My Brewdays

[Moe]

I had a few glasses of the Mosaic blonde ale #2 last night.

It is quite different to the first batch I made, I made a few changes so it’s hardly a scientific comparison.

This batch is less bitter (intentionally as I moved the 10m addition to a whirlpool), it used a different yeast, the BHE was better so it’s stronger and I dry hopped at yeast pitch.

The hop aroma is much less pronounced, and it has a subtle but noticeable wheat flavour. Like a said, still a nice drop and I’ll enjoy drinking it but I prefer version 1.

 

[Moe]

I finished the blonde ale on Friday, which means I’m out of beer.

I brewed a golden ale yesterday. Recipe for 22l.

Added campden, CRS and gypsum for a pale profile.

4.1kg pale ale malt
350g caramel malt

mashed for an hour or so at 65C.

4g Citra & 4g Galaxy @60m
10g each Citra & Galaxy @5m
17g each Citra & Galaxy whirlpool

Ended up with 22l in the fermentor @ 1.046.

Added M44 yeast and set to ferment at 19C ( or so I thought)

Only hiccup was that when I checked it this morning the temp was at 12C. Turns out my inkbird was set at 1.9C and not 19C.

ive set it to 19 now so I’ll see what happens

 

[Buffers brewery]

Oops!

 

[Moe]

Checked it this morning. It’s at 19C and bubbling away merrily

 

[Moe]

The Golden Ale fermented out fine, with no off flavours despite the initial hiccup with the temperature. It is now in the keg conditioning.

My next brew is mashing now, recipe below, based on 70% BHE. I’m the wrong side of 6kg so may not hit the OG though.

Fresh Squished IPA:

Batch size: 21L
OG: 1.064
ABV: 7.1%
EBC:14
IBU: 64


5kg extra pale malt
680g Munich
450g Carared

mash with 22L @66C for 60m, sparge with 8L. Water treated with AMS, campden and gypsum.

26g CTZ 15.5% @60m
57g Mosaic 11.6% @5m
18g Citra lupomax 18.5% @5m
28g Mosaic 11.6% dry hop
18g Citra 18.5% dry hop

Fermenting with MJ M44.
I have a jar full of yeast from my golden ale so I am going to pitch 400ml or so of that and ferment at 19C.

I have brewed a few pale low IBU “juicy” type beers recently so I am looking forward to something with a bit more bite.

 

[Moe]

Brewday and clean up all done.

OG was 1.058, so I missed the recipe prediction by 6points. As soon as I go above 6kg on the BZ efficiency plummets.

This should still give a 6.5% beer though so plenty strong enough.

 

[Moe]

I finished the blonde ale on Friday, which means I’m out of beer.

I brewed a golden ale yesterday. Recipe for 22l.

Added campden, CRS and gypsum for a pale profile.

4.1kg pale ale malt
350g caramel malt

mashed for an hour or so at 65C.

4g Citra & 4g Galaxy @60m
10g each Citra & Galaxy @5m
17g each Citra & Galaxy whirlpool

Ended up with 22l in the fermentor @ 1.046.

Added M44 yeast and set to ferment at 19C ( or so I thought)

Only hiccup was that when I checked it this morning the temp was at 12C. Turns out my inkbird was set at 1.9C and not 19C.

ive set it to 19 now so I’ll see what happens

Just to update.
I had a few of these this weekend. It has came out really nice, a nice golden ale with some malt character, subtle hop taste and moderately bitter.

The hiccup with temperature at the start of fermentation hasn’t had any negative effects on flavour of the finished beer.

 

[Moe]

The Golden Ale fermented out fine, with no off flavours despite the initial hiccup with the temperature. It is now in the keg conditioning.

My next brew is mashing now, recipe below, based on 70% BHE. I’m the wrong side of 6kg so may not hit the OG though.

Fresh Squished IPA:

Batch size: 21L
OG: 1.064
ABV: 7.1%
EBC:14
IBU: 64


5kg extra pale malt
680g Munich
450g Carared

mash with 22L @66C for 60m, sparge with 8L. Water treated with AMS, campden and gypsum.

26g CTZ 15.5% @60m
57g Mosaic 11.6% @5m
18g Citra lupomax 18.5% @5m
28g Mosaic 11.6% dry hop
18g Citra 18.5% dry hop

Fermenting with MJ M44.
I have a jar full of yeast from my golden ale so I am going to pitch 400ml or so of that and ferment at 19C.

I have brewed a few pale low IBU “juicy” type beers recently so I am looking forward to something with a bit more bite.

I have just kegged this.

I took a gravity reading on 2nd June and it was at 1.010.

I added the dry hops on 4th June.

I took another sample today and it is 1.004! The hydrometer has 0.002 graduations so it could be a point either side to be fair.

I can’t quite believe it’s gone this low. I have just checked my hydrometer in 20C water and it is showing 1.000, from the bottom of the meniscus!
The beer doesn’t taste sour or off in any way, but I am suprised it’s gone this low. At 1.005 it’s 86% attenuation. I’ve never had a beer go this low before.

I pitched a lot of yeast slurry into it, but not sure if this would make a huge difference?
Could this be an example of hop creep? Any ideas appreciated.

Next brew day I am going to check the temp calibration on my BZ too.

 

[Moe]

Just had a try of the fresh squished.

it needs another couple of weeks to condition I think, but first impressions are that there is far too much caramel malt in this brew.

 

[Moe]

Just had another glass of the fresh squished.

I retract my last comment about the caramel malt, it’s absolutely lovely, it just needed conditioning.

It’s been in the keg for 15 days now, has cleared up nicely and the flavours have mellowed. It’s a copper colour, a nice fruity aroma and the caramel malt really complements the bitterness.

It really hides it strength well and I’d brew this one again it’s delicious.
However the name is a bit misleading, I was expecting something really fruity.


I brewed another batch of the Verdant IPA the other day too. The exact same recipe as last time, but this time the OG was 1.050 compared with 1.048 last time, and I didn’t dry hop at yeast pitch. Can’t wait to get this one in the keg.

 

[Moe]

The fresh squished has got better and better with time in the keg, clear as day and the flavours have merged and mellowed beautifully.

Had my first glass of the verdant IPA number 2. It’s been in the keg 5 days. It’s absolutely lovely. This one is definitely better young. Really hazy and the fruity hop aroma and flavour and very prominent. It’s been under 18 psi for five days, and it’s lightly carbonated which I think suits it well.

It’s a vibrant orange colour, I can’t get a photo to do it justice.

 

[Moe]

Brewzilla brew #11: Dry Stout

3.8kg Pale malt
500g flaked barley
450g roasted barley
100g chocolate malt.

83 EBC
39 IBU

Mashed with 23l of water at 67C for 60mins with the following additions:

5ml AMS
1/2 campden tablet
1/2 tsp gypsum
1 tsp calcium chloride

Sparged with 4l treated with 3ml AMS and a tiny bit of a campden tablet.

Decide to try a 30minute boil with this one so hop additions are as follows to get 39IBU:

30g EKG 5.5% @30mins
25g Chinook 11.5% @ 30 mins

Volumes and gravity seemed to match Brewfather estimates fairly well, I ended up with 21l into the fermentor with an SG of ~1.048 (my sample is still cooling)

Fermenting with Nottingham yeast at 19C.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, should be in the region of 4.5-5% depending on FG (and what the actually SG is- I’m still waiting for it to cool).

 

[Moe]

Brewzilla Brew #12: Simcoe Blonde Ale (Vacant Gesture ish)

Put a brew on this afternoon, third time
I have made this recipe, but this time I used Simcoe instead of mosaic.

4kg Pale Malt
300g wheat malt
80g Caramalt

23g Challenger FWH
1/2 whirlfloc @10m

33g Simcoe whirlpool

75g Simcoe dry hop. I’ll add this later this week.

Used 21l of mash water ( my stockpot I use for sparge water is 9L), and 9L sparge,

Treated mash water with gypsum, campden and AMS, sparge water with campden and AMS.

I used iodine for the first time today. Tested after 60m and it wasn’t fully converted to have the mash another 15m.

Ended up with 22-23ish L in the fermentor at 1.040.

Pitched M44 yeast and set brew fridge to 19C so this should come out at just shy of 4%, perfect for summer drinking.

Efficiency is still all over the place at the moment. Low efficiency wouldn’t bother me as much as the inconsistency I currently have.

I am going to buy a pH meter for my next brew, and then if that’s all ok I am thinking of getting a grain mill.

 

[Moe]

Kegged the vacant gesture on 26th. I have decided to try using gelatine to fine the beer, so I have dissolved 1/2tsp of gelatin powder on 100ml of water and added to the keg.

I’ll see how clear the beer comes out at the weekend.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Interested to hear how the gelatine works out

 

[Moe]

Interested to hear how the gelatine works out

I’ll post a picture at the weekend and see if it’s worked.

 

[Moe]

Interested to hear how the gelatine works out

I had a few last night, the gelatine hasn’t had any great effect yet,

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I had a few last night, the gelatine hasn’t had any great effect yet,

Sorry to hear that :-(

 

[Moe]

Sorry to hear that :-(

It’s no great loss, it will still clear with time, and until then I just tell people it’s a hazy pale ale

But I’d read good things (brulosophy etc) about gelatin and how it helps clear the beer, even after 48 hours.

 

[Moe]

Sorry to hear that :-(

It appears that I have spoken too soon.
Just poured a half and it is considerably clearer than yesterday. I kegged this Monday and added the finings Wednesday.

This has certainly sped up the clearing process.