matt76's Brewdays

[pilgrimhudd]

The recipes from beersmith, I randomly came across it and just happened to have all that I needed. Yes I think your right, essentially a bitter with a few more hops but not in your face american hops.

I haven't used chinook yet but the profile says its piney and spicy, is it similar to simcoe?

 

[matt76]

Well, I've used Simcoe a lot - usually for bittering or mid-boil additions, but sometimes late on and/or dry hop..... I think it's great but I don't get resin or pine from Simcoe.

Chinook on the other hand - well it's very distinctive, and seems to be rather divisive too (I like it). It's got some sort of resin or piney thing going on - not fruity or citrus like a lot of other hops.

I forgot to respond to your point earlier, but I think it could work well with other hops - I'm pretty sure there are commercial beers out there that do this (in fact I was just looking at a Rye IPA recipe using Centennial, Chinook and Simcoe!).

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Ahh I thought it was quite piney in my black ipa, the only time I've used it mind.

I needed to get some yeast so bought some matueka to go with it, not one over used before either. I've got enough to do 2 brews so I'll do one with your recipe and one with a the extra hop.

 

[matt76]

Ahh I thought it was quite piney in my black ipa, the only time I've used it mind.

I needed to get some yeast so bought some matueka to go with it, not one over used before either. I've got enough to do 2 brews so I'll do one with your recipe and one with a the extra hop.

Sounds fun - report back

I had a stout last night made with northdown and cascade - in the Bible GH describes northdown also as being resiney and piney so I'm thinking I'd like to do something with that at some point too...

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Will do.

A piney stout does sound nice, just brewed a fishermans stout, had planned a licorice stout but will keep that on hold for a month or so.

 

[matt76]

AG#36 German Pilsner

6th brew already in the Klarstein. I wanted another Pilsner to contrast with AG#34 Czech Pilsner and it was a good excuse to try Tettnanger hops for different and W-34/70 yeast.

Sticking with my go-to grist:
2250g Lager malt
200g Vienna malt
50g Victory malt
TOTAL 2.5kg

Full-volume / no-sparge mash for 60 mins @ 67degC in 15L tap water treated with 1g CaCl, 0.5 Campden tablet, 5ml Lactic Acid 80% (would have done 30mins but got distracted again)

Lost a few degC during the mash - not a major issue but still working to get this dialed in better (probably not helped by the fact it's also freezing outside!).

Took my eye off the kettle as it came to the boil - came back to it to find steam billowing everywhere before quickly switching down from 3.0kW to 1.5kW heat. But as a result I think my boil-off was a bit more than expected.

30min boil and as with the Czech Pils it's another metric buttload of hops - since it's all leaf hops I used the grain basket as hop spider again:

80g Tettnanger leaf hops 2.9% 30mins
10g Tettnanger leaf hops 2.9% 10mins
10g Tettnanger leaf hops 2.9% 0mins (Cooled rapidly to 70degC then added hops and steeped for 10mins before continuing cooling)

As standard I left it to settle for a few hours before draining 9L crystal clear wort to the FV, plus another 2.5L crud & trub to a plastic bottle to settle out and add to the FV a day or two later.

Pitched W-34/70 sprinkled into wort - I hear good things about this yeast. Transferred FV to the garage where it's around an optimal 12degC. Airlock beginning to tick over already this morning.

OG 1.045, 43 IBUs, should end up around 5% ABV.

 

[MyQul]

6th brew already in the Klarstein.

Is that this week?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Is that this week?

Man of leisure I think.

 

[foxbat]

it was a good excuse to try Tettnanger hops

80g Saaz leaf hops 2.9% 30mins
10g Saaz leaf hops 2.9% 10mins
10g Saaz leaf hops 2.9% 0mins

 

[matt76]

This is what comes of cut & pasting ones brewday notes

Now corrected

 

[matt76]

First Tasting: AG#30 Red IPA & AG#30.5 Little Red IPA

AG#30 Red IPA
ABV = 4.4%
SRM = 14
IBU = 41

AG#30.5 Little Red IPA
ABV = 4.5%
SRM = 14
IBU = 30

These are similar but different - AG#30.5 was made by re-mashing the grains from AG#30 but only boiled for 15 minutes and differently hopped.

These are really hard to describe though both are very pleasant to drink: best description I can give is they're like a hoppy bitter. 30.5 is a little more nutty, 30 is a bit more fruity.

There's a malty backbone - I think from the Munich malt - that is nicely balanced against the hops. The hop flavour is a subtle fruitiness but doesn't scream citrus/tropical/whatever like an AIPA. Bitterness is similarly restrained yielding a much more balanced beer.

Very pleased with both - I might be tempted to see what happens if we move some of the late hops to flameout or even dry hop, just to boost the hop aroma a little, but there's no guarantee that would be an improvement!

Cheers,

Matt

 

[matt76]

A few updates.....

AG#34 Czech Pils - Down to 1.007 so just started cold crashing. Crisp & refreshing. Excited.

AG#35 Chinook APA - Down to 1.005! So even though the OG was lower than when I brewed it originally, it's attenuated more and ended up a bit stronger! The Chinook flavour is there but not as intense as I might have expected, almost lager-like in hop intensity. It's not a bad beer, just seems like it's not quite there. Considering chucking in a dry hop to liven it up a bit - no Chinook left but got a few other options.

AG#36 German Pils - Down to 1.007, the W34/70 seems to have fermented much quicker than the Czech WY2278. It's good but not quite as crisp as the Czech pils. There's a difference from the hops I think, and perhaps just a hint of sulphur, presumably coming from the yeast. Not unpleasant, just different.

First tastings - couple of weeks early but it's Friday and I'm thirsty!

AG#32 "Cheatin' Like Helles" (pseudo Munich Helles) - Oh yes, very pleased with this. It's a touch more bitter than my original Munich Helles so doesn't have that lingering sweetness. But not so bitter that it's like a pilsner. It's a light malty flavour like Jacob's crackers then finishes with a subtle but refreshing lemony flavour.

AG#31 Golden Ale - Well I missed what I was aiming for originally. However, the dry hop I added has turned it into an acceptable hoppy pale ale. Perfectly fine, though not really outstanding - nevertheless it's a pleasant enough beer to drink so can't complain.

 

[foxbat]

First Tasting: AG#30 Red IPA & AG#30.5 Little Red IPA

View attachment 22601
AG#30 Red IPA
ABV = 4.4%
SRM = 14
IBU = 41

View attachment 22602
AG#30.5 Little Red IPA
ABV = 4.5%
SRM = 14
IBU = 30

These are similar but different - AG#30.5 was made by re-mashing the grains from AG#30 but only boiled for 15 minutes and differently hopped.

These are really hard to describe though both are very pleasant to drink: best description I can give is they're like a hoppy bitter. 30.5 is a little more nutty, 30 is a bit more fruity.

There's a malty backbone - I think from the Munich malt - that is nicely balanced against the hops. The hop flavour is a subtle fruitiness but doesn't scream citrus/tropical/whatever like an AIPA. Bitterness is similarly restrained yielding a much more balanced beer.

Very pleased with both - I might be tempted to see what happens if we move some of the late hops to flameout or even dry hop, just to boost the hop aroma a little, but there's no guarantee that would be an improvement!

Cheers,

Matt

Love the colour of your little red IPA. Reminds me a lot of of how my own mainline bitter looks. It's making me thirsty!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Interesting you say that about the apa, i may dry hop both mine, one with just chinook, the other with chinook and motueka.

 

[matt76]

Love the colour of your little red IPA. Reminds me a lot of of how my own mainline bitter looks. It's making me thirsty!

Thanks. I'm quite pleased with that one - as far as I can make out Red IPA is kinda like a bitter but with more hoppiness from American hops, yet much more restrained than an AIPA.

It's a nice beer but not as hoppy as I'd hoped so in truth it drinks more like a bitter. Probably just a quirk of my system or process, but next time I'd probably add some more hops at flameout and/or dry hop.

 

[matt76]

Interesting you say that about the apa, i may dry hop both mine, one with just chinook, the other with chinook and motueka.

Yeah. Truth be told I'm a little disappointed. When I made this first time round I think it did fade a bit in the bottle but I'm certain the Chinook-iness was much more pronounced to begin with.

It could be the hops (leaf hops at that) have faded a bit after 3-6 months in the freezer, I'm not sure. Or maybe the fact I cooled the wort to 70degC before adding the flameout hops had made a big difference??? Who knows...

In the end I decided last night to dry hop with 25g Cascade. It would doubtless been a nice beer but with two pilsners on the go already I decided I wanted something guaranteed to be a bit more hoppy.

My suggestion to you would be taste it at the end of primary fermentation and decide if you think your brew needs a dry hop.

 

[foxbat]

Interesting you say that about the apa, i may dry hop both mine, one with just chinook, the other with chinook and motueka.

I personally wouldn't combine motueka and chinook. They're both great hops but chinook is a bit of a brute and will easily overwhelm motueka.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I personally wouldn't combine motueka and chinook. They're both great hops but chinook is a bit of a brute and will easily overwhelm motueka.

I did wonder if they would go together... maybe just the chinook in one and motueka in the other then.

 

[matt76]

AG#37 Czech Amber Lager

Another Josh Weikert recipe, "It’ll be too dark at 18-19 SRM, but don’t sweat it." Well according to Brewer's Friend mine is about 18 SRM, but according to my eyes it's black like a porter or a stout! So, Czech Amber Lager or Czech Dark Lager, who knows..... I think it'll be tasty though.....

15L tap water, 1g CaCl, 0.5 Campden tablet, 5ml lactic acid 80%

900g Lager malt
900g Golden Promise
500g Munich
150g Dark Crystal
150g Melanoidin malt
150g Chocolate Rye malt
TOTAL 2.75kg

Mash:
Full-volume no-sparge, targeted 30 mins @ 68degC but actually did 70 mins @ 66degC.

My efficiency seems to have settled down lately to something consistent which is helpful in terms of planning recipes. However I'm still struggling to hit my mash temperatures - I have a suspicion that the 3kW heater tends to overshoot the set point but if I switch it down to 1.5kW for the last 10-15degC it levels off where I want it. The temperature probe is still a few degC out annoyingly, but I think a rule of thumb for me in the future is to try setting the Klarstein 1degC HIGHER than the desired mash temp when heating water - the error in the temperature probe and the cooling effect of the grain will hopefully cancel out and give me a measured mash temp exactly where I want it.

Boil 30 mins:
All leaf hops so used grain basket as hop spider
40g Saaz leaf hops 4.52% 30mins
20g Saaz leaf hops 4.52% 15mins
1/2 protofloc tablet 7mins

About 35 IBU's in total.

Chilled and left to settle for 2.5hrs while I bottled AG#34 Czech Pilsner. Once that was done I drained the crystal clear wort (well, dark brown, but still clear) at about 14degC onto the Wyeast 2278 yeast cake in the FV.

When I pitched the Czech Pils originally I had a lag time of around 60 hours, but this was bubbling away quite happily this morning.

OG = 1.049, should end up around 5.0-5.25% ABV I think, just depends how low Wyeast 2278 decides to go this time.

The wort tasted really interesting, but hard to describe - I'm not sure if this coming from the dark crystal, melanoidin or chocolate rye or a combination of all three. Excited now to see how the finished beer turns out

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Matt, my kettle has the little probe that sticks up from the bottom its very short, so in effect it works off water temp at the bottom near to the heater plate I have faffed about with temp settings for ages for mashing, I now set it 4c under what I want ie 68c I set at 64c which will give me 68 I then set the timer and leave the temp set at 64c, over the last 3 brews it has been very consistant, bear in mind I am doing 23L brews, I set the kettle on its lowest setting which is 900w so if it comes on its nice and gentle