CAMRA Kew - Botanic

[TomB88]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone has brewed this before? I got the kit from TMM and some dried juniper berries and have a few questions.

When adding juniper berries at flame out, should they have been rehydrated in vodka?
How long to leave the berries in after flame out, till the wort is cool?
Any tips or things anyone would recommend to do slightly different to the recipe?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Doublediamond]

Coincidentally I brewed this yesterday. There wasn't much detail regards the Juniper berries, they supplied 50g but only 20g needed according to the recipe.
I added 10g at flameout once cooled to 80°c and left it for 20mins. The other 10g should be soaked in Vodka and added with the dry hops once fermentation is complete. I will probably soak the berries overnight.
I believe the recipe is in CAMRA’s Essential Home Brewing book, which unfortunately I don't own.
I've ended up with 21L in the fermenter with the og at 1.044, so about 6 points higher than the 1.038 on the recipe.

 

[TomB88]

Well you did better than me... I didn't get any berries with my kit and had to go off round town looking for some. I only managed to get dried, so we will see how this goes. Also, I was 2 points lower on the OG 1.036, probably due to the boilover I'm guessing.

Will you secondary and dry hop then or keg and dry hop? ...or dry hop in the primary? I am planning to keg and dry hop but I haven't done any dry hopping before. This is only my 5th batch of beer so it's all still quite new to me.

All the best,

Tom

 

[Doublediamond]

Not been brewing too long myself so definitely not a expert. Don't worry about the the berries, the supplied ones were dried.
I will dry hop in the primary and keg about five days later. I've never dry hopped in the keg, I intend to try it sometime.
Not sure how I ended up with such a high og. I put all the info into Brewfather app and ended up with 21L in the fermenter as intended. I guess my efficiency was improved with a lower abv recipe.
Let me know how you get on with your brew.

 

[TomB88]

That's good to know re the berries, thanks!

You did very well on efficiency. I thought the ingredients were for a 20l batch, so you get a higher og and another litre of beer!

Will you dry hop towards the end of the active fermentation then? I think that's what it's called... Before the yeast clean up. From what I gather, this is done so that the yeast can use the oxygen and prevent oxidation.

I'm 61% done apparently... So may dry hop soon or wait for the keg, not decided yet.

I would be interested to hear how your brew goes too!

 

[Doublediamond]

Makes 20L of beer according to the blurb so I worked my figures on 21 in the fermenter which fitted in with the beers 3.8% abv.
My efficiency settings are set quite low in Brewfather so I wasn't entirely surprised with the 1.044 og. I do think my hydrometer reads a point or two high though, so probably more like 1.042.
So I'm not too far off my intended 1.038.
I usually ferment for two weeks and dry hop 5 days prior to kegging. There seems to be many schools of thought when dry hopping and your proposed method seems very popular.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.