It's my birthday and I'll brew if I want to

[BeerisGOD]

Nope just your standard s type airlocks. Always done the job for me. Good luck with your brew. I've always dry hopped for a minimum of 4 days before I bottled. But that's just me

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I'm dry hopping with whatevers left from the boil. Some of the recipes I'm doing just need an extra punch.
I think the grassy thing may do with the freshness of the hops as the jury's still out

 

[Slid]

I'm gonna give a go at harvesting the yeast on both the wheat and the NEIPA, first attempt at doing this so any advice welcome.

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I buy (or get SWMBO to order from Tesco) 12x 250ml of lemonade. Drink the lemonade and sanitise the bottles with Star San.

On racking / bottling day, leave a litre or so of beer on top of the yeast trub, give it a big swirl and then decant into a few bottles.

Make sure that any intermediate jug and the pouring bit of the FV is sterile.

It is possible to get up to 8 x 250 ml with this method and that may be more than required, but they do keep in the fridge for up to 3 months with no issues.

 

[Junglist69]

Cheers mate, I'll give that a go. Looks like a tescos trip for me tomorrow after work. The lemonade will get polished off in no time in this weather

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[JFB]

I buy (or get SWMBO to order from Tesco) 12x 250ml of lemonade. Drink the lemonade and sanitise the bottles with Star San.

On racking / bottling day, leave a litre or so of beer on top of the yeast trub, give it a big swirl and then decant into a few bottles.

Make sure that any intermediate jug and the pouring bit of the FV is sterile.

It is possible to get up to 8 x 250 ml with this method and that may be more than required, but they do keep in the fridge for up to 3 months with no issues.

How do you go about pitching them mate?

 

[Slid]

How do you go about pitching them mate?

Shake it repeatedly, whilst warming the bottle up by keeping it at room temps during the brewday to mix it all back up. Take the lid off and pour it in, green beer and all. After a few weeks, even at 3C, there is some carbonation, so you hold it to spray in the right general direction.

No subtleties, I'm afraid.

Some advice says pour off the liquid and just use the nice bit in the middle and chuck the dead cells from the bottom as well. Yeah, I'm sure that sounds better. But not good enough advice to actually follow, just good enough advice to pass on. :whistle:

 

[JFB]

Shake it repeatedly, whilst warming the bottle up by keeping it at room temps during the brewday to mix it all back up. Take the lid off and pour it in, green beer and all. After a few weeks, even at 3C, there is some carbonation, so you hold it to spray in the right general direction.

No subtleties, I'm afraid.

Some advice says pour off the liquid and just use the nice bit in the middle and chuck the dead cells from the bottom as well. Yeah, I'm sure that sounds better. But not good enough advice to actually follow, just good enough advice to pass on. :whistle:

Cool, even if there a couple of months old? or do they then need a starter?

 

[Slid]

Cool, even if there a couple of months old? or do they then need a starter?

None I've used needed a starter. With an inch or so of yeast in the bottom in settled out mode, they have been fine, but slightly explosive on opening.

I can't possibly discourage using a starter, because it is very unlikely to give a worse outcome and because, quite simply, having a play with the mechanics of doing one will be useful when you actually have to do one. :thumb:

 

[Junglist69]

All finished and kegged up. First time of doing so. Done a bit of force carbing. Here's the raspberry smoothie ipa. Fermented down to 1012, making it 5.6%. So happy with this one so far, can only get better really. Lovely citra aroma, hints of tropical, mango. The smoothie finish is really there with a hint of the raspberry. Spot on.

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[Junglist69]

Well done a couple of experimental brews yesterday. Only 12l brews, didn't get a chance to update on here. But the brew equipment is still out and I'm trying out an ouid de bruin.

3 step mash, first attempt at this. Strike water temp of 64 to hit 52, this was a tad high though so has to add 2k of cold. Temps hit spot on. 20 minute rest and then to add boiling water to get mash up to 62c.

Got a separate brew bun for this one as it calls for done wild yeast. If I've read correctly it's better to have a separate bin for the job, I'll keep it for sours too.

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[Gerryjo]

Well done a couple of experimental brews yesterday. Only 12l brews, didn't get a chance to update on here. But the brew equipment is still out and I'm trying out an ouid de bruin.

3 step mash, first attempt at this. Strike water temp of 64 to hit 52, this was a tad high though so has to add 2k of cold. Temps hit spot on. 20 minute rest and then to add boiling water to get mash up to 62c.

Got a separate brew bun for this one as it calls for done wild yeast. If I've read correctly it's better to have a separate bin for the job, I'll keep it for sours too.

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Contemplating step mashing now that I've calibrated the Burco boiler and will fancy doing something like this.
Interesting.
How have the birthday brews turned out?

Gerry

 

[Junglist69]

Really nicely, cheers Gerry. The raspberry smoothie is one of the nicest beers I've ever had. Gone down very well with everyone who's tried it, will definitely be brewing again and soon as it's nearly all gone.

The NEIPA, has been well liked but it's not my cup of tea, tastes too alcoholic if that makes sense. It came out string but I've had stronger and they've tasted better. I'm guessing it's a tough style do well.

I brought an erdinger last night just to compare, me and my mate both agreed it's very close, but the home brew version is crisper and the flavour is more pronounced. I'm guessing due to lower mash temp but we both preferred the clone version.



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[Gerryjo]

Really nicely, cheers Gerry. The raspberry smoothie is one of the nicest beers I've ever had. Gone down very well with everyone who's tried it, will definitely be brewing again and soon as it's nearly all gone.

The NEIPA, has been well liked but it's not my cup of tea, tastes too alcoholic if that makes sense. It came out string but I've had stronger and they've tasted better. I'm guessing it's a tough style do well.

I brought an erdinger last night just to compare, me and my mate both agreed it's very close, but the home brew version is crisper and the flavour is more pronounced. I'm guessing due to lower mash temp but we both preferred the clone version.



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Let them condition for a few months and you'll see a notable change in the alcoholic characteristics as I found that out myself with a Ruination clone that was potent but mellowed to be very smooth 👍

Gerry

 

[Junglist69]

I think that's about the only one that will get a good conditioning. So I hope it does, pretty much every beer I've ever done has got better with age, but the good ones just get drunk quicker. I usually save a couple of bottles of each till christmas and the change is always positive. The other two in kegs won't last long though 😂

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[Junglist69]

Well something went a little wrong. I added a couple of extra litres of sparge water as my boil calculations are a little off. But even after adding more I only ended up with 14l at 1062. I was aiming for 1049, so I liquored down with 3 litres and it hit the mark. Still gotta work out my calculations a bit better, little bit too laid back. It tasted bloody good mind. Looking forward to this one, it's gonna be a while before it's anywhere near ready though.

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[JapanBrew]

Was your boil really aggressive? How much volume before boil did you have?

 

[Junglist69]

Wasn't really aggressive, but recipe called for a 90 minute boil, ive only been doing 60's. To be honest I'm not sure what volume I had before boil I can only go on what my initial calculations were, which would make it 22l. I had my little girl running around in and out of the paddling pool through out the whole process so I was slightly distracted at the time hahaha. Definitely got to work on my calculations and make up a pre boil volume measuring stick

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[JapanBrew]

My equipment will boil off about 3 liters per hour. Then I have, on my small 28 liter, 2 liters of dead space. My large 70 liter boiler, 5.5 liters of dead space.
Do you use software to create and control your recipes and system? If not, get it. I use beersmith. It does take time to dial in your equipment but once in you can pin point your recipe.

 

[Junglist69]

I have used software before but I was purely guessing on boil loss etc. However, this morning, I've now gone and done some experiments, working out my mash tun and boiler dead space. Plus my boil off in an hour. Worked out at 4l!!! So I was off by 3l, I thought I had it set higher than that. That's cos I changed software from my previous brews. That explains my under doing the sparge water.

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[JapanBrew]

That's good you figured it out. I've had it happen a few times. Another problem I had is I use a water flow meter to fill my HLT. One time it didn't measure the output correctly and was short 10 liters. As I was brewing it looked off. Needless to say that batch was strong!

 

[Junglist69]

Decided to get up early as to not disturb the missus and crack on with another brew. This time copying a recipe from the mad fermentationist. His hoppy French saison.

All going well, draining the mash tun, took the first runnings and after calculations works out a pre boil gravity of 1070!!! I knew something had to be off. I adjusted my efficiency a bit lower but I crushed my own grains this time so probably shouldn't have. By the time it was all drained I was 3l shy of my pre boil volume. Not sure how this happened??? Anyways, I ran an extra 3.5l though the mash and hit a pre boil gravity of 1050, was aiming for 1040 so my efficiency definitely needs adjusting. Hot breaks about to hit so I'll report back after the 90 minute boil.

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