Viewing 40 posts - 521 through 560 (of 714 total)
  • Brewers of STW
  • Clobber
    Free Member

    Yeah, Peter, you’ve been very good at sharing your info on here! Thanks!

    That synek looks great but pricey! with respect to smaller batches you’ve obviously not told your friends about your brewin, when one of mine is ready they all pile over and it’s gone before I know it hence the longer brew length…

    I also want to be able to do a decent size batch for special occasions etc..

    NZCol
    Full Member

    Careful, i started with 40 then 60 then 100 then 1500 litres – slippery slope 😉

    Clobber
    Free Member

    how many grainfathers can you bring in then Col?

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    davidrussell
    Free Member

    Just popped a brew i bottled back in early sept, so about 9 weeks in the bottle. Its definitely benefited from more time in the bottle, the off flavours are definitely reduced and the aroma and bitterness are actually mellowed. carbonation, colour and clarity is pretty good too. actually enjoying it, although its not perfect. Fired me up a bit for a brew at the weekend though! I have 100g each of east kent goldings and centennial and plenty of MO. i’m thinking a smash with centennial? I’d like to do something with a hop overload at the end, keep the bitterness down to make sure its not one of the flavours i’m getting.

    as a final note i’d echo the thoughts above too. this is one of my favourite threads on here and the generosity of knowledge, advice and good natured banter is great. Some of the threads on here could do with following this example.

    singletrackmind
    Full Member

    Maybe what you perceive to be off flavours are just normal flavours produced during fermentation that havent reduced to a low level. Diacetyl is noticable at tiny amounts, DMS at higher levels can guve green beer a skanky nose .
    Then there are vicinal diketones (sp) that can make you think your beer is made up of vegetables.

    Centenial is a great hop ,try a load in a muslin bag in the FV maybe?

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Good stuff david, glad to see the patience paid off! 🙂

    Go for around 100g of hops at 20/10/0 mins…loads of aroma flavour and a nice, rounded bitterness. Play around with beersmith, but you should still hit around 40-50 IBUs just using bucket loads of late additions. Have a read at this on Mr Malty. I rarely do 60 min additions anymore.

    Also, +1 for liking this thread…definitely one of my favourites on here.

    davidrussell
    Free Member

    quite possibly singletrackmind, i’m just not sure what i was smelling / tasting to start with as i couldn’t put my finger on it!

    i’m going to seek out some experienced brewers (i have a line into a commercial brewer) and get their honest opinion on it. i know PF is reasonably local to me (central Scotland) so anyone else local? we could meet for a bike ride somewhere and have a wee tasting session mid ride? might not be conducive to shralping the gnar afterwards though…

    rewski
    Free Member

    I’ve tried two bottles of my first batch after 10 days bottle conditioned today, on the whole it’s not bad, it’s a little tangy almost acidic but has a good nose, I wondered at the time whether I used enough sugar, I was being cautious. I also wondered whether my garage was too cold for storage. I’m going to leave it alone for a few more weeks to see what happens.

    durhambiker
    Free Member

    Cracking thread, just spent a while reading through from the beginning. Last Christmas when we were all a bit skint the entire family gave each other stuff they had but didn’t use as gifts, and I ended up with the brother-in-law’s homebrew stuff. So far only got as far as doing a couple of brews of the same kit (Wilko’s Meixcan Cerveza) but I’m keen on having a go at BIAB. So after being inspired by this thread I’m going to put a bit of a shopping list together and wait for my Christmas tips to roll in at work and get everything I need to make a start

    peterfile
    Free Member

    I’m keen on having a go at BIAB. So after being inspired by this thread I’m going to put a bit of a shopping list together and wait for my Christmas tips to roll in at work and get everything I need to make a start

    Do it! Great time of year to start too (you can brew on days when the weather doesn’t warrant going for a ride and less worry of fermentation temps getting out of hand).

    I’m not sure what kit you’ve got already, but Bazz posted a link to this deal the other day on here. Quite frankly, it’s an absolute bargain! I’d be impressed if you could put together a similar package for less.

    My PH meter arrived the other day, along with some buffer solution. I’ve been playing with it over the last few days to see how well it holds after calibration. Initial impressions are excellent. I’m getting accuracy of 0.01 to 0.02! Considering I only need to be accurate to 0.1, it’s good news.

    Will be interesting to see how far out my water chemistry adjustments are. The beer has been tasting much better since the tweaks, but I suppose I won’t know what I’m actually hitting until I test it. Quite excited.

    I’m very close to pre ordering one of those Grainfathers. The only thing holding me back is a potential house move, which would mean a dedicated space for brewing and the ability to custom build something. Then again, due to the limited availability I’m pretty sure I could shift the Grainfather with ease if it’s no longer needed.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Used my pH meter for the first time last night (it’s an Extech PH100, which seems to be a good balance of price and accuracy for brewing).

    I was actually a bit nervous when I drew a sample from the mash, since I’ve invested quite a bit of time learning about the water chemistry side of things (mostly because I find it interesting), and didn’t want to find out I was way off the mark.

    Brewed an IPA i’ve brewed before and was shooting for a mash pH of 5.4. By either good science or sheer fluke, I hit 5.41! I’d have been happy anywhere between 5.3-5.5, so really pleased.

    I suppose it’s also confirmed that the £18 spent on water analysis and initial treatment recommendations from Murphy’s was well worth it too. Given that my mash additions were designed to bring down the pH, I wonder what it would have been sitting at if I’d left the water untreated?

    I’ve noticed a big difference in my pales since fixing my water. They were tasty before, but felt a little one dimensional and the hops always seemed muted, regardless of how much I used. Now I feel like the hops are clearer and have a bit more zing to them, more defined.

    I’d definitely recommend Murphy’s water testing and treatment recommendation service. I emailed the lab a few times afterwards with questions about my report and help with styles and they were always prompt and helpful with their responses. A bargain at £18 IMO if you fancy tinkering with your water.

    chambord
    Free Member

    Don’t want to start a new thread so I’ll stick this here:

    I’m looking for a brewing heat belt for a 25L fermenting bucket – can anyone recommend a good one?

    Also are lagers normally hopped? – The belt is a gift for someone who has just started brewing (lager) and is using the tins, however so far they haven’t had much luck. I wonder whether I could buy him some posh hops to stick in to improve flavour a bit?

    Cheers brew boffins of STW

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    I wouldn’t recommend one to be honest

    a) the heat is too close to localised portions of the brew
    b) there’s little to no control
    and
    c) lager yeasts prefer lower temperatures anyway. better to ferment lower, slower for lager. Lager yeast prefers temperatures below 18deg, ideally 12-15. If you ferment at too high a temperature, there’s a risk of all sorts of odd flavours being introduced.

    Hops are used in lagers, yes. Often Saaz, Tettnang, Hallertauer etc. But if your friend is brewing from kits, there will be hops already in there; you don’t want to be adding late / dry hops to lagers, that’s more of an ale trick, particularly hoppy ales such as IPAs or American Pale Ales.

    Do you know what brand of kits? some will give better results than others. e.g. Hambleton Bard & Coopers kits will give better results than Geordie or John Bull, for example.
    Better to change the fermentables – if currently using common or garden sugar, switch to brewer’s sugar, or better still, spraymalt (dried malt extract).

    Clobber
    Free Member

    The main reason I increased the size of stockpot was so that I could do a full volume BIAB, and also to ensure I was getting a full 10l into the fermenter. I now don’t need to dunk sparge or top up the boil volume, I’m still hitting 70% efficiency and I’ve obviously got one less step to do

    GREAT CALL! Just brewed like this, hitting over 70% with it also. Won’t muck about again!

    Bigger pot and full volume biab FTW!

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Bigger pot and full volume biab FTW!

    Aye, it certainly makes the whole process a lot easier! 🙂

    Also, the 19 litre pot still fits comfortably into my fan oven, so I’m still able to hold mash temps within 0.5 degrees.

    I just bottled an IPA that I’ve brewed before, but this time I used fresh malt and those uber tasty Nikobrew hops. Took a sample when i bottles (obviously!) and it was delicious. Can’t wait for it to carb up!

    This was also the first beer I’ve cold crashed. I crashed for 72 hours to drop all of the pellets out of suspension that I threw in for dry hopping. Worked very well, it all formed a nice tight layer on the bottom on the FV.

    scotlandthedave
    Free Member

    hey all, been a wee while since i posted on here previously (my forum name has changed due to going premier, but not too hard to reconcile who i was 🙂 ) hope you are all well.

    I haven’t brewed for a couple of months sadly.My last creation was a citra double IPA which is quite potent and worked out reasonably well, but the hop burst isn’t really shining through. I almost get a note of pine from the Citra hops, but its quite subtle – not unpleasant though.

    the thread on the front page reminded me to post here. Thanks to a very generous Christmas present from the GLW I’m off to Stewart brewing in Edinburgh this weekend to brew with them for the day. Quite excited about it actually, i think we have a consultation to decide what to brew, then get on and create something. Go back in 3 weeks time to bottle. I can’t wait to get a professional perspective on my skills and hopefully pick up some tips. i’m planning to take one of my bottles along to get their view on it too, so i’ll let you all know how it goes!

    This was also the first beer I’ve cold crashed. I crashed for 72 hours to drop all of the pellets out of suspension that I threw in for dry hopping. Worked very well, it all formed a nice tight layer on the bottom on the FV.

    what temp did you cold crash at PF? 5-6 degrees?

    yourguitarhero
    Free Member

    I think I’ll upgrade to a bigger pot.
    Just re-done my kitchen and put in an induction hob, the Massive Brewery pot is lacking in ferrous metals and doesn’t work on it unfortunately.

    That eBay 19 litre one looks OK, stainless steel.

    Also looks like I’m having to change the central heating system in my flat. While an annoying expense, the upside is that it frees up a big cupboard after we remove the old water tanks.

    While I may make it into a sauna, I may also use it as a brewery!

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Thanks to a very generous Christmas present from the GLW I’m off to Stewart brewing in Edinburgh this weekend to brew with them for the day. Quite excited about it actually, i think we have a consultation to decide what to brew, then get on and create something. Go back in 3 weeks time to bottle. I can’t wait to get a professional perspective on my skills and hopefully pick up some tips. i’m planning to take one of my bottles along to get their view on it too, so i’ll let you all know how it goes!

    That sounds fantastic david! Take some pictures!

    what temp did you cold crash at PF? 5-6 degrees?

    Whatever temperature my kitchen fridge sits at 🙂 I think it’s about 4 degrees!

    I’ve just bottled a hoppy amber. I brewed the amber a while back and loved it, but the thing that struck me at the time was how good it would be with a nice session type hoppy amber. Can’t wait to try it.

    I’ve actually not brewed in a month or so (longest for a while!). Might try to rectify that tomorrow!

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Back on the brew here after some months off – can anyone recommend a good stout BIAB recipe?
    I’m not a huge stout drinker tbh, but it would make a nice change from the usual IPA stuff I do. Am I right in thinking that you still use a predominant pale malt base for stout?

    peterfile
    Free Member

    I’ve got belter of an oatmeal stout, great for using up ingredients too!…

    This is for 10 litres, so adjust accordingly

    1800g pale
    500g flaked oats
    175g British caramalt
    140g roasted barley
    135g chocolate malt
    115g carapils
    60g black malt
    60g flaked barley

    18g northern brewer @ 60 mins
    16g cluster @ 15 mins

    67 degree mash.

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    I’be got a nice recipe for a double chocolate stout, loosely based on Saltaire Brewery’s Triple Chocoholic (speaking of which I’ve just put a bottle in the fridge for Ron).
    And a loverly London Porter recipe too, if that floats yer boat.

    Not on the pc tonight so will post them both up tomorrow

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Thks Peter, looks good.

    Be good to see those recipes as well John, cheers – don’t think I’ve ever brewed a stout, so keen to give it a whirl.

    scotlandthedave
    Free Member

    i did my brew day too – great fun! I’ll post some pics / a long and boring story atthe weekend.

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    Double Chocolate Stout
    to make 23 litres at OG 1045 (to give 19 litres in the fermenter) so adjust your quantities as necessary. The nearest commercial beer to this is Saltaire Brewery Triple Chocoholic

    3855g Pale Malt
    568g Chocolate Malt
    219g flasked oats
    219g Torrified Wheat
    110g Black Roasted Barley
    110g Cocoa Powder (well I did say it was a Double Chocolate stout)
    Mash at 68degC for 60 minutes

    Boil for 90 minutes
    44g Fuggles at 90 mins
    11g Fuggles at 10 minutes
    11g Fuggles at 0 minutes
    Ferment at 20degC with Danstar Nottingham yeast rehydrated as per packet instructions

    London Porter
    to make 27 litres at OG 1044 so adjust as necessary. I make 27 litres with 4 litres in the dead space below the tap, aiming to get 23 litres in the fermenter. Nearest commercial beer to this is Fullers London Porter

    4467g Pale Malt
    654g Brown Malt
    347g Crystal 120
    255g Chocolate Malt
    127g Torrified Wheat
    mash for 60 minutes at 67degC

    Boil for 60 minutes
    84g Fuggles at 60 minutes
    26g Fuggles at 10 minutes

    Ferment at 20degC with Danstar Nottingham yeast

    peterfile
    Free Member

    110g Cocoa Powder (well I did say it was a Double Chocolate stout)

    John, I’ve done a few chocolate stouts recently. The first one I did was using cocoa powder, but it didn’t turn out as great as I expected. After a bit of digging I found that cacao is supposed to be a much better alternative for brewing than cocoa powder.

    Managed to pick up a block of 100% madagascan black cacao from wholefoods and added that instead the next time I brewed the recipe…FANTASTIC! Well worth trying it next time you’re trying something with chocolate.

    My most recent one was experimenting with cacao nibs, soaked in dark rum for a few days before being added to secondary. It’s still a bit young, but initial tastings have revealed a lovely, subtle chocolate layer.

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    sounds interesting, I’ll give that a try next time I brew the Choc Stout

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Do you find that these stouts can be on the sweet side? I guess that big maltiness is part and parcel of a stout, but it’s not something I’d like to go OTT on. Prefer the minerally bitterness you can get with some of them.

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    mine isn’t especially sweet, but boiling 44g of fuggles for 90 minutes will raise the bitterness level enough to offset the sweetness. You could up the amount of hop to increase the bitterness still further

    Clobber
    Free Member

    Hey Peter, did you ever get your grainfather?

    NZCol
    Full Member

    If anyone wants one i have one on order due in a couple of weeks that due to time constraints i won’t be needing.

    Clobber
    Free Member

    Interested NZCol, sent you a mail

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Clobber, I was waiting for Col’s review 🙂

    Doh! Col, if clobber doesn’t want that grainfather…………

    yourguitarhero
    Free Member

    That grainfather looks awesome! Very easy.
    I like their kegerator too

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    Just bottled my latest batch. American IPA 36 bottles at 6.3% ABV. Should be ready just in time for my 50th anniversary of entering this world. One thing to look forward to I suppose 😕

    mugsys_m8
    Full Member

    Sounds good Johndrummer. Hope it tastes great.

    All: So my next step on this wonderful discovery, I have decided is to dry hop.

    So I have a brew ready to bottle. it’s nothing special, more of a clear out of stuff I had. It’s BIAB using the basic massive brewery recipe, but using some crystal malt. So it’s 2kg of Maris Otter, 500g of crystal malt. Goldings hops 16 g at 0 minutes and 34g at 55 minutes. Using Safale S-04.

    So how do I dry hop it and with what and how much and how long?
    I now have phoenix, amorillo, williamette, and goldings at my disposal in a flake style rather than pellet

    I usually use decant from primary into a bottling bucket and add a sugar solution in mass rather than per bottle. Do I decant into a bottling bucket, add the hops in a hop bag, wait for a period of time, take the hops out then add the sugar solution etc.

    All suggestions really appreciated. I’m guessing Peterfile is out winter climbing!

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Normal practice is to rack it out of the secondary fermenter, once the dry hopping period is finished, into a bottling bucket containing your sugar solution and bottle from there.

    It’s true that there’s very little detritus in the secondary, so I think it would prob be fine to bottle direct, in principle. You would need to take care with adding the sugar solution, though – that would take a very long time to mix thoroughly with the bulk beer just on standing, and trying to stir it in is something to be avoided. So I’d prob prime each bottle individually if I wanted to do this.

    mugsys_m8
    Full Member

    ah. So I could just stick a hop bag into the primary bucket and leave for a period of time (once primary fermentation has finsihed)? Then proceed as normal: racking into the bottling bucket ontop of the sugar solution?

    mugsys_m8
    Full Member

    Think I will go with 40g of Williamette for 3 days.

    Does that sound o.k?

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    You could do that yeah – dry hopping the primary is a well known technique. Remember to sterilise the hop bag if you’re using one.

    Depends on what you think of the whole secondary fermenter idea in the first place. Helps to clarify the ale, and is claimed to benefit taste by getting shut of the yeast trub and associated break-down products. Some folk think that’s bobbins, though, and never bother with them. Only way to know is to brew it yourself and draw your own conclusios.

    yourguitarhero
    Free Member

    Was at Brew dog’s brewery yesterday, very impressive!
    Luckily I was working, so now have money to spend on brew gear.
    Guys there advised me about plastic pressure kegs, gonna try that put.

    Getting a new central heating system next weekend, so emptying a cupboard currently taken up with water tanks so gonna build a brewery in there.

Viewing 40 posts - 521 through 560 (of 714 total)

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