Fury Tea's brewdays

[fury_tea]

Golden Grahams stout today, should be on for Xmas: 19L

1kg GG
4kg Maris Otter extra pale
500g oats
200g chocolate malt
100g roasted barley
300g lactose

8g fuggles

2 pkg Windsor

View attachment 35221

1kg GG in the mash, wondering if I should dry hop with the remaining 125g or just eat them.
I had the idea around a year ago but couldn't find them anywhere. Saw them on Sainsbury's online so bought 5 packs, 3 for the stout and 2 to eat.

Think the should end up around 7-8%

I used the no chill method with this to save time and washing up, so just got round to putting it in the fermentation vessel this evening.

The smell today was (unsurprisingly) full on Golden Grahams. I had a taste of the wort and it's so nice I could drink it as it is! I really can't wait to see how this comes out though.

SG was 1.062 so think that puts me around the 6% mark depending what the FG is.

I've filled the fermenter right up so I'm starting it at a low temp (it's currently at 14c because it's been in the garage) ramping up to 17c in the hopes of minimal krausen. See how that goes...

 

[fury_tea]

I held off on posting here because I didn't want to give too much away for the secret Santa. I've already covered much of this ground in the SS thread but posting here as a record for future reference.

Here's the GG Stout:

Tastes pretty good, don't think I'd make it again, but it was a fun experimental brew and I loved doing the label!

My next brew I decided to keep the breakfast theme going (I'd planned on making a Shreddies wheat beer as well) so went with a 'Ready Brek pale ale' which is an oatmeal pale ale edging towards the hazy NEIPA side of things. Below is the recipe:

19L batch
4.6kg Maris Otter Extra Pale
0.5kg Wheat malt
0.3kg Flaked oats
0.1kg Caramel 80

No bittering hops but at 80c I whirlpooled:
100g CTZ
100g El Dorado
100g Ekuanot

Then at day 3:
75g CTZ
75g El Dorado
150g Fuggles (which was a mistake - I meant to use Ekuanot!)

It came out really well, and it went down way too quickly for a 6.5% beer.

Here's the 2 beers labeled up and ready to be sent out as gifts this Christmas:

I'd make it again in a flash but my next 2 beers are more in the realms of lagers...

 

[fury_tea]

Baltic Porter-ish thing:

So I completely messed this up, I planned a kind of SMASH, the idea was a solid one in my mind - Saaz and MO Extra Pale, then add some cold steeped dark and caramel grains from my Baltic porter recipe, then use Nottingham ale yeast at low temps to give me a pseudo lager. Nothing I didn't have in stock already and seemed like a good plan.
Well it didn't go to plan. The short version is I gummed up the rollers on my malt mill so the grain didn't get milled correctly. The long version is here:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/brew-day-fail-stories.84841/post-989572I decided to steep the grains overnight anyway but in the morning I wasn't sure it had worked properly, and instead of wasting the grain I thought I'd add it to a wilko lager kit I had in stock to make a ******* but quicker version of what I was going to make.

Ah well now I have time to wait for ingredients I thought I'd try a new (to me) kveik strain out - and plan on doing a simple kind of pilsner style SMASH with just MO EP and Saaz and using the Ubbe kveik strain

 

[foxbat]

Your bottle labels look very professional!

 

[fury_tea]

Your bottle labels look very professional!

Thanks mate, I just used Photoshop to resize some pics I nicked off Google images. Added some extra bits and did a bit of computer magic on them, printed online via dox direct and stuck on with a weak PVA solution. I get 9 per page and it works out something like 4-5 quid for up to 40 labels. I only bother doing it at Christmas or if I'm giving them away as gifts as I usually just keg my beers.

 

[Cwrw666]

In other news I found some sloes while out walking so helped myself to 430g (was aiming for 500g so not far off). Washed and sorted them, pricked with a fork and added to a 2L jar with 100g Demerara and 150g white sugar, and a litre of Lidl London gin.

For future reference don't bother pricking the sloes - stick them in the freezer. When you thaw them out the freezing will have ruptured all the cell membranes. Saves a lot of mucking about.

 

[fury_tea]

Long post brew day!

There's been a few developments recently. First of all in early December I became a dad, so brew days my become less frequent (maybe I'll do more pimped Wilko kits in the future?)

I bought a sight glass for my robo brew (I actually drunk ordered 10 from Ali Express! Going to chuck them on fleabay for cheap to try an recoup some of the cost - if any robo/brewzilla guys are interested let me know and I can probably send you one for cheap). I was sick of not knowing how much I had left to sparge. Just need some marking stickers for it now:

I fancied doing a pilsner again and after chatting with someone on here, I decided to check out some RO water options and found out the Vyair website had a sale on. I bought the 4 stage unit from them for 45 quid delivered (after the conversation in another thread a few others jumped at the deal as well), so yesterday I spent the day collecting water from behind my washing machine. When the fittings arrive I'll install it permanently in the garage.
After checking my water profile against the pilsen style it turns out 22L of RO with 6L of campden treated tap water gets me pretty darn close.

After a different conversation, I decided instead of lager/ yeast I might try Kveik Ubbe which is said to produce lager like qualities in a fraction of the time. It's also going into be my first time using liquid yeast (apart from that I've collected myself).
I don't have any pilsner malt but I do have Maris Otter Extra Pale which isn't far off at 3-4 EBC or 1-2L. I'm aiming for something close to a Czech style like a Pilsner Urquell I guess. Light and refreshing with some hop bitterness and malt flavour. So my recipe is as follows (traleated my water with 4ml of lactic acid:

4.7kg Maris Otter Extra Pale
35g Saaz - 60 min
35g Saaz - 30 min
30g Saaz - 05 min
2 tsp nutrient
1/2 a protofloc
Kveik Ubbe

Currently no chilling to 30c, then I'll transfer to a fermentation vessel, then pitch the yeast.

After yet another conversation on here I decided I'll start the fermentation in the FV, then transfer to the keg and put a spunding valve on at around day 3 or 4.

I'll update later when the yeast is pitched...

 

[fury_tea]

Yeast pitched at 27c but I put a 2nd fermenter in the ferm fridge with 50c water inside and set the inkbird to 32c so hopefully the thermal mass plus the endothermic reaction of the fermentation should push it up a bit.

<edit> Oh and starting gravity was 1.056

 

[chrisb8]

Long post brew day!

There's been a few developments recently. First of all in early December I became a dad, so brew days my become less frequent (maybe I'll do more pimped Wilko kits in the future?)

I bought a sight glass for my robo brew (I actually drunk ordered 10 from Ali Express! Going to chuck them on fleabay for cheap to try an recoup some of the cost - if any robo/brewzilla guys are interested let me know and I can probably send you one for cheap). I was sick of not knowing how much I had left to sparge. Just need some marking stickers for it now:

View attachment 39230

I fancied doing a pilsner again and after chatting with someone on here, I decided to check out some RO water options and found out the Vyair website had a sale on. I bought the 4 stage unit from them for 45 quid delivered (after the conversation in another thread a few others jumped at the deal as well), so yesterday I spent the day collecting water from behind my washing machine. When the fittings arrive I'll install it permanently in the garage.
After checking my water profile against the pilsen style it turns out 22L of RO with 6L of campden treated tap water gets me pretty darn close.

View attachment 39227

After a different conversation, I decided instead of lager/ yeast I might try Kveik Ubbe which is said to produce lager like qualities in a fraction of the time. It's also going into be my first time using liquid yeast (apart from that I've collected myself).
I don't have any pilsner malt but I do have Maris Otter Extra Pale which isn't far off at 3-4 EBC or 1-2L. I'm aiming for something close to a Czech style like a Pilsner Urquell I guess. Light and refreshing with some hop bitterness and malt flavour. So my recipe is as follows (traleated my water with 4ml of lactic acid:

4.7kg Maris Otter Extra Pale
35g Saaz - 60 min
35g Saaz - 30 min
30g Saaz - 05 min
2 tsp nutrient
1/2 a protofloc
Kveik Ubbe

Currently no chilling to 30c, then I'll transfer to a fermentation vessel, then pitch the yeast.

After yet another conversation on here I decided I'll start the fermentation in the FV, then transfer to the keg and put a spunding valve on at around day 3 or 4.

I'll update later when the yeast is pitched...

Thanks, I believe it was your post which set the ball rolling for a few of us to get the same ro filter whilst on offer

 

[fury_tea]

Thanks, I believe it was your post which set the ball rolling for a few of us to get the same ro filter whilst on offer

Hey it was a bit of a group effort. I found the deal yeah but the original thread started by @foxbat and comments by @Hazelwood Brewery were what pushed to search for it!

Looking forward to seeing if there's much of a difference.

 

[fury_tea]

So this Pilsner with Kveik Ubbe, Maris Otter extra pale and Saaz (needs a catchier name) has been in the keg for about a week, it's lagering but I just couldn't resist nicking a half (and then 4 more halves) last night. Holy cow, it's absolutely lovely. I avoided using gelatin so the Mrs (a smelly vegan) can have a few pints as she loves a pint of Pilsner, but it seems to be clearing up on its own so I'm happy about that.

First impressions are that it smells outstandingly malty and lightly spicy, maybe a touch of coriander seed in the aroma. Oh man, the taste, this is the nicest pilsner(ish type thing) I've made, and it's up there with the nicest I've ever tasted, and to have these results 2 weeks from brew date is amazing. The RO filter combined with the Ubbe have done a great job of producing a super clean result.

I wonder how long I can manage to lager it for, a couple of months would be amazing but I"m not sure it's possible for me to resist it for that long.

One thing of note, twice last night the floating dip tube got stuck and started pulling in foam and co2 from the top. Twice I had to open the keg and free it. Bit of a pain when I went to so much trouble of creating an oxygen free environment using the spunding valve. Anyone else using a floating dip tube have this problem?

 

[fury_tea]

Brew day today. Installed my RO filter under the sink in the garage. Thanks to John Guest push fit plumbing it took me about 3 minutes:


Collected my water yesterday, and did my water treatments for an NEIPA brew day Robobrew set for the morning.
Oh and my 25kg of Vienna has arrived so that will be featuring heavily in most of my beers the next few months. I have enough ingredients to last me until next winter I think.

The wort is in the garage no chilling, I'll pitch at 34c...

KNEIPAV (Kveik New England Indian Pale Ale with Vienna) 19L:

4.5kg Crisp Vienna
0.5kg Oats
0.7kg Wheat malt

Whirlpool 80c
100g Citra
100g Cascade
50g Amarillo

Crossmyloof kveik Voss

Dry hop
100g Citra
100g Cascade
50g Amarillo

I might do a small keg hop as well, see how it goes...

 

[fury_tea]

Just checked the gravity and it's 1.070 which is a bit higher than expected, maybe because I did a step mash, maybe also because I've started conditioning my grain. No need for rice hulls any more either. Checked the wort temperature as well and it was 19c! D'oh! The garage floor must've sucked all the heat out of it because it's still 22c in there.

Transferred the wort to my sanitised carboy, and put the carboy in my biggest fermenter and filled it with hot tap water. Within 5 mins it was back up to 35c. Aerated with my new air pump and stainless stone (that someone from here recommended), pitched the Kveik and away we go.

i'm just a little worried that there's 2 potential issues now, the carboy is 19L so it's highly likely that the Kveik is heading out and all over my fridge tonight (as usual), and the small mouth neck of the carboy isn't ideal for dry hopping large amounts. I usually keep it solely for lagers so I can see when they are clearing up.

 

[fury_tea]

The KNEIPAV is pretty damn good. 8 days since I brewed it and I absolutely could've shaved a few days off that if I'd have been quicker off the mark with dry hopping and then kegging. Going to have to be careful with this one because it's 7.3% but tastes like mango juice and sunshine. Sticking to halves especially when I have work the next day!

 

[foxbat]

8 days from grain to glass is amazing!

 

[fury_tea]

8 days from grain to glass is amazing!

It is isn't it. Kveik always blows my mind on how quickly it can produce really drinkable beer. This was the crossmyloof Voss (I think it's probably Lallemand Voss repackaged), and I'd really recommend it for the price.

I was trying to save some but there's so much hop material in it (didn't use a hop sock), not sure it will be possible...

It's currently in a demijohn in my fridge. Was considering straining it through a muslin cloth. What do you think?

 

[fury_tea]

Experiment time...
I was looking for some 3L coke bottles for a separate kegging experiment (watch this space?). I saw they sell them in Iceland who do next day delivery if you spend 35 quid, so I did a bit of shopping on top and also bought some apple juice for a cider... Saw they were selling still lemonade (with a bit of sweetener but nothing else nefarious) so thought I'd try apple and lemon cider, dry hopped with some citra.

I also have some kveik Voss that's tied up in hops from the last NEIPA. Wouldn't want to waste a full batch but could be worth a punt on this...

My 12L fermentation vessel fits in the top of my Brewzilla so I filled it 3/4 way full, set it to 38c, and dropped the fermenter in. I tipped in the juice ( 4L still lemonade and 6L apple) plus a good amount of yeast nutrients and left it for an hour to equalise in temp.

I tipped away the top layer of beer from the yeast denijohn, swirled it around to mix up the yeast and hops free poured 'an amount' into the juice.

I've turned the recirc off now so hopefully it will keep a fairly stable temp in the garage set at 38c.

I didn't even take a hydrometer reading but I'd imagine around 5.5% due to the sweeteners. They usually come out around 6%

 

[fury_tea]

Gave some kveik pilsner and kveik NEIPA away as gifts so I made labels for them. The writing on the NEIPA was a bit dark so I went over it with a white paint marker (looks like tip ex though). Looks a bit naff but never mind!

 

[fury_tea]

Little update on the 'hopped cider'...

It's is pretty nice, but I wouldn't really call it a cider (it's 40% still lemonade and it's come out more like a hopped lemonade, I guess) and I'm not a fan of the citric acid and sweetener taste - it puts my teeth on edge. I think I'd cut that to x2 lemonade and x8 apple juice next time and backsweeten it with sugar like I usually do.
That being said it is pretty enjoyable.

One weird thing is that as you can see from the picture above it has a head. It sticks around a bit as well, unlike any other cider I've ever made. Am I right in thinking that hops add head to beer??? If so, I never knew that, I always thought it was to do with proteins in the beer or something.

Anyway, first brew day in a while yesterday. A Belgian Pale Ale. Just kind of threw it together from what I had on hand. Before anyone calls me out it's not traditionally Belgian - the only thing that makes it so is the crossmyloof Belgian Ale yeast. Recipe:

4kg Vienna Malt
1kg Pilsner Malt
200g 80L Crystal Malt

60 min 10g Mandarina Bavaria
15 min 14g Mandarina Bavaria
15 min 14g Chinook
Whirlpool (@80c for 20 mins) 30g Mandarina Bavaria
Whirlpool (@80c for 20 mins) 30g Chinook

Crossmyloof Belgian Ale Yeast

No dry hop on this and I'm fermenting at 26c

Hoping for some fruity/spicy phenolic taste that should play nicely with my hop choice. I've heard you can get banana from this yeast which isn't what I am aiming for but see how it goes...

 

[fury_tea]

The Belgian Pale I brewed above is really enjoyable. It's nice to have something yeast forward for me.
Usually I aim for hop or malt forward beers.

I was going to brew something hoppy to start working on my hop stocks but last night I changed my mind and threw together this SMaSH:

Huell Melon Vienna Lager

4.5kg Vienna Malt
20g Huell melon @ 30 mins
80g Huell Melon @ Whilrpool (80c) for 20 mins
1 pkg Crossmyloof Hell yeast

Fermenting this one in the keg with the spunding valve set at just under 15psi and the temp gauge set to 20c.
Ferment, crash and serve in this one keg.