Have a go at simple AG

[MyQul]

You've probably been asked about this before, but I don't want to scroll through 100 pages to find the answer! How do you find the final beer with such a short time in the FV? I have always been under the impression to leave the beer for longer to "clean up" diacetyl and other byproducts?

Its great. I've just started drinking a beer that was grain to glass in 14 days.
I used MJ work horse fermented at about 28C, so it fermented out really quick due to the high temp (about 48hrs-72hrs) I then left it for another 4 days to clean up any diacytl (and any thing else), then 1week's conditioning time. Its relavitely clean considering how high it was femented at with zero off flavours, that I can detect anyway..
The only thing is it's murky as hell. Probaby the cloudiest pale I've ever made. I think this is a combination of, the yeast being a not very flocctuant one anyway, other forumites have reported fast ferments lead to cloudy beer, and chill haze.

Because of the cloudyness, I've been thinking about/researching what other yeast strain I can use. I'm going to give nottingham a try next with my next quick turn around brew, as it ferments really quick and drops like a stone. It's got good cold temp tolerance but I've just discovered it's got good warm temp tolerance too. So by the sounds of thing's it's like the work horse yeast but clears better. Plus it's cheap as you can buy it from wilko for �£1.75 a pack. The only downside I've read is it can possibly strip out hop flavours,. But seeing as I dont make big IPAs I dont think this will be a problem and I can always add some more hop flavour back in by adding a hop tea at bottling time

 

[Flatline9]

The only thing is it's murky as hell. Probaby the cloudiest pale I've ever made. I think this is a combination of, the yeast being a not very flocctuant one anyway, other forumites have reported fast ferments lead to cloudy beer, and chill haze.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Glad it's getting you good beer in such a short turn around, I may have to investigate.. On the plus side, clarity has never been something that has bothered me as long as it tastes good, so it won't be a problem for me. Have you got a filtering system? It could help with the cloudiness.

 

[MyQul]

Awesome, thanks for the info. Glad it's getting you good beer in such a short turn around, I may have to investigate.. On the plus side, clarity has never been something that has bothered me as long as it tastes good, so it won't be a problem for me. Have you got a filtering system? It could help with the cloudiness.

Clarity doesnt bother me per se especially because as a no-chiller I normally get chill haze,unless I do something about it. That something is cold crashing. I dont have a brew fridge to be able to crash the whole batch but I can geta mini keg in my domestic frindge. I've put a couple of 1L growlers in the back of the fridge (as I put this batch in growlers/bottles rather than MK's) for a couple of weeks to clear.
There's no doubt, in my mind at least, a nice clear, pint adds to the sensory experience of drinking HB

 

[Flatline9]

There's no doubt, in my mind at least, a nice clear, pint adds to the sensory experience of drinking HB

Yup I agree, I'd always rather clearer beer, but taste is my number one priority.

Do you find with cold crashing that it takes substantially longer to carbonate your beers though? Thoughts being that more yeast has dropped out so it'll take longer to produce sufficient CO2 when bottle conditioned? I guess it might add a bit longer to your grain to glass in 14 days, but with such a short fermentation time it'd still be pretty speedy.

 

[MyQul]

Yup I agree, I'd always rather clearer beer, but taste is my number one priority.

Do you find with cold crashing that it takes substantially longer to carbonate your beers though? Thoughts being that more yeast has dropped out so it'll take longer to produce sufficient CO2 when bottle conditioned? I guess it might add a bit longer to your grain to glass in 14 days, but with such a short fermentation time it'd still be pretty speedy.

I carb it up first then cold crash it. So yes and no. Yes, it adds more time to the G2G but I dont cold crash the whole batch so I'm drinking some of it while crashing some. And no it doesnt take longer to carb because I carb at room temp

 

[Chrislane]

This thread has a lot to answer for!!!!

I have just done my third one of these, and drank the last bottle of my first batch whilst doing it!

This time round i have done a 10 litre batch with:
2kg marris otter
200g crystal malt

I have taken to mashing in my 15l stockpot in the oven - keeps the temp just right without resrting to wrapping it in a load of clothes/sleeping bags etc and seems to work a treat.

I slightly improved my sparge technique this time - used a syphon to sprinkle the sparge water over the grain and them did a kind of dunk sparge for 15 mins. Quite rudimentary but it made me think i was improving my technique from last time at the very least!

Added hops as follows:
5g Citra @ 60 mins
5g Citra @ 15 mins
5g Cascade @ 15 mins
1g irish moss @ 15 mins - never used this before so will see what difference it makes

After the boil i cooled to 80 deg and then added 5g citra and 5 g cascade. I am then leaving it to cool over night and will pitch yeast in the morning. Undecided yet whether to go for the S-04 or the US-05.

Intention is then to dry hop with another 5g citra and 5g cascade once fermentation has finished.

Hopefully i will end up with a nice refreshing American Pale Ale type beer. But to be fair, im just enjoying experimenting with different flavours and techniques at the moment. The process outlined in this thread is so easy it gives you the confidence to try different things.

 

[Slid]

This thread has a lot to answer for!!!!

I have just done my third one of these, and drank the last bottle of my first batch whilst doing it!

This time round i have done a 10 litre batch with:
2kg marris otter
200g crystal malt

I have taken to mashing in my 15l stockpot in the oven - keeps the temp just right without resrting to wrapping it in a load of clothes/sleeping bags etc and seems to work a treat.

I slightly improved my sparge technique this time - used a syphon to sprinkle the sparge water over the grain and them did a kind of dunk sparge for 15 mins. Quite rudimentary but it made me think i was improving my technique from last time at the very least!

Added hops as follows:
5g Citra @ 60 mins
5g Citra @ 15 mins
5g Cascade @ 15 mins
1g irish moss @ 15 mins - never used this before so will see what difference it makes

After the boil i cooled to 80 deg and then added 5g citra and 5 g cascade. I am then leaving it to cool over night and will pitch yeast in the morning. Undecided yet whether to go for the S-04 or the US-05.

Intention is then to dry hop with another 5g citra and 5g cascade once fermentation has finished.

Hopefully i will end up with a nice refreshing American Pale Ale type beer. But to be fair, im just enjoying experimenting with different flavours and techniques at the moment. The process outlined in this thread is so easy it gives you the confidence to try different things.

It is due to get warm again later this week, so US 05 is my suggestion.

This sounds great to me. I did a lot of half and half brews, with a 10-13L AG done mashed in the oven and adding a kit. I never got the "homebrew twang" in a PM, but always seem to get it when I do a kit brew these days.

 

[bobukbrewer]

a 12 hour cool before pitching yeast - stand by for flak.....

 

[Chrislane]

It is due to get warm again later this week, so US 05 is my suggestion.

I went with the US05 and rehydrated before pitching. I had never dome this before but read about it recently in the Graham Wheeler book. I dont know if it is the strain of yeast or the rehydration but it seems to have gone off like a rocket!

 

[Chrislane]

a 12 hour cool before pitching yeast - stand by for flak.....

I know, but i got so stressed out by the cooling part during my first couple of brews that i thought i would give it a go amd see what happens - its all a learning process and whats the worst that can happen, i'm sure it willl still be drinkable

 

[Robin54]

I know, but i got so stressed out by the cooling part during my first couple of brews that i thought i would give it a go amd see what happens - its all a learning process and whats the worst that can happen, i'm sure it willl still be drinkable

You could put your stock pot in the sink with cold water and some frozen water bottles. It works well.

 

[JapanBrew]

I went with the US05 and rehydrated before pitching. I had never dome this before but read about it recently in the Graham Wheeler book. I dont know if it is the strain of yeast or the rehydration but it seems to have gone off like a rocket!

Recently I've been doing that when I have to use a dry pack. Seems to work a lot better.

 

[Honk]

I Am steadily working my way through this thread and hoping that ingredients arrive to give this a go on Friday. (That is if I'm not banned after this morning s attempt to transfer BlackBerry wine from bucket to demijohn which ended in a transfer from bucket to kitchen floor, chairs, table, clean washing and some even managed to end up in the demijohn.)

 

[bobukbrewer]

In general experts on here say do not re-hydrate yeast - but I always do but I do live in the UK and the rocks do not reach me....

 

[bobukbrewer]

Honk - buy her some flowers NOT from the local garage (apols if I mixed up combinations of his and her)

 

[Honk]

I wonder if she would appreciate a hop plant for the garden?

 

[Chrislane]

You could put your stock pot in the sink with cold water and some frozen water bottles. It works well.

I have tried this but still seems to take an age

I'm fearing the worst for my brew now as the temp (admittedly on a stick on themometer) got up to 28 deg today. I'm going to take a gravity reading tomorrow and see what is happening.

 

[bobukbrewer]

a water bath and loads of ice each day if you have very high ambient temperature...

 

[Chrislane]

Well, tested this evening and after 4.5 days it has gone down to 1.006 (unadjusted for temp). It smelt and tasted lovely as well.

Im going to give it a full 2 weeks in the fv and will dry hop for the last 5 days of that.

 

[Honk]

Great thread this, I've read it through and hence not made everyone else's mistakes but probably a few unique ones just for myself. Today I've done my first all grain which I never would of done if not for this thread.

1.85 kg maris otter and 150g of crystal malt hopped with Styrian goldings to make a 10 litre batch which came out at 1.046 @ 35 deg c just waiting to cool off a bit more before pitching the yeast.

I thought I'd get objections about the smell but nobody minded and my daughter said it smelt of spagetti Bolognese and was making her hungry.

I'm calling this recipe Bolognese Brew.

Update _ just used the specific gravity temperature calc and it calculates 1.050 for my start gravity more efficient than I was expecting, I may add more cold water as I've just seen I'm a bit below the 10 litre mark.

Update 2 yeast pitched @ 1.046 (ish)