dan125's 2018 brewdays

[dan125]

Sounds good. Will have to start the hop growing business

Quite surprised I got 500g after the plant was savaged by aphids earlier in the summer.
With the free yeast from GEB and the free hops from the garden this 28L batch is only costing about £13 in ingredients, includig a fiver on Ashbeck water

 

[Leon103]

I mentioned to the wife that I should grow some hops and she said yes. Just need to clear an area of the garden that I have earmarked

 

[dan125]

I've decided to add one jug (125g) of fresh hops at 20, 10, FO & 80C steep.
Its only equivalent to about 100g dry hops total. So not expecting too much from this

 

[dan125]

It's amazing how quick the wet hops turn from fresh green to cooked yellow.
There's just a couple of minutes between these pics - after FO.

 

[dan125]

Pleasing to finally be able to get down to a half decent temp with the immersion chiller after the hot summer.
But something's gone wrong with the efficiency calcs.

 

[Hoddy]

I mentioned to the wife that I should grow some hops and she said yes. Just need to clear an area of the garden that I have earmarked

If you’ve got the space and the inclination go for the full pole and wires dude. That would be awesome

 

[dan125]

I hit my volume spot on, so at 1.044 my efficiency has jumped about 6%
This must be down to the slightly different way I sparged yesterday.
As the new grain bag fits much better in a bucket than the old one I just did a double batch sparge with 6L each time which was enough to cover the grains, giving it a good stir each time - went up to 80% mash efficiency.

EDIT - this does mean my 1 pack of Imperial yeast could be a bit if an under pitch at around 0.57M cells/mL/°P

 

[Leon103]

If you’ve got the space and the inclination go for the full pole and wires dude. That would be awesome

That was my thoughts

 

[dan125]

If anyones interested, here's the ordinary bitter I sent in for the Welsh national comp:


28L batch
OG - 1.039
FG - 1.011
ABV - 3.7%
IBUs - 40 (I always seem to extract less bitterness than the software predicts)

Water - fairly high total mineral content with an s/c ratio of 2.0

Chevallier (Crisp)- 45.7%
M.O. (Crisp) - 45.7%
Pale Crystal (Fawcett) - 7.6%
Blackstrap molasses - 1.0%

Mash, starting @ 68C - 75mins

Boil 90 mins

Challenger - 31 IBUs @ 60mins
Challenger - 9 IBUs @ 30 mins

Fermented @ 18C, rising to 21C, with Imperial Barbarian yeast.

 

[dan125]

And here's the AIPA:-



28L batch
OG - 1.057
FG - 1.007
ABV - 6.6%
IBUs - 71

Water - moderate total mineral content with an s/c ratio of 4.6

M.O. Extra pale (crisp) - 55%
Vienna (crisp) - 37.5%
Imperial Malt (Simpsons) - 5%
Dextrose - 2.5%

Mash, starting @ 66C - 75mins

Boil 75 mins

Magnum - 23 IBUs @ 60mins

Citra - 18 IBUs @ 10mins (50g)
Denali - 22 IBUs @ 10 mins (50g)

Citra - 50g steep post boil @ 70C
Denali - 50g steep post boil @ 70C

Fermented @ 17C, rising to 21C, with recovered Imperial Barbarian yeast.

Dry hop - 1 day after pitching yeast:
Citra - 35g (1.25g/L)
Denali - 35g (1.25g/L)
Nelson - 10g (0.36g/L)

Dry hop - at end of fermentation:
Citra - 65g (2.3g/L)
Denali - 65g (2.3g/L)
Nelson - 30g (1.1g/L)

 

[dan125]

I'm brewing up a leftovers IPA today - aiming for around 1.060 & 60 IBUs
Bit of a later start than was hoping for.
I'm gonna try out the new CO2 rumbling gizmo on this when it dry hopping time.

 

[dan125]

I'm rebrewing my ordinary bitter today with a few tweaks based on judges feedback.
It the first chance I've had to try out the probe thermometer I won in @Inkbird s generous give away.
It's very good and takes a reading much quicker than my old one that had the probe on the end of a wire.

 

[dan125]

Brewing up another try at a neipa type beer today.
Going back to using some oats for the first time in a few attempts at this style as I had read about them contributing to the rapid oxidation they suffer from.
I'm pushing the s/c ratio right down to 0.2 for this one in the search for that allusive mouthfeel

 

[dan125]

I started this one off low & slow at 16C, but it was off and running nicely within 12 hrs, so I added in the bio-transformation hop addition last night (about 24hrs after pitching the recovered Barbarian yeast)
I'm not sure about the colour of this beer - it looks like its aready got a very slight muddy brown hue, right from the get go aunsure....
Fermentation showed the first signs of slowing down tonight so I've started creeping the temp up

 

[dan125]

I'm just enjoying a glass of the 'NEIPA' after a long hard brew day.
I'm disappointed with the lack of haze considering the amount of flaked barley and lack of kettle finings - I can see through the print through the glass!

 

[dan125]

Brewed up a festive hoppy pale ale today, just in time to sup at chrimbo.
Annoyingly I changed the grain bill, making it more complex than originally planned, after realising I hadn't allowed for the BH efficiency I'd been getting with similar brews recently - and then hit the original efficiency after all, for a stronger than planned 1.055
I might go with an extra 100g of BBC chinook at dry hopping time - it is Xmas after all, but I'm interested to see if I can coax out a decent hop character with a smaller dry hop.

 

[dan125]

Fascinating how the yeast seems to stratify just after it goes in

 

[dan125]

Just finished cleaning up after my 1st brewday in a month and my last brew of 2018.
Today I brewed my 1st entry for the UK comp in Feb - another ordinary bitter.
Hit all my numbers pleasingly, just a little nervous about using the reclaimed yeast slurry for an unprecedented 4th generation.

 

[Hoddy]

Pu

View attachment 17101 Just finished cleaning up after my 1st brewday in a month and my last brew of 2018.
Today I brewed my 1st entry for the UK comp in Feb - another ordinary bitter.
Hit all my numbers pleasingly, just a little nervous about using the reclaimed yeast slurry for an unprecedented 4th generation.

I’ll put money on it that it’ll start faster than ever before and will ferment out in record time......

 

[dan125]

Pu


I’ll put money on it that it’ll start faster than ever before and will ferment out in record time......

Cheers mate - yeah sure it will be fine, more worried about over attenuation than anything else in the bitter.
Planning on using it for a 5th generation as well so fingers crossed.