My Brewdays

[Moe]

My golden ale had fermented down to 1.007 last night when I checked it, making it 5.3%.
I turned the fridge down to chill it overnight.

It was down to 12C this morning so I have kegged it, give it a few blasts of 40psi and give it a good shake.

I have then added 50g of Māori mingle into the dry hop tube and chucked some gelatine in it. I will see how it tastes this afternoon, if it’s no good I’ll leave it a few days to settle and carbonate properly.

I have also put 5L into 2 PET bottles and primed with 10g of sugar. This is to experiment with my beer engine. I’ll update next week if it works.

I have ordered the ingredients to make this beer again so I can brew it properly and let it condition to do it justice.

 

[Moe]

Hey bro, I read an advise from the guy who give Voss Kveik to Lallemand, always leave a bit of beer over yeast slurry and taste it before use. If it's ok, pitch. If it's sour or something worse, throw away.

Thanks, that’s good to know

 

[Moe]

American IPA

I’ve got a Sunday brew mashing at the moment:

20l batch ( can’t be bothered bottling, I reckon this will fill a corny after FV loss):

5kg Crisp Ale malt
300g Caramalt
150g Carared

30g centennial @60m
30g @ 20m
55g @ 5m
30g dry hop

CML Pia yeast

Predicted:

OG:1.062
FG:1.010
ABV: 7.0%
IBU:65
EBC:14

We’ll see how it turns out.

 

[Moe]

My golden ale had fermented down to 1.007 last night when I checked it, making it 5.3%.
I turned the fridge down to chill it overnight.

It was down to 12C this morning so I have kegged it, give it a few blasts of 40psi and give it a good shake.

I have then added 50g of Māori mingle into the dry hop tube and chucked some gelatine in it. I will see how it tastes this afternoon, if it’s no good I’ll leave it a few days to settle and carbonate properly.

I have also put 5L into 2 PET bottles and primed with 10g of sugar. This is to experiment with my beer engine. I’ll update next week if it works.

I have ordered the ingredients to make this beer again so I can brew it properly and let it condition to do it justice.

This keg died last night. 10 days from
Brewday

 

[Moe]

American IPA

I’ve got a Sunday brew mashing at the moment:

20l batch ( can’t be bothered bottling, I reckon this will fill a corny after FV loss):

5kg Crisp Ale malt
300g Caramalt
150g Carared

30g centennial @60m
30g @ 20m
55g @ 5m
30g dry hop

CML Pia yeast

Predicted:

OG:1.062
FG:1.010
ABV: 7.0%
IBU:65
EBC:14

We’ll see how it turns out.

Ended up taking the kids out so left it mashing at 67 for four hours.

I have just taken a pre boil gravity reading and it’s 1.045. The recipe estimation was 1.054 so I’m way off

 

[Moe]

Into the FV.

OG was 1.050 in the end.

Recipe prediction on Brewfather with 72% efficiency was 1.064.

Not sure what went wrong, might be because I switched off the recirculation during the mash, otherwise maybe something wrong with the water pH, or grain crush??

It will still be 5%+ , but I hope it’s not too bitter now

 

[Moe]

Took a sample of the American IPA. It’s dropped to 1.010 making it 5.3%.

The sample looked crystal clear and had a lovely red colour to it. I had a taste, I’ve got high hopes for this one once it’s carbed and conditioned

 

[Moe]

Golden Ale

Brewed this three weeks ago, it’s been in the keg for 6 days and is a lovely pint, light and hoppy. It’s come out at 4.2%.

This is the fourth time I’ve made this beer and it’s a winner every time.

Recipe for 22l:

Water treated to a pale ale profile (ish)

4.1kg Pale malt
0.35kg Cara 40

I did a 60 min mash with the BZ set to 67C (so in reality probably nearer 65).

30 minute boil with the following additions:

5.5g each of Citra 12% & Galaxy 14% @30m
10g each Citra & Galaxy @5m
17g each Citra & Galaxy whirlpool at 80C for 10mins.

Fermented at 19.5 C with US05

Overshot the volume slightly, ended up with just over 23L in the FV @1.042

Fermented a week and a half and then cold crashed for three days before kegging.
I’ve got a few bottles on top of the keg conditioning.

 

[Moe]

I’ve made this beer 4 times now with the same grain and hop bill.

Only difference is that this time I have used US05 yeast, I have previously used M44 (and maybe verdant once?).

I’m amazed at how quickly it has cleared this time.

It’s only been in the keg for 9 days and I’ve not used any finings other than protofloc in the boil.

Is US05 particularly flocculant or have the beer gods just smiled on my this time?

This beer in the past has taken a few weeks to clear and therefore right at the end of the keg. Even though I know full well there’s loads left in the keg, pouring it so clear has me flapping that the keg is about to die

Tastes really good too

 

[Moe]

Vienna Lager

Thought id squeeze in an evening brew. It’s just chilling now.

Recipe for 23L (but my volumes a bit short and OG a bit high!)

4.16kg Vienna
670g Munich
125g Melanoidin
50g chocolate
1g/l CRS
1/2 tsp gypsum
1/2 tsp CaCl

Mashed for an hour with the BZ set to 67C

1 hour boil:
27g Northern Brewer 4% FWH
12g Challenger 7.5% FWH
21g Hallertauer Hersbrucker 2.5% @0m
17g Tettnang @0m

IBU prediction of 22

OG was supposed to be 1.048, but it’s come out at 1.052.

Going to ferment at 12C with 2 packs of MJ M84 Bohemian Pilsner.

If it drops to 1.010 it will be a lively 5.5%

Plan is to keep this for NYE to give it time to condition properly.

I have a load of grain and hops in to make a load of IPA and pale ales for Christmas

 

[Moe]

The Vienna Lager stuck at 1.020- I swirled and increased the temp and left it another week.

It was still 1.020 so I kegged it anyway

I’ve left it in the fridge on gas to lager for a few weeks.

I didn’t want to risk bottling any in glass so I put 2L into a pet bottle and carbed it up with a carb cap.

I had a taste- it’s quite rich and malty, I’ve not made up my mind whether or not to tip it yet. I’ve not had a Vienna lager before though so have no reference.

I’ll leave it to lager until the new year and try it again.

 

[Moe]

El Dorado SHA

Brewed this on friday.
For 23L into fermenter:

4kg Maris Otter
300g wheat malt
80g Cara 25

Treated the water with campden, gypsum and AMS to roughly a pale ale profile.

Mashed for just over an hour at 65C and sparged.

30 minute boil:

14g El Dorado 13% FWH
100g Eldorado hop stand at 80C for 20 minutes

Chilled to 22C (really quick at this time of year!) and pitched a packet of Verdant yeast.

OG was 1.046
Recipe IBU is 31 and EBC 8.5

SG today was 1.014 so I added 80g of dry hops. The Krausen is still really thick.

I’m undecided whether or not to throw in another 70g dry hop in a few days or just keg it.

The idea is this is a quick turn around beer to drink over Christmas.

I’ll hopefully get another brew day in one evening this week so I can have another keg ready for NYE, I’ve not got high hopes for the Vienna Lager.

I’ve got more El Dorado so I want to re use the verdant yeast to do another SHA but with a different grain bill. I’ve got loads of base malt, some Munich, some wheat, some cara 25 and I can raid the breakfast cupboard for porridge oats if necessary.

If anyones got any ideas for a recipe I’d love to hear. I’m currently thinking 4.5kg pale malt with 0.5kg Munich and 40-50 IBU with plenty of late hops.

 

[Moe]

Going to measure out the grain and hops etc this eve to hopefully brew tomorrow evening.

This recipe is loosely based on the DIY Dog “IPA is Dead”

For 20l:

-5kg Crisp Ale malt ( more likely 4kg +1kg MO to use an opened bag)
-300g Cara 30
-300g Munich

30minute boil:

30g Eldorado 13% FWH
13g @15m
40g @5m
100g dry hop

This should give an IBU of 57 and an EBC of 13.

With efficiency set to 65% on Brewfather it reckons an OG of 1.057 and FG of 1.013 to get an ABV of 5.8%.

Efficiency tanks above 5kg on the BZ for me so I’ve set it low, but I’ve gone for the lower end of the suggested OG range and middle IBU so if I get a slightly higher OG it should still balance. That’s the theory anyway.

Plan is to ferment with the Verdant Slurry from last week’s batch, and hopefully have it in the keg and conditioned for New Year’s Eve

 

[Moe]

Mash is on!

Went with the kilo of Maris otter.

 

[Moe]

Hit the 65% efficiency target pre boil gravity and volume.

Slight hiccup is that the hose is frozen solid, so I am going to put it into the fermentor hot and then leave it outside to chill as it’s currently Baltic outside.

I’ve set the no chill time to 4 hours??? This bumps up the ibu to 64 in Brewfather so I’ve knocked the 5 minute addition back to zero. This dropped the IBU back to 52.

Planning on the hoof

It will still be beer though


Edit: finished the boil- looks like an OG of 1.058- 1 point above the 65% estimate. Happy with that for consistency

Another edit- 8.20pm and I’m all cleaned and packed away. Started weighing out ingredients and water just before 5 (got as far as planning last night, but no further ) so about 3 and a half hours all in. Half hour boil (unplanned) no chill and using disposable hop bags has shaved a fair bit of time off.

The wort is in the fermentor in the garden, it was at 85C when I put it out 15mins or so before. I’ll check the temp before bed and put it in the fermenting fridge.




An interesting brew day to say the least, but hopefully it’ll come Good

 

[Moe]

I left for work this morning and the wort was still at 32C.

I’ve not pitched the yeast and it will be this evening now before I can.

The FV had a percarbonate wash, chemsan rinse and had 90C+ wort poured into it so it should be ok, but I’m still flapping a bit.

I’ll pitch the yeast when I get home this evening.

If it all goes wrong I’ll call it a sour IPA

 

[Moe]

Just pitched the yeast, I’ve pitched a load in the hope it starts off quickly

 

[Moe]

This brew write up is turning into a tome with problem after problem

I was pleased to see the beer was sat at 18.4 C yesterday evening so I pitched the yeast.

I checked on it a couple of times, and despite the heater being on the temperate kept creeping down 0.1C at a time.

It was down to 17.8 by 9pm and then dropped another 0.1C. I think with the garage being so cold and no active fermentation happening the 25W brew belt was struggling to warm the worth, FV and fridge.

So I hit it with the wife’s hairdryer for 30s g time a few times. The temp back up to 18.5 and I left it be.

Woke up this morning and it’s sat at 19.5C (what the inkbird is set to) and the air lock is bubbling away happily.

 

[Moe]

Checked the gravity of the “IPA is dead”
Its 1.020 so I have added 100g of El Dorado dry hops


The El Dorado SHA has been in the keg a week, and carbonated nicely. Colour is good but there is a bit of a metallic taste to it.

I’m going to take apart my tap have a look if it’s that

 

[Moe]

I did dry January and didn’t brew in Feb, so I’ve not been on here for a while.

The IPA is dead El Dorado came out fairly well. It was really fruity, but too bitter, no doubt a result of not chilling after the boil and the relatively heavy handed late additions.

But all in, considering the brew day was a catalogue of errors, I was pleased that I came out with a decent beer.