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Just started drinking an Amarillo single hop, from the Greg Hughes book, I brewed 5 weeks ago.
It's very good.
Second batch of Ginger beer here has just about finished fermenting - 1st batch was surprisingly good, light and refreshing and went down far to easily 🙂
It started to ferment much quicker this time, maybe cos I mixed the yeast with warm water to start it off, last time I just tipped the yeast into the demi john.
How do you work out the alcoholic strength?
You need to measure the gravity of the solution before you ferment, then compare it to the gravity after fermenting. There are tools that then calculate the ABV for you.
Brewersfriend is your... friend
Mashout temps can't really be too high. They can be too low, but anywhere from 75c to 100c works. The purpose of the mash-out is to denature any amolytic enzymes (mainly α-amylase, β-amylase, and limit dextrinase) with the heat and stop them breaking down the sugars any further than what you had intended with your mash temperature (where there is a trade off between alcohol yield and body).
First graph is a general enzyme one, not related to the ones I mentioned above
Cracked open a bottle of Yorkshire Bastard last night, after a couple of weeks' conditioning, and that's coming up lovely.
Belgian Bastard (Nelson Sauvin) is being bottled at the weekend, and I'll get the Bastard Boltmaker (EKG/Fuggles) on the go.
There's a theme with my brewnames 🙂
@yourguitarhero Thank you for posting that, it helped me understand the purpose of mashout a bit beter!
Racked off a West Coast IPA yesterday and started the double dry-hop - next lot of hops go in tomorrow. Looks a little darker than planned but that may just be the volume and lack of light in a steel brew bucket. Smelt good though!
Lockdown's been good for brewing, made a challenge brew as some friends game me their home-grown grapes (hazy Brut IPA with Nelson Sauvin & Mosaic hops - it's drinkable but I wouldn't add grapes to beer again). Also made a marmalade amber ale which ideally needs another week in the fridge before drinking but I may cave in at the weekend and try one.
Just made a root-beer syrup to add to an amber ale base as my mate likes root-beer and I thought I'd make him some alcoholic stuff.
To-do list involves a Pilsner with Saaz hops, a Belgian and something using Kviek yeast as I've not made/used any of that lot before.
Just made a root-beer syrup to add to an amber ale base as my mate likes root-beer and I thought I’d make him some alcoholic stuff.
Oooh, hello, tell me more...
Hehehehehe. That might be a good recipe for BBQs later in the year you know.
I too have some Kveik in the fridge. Was actually thinking about using it for the winter tout I have planned for August, but I am not sure how it will impact the taste of something like that. Guen the grain bill and the high predicted OG, I don't really want to experiment with something that will take a long time to condition.
1.4L water, 85g Sarsaparilla root, 15g burdock root, 1tsp coriander seeds, 1 Star Anise, 1 clove, 60g black treacle, 2 drops wintergreen extract.
Dry ingredients + water in a pan, boil then simmer for 15mins. Add treacle, simmer for another 5. Remove from heat, add wintergreen, let it cool to room temp. Then strain and let the roots rest in the strainer for 30 mins - don't be tempted to give them a squeeze. I've stopped here this time but if you want to make a syrup to keep in the fridge then just return it to the heat with the same amount of sugar by volume to the liquid you have.
Sarsaparilla, burdock & wintergreen all came from eBay, can't get leaf wintergreen in the UK it seems.
My plan is for a simple amber base using Pale malt with a touch of crystal will use a touch of Magnum to bitter but not much. Then add the above at secondary fermentation.
To-do list involves a Pilsner with Saaz hops,
That's my next one. A Pilsner Urquell clone. I did a batch a couple of years back and it was fantastic. Way better than the real commercial one! Very simple as well.
Mashout temps can’t really be too high. They can be too low, but anywhere from 75c to 100c works
Good to know, thanks. Beersmith instructions are 75.6C held for 10 minutes, but I got distracted and it was nearer 90C by the time I noticed. I BIAB and only do a mashout as I have noticed a small but consistent increase in OG when I perform this step.
@gobuchul - did you do all that decoction malarkey with the pilsner or just a regular mash?
Also I can't tie up the brew fridge for 4-6 weeks to lager it so just planning to lager it in the beer fridge, that should be ok shouldn't it?
@gobuchul – did you do all that decoction malarkey with the pilsner or just a regular mash?
Also I can’t tie up the brew fridge for 4-6 weeks to lager it so just planning to lager it in the beer fridge, that should be ok shouldn’t it?
Nothing fancy at all. Really simple.
23 litre batch.
4.7kg of pilsner malt. (I added a little carapils the last time I did it. 3% or so)
1hr mash at 65c
Boil time 75 mins
50g of Saaz at 75 mins
20g of Saaz at 10 mins
20g of Saaz at 0 mins
Ferment at 12c
Lager at 3c for 4 weeks (Beer fridge will be fine)
Cool, thanks for that. I bottle carb, should I bottle and then lager or lager and then bottle (possibly with additional yeast)?
When making a lager, let the beer come up to room temp (18c) for 2 days just before the end of fermentation and before the chilled lagering conditioning phase. This can help volatilise off diacetyl which can give a butterscotch flavour that is generally unwanted in that beer.
lager and then bottle
I use corny kegs and don't bottle.
I know a lot of people use those 25l sealed containers for lagering, before they bottle.
Not sure how much yeast will be left to kick in secondary when you bottle though?
Maybe @yourguitarhero knows more?
As always, i recommend going over to https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/ great little forum, loads of knowledge and very friendly.
Lager then bottle with some priming sugar, leaving the bottle at room temp for 2 weeks. They'll be nice that way.
Lager then bottle with some priming sugar,
So enough of the yeast survives the lagering to kick in when primed?
As always, i recommend going over to> https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/
You may even see some names you recognise 😉
Yes, you can secondary ferment after lagering.
I've got an all grain pilsner just bottle conditioning, and there's a hopback summer lightning clone about to go on.
After that, who knows? A preposterous IPA using a pound of hops for a 5 gallon batch perhaps.
So long as you can see a haze in the beer there should be sufficient active cells to condition a Lager . Bar bright can have up to 10,000 cells per ml so thusands floating around. May take a little longer with a low yeast count, but if you can force a few bottles a week will give you a good idea of fizz potential
Well, after getting a 10L batch of Belgian Dubbel done and in the fermenter in Monday, I decided to double down and put a 10L batch of a surprisingly strong single hop summer IPA in a second fermenter.
My plan is to bottle the Dubbel on Monday night if it is done resting, then dry hop the IPA on Wednesday or Thursday so it has the weekend to absorb those lovely Nelson Sauvin flavours, then bottle that the Monday after.
May is looking to be a tasty month.
Well, the Dubbel got bottled last night. It finished out at about 1.010 giving about a 7.3% ABV beer that tastes really quite Belgiany. It does need to condition a bit though and is quite hazy at the moment.
In other news, I got bored on Sunday and made an experimental sour beer with minimal hopping and inoculated with a sourdough starter I had in the fridge. The grain bill was 85% Pale Ale and 15% wheat malt, a 30 minute boil with 5g of citra at the start and 5g of Ekaunot at 0 mins. It took a while to get going, but is now fermenting well. Even though it currently looks like shit, I have high hopes for it.
The summer IPA is getting a 50g dry hopping of Nelson Sauvin tomorrow and will get bottled on Monday. That should be a lovely beer too, it certainly smells amazing right now.
Bottling day today. 20l of IPA, White Shield style. Tastes quite promising.
I managed to get an order from Malt Miller so have pale malt, hops and yeast. If anyone has top tips for using kveik, please share them!
Broke lockdown, went to my girlfriend's house, kegged two brews, got laid and came home. Now drunk.
For Kveik, ferment hot if you can. Can go up to about 45c and you get insane fermentation performance. You need >30c to get any esters, else it's just aneutral (fast) yeast.
Also, set up a blow off tube as it will burst through your airlock.
^cheers. I have an aquarium heater that goes up to 35 I think.
Bottled a West Coast DDH IPA yesterday, wow that smelt amazing and tasted just as good - classic WC bitterness and hops all day long.
Started my first pilsner today, all went well and it’s now chilling down to a pitching temp of 12 degrees. I bottle carb so it’s not a brew for the purists but hopefully it’ll come out ok.
Update on the iSpindel. Tilt angle suddenly started to be a constant 0 degrees. Tried reflashing it and then it wouldn't connect to Ubidots.
After much faffing around, I finally downloaded Visual Studio Code, installed the PlatformIO extension, synced to the Github repository, added my own console output statements and found that if the accelerometer fails, iSpindel loops.
New accelerometer on the way from China.
That is not terribly confidence inspiring... Maybe I do not need one _just_ yet.
Monday was a busy day. The Nelson Sauvin IPA came out of the bucket and got bottled (managed to get 9.8L in the end, which is nice), but it does not seem to have as much of the blackcurrant hop taste as I thought it would yet. Maybe it just needs to condition a bit more. We'll see in a couple of weeks.
I also bottled about 4L of the experimental sour I made with the sourdough starter. It was very hazy and orange in the demijohn and stayed that way after shifting to a bright tank for the priming sugar addition. It's now in bottles and the sneaky taste confirmed that it was sour. Only a little bit mind, but sour.
I've also given up with the recirculation pump I ordered through Amazon. Delivery lost initially and the replacement not sent for "QC" issues. I ended up finding the same pump at a place in Sweden, so ordered it from them. Just annoyed at the delay from the first purchase.
What recirculation pump did you get? Am currently thinking of adding one to improve efficiency.
It was one of the high temperature ones with a stainless head and 1/2BSP connectors. The pump is labelled as a ‘Magnetic Pump’ here: https://www.thehomebrewery.co.uk/magnetic-pump-mp-15rm-stainless-steel-head
When the initial order got messed up, I had thought about getting something like a chugger or a riptide, but those are a lot more expensive. This is cheap enough to justify given my current level of brewing, even though it was more expensive than the initial order. This means I can recirculate, whirlpool and also use the plate chiller.
Just been asked to make a batch of "pale ale or IPA, something simple, something easy to drink" for a friend. Needs to be ready tog o early July, so it looks like I'm brewing again next weekend.
Trying to decide whether to use the Zappa hops, or some of the domestic ones I got from a man in Sundsvall. Or Mosaic.
This does mean I get to use the new re-circulation pump though. Tried it yesterday with the plate chiller and I think I have managed to seal up the joins/fittings enough.
Update on the iSpindel - accelerometer arrived from China, old one desoldered and new one fitted. All working fine again. Desoldering the through pins was a pain so I've ordered some desoldering braid in the unlikely event I need to so something similar in the future. Also, modern lead free solder needs a higher temperature!
Girlfriend was flying tunnel this morning with her team, so I decided to make a quick batch of beer so I can keep the bottles filled. It was also a good excuse to try out The recirculating pump and plate chiller.
Recipe was a SMASH with Viking pale ale malt and domestic Korsta hops at 60, 15 and 0. It should be about 45 IBUs and quite pale, but I have no idea what AA content the hops are.
The pump worked well. No leaks from hose QDs, coped with the mash temps and the sterilisation during the late boil. I ended up mashing with the hob on about 2 to keep the temp up, so it for sure dumps heat. As for the plate chiller. Wow. About 6-8 minutes to drop from boiling to 20C. A pain to clean, but quick as hell.
Will see if the beer has kicked off tomorrow night, but it should be ok.
Tried my WC IPA yesterday, tastes great, not quite clear yet but that’s not an issue.
Bottled the Pilsner today, tastes ok and carbonation will make a big difference. Still a good few weeks before I can try it though.
Finished making the recirculation kit today too, magnetic pump from eBay, quick disconnects and a bit of 15mm pipe with holes drilled in it. Worked well with water, hope to try it on wort soon.
Ooooh! You made a sprinkler head for it? What sort of pipe, copper? I ended up just clamping the hose to the side and letting the mash water circulate around in the kettle.
I just checked my notes and it seems that I actually got within a point of my predicted numbers for Pre-Boil and original gravities, so this my be about the first time I have been actually close to hitting my theoretical brew-house efficiency.
A bozo question for the experienced brewists:
I've just bottled my second batch of all-grain using a basic set up. The results are drinkable but share the same off-flavour which I believe is phenolic, from using untreated/unfiltered tap water.
I have my ingredients for the next brew day. Should I use tap water with a campden tablet or bottled water from the supermarket? Is either likely to give better results than the other?
If this next batch is poor I'll probably give up!
Cheers!
^ I just put half a crushed campden tablet in tap water and have never had a problem. You could also try letting your water sit overnight, so chlorine would evaporate.
What about your cleaning regime? Are you using bleach?
Thanks Ransos, that sounds promising. I've been using a powdered no rinse sanitiser so I don't think it's bleach based.
sorting your water out makes a MASSIVE difference IMO. Think Tesco Ashbeck was the "go to" cheapo mineral water when I was using it a few years back. A lot of them are labelled (or you can find out) with the mineral content so you can tweak it if required to the particular beer style. Definitely worth doing if you're not brewing massive batches & hence using loads of water. Ended up going the extra step & sending off a water sample to Murphy's for analysis (was a lot cheaper back then, just checked and it's £35 now!). You can then use a water calculator to work out what you've got to add to it to get it the way you want it. The beer always came out great (if I may blow my own trumpet 😎)I have my ingredients for the next brew day. Should I use tap water with a campden tablet or bottled water from the supermarket? Is either likely to give better results than the other?
Definitely DO NOT just use untreated tapwater if you care about how the beer tastes!!
The results are drinkable but share the same off-flavour which I believe is phenolic, from using untreated/unfiltered tap water.
Ah, this is an interesting point. My brews have a certain mildly-off taste, doesn't render them undrinkable but is definitely there. I don't treat the water, maybe I should. I know I'm in a hard water, no flourine area.
What about your cleaning regime? Are you using bleach?
I use Chemsan, the instructions for which says that if it goes cloudy the water may need to be treated. I'll be honest, it goes a bit cloudy, but I've never taken any notice...
Thanks zilog, I definitely won't be using untreated again. The campden tablets are already in the post but I was wondering whether bottled water would make it even less likely to end up with the same result. It's very demoralising spending all that time and getting excited for poor results!
I'm sure I made many mistakes during the first two brews so it wouldn't surprise me if it relates to another issue, but reading about the different off-flavours and tasting yesterday I'm hopeful it's the water. 🤞
@davros all my early brews were done with cheapo bottled water (5L jugs from supermarket), didn't have a bad one!!