Leon103's brew days

[Leon103]

First bottle of the English IPA tonight after a week in the bottle.

Ha! I really must look at the date on posts!

How did the IPA turn out?

It's grown on me. Sometimes it's nice not to have a big hop bomb and this one worked well. It went down nice during those few days of nice weather, very refreshing

 

[Hoddy]

Yeah missed the dates. Doh *facepalm. And yes, drinking..... too..... much.......

Best I send you a bottle of my V3 when it's done then [emoji6]


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[Leon103]

I haven't really given an update on some of my latest brews.

The NEIPA is really coming into it's own now but still early days. Had another tonight and it was really nice, not the light colour I was looking for and can do with the thick head staying longer but getting there.

My bitter which I brewed a few months ago is spot on now, really surprised by it, taste lovely and looks good.

EIPA has been a good pint, I prefer hoppier beers but this is a nice change, it nice to sample the spicer, earthy hops now and again.

 

[Leon103]

Did a brown porter today.



Nice brew day, no toddler so it wasn't rushed and went very smoothly.



Recipe below, ignore the yeast though, I re-pitched Fermentums Heathery Heights yeast that I used in an English IPA.



Was expecting to hit 1.048 Which is my standard 70% efficiency but it came out at 1.056 which gives me 85%. I think because I wasn't rushing I was able to mash in more and I drain every last drop out of the wort. I was bang on 23l also.

The plan is to split the batch, half plum, half vanilla.

Here are some pictures, including my out of date Willamette, hence why I threw them all in.

 

[Leon103]

Finally got round to bottling this today and it wasn't as much as a faff as I thought it maybe. Split the batch in half and used plum and vanilla favouring. Actually started this on saturday. I cleaned the bottles and transferred to the secondary in hope of bottling on Sunday but ended up in hospital all day with both my children being seen and my daughter being admitted.

 

[Hoddy]

Bloody hell dude what’s been going on with the littlest one?


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[Leon103]

Bloody hell dude what’s been going on with the littlest one?


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Bit of a long story but basically she has been passing blood. Gp said give it another couple if weeks. Whilst in a&e With my son we asked them to look at her. They took some blood, which meant they had to cut her heal opened because they couldn't get a needle in her because she is so small. They concluded that she was milk intolerant and gave us a milk replacement which smelt of malt extract. We then had a phone call late at night to say blood tests had come back and showed that her vitamin k levels were low and if not tested straight away it could cause brain damage. Vitamin k is needed to clot the blood, hence why she was passing blood.

 

[Ajhutch]

Blimey Leon that sounds awful. Hope she recovers, all the best.


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[BeardedMag]

I thought you said it was a low ABV? That Newt is bladdered haha!

After nearly four months without a brew day I decided to put a brew on yesterday afternoon. Using some ingredients I had left over I more or less copied GH's Paterbier recipe. I was aiming for a half length brew (11.5l) and used 2kg of Belgian Pilsner malt and replaced Hallertauer for Herbrucker. I added a bit extra of both hop additions to use them up. The yeast was Safbrew S-33.

Four months without brewing meant I was a bit rusty, although during the brew I thought it was all going too well, even helping and pleasing the wife by doing a lot of gardening at the same time. Made some minor errors like not adding my bazooka to my boiler and being under on my measurements (forgot the markings on the boiler were wrong).

I got 8l in the FV so I topped it up to about 12l. The OG was 1.044 but after adding the water it was 1.040. Not too bad on efficiency. I was a little worried because when adding the spent grain to my veg beds I did find one dough ball.

Its come out lovely and pale, just hope I can get the priming right so it looks like the picture in the book. I am hoping for a light low abv brew that can bring a bit of late summer to the end of Sept (book says ready in 4 weeks).

I am glad I got this one out of the way because I plan a oatmeal stout in a few weeks and today was good for ironing out those teething problems of being away for so long.

Didn't take many pictures but here is what I did take, including a newt who I found whilst cleaning up. He is alive, despite sampling the trial jar.

 

[Leon103]

I thought you said it was a low ABV? That Newt is bladdered haha!

He is a light weight.

Actually found a couple of these in the garage and had one the weekend. It was lovely.

Weak by Belgian standards but good if you are having a session

 

[Leon103]

Blimey Leon that sounds awful. Hope she recovers, all the best.


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Thank you. At such a young age she seems unaffected apart from all the needles she had to be poked with

 

[Leon103]

Forgot to mention that the porter ended up at 1.014. A little higher than planned.

 

[Ajhutch]

Thank you. At such a young age she seems unaffected apart from all the needles she had to be poked with

I'm always amazed how resilient they are even when they are tiny.

I just read this thread and enjoyed the posts around the #40 mark with how you and others fit your brews around toddlers, something I have to deal with too. My method has become something along the lines of:
- weigh grains, fill kettle and treat water the night before
- 6am start, mash on and stable before getting him out of bed at 7am
- mash out using Inkbird to fire my kettle, no sparge
- boil during morning playtime
- no chill, just pitch when it's ready
- clean up during his lunchtime nap

A few sacrifices required but nothing particularly outside the norm - no sparge means smaller batches, I can manage 18 litres into the FV comfortably enough, probably close to 20 at a stretch if it was lower gravity. I don't stress too much about mash time, in fact I think the thinner mash might even benefit from a long mash (I did a super precise 1 hour and 24 minutes last time!) and I know I don't lose temperature. The biggest issue I have is the variation in temperature between the top and bottom of my kettle when mashing so I really could use some recirculation, so I do try to grab a couple of minutes once or twice during the mash to run off a couple of litres and lob it back in the top.

 

[Leon103]

After bottling yesterday the wide has said I don't have time to brew anymore. My answer was to get me a grandfather lol, although I don't think this will save much time. We don't live near family so I can't ship the kids out for a couple of hours but I will come up with something. I don't mind doing a evening brew, just need to get the new born settled into a routine in the evening and I will be sorted.

 

[BeerCat]

Hey man. Best of luck with your little one. So many affected by milk. Hope she recovers soon.

 

[Covrich]

Jesus Leon hope your little one is okay

I think you might be okay with evening brews, I done them myself a few times especially when mine were younger.. I would say depending on bedtime make sure you have the mash water going on heat before 6pm.

You could also do no chill to help cut time

 

[Leon103]

Jesus Leon hope your little one is okay

I think you might be okay with evening brews, I done them myself a few times especially when mine were younger.. I would say depending on bedtime make sure you have the mash water going on heat before 6pm.

You could also do no chill to help cut time

Thank you.

I like doing a evening brew. I brew outside but all under cover. I could light the bbq and have my own little party. I could get grains ready before and clean all equipment earlier in the day and just crack on when my boy is in bed. Do a no chill and leave the cleaning until the next day.

 

[Leon103]

Ok had a plum porter last night after 8 days in the bottle and it was lovely. Great plum flavour, perhaps slightly too much but it shoukd.mellow.

Swmbo had a blind taste and she thought it smelt of bumblegum and tasted of blueberries.

Will try the vanilla tonight

 

[Leon103]

Had the vanilla version tonight and it was amazing. One of the best porters/stouts I have made.ovely vanilla taste and aroma and it really brings out the chocolate flavours. Swmbo said - that is going to go down well. I have to agree

 

[Leon103]

I am having a long overdue brew day on Sunday. Two young kids have postponed this day too long.

Below is the recipe, apart from the yeast. I have been a bit lazy and wasn't confident it would happen so haven't pulled out any of the liquid yeasts from the fridge so I plan to use US-04, not ideal. I did find a sachet of us-05 but best before date was may 17 and it had been left in my brew