matt76's Brewdays

[matt76]

AG#90 Inspiration Pale Ale

I had originally planned to make another batch of my Mustang Pale Ale but with the weather warming up I'm just not feeling another bitter so I had a look at what I had in stock and came up with this.

I started with the published recipe for Verdant Lightbulb (Inspiration, Lightbulb, geddit?) and made a few tweaks...

I don't have any Caramalt and probably wouldn't use it in this anyway but I had everything else in about the right proportions, though I tweaked the amounts a little to suit my style.

The major difference is, while I had plenty of Centennial in the freezer, unusually for me I didn't have any Simcoe in stock so I've gone with Citra instead - not the same thing, I know, but I reckon a combination of C-hops will work just fine.

The hopping is different to anything I've done before so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

My recent experience of chucking all the hops in late (AG#84) left me wanting more bitterness on the back end so I was pleased to see a decent bittering addition in the original Verdant Lightbulb recipe.

I've whirlpooled before of course but generally only for 10mins and I'd also tend to use quite a bit more hops here so I'm really curious to see how it turns out. No guidance was given in the recipe on whirlpool temperature - in hindsight I think I'd like to have gone a bit cooler, but again we'll see.

15L tap water, 17.5ml CRS, half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 135
Chloride 121
Sulfate 149
Alkalinity 75

1500g Maris Otter
500g Vienna Malt
250g Carapils
250g Flaked Oats
2.50kg TOTAL

3hr full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

Boil 30mins:
10g of Magnum 11.0% AAU for 30mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 7mins

Whirlpool 20mins, starting at 95degC, finished at 85degC
10g Centennial 9.9% AAU
10g Citra 13% AAU

Will dry hop post fermentation with 20g Centennial & 40g Citra

Pitched a vitality starter made with 50g light DME, 500ml water and a full 11g pack of Lallemand Verdant IPA.

4.9 SRM - Pale
20.5 IBUs Rager (according to the calculator at least!)
OG 1.050 (efficiency a bit higher than expected)
Expect it to end up about 1.012 and 5.0%.

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#90 Inspiration Pale Ale

I dry hopped as planned with 40g Citra + 20g Centennial for 5 days, then cold crashed with the CO2 bladder attached for a few more days, before kegging yesterday via closed transfer.

About 11L in the keg, hooked up to the gas at 15psi.

pH = 4.4-4.6
OG = 1.050
FG = 1.011 (A little lower than expected, maybe a little hop creep?)
Apparent Attenuation = 79%

ABV = 5.25%
SRM = 4.9 (Pale)
IBU = 20.5 (Rager)

Colour = Pale, hazy - I'd expect it to clear in the keg a bit, though from limited experience LVIPA seems not to drop quite as clear as BRY-97.
Aroma = The sample wasn't carbed obviously but I definitely get pineapple.
Taste = Tropical, ripe pineapple. Bitter enough but think I'd maybe like a bit more bitterness. I wonder if this could be down to the water profile because I chose not to use gypsum and just went with CRS. As always I'll wait and see once it's properly carbed though.

Oh, and among yesterday's kegging and bottling, this... (I need a trip to the LHBS anyway, which is on the way to my CO2 supplier)

 

[foxbat]

Out of curiosity how many kegs are you getting from a 6kg cylinder? I've just totted up and I'm now carbonating my 28th keg from a cylinder purchased in May 2019.

 

[matt76]

Out of curiosity how many kegs are you getting from a 6kg cylinder? I've just totted up and I'm now carbonating my 28th keg from a cylinder purchased in May 2019.

Good question, I was wondering this too - after a quick tot up at this end I make it 16 x 11-12L batches since 25th August 2021, plus about 5 or so kegs of fizzy water...

But...

- I think you use CO2 from fermentation to purge your kegs, whereas I use shed loads from the cylinder each time.

- Under closed transfer I use CO2 from the cylinder to push beer from the FV to the keg, having first thoroughly purged all tubing, filters etc

- I dry hop through the airlock hole while pumping in CO2 at very low pressure

- Whenever I bottle I purge the bottles using a counter pressure filler.

- I've been to get a new cylinder today. Previously the gauge was showing about 35 bar but in the red so it's debatable how much more I may/may not have got out of the old one (1 bar is about 15psi, which is generally what I set my regulator to)

So yeah I'm probably "wasting" loads more than you are (depends whether you consider it necessary rather than a waste!). But then I'm not homebrewing to save money either so in that sense I'm not too worried.

 

[foxbat]

Good question, I was wondering this too - after a quick tot up at this end I make it 16 x 11-12L batches since 25th August 2021, plus about 5 or so kegs of fizzy water...

But...

- I think you use CO2 from fermentation to purge your kegs, whereas I use shed loads from the cylinder each time.

- Under closed transfer I use CO2 from the cylinder to push beer from the FV to the keg, having first thoroughly purged all tubing, filters etc

- I dry hop through the airlock hole while pumping in CO2 at very low pressure

- Whenever I bottle I purge the bottles using a counter pressure filler.

- I've been to get a new cylinder today. Previously the gauge was showing about 35 bar but in the red so it's debatable how much more I may/may not have got out of the old one (1 bar is about 15psi, which is generally what I set my regulator to)

So yeah I'm probably "wasting" loads more than you are (depends whether you consider it necessary rather than a waste!). But then I'm not homebrewing to save money either so in that sense I'm not too worried.

Yes you're right I only use CO2 for carbonation, headspace purging and dispensing so although I'll use more to carbonate a 19 litre corny I'm not using it for any other purpose so it will last longer.

 

[samale]

Matt as regards purging your keg before doing a closed transfer. You should fill it with water first, then use your gas to push the water out. It will reduce the amount of gas used and make it more effective

 

[samale]

@dave_77 sent me this a while ago

 

[St00]

Matt as regards purging your keg before doing a closed transfer. You should fill it with water first, then use your gas to push the water out. It will reduce the amount of gas used and make it more effective

I used to do this, but if I want to add keg finings and/or ascorbic acid I need to pop them in before purging.

 

[St00]

@matt76 that recipe looks absolutely banging.

 

[matt76]

Matt as regards purging your keg before doing a closed transfer. You should fill it with water first, then use your gas to push the water out. It will reduce the amount of gas used and make it more effective

So instead of "wasting" CO2 I waste 12L water at a time?

 

[Brewnaldo]

So instead of "wasting" CO2 I waste 12L water at a time?

Drink the water

 

[samale]

So instead of "wasting" CO2 I waste 12L water at a time?

Recycle the water

 

[foxbat]

Wash your motorbike

 

[Rodcx500z]

So instead of "wasting" CO2 I waste 12L water at a time?

Hi Matt i don't think what you waste will make one iota of a difference, until the collective start towing the line nothing will change all they do is moan when gov forces them to do it

 

[matt76]

AG#91 Hefeweizen

I really enjoyed this when I made it last time (AG#76) and with the weather warming up I've suddenly got a hankering for a Hefeweizen again - it goes perfectly with hot dogs and mustard!

Only real change from last time is I'm using Maris Otter in place of the Lager Malt and Carapils I used previously. Other than that it's the same and heavily influenced by this braumagazin.de article.

15L tap water, 5.0ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 171
Chloride 106
Sulfate 40
Alkalinity 133

1500g Wheat Malt
1000g Maris Otter
2.50kg TOTAL

Full-volume no-sparge mash:
10mins @ 55degC
45mins @ 63degC
30mins @ 72degC
(with the Klarstein set to 1.5kW it took about 10mins to raise the temp between each rest)

Boil 30mins:
7g of Styrian Wolf 12.4% AAU for 30mins
1/3 Britewort tablet 5mins

Pitched a full pack of Wyeast 3068. It's in the brew fridge set initially to 18.5degC but I'll let it free rise up to 21 or maybe as high as 24degC. I'm also open fermenting but I'll try not to chicken out quite so soon as last time before fixing the lid on for the end of fermentation.

I got quite a bit better efficiency than last time - not really sure why, it could be the Maris Otter maybe.

4.2 SRM - Pale
11.9 IBUs Rager
OG 1.048
Expect it to end up about 1.012 and 4.8% ABV.

 

[matt76]

AG#91 Hefeweizen

I'm also open fermenting

Erm... (think I might be doing some cleaning up soon )

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#91 "Smiling Politely" Hefeweizen

I remembered to seal up the open-fermenting (= yeast escaping!) FV before I went off on holiday for half-term and it finished off at a slightly lower than expected 1.009 making it 5.1% ABV.

I kegged it last weekend - 12L in the keg (full to the brim!), hooked up to the high pressure line at 20psi, or so I thought...

I went to treat myself to a first tasting yesterday evening only to discover I'd left the regulator turned down to 5-10psi when I bottled a couple of beers to send off to @pilgrimhudd for the May comp which since seem to have gone AWOL in the post...

End result, a not completely flat but still well undercarbed Hefeweizen Nevertheless it was still very tasty, bready malt flavour, quite fruity - I think it's got a bit more banana and less clove than the last one I made.

I've given the keg a good slam and shake today so hopefully the carbonation will be better this evening

 

[matt76]

AG#92 Mk.VI Hurricane Porter

I had been planning to make another batch of my Podium IPA but since the hops were slow to arrive in the post and the brew fridge was sitting empty I figured I'd get this brew on in the meantime.

Slight tweak from last time in that I've reduced the dark and crystal malts a little back to what I used in an earlier incarnation of this recipe, which I figure will make it a little more drinkable in the warmer weather.

15L tap water, 1.75ml lactic acid 80%, 2g CaCl, half a Campden tablet.
Calcium 171, Chloride 106, Sulfate 40, Alkalinity 264

2000g Maris Otter
250g Brown Malt
250g Chocolate Rye Malt
250g Dark Crystal Malt 80L
2.75kg Total

Full-volume no-sparge mash, 2h30mins @ 67degC

Boil 30mins:
25g Northdown 7.0% AAU 30mins
15g Northdown 7.0% AAU 10mins
1/4 Britewort tablet 5mins

11L in the FV @ OG 1.053 plus 1.6L crud in a bottle which will yield another 0.5L or so.

Pitched a vitality starter made the day before with 50g medium DME, 500ml water and a full 11g pack of Lallemand Verdant IPA. I've previously only used half a pack which is right at the bottom end of the recommended pitch rate so it will be interesting to see if a full pack makes any difference to the attenuation.

27.3 SRM
29.6 IBUs Rager
OG 1.053

Expect it to end up around 1.021 and 4.2% ABV.

 

[matt76]

AG#93 Podium IPA v9

As well as kegging my AG#92 Porter the other evening, I also brewed another batch of my house IPA...

A previous batch (AG#80) was good enough to get me a 4th place in the January competition so I'm making a few tweaks based on the feedback:
- A touch more base malt to bring the ABV up to around 4.5% ABV.
- 50% more hops at every stage for more flavour intensity.
- I'll also add the Citra dry hop closer to the start of fermentation to try to encourage a bit of biotransformation

15L tap water, 17.5ml CRS, 3g gypsum, half a Campden tablet, giving:
Calcium 182
Chloride 121
Sulfate 260
Alkalinity 75

1250g Maris Otter
500g Vienna
250g Munich
250g Carapils
2.250kg TOTAL

140min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC

30min boil:
15g Simcoe 13% AAU 20mins
15g Amarillo 9% AAU 10mins
15g Citra 13% AAU 10mins
15g Simcoe 13% AAU 10mins
15g Amarillo 8% AAU 5mins
15g Citra 13% AAU 5mins
⅓ Britewort tablet 5mins

Dry hop 2-3 days into fermentation with 30g Citra (about 10 days contact time), and then at end of primary fermentation add 60g Amarillo for 5 days before cold crashing.

I forgot to make my usual vitality starter the day before so only made it about 6 hours before pitching, 50g medium DME, 500ml water and a full 11g pack of Lallemand BRY-97.

5.0 SRM - Pale
55 IBUs Rager
OG 1.044
Expect it to end up about 1.010 and 4.5% ABV.

 

[matt76]

Kegging: AG#93 Podium IPA v9

Kegged this the other day - approx. 11L transferred to keg through my filter. Probably a pint or so less than normal as the extra-big dry hop looks like it's absorbed more beer, just as you'd expect.

Connected to LP line at 15psi - should be ready for a first taste by the weekend though from experience although it'll be perfectly drinkable it'll take an extra week or so for the last of the hop matter to settle out and the bitterness to settle down.

FG a few points lower than expected, obviously got a bit of hop creep. From the sample I tasted I suspect it will be more hoppy than previous attempts but I'm not sure it's night and day - in any case I'll be comparing against a 6 month old memory so it's anyone's guess!

pH = 4.4-4.6
OG = 1.044
FG = 1.007
Apparent Attenuation = 84%

ABV = 4.86%
SRM = 5.0 (Pale)
IBU = 55 (Rager)