Homebrewists of STW, brewing 'owt at the moment?

Intereting! How does the bitterness/taste come out compared to hops on the dandelion? Also, does the hawthorn beer self-innoculate, or do you use a separate yeast?

No real tips on the Two Hearted IPA, a relatively simple beer TBH.

Interesting! How does the bitterness/taste come out compared to hops on the dandelion? Also, does the hawthorn beer self-innoculate, or do you use a separate yeast?

There is a slight bitterness but it's nowhere near hops. He made a full-on dandelion beer a few years ago using the flowers and leaves and a bit of yeast but it was waaaaay too flowery, still drinkable but a bit too much.

I don't know what 'self-innoculate' means but we use a separate yeast, yes. It's nothing fancy, just a bucket of hawthorn leaves and flowers made into an infusion on the hob in a couple of litres of water that's then added to the wort (?) and the whole lot's fermented. It's nice, if you've ever tried hawthorn flowers or leaves straight off the tree you get that lovely fragrant aftertaste which is passed on to the beer in the infusion plus it's local (just over the road from us), seasonal and free!

You know, I might have to try that. We have maybe a couple of weeks before spring really starts here, so there might still be time to get those.

I also just remembered I said I would make something with spruce tips this year. Soon time to harvest those.

Russian Imperial stout bottled after a couple of months in a keg, have a nice stout on tap which had a lot of brown malt in the mix which I hadn't used before.

Also have a new zealand pale on, this appears to have ended up like a replica of thornbridge green mountain.

Got a Bells Two Hearted clone in the keg. Might give it a go this weekend and see if its ready. Brewing a Thornbridge Chiron clone this weekend. Currently enjoying a batch of Dry Hopped Stout bottled. Second batch of this recipe and a big improvement over the last, which was pretty good. Not quite sure what I did differently this time round to make the difference. Only difference is a different fermentor.

Got a few lined up for the next few weeks - a Belgian Tripel, a Red Brick Rye and a Saison. Going to be busy.

Is the red brick rye a copy of the one from the brick brewery - that's a really nice pint, what recipe are you using?

Difference in the stout could be fermentation temperature

You've done well to clone green mountain. Lovely beer. I'm soldiering through one of my worst. It's not so bad to go down the drain, but it's one of my worst. And I'm probably not half way through the keg 😐

Got a nice wee selection of yeasts in the post:

Also did a big spring clean and re-organising of the brewery yesterday. Got rid of all the spiderwebs!

Going to start with some wheat beer and chuck some juices in.

Is the red brick rye a copy of the one from the brick brewery – that’s a really nice pint, what recipe are you using?

Not sure, it's a John Finch recipe. My mate got a John Finch recipe book when he bought a starter kit and its from that. Done a few out of that book - a House American Pale Ale, the Hopped Stout and an NEIPA. Done couple of batches of each and all been great. The Hopped Stout has been outstanding. The Malt Miller does All Grain recipe kits too, though did two batches of the house Pale Ale from separate ingredients and one batch from the Malt Miller recipe kit and the batches from the separate ingredients were better.

Difference in the stout could be fermentation temperature

Could be. Went from a plastic bucket in a home made fermentation chamber cobbled together from a knackered fridge, to a nice shiny Grainfather conical fermentor. Hopefully you're right and dropping all that cash was worth it! That's what I'll tell the wife anyway.

I have the grainfather fermenters and glycol system. Expensive, but excellent control.
I see the new fermenter controllers are remotely accessible via the app. I have to send my GF out the shed to press the buttons!

Would be good if you could make some conditions link to a wifi hydromter (if SG < 1.015 then temp = 18c etc)

The wifi control is nice. I've got an iSpindel and it always reads a about 4 points low compared to hydrometer. Reads bang on in sugar water, but in beer reads low. I assume its off due to the weight of the yeast collecting on the top. thinking a Tilt might work better as its smaller with out handy yeast collecting features like the ridged lid and protruding lip. Though thinking about it weight on the lid would flatten it and it would read high not low. Not sure what's going on.

Wonder how easy it is to take out the Grainfather controller and use a Raspberry Pi to control via the tilt hydrometer, but after dropping all that cash you wouldn't want to start modifying it.

I rate the Mangrove Jacks yeasts, use them for a lot of my beers. They seem to work well, finish quickly and be tolerant of the temperature in my spare room. I have a soft spot for the Lallemand Voss though.

Next purchase is a sack of pilsner from the local malt people. 25 kg should last me a while and I can be a bit more flexible with the remains of the pale malt I have left and the assorted other grains. Next beer is looking like either a wheat beer or another NEIPA. If the nettles come up, I might try and make a nettle IPA

Still no sign of nettles at the house, but now planning a weekend of brewing... Plan is either a weisse beer or a saison to use up some pilsner and wheat malt I have and maybe the remaining pale ale.

I'm also going to be moving my brewing kit to the house for summer, so will be looking at using an Ikea Tillreda portable hob for outside brewing, then running hose to the chiller for the cooling. I've also be looking at how to store malt at the house and have found some storage bins that might work.

Now all I have to do is move most of my crap, in stages, to the house. Which is great. Then all the bottles.

And I need to make a red ale/IPA for August.

Tried kveik yeast for the first time recently and produced probably the best results I've had so far. A session strength pale with sabro. It was thoroughly drinkable in 7 days! But even better a week later. Totally crushable, as they say in the world of YouTube brewers. I'll continue to cheat by using this yeast to hide my lack of fermentation temperature control.

Not done a brew for years but tempted to gather some ingredients and get one going this weekend! Got some hops planted a couple of months ago, they're coming along nicely, hopefully will have a harvest this year with enough for a green hop beer!

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Dammit! So much growth. I have six plants out (since last year) and have only started getting shoots appearing. Mind you, it has only just stopped snowing and getting frosts, so I have hope they will go up quickly.

Which varietie are they?

This is our first place with a garden, so we have no experience growing anything, must be good soil though as almost everything we've planted is going great! Also we're SE and it's been really sunny, and pretty hot, already this year. They're Prima Donna and Golden Tassels which were the only 2 dwarf varieties I could find (did a bit of Googling and people said you COULD train normal hops to grow horizontally but you'd literally have to do it every day, and I am too lazy for that 🤣)

Bottled a batch of my go-to IPA a week and a bit ago, that's tasting very nice indeed.

In the fermenter at the mo is my marmalade beer which I decided to ferment with Belgian yeast because I've had it in the fridge for a while and, well, why not? Seems to have finished really quick but will still wait a few more days and keg it at the weekend. Interested to see what difference it makes to the beer.

Not sure what to make next, want to make a BA Imperial Stout and while it feels weird to be making it before the summer it'll give it a few months in the keg/bottle to chill out.

Also fancy making a Kolsch for the summer but need to find a decent recipe.

I returned from skydiving all fired up to brew, so put a 50:50 pale ale/wheat malt heffeweissen together and into a fermenter on Saturday. Brew day took a while longer than normal because I was brewing outside and the Ikea Tilreda was slow as hell to warm up. I ended up boiling indoors.

Anyway, 11L in the fermenter and the yeast has been ripping through it over the weekend. I need to collect my bottling equipment, but that's a problem for next week.

This week, it is all about creating a warming chamber so that I can ferment a saison at 25C. The warming pad and Inkbird controller is on order... I may also be scouring the local second hand lists for a suitable fridge.

Freezers are better for temp controlled chambers of using an inkbird etc. More powerful chillers and a lot more insulation.

Have just got a oat / milk stout going in the fermenter yesterday.

Currently have a New England IPA and a stout on tap.  Imperial stout maturing in bottles but needs another few months.

My fermentation chamber is an old fridge with inkbird and a greenhouse heater. A freezer would probably be better but the old fridge was free as it came with the house.

Freezers are better for temp controlled chambers of using an inkbird etc. More powerful chillers and a lot more insulation.

Problem with freezers I found is that the interior dimensions aren't big enough to get a standard fermentation bucket in (probably because of the extra insulation). This was looking at standard sized under-counter units.

Anyhoo, after not doing anything for ages becuase of a house move, I bottled a boggo session bitter at the weekend that had been sitting in my brewfridge for a couple of weeks.

250g crystal malt, steeped for half an hour or so in 5l water
Add 2.25kg Light DME, then hour boil with:
- 50g each of Fuggles and EKG @ 60mins
- 25g Cascade @ 10 mins

Top up to 21l, pitch with Notts yeast

Came out at about 3.8%, tastes alright, quite light in colour. I'm going to have a bit of an experiment next time to darken it a bit, maybe more/darker crystal, or add some darker DME.

Yeah, chest freezers work best

I have a chest freezer, but my GF would kill me (and likely store me in it) if I put it on an inkbird. Fridge is doable in my shed, but I might need to keep it off during winter to stop it burning out and/or freezing.

A fridge would just be more capable than a ply box with insulation _just_ to warm stuff.

Just kegged a Raspberry Berlinner Wiesse. Hoping the weather warms up soon...

Problem with freezers I found is that the interior dimensions aren’t big enough to get a standard fermentation bucket in (probably because of the extra insulation).

Yeah, it is what everyone says.

Went for an STC-308 WiFi because it was cheap and in stock and those are two really good reasons. The initial plan was an STC-1000, but the 308 just gives me a bit mor flexibility for when I move up to a fridge.

Anyone do wine....

I've a load of rubarb and I fancy making some rubarb wine but I'm an idiot and I haven't a clue where to start.

Just bought a fridge from a man in town. It's stuck in the car because I can't lift it on my own.

Rhubarb win. Mmmmmm!

We've got a Grandfather conical fermenter and instead of considering the astronomical prices of the Glycol chiller unit just going to get a 2nd hand small chest freezer, put a bucket of Glycol in it and plumb in the Grainfather cooling pump kit which costs about £70. Take up a bit more space but should do the job just as well.

Down to the last bottle of a hopped stout (more of a black IPA really), second batch and one of the nicest beers we've ever brewed. The two hearted was also delicious but too strong really. Want to drink more of it but after a couple or three you're starting to get a bit slurrey. Might try the same recipe but with more water volume and reduce ABV and up the batch volume a bit. Hopefully it wont dilute the flavour too much.

Got an Amber Ale with Rye ready to bottle at the weekend, and loads of recipes to brew over the coming weeks!

Yeah, plan is to brew this coming weekend, then do something else, maybe a sour, soon after. I do need to plan a red ale for August, but that should be far enough out for me to do properly.

A neighbour just dropped off some crates so I can actually store things without leaving bottles all over the place. I might have to get them in the cellar.

I tried the bucket of glycol in a freezer thing. Didn't work that well - not enough grunt (BTUs) for it and you ended up just equalising temps.

Supposedly using an air conditioner unit in the bucket of glycol works best

Anyone do wine….

I’ve a load of rubarb and I fancy making some rubarb wine but I’m an idiot and I haven’t a clue where to start.

Yes. I followed the rhubarb wine recipe in here:

https://uk.bookshop.org/books/booze-river-cottage-handbook-no-12/9781408817933?aid=5859

Anyway, back to beer. I've not brewed for ages - lockdown has meant that I'm not getting through my beers very quickly as there's been no-one to share them with. I plan to get back in the saddle with a golden ale in the style of Summer Lightning, but really push the late addition EKG. I have some harvested 1968 Wyeast which I will make a starter for this evening, hopefully brewing tomorrow and pitching on Friday. Otherwise it's an emergency trip to Wilko's for some Gervin.

In terms of temperature control, I manage just fine with a trug of water and an aquarium heater. I don't brew in the middle of summer (when the cupboard where the FV sits would be above 20) so I don't need cooling. Unless I'm using Kveik or Saison yeast.

Nothing at the minute, we're still waiting for the hawthorn flowers to open up (damn the cold weather!) but OH is currently on a nice dandelion IPA thing he made a few weeks ago. It basically a couple of litres of dandelion leaf infusion added to an IPA kit that's made up a couple of litres short and the dandelion leaf adds a different sort of bitterness which is really nice 🍺

Managed to get the fridge into the shed on my own last night and gave it a good clean. Hooked up the heating pad and the Inkbird and moved the Weissen over to it to finish off for a few days. Both the heating pad and the fridge seem to work, but the heating pad is slooooow.

If I can get my bottles, I'll see about getting the weissen in bottles son, otherwise I'll put another shelf in the fridge and get the saison done this weekend.

the heating pad is slooooow.

I use a small greenhouse heater in the bottom of the fridge, works a treat, has more ooomph than a heat pad. This kinda thing

https://www.toolstation.com/dimplex-thermostatic-tubular-heater-ipx4/p17033?store=KN&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkZiFBhD9ARIsAGxFX8Af4980L5Q2yVAbj41YSvsBNAfs7Pd6VjjtILbu1JqV_ZVEpjMsWnUaAq3-EALw_wcB

Gah, wish I had seen that before I had bought the Mangrove Jacks one. But... It does still seem to be working. Currently up to 22C and holding nicely, so I guess it works. Might not be super-good for a 27C Saison though.

It'll depend on ambient temp - your heater will be able to add x centigrade. How much you open the fridge and the insulation will affect how much above ambient temp you've lost and how much time it will take the heater to return to target temp.

Remember that fermentations are exothermic. Especially higher temp ones. A commercial whisky fermentation will go from 27c to 35c all by itself.
So your saison might add a few degrees itself.

Last year I made a lovely rhubarb wheat beer from a glut I had in the garden. Turned out really well.

Kayla what sort of flavour does the leaf give? I suppose could do the same with the petals?

Remember that fermentations are exothermic.

Remember that fermentations are exothermic. Especially higher temp ones.

Yup. That's why I sit mine in a trug of water, with an aquarium heater in the water. I get a nice even temperature.