Homebrewists of STW, brewing ‘owt at the moment?

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.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEKUDs9DfnI/

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.

View this post on Instagram

Double brewday complete – a pilsner and a wit. Looking forward to drinking these in a few weeks!

A post shared by Craig Turner (@iamthebeerjesus) on Aug 17, 2020 at 11:42am PDT

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.

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.

Have been away cycling and camping round the islands, so had a busy day in the brewery before I left – three brews as well as packaging a pilsner that had finished conditioning.

I brewed a single malt pale ale with a bunch of UK hops. Have done it before and a real crowd please – very easy drinking, using Nottingham yeast.
Second was a 550 IBU single hop IPA using Polaris as someone gave me 500g of it. It has >20% AA.
Meant to give an icy or peppermint flavour. Used Mangrove Jacks West Coast IPA yeast.
Third was another batch of my barleywine, using Nottingham yeast this time (that what you can see prepping on the stir plate in the pic)

Went to check them yesterday.
Single malt pale has come out very nicely. Final gravity dropped a little further than I expected (1.006 vs 1.011), likely due to Nottingham yeast being a bit of a beast performance-wise

IPA is tasting great actually – surprised as I thought it would be rubbish. Minty flavour is more subtle than I expected and actually works well. Have chucked in 100g of Polaris to dry hop. May consider that hop for some kind of After-8 stout in the future.

Barleywine must have gone off like the clappers as had blown through the airlock and made a right mess – pretty impressive considering the headspace in those fermenters! As well as using a single pack of yeast (though run for 24 hours as a starter) into an OG of 1.099. Sitting at 1.023 which isn’t too far away from FG for one of them. Have bunged in some yeast nutrient powder to see if it’ll finish it off. Tastes pretty good for being 10 days old.

Will be back next week to bottle the pale and IPA and punt the barleywine into a conditioning tank.
Maybe do another single hop IPA with Sabro to see what it’s like. Or a brut IPA….? The new wonder-hop!

Impressive! I have envy for your brewery (again) and really wish I had a bit more space than just the hob and the sink in my kitchen. Things are just a little bit too cramped to work really effectively here.

Did you say 550IBU IPA??? 550? Like, five hundred and fifty? holy shit!

Finally got round to sorting myself out with a starter kit, and just finished bottling a blonde (although it looks quite dark) ale. Surprised at how the process is actually dead simple. I’m very excited about working through different beers and then more advanced recipes and techniques.

I followed the instructions to the letter but the hydrometer reading was around 1020 rather than the 1010 they suggested it should be. Might leave it longer next time (although it went like a blighter for most of the 10 days in the bucket). Will leave it another week or so then stick them in the garage to get cold.

I’ve got a Landlord style kit next up. Might get that moving this weekend. It’s a great feeling when the brew starts bubbling!

There’s no way I’ll be able to drink it all though…

used a packet of the Lallbrew Verdant IPA yeast to see what it was like

@willard – Have a couple of them to use too – my next brew is gonna be a take on Even Sharks Need Water – so am interested to hear how you get on with it.

Rumour has it it’s a fast worker.

@yourguitarhero – 550 IBUs that’s huge!! What are you calling that one? Mr Bitter from Bitterville’s Best Bitter?

Aye, like Pantera, it’s **** hostile
Will probably be as un-consumable as them too.

Why are Pantera like your gran’s hoover?
They’re both from 1981 and they both still suck

Going for the niche market then @yourguitarhero? Something like the smoked beers that are around…

Just out of interest, how much do people actually brew and roughly how often? I seem to have three different batches of beer on the go at the moment (one ready to drink, one conditioning and one fermenting) and this is not super-unusual (I am not counting the stout which is hidden away in the förråd until it is winter…), but I have no idea whether this is more or less than normal or what other people do.

550 ibu will be undrimkable
The rrcomended guide is dont push it much beyond the OG, so 48ibu in 1048O og bitter
Unless you aim to keep it in oak casks for 3 years and csll it whiskey beer, or double down with a load of lactose and use 50% unfermentables in the grist, mash at 76c, thats 2000mg /ltr pre boil of alpha

Shocking, isn’t it?

We would need to taste it to make that judgement!

Getting ready to bottle the NEIPA tomorrow. I have to admit I am slightly concerned about how I general prime and bottle with this one, mainly because of the stories about oxygen spoiling the hops flavours. I guess we shall see

Got any ascorbic acid or vitamin c?
Its an oxygen scavenger, without it and no ability to purge or redox your best bet is to cap on foam and fill near to brim ad possible.
Then warm condition to get some co2 into the beer and head space.