Back to Basics Challenge!

[Wez]

Mine appears to have stopped fermenting, it doesnt taste sweet now, which is good - will leave it until Saturday and then bottle.

It tastes quite good. Which is nice.

 

[Muddydisco]

So did mine wez until it had conditioned! :lol:

 

[Wez]

So did mine wez until it had conditioned! :lol:

Did yours condition? :rofl:

 

[Muddydisco]

No!

 

[robsan77]

After mashing too high yesterday I decided to do a small 2litre batch with left overs but the same percentages as yesterdays batch. This would give me something to compare the previous too and also gives me a chance to join in the fun here. So here we go.
370 MO
21 caramalt 20
6 tor wheat.

I drilled some holes in a long plastic pot that was just big enough for the grain. I sat this in another pot which then sat in a cool bag.

 

[robsan77]

The sparge was time consuming but I believe gave a great result in the end. 2 litres gathered at 1049. The tube sat on a strainer over a pan. I cycled the first bit and ran the water from the square pot over too before adding another litre over that.

 

[robsan77]

boil 60 mins with 3 grams first gold
15 mins 1.2grams first gold.

This allows me to do a good comparison with one of the batches yesterday.

On to the pond again...

 

[robsan77]

I strained off the hops then ran the runnings slowly back over the hops to catch the break. This worked a treat!

The pic below is the break after a washed the strained hops in a little water to see what I caught.

 

[robsan77]

Not a bad result. Added nottingham yeast and hopefully it wont froth over in the cupboard.

 

[Muddydisco]

Nice one RobSan77 :thumb:

Good to see some last minute late comers, but all Welcome!

Nice Pics too :thumb:

Doesn't the pot fall through the Ice after a while?

 

[Vossy1]

Tidy work Rob :thumb:
Ti's a great way of testing recipes before scaling them up

 

[robsan77]

The pan was only about a 3rd full, so when it melts the ice it just floats there being held stable by the icy ring around it. I was always careful tho. I have kept holes in the ice by 2 corners of the pond to let it breath (toxins and stuff) but towards the middle it must have been 2-3 inches thick!

 

[Muddydisco]

Mines been 3-5" thick rob! I was walking over a meter deep pond the other day Stupid I know but were all human!

 

[Muddydisco]

Talking of the brew, Mines been bottled for a while now so I thought I'd sample one before Tubby has one :thumb:
It's no where near a old english ale more like a RIS, it's blacker than a Black hole it's full of body so much you can chew it. And It never conditioned in the bottle so it's flatter than a witches tit. The taste is ......... Undescribable................. I hope Tubby can make sense of it :rofl:
It may get better with some time to age it ..................say around 12 months it is a 7% Ris after all!

I now have to admit I fecked up royally!!! I drank my effin Imperial stout thats suppossed to condition for over a year! I got bottles mixed up. So Wez and Tubby now have a bottle each of my Imperial stout at 11% But goes to show I did a blind taste test and I knew it was A RIS!!!!
Don't drink it guys for at least a year!! I'll get you the proper beers over to you!

 

[Aleman]

:rofl: You total utter muppet! :rofl:

Well done Nick, you made me laugh this morning :thumb:

 

[Aleman]

I've just bottled mine . . . looking back through the thread it appears that my BTB finished on the 17th December . . . . Which means that it has been sat on the trub and yeast since then . . . just over a month . . . . lucky I was crash cooling it all that time . . . using the big free fridge with the blue roof . . . have you noticed it's been a bit chilly the last couple of weeks :whistle:

Hopefully nothing bad has happened . . . it smells fine . . . just got to wait for it to condition . . . got 4 500ml bottles and 5 250ml bottles. The 500's are earmarked for the NCBA meet on 30th Jan (12:00 Heal green village hall, bring your own food, - Judging Pale ale 6 Bottles, magners style) . . . so I can use the 250's for samples :grin:

 

[damfoose]

I am so going to have a go at this when time allows, Oh look thursday is free doing it then which at a guess wont please the wife :)

 

[Tony]

what an outstanding read that's been ... fantastic work all!
Just as a matter of interest, has anyone created anything outstanding in this manner and found it almost impossible to scale up to a major brew?

 

[Aleman]

I don't think mine will scale up, unless I happen to have use of a commercial kettle that boils under pressure :whistle: . . . . plus its bad enough kilning a few hundred grams of Pale Amber malt I wouldn't want to go much more than a couple of kilos

 

[Vossy1]

Racked to secondaries :lol: with IG...no expense spared

There's almost as much break/yeast as beer in the demi