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Currently have a La Chouffe type blone carbing in the keg, will be ready next week.
I was thinking about a stout for my next brew. Quite like the sound of the Four Shades of Stout recipe.
Mine will not save (still on the trial version of Brewer's Friend), but uses a 5kg grain bill of:
Pale Ale - 75%
Roasted Barley - 5%
Dark Crystal - 5%
Chocolate - 5%
Flaked Oats - 5%
Flaked Wheat - 5%
If I can't find flaked wheat in the storage, I'm going to swap it for either wheat malt or cornflakes. Hops are 20g Chinook at 60 mins for bittering and 15g of EKG at 5mins for aroma. I plan on using either the Lallbrew Voss or the Mangrove Jacks M42 New World Strong Ale yeast, depending on how I feel at the time. Both should be kind of neutral at 20C, with maybe a touch more fruit from the Voss. One packet _should_ be enough for the 10L batch.
Be nice that stout.
That recipe is oh so close to my Russian Winter srout a 5.3% coffee and chocolate bonanza
I pitch 34gm aa per bl in a 90 min boil, snd reduce by 6 %
Start around 54 and it usually gets casked around 12.5'
No late hops, and you might need more yeast. I use bl x og = pitched grams as a guide.
My third attempt has turned out drinkable, but I made mistakes again so it's not as it should be. I think my mash temp must have been too high as og was as desired, but fg was short. So I think it's turned out sweeter than it should have been. Still, it's turned out ok after a few weeks in the cellar.
Next up will be either a weissbier or a saison. My attempts at hoppy beers haven't worked. The hop flavour and aroma seems to get lost along the way. Presumably due to various mistakes in the process. Either that or my expectations for hoppiness are too high as I've been spoiled by modern massively hopped delights.
So I'm trying styles that rely less on hops. My previous attempt at a weissbier looked and tasted like one so I'm hoping I can better it next time.
So, what are the easiest styles for an amateur? Or what have you had most success with?
Cheers 🍻
No late hops, and you might need more yeast.
Yeah, I thought that too, but the Lallvin/brew/whatever calculator thinks I only need 12g of yeast and, since I heard that Kveik likes being underpitched, I thought I would gamble with 11g. The fallback is that Mangrove Jacks M42. I _think_ I have two packs of that in the fridge.
Simple for me is something like a SMASH IPA. Pick a quality pale ale malt and a hops that you like and make something with those. One of my most interesting beers was a SMASH with a hops I bought from a man in Sundsvall. I had no idea what AA% they are, or the flavours they would give, but it turned into one of the most interesting beers I have made. I actually bought a hops plant from him as well so that I could grow my own Korsta.
+1 to IPA smash. Or a bitter smash.
(SingleMaltSingleHop)
My Kveik APA turned out lovely. Golden Promise, 5% med crystal. Bittered with magnum to 38 ibu and 100g of cascade all at flameout. Fermented out in 36 hours at 35 Deg, then conditioned in secondary for a week or so. Unsurprisingly it tastes similar to SNPA, but a bit fruitier.
Kveik stout complete!
I ended up dropping 750g of pale malt from the bill to make sure that things would fit in my boil kettle, then adding a couple of handfuls of rice hulls because the mash stuck a few times.
Pre-boil gravity was within a point of the plan, but the OG came in low by 20. As this is the second time this has happened, I need to look at how my setup works at the boil stage I think. Whatever... it just means that the predicted 10% stout becomes a more drinkable 8-9%.
Anyway, all done. The Voss I used rehydrated like a charm and was showing airlock activity within an hour of pitching. I should find out whether it has exploded over the kitchen tomorrow.
Got what’ll end up being an alcoholic root beer in the fermenter at the mo. Was given a keg for my birthday so my first attempt at force carbing is also underway (marmalade ale called Paddington Beer).
Also got a plate chiller off a guy at our local brewery’s homebrew club, so a ton of stainless fittings are winging their way at the mo with a hope of testing it all out at the weekend. That way I can iron out the kinks before using it on a brew.
Also en route is some Lallemand Verdant yeast to have a pint at a soft and juicy English hopped IPA - you know, cos we all need a challenge 😂
Plate chillers are fun! But...
Really be careful about stuff getting in them. I forgot my hops spider last beer and only remembered when the 60 minute pellets left my hand. Those small pieces of hops can/did get into the chiller. Backwash the chiller with hot water and PBW and flush it out afterwards with a lot of water too. Be careful how you set up the hoses. I set mine up kind of badly and my sink looks like a hose factory gone wrong when I have things set up.
Also, if using QD fittings, just be aware that the cheaper ones might need some honing before they fit properly. I ended up using three grades of wet and dry paper and a power drill to make mine work smoothly.
Stout is going mad... I woke up this morning to hear the airlock glugging like a champ. That Voss is a beast.
Thanks for the tips! I use bags for my hops so debris is kept to a minimum anyway. Just started a proper cleaning routine since I got a recirculation pump and that seems to be working a treat (PBW), plan is to leave the chiller connected up and therefore it'll get 30 mins of cleaner running through it - good shout on a back-flush though.
It'll get stored in the house so hopefully it'll dry ok and won't store up issues for further brews - although the plan for that is to run boiling wort through it around the 30min mark thus killing anything before I drop it into the fermenter.
The fittings arrived today, so I've put it all together for a test over the weekend. Am now at the point where I hope it works as well as I think it will! I know it'll be trial and error, but at least with an in-line temp gauge I'll know what adjustments to make.
How's the stout @willard ? The Voss must be almost done by now if it's going like I've heard it does! As for your OG, have you more wort in the FV than you are expecting? if you're hitting the pre-boil numbers then all I can think it would be is a lower boil-off rate leaving you with more of a less concentrated wort.
Looking like my root beer's finishing primary so added my syrup which briefly livened things up a bit, but there's not much sugar in it so it's settled down again. Will check the FG early next week but will need to bottle my other beer to free up the keg for carbing.
@madhouse It was going off like mad when I left for the weekend and I think that it will be done by Monday, even with a day of rest. We shall see though as it has a lot of sugar to go through.
Good call on the boil-off rate. I try to plan around a 10 litre batch, but I got about 10.5 in the fermenter this time and the losses from the pump and the kettle all add up too. This worth was really clear (well, no garbage), so I could have put more in the fermenter. I've since downgraded my brewhouse efficiency a bit and will be dropping my boil-off rate for future brews.
Main problem? I think I was scared to have the hob on 9 when I was trying to clean, so it was on 8 and that was a light boil, not a rolling one.
@willard just found out what you mean about QD fittings, I tend to get them all from the same place to ensure they're consistent (angel homebrew) but they were out of stock so I got some from another supplier. The two are fractionally different! I'll be fine as long as I use that hose the right way around - although handily it won't fit the other way.
Bottled the marmalade ale yesterday, first ever force carbed brew and it was all ok fresh from the keg. We'll see if the bubbles survived the bottling, I used a beer gun so hopes are high.
Took advantage of the heatwave and brewed my saison on Saturday. So it's had 26 degrees plus in the attic all week. Certainly smells like a saison through the airlock. Fingers crossed it turns out drinkable.
Thanks for the smash suggestion. I'll give it a go. Can anyone suggest a good site for recipes and brew calculator? I've been brewing 11litre batches from brewstore so far.
Cheers 🍻
@davros I use brewersfriend.com, but I think the Grainfather people have a similar recipe maker and calculators.
@madhouse I ended up honing them down a thou or two with a power drill, a file and three grades of wet and dry. It was the same problem as you... QD female from one place, QD threaded male from another. They can work though.
Just a short update on the winter stout. It is still showing activity in the fermenter. The temperature is up to about 26, which the Voss seems to like, but it looks like I will be bottling this next week rather than this. Hopefully the weekend will allow it to finish off and I can get a Zappa pale ale brewed on Wednesday.
Bakey – just be careful as hell with your cleaning after using souring bacteria – they are persistent buggers and can infect your next “straight” brews. Especially if you use a plastic fermenter instead of glass or stainless steel. I also keep a separate set of gaskets, tubing and bottling wand just for infected beers.
Yourguitarhero - just spotted this. You're quite right, but this is a yeast which produces lactic acid as a byproduct; its not a Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast. I was extra careful with cleaning though and my current NEIPA in the Fermzilla hasn't been tainted.
Can anyone suggest a good site for recipes and brew calculator?
I use BeerSmith to calculate my brews, but as has been said, there's a load of calculators out there so just find one that you get on with. Took me a few brews to hone my equipment profiles and really get used to it.
Whether you're a fan of them or not BrewDog do something called "DIY Dog" which is all their recipes in one place. It's free to everyone and can be quite handy when looking for ideas, I used it the other day when I made a DDH WCIPA (that's Double Dry Hopped West Coast India Pale Ale in long-hand).
My beer was in no way a clone but it did give me a good idea around the style and hop timings, turned out great and I'm definitely brewing it again!!
Hell yes! As far as a free resource goes, that Brewdog PDF is amazing. If nothing else, it's great to flick through to find something that is in a style you like to see what they used.
One thing I got recommended was to keep notes. If something does go wrong, then you may get an idea from what you wrote down.
Whether you’re a fan of them or not BrewDog do something called “DIY Dog” which is all their recipes in one place. It’s free to everyone and can be quite handy when looking for ideas, I used it the other day when I made a DDH WCIPA (that’s Double Dry Hopped West Coast India Pale Ale in long-hand).
Even better, if you google it you'll find someone has done a searchable web version so you can look for particular styles, hops etc.
Have any of you STW Brewers used Sabro hops? I'm away to do a SMaSH pale ale using it.
Some of the flavour profiles I've read are interesting (coconut, lime, mint)!
OH did a good one recently- bit of malt, some hops, yeast + water. I have no idea what he used but it's nice.
Have any of you STW Brewers used Sabro hops?
Not used it although just looked it up - it sounds amazing! Would be great to know how you get on with it.
One thing I got recommended was to keep notes. If something does go wrong, then you may get an idea from what you wrote down.
I use OneNote, it means I can access it on phone & PC and as we use it at work I can look like I'm working while updating my brewing stuff 😀
I think that, as long as you do actually take notes, what you use is not super important. I use an actual notebook for brew days because the screen doesn’t lock on paper if I have to stir something, but I also add notes to the Brewersfriend app.
If I ever bother getting an iSpindel or a Tilt, they both hook into the website which will allow me to track fermentation too.
Just finished bottling my kveik fermented stout. It dropped to 1.022 and gave me 31 bottle of a 7% beer which is now conditioning with honey As the sugar source. I hope that calculation works better than my original plan!
1022 aaaaaand honey!
Boom
I would force 1 bottle and keep the other bottles nice and cool till you test the 1st one
It had a lot of dark malts in, is quite roasty. I think the honey will take the edge off it a little. We shall see...
That's a pretty high FG for a Kveik. I got one of my Kveik fermentations to 0.998! That's whisky fermentation territory....
Just poured my first glass of a Guinness-style porter I made a couple of months ago. Been conditioning and carbonating while I've been away on my bike.
Came out nice. An easy first taste and a small roast aftertaste that fades nicely - not harsh in any way.
Also did a double brewday at the weekend - a pilsner and a Wit beer - Blue Moon style. The wit hit FG in 36 hours! Slowly ramping up the temps to develop some esters.
My saison was supposed to finish at 1007 but it dropped all the way to 1000. Didn't appear to be infected in any way and I didn't ferment outside the temperature range. Bottled it anyway so I'll see how it turns out.
Lots of saison yeasts have a strain called diastaticus which produces very dry, heavily attenuated beers. I love that personally!
Make sure to properly clean your fermenting equipment as it can hang around and have the same effect on other beers you make
Well, the stout is a beer. Did my usual +7 days taste routine to check for carbonation and it seems fine. It felt a lot less astringent than it did on bottling, so I think it will continue to get better. I plan on crating about 2/3 of the bottles and leaving them in the basement for a few months to see how they turn out.
You are right about the FG. I was expecting it to go to about 1.018, but the airlock activity was non-existent after nearly 10 days, so I suspected it was done. Next time I will make something a bit less heavy and maybe oxygenate more.
Tomorrow is a 50/50 pale ale/pilsner Pale Ale with a shit-load of Zappa hops for aroma and dry hopping. Should be a 4.6% or so summer ale.
My saison was supposed to finish at 1007 but it dropped all the way to 1000. Didn’t appear to be infected in any way and I didn’t ferment outside the temperature range. Bottled it anyway so I’ll see how it turns out.
Probably fine. I bottled my last Saison at 1003, in plastic and heavy glass bottles due to the high carbonation level.
Just finished a Pale Ale with Vic Secret and Zappa hops. Amazingly, was pretty much on the predicted numbers. I think changing the boil-off value lower made the difference.
All I have to do now is get the 50g dry hop in on Sunday night and I should be good for a nice, sessionable beer.
Brewed another batch of my DDH West Coast IPA at the weekend, it's fermenting away nicely in the brew fridge.
70g of hops in the boil, dry hop with 30g of hops to go in on day 6 and another 70g on day 8. Not bad for a 10L batch!!
Bottled a pale ale yesterday, the 5g/litre dry hop has given it a really good smell and I can’t wait for the seven day taste to see what it is like. The only other dry hopped beer I have done so far used Nelson Sauvin and was really good, so I am hoping that Zappa does similar good things.
On a related note, I had a beer from a local place last night that claimed Citra, Amarillo and Mosaic hops and was called ‘Hopsession’. Amarillo is one of my favourite hops and this really underperformed in both taste and smell. Still a very drinkable beer, just left me feeling like I missed something
We have plentiful of apples of the apple tree in our garden and I fancy making some cider from them. Does anyone have any recipes or recommendations that would help me get started? Many thanks
Willard,they probably under-hopped it.It's a lovely combination,but you need to put plenty in,and dry hop too.
Yeah, that's my thought as well. A shame, but it is still a really drinkable beer.
On a side note, the guy I work with has started bribing people at work with my beer to get people into the office for meetings. Looks like my next batch is going to get brewed next week (Pale ale with Vic Secret for bittering, Topaz and Simcoe for flavour and aroma) and will likely be used tactically as bribes.
I'm now wondering how I can explain hops and other ingredients on an expense claim.
The new hops are here and the brew planning is going to happen tonight. It's the same beer as I made last time, but with different hops.
In other news, the elderberry wine has finally kicked off and is fermenting nicely. It smells amazing.
This is good timing, I've just switched off the burner under the brew kettle.
I think my brews are simpler (extract rather than full grain) than most on here, but they come out pretty well. This one's 250g Crystal 180 steeped in 8l for about three quarters of an hour, in with 20g each of Target and Challenger for an hour's boil, with 10g of EKG in for the last ten mins. That'll go in the fermenter with 2.5kg of DME, topped up to 23l. Should be a nice session bitter hopefully.
I have a mild that has been cold crashing for 4 days.
It needs to go into the keg, which is still full of aother brew. Only issue is the CO2 has run out.
Also just finished harvesting 3.5 kg of goldings. Which are now about 1kg of dried ready to use hops. First brew will be an ESB with only them. I'll also dry hop with them.
Ah, lucky you! My Cascade and challenger plants got off to a Late start and I don’t think the fruit will ripen in time to harvest.
Just finished another brew, another light, hopefully hoppy pale ale with Vic Secret, Simcoe and Topaz. This is primarily going to be used to bribe people at work to get things done.
Today is bottling day for the latest beer but, after a few decent NEIPAs in the last week or so, I plan on brewing on Wednesday night as well, a NEIPA this time. I have a fair lot of Citra, Amarillo and Galaxy in and bought some of the Verdant yeast that Lallemand put out to see what it is like.
I did have the recipe on Brewersfriend, but Chrome restarted and only saved the damned name of it. Ah well.
Not quite homebrew but I make cider every year around this time of year. First press this weekend got 70 litres from this lot.
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I'll do at least one more gather and press this year...
Nice!! We were hoping to do something similar, but the pruning we gave the trees set them back a lot in fruit production. Next year we should be good for it though.
Cider counts by the way, so does mead.
Brewed up a NEIPA last night with Citra, Amarillo and Galaxy hops. The first dry hop charge is going in tomorrow and the second one about six days after that. Fingers crossed it turns out ok. Also, used a packet of the Lallbrew Verdant IPA yeast to see what it was like. I hope it pushes the fruity esters and enhances the hops.