Four cans two brews, with some live brewery yeast

[chrig]

I picked up some yeast from Darcey at blackjacks brewery today;



So the plan is to try and get through a few of the kits i picked up very cheaply so i have an excuse to buy some decent ones, and as if i need an excuse to use a decent bit of this yeast immediately!



I've picked out the above three and i'm thinking that i'll mix the two Best bitter kits as in to 23L with 250-500g of sugar, and then dry hop with *some hops* some time next week.

And i might as well get another one on straight away, which i was thinking could be the IPA or with 500g sugar and 500g dark malt extract, not very pale but The alternative is another 'best bitter' or 'traditional ale' the later of which was not very good last time.

Or i could do another 'two can' with two traditional ales... or i could fill all three fermenters (i've got 8 cans in total), but that would kill me come bottling day :lol:

 

[Chris_1984]

Cool; what sort of beers do they brew? Will the yeast compliment the beer or make something different do you think??

 

[chrig]

I am unsure of the beers they brew, I have had a little sip of the water above the yeast which is very hoppy, but its an old English ale yeast from what I understand.

Mixed up 2x John bull traditional ale kits and 300g sugar to 20L, of 1.062. Roughly 60ml pitched at 20'c

2x best bitter kits + 300g sugar to 20L. Of 1.060, yeast pitched as above, just a bit cooler.. Maybe 15-20'c

Plan to add 1L hop tea to each and dry hop later on. Currently I have no hops, so I'll need to buy some, and maybe a new lid for my pressure barrel!

 

[chrig]

10 hours later with a room temperature of 20'c the yeasties are about to make a bid for freedom, probably 5inch of foam.

 

[chrig]

Put another best bitter on just now, really no need but I've never filled three fermenting buckets so I thought I best try!

This one was 500g sugar, 500g dark malt extract and a John bull best butter kit. Top cropped loads of yeast in to the new fv. See how it goes!

 

[chrig]

11 days in for the two stronger twocan brews brings them down to around 1.020 i think, maybe it was a bit higher.. but then my hydrometer seems to read a few points high in water.

The single can plus Dark DME has been down to 1.012 for the last couple of days so is ready to bottle, but i'm hoping to add some form of hops tomorrow to all of them. i've budget for 2x 100g packs and a new lid for my pressure barrel... maybe i should add the hops to that for the weaker single can jobby???

 

[chrig]

kit#3 (best bitter, dark dme & sugar) is now done. And having cranked the heating up in the kitchen its now in the back garden in a darkish coldish spot. I've now got over a hundred bottles thanks to Graysalchemy kindly donating his unrequited stock but having counted my bottle caps im on a measly 35 caps.. Which just won't do if I fluff a couple.

So outside it sits until tomorrow when I can sanitise the leaky pressure barrel and put it in the fridge.

I'll lightly prime to clear the headspace then add a hop tea and dry hop on Monday when I can buy some hops.

I'm going to ask the shop to recomend hops, unless anybody else has some ideas? I can afford 2 100g packs to split between three beers.

 

[chrig]

After adding a goldings hop tea if about 1L using 10g of hops to each of the three buckets, and then a dry hop of 10g (ish) to each they are are tasting much better than any previous John bull kit.



A combination of a better quality yeast and also hops is certainly the way forwards with cheap kits.

I'm hoping to get the low abv 'best bitter' kit in to my pressure barrel today, I may throw in a pellet or two of EKG.

And get 80 bottles soaking over night with plans of a rinse tomorrow and some label pealing before bottling during the week.

 

[chrig]

a good day today;
Best bitter single can brew has been put in the PB with a newly converted s30 valve. Primed with 150g sugar, I expect a leak and to loose some gas.

And the two can traditional ale kit has been bottled;
36 bottles cleaned and filled. Primed with 90g sugar.
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