Anna's Brewdays

[dan125]

I'm not in a great place today

I tried my second attempt at an NEIPA today and it's really really poor. Faint aroma of lime, an odd light lager with a citrus light taste, vaguely like a Cervaza but with more mouthfeel and completely hides it's 7% alcohol. Nothing like an NEIPA at all.

Now I know my processes were sound this time around, mash, aroma stand temp, dry hop, closed transfer, fermentation off to a fast start. No water salts added so no contribution to bitterness from any of the salts, no sign of oxidation. So what has gone wrong? This time I'm sure of it, this has to be the hops. I've been storing them in a sealed container in a small fridge in the garage since I didn't have space in the freezer. They weren't vacuum packed and on reflection had far less aroma than expected when used. My most recent best beer I've so far made was the Bombay Bomber for my son, which used newly purchased hops, which was fruity and lovely.

So what to do.. I've made up my mind, for all but the most recently purchased hops unless vacuum packed, I'm binning them. This attempt at an NEIPA took a fair bit of my time, energies and emotional investment, and I'm fed up with an inadequate outcome. I'll freeze the remaining hops. This current indescribable beer will be conditioned for a couple of weeks and I'll taste it from an objective perspective later. I'll then offer it to any takers, it doesn't taste bad, just nothing like an NEIPA.

Anna

Hop quality can defo be a big factor. Took me ages to learn, but after a very expensive mistake using alot of very poor galaxy in a brew a couple of years ago, I now don't use anything that doesn't smell good out of the packet. Had to compost some Comet the other week when brewing a user upper, as side by side with the other 6 hops they stood out as smelling stale when weighing out.
Well worth trying to negotiate a small space for your hops in the freezer if you can.

 

[DocAnna]

Thanks all, still feeling p'd off at all the time I've spent on this beer. I binned the hops after realising they hardly smelt at all - and no COVID worries I've not lost my sense of smell for anything else!

@Brewnaldo yes I have been keeping a stock of hops, it's been useful but considering I reckon I've messed up three brews with poor hops I'm going to have to revisit that idea.

@Markk I've done a few closed transfers now and feel I've got the hang of it. I purge a keg full of Chemsan with CO2 first so can be sure it's as free of O2 as possible.

@dan125 Thanks, I really appreciate that. I am quite upset about having messed up like this, but am taking small comfort that I can be really secure that I didn't do anything in process to mess this beer up, that it has to be the hops. As to the freezer - it's my freezer so I've already given myself a firm talking too and cleared out the frozen grapes from last year's vine harvest and taken back the bottom drawer.

Anna

 

[Tommo 2]

none of us ever stop learning mate and in this game you certainly can’t win um all and let’s face it stuff has to go wrong or we would’nt gain experience

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Well worth trying to negotiate a small space for your hops in the freezer if you can.

I‘ve claimed a shelf of the outdoor freezer for my hops. Mine go in there as soon as I receive them, even before I’ve opened them.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

@Markk I've done a few closed transfers now and feel I've got the hang of it. I purge a keg full of Chemsan with CO2 first so can be sure it's as free of O2 as possible.

I just did what I usually do. Purge the keg a bit with CO2 and syphon carefully. No splashing

 

[DocAnna]

So trying to pick myself up a bit. I'm going to do another NEIPA using fresh ingredients and I know it's a bit of a cop out but after my two mess ups, I'm going with an all grain kit from TMM for the Craft Beer Channel – Lallemand Verdant IPA. It feels a bit of a cheat going from an all grain kit but it is at least a bit experimental with the hop extract involved.

I'm also going to be making a version of @Pennine 's 'Everything good in the world' stout now that I've amassed all the ingredients required. Pennine was good enough to share a bottle of this remarkable stout which was one of the most complex and interesting things I've had the privilege to try. The recipe is based on the grain bill here pennine's brewdays though I've scaled it up a bit to a 23 litre batch. I'm aiming to get round the issue of a massive grain bill by using up a 3kg bag of premium liquid light malt extract that I have left over from a project never quite realised.

Starter/s will be made sometime this week with the plan to get these on for Saturday next week, yes another DBD planned. Well kind of, I'm considering an overnight mash for the stout.

Anna

EDIT- removed pdf attachment and posted recipe as text below

Imperial Stout
12.6% / 27.3 °P
BrewZilla / RoboBrew 35L
75% efficiency
Batch Volume: 23 L
Boil Time: 60 min

Mash Water: 24.63 L
Sparge Water: 8.67 L
Total Water: 33.3 L
Boil Volume: 28 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.068

Vitals
Original Gravity: 1.112
Total Gravity: 1.116
Final Gravity: 1.020
IBU (Tinseth): 93
BU/GU: 0.80
Color: 103 EBC

Mash
Temperature — 65 °C — 60 min

Malts (8.02 kg)
2.1 kg (18.5%) — Weyermann Munich I — Grain — 14 EBC
1.65 kg (14.5%) — Craft Maltsters Pop's Pale Ale Malt — Grain — 5.4 EBC
1.05 kg (9.2%) — Simpsons Oats Malted — Grain — 3 EBC
560 g (4.9%) — Thomas Fawcett Barley, Flaked — Grain — 3.9 EBC
560 g (4.9%) — Oats, Flaked — Grain — 2 EBC
350 g (3.1%) — Crisp Brown Malt — Grain — 135 EBC
350 g (3.1%) — Weyermann Carafa I — Grain — 630 EBC
350 g (3.1%) — Crisp Chocolate Malt — Grain — 1045 EBC
350 g (3.1%) — Weyermann Chocolate Rye — Grain — 485 EBC
350 g (3.1%) — Crisp Extra Light Crystal 100 — Grain — 110 EBC
350 g (3.1%) — Crisp Medium Crystal 240 — Grain — 265 EBC

Other (3.35 kg)
3 kg (26.4%) — Muntons Light Malt Extract — Liquid Extract — 4.9 EBC — Boil
350 g (3.1%) — Maple Syrup — Sugar — 69 EBC — Secondary

Hops (68 g)
40 g (57 IBU) — Hallertau Magnum 14.5% — Boil — 120 min
28 g (36 IBU) — Hallertau Magnum 14.5% — Boil — 60 min

Miscs
70 g — American Oak Cubes, Medium Toast — Secondary
350 g — Cacao Nibs — Secondary
280 ml — Coffee cold brewed — Secondary
750 ml — Whisky — Secondary
95 ml — Vanilla extract — Bottling

Yeast
1.4 pkg — Fermentis US-05 Safale American 81%

Fermentation
Primary — 20 °C — 14 days

Recipe adapted to make use of LME to reduce grain bill. Scaled original amount of vanilla extract would be 126ml, reduced to 95ml based on feedback from Pennine

 

[DocAnna]

Plans for tomorrow's brew are in abeyance since we'll be driving my son back to university which would make one let alone two brews difficult to do on the same day. I'm also in for clinical hours til v late Sunday and Monday so it looks like Tuesday at the earliest. I do though have some kits that I think I'll put on quickly tomorrow instead, one which my son had and never used, an Elderflower cider for my eldest daughter, and a winexpert sauvignon blanc for well just because . Since the temperature controlled fridge is going to be tied up with the NEIPA I am planning on doing these all at (office) room temperature - just need to keep the 4 fermenters out of camera shot for meetings!

Makes me wonder... what's the collective term for fermenting buckets? Maybe a Sozzle of fermenters, a Bubble of fermenters, a Promise of fermenters... not sure any of those work?

Anna

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

In my case it’s a “constraint” of fermenters - probably just as well!

 

[Brewnaldo]

Plans for tomorrow's brew are in abeyance since we'll be driving my son back to university which would make one let alone two brews difficult to do on the same day. I'm also in for clinical hours til v late Sunday and Monday so it looks like Tuesday at the earliest. I do though have some kits that I think I'll put on quickly tomorrow instead, one which my son had and never used, an Elderflower cider for my eldest daughter, and a winexpert sauvignon blanc for well just because . Since the temperature controlled fridge is going to be tied up with the NEIPA I am planning on doing these all at (office) room temperature - just need to keep the 4 fermenters out of camera shot for meetings!

Makes me wonder... what's the collective term for fermenting buckets? Maybe a Sozzle of fermenters, a Bubble of fermenters, a Promise of fermenters... not sure any of those work?

Anna

2 = A Lash of fermenters

 

[DocAnna]

In my case it’s a “constraint” of fermenters - probably just as well!

It had occurred to me that the collective term should be a Hazelwood of Fermenters .....actually come to think of it that is really quite good, it has that 'Parliament of owls' feel about it .

Anna

 

[Buffers brewery]

A collection of fermenters could be a “gasworks”,



boom boom

 

[Buffers brewery]

Or, or a collection of fermenters is referred to as...........OCD!

 

[DocAnna]

A collection of fermenters could be a “gasworks”,

Well my gasworks of fermenters (3 in the office, 2 in the shed) are bubbling nicely, with 2 more lined up this week, one at room ambient which will be the stout, and the third attempt at an NEIPA in the temperature controlled fridge.

Sadly no Sunday roast kitchen dancing for the second week in a row, this is one of my once in a blue moon 12 hour Sunday clinical sessions. Oh and for anyone wondering what I'm doing on the forum then at this time... I'm having a 5 min breather !

Anna

 

[Buffers brewery]

Sounds like your gasworks is (are?) breathing nicely

P.S. I’m doing the Sunday roast dancing for you today! SWMBO wanted the night off so I’m doing dinner.....with a couple of beers!

 

[DocAnna]

Ok this seemed like a good idea at the time @Pennine ’S Everything good in the world stout ....so umm anyone wondering what the maximum grain bill on a brewzilla looks like , here it is ... just about 8 kg of it . It’s getting an overnight mash at 65 deg C.

Oh and before you ask - no the top screen doesn’t fit with this grain bill!

Updates tomorrow on whether this was quite the clever idea I thought it might be. Night all.

Anna

 

[samale]

Ok this seemed like a good idea at the time @Pennine ’S Everything good in the world stout ....so umm anyone wondering what the maximum grain bill on a brewzilla looks like , here it is ... just about 8 kg of it . It’s getting an overnight mash at 65 deg C.

View attachment 45137
Oh and before you ask - no the top screen doesn’t fit with this grain bill!

Updates tomorrow on whether this was quite the clever idea I thought it might be. Night all.

Anna

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Ok this seemed like a good idea at the time @Pennine ’S Everything good in the world stout ....so umm anyone wondering what the maximum grain bill on a brewzilla looks like , here it is ... just about 8 kg of it . It’s getting an overnight mash at 65 deg C.

View attachment 45137
Oh and before you ask - no the top screen doesn’t fit with this grain bill!

Updates tomorrow on whether this was quite the clever idea I thought it might be. Night all.

Anna

That was very brave of you. I did a NEIPA recently which used 6kg (500g of which was oats and 500g torrified wheat) and that was bloody scary .

 

[DocAnna]

A bit late on the update from this week’s brewing, despite it being a week of annual leave I’ve been really busy out in the garden so haven’t had the opportunity to post. There’s been quite a bit going on so will split up the updates a bit.

The Everything Stout brew day was more eventful than planned and I didn’t manage a double brew day which now seems for the best as I needed my brew fridge for finishing off my lagers.

In the beginning was about 8 kg grain which mashing in was HUGE and left overnight, managed to balance recirculation though and ended up with a thick inky black wort ... oh and a stuck sparge , I feel I’ve now properly qualified on the brewzilla having never had this before - it took about an hour to drain enough, even with adding an extra litre of fluid. I left the mash pipe to drain in the pot I use for sparge water and topped up the boil every half hour or so with any more still draining.

Sadly the other qualification is now my first boil over -just slight though and was after I added the 3kg of LME which was left till the second hour of the boil - Thankfully caught almost immediately but a bit messy. Added protofloc at 10 min before the end of the boil, and an interesting change not to have any aroma or whirlpool hops.

Finally left with just about the right volume of thick black wort that looked positively gloopy. Sadly the pump had blocked again for cooling so just gave the coil a bit longer. (Seriously thinking about ditching the immersion cooling and switching to a counter flow chiller). Drained into my old Coopers fermenter with the krausen collar since I’ve read too many accounts of stouts overflowing once fermentation is going well. (good job too as it was just a wee bit foamy!)

OG right where I was hoping at 1.110 and this was a bit warm so it may be just a little higher. This is the most dense black liquid I’ve ever attempted to brew! I’d estimated 75% efficiency for a 1.112 OG which seems pretty good for such a thick mash, I’m sure the overnight mash helped.

Two 11g packs of Safale US-05 later and it’s tucked up in the office next to the rest of the gasworks, and even with the collar as a precaution I’m still keeping it on a rubber mat! With the stuck sparge, and fitting in other household things in the day a second brew in the day was clearly not going to happen. I had a lot of fun brewing this!

My home office is kept fairly steady 20-21 deg, with fermentaters typically showing about 22 deg on their stuck on temperature displays. Thanks to @Pennine for the inspiration and recipe to try this. Next is to soak the oak chips and cacao nibs in whisky....

Anna

 

[dan125]

Stout looks
I found my brewdevil pump would regularly be blocked after the boil, so now give a good blow down the pump outlet (with a silicon pipe barb attached) before whirlpooling as a matter of course. Never blocks after that

 

[DocAnna]

Right onto the whisky, toasted oak and cacao nibs which were mixed together yesterday and already smells a heady deep chocolate and oaked whisky mix, the smell is worth bottling alone:

The cacao nibs have swollen since first added, I'm a wee bit nervous about using oak chips than cubes and hoping that it doesn't overdo the oak flavour. I'm going to add these after a week top 10 days and hope the aroma won't be blown off in the fermentation, since it is positively mouth watering.

Anna