Anna's Brewdays

[Brew_DD2]

Today has been rather busy and I've a clinical session this evening too so not likely to write the brewday up properly, so this is going to be the short version.

....the morning after the one with the yeast starter at midnight...
Wort looked lovely and clear, brought up to 75 deg for a brief mashout and sparged with a bit extra to bring the volume up to target, then added another litre for sparge for good measure as my boil off volumes have been higher than expected recently... which will be why my volume at the end of the boil was almost a litre too much . Thankfully no bittering hops so just let it boil another 20min to hit my target volume.

Cooled to 76 deg, added the aroma hop stand and left to cool passively, while I made an awful mess trying to fill bottles with sparkling wine. As you may have read my multitasking efforts didn't quite work out.

Prior to adding the litre of starter my volumes were spot on and my OG just a wee bit off at 1.69 (hoped for 1.73). Given that it had oodles of time mashing and an extra bit of a sparge, it's difficult to see how I'd have got to 1.73!

Pitched in the whole starter, and less than 24 hours later those yeasties are super happy in their new home. The starter was made from the overbuild of the first go at this beer about 7 weeks ago which had been stored in water in the fridge, then only 13 hours on the stir plate. Given how this has taken off like a rocket, I'd be happy to a short starter in future too.

(oh this was supposed to be short ... anyway, really pleased that my yeast is happy )

View attachment 43260

Anna

The guys from the Experimental Brewing podcast began to advocate the shorter starters some time ago. The idea being that at homebrew level, underpitching isn't a big problem provided the yeast are healthy and active at pitch.

 

[DocAnna]

Gosh another learning experience... oh dear soo....

Lesson number umpteen plus a few: Check you actually have stock of the hops needed before starting a brew.

I've been using brewfather and thought I was keeping a good track on my stock of hops, and had seen I had the Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo I needed for the dry hop of my NEIPA. After doing a fair bit of reading on dry hopping, with it still being really active fermenting I've left the dry hop till today (5 and half days in), and dropping the temperature after dry hop to 16 deg. Purging the headspace twice after opening to add the hops using 15psi CO2 then release with the prv, Oh and adding a teaspoon of Citric acid for good measure. Trying for super good oxygen exclusion practice.

Well that would be all good if I did actually have the hops I thought I did. Nope, fridge searched, freezer scavenged... no Nelson Sauvin and only half or so a pack of Amarillo. Hmmm..... Ok what to replace with? I've gone with the following which means this is nothing Tram like at all but will be an improvised NEIPA, I guess I'll find out.

Recipe Dry hop
140g Amarillo, 100g Nelson Sauvin, 40g Mosaic

Anna's Improv Dry Hop
100g Mosaic, 65g Amarillo, 115g Simcoe

This was the total opposite to my super organised, planning, controlled approach and I've not a clue whether this will be good/not so good/bad idea. I picked Simcoe as a replacement as it's supposed to be fruity and I'm aiming for a super fruity juice beer. It does though mean I have to stop calling this a Tram clone and think of another name.

Oh and I need to do a proper stock take on my hops!

Anna

 

[Brew_DD2]

Will come out awesome with those hops. Just different!

 

[Clint]

Tram-a-doll.
See what I did there?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

It should still be a nice brew, you’ve got three good hops there. I find Amarillo a little overpowering so the smaller quantity isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.

 

[samale]

It should still be a nice brew, you’ve got three good hops there. I find Amarillo a little overpowering so the smaller quantity isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.

Total agree I don't think I will buy Amarillo again. It totally wrecks any hop I pair it with.

 

[DocAnna]

Tram-a-doll.
See what I did there?

Oh that's tempting , but with my GP hat on I do rather disapprove of Tramadol, and I'm not all that comfortable with 'doll' as a feminine reference. I was a bit taken aback yesterday when paying for petrol when the cashier referred to me as 'doll', just feels a bit off. Mind you, round here it's usually hen, quine, darlin, or if I'm lucky and don't look my age, lass. All of which I'm generally fine with, so my objection to 'doll' seems on reflection a bit odd.

Anna

 

[DocAnna]

Will come out awesome with those hops. Just different!

Total agree I don't think I will buy Amarillo again. It totally wrecks any hop I pair it with.

Thanks for the reassurance, I'm quite relieved by your comments that I haven't messed this up at least by adding these hops , and interesting about the Amarillo. That's all my stock of it used up now. I've done a stock take now and have loads of Citra so will need to use that up soon, maybe a single hop IPA. I've a few other's planned though, just need to make sure I've actually got the hops needed for them now though.

Anna

 

[Clint]

It does knock you about!

 

[Clint]

Oh that's tempting , but with my GP hat on I do rather disapprove of Tramadol, and I'm not all that comfortable with 'doll' as a feminine reference. I was a bit taken aback yesterday when paying for petrol when the cashier referred to me as 'doll', just feels a bit off. Mind you, round here it's usually hen, quine, darlin, or if I'm lucky and don't look my age, lass. All of which I'm generally fine with, so my objection to 'doll' seems on reflection a bit odd.

Anna

Sorry,no offence intended...I thought it was a "Scottish-ism"...my ref. being from Rab.Nesbit calling his Mrs. Mary doll..

 

[chillipickle]

I am sure that will be a really nice out come with those hops.If you get chance try citra mosaic simcoe, they work very nicely together.
Amarillo is also a nice hop.

 

[Brew_DD2]

@DocAnna, you have lots of Citra left! What a bind!

 

[folkpunk]

Anna's Improv Dry Hop
100g Mosaic, 65g Amarillo, 115g Simcoe

Sounds a nice blend - should be tropical!

 

[Tommo 2]

It should still be a nice brew, you’ve got three good hops there. I find Amarillo a little overpowering so the smaller quantity isn’t a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.

try bittering with magnum then use citra and Amarillo two to one and magical things happen

 

[Brewnaldo]

Oh that's tempting , but with my GP hat on I do rather disapprove of Tramadol, and I'm not all that comfortable with 'doll' as a feminine reference. I was a bit taken aback yesterday when paying for petrol when the cashier referred to me as 'doll', just feels a bit off. Mind you, round here it's usually hen, quine, darlin, or if I'm lucky and don't look my age, lass. All of which I'm generally fine with, so my objection to 'doll' seems on reflection a bit odd.

Anna

This is interesting. I dont actually use any gender specifics words like that for females these days, but I think I maybe used to use doll on occasion. Reflection recently, especially after the Sarah Everard murder has simply served to make me second guess my conduct and feel a bit awkward with stuff like this. I think its actually a product of having few females friends and having worked all my says in a heavily Male dominated industry.

Anyway, it's probably for a different thread, just to point out I liked reading your insight on this and for the benefit of females everywhere, speaking for myself when I read someone like you actually discussing these things, I try to take it on and ensure that if it reflects less than ideal conduct from me, I change.

Well done Anna. And to go back towards topic.... Brewing appears to be another male dominated gig but you certainly appear to command a huge amount of respect on here for your knowledge.

 

[DocAnna]

Some really kind and thoughtful comments here, thank you . As for my knowledge of brewing, I suspect my enthusiasm does rather exceed my experience, but I do hope over time with a bit of practice I might manage to be a bit more consistent.

Just replied to another post and have been reading about dry hop saturation at about 8g/litre, and then realised at the weekend I dry hoped my NEIPA at 14g/litre. So now feeling a complete hypocrite . Think I might do some more reading on this dry hopping business again.

Anna

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Gosh another learning experience... oh dear soo....

Lesson number umpteen plus a few: Check you actually have stock of the hops needed before starting a brew.

I've been using brewfather and thought I was keeping a good track on my stock of hops, and had seen I had the Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo I needed for the dry hop of my NEIPA. After doing a fair bit of reading on dry hopping, with it still being really active fermenting I've left the dry hop till today (5 and half days in), and dropping the temperature after dry hop to 16 deg. Purging the headspace twice after opening to add the hops using 15psi CO2 then release with the prv, Oh and adding a teaspoon of Citric acid for good measure. Trying for super good oxygen exclusion practice.

Well that would be all good if I did actually have the hops I thought I did. Nope, fridge searched, freezer scavenged... no Nelson Sauvin and only half or so a pack of Amarillo. Hmmm..... Ok what to replace with? I've gone with the following which means this is nothing Tram like at all but will be an improvised NEIPA, I guess I'll find out.

Recipe Dry hop
140g Amarillo, 100g Nelson Sauvin, 40g Mosaic

Anna's Improv Dry Hop
100g Mosaic, 65g Amarillo, 115g Simcoe

This was the total opposite to my super organised, planning, controlled approach and I've not a clue whether this will be good/not so good/bad idea. I picked Simcoe as a replacement as it's supposed to be fruity and I'm aiming for a super fruity juice beer. It does though mean I have to stop calling this a Tram clone and think of another name.

Oh and I need to do a proper stock take on my hops!

Anna

I would happily order a pint of that

 

[Brew_DD2]

Some really kind and thoughtful comments here, thank you . As for my knowledge of brewing, I suspect my enthusiasm does rather exceed my experience, but I do hope over time with a bit of practice I might manage to be a bit more consistent.

Just replied to another post and have been reading about dry hop saturation at about 8g/litre, and then realised at the weekend I dry hoped my NEIPA at 14g/litre. So now feeling a complete hypocrite . Think I might do some more reading on this dry hopping business again.

Anna

The 8g/L is a theoretical point of diminishing returns. I can speak from my own experience that says that I can absolutely tell the difference between a beer dry-hopped at 8g/L than 16g/L. Given the hopping rates you can see in commercial NEIPAs, I'd suggest that there is more to this than Dr Shellhammer's early findings suggest.

 

[dan125]

The 8g/L is a theoretical point of diminishing returns. I can speak from my own experience that says that I can absolutely tell the difference between a beer dry-hopped at 8g/L than 16g/L. Given the hopping rates you can see in commercial NEIPAs, I'd suggest that there is more to this than Dr Shellhammer's early findings suggest.

100%
Wasn't Shellhammers study only done with cascade?
Can't imagine cloudwater, Verdant and the like would be dry hopping big beers at over double the 8g/L level if they weren't getting anything from them.

 

[Brew_DD2]

100%
Wasn't Shellhammers study only done with cascade?
Can't imagine cloudwater, Verdant and the like would be dry hopping big beers at over double the 8g/L level if they weren't getting anything from them.

Yeah that's sounds familiar. I'm sure he'd be the first to admit that more studies need to be done.