Leon103's brew days

[foxy]

I was planning a brew day for tomorrow evening- a pale ale again. Thought I would give my equipment a thorough clean. I began with stripping the fermentasaurus. I only went and broke the bottom nut that hold the collect bottle.

Can't get spares anywhere and nobody seems to stock them in the UK. Had to go with a fermzilla. Got express 24 hour delivery, not sure if I made the cut off for tomorrow.

I have a spare Leon you are welcome to it will fit in a small post bag so not too expensive to post out.

 

[Leon103]

I have a spare Leon you are welcome to it will fit in a small post bag so not too expensive to post out.

Are you sure. Happy to pay the cost if you don't mind sending.

 

[foxy]

Are you sure. Happy to pay the cost if you don't mind sending.

Yes no problem. PM your address and I will send it off.

 

[AngelHomebrew.]

Just got a notification on this one.... not sure why, maybe have replied in the past on thread

Anyway it was very close, just missed that days collection by about half hour sorry

Have seen that sometimes DPD Next Day service will deliver on weekend though, but really it is a working days service. There Saturday delivery is another service

Keeping fingers crossed otherwise will be Monday

If ever anything urgent can always get in touch in future and will see if can sort something to get there

 

[Leon103]

Just got a notification on this one.... not sure why, maybe have replied in the past on thread

Anyway it was very close, just missed that days collection by about half hour sorry

Have seen that sometimes DPD Next Day service will deliver on weekend though, but really it is a working days service. There Saturday delivery is another service

Keeping fingers crossed otherwise will be Monday

If ever anything urgent can always get in touch in future and will see if can sort something to get there

Thanks for replying and the email. Hopefully it comes tomorrow so I can brew in the sun over the weekend. Have a good weekend.

 

[dave_77]

Where are you ?

 

[Leon103]

Where are you ?

Will update this thread later with my latest brew. So much nicer brewing in the sun.

 

[Leon103]

After overcoming my equipment issues - My new fermenter arrived on Saturday (thanks @AngelHomebrew. ), I managed to brew another pale ale.

This time aiming for a smaller volume, this is mainly so I get through it quicker. So much to brew and I want to have as much of this to be fresh.

Smaller batch meant I didn't need to sparge - although I run the wort through the grain. So much easier this way and quicker. I think all my hoppy beers will be smaller 21/22l batches so I get one keg after dry hoppng.

I haven't brewed with Citra for ages so decided this will be the star of the show.

 

[Leon103]

Like usual I have been poor at keeping this up to date.

Done a couple of brews recently. First up was a saison. Recipe is below. New hops and yeast for me to try. Turned out well, really happy with the beer. I was a bit poor on the efficiency on this one, which as been a theme since going all in one. THe yeast did drop down to 1.002 so it give me 6.6% beer. It is light on the saison/farmhouse flavours which is to my taste and really dry and refreshing. I would brew this one again.

 

[Leon103]

Today was brew day again. This time a Coffee Breakfast stout. I brewed one a couple of years ago and it was really nice. Very similar recipe, only tweak being it is a smaller batch. The coffee will be from the same local company but this time a stronger blend. It is called Dark Skies to celebrate the local dark skies status. This beer was also requested by the coffee company which came to hear about my last one.

This time I was much better on the efficiency and over target on volume. @dave_77 queried why I was brewing a stout in the summer, this does need plenty of conditioning, but no doubt I will be trying it straight away. I will follow the same plan as last time, coffee beans placed in a bag for 5 days (need to check notes on what temp I did this at).

 

[Leon103]

Apart from brewing I have been planning kegerator v3.
The third one in 3 years, hopefully this will last. Everything is ready to go and I have bought new pipes and cleaned all the disconnects etc. Should get it done this week and will post some pictures.

 

[Leon103]

Like usual I have been poor at keeping this up to date.

Done a couple of brews recently. First up was a saison. Recipe is below. New hops and yeast for me to try. Turned out well, really happy with the beer. I was a bit poor on the efficiency on this one, which as been a theme since going all in one. THe yeast did drop down to 1.002 so it give me 6.6% beer. It is light on the saison/farmhouse flavours which is to my taste and really dry and refreshing. I would brew this one again.

Also forgot to mention it had a table spoon of pepper and the same of lemon zest

 

[Leon103]

The owner of Teifi Coffee turned up on Wednesday with this lovely bag of goodness. This went straight in the fermenter. Hope to keg on Monday.

 

[Leon103]

I mentioned above that I needed to build another kegerator. My previous 2 died more or less within 12 months of being built. I have been looking for ages for a second hand fridge capable of holding 3 kegs, and I also looked at a new one but was never confident that I could find something able to hold the 3 kegs, and not cost too much.

Then one day my wife said why don't I use the family fridge that sits in the utility room. This is a 70cm wide, 65cm deep and really tall. Ideal. She would then use the smaller fridge in is sat empty in the kitchen. Not wanting for her to change her mind I got my tools out straight away.

The only caveat was that I left some room for any excess food that couldn't fit in the smaller fridge.

First idea was to put 4 kegs in there, there is plenty of room but I forgot about the gas, I didn't want this on show so settled on 3. Luckily I had all the wood needed to build a simple shelve. I raised this enough to keep one of the old veg draws which can continued to be used for such items.

You can see that it sits nicely in the grooves (legs added later).

Next was to position the kegs and gas lines. I wanted a shelve on top for cans etc so decided to put the manifold lower, meaning less pipes are being used. I think in future I may reduce the size of the pipes to the thinner ones so they are more flexible.

Each keg is controlled by a secondary.

I wanted to place my taps as high as possible to stop little hands (the kids) from reaching, I also thought it would look better. The taps went in easily enough but I hit a problem. I forgot about the freezer door above, and this was knocking the handles forward/on when opening the door. Luckily I was able to order the shorter handles and not move the taps.

Next it was time to fill with some of my can collection (wife didn't realise I had so many, but I won't mention the ones outside). You can also see that I made room for some jars.

The final job was to install the drip tray and enjoy a beer.

 

[Leon103]

One positive of having the gas in the fridge is I have a good gauge of how much is left when I pull it out.

I needed to pull it out to keg the stout. Need to get a second cannister and keeping an eye out for a 2nd hand reg.

Another brew day tomorrow.

 

[Leon103]

Update on the coffee stout.

It's been in the keg for a few weeks now and the taste is getting there. Strong coffee and smooth. For my tastes I want the coffee to mellow out. Will test again in 2 weeks.

 

[Leon103]

A couple of weeks ago I brewed another pilsner, this time an Italian twist. These seem to be popular at the moment and for the ones I have tasted I like the style.

Because of my up coming holiday I had to change my fermentation times slightly but this seemed to fully ferment out in a week whilst at 10.5c. dry hops are now in and I will put it to lager tomorrow.

 

[Leon103]

I managed to get a Belgian Pale on at the beginning of the week. It started as a near copy of my previous effort which went down well but a few things were out of stock, and I didn't have enough First Gold so used some Chinook to use it up.

Brew day went ok, ended up with 26 litres compared to the 24 I was aiming for. Same efficiency but I was worried about the yeast, one sachet might be sailing close to the wind but within 24 hours it was going well.

I think this will be my entry into Brewcon.

 

[Leon103]

Its nearly 6 years since I last brewed a Simcoe and Rosemary beer - 04th Nov 2016

This is based more on a IPA, something slightly bitter. Nice straight forward brewday. Ended up with my best efficiency from the BD - 71% so watered down to give it a more sessionable strength, only for it to ferment out at 1.006, destined to be strong, 5.9% in the end so not that bad.

Nearly had disaster with my pressure fermenter, I don't build pressure in the first few days but still attach but still attach my blowtie, but I put it together the wrong way and pressure had built up. Luckily the massive krausen had caught my attention. This is now in a keg (a week ago) and tasting lovely.

 

[Leon103]

Forgot this earlier. The warning sign