0.045 kg Bairds Dark Crystal (0.96%)
Hop Bill
----------------
23.0 g Pride of Ringwood Pellet (8.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
4.0 g Brewbrite @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 63°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 16°C with WLP009 - Australian Ale
Australian Pale Ale
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 21.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.675
Total Hops (g): 23.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.045 (°P): 11.2
Final Gravity (FG): 1.007 (°P): 1.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.01 %
Colour (SRM): 5.0 (EBC): 9.8
Bitterness (IBU): 27.0 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 65
Boil Time (Minutes): 90
Grain Bill
----------------
4.400 kg Pale Malt (94.12%)
0.230 kg Barrett Burston Wheat Malt (4.92%)
0.045 kg Bairds Dark Crystal (0.96%)
Hop Bill
----------------
23.0 g Pride of Ringwood Pellet (8.8% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
4.0 g Brewbrite @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 63°C for 90 Minutes.
Fermented at 16°C with WLP009 - Australian Ale
Brew 23: Transatlantic Ale
Following my recent bout of infections I wanted to brew a simple hoppy APA. This used English yeast and American hops, hence Transatlantic Pale.
Recipe
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.150
Total Hops (g): 95.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.046 (°P): 11.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.52 %
Colour (SRM): 8.0 (EBC): 15.8
Bitterness (IBU): 27.6 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 63
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
----------------
4.770 kg Barrett Burston Ale Malt (92.62%)
0.170 kg Carabohemian (3.3%)
0.150 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light (2.91%)
0.060 kg Caraamber (1.17%)
Hop Bill
----------------
10.0 g Columbus Pellet (16.2% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
15.0 g Cascade Pellet (6.7% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
10.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.9% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
15.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.9% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
15.0 g Citra Pellet (11.9% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
15.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.9% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Keg Hop) (0.7 g/L)
15.0 g Citra Pellet (11.9% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Keg Hop) (0.7 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
4.0 g Brewbrite @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 68°C for 75 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with WLP005 - British Ale
Total Grain (kg): 5.150
Total Hops (g): 95.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.046 (°P): 11.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.52 %
Colour (SRM): 8.0 (EBC): 15.8
Bitterness (IBU): 27.6 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 63
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
----------------
4.770 kg Barrett Burston Ale Malt (92.62%)
0.170 kg Carabohemian (3.3%)
0.150 kg Dry Malt Extract - Light (2.91%)
0.060 kg Caraamber (1.17%)
Hop Bill
----------------
10.0 g Columbus Pellet (16.2% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
15.0 g Cascade Pellet (6.7% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
10.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.9% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
15.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.9% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
15.0 g Citra Pellet (11.9% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
15.0 g Centennial Pellet (10.9% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Keg Hop) (0.7 g/L)
15.0 g Citra Pellet (11.9% Alpha) @ 0 Days (Keg Hop) (0.7 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
4.0 g Brewbrite @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 68°C for 75 Minutes.
Fermented at 18°C with WLP005 - British Ale
Brew 22: "Boo-Hoo" BoPils
Mrs Dr Jim finished all the Sar M'gal, so it was time to brew another lager. This time a Bohemian Pilsner, which I knew was difficult to get right, but thought I'd try nonetheless, with a really simple grain bill.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Misc: Water additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: Total beer packaged: |
All-grain (BIAB) & No-chill
4.85kg Barrett Burston Galaxy Malt 150g Melanoidin Malt 15g Saaz (10.9 IBU) @ 60 mins 10g Saaz (4.0 IBU) @ 60 mins 40g Saaz (12.8 IBU) @ 40 mins 40g Saaz (7.1 IBU) @ 20 mins 4g Brewbrite @ Whirlpool 5.6g Calcium Sulphate; 1ml Phosphoric Acid in mash 67 C for 75 mins; mashout @ 75 C 90 mins Saflager S-189 (rehydrated) 23 litres 22 litres 12 C 11 C 1.048 1.048 1.012 1.012 4.7 % 34.8 9.4 20/1/2014 ??? 16/2/2014 1 keg, 9 stubbies. |
Method
Standard brew, had two separate 60 min additions as I had two different types of Saaz (with different %AA).
I followed the fermentation schedule as shown on the Tips page, with a diacetyl rest then gradual reduction in temperature. Kegged straight from fermenter, then added a teaspoon of gelatin to clear the beer further. Force carbed, then left to lager in the keg fridge.
I followed the fermentation schedule as shown on the Tips page, with a diacetyl rest then gradual reduction in temperature. Kegged straight from fermenter, then added a teaspoon of gelatin to clear the beer further. Force carbed, then left to lager in the keg fridge.
Tasting
5 weeks: Coming along nicely. Still needs longer to lager, but clean and clear at this stage. Some maltiness coming through, but not as much hop flavour as I had hoped. Again, perhaps too much hop bitterness (or maybe it's percieved bitterness due to some astringency).
Brew 21: Galaxy^2 Ale
This was based on Stone & Wood's Pacific Ale, which is a light hoppy ale - refreshing and perfect summer drinking.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Misc: Water additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: Total beer packaged: |
All-grain (BIAB) & No-chill
2.75kg Barrett Burston Galaxy Malt 1.6kg Barrett Burston Wheat Malt 225g Torrified Wheat 7.5g Galaxy (8.4 IBU) @ 30 mins 10.0g Galaxy (6.3 IBU) @ 15 mins 17.5g Galaxy (5.7 IBU) @ 5 mins 25g Galaxy @ Flameout 30g Galaxy @ Dry hop 4g Brewbrite @ Whirlpool 5.6g Calcium Sulphate; 1ml Phosphoric Acid in mash 66 C for 75 mins; mashout @ 75 C 60 mins Safale US-05 23 litres 22 litres 18 C 18 C 1.044 1.044 1.009 Not measured N/A 20.4 6.0 ??? ??? ??? 1 keg, 9 stubbies. |
Method
Nothing much different here. Another brew with a mini-boil for all hops 15mins and later. The beer was fermented over Christmas while we were away, so had about 5 weeks in the fermenter. Probably around two weeks of dry hopping (at ferment temperatures).
Tasting
Quite refreshing, but not as good as I had hoped. I think there was just too much contact time between the hops and the beer during dry hopping, and it ended up quite vegetal. Again, the hop bitterness was on the harsh side. Not sure if I'm extracting some astringency/tannins during sparging...will need to keep an eye on that.
The bottled beer was much smoother than the kegged beer, so I may try naturally carbonating kegs in the future.
The bottled beer was much smoother than the kegged beer, so I may try naturally carbonating kegs in the future.
Brew 20: Mosaic SMaSH IPA
My first attempt at a Single Malt, Single Hop beer, using Golden Promise malt and Mosaic hops. Also my first attempt at an IPA, which should end up around 6.5% and very hoppy.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Misc: Water additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: Total beer packaged: |
All-grain (BIAB) & No-chill
6.5kg Floor Malted Golden Promise 30g Mosaic (40.3 IBU) @ First wort 15g Mosaic (6.7 IBU) @ 15 mins 15g Mosaic (5.1 IBU) @ 10 mins 15g Mosaic (3.5 IBU) @ 5 mins 15g Mosaic @ Flameout 60g Mosaic @ Dry hop 4g Brewbrite @ 10 mins 0.4g Potassium Metabisulphate; 5.6g Calcium Sulphate; 1ml Phosphoric Acid in mash 67 C for 90 mins; mashout @ 75 C 60 mins Wyeast 1272 American Ale II (slurry from previous batch) 23 litres 22 litres 20 C 18 C 1.065 1.065 1.014 Not measured N/A 55.6 10.5 19/11/2013 23/11/2013 ??? ??? |
Method
Much the same as the Kiwi Pale - mini boil on pitching day with all of the late hops. Used 1272 slurry from the previous batch.
Tasting
Unfortunately this beer used yeast saved from the previous batch which, I later discovered, was probably infected. Not quite as bad as the Kiwi Pale, but another very turbid beer and something just not quite right. Again - just not enjoyable and no real hop aroma to speak of, despite the amount of late hops in the mini boil.
Will be taking this to a club night for others' opinions, but it may well be another tipper...
Will be taking this to a club night for others' opinions, but it may well be another tipper...
Brew 19: Kiwi Pale Ale
This is strictly speaking an APA, but using all Kiwi hops, so I'm calling it a Kiwi Pale Ale, or KPA. Also the first batch brewed using my new 36 litre pot, which is allowing me to do a full length brew.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Misc: Water additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: Total beer packaged: |
All-grain (BIAB) & No-chill
3.5kg Barrett Burston Ale Malt 1kg Vienna Malt 200g Medium Crystal 10g Nelson Sauvin (15.1 IBU) @ 60 mins 30g Cascade (7.4 IBU) @ 10 mins 30g B Saaz (8.1 IBU) @ 10 mins 20g Nelson Sauvin (8.4 IBU) @ 10 mins 30g B Saaz @ 0 mins 20g Nelson Sauvin @ 0 mins 1/2 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins 0.4g Potassium Metabisulphate; 3.1ml Phosphoric Acid; 5.6g Calcium Sulphate 67 C for 90 mins; mashout @ 72 C 60 mins Wyeast 1272 American Ale II 21 litres 21 litres 18 C 18 C 1.051 1.051 1.010 1.010 5.4% 39.1 15.1 5/11/2013 9/11/2013 23/11/2013 1 keg & 3 longnecks |
Method
Did all the late hops as a mini-boil on pitching day, using 4 litres of the cubed wort. As the cubes had been chilled to around 1C, when I added the mini-boil to the fermenter the pitching temperature was about right.
Cold crashed after 10 days, then kegged after another 4. Will condition warm in the keg for at least 3 weeks before carbing.
Cold crashed after 10 days, then kegged after another 4. Will condition warm in the keg for at least 3 weeks before carbing.
Tasting
Terrible beer. Turbid, sickly smell, no hop aroma or flavour to speak of. All things point to infection. Probably my lowest point as a brewer so far. I have known for a while that one of my 10 litre cubes wasn't quite airtight, so that may be the source. The other possibility is the reused 1272 yeast. Had to tip the keg - gutted.
Brew 18: "Unnamed" Blonde Ale
Found this recipe trawling the web for a light summer ale, and tweaked it a bit based on the hops I have in the freezer. Uses a Kolsch yeast, but not sure if it will be true to the Kolsch style.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Misc: Water additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Kegged on: Total beer packaged: |
All-grain (BIAB) & No-chill
1.9kg Barrett Burston Galaxy Malt 200g Wheat Malt 100g Caramalt 50g Carapils 5g Pride of Ringwood (9.2 IBU) @ 55 mins 4g Cascade (3.7 IBU) @ 25 mins 4g Cascade (1.9 IBU); 4g Columbus (4.6 IBU) @ 10 mins 4g Cascade (1.3 IBU) @ 5 mins 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins 0.2g Potassium Metabisulphate; 1.75ml Phosphoric Acid; 3.0g Calcium Sulphate 66 C for 75 mins; mashout @ 72 C 70 mins Wyeast 2565 Kolsch 2 x 11.5 litres 21 litres 16 C 16 C 1.043 1.045 1.009 1.008 4.9% 20.7 8.8 10/10/2013 & 23/10/2013 30/10/2013 15/11/2013 1 keg |
Method
First batch I seemed to be a little down on efficiency, but second batch I hit my numbers spot on. Had a full cube at 1.043 and could have squeezed a bit more in. Changed my sparging method slightly by pouring sparge water over the grain instead of just dunking. Was easier all round and seemed to get efficiency back up to 72%, which I was hitting pretty regularly previously.
Strange - at pitching I measured 1.045, so efficiency was better than I thought.
I cold crashed this after 10 days, then kegged after a further 5. Into the keg it didn't taste great, with noticeable acetaldehyde and a fair but of yeast still in suspension. I subsequently read that this yeast can take a long time to clear. I left for another week in the keg, then added 1g of Potassium Metabisulphate dissolved in a small amount of boiled water to remove the acetaldehyde.
Strange - at pitching I measured 1.045, so efficiency was better than I thought.
I cold crashed this after 10 days, then kegged after a further 5. Into the keg it didn't taste great, with noticeable acetaldehyde and a fair but of yeast still in suspension. I subsequently read that this yeast can take a long time to clear. I left for another week in the keg, then added 1g of Potassium Metabisulphate dissolved in a small amount of boiled water to remove the acetaldehyde.
Tasting
This was OK - but that's it. I think I overdid the hop bitterness - maybe should have adjusted for no-chill as it was such a light beer. Won't be in a hurry to brew this recipe again, and will try to keep an eye on bitterness in my lighter beers.
I subsequently found out that Galaxy malt is a super light malt aimed for the Asian market (can take a lot of adjuncts), and may not be the best choice tastewise.
I subsequently found out that Galaxy malt is a super light malt aimed for the Asian market (can take a lot of adjuncts), and may not be the best choice tastewise.
Brew 17: "Dummkopf" Dunkelweizen
Another German style wheat beer, using some of the yeast saved from the Hefeweizen I brewed back in April. This Dunkelweizen should be dark and malty, but refreshing.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Misc: Water additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: Total beer packaged: |
All-grain (BIAB) & No-chill
1.1 kg Dark Wheat Malt 370g Barrett Burston Wheat Malt 450g Munich II 450g Pilsner Malt 100g Carawheat 60g Chocolate Wheat Hallertau Hallertau 15g @ 60 mins (15.6 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins 0.2g Potassium Metabisulphate; 1.5ml Phosphoric Acid; 3.0g Calcium Sulphate 66 C for 75 mins; mashout @ 72 C 75 mins Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen stepped up from saved 2nd gen. slurry (approx 25 billion viable cells) to 500ml to 2l (only used 1.5l, approx 200 billion cells, the rest saved) 2 x 11.5 litres 20 litres 16 C 17 C 1.050 1.047 1.011 1.011 5.4 % 15.6 36.7 24/9/2013 & 29/9/2013 5/10/2013 29/10/2013 19.6 litres |
Method
Standard BIAB in the 19l pot, brewed on two separate nights.
Efficiency was way down on this one. I can only guess that it's due to the amount of wheat malt used (nearly 60% of the grain bill). Various sources suggest that wheat must be milled fine to get good efficiency, but this was just milled as normal at Beerbelly. Pre- and post-boil gravity readings were 3 to 5 points down on both batches. OG is looking to be between 1.045 and 1.047.
I measured the mash pH on the second batch, which seemed to be in the right range (5.5 at room temp at end of mash, so would have been lower at mash temps).
Bottled aiming for 4 vols CO2.
Efficiency was way down on this one. I can only guess that it's due to the amount of wheat malt used (nearly 60% of the grain bill). Various sources suggest that wheat must be milled fine to get good efficiency, but this was just milled as normal at Beerbelly. Pre- and post-boil gravity readings were 3 to 5 points down on both batches. OG is looking to be between 1.045 and 1.047.
I measured the mash pH on the second batch, which seemed to be in the right range (5.5 at room temp at end of mash, so would have been lower at mash temps).
Bottled aiming for 4 vols CO2.
Tasting
Drunk a few of these after a couple of weeks and was a bit disappointed. A lot of phenolic/astringency and very high carbonation. Kind of a medicinal taste. Found out that my fermentation temperature controller was reading a degree high, so this was fermented at 16C as opposed to 17C. Probably at the extreme lower end of the temperature range.
After another week it was much smoother and much less medicinal - I'm sure this will improve further.
Edit: If anything this got worse. Too phenolic/medicinal/clovey - any of those terms covers it really. Not enjoyable to drink and I doubt the rest will get drunk. Disappointing.
After another week it was much smoother and much less medicinal - I'm sure this will improve further.
Edit: If anything this got worse. Too phenolic/medicinal/clovey - any of those terms covers it really. Not enjoyable to drink and I doubt the rest will get drunk. Disappointing.
Brew 16: "Dr Jim's" Australian Pale Ale
As I was pretty disappointed with my last attempt at Coopers Pale Ale I decided to brew it again and give the recipe a slight tweak.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.9 kg Barrett Burston Pilsner Malt 100g Barrett Burston Wheat Malt 15g Bairds Dark Crystal Malt Pride of Ringwood 15g @ 60 mins (28 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins Ramp from 55 C to 64 C; mash for 75 mins; mashout @ 72 C 60 mins Recultured Coopers Pale Ale yeast stepped from saved slurry (approx 35 billion cells) to 500ml to 2l (only used 1.5l, approx 225 billion cells, the rest saved) 2 x 11.5 litres 22 litres 16 C 16.5 C 1.040 1.039 1.007 1.006 4.7 % 28.0 7.8 7/9/2013 & 15/9/2013 21/9/2013 4/10/2013 |
Method
This had full water adjustments: chloramine removal (0.2g of potassium metabisulphite), 2.8g of gypsum, and water acidification (1ml phosphoric acid in first brew, 1.5ml in second).
Differences from the first attempt at this were: changed base malt from ale to pilsner (wanted galaxy, but Beerbelly out of stock); reduced dark crystal from 20g to 15g; reduced ferment temp from 18 to 16.5; larger starter (1.5 litres stepped from 500ml); 60 min boil as opposed to 75 min boil; water adjustment as described above.
This took off like a rocket and was done in about three days. Tastings from the fermenter suggest that this is much closer to commercial Coopers Pale. Very pleased with the improvement.
Differences from the first attempt at this were: changed base malt from ale to pilsner (wanted galaxy, but Beerbelly out of stock); reduced dark crystal from 20g to 15g; reduced ferment temp from 18 to 16.5; larger starter (1.5 litres stepped from 500ml); 60 min boil as opposed to 75 min boil; water adjustment as described above.
This took off like a rocket and was done in about three days. Tastings from the fermenter suggest that this is much closer to commercial Coopers Pale. Very pleased with the improvement.
Tasting
Pretty happy with this. Close to the real thing in both colour and taste. Much more refreshing than my first attempt. Will aim to have some of this on hand at all times.
Brew 15: "Boddies" Ordinary Bitter
Trying to get as close as possible to Boddingtons bitter. Should be somewhere between the creamflow and the cask versions.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: IBU: EBC: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.7 kg Maris Otter malt 125g Carapils 60g Bairds Pale Crystal 15g Bairds Pale Chocolate 7.5 g Northern Brewer @ First-wort (20.2 IBU) 7.5 g East Kent Goldings @ 45 mins (11.1 IBU) 7.5 g East Kent Goldings @ Flameout 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins 75 mins @ 68 C; mashout @ 72 C 60 mins Wyeast 1318 'London Ale III' 2 x 11.5 litres 22 litres 17 C 17.5 C 1.037 1.037 1.010 1.009 3.8 % 18/8/2013 & 2/9/2013 4/9/2013 20/9/2013 31.3 13.3 |
Method
Yet another double batch BIAB in the Big W pot. New thing this time was the first-wort hopping, where I added the first lot of hops just after the sparge, before getting to the boil.
During the second brew I screwed up the hop additions, doing the EKG as first wort and 45 min and forgetting the Northern Brewer completely. Probably a sign I'm getting complacent, so a good reminder to pay attention to the recipe when brewing. Should still be fine, although a little lower on the IBUs.
I've started playing with water additions to remove chloramine, increase the calcium levels in the water and lower the mash pH. To 18 litres of cold strike water from the Puratap I add 0.2g of Potassium Metabisulphate to remove chloramine. I add 2.8g of Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) to increase the calcium content above 50ppm (which also helps lower the pH slightly.
I also bought some Phosphoric acid to reduce the water (and mash) pH. According to the Brunwater spreadsheet, 2ml should have been the right amount to reduce mash pH to 5.4, but when I added 2ml to the 18 litres, the water pH dropped to around 3.4. I was worried that might be too acidic, so tried again with 1ml of acid. This dropped the pH to around 5.6 (I think, didn't write it down), but measured mash pH was around 5.8 (which I don't trust). Next brew I will try again with 1ml of acid and test the mash pH again.
Bottled with 50g of dextrose in 160ml of water, to give 1.5 vols CO2. I haven't used such low priming amounts before, so am slightly nervous that this may turn out under-carbed, but apparently the style calls for 1.3 vols. I'm hoping the syring trick (successfully used with the stout) will replicate the creamflow effect.
During the second brew I screwed up the hop additions, doing the EKG as first wort and 45 min and forgetting the Northern Brewer completely. Probably a sign I'm getting complacent, so a good reminder to pay attention to the recipe when brewing. Should still be fine, although a little lower on the IBUs.
I've started playing with water additions to remove chloramine, increase the calcium levels in the water and lower the mash pH. To 18 litres of cold strike water from the Puratap I add 0.2g of Potassium Metabisulphate to remove chloramine. I add 2.8g of Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) to increase the calcium content above 50ppm (which also helps lower the pH slightly.
I also bought some Phosphoric acid to reduce the water (and mash) pH. According to the Brunwater spreadsheet, 2ml should have been the right amount to reduce mash pH to 5.4, but when I added 2ml to the 18 litres, the water pH dropped to around 3.4. I was worried that might be too acidic, so tried again with 1ml of acid. This dropped the pH to around 5.6 (I think, didn't write it down), but measured mash pH was around 5.8 (which I don't trust). Next brew I will try again with 1ml of acid and test the mash pH again.
Bottled with 50g of dextrose in 160ml of water, to give 1.5 vols CO2. I haven't used such low priming amounts before, so am slightly nervous that this may turn out under-carbed, but apparently the style calls for 1.3 vols. I'm hoping the syring trick (successfully used with the stout) will replicate the creamflow effect.
Tasting
Week 1: Tasted one after a week in the bottle. Pretty pleased with the taste, but still very young and 'grainy'. Will improve.
Brew 14: "Sar MiGirl" Spanish Lager
An attempt at a Spanish San Miguel type lager, with rice used as an adjunct.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Lagering started: Bottling date: IBU: EBC: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.9 kg Pilsner Malt 400g Flaked Rice 125g Carapils 12.5 g Hallertau Hallertau @ 60 mins (13 IBU) 12.5 g Hallertau Hallertau @ 20 mins (6 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins 75 mins @ 65 C; mashout @ 72 C 90 mins Wyeast 2042 'Danish Lager' 2 x 11.5 litres 21 litres 10 C 9 C 1.046 1.046 1.011 1.009 5.1 % 28/7/2013 & 10/8/2013 13/8/2013 3/9/2013 12/10/2013 19 6.8 |
Method
Tried and tested BIAB double batch. The first batch came out very pale, so for the second batch I replaced the Carapils with Carahell to improve the colour a bit.
I made a yeast starter using my stir plate by pitching the smack pack into 1 litre of 1.040 extract wort. After about 48 hours it had fermented out so I crash chilled it for about 24 hours and then decanted off the beer, leaving the yeast behind. I then stepped up to 2 litres and repeated the process. According to yeastcalc.com that should have given me over 400 billion yeast cells - plenty for the fermentation.
I plan to do a diacetyl rest once gravity hits about 1.015 by raising to 18 C for a few days to finish off, then will drop gradually to lagering temps.
Will lager for about a month, then bottle early October. Should be ready to drink by the time the weather warms up.
I made a yeast starter using my stir plate by pitching the smack pack into 1 litre of 1.040 extract wort. After about 48 hours it had fermented out so I crash chilled it for about 24 hours and then decanted off the beer, leaving the yeast behind. I then stepped up to 2 litres and repeated the process. According to yeastcalc.com that should have given me over 400 billion yeast cells - plenty for the fermentation.
I plan to do a diacetyl rest once gravity hits about 1.015 by raising to 18 C for a few days to finish off, then will drop gradually to lagering temps.
Will lager for about a month, then bottle early October. Should be ready to drink by the time the weather warms up.
Brew 13: "Phat Yak" American Pale Ale
This is an attempt at a slightly hoppier pale ale, based on Matilda Bay's "Fat Yak". Again, brewed as a double batch.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: IBU: EBC: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.7 kg Barrett Burston Ale Malt 250g Barrett Burston Wheat Malt 250g Munich II Malt 100g Bairds Medium Crystal Malt 7.5g Pride of Ringwood @ 60 mins (14 IBU) + late hops used `Argon' method (see below) 7.5 g Cascade @ 20 mins (6 IBU) 5g Nelson Sauvin @ 20 mins (6 IBU) 7.5g Cascade @ 10 mins (3 IBU) 5g Nelson Sauvin @ 0 mins 15g Nelson Sauvin dry hopped 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins 75 mins @ 66 C; mashout @ 72 C 90 mins Wyeast 1272 'American Ale II' 2 x 11.5 litres 22 litres 18 C 18 C 1.044 1.044 1.010 1.007 5.2 % 29/6/2013 & 6/7/2013 10/7/2013 12/8/2013 29 15.7 |
Method
Nothing unusual about the brew - standard no-chilled stovetop BIAB in my 19l Big W pot, except only added the 60min addition in the main boil. For the other hops I did the 'Argon' method as follows...
On the day I pitched, I took 3 litres from one of the cubes and brought to the boil. I added all of the other hop additions to this mini-boil (double the amounts above as it was going into the double batch). I then chilled the pot down to pitching temperature and poured in to the fermenter with the rest of the wort. I used a paint strainer to catch most of the hop material on its way to the fermenter.
After around a week of fermentation I dry-hopped with 15g of Nelson Sauvin, then crash chilled after another 3 days.
On the day I pitched, I took 3 litres from one of the cubes and brought to the boil. I added all of the other hop additions to this mini-boil (double the amounts above as it was going into the double batch). I then chilled the pot down to pitching temperature and poured in to the fermenter with the rest of the wort. I used a paint strainer to catch most of the hop material on its way to the fermenter.
After around a week of fermentation I dry-hopped with 15g of Nelson Sauvin, then crash chilled after another 3 days.
Tasting
Week 4: Really happy with this one. Definitely has the best hop aroma of any brew yet. Nice and malty, could probably be a bit more bitter.
Week 6: Still loving this and very happy with the balance. Suffering from chill haze at very low temperatures, but excellent head retention and lacing.
Week 6: Still loving this and very happy with the balance. Suffering from chill haze at very low temperatures, but excellent head retention and lacing.
Brew 12: "Dr Jim's" Australian Pale Ale
My first attempt at brewing an all-grain clone of Coopers Pale Ale. This is AndrewQLD's recipe from the aussiehomebrewer forum, scaled down. Again, this will be brewed as a double batch.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.9 kg Barrett Burston Ale Malt 100g Barrett Burston Wheat Malt 20g Bairds Dark Crystal Malt Pride of Ringwood 15g @ 60 mins (28 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10 mins Ramp from 55 C to 64 C; mash for 75 mins; mashout @ 72 C 75 mins Recultured Coopers Pale Ale yeast from 3 longnecks 2 x 11.5 litres 22 litres 16 C 18 C 1.040 1.039 1.007 1.007 4.6 % 12/6/2013 & 20/6/2013 27/6/2013 9/7/2013 |
Method
Pretty much the same as all my other BIAB's to-date. I'm getting a good idea of my numbers now, and seem to be settling around the 72% efficiency mark, which is helping with planning recipes.
Following AndrewQLD's recipe, I doughed in at 55 C and then ramped up to 64 C, stirring while the heat was on. After the 75 minute mash the temperature has dropped by about 3 degrees, which is pretty standard for me.
When I took an OG after adding both cubes to the fermenter I was under my target OG of 1.040 by a point. This was because I mistakenly topped up my pre-boil volume to 18.5 litres instead of 17.5 litres. I didn't bother to adjust my boil time, so the beer will be slightly weaker than proper Coopers Pale.
Following AndrewQLD's recipe, I doughed in at 55 C and then ramped up to 64 C, stirring while the heat was on. After the 75 minute mash the temperature has dropped by about 3 degrees, which is pretty standard for me.
When I took an OG after adding both cubes to the fermenter I was under my target OG of 1.040 by a point. This was because I mistakenly topped up my pre-boil volume to 18.5 litres instead of 17.5 litres. I didn't bother to adjust my boil time, so the beer will be slightly weaker than proper Coopers Pale.
Tasting
Week 2: Couldn't wait to try this as I love Coopers Pale. Slightly disappointed by the colour - much darker than CPA. Maybe should have used medium crystal, although the recipe definitely says dark. Taste wise it's still young and has a slight banana aroma. Hopefully that will dissipate with age. Not quite as dry as I had hoped, despite the low finishing gravity. Jury's out on this one.
Week 8: The banana is much less now and it helps to not rouse the yeast I've found. The colour is still too dark and it's not quite dry enough, but a decent enough beer. Will be brewing this one again with pilsner malt, less dark crystal and fermenting at 16 C.
Week 8: The banana is much less now and it helps to not rouse the yeast I've found. The colour is still too dark and it's not quite dry enough, but a decent enough beer. Will be brewing this one again with pilsner malt, less dark crystal and fermenting at 16 C.
Brew 11: "Black Gold" Dry Stout
The stout was such a success last time I decided to brew it again as a double batch.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.5kg Maris Otter malt 450g Flaked barley 225g Roasted barley East Kent Golding 23g @ 60mins (37 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10mins 90 mins @ 65 C 90 mins Wyeast 1084 'Irish Ale' 2nd gen., stepped from 0.5 to 1.5 litre starter 2 x 11.5 litres 22 litres 18 C 18 C 1.041 1.041 1.010 1.009 4.3 % 30/5/2013 & 5/6/2013 10/6/2013 26/6/2013 |
Method
Same as last time, just reduced the grain bill slightly as I'm averaging around 72% efficiency. Squeezing as much sparge run-off into the kettle as possible is helping to fill the cube to the top, so I've now usually got enough wort left over post-boil to use for a starter.
I brewed this recipe twice on two separate nights, into two no-chill cubes, giving me about 22 litres of wort to pitch as a full batch. This will probably be my preferred method going forward, as I was getting through the 9/10 litre batches too quickly.
When pitching I reusued the yeast taken from the first batch of stout. I just boiled up 500ml of my leftover wort, allowed to cool, then pitched the yeast which had been stored in the fridge. It took off really quickly (done in 24 hours) and I then stepped up by boiling an additional 1.5 litres of wort, pouring off the spent wort (which had been chilled in the fridge overnight) and topping up with the cooled boiled wort. Starter was ready for pitching in only a few days start to finish. After pitching into the main wort, fermentation took off very quickly and was almost finished in about three days.
I brewed this recipe twice on two separate nights, into two no-chill cubes, giving me about 22 litres of wort to pitch as a full batch. This will probably be my preferred method going forward, as I was getting through the 9/10 litre batches too quickly.
When pitching I reusued the yeast taken from the first batch of stout. I just boiled up 500ml of my leftover wort, allowed to cool, then pitched the yeast which had been stored in the fridge. It took off really quickly (done in 24 hours) and I then stepped up by boiling an additional 1.5 litres of wort, pouring off the spent wort (which had been chilled in the fridge overnight) and topping up with the cooled boiled wort. Starter was ready for pitching in only a few days start to finish. After pitching into the main wort, fermentation took off very quickly and was almost finished in about three days.
Tasting
Week 4: This is just as good as last time. Very nice stout - possibly not quite as dark, but still definitely a stout.
Week 12: Doesn't seem to have aged as well as the first batch. Also not quite as full a beer. I think future stouts should have a higher grain bill, as this feels a bit watery and doesn't keep as good a head. My Dad commented that it was similar to Beamish, but I prefer my stouts a bit fuller. Need to bear in mind for next winter.
Week 12: Doesn't seem to have aged as well as the first batch. Also not quite as full a beer. I think future stouts should have a higher grain bill, as this feels a bit watery and doesn't keep as good a head. My Dad commented that it was similar to Beamish, but I prefer my stouts a bit fuller. Need to bear in mind for next winter.
Brew 10: "Drunk Monk" Belgian Blond
A Belgian Blond based on Leffe Blond.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
2.5kg Belgian Pilsner malt 250g Munich I 75g Caraamber 50g Melanoidin malt Willamette: 20g @ 60 (21.0 IBU) Saaz: 10g @ 15 (4.9 IBU) 175g raw caster sugar @ 10 mins 60 mins @ 70 C 90 mins Wyeast 1388 'Belgian Strong' liquid yeast smack pack 11.5 litres 10.25 litres 20 C 22 C 1.060 1.061 1.013 1.009 7.1 % 25.9 11.9 9/5/2013 20/5/2013 9/6/2013 |
Method
This was the first use of my modified Big W 19 litre pot, with ball valve attached. Draining the wort off to the no-chill cube was so much easier. I left the pot for 10 minutes after flameout for the convection currents to subside, then whirlpooled. After 20 minutes I drained the wort, leaving about 2.8 litres to trub and hops.
Didn't use the no-chill box for this brew.
Primed the 9 litres of beer with 60g of dextrose, aiming for 2.5 vols CO2.
Didn't use the no-chill box for this brew.
Primed the 9 litres of beer with 60g of dextrose, aiming for 2.5 vols CO2.
Tasting
Week 4: Not sure whether it's a crap recipe or just needs a bit longer in the bottle. It actually has a homebrew taste which reminds me of some of my earlier kit brews. I think the high alcohol content may mean it needs longer to condition, so will try again in a month. No real malt taste and finishes quite dry. Doesn't remind me of Leffe although it has been a while since I've had it - may have to pick up a bottle for comparison.
Week 14: This is had plenty of time in the bottle and is still crap. I think that (despite finishing quite low) I under-pitched the yeast and probably under-oxygenated the wort. Next time I try this type of beer it will be with a big healthy starter and will shake the shit out of the cubes. This beer has no redeeming features and no real malt at all. Possible infection?
Week 14: This is had plenty of time in the bottle and is still crap. I think that (despite finishing quite low) I under-pitched the yeast and probably under-oxygenated the wort. Next time I try this type of beer it will be with a big healthy starter and will shake the shit out of the cubes. This beer has no redeeming features and no real malt at all. Possible infection?
Brew 9: "Dr Jim's" Bright Ale
A golden/pale ale based on Little Creatures Bright Ale.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: IBU: EBC: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.2kg Pale Ale malt 500g Munich I 500g Vienna 100g Carapils B Saaz (Motueka): 3g @ 45 (5.4 IBU), 4g @ 20 (5.3 IBU), 5g @ 0 (2.0 IBU) Cascade: 3g @ 45 (5.0 IBU), 4g @ 20 (5.0 IBU), 5g @ 0 (1.8 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10mins 90 mins @ 66 C 90 mins 1/2 packet US-05 11.5 litres 11.5 litres 18 C 18 C 1.044 1.045 1.011 1.007 5.4 % 24.3 11.1 27/4/2013 6/5/2013 19/5/2013 |
Method
Nothing really to comment on with this one. Only thing to note is that I've been using BrewMate to design my recipes, and have been ticking the no-chill box to adjust the IBU of hop additions. Based on fermenter samples this doesn't taste like 24 IBU, so may not use the no-chill box in future. Will see how it goes once it's bottled.
This was dry hopped with 4g each of B Saaz and Cascade after 7 days in the fermenter.
I bottled with 60g of dextrose, aiming for 2.5 vols CO2. Got 8 longnecks and 10 stubbies.
Just like the All-Amarillo, this used US-05 and finished much lower than expected. I wanted a beer around 4.8% - looks like it's going to be closer to 5.4%. I'm not sure I trust my mash temperatures, so will try a different thermometer next time.
This was dry hopped with 4g each of B Saaz and Cascade after 7 days in the fermenter.
I bottled with 60g of dextrose, aiming for 2.5 vols CO2. Got 8 longnecks and 10 stubbies.
Just like the All-Amarillo, this used US-05 and finished much lower than expected. I wanted a beer around 4.8% - looks like it's going to be closer to 5.4%. I'm not sure I trust my mash temperatures, so will try a different thermometer next time.
Tasting
Week 7: I was initially disappointed with this beer and thought I had under-carbed it, but I think with the colder weather (around 18C in the house at the moment) the beer is taking that bit longer to condition. The last bottle I tried was really good, with a nice malt flavour and decent hop aroma. Bitterness is a bit low, as suspected, but drinking very nicely and keeping a lovely head.
Brew 8: "Black Gold" Dry Stout
A simple all-grain dry stout, trying for something like Guinness Draught.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts/Additions: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.65kg Maris Otter malt 500g Flaked barley 250g Roasted barley East Kent Golding 23g @ 60mins (37 IBU) 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10mins 90 mins @ 65 C 90 mins Wyeast 1084 'Irish Ale' liquid yeast smack pack 11.5 litres 11.5 litres 18 C 18 C 1.041 1.041 1.011 1.010 4.5 % 16/4/2013 21/4/2013 5/5/2013 |
Method
Same as other BIABs to-date. The OG was around 1.045 as I had under-estimated my efficiency, so I added about a litre of tap water when I pitched the yeast to get to 1.041.
Bottled with 45g of dextrose to get 1.9 vols CO2. Got 6 longnecks and 17 stubbies out of the batch.
Bottled with 45g of dextrose to get 1.9 vols CO2. Got 6 longnecks and 17 stubbies out of the batch.
Tasting
Week 1: Shared a bottle with Mrs Dr Jim after only a week in the bottle and it was great. This could be the best brew yet. Creamy and keeps a nice head using the syringe trick.
Week 5: Not much of this left, hence the need to brew it again. Very pleased with how this turned out. Better than most of the Guinness I've tried on tap in Australia!
Week 5: Not much of this left, hence the need to brew it again. Very pleased with how this turned out. Better than most of the Guinness I've tried on tap in Australia!
Brew 7: "Heisenberg" Hefeweizen
Another all-grain BIAB, this time a German wheat beer (Hefeweizen) loosely based on Erdinger.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
1.1kg German pilsner malt 1.35kg Wheat malt 100g Carahell Hallertauer 15g @ 60mins; 5g @ 15mins 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10mins 90 mins @ 65 C 90 mins Wyeast 3068 'Weihenstephan Weizen' liquid yeast smack pack 11.5 litres 10.4 litres 17 C 18 C 1.047 1.047 1.010 ???? 5.4 % (estimate) 3/4/2013 8/4/2013 20/4/2013 |
Method
This was very similar to Brew 6, with a few slight changes. After draining the bag I had 14 litres of wort @ 1.039, which was lower gravity than Brew 6. I added around 2.5 litres of sparge to get a pre-boil volume of 16.8 litres. I threw the hops straight in the boil and used a paint strainer to strain the wort into the cube. At the end of the boil I had 13.4 litres, but only around 10.5 litres made its way into the cube. Will try harder to minimise kettle losses next time.
Wort was pitched 5 days later, using a full smack-pack of Wyeast 3068. Ended up with 10.4 litres in the fermenter.
I bottled this after a couple of days crash chilling at 4 C (didn't want to drop too much yeast out), aiming for 3.0 vols CO2, using 90g of dextrose. Filled 10 longnecks and 5 stubbies. I forgot to take a FG reading before bulk priming, so will have to assume it was 1.010, although I wouldn't be surprised if it went lower.
I rinsed the yeast by adding about a litre of cooled boiled water to the trub, swirling around and then filling two sterilised 1 litre mason jars. After around an hour I decanted the top of the jars into two smaller mason jars and stored in the fridge.
Wort was pitched 5 days later, using a full smack-pack of Wyeast 3068. Ended up with 10.4 litres in the fermenter.
I bottled this after a couple of days crash chilling at 4 C (didn't want to drop too much yeast out), aiming for 3.0 vols CO2, using 90g of dextrose. Filled 10 longnecks and 5 stubbies. I forgot to take a FG reading before bulk priming, so will have to assume it was 1.010, although I wouldn't be surprised if it went lower.
I rinsed the yeast by adding about a litre of cooled boiled water to the trub, swirling around and then filling two sterilised 1 litre mason jars. After around an hour I decanted the top of the jars into two smaller mason jars and stored in the fridge.
Tasting
Week 8: Have been drinking this steadily since bottling and it is definitely improving all the time. Has a lovely clove aroma from the yeast and keeps a tight white head all the way down. It's been a while since I tried a genuine wheat beer, so it's hard to make a comparison, but I'll definitely be making this again.
Brew 6: "All Amarillo" American Pale Ale
My first all-grain brew, made using the brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) method and no-chilled.
Recipe
Type:
Grain bill: Hops: Adjuncts: Mash schedule: Boil time: Yeast: Target volume: Actual volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Target OG: Actual OG: Target FG: Actual FG: ABV: Brew date: Pitching date: Bottling date: |
All-grain (BIAB)
2kg Pale Ale malt 400g Munich I 200g CaraAmber Amarillo 6g @ 60mins; 8g @ 20mins; 10g @ flameout 1/4 Whirlfloc tablet @ 10mins 90 mins @ 65 C 90 mins 1/2 packet of US-05 10 litres 11 litres 17 C 18 C 1.047 1.047 1.010 1.007 5.6 % 16/3/2013 26/3/2013 7/4/2013 |
Method
This was my first BIAB, using a 19 litre pot from Big W and a grain bag from Beerbelly (just down the road). I heated 16.5 litres of tap water to a strike temperature of 67 C, aiming to mash in at 65 C. Once the water was up to temperature I put the bag into the pot and slowly sprinkled all 2.6 kg of cracked grain into the pot, giving it a good stir as it went in. I quickly put the lid on and wrapped the pot in a large beach towel and a big fleece blanket.
After 90 minutes the temperature had dropped to around 61 C and the towel wrapped around the pot was pretty wet, having wicked some of the wort away from the grain bag which was hanging out of the pot. I lifted out the bag and squeezed as much wort as possible back into the pot, before placing the bag in another large pan. There was around 14 litres of wort left in the pot (at 1.043), which was quite a lot less than expected (IanH's BIAB spreadsheet predicted 15.9 litres @ 100 C). I then poured a kettle of water at 78 C over the grain bag and collected around 1.4 litres of this sparge liquid using a colander, to end up with 15.4 litres of wort to start the boil.
I followed the hop schedule in the recipe, using a hop sock which I had sewn from some old muslin. At the end of the boil I had 12.3 litres of wort at 1.053, which gave an efficiency of about 75%. As I had been a bit pessimistic and predicted myself an efficieny of 65%, this wort was stronger than expected, so I diluted it with around 1.7 litres of boiling water to achieve my target OG of 1.047.
I left the wort to settle for 20 minutes following the boil, then poured into my 10 litre cube (Bunnings HDPE jerry can) using a funnel. I squeezed as much air out as possible, then tightened the lid. I put the cube in its side for half an hour to sanitise the lid and handle and also check that the lid was properly sealed. The cube was stored away until it was time to pitch.
I pitched the wort 10 days later, using half a packet of dry US-05 yeast. The sample tasted great - very 'grainy', but not as bitter as I was expecting (aiming for 25-30 IBU). I suspect that the hop sock may be to blame - not letting the hops move around during the boil, so will just throw hops directly into the boil in the future and strain the wort into the cube to remove any hop matter.
On day 7 the gravity had fallen to 1.010 so I dry-hopped with 10g of Amarillo. I used a small paint straining bag from Bunnings which had been boiled to sterilise. Just dropped the bag into the fermenter with the hops in it.
I bottled on day 13, after 3 days of crash chilling to 1 C. Bulk primed with 75g of dextrose (aiming for 2.6 vols CO2). Managed to fill 10 longnecks (750ml) and 6 stubbies (350ml).
Before bottling I took the FG reading and was surprised to see that the gravity had reached 1.007 (attenuation around 84%). I think this may be due to the low mash temperature leading to more fermentable sugars, but have also read it can be a symptom of infection. I'll keep a close eye on these.
After 90 minutes the temperature had dropped to around 61 C and the towel wrapped around the pot was pretty wet, having wicked some of the wort away from the grain bag which was hanging out of the pot. I lifted out the bag and squeezed as much wort as possible back into the pot, before placing the bag in another large pan. There was around 14 litres of wort left in the pot (at 1.043), which was quite a lot less than expected (IanH's BIAB spreadsheet predicted 15.9 litres @ 100 C). I then poured a kettle of water at 78 C over the grain bag and collected around 1.4 litres of this sparge liquid using a colander, to end up with 15.4 litres of wort to start the boil.
I followed the hop schedule in the recipe, using a hop sock which I had sewn from some old muslin. At the end of the boil I had 12.3 litres of wort at 1.053, which gave an efficiency of about 75%. As I had been a bit pessimistic and predicted myself an efficieny of 65%, this wort was stronger than expected, so I diluted it with around 1.7 litres of boiling water to achieve my target OG of 1.047.
I left the wort to settle for 20 minutes following the boil, then poured into my 10 litre cube (Bunnings HDPE jerry can) using a funnel. I squeezed as much air out as possible, then tightened the lid. I put the cube in its side for half an hour to sanitise the lid and handle and also check that the lid was properly sealed. The cube was stored away until it was time to pitch.
I pitched the wort 10 days later, using half a packet of dry US-05 yeast. The sample tasted great - very 'grainy', but not as bitter as I was expecting (aiming for 25-30 IBU). I suspect that the hop sock may be to blame - not letting the hops move around during the boil, so will just throw hops directly into the boil in the future and strain the wort into the cube to remove any hop matter.
On day 7 the gravity had fallen to 1.010 so I dry-hopped with 10g of Amarillo. I used a small paint straining bag from Bunnings which had been boiled to sterilise. Just dropped the bag into the fermenter with the hops in it.
I bottled on day 13, after 3 days of crash chilling to 1 C. Bulk primed with 75g of dextrose (aiming for 2.6 vols CO2). Managed to fill 10 longnecks (750ml) and 6 stubbies (350ml).
Before bottling I took the FG reading and was surprised to see that the gravity had reached 1.007 (attenuation around 84%). I think this may be due to the low mash temperature leading to more fermentable sugars, but have also read it can be a symptom of infection. I'll keep a close eye on these.
Tasting
Week 3: Wow. Can't believe the difference between this and my other beers. A lovely beer. Hops come through nicely although it's not too bitter. Great lacing and head retention. So pleased with this one and looking forward to see how well it ages.
Week 5: This is still drinking really well. A nice fruity hop aroma and slightly creamy finish.
Week 5: This is still drinking really well. A nice fruity hop aroma and slightly creamy finish.
Brew 5: "Bohemian Crapsody" Czech Pilsener
A kit plus extras brew, using the Thomas Coopers Pilsener can as a base.
Recipe
Type:
Speciality grain: Adjuncts: Hops: Yeast: Volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Original gravity: Final gravity: ABV: Brew date: Bottling date: |
Kit
250g Carapils steeped for 30 mins @ 70 C in 1 litre; sparged with 1 litre @ 70 C 1kg light dried malt extract 25g Saaz added to speciality boil at flameout, left to infuse for 15 minutes Kit yeast + 11.5 Saflager W34/70 20 litres 12 C 12 C 1.048 1.012 5.0 % 2/3/2013 25/3/2013 |
Method
I steeped the grains for 30 minutes - this time putting the pot in the oven set to 70 C instead of wrapping it in a towel. Seemed to work OK, but initial temperature dropped below 65 C as I forgot to account for the temperature drop due to the grains.
After sparging the grains I ended up with 2 litres of wort (a bit less due to grain absorbtion) and added 100g of DME to bring the gravity to around 1040. I brought the wort to the boil, turned off the heat, then added the hops in a muslin. I left the pot with the lid on for 15 minutes then removed the hops.
I used the hop boil wort to dissolve the remainder of the DME in the fermenter, added the can, then rinsed the can with freshly boiled water from the kettle. The DME clumped a bit, but eventually dissolved as I added the water.
I used nearly all four of the 4 litre water bottles that I had chilled to 0 C in the brew fridge overnight. Reading off the temperature strip on the fermenter it looked like I had a pitching temperature of 12 C, but once I attached the temperature probe in the brew fridge it was reading a bit below that.
This was the first time I tried rehydrating yeast. It was pretty straightforward - I put 200ml of water in a jar and covered with cling film, then boiled the water in the microwave (around 2 minutes on high). I left the water to cool for an hour or so, then put in the fridge to chill to around 23 C. Half an hour before pitching I stirred the yeast in to the water and replaced the cling film. By the time it was ready to pitch, the yeast was starting to foam. One thing to note for next time was that a fair bit of yeast stuck to the spoon when I stirred it initially. I ended up throwing it away as I had no sterile way of getting it back into the jar. Next time I'll make sure I have two sanitised spoons handy so I can scrape it back into the jar.
Day 7: Started a diacetyl rest today as the beer had reached 1016 (expecting 1012 FG). Will leave it at 18 C for four days, then bring it straight back down to 10 C. After that, plan is to reduce temperature by a degree a day until it reaches 2 C - leave it there for a few days, then a few more days lagering as close as I can get to -2 C.
Day 24: Bottled this evening. Nice and clear after all that lagering. Beer tasted a bit buttery, which must be diacetyl. Will be interesting to see if that clears once bottle conditioning is done. Bulk primed with about 120g of dextrose to give 2.4 vols of CO2.
After sparging the grains I ended up with 2 litres of wort (a bit less due to grain absorbtion) and added 100g of DME to bring the gravity to around 1040. I brought the wort to the boil, turned off the heat, then added the hops in a muslin. I left the pot with the lid on for 15 minutes then removed the hops.
I used the hop boil wort to dissolve the remainder of the DME in the fermenter, added the can, then rinsed the can with freshly boiled water from the kettle. The DME clumped a bit, but eventually dissolved as I added the water.
I used nearly all four of the 4 litre water bottles that I had chilled to 0 C in the brew fridge overnight. Reading off the temperature strip on the fermenter it looked like I had a pitching temperature of 12 C, but once I attached the temperature probe in the brew fridge it was reading a bit below that.
This was the first time I tried rehydrating yeast. It was pretty straightforward - I put 200ml of water in a jar and covered with cling film, then boiled the water in the microwave (around 2 minutes on high). I left the water to cool for an hour or so, then put in the fridge to chill to around 23 C. Half an hour before pitching I stirred the yeast in to the water and replaced the cling film. By the time it was ready to pitch, the yeast was starting to foam. One thing to note for next time was that a fair bit of yeast stuck to the spoon when I stirred it initially. I ended up throwing it away as I had no sterile way of getting it back into the jar. Next time I'll make sure I have two sanitised spoons handy so I can scrape it back into the jar.
Day 7: Started a diacetyl rest today as the beer had reached 1016 (expecting 1012 FG). Will leave it at 18 C for four days, then bring it straight back down to 10 C. After that, plan is to reduce temperature by a degree a day until it reaches 2 C - leave it there for a few days, then a few more days lagering as close as I can get to -2 C.
Day 24: Bottled this evening. Nice and clear after all that lagering. Beer tasted a bit buttery, which must be diacetyl. Will be interesting to see if that clears once bottle conditioning is done. Bulk primed with about 120g of dextrose to give 2.4 vols of CO2.
Tasting
Week 5: After around a month in the bottle this beer is pretty underwhelming. It's relatively unoffensive while still having a slight detectable kit twang. Nothing really from the hops. Hoping it gets better with age as I have a few of these to get through.
Week 7: Not much change from Week 5. A 'nothing' beer. I think the kit twang is fading, but still not a great beer.
Week 7: Not much change from Week 5. A 'nothing' beer. I think the kit twang is fading, but still not a great beer.
Brew 4: "50 'Taches" Australian Pale Ale
A full extract Australian Pale Ale based on James Squire 150 Lashes Pale Ale.
Recipe
Type:
Speciality grain: Adjuncts: Hops: Yeast: Volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Original gravity: Final gravity: ABV: Brew date: Bottling date: |
Extract
250g Carahell steeped for 30 mins @ 70 C in 1 litre; sparged with 1 litre @ 70 C 1.4kg light dried malt extract; 750g dried wheat malt extract 10g Nelson Sauvin @ 60mins; 10g Amarillo, 10g Willamette @ 20mins; 10g Nelson Sauvin, 10g Amarillo, 10g Willamette @ 5mins 300ml Coopers slurry from previous brew 23 litres 18 C 17 C 1.038 1.009 4.2 % 13/2/2013 1/3/2013 |
Method
Being my first full extract brew, this was a bit different to the other brews I've done so far. I made the recipe using IanH's Excel spreadsheet from aussiehomebrewer.com, trying to match James Squire's 150 Lashes Pale Ale as closely as possible. The Carahell should give some body, malt flavours and aid head retention. The hops are the same as used in 150 Lashes, although the quantities and timings are a guess. I added some wheat extract and aimed for an ABV of 4.2%.
I started by heating 1 litre of water in a small pan to 70 C, then turned off the heat, laid a clean muslin cloth inside and added the cracked Carahell. I gave it a stir, put the lid on (making sure the edges of the muslin were hanging over the sides) and wrapped the whole thing in a towel. While the grain was steeping I started heating 8 litres of water in my main 19 litre brewing kettle, and heated another litre of water in a small pan to 70 C for sparging (rinsing) the grain.
At the end of the 30 minute grain steep I lifted out the muslin and squeezed the liquid into the pan. The liquid went into the main brewing kettle and I put the muslin and grain back into the steeping pan. I then added the 1 litre sparge water into the steeping pan and stirred the grain to extract all the remaining goodness. Again I lifted out the muslin and squeezed the liquid into the pan, before adding this into the brewing kettle. Along with the 8 litres of brewing water, I now had approximately 10 litres of liquid in the kettle for the main boil.
I continued to heat the brewing kettle on full gas and when it was close to the boil I turned off the heat and added 1kg of the dry malt extract. This should have resulted in a wort sightly over 1040 gravity to maximise hop extraction. Once the malt was fully dissolved I returned the kettle to the heat until it reached a rolling boil. I didn't get any hot break, so added my 60 minute hop addition and started the timer.
With 20 minutes remaining I added the 20 minute hop addition and with 10 minutes remaining added half a Whirlfloc tablet. With 5 minutes left I turned off the heat and added the remaining dry malt extract. The wheat malt extract clumped a bit, but dissolved after some stirring. I returned the wort to the heat and added the 5 minute hop addition once it started boiling again.
At the end of the boil I turned off the heat, put on the lid and placed the kettle in our bath full of cold water. I also added three blocks of frozen boiled water to the wort, totalling about 1.5 litres. In about half an hour the pan was warm to the touch.
Having sanitised the fermenter with Starsan, I poured the wort into the fermenter and then added 12 litres of water which had been chilled to close to freezing in my brew fridge overnight. I topped up to 23 litres with about a litre of water from the tap, which gave a pitching temperature of about 18 C. I gave the wort a good stir to aerate it and pitched the yeast slurry which I had saved from Brew 3 the night before. Again, a good stir before transferring to the brew fridge, set to 17C.
My only concern at this stage is the amount of cold break/trub at the bottom of the fermenter. It is almost over the level of the tap, and definitely higher than any of the kit brews I have done so far. I did dump everything from the brew kettle into the fermenter - maybe I should have left some crap in the bottom. Probably nothing to worry about as I've read that cold break is a good nutrient for the yeast. I'm slowly learning to relax, don't worry, have a homebrew...
Lastly, the house smells...interesting!
Day 2: Really vigorous fermentation, krausen about half an inch thick with loads of hop matter on top. All the break was swirling around furiously. The trub is much lower now so, as I thought, nothing to worry about there. I had a quick sniff from the top of the fermenter and it smells amazing.
Day 5: Tested gravity and it's already at 1011. Sample didn't taste great - kind of an earthy taste and quite dry. Also a pungent smell and pretty bitter. I'm sure that will all settle down once it's been in the fermenter a bit longer. There are definite passion fruit aromas coming from the fermenter. Wondering whether I may need to rack this to a secondary fermenter as there is still a fair bit of hop matter floating at the top of the beer. I may have to use a hop sock in the boil next time.
Day 17: Bottled this evening, beer still tasting a bit weird - not entirely pleasant, but who knows it could turn out great after bottle conditioning.
I started by heating 1 litre of water in a small pan to 70 C, then turned off the heat, laid a clean muslin cloth inside and added the cracked Carahell. I gave it a stir, put the lid on (making sure the edges of the muslin were hanging over the sides) and wrapped the whole thing in a towel. While the grain was steeping I started heating 8 litres of water in my main 19 litre brewing kettle, and heated another litre of water in a small pan to 70 C for sparging (rinsing) the grain.
At the end of the 30 minute grain steep I lifted out the muslin and squeezed the liquid into the pan. The liquid went into the main brewing kettle and I put the muslin and grain back into the steeping pan. I then added the 1 litre sparge water into the steeping pan and stirred the grain to extract all the remaining goodness. Again I lifted out the muslin and squeezed the liquid into the pan, before adding this into the brewing kettle. Along with the 8 litres of brewing water, I now had approximately 10 litres of liquid in the kettle for the main boil.
I continued to heat the brewing kettle on full gas and when it was close to the boil I turned off the heat and added 1kg of the dry malt extract. This should have resulted in a wort sightly over 1040 gravity to maximise hop extraction. Once the malt was fully dissolved I returned the kettle to the heat until it reached a rolling boil. I didn't get any hot break, so added my 60 minute hop addition and started the timer.
With 20 minutes remaining I added the 20 minute hop addition and with 10 minutes remaining added half a Whirlfloc tablet. With 5 minutes left I turned off the heat and added the remaining dry malt extract. The wheat malt extract clumped a bit, but dissolved after some stirring. I returned the wort to the heat and added the 5 minute hop addition once it started boiling again.
At the end of the boil I turned off the heat, put on the lid and placed the kettle in our bath full of cold water. I also added three blocks of frozen boiled water to the wort, totalling about 1.5 litres. In about half an hour the pan was warm to the touch.
Having sanitised the fermenter with Starsan, I poured the wort into the fermenter and then added 12 litres of water which had been chilled to close to freezing in my brew fridge overnight. I topped up to 23 litres with about a litre of water from the tap, which gave a pitching temperature of about 18 C. I gave the wort a good stir to aerate it and pitched the yeast slurry which I had saved from Brew 3 the night before. Again, a good stir before transferring to the brew fridge, set to 17C.
My only concern at this stage is the amount of cold break/trub at the bottom of the fermenter. It is almost over the level of the tap, and definitely higher than any of the kit brews I have done so far. I did dump everything from the brew kettle into the fermenter - maybe I should have left some crap in the bottom. Probably nothing to worry about as I've read that cold break is a good nutrient for the yeast. I'm slowly learning to relax, don't worry, have a homebrew...
Lastly, the house smells...interesting!
Day 2: Really vigorous fermentation, krausen about half an inch thick with loads of hop matter on top. All the break was swirling around furiously. The trub is much lower now so, as I thought, nothing to worry about there. I had a quick sniff from the top of the fermenter and it smells amazing.
Day 5: Tested gravity and it's already at 1011. Sample didn't taste great - kind of an earthy taste and quite dry. Also a pungent smell and pretty bitter. I'm sure that will all settle down once it's been in the fermenter a bit longer. There are definite passion fruit aromas coming from the fermenter. Wondering whether I may need to rack this to a secondary fermenter as there is still a fair bit of hop matter floating at the top of the beer. I may have to use a hop sock in the boil next time.
Day 17: Bottled this evening, beer still tasting a bit weird - not entirely pleasant, but who knows it could turn out great after bottle conditioning.
Tasting
Week 4: This has turned out much better than expected. A really nice Pale Ale, with good tropical fruit and decent bitterness. A bit under-carbonated - will aim for around 2.6 vols CO2 for future Pale Ales.
Brew 3: "Dr Jim's" Australian Pale Ale
The Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit, with recultured Coopers Pale Ale yeast.
Recipe
Type:
Kit: Adjuncts: Yeast: Volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Original gravity: Final gravity: ABV: Brew date: Bottling date: |
Kit
Coopers Australian Pale Ale 500g light dried malt extract; 500g dextrose Recultured Coopers Pale Ale yeast; dregs from two longnecks stepped from 600 ml to 1.5 l 23 litres 20 C 17 C 1.039 1006 4.6 % 25/1/2013 12/2/2013 |
Method
Again, a pretty simple kit & kilo brew. Kettle of boiling water into the FV, DME dissolved on top by swirling, then dextrose dissolved, followed by the can which was then rinsed out with more boiling water. Following the disaster with the 15 litre bottle in brew 2, I bought three 4 litre bottles of water which were chilled to about 2 C in the brew fridge overnight. Adding all three then topping up with tap water brought me to a pitching temperature of about 20 C.
The yeast was recultured from two Coopers Pale Ale longnecks. Five days before brewing I added the dregs from the two longnecks (which had been carefully poured to leave all the sediment in the bottom) to a glass carafe containing 600ml of cooled wort. The wort was made using 60g of DME added to 600ml of boiling water, which was then boiled in a pan for about 5 minutes with the lid on. Keeping the lid on meant that the pan remained sterile so I could cool the wort in the sink. Having given the wort/dregs mixture a good shake I put a piece of tin foil sprayed with Star-san over the top and put the carafe in a dark cupboard. I shook the carafe every time I passed the cupboard, and after two days it was bubbling nicely. Once the krausen had died down I put the carafe in the fridge to drop all the yeast to the bottom, then repeated the process with 1.5 litres of fresh wort. I poured off the spent wort, leaving the yeast at the bottom, and split the mixture between two soda water bottles which had the 1.5 litres of wort split between them. This time they fired up really quickly, and within 36 hours had fully fermented with a nice layer of yeast at the bottom of each bottle. I put them in the fridge for about 18 hours, which made pouring off the spent wort really easy. Before making the brew I let the yeast slurry come up to room temperature, then pitched directly into the wort.
I've read that this yeast does best at 17 C - any higher can give banana flavours, so the brew fridge is set to 17 C. I did notice that the fermented wort from the yeast starter had a very strong banana smell, which I don't want in the brew itself.
Day 6: Been testing the gravity a bit over the last few days and it's now down to about 1012, so only 5 points to go until the predicted final gravity of 1007. The activity has been a bit weird on this one. Fermentation had started within about 12 hours, but it never got a very big krausen - kind of a big bulge in the middle which died down after a day or so (accompanied by some pretty bad sulphur smells). Then some foam built up again around day 5 and the sulphur seems to have dissipated. As most of the reports on the bottle yeast seem to indicate that it's a bit of a beast, I'm thinking I may have underpitched, despite building up to 2 x 750ml starters. Anyhow, the samples I've had taste good, so can't wait to get this bottled.
Day 10: Gravity now at 1007, so will bottle in a few days. Not going to bother cold crashing this one as Coopers Pale Ale is supposed to be cloudy. Samples taste great - cannot wait to be drinking this one.
Day 19: Bottled tonight, bulk primed for the first time. Dissolved 130g of dextrose in 200ml of boiling water, then brought to the boil in a small saucepan. Cooled with the lid on, before adding to the bottling vessel. I did tap-to-tap racking, which worked fine. Saved about 400-500ml of the trub in a sanitised jar for the next brew. Managed 24 longnecks and 9 stubbies.
The yeast was recultured from two Coopers Pale Ale longnecks. Five days before brewing I added the dregs from the two longnecks (which had been carefully poured to leave all the sediment in the bottom) to a glass carafe containing 600ml of cooled wort. The wort was made using 60g of DME added to 600ml of boiling water, which was then boiled in a pan for about 5 minutes with the lid on. Keeping the lid on meant that the pan remained sterile so I could cool the wort in the sink. Having given the wort/dregs mixture a good shake I put a piece of tin foil sprayed with Star-san over the top and put the carafe in a dark cupboard. I shook the carafe every time I passed the cupboard, and after two days it was bubbling nicely. Once the krausen had died down I put the carafe in the fridge to drop all the yeast to the bottom, then repeated the process with 1.5 litres of fresh wort. I poured off the spent wort, leaving the yeast at the bottom, and split the mixture between two soda water bottles which had the 1.5 litres of wort split between them. This time they fired up really quickly, and within 36 hours had fully fermented with a nice layer of yeast at the bottom of each bottle. I put them in the fridge for about 18 hours, which made pouring off the spent wort really easy. Before making the brew I let the yeast slurry come up to room temperature, then pitched directly into the wort.
I've read that this yeast does best at 17 C - any higher can give banana flavours, so the brew fridge is set to 17 C. I did notice that the fermented wort from the yeast starter had a very strong banana smell, which I don't want in the brew itself.
Day 6: Been testing the gravity a bit over the last few days and it's now down to about 1012, so only 5 points to go until the predicted final gravity of 1007. The activity has been a bit weird on this one. Fermentation had started within about 12 hours, but it never got a very big krausen - kind of a big bulge in the middle which died down after a day or so (accompanied by some pretty bad sulphur smells). Then some foam built up again around day 5 and the sulphur seems to have dissipated. As most of the reports on the bottle yeast seem to indicate that it's a bit of a beast, I'm thinking I may have underpitched, despite building up to 2 x 750ml starters. Anyhow, the samples I've had taste good, so can't wait to get this bottled.
Day 10: Gravity now at 1007, so will bottle in a few days. Not going to bother cold crashing this one as Coopers Pale Ale is supposed to be cloudy. Samples taste great - cannot wait to be drinking this one.
Day 19: Bottled tonight, bulk primed for the first time. Dissolved 130g of dextrose in 200ml of boiling water, then brought to the boil in a small saucepan. Cooled with the lid on, before adding to the bottling vessel. I did tap-to-tap racking, which worked fine. Saved about 400-500ml of the trub in a sanitised jar for the next brew. Managed 24 longnecks and 9 stubbies.
Tasting
Week 1 (19/2/2013): Tasted a stubby after only a week in the bottle - really happy with the taste, but needs a bit longer to get fully carbonated. Tastes a lot like Coopers Pale. Looking forward to knocking back a few of these.
Week 2 (24/2/2013): Another stubby - still tastes good, but still slightly under-carbonated and a bit sweet from the priming dextrose.
Week 4 (8/3/2013): These are now perfectly carbonated and drinking really well. Very similar taste to commercial Pale - perhaps a touch less bitter. Mrs Dr Jim commented that they had a nice sweetness but were a bit too fizzy - mind you, she doesn't drink much beer these days so is probably not used to fizzy beer.
Week 7 (29/3/2013): Still enjoying these, but would like a touch more bitterness and a touch more carbonation.
Week 2 (24/2/2013): Another stubby - still tastes good, but still slightly under-carbonated and a bit sweet from the priming dextrose.
Week 4 (8/3/2013): These are now perfectly carbonated and drinking really well. Very similar taste to commercial Pale - perhaps a touch less bitter. Mrs Dr Jim commented that they had a nice sweetness but were a bit too fizzy - mind you, she doesn't drink much beer these days so is probably not used to fizzy beer.
Week 7 (29/3/2013): Still enjoying these, but would like a touch more bitterness and a touch more carbonation.
Brew 2: "Pamela" Canadian Blonde
Recipe
Type:
Kit: Adjuncts: Yeast: Volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Original gravity: Final gravity: ABV: Brew date: Bottling date: |
Kit
Coopers Canadian Blonde 500g light dried malt extract; 700g dextrose 7g kit yeast + 7g kit yeast from Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit 23 litres 22 C 18 C 1.042 1.007 5.0 % 8/1/2013 23/1/2013 |
Method
I followed the CraigTube video pretty closely, including all the sanitising steps.
Knowing that the tap water would be too warm to reach pitching temperatures in the low 20s, I bought a 15 litre spring water bottle and chilled it down in the brew fridge to 1C over the preceding 24 hours. Having done some rough calculations, I figured that would be enough to keep the wort cool. In the end I only needed about 10 litres to get 22C for 23 litres of wort. The bottle itself was a real bugger, as the lid didn't screw off. I was hoping to reuse the bottle for future brews, but in the end I had to gouge out the tap due to the pathetic trickle. In future I'll buy a few 4 litre bottles instead.
The rest of the brew went pretty smoothly. In summary...
I added a kettle of just boiled water to the freshly sanitised fermentation vessel. Poured in the dry malt extract and swirled it for a few minutes - no lumps! Added the dextrose and swirled again. Poured in the can of extract (which had been sitting in a pan of just boiled water for about ten minutes). Rinsed out the can with just boiled water and poured that into the fermentation vessel. Gave it all a good stir and started filling with water. Once I reached 23 litres I gave it all a really good stir to oxygenate (not sure if that is really needed?).
OG came out at 1042, exactly where IanH's spreadsheet had predicted.
Where I deviated from the instructions is the yeast. For a few days before this brew I had been doing a lot of reading and got a bit paranoid about yeast. I had a Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit in the cupboard ready for my next brew, but I wasn't planning to use the yeast from that kit for the APA brew as I wanted to take a culture from commercial Coopers Pale Ale (like this). As it was spare I threw that yeast packet in as well, thinking that more yeast can't hurt. I guess time will tell... Anyway, turns out that the APA yeast is slightly different to the Canadian Blonde kit, so it might turn out a bit weird.
Day 5: It's already at 1009 - that's around 4.9% ABV by my calculations (including bottle conditioning). Tastes OK too, a lot cleaner than the first brew.
Day 7: Now at 1007 and I don't expect it to drop much further (I think expected FG was 1007). Still tasting good and I'm sure it will only get better. Will be leaving it another week in the FV before cold crashing for a few days.
Day 9: Still 1007, so all good for cold crashing in a few more days.
Day 15: Bottled after cold crashing for about 48hrs at 1 C. Used caster sugar in a mixture of stubbies and longnecks. Looking forward to tasting in about 3 weeks.
Knowing that the tap water would be too warm to reach pitching temperatures in the low 20s, I bought a 15 litre spring water bottle and chilled it down in the brew fridge to 1C over the preceding 24 hours. Having done some rough calculations, I figured that would be enough to keep the wort cool. In the end I only needed about 10 litres to get 22C for 23 litres of wort. The bottle itself was a real bugger, as the lid didn't screw off. I was hoping to reuse the bottle for future brews, but in the end I had to gouge out the tap due to the pathetic trickle. In future I'll buy a few 4 litre bottles instead.
The rest of the brew went pretty smoothly. In summary...
I added a kettle of just boiled water to the freshly sanitised fermentation vessel. Poured in the dry malt extract and swirled it for a few minutes - no lumps! Added the dextrose and swirled again. Poured in the can of extract (which had been sitting in a pan of just boiled water for about ten minutes). Rinsed out the can with just boiled water and poured that into the fermentation vessel. Gave it all a good stir and started filling with water. Once I reached 23 litres I gave it all a really good stir to oxygenate (not sure if that is really needed?).
OG came out at 1042, exactly where IanH's spreadsheet had predicted.
Where I deviated from the instructions is the yeast. For a few days before this brew I had been doing a lot of reading and got a bit paranoid about yeast. I had a Coopers Australian Pale Ale kit in the cupboard ready for my next brew, but I wasn't planning to use the yeast from that kit for the APA brew as I wanted to take a culture from commercial Coopers Pale Ale (like this). As it was spare I threw that yeast packet in as well, thinking that more yeast can't hurt. I guess time will tell... Anyway, turns out that the APA yeast is slightly different to the Canadian Blonde kit, so it might turn out a bit weird.
Day 5: It's already at 1009 - that's around 4.9% ABV by my calculations (including bottle conditioning). Tastes OK too, a lot cleaner than the first brew.
Day 7: Now at 1007 and I don't expect it to drop much further (I think expected FG was 1007). Still tasting good and I'm sure it will only get better. Will be leaving it another week in the FV before cold crashing for a few days.
Day 9: Still 1007, so all good for cold crashing in a few more days.
Day 15: Bottled after cold crashing for about 48hrs at 1 C. Used caster sugar in a mixture of stubbies and longnecks. Looking forward to tasting in about 3 weeks.
Tasting
Week 2 (3/2/2013): Again, curiosity got the better of me, so I tried a stubby today. Even though it had only been in the bottle 9 days it was nicely carbonated and pretty clear. Tasted much better than Brew 1 (not hard), but still a slight aftertaste. Will be interesting to see if more time in the bottle helps.
Week 4 (12/2/2013): Drank a longneck this evening while bottling Brew 3. Can taste the improvement over the previous tasting, but still a slight homebrew taste. Head retention much improved and carbonation is about right.
Week 6 (28/2/2013): Amazing the difference a couple of weeks make. Had a stubby this evening and no trace of the homebrew twang. It's not the tastiest of beers, but goes down nicely. The head is pretty creamy and stays right until the end of the glass. I should also note that the one I just drank had been in the fridge for around a week - will be interesting to see if that makes a difference.
Week 4 (12/2/2013): Drank a longneck this evening while bottling Brew 3. Can taste the improvement over the previous tasting, but still a slight homebrew taste. Head retention much improved and carbonation is about right.
Week 6 (28/2/2013): Amazing the difference a couple of weeks make. Had a stubby this evening and no trace of the homebrew twang. It's not the tastiest of beers, but goes down nicely. The head is pretty creamy and stays right until the end of the glass. I should also note that the one I just drank had been in the fridge for around a week - will be interesting to see if that makes a difference.
Brew 1: "Boxing Day Bodge" Lager
My first brew - likely to be barely drinkable.
Recipe
Type:
Kit: Adjuncts: Yeast: Volume: Pitching temp: Fermentation temp: Original gravity: Final gravity: ABV: Brew date: Bottling date: |
Kit
Coopers Original Series Lager 1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 1 7g kit packet yeast 23 litres 31 C 18 C (after initially being at ambient 25-27 C for a couple of days) 1.038 1.017 3.3 % 26/12/2012 7/1/2013 |
Method
It was Boxing Day, I was too excited to do any proper research, so I just went ahead and followed the kit instructions, ably assisted by my 3 year old daughter. No sanitation, just rinsed out the equipment with hot water as per the instructions. It must have been 30C+ in Adelaide that day, so the tap water was pretty warm. I didn't really take that into account, so the final temperature of the wort was around 31C. Needless to say, at that stage I didn't know the importance of pitching temperature, and the kit instructions said if the wort was <31C to pitch anyway, so I did as I was told!
The FV sat on the counter top for a couple of days, before I was able to pick up an old fridge. When I got the fridge I used a simple timer from Bunnings to cycle the fridge on and off, aiming for a temperature of around 18C. I think when I first put the FV into the fridge it got down to around 15/16C; after that my temperature control got a bit better. A couple of tastings around this time confirmed that this wasn't going to be a great beer - funny aftertaste which lingered at the back of the mouth.
FG of 1014 was reached by Day 7 - this was as low as it got.
Around Day 10 I got the STC-1000 temp control unit connected up and set that to 18 C, then Day 11 I tried a cold crash, putting the temp down to 1C for a couple of days. Beer noticeably cleared.
When I bottled the beer was still at 1014, which seemed a bit high. I also found out that my hydrometer was reading around three points under, so that made things even worse. I will definitely keep my eye on the bottles and check for over-carbonation after a week or so. Luckily they were all bottled in the 750ml PET bottles from the DIY Beer kit, so no danger of flying glass!
I should also mention that I sanitised the bottles before filling with a homemade no-rinse solution of 10ml bleach added to 6.4 litres of water, with 10ml of white vinegar added last (recipe found here). At the time I only had a small sachet of no-rinse that I was saving for my next brew.
The FV sat on the counter top for a couple of days, before I was able to pick up an old fridge. When I got the fridge I used a simple timer from Bunnings to cycle the fridge on and off, aiming for a temperature of around 18C. I think when I first put the FV into the fridge it got down to around 15/16C; after that my temperature control got a bit better. A couple of tastings around this time confirmed that this wasn't going to be a great beer - funny aftertaste which lingered at the back of the mouth.
FG of 1014 was reached by Day 7 - this was as low as it got.
Around Day 10 I got the STC-1000 temp control unit connected up and set that to 18 C, then Day 11 I tried a cold crash, putting the temp down to 1C for a couple of days. Beer noticeably cleared.
When I bottled the beer was still at 1014, which seemed a bit high. I also found out that my hydrometer was reading around three points under, so that made things even worse. I will definitely keep my eye on the bottles and check for over-carbonation after a week or so. Luckily they were all bottled in the 750ml PET bottles from the DIY Beer kit, so no danger of flying glass!
I should also mention that I sanitised the bottles before filling with a homemade no-rinse solution of 10ml bleach added to 6.4 litres of water, with 10ml of white vinegar added last (recipe found here). At the time I only had a small sachet of no-rinse that I was saving for my next brew.
Tasting
Week 1 (14/1/2013): Well I couldn't help myself, so cracked one of these open after only a week in the bottle. Hardly any fizz and no head - not much carbonation at all really. However, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting. Managed to finish a glass, so will try again in a week.
Week 2 (21/1/2013): Two weeks in the bottle and still not a lot of fizz. I did read that cold crashed beer does take a bit longer to carbonate, so I'll check again in a week.
Week 3: (30/1/2013): Cracked one of these on Sunday night, which had a lot more carbonation. The beer isn't great - kind of an aftertaste that lingers on the palette, which I think may be the fusel alcohols or esters (not sure which) I've read about. That's what you get for having a few days upwards of 27 C I guess. Just drinking another one now (Wednesday) and the carbonation isn't great, so there may be some variability bottle to bottle. I did use the carbonation drops with these, and some had broken up so priming was a bit hit and miss.
Week 2 (21/1/2013): Two weeks in the bottle and still not a lot of fizz. I did read that cold crashed beer does take a bit longer to carbonate, so I'll check again in a week.
Week 3: (30/1/2013): Cracked one of these on Sunday night, which had a lot more carbonation. The beer isn't great - kind of an aftertaste that lingers on the palette, which I think may be the fusel alcohols or esters (not sure which) I've read about. That's what you get for having a few days upwards of 27 C I guess. Just drinking another one now (Wednesday) and the carbonation isn't great, so there may be some variability bottle to bottle. I did use the carbonation drops with these, and some had broken up so priming was a bit hit and miss.