Some first tasting notes here of my AG#19 Chinook Pale Ale - I noted the amber malt is not intrusive 
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Yes I thought you might be adding a bit of backbone, I think a single malt or pale malt and carapils is often too thin or unbalanced if you haven't got the hops right. Presumably biscuit would do a similar thing right? I like the vienna addition , I copied one of your pales last year, a motueka and chinook pale and it was one of the best pales I've made.
Aye, that's it, and I nicked it from The Kernel brewery - purveyor of fine APAs throughout the south-east area
I've never used amber myself - it looks very close to Weyermann's melanoidin and carared malts. Out of those two I've only used melanoidin and then only in very small percentages. I hope at 10% it doesn't muddle the hop flavours but you say you've done it before and it was fine.
Yeah, amber, victory, melanoidin and, as @pilgrimhudd says, biscuit too - I think they're all in the same ballpark of lightly roasted malts.
(Carared though - it might be a similar colour but that's a light crystal malt. I use that in my Black IPA)
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. When I read what I did originally (still quite early into my brewing career at that point) I had to do several double takes! Did I really do that?
So I'm really going on blind faith and trusting what I did previously - though I absolutely recall the Chinook character came through beautifully so fingers crossed this time round!
Bottling: AG#59 "Chequered Flag" Black IPA
With the benefit of hindsight it probably wasn't the smartest move to add a dry hop to deliberately induce hop creep. On the plus side at least now I know exactly what diacetyl tastes like!
This finished at a somewhat higher gravity than expected - and for the cynics, yes I am absolutely 110% sure it was definitely done - hence the aforementioned questionable decision.
Anyway, once fermentation started again it went through a diacetyl phase followed by much pacing up and down and wondering will it or won't it, should I add more yeast, exactly which direction do I need to face when praying to which brewing god etc etc etc.
Long story short, I didn't do anything, just left it and it sorted itself out and eventually stopped fermenting somewhere around the originally expected FG.
Once it was done I set it to cold crash - since it had been on the original dry hop rather longer than intended I went ahead and added a second helping, consisting of an additional 15g each of Citra & Simcoe.
I'm meddling with finings at the moment so at various internals during the cold crash I added some Harris Starbrite (a.k.a. Silica Gel) followed later by some gelatin solution, both of these being the same stuff in Kwik Clear and Clear It finings. I shall be interested to see how this works out having added it to the FV prior to bottling - in the past I've only tried adding gelatin solution direct to a few test bottles.
Anyway, 21 x 500ml bottles primed with a mere 35g table sugar in 250ml water giving a light 1.7 vols CO2.
FG = 1.012
ABV = 4.3%
SRM = 26
IBU = 35 (Rager)
Black? Check.
Hoppy? Check.
Bitter? Check.
With the benefit of hindsight it probably wasn't the smartest move to add a dry hop to deliberately induce hop creep. On the plus side at least now I know exactly what diacetyl tastes like!
This finished at a somewhat higher gravity than expected - and for the cynics, yes I am absolutely 110% sure it was definitely done - hence the aforementioned questionable decision.
Anyway, once fermentation started again it went through a diacetyl phase followed by much pacing up and down and wondering will it or won't it, should I add more yeast, exactly which direction do I need to face when praying to which brewing god etc etc etc.
Long story short, I didn't do anything, just left it and it sorted itself out and eventually stopped fermenting somewhere around the originally expected FG.
Once it was done I set it to cold crash - since it had been on the original dry hop rather longer than intended I went ahead and added a second helping, consisting of an additional 15g each of Citra & Simcoe.
I'm meddling with finings at the moment so at various internals during the cold crash I added some Harris Starbrite (a.k.a. Silica Gel) followed later by some gelatin solution, both of these being the same stuff in Kwik Clear and Clear It finings. I shall be interested to see how this works out having added it to the FV prior to bottling - in the past I've only tried adding gelatin solution direct to a few test bottles.
Anyway, 21 x 500ml bottles primed with a mere 35g table sugar in 250ml water giving a light 1.7 vols CO2.
FG = 1.012
ABV = 4.3%
SRM = 26
IBU = 35 (Rager)
Black? Check.
Hoppy? Check.
Bitter? Check.
Update: AG#60 Hoppy Amber Ale
I checked the gravity on Friday, 7 days after pitching - visually I suspected it was done and indeed the BRY-97 has fermented in that time from 1.043 down to 1.009, a pint lower than predicted by BF, and which works out at 4.5% ABV. Just double checked it again and it hasn't changed so that's done, done and done in good time. In my mind that alone justifies my decision to switch from CML Pia to BRY-97.
It looks pretty clear, a nice gold-amber colour.
Aroma is kind of a grainy malty sweetness rather than mega hoppy though I'm not sure I'd necessarily expect mega hoppiness from these hops - well Amarillo possibly, but Cascade and Centennial not quite so much.
There's a hoppy flavour but not mega hoppy - more like a bitter than an IPA. Bitterness is "enough" and "sufficient" as intended but certainly not intense. A bit resinous maybe, possibly from the Centennial.
I think it would be a nice beer as is, but I've decided I'd like to push the hop aroma more so I've just added 15g each Amarillo, Cascade and Centennial dry hop and set it to cold crash. I'll probably try with some finings again and then get it bottled in a day or two.
I checked the gravity on Friday, 7 days after pitching - visually I suspected it was done and indeed the BRY-97 has fermented in that time from 1.043 down to 1.009, a pint lower than predicted by BF, and which works out at 4.5% ABV. Just double checked it again and it hasn't changed so that's done, done and done in good time. In my mind that alone justifies my decision to switch from CML Pia to BRY-97.
It looks pretty clear, a nice gold-amber colour.
Aroma is kind of a grainy malty sweetness rather than mega hoppy though I'm not sure I'd necessarily expect mega hoppiness from these hops - well Amarillo possibly, but Cascade and Centennial not quite so much.
There's a hoppy flavour but not mega hoppy - more like a bitter than an IPA. Bitterness is "enough" and "sufficient" as intended but certainly not intense. A bit resinous maybe, possibly from the Centennial.
I think it would be a nice beer as is, but I've decided I'd like to push the hop aroma more so I've just added 15g each Amarillo, Cascade and Centennial dry hop and set it to cold crash. I'll probably try with some finings again and then get it bottled in a day or two.
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I certainly haven't noticed anything like that - just normal fermentation smells.
But I have had some lager yeasts give of sulphurous smells in the past - ISTR WY2206 was particularly eggy!
And now I write that, I have a funny feeling I was listening to a podcast a while back and they were saying that recent DNA analysis had shown a particular well known ale yeast was actually, genetically, a lager yeast.
I can't remember for sure, but it might have been WY1272/BRY-97 they were talking about. So it could be...
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I think it was Nottingham actually, I am not sure how different 97 is from Nottingham though but they do both seem to be more sulfury to me than us-05.
Bottling: AG#60 Hoppy Amber Ale
Blimey that was quick! Fermented, dry hopped, cold crashed, fined and bottled in 11 days - and could have been quicker if i was really pushing!
20 x 500ml bottles (+ 1 x 355ml bottle)
40g sugar => 1.85vols CO2
FG = 1.009
ABV = 4.5%
SRM = 5.6
IBU = 33 (Rager)
Colour = Gold-Amber
Aroma & Taste = Honestly I'm not bowled over by either...
But in fairness that's only based on a small sample from the FV they was full of bitter hop matter... and 50ml left in the bottling bucket so containing priming sugar... So maybe not the fairest test!
I think there's a bit of hop bite - could be grassiness but think it's more like hop bite. I think it will come good and be perfectly drinkable, just maybe not my best - but you never know, I might get lucky!
As an aside - I tweeted Scott Janish last night to ask if there is a minimum temperature for short cold dry hopping - he replied:
"It seems like if I go too cold, the hops drop out too quickly. More based on experience than anything, it seems when I dry-hop under 50F, it takes more agitation to get extraction."
So maybe next time I'll dry hop at 50degF/10degC (rather then 0degC) and then cold crash and fine.
Blimey that was quick! Fermented, dry hopped, cold crashed, fined and bottled in 11 days - and could have been quicker if i was really pushing!
20 x 500ml bottles (+ 1 x 355ml bottle)
40g sugar => 1.85vols CO2
FG = 1.009
ABV = 4.5%
SRM = 5.6
IBU = 33 (Rager)
Colour = Gold-Amber
Aroma & Taste = Honestly I'm not bowled over by either...
But in fairness that's only based on a small sample from the FV they was full of bitter hop matter... and 50ml left in the bottling bucket so containing priming sugar... So maybe not the fairest test!
I think there's a bit of hop bite - could be grassiness but think it's more like hop bite. I think it will come good and be perfectly drinkable, just maybe not my best - but you never know, I might get lucky!
As an aside - I tweeted Scott Janish last night to ask if there is a minimum temperature for short cold dry hopping - he replied:
"It seems like if I go too cold, the hops drop out too quickly. More based on experience than anything, it seems when I dry-hop under 50F, it takes more agitation to get extraction."
So maybe next time I'll dry hop at 50degF/10degC (rather then 0degC) and then cold crash and fine.
AG#61 Czech Dark Lager
This one has been on the To-Brew list for ages but I guess I've been putting in off as I still have a couple of bottles left of my very enjoyable AG#37 Czech Amber.
The recipe is pretty much the Josh Weikert "make Your Best..." and looking at it, I suppose it's quite Porter-ish which is something Weikert notes. One major change to his recipe is I've used my firm favourite Chocolate Rye in place of Pale Chocolate - love that stuff! I've also used Northdown instead of Saaz for bittering which has worked well for me previously in my English and Baltic Porters.
16L tap water, 5ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl, half a Campden tablet.
Calcium 169
Chloride 102
Sulfate 40
Alkalinity 113
2000g Lager Malt
325g Victory Malt
325g Caramunich 1
250g Chocolate Rye
2.9kg Total
60min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC.
I've decided to standardise for the time being on 60mins @ 67degC. This temperature pretty much covers all the bases for everything I brew, so the aim is to bring more consistency and predictability to my brewing unless I have a particular reason to deviate from this.
Boil 30mins:
15g Northdown 7.5% AAU 30mins
40g Saaz (Leaf) 2.5% AAU 20mins
1/4tsp Irish Moss powder 5mins
Cooled in the fridge to 12.5degC and pitched a full 10g pack of MJ M84 Bohemian Lager - not tried this yeast before so I've just gone for the middle of the 10-15degC range on the pack.
8.5L in the FV with another 5L crud in bottles to settle out and top up the FV later. This was a bit strange as I normally get more like 10L in the FV at the first attempt. But when I was draining the kettle the break matter hadn't settled out as much as normal - but I'm confident all will come good in the end.
22.5 SRM (that'll be dark then!)
22 IBUs Rager
OG 1.050 - this was a bit higher than I was targeting so I liquored back with 1L mineral water. I won't actually know the real OG until I've topped up the FV but it should be somewhere around 1.045, which translates to about 4.5% ABV if it ferments down to 1.010 or thereabouts.
This one has been on the To-Brew list for ages but I guess I've been putting in off as I still have a couple of bottles left of my very enjoyable AG#37 Czech Amber.
The recipe is pretty much the Josh Weikert "make Your Best..." and looking at it, I suppose it's quite Porter-ish which is something Weikert notes. One major change to his recipe is I've used my firm favourite Chocolate Rye in place of Pale Chocolate - love that stuff! I've also used Northdown instead of Saaz for bittering which has worked well for me previously in my English and Baltic Porters.
16L tap water, 5ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl, half a Campden tablet.
Calcium 169
Chloride 102
Sulfate 40
Alkalinity 113
2000g Lager Malt
325g Victory Malt
325g Caramunich 1
250g Chocolate Rye
2.9kg Total
60min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC.
I've decided to standardise for the time being on 60mins @ 67degC. This temperature pretty much covers all the bases for everything I brew, so the aim is to bring more consistency and predictability to my brewing unless I have a particular reason to deviate from this.
Boil 30mins:
15g Northdown 7.5% AAU 30mins
40g Saaz (Leaf) 2.5% AAU 20mins
1/4tsp Irish Moss powder 5mins
Cooled in the fridge to 12.5degC and pitched a full 10g pack of MJ M84 Bohemian Lager - not tried this yeast before so I've just gone for the middle of the 10-15degC range on the pack.
8.5L in the FV with another 5L crud in bottles to settle out and top up the FV later. This was a bit strange as I normally get more like 10L in the FV at the first attempt. But when I was draining the kettle the break matter hadn't settled out as much as normal - but I'm confident all will come good in the end.
22.5 SRM (that'll be dark then!)
22 IBUs Rager
OG 1.050 - this was a bit higher than I was targeting so I liquored back with 1L mineral water. I won't actually know the real OG until I've topped up the FV but it should be somewhere around 1.045, which translates to about 4.5% ABV if it ferments down to 1.010 or thereabouts.
Quite high on the water minerals for a lager but it's a dark one so maybe not... I picked up a hint that you've done something similar before? Maybe a Dunkel?
It's certainly high compared to a traditional Czech lager brewed with Czech water
The values quoted are what BF tells me the water profile is after I've added lactic acid and CaCl to my mega hard Berkshire water - but I am absolutely not suggesting this profile is in any way "correct" or "traditional" for Czech lager, or indeed any other beer!
It's a habit I've got into after listening to a podcast (probably Experimental Brewing) saying stating the water additions are meaningless unless you say what you started with or ended up with.
I know the alternative would be to use Tesco Ashbeck or similar, as you do. But for me it's a small step to try to reduce plastic waste
Tap water plus my water additions in general get me closer to the right zone (mash pH and sulphate: chloride ratio) but you're correct that they're mostly all way out of whack for a traditional profile!
But the beer is mostly good and ultimately that's more important to me than whether I'm strictly in accordance with "tradition"
And yes - the closest thing I've done to this beer is probably my Czech Amber (cracking), Munich Dunkel (a bit meh to be honest) or my English Porters (yum).
I have a feeling that for whatever reason, these darker beers seem to work for me - possibly a combo of water, luck, and simply what floats my boat!
Funny that, I'm the exact opposite. All my black beers have been distinctly 'meh' but the paler they go the better they seem to come out for me, hence my affinity to pilsner malt!I have a feeling that for whatever reason, these darker beers seem to work for me - possibly a combo of water, luck, and simply what floats my boat!
Still a bit early to make any firm conclusions. In the hoppy amber ale I bottled the other day there seem to be clumps/flakes of crud floating about in the bottles - I get this sometimes anyway to a degree, but these are bigger clumps. My guess is it's the finings making "stuff" coagulate which will settle out over the next 2-4 weeks while it conditions.
In that beer in particular I would expect some hop haze since I dry hopped it. Unlike chill haze, hop haze would be visible at room temp but apart from the clumps it's actually looking pretty clear. So in that regard the finings are doing something.
I think I'll continue with the finings over the next few brews and see how it pans out
AG#62 Blueberry Kettle Sour
I've fancied making a sour for a while - in fact one of the first craft beers I tried was a sour from Siren Craft Brewery. More recently I've been spurred on by @MickDundee ' s fairly recent Raspberry Kettle Sour. I guess mine is pretty similar but I've put my own spin on it and gone down the blueberry route.
Today was the day for making and souring the wort. This will stay in the Klarstein for a couple of days around 35degC while the lactic culture does it's thing. Then once it's ready I'll boil it up as normal - add some hops, chill, pitch yeast and ferment as normal
15L tap water, 20ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl, half a Campden tablet.
(That's way more lactic acid than I'd normally use (20ml vs. 5ml) but the aim here is to pre-sour the wort to around pH 4.0-4.5 so the lacto culture is more at home.)
1250g Lager Malt
1000g Wheat Malt
2.25kg Total
(A modest grain bill even by my standards!)
60min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC.
(Well, I was aiming for 67degC - normally the Klarstein is fairly stable but today it insisted on heading to around 70!)
Boil 5mins - this is just to kill off any residual bugs to yield a sterile wort. I'll do a proper boil and add hops after the souring.
Chill to 40degC then transfer the Klarstein to the garage set to 33degC. The lacto culture wants to be between 30-40degC. I figure it'll wander up and down a bit - if it's too low I guess the lacto will just work a bit slower, but too high could kill it, so I'm erring slightly on the lower side. I can set the Klarstein for 24hrs, so I just need to remember to reset the time and temp once a day for the next day or two.
Before pitching the lacto culture I drew off 750ml wort to a snitised bottle and pitched a full 10g pack of MJ M44 - effectively a vitality starter to give the yeast a proper head start before they get pitched into a more hostile and acidic wort than normal.
Then I pitched my lacto culture, Lallemand WildBrew Sour Pitch. The pack says 10g is actually enough for 100L! I wasn't sure how much to use so I went with a third of the pack, 3.3g. If you're interested, it's a powder like sherbert, rather than tiny grains like dry yeast - I just sprinkled it on top of the wort and whisked it in.
Final step, I laid some cling carefully over the top of the wort to limit oxygen exposure and other undesirable bugs. Then I sealed it up and tucked it in a 33degC.
All being well, more to follow in a day or two
I've fancied making a sour for a while - in fact one of the first craft beers I tried was a sour from Siren Craft Brewery. More recently I've been spurred on by @MickDundee ' s fairly recent Raspberry Kettle Sour. I guess mine is pretty similar but I've put my own spin on it and gone down the blueberry route.
Today was the day for making and souring the wort. This will stay in the Klarstein for a couple of days around 35degC while the lactic culture does it's thing. Then once it's ready I'll boil it up as normal - add some hops, chill, pitch yeast and ferment as normal
15L tap water, 20ml Lactic Acid 80%, 2g CaCl, half a Campden tablet.
(That's way more lactic acid than I'd normally use (20ml vs. 5ml) but the aim here is to pre-sour the wort to around pH 4.0-4.5 so the lacto culture is more at home.)
1250g Lager Malt
1000g Wheat Malt
2.25kg Total
(A modest grain bill even by my standards!)
60min full-volume no-sparge mash @ 67degC.
(Well, I was aiming for 67degC - normally the Klarstein is fairly stable but today it insisted on heading to around 70!)
Boil 5mins - this is just to kill off any residual bugs to yield a sterile wort. I'll do a proper boil and add hops after the souring.
Chill to 40degC then transfer the Klarstein to the garage set to 33degC. The lacto culture wants to be between 30-40degC. I figure it'll wander up and down a bit - if it's too low I guess the lacto will just work a bit slower, but too high could kill it, so I'm erring slightly on the lower side. I can set the Klarstein for 24hrs, so I just need to remember to reset the time and temp once a day for the next day or two.
Before pitching the lacto culture I drew off 750ml wort to a snitised bottle and pitched a full 10g pack of MJ M44 - effectively a vitality starter to give the yeast a proper head start before they get pitched into a more hostile and acidic wort than normal.
Then I pitched my lacto culture, Lallemand WildBrew Sour Pitch. The pack says 10g is actually enough for 100L! I wasn't sure how much to use so I went with a third of the pack, 3.3g. If you're interested, it's a powder like sherbert, rather than tiny grains like dry yeast - I just sprinkled it on top of the wort and whisked it in.
Final step, I laid some cling carefully over the top of the wort to limit oxygen exposure and other undesirable bugs. Then I sealed it up and tucked it in a 33degC.
All being well, more to follow in a day or two
Update: AG#62 Blueberry Kettle Sour
I completed brewing this today;
The Klarstein has been sat in the garage over the long weekend at roundabout 35degC, with almost no hiccups.
The temperature has wandered up and down a bit more than I'd like but has generally been ok. Only snag was dummy here forgot on Sunday to reset the timer (maximum is 24 hours) so the heater cut out on Sunday evening. By the time I'd spotted it the temp had dropped to 28degC - not a disaster I expect, but a lesson learned the hard way.
I've been taking daily pH readings via the tap - the numbers are largely irrelevant as I'm certain my meter is out of calibration, suffice to say the pH has been dropping. And also it's been getting progressively more tart tasting though not exactly face puckeringly sour.
Having removed the cling covering the surface of the wort I brought it up to the boil. I used my brewing spoon to gently spoon boiling wort around the kettle above the waterline to be sure as possible to kill off any remaining lactobacilli. I also recirculated a few jugs of boiling wort through the tap for the same reason.
Interesting to note the wort smelled different to normal during the boil - similar aromas to the tart/sour flavour rather than just the usual malty smells.
35min boil - a fraction longer than normal for me.
10g Styrian Wolf 12.4% AAU 30mins
1/4tsp Irish Moss powder 5mins
Chilled quickly to 18degC - ground water is nice and cold now.
Left it so settle a little bit but didn't go to my usual lengths to separate the trub from the wort. 10L in the FV plus another 2L of crud which I expect will settle out so I can to up the FV a little bit.
Pitched my vitality starter (such as it is) consisting of 750ml of the original pre-souring wort and a full pack of MJ M44. It looked like it had pretty much fermented out over the weekend - when I pitched it it smelled yeasty, like a pack of Wyeast so I guess that's a good sign.
The brew fridge is busy with other stuff so this will just ferment at room temp like the good old days.
Once it has fermented out I'll add the blueberry coulis either direct to this FV, or transfer to a secondary - haven't decided yet, any suggestions here are welcome!
OG 1.042 - not including the fruit though! Not sure how to account for this, but expect it to end up around 4.5% ABV if it gets down to 1.010 or so.
3 SRM - pale and hazy as you might expect for roughly 50/50 lager/wheat malt.
17 IBU'S (Rager)
I completed brewing this today;
The Klarstein has been sat in the garage over the long weekend at roundabout 35degC, with almost no hiccups.
The temperature has wandered up and down a bit more than I'd like but has generally been ok. Only snag was dummy here forgot on Sunday to reset the timer (maximum is 24 hours) so the heater cut out on Sunday evening. By the time I'd spotted it the temp had dropped to 28degC - not a disaster I expect, but a lesson learned the hard way.
I've been taking daily pH readings via the tap - the numbers are largely irrelevant as I'm certain my meter is out of calibration, suffice to say the pH has been dropping. And also it's been getting progressively more tart tasting though not exactly face puckeringly sour.
Having removed the cling covering the surface of the wort I brought it up to the boil. I used my brewing spoon to gently spoon boiling wort around the kettle above the waterline to be sure as possible to kill off any remaining lactobacilli. I also recirculated a few jugs of boiling wort through the tap for the same reason.
Interesting to note the wort smelled different to normal during the boil - similar aromas to the tart/sour flavour rather than just the usual malty smells.
35min boil - a fraction longer than normal for me.
10g Styrian Wolf 12.4% AAU 30mins
1/4tsp Irish Moss powder 5mins
Chilled quickly to 18degC - ground water is nice and cold now.
Left it so settle a little bit but didn't go to my usual lengths to separate the trub from the wort. 10L in the FV plus another 2L of crud which I expect will settle out so I can to up the FV a little bit.
Pitched my vitality starter (such as it is) consisting of 750ml of the original pre-souring wort and a full pack of MJ M44. It looked like it had pretty much fermented out over the weekend - when I pitched it it smelled yeasty, like a pack of Wyeast so I guess that's a good sign.
The brew fridge is busy with other stuff so this will just ferment at room temp like the good old days.
Once it has fermented out I'll add the blueberry coulis either direct to this FV, or transfer to a secondary - haven't decided yet, any suggestions here are welcome!
OG 1.042 - not including the fruit though! Not sure how to account for this, but expect it to end up around 4.5% ABV if it gets down to 1.010 or so.
3 SRM - pale and hazy as you might expect for roughly 50/50 lager/wheat malt.
17 IBU'S (Rager)
Hey @MickDundee , quick question for you:
When you did your kettle sour, did you transfer to a separate secondary FV when you added the fruit coulis?
Or did you just wait until primary fermentation was well and truly done and then just add it to the original FV?
When you did your kettle sour, did you transfer to a separate secondary FV when you added the fruit coulis?
Or did you just wait until primary fermentation was well and truly done and then just add it to the original FV?
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