Homebrewists of STW, brewing ‘owt at the moment?

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.

yeah, I’ve never had to heat a fermentation, only cool! (though I’ve never done one out in the shed/garage, only in the house!) Having said that my new setup when I get it sorted WILL be in the garage, so I will pick up one of those heaters linked above!

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.

The pad does say that it should not be used for the fist 24 hours of fermentation, but the MJ M20 was nearly done with the wort in the last brew, so I might have to ignore that bit of advice. I think they are just worried about shorting if you get a blow-off at high kreusen.

they are just worried about shorting if you get a blow-off at high kreusen.

As yesterday was a day of rain, high winds and the usual pre-Midsommar cold, I got my brew on.

I now have a light rye saison in my new* brew fridge fermenting quietly. I have, however, removed the weissen ready for bottling and cranked the temperature of the fridge up to 27C, so it should start getting all those nice esters and spicy notes that I am looking for.

The grain bill was really simple, 80% pale malt, 15% wheat malt and 5% flaked rye (or, if you have left the flaked rye in town, rye flour) and I used European noble hops for flavour and aroma; 15g of Saab and Mittelfruh at 15 and 0 minutes. Magnum (5g at the start of the boil) did the bittering and it should work out at about 30 IBUs.

All in all, a nice brew day. I do get annoyed at the small mistakes I keep making (make sure hoses are pointing inside the brew kettle before you turn on recirculating kids) and the house has a really small kitchen to work in, so I need to be more efficient. Just have to get my bottling kit for the weissen and then wait a couple of weeks for the saison to finish.

Weissebeer is bottled. FG was suspiciously high, even after two weeks in the fermenter at over 20C, which makes me think hat I mashed too hot, or that something else in my process is just wrong. This is the second time I have had issues with a high percentage wheat malt beer.

Ah well, it will still be a 4% beer, I just hope it doesn’t explode in the cellar.

Just brewed another kveik session pale, this time with Amarillo. A nice 4%er to enjoy while watching the Euros this month. If it lasts that long. I think I’ll dry hop on day two of fermentation if it’s as rapid as the last one. Hopefully I’ll be enjoying it this time next week!

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

Sorry, I just saw this now. The leaves are quite astringent and add a bitterness/tannin sort of flavour.

We got a brew on last Friday, we used around half a carrier bag of 50/50 leaves and blossom (picked from a few bushes) in 2 litres of water, boiled on the hob to get a strong infusion then strained the hot infusion into the fermenter to help dissolve the malt.

Ours is drinkable now and it’s really good- we had a bottle of it tonight after an awesome ride out 😎

I do need to try that. For some reasons dandelions are everywhere right now and it would be good to feel like I was using their taking over against them by making beer with them.

BUT… I have the weissen in bottles now. Finished slightly high on FG (5 points) after two weeks at 25C-ish, so a 4% beer. Got a great taste though, really wheaty and phenolic. Should be good to try in a week, then get drinking on a week after.

It’s weird though, the finishing gravity always happens with high wheat % beers. I wonder if I was mashing too hot.

Enjoying a Thornbridge Chiron clone. First brew I’ve got on my home made kegarator so been messing about with that. Still not got carbonation right or foaming, but getting there.. Got a Rye IPA bottled last weekend, so will give that a good month or more to condition, and a Grapefruit IPA in the fermentor. That was a request from the wife for a get together with her mates but they’re to going to drink the full batch so will get a good chunk of that. Plenty of recipes to go at though. Wanted to get another brew on this weekend but the wife has me slaving away in the garden.

For some reasons dandelions are everywhere right now and it would be good to feel like I was using their taking over against them by making beer with them.

They’re not taking over, they’re thriving 😉 and you can use the leaves and petals in salads along with, you guessed it… hawthorn leaves and flowers! Free stuff!

edit- Top tip- boiled Hawthorn leaves and flowers are jolly, er, effective 💩🤣

Wobbliscot, what psi do you have regulator set to?

Generally you would chill the keg to serving temp (temp affects CO2 absorption – more gas at lower temp), then set to 12psi for 2.3 vols of CO2 – normal alre carbonation. Lager is about 3 vols and wheat beers up at 4 or so).
Note, if you’re using a carb stone it has a wetting pressure of 4 psi – that’s the extra pressure required to push gas through the stone.

Carbonation should be complete in 24-36 hours.

Release the pressure on the keg and dial the regulator down. Slowly increase pressure while pouring from tap – dispense pressure depends on pipework lengths/diameters etc. Do this til you like what you see/taste!
5 psi normally works ok.

Saison is now in bottles. It finished really dry (1.004) and the uncarbonated sample I tasted is pretty much exactly that earthy/musty saison tase I was looking for, so actually quite happy. Colour is a little darker, but still a lovely light yellow.

The cellar at the house now has beer in. Lots of beer to be honest, but I feel the need for a hoppy IPA of some sort and the fermentation fridge has not yet been used as a fridge. I should probably inventory the hops and yeast I have and then work back from there.

Suggestions for colourful (red if possible), hoppy and drinkable ales welcome.

Have a look at an Irish Red Ale.
There’s a good Brewdog 5am Saint recipe they released.

I brewed the 5am Saint recipe and it turned out decent. I also brewed its predecessor which is called the physics which I think I preferred. That one is also a 5% amber but only uses two hops so a simpler recipe. But I couldn’t resist dry hopping it.

DIY Dog? I think I have that on my reading list.

Cheers YGH!

Just put a sour beer in the fermenting fridge. Not as sour as I wanted, maybe another 24 hours would have made it more sour. Who knows. The sample also tasted a bit like washing up liquid, so I hope it is not contaminated. It might have just been the thing I used to get the sample out of the brew kettle at the end.

Anyway, will see if fermentation is going tomorrow, then throw 500g of Mango at it and see what happens. Maybe it will beer, maybe not.

Got a lager a week into fermentation but not sure why I bothered as the lagering will take weeks. Think I’ll transfer into another fermentation bucket and lager in that if I can get hold of another fridge in quick order to free up the decent fermentor as I’ve got a stack of recipes stacking up ready to go.

Got a Belgian Tripel going in my mates fermentor, though think that one is ruined as the temp ran away during the first few days of fermentation and he has no way to cool. Its calmed down now but I suspect the damage has been done.

The Red Brick Rye has another couple of weeks bottle conditioning before I can crack them open.

Just polished off part of a batch of Timothy Taylors Clone. We bottled about eight bottles before realising we hadn’t put any sugar in so we set them aside and left them for a couple of months. couple of weeks ago I finally got around to dealing with them so I carefully poured into a mini keg via a bottling wand and funnel to avoid splashing, purged with CO2 and carbonated. It was delicious. The additional few weeks conditioning in the bottle over the ones we did drink seemed to do it well. I think we’re too impatient and tuck into the beer before it’s at its best.

We stuck another 23L bucket of hawthorn on last week seeing as how there was so much of it all at once and it’s a good job we did cos it’s all gone over now. The bottled stuff is nearly gone but has been splendid 🍺 OH’s currently obsessing over the elderflowers now and wants to get a wine on soon.

@kayla1 I know what you mean. My girlfriend is a big fan of elderflower lemonade and is nearly out, so getting flowers for that is a priority. I’m going to try and wait for the berries though as the wine we made from them last year turned out pretty good.

I also had an amazing sour ale with elderberries in and fancy making some of that this year too. If I can find sloes, I’ll get a bottle of sloe gin on the go for next year.

Been a few weeks since I last brewed a batch as both fermenters are occupied with long lead time beers – a lager and a Belgian triple that still has a week to go. I’ve transferred the lager into another vessel as I got hold of another fridge to continue its lagering so freed up a fermenter and want to do a quick turn around beer. I’ve got a Two Hearted clone kit which I’ve brewed before and thinking about substituting the yeast for Kveik to get it done and dusted in 3 or 4 days or so. Not used Kveik before so just wondering if I need to adjust the recipe or brew process in any way or just substitute and crack on?

Was thinking about a Hornindal Kveik (well bought it now so will be Hornindal) as the Two Hearted uses Centennial and that is apparently a good match for Centennial. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

I’ve got bottling to do this weekend, a brew that’s been sitting in the fermenter for over a month as its been too nice each weekend to spend hours inside bottling it. Luckily(!) this weekend looks pretty rubbish. I’m getting a bit bored of everything being pale and mouth-strippingly hoppy, so it’s a simple bitter, easy on the hops, with some muscavodo sugar in for a bit of colour.

@wobbiscott I wouldn’t bother adjusting the recipe. Just go for it. I’ve just brewed my third kveik pale and was really happy with the first two. Third is getting kegged this weekend. I fermented that one at 30+ with lallemand Voss and it was rapid. Dry hops went in after 24 hours.

That’s great Davros thanks, I’ll crack on then. Any idea what the best temp and pressure to ferment at or just follow the recommendations on the packet. I was thinking 10psi and about 30 degrees, though I think the particular one I’ve got is good for upto 35 degrees.

I’m getting a bit bored of everything being pale and mouth-strippingly hoppy, so it’s a simple bitter, easy on the hops, with some muscavodo sugar in for a bit of colour.

OH went the other way with the latest one he did, after a couple of full-ish, dark-ish hawthorn beers he wanted a pale ale with hops, more hops and some extra hops with a side of hops, hold the malt please.

My pressure control is a bit erratic as the spunding valve isn’t great. But I tried to keep it around 10 psi. But I’m not sure how much difference it would make given it should be a clean flavour profile regardless of pressure. Yeah, I’d just follow the packet. For mine it said the higher range (up to 40!) was optimal so I just chilled to 35 and pitched.

This video might help you decide on pressure.

Flora does some good work when it comes to learning stuff, even if it is not always 100% successful, like the natural fermentation she did for a beer in a cool place by a river.

I should do another kveik beer. Maybe after the sour has been bottled, but I do need to plan a Gotlandsdryck for early next month.

thanks for that. I do follow Flora but hadn’t seen that video/

And the Mango Sour is bottled! Fermented down to 1.008 and, with a bit of subtle squeezing, got some nice broken down mango in the bottling bucket too! Two weeks to condition and I think it will be a good summer beer.

Also just seen a message from sister-in-law with a picture showing her boyfriend sitting on the floor next to a Grainfather reading the instruction book. I knew he was keen on brewing and kind of suspected he would go electric all in one.will be good to get him round for a joint brewing session.

Cracked open one of my red brick rye ales that have been in the bottle for about 32 days now. Was a bit muddy looking on bottling day but seems to have cleared up nicely and a really delicious beer. Gone from expecting a disaster to being up there amongst the best I’ve brewed. Also a Grapefruit IPA I brewed with a mate for a party his wife was throwing is similarly delicious.

Will make up for a Belgian Tripel that I think is screwed as the temperature in the initial days of fermentation went bonkers as we brewed it over that really warm spell we had a few weeks ago and my made doesn’t have any chilling capability with his fermentor. The temperature soared to 26.5 degrees C before dropping down to more sensible temperatures. Hoping the homebrew gods are smiling down on us and it somehow escaped any adverse effects, but in truth I think it’s screwed.

It might not be as bad as you think… Belgian beers can sometimes get away with a bit of ester/phenol in them and you might still have a really nice beer.

I’m thinking back to when I made a weissen last year in summer because the coolest place I had was 22C. Cut forward to this year and I had my fermentation fridge cranked to 27.5C for the Saison! Had a glass of that last night, still really good, but it’s not a session beer.