My Brewdays

[Dartmoor Rider]

Just read through your brew day thread from the start. Great stuff - I enjoy many of these 'brew day' threads as a source of recipes if nothing else.
Interesting to see your Vacant Gesture variations. I've tried the original recipe a few times and it's come out OK but not inspiring. I'm sure that's down to my incompetence but it's useful to see other's attempts recorded for comparison.
Keep the posts coming. Thanks for making the effort to share your brew experiences.

 

[Moe]

Just read through your brew day thread from the start. Great stuff - I enjoy many of these 'brew day' threads as a source of recipes if nothing else.
Interesting to see your Vacant Gesture variations. I've tried the original recipe a few times and it's come out OK but not inspiring. I'm sure that's down to my incompetence but it's useful to see other's attempts recorded for comparison.
Keep the posts coming. Thanks for making the effort to share your brew experiences.

cheers

I’ll be honest, I’m never sure if anyone ever reads these, but it’s a nice record, andthe same as you I like reading other people’s so it’s nice to add a bit to the hive mind.

I’m far from a pro( or even an amateur ), but it’s fun bumbling along and sharing experiences

 

[Moe]

I did a kit brew a few weeks ago, as my kegs were all empty and I didn’t have time for a grain brew.

it was the Evil Dog Double IPA.

It came with a huge bag of LME, a pack of yeast and some dry hop tea bags, 25g of Simcoe and 25g of something else, I forget.

It was a breeze to make, chucked in the malt (4.7kg!), diluted to 23l, stirred and pitched the yeast. The OG was 1.061 as stated on the instructions.

Only difference was I flapped a bit about the supplied 10g yeast pack not being enough so I pitched 2 packs of MJ M44 that I had in the fridge.

I left it to ferment at 19C, added the dry hops after 8 days and chucked it in the keg to carbonate 9 days ago (11 days total in FV). It reached an FG of 1.004 making it 7.5%

I’ll be honest here: I’ve made loads of kits in the past, and they’ve always come out horrible so I had carefully managed expectations of this one.

I have had a glass this evening and am very pleasantly surprised.

The aroma has a very slight whiff of “homebrew” to it, however the flavour is exceptionally smooth. The body is thinner than I would expect from a 7.5% DIPA, but it is very drinkable, the hop flavour comes through on the aftertaste.

A very slight hint of “alcohol” taste to it. This was way more pronounced a week ago when I sampled it, so hoping it will mellow more with another week or so in the keg.

All in all I am impressed. A 15minute brew day and I’ve got a keg full of a drinkable 7.5% beer

Pic attached- still hazy. Will clear in time.

 

[Moe]

Looks like the blonde beer keg is destined for the drain

I put what I thought was a stainless washer on the false bottom- but it wasn’t stainless.

When it came out after the brew it was brown and discoloured. I poured a glass from
he keg last night and it’s got black floaters in it

 

[Moe]

Crossmyloof Jaipur Clone

https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/beer-recipes?pgid=krxkwatx-54717919-e45b-4591-a4e9-eb10b3dfd862
Brewed this this afternoon.

brew went fine. Only did a 30m boil though. Adjusted the water volumes on Brewfather. Thought I’d have to add a few more buttering hops, but Brewfather adds a few IBU for the whirlpool hops so the predicted IBU was still in line with the recipe even with the shortened boil.

Cant remember whether or not the OG was 1.057 or 1.054 though .
The kits really good. It comes with everything you need, even down to hop bags and a sachet of Irish moss.

 

[Moe]

The Jaipur going like the clappers 24h after pitching. It was like this when I woke up, probably 12h or so since pitch.
This is CML five yeast. I normally use M44 in beers like this which takes 48h to even begin.

I’m considering buying a keg hopper and dry hopping this directly in the keg to see if it retains more aroma.

Haudang Steel Hop Mesh Filter Homebrew Mesh Beer Filter Strainer Dry Hopper for Home Brew Filter Small Haudang Steel Hop Mesh Filter Homebrew Mesh Beer Filter Strainer Dry Hopper for Home Brew Filter Small : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

 

[Moe]

I ordered that dry hopper yesterday and it arrived today. Going to try keg hopping this one. Not sure whether or not to add 50g or 100g though?

hopefully the beer will retail more hop aroma. I don’t do closed transfers from the FV to the keg, and the flavour is always fine, but the aroma drops off fast. Hopefully this will sort

 

[Paul7189]

I ordered that dry hopper yesterday and it arrived today. Going to try keg hopping this one. Not sure whether or not to add 50g or 100g though?

hopefully the beer will retail more hop aroma. I don’t do closed transfers from the FV to the keg, and the flavour is always fine, but the aroma drops off fast. Hopefully this will sort

Surely the question is to add 100g or 150g

 

[Moe]

I emptied my keg of blonde ale down the sink . A shame as it tasted really nice. But once I noticed the black bits floating from boiling a washer I didn’t want to risk drinking it.

Next down the sink will be the evil dog DIPA kit. Not enjoying it, it’s thin and has a fairly subtle, but definite homebrew taste to it.

On the bright side I have filled the keg up with the CML Jaipur kit and added an extra 100g of the Jaipur hop mix into the keg hopper. FG was 1.010 so somewhere in the region of 6% ABV.

I filled a keg and got 6x500ml bottles too. I have primed the bottles with 3/4tsp of caster sugar. The use of the keg hopper means that the bottles haven’t been dry hopped.

I will do a side by side taste test of the bottled vs the kegged beer to see how they differ.

Fingers crossed that the keg hopping doesn’t ruin the beer- I’ll be really upset if I end up tipping three kegs in a row.

 

[Moe]

After kegging the Jaipur on Saturday morning and giving at a few shakes at 35psi. I was keen to see how the keg hopper was holding up.

I poured a glass on Sunday evening. Carbonation wasn’t quite there (as expected), it looked like pea soup, there was a layer of hop matted settled on the bottom of the glass, it tasted overly bitter/astringent/hoppy/grassy etc and the texture was as if I’d stirred a teaspoon of sand in it. See first picture.

I knew it was early days but I’d resigned myself to another keg down the sink, but a lesson learned.

I chucked in some gelatine to see if could salvage it.


Had a glass or five this evening, expecting a blocked tube or post at every pour. The first was a bit cloudy still, with a very small amount of hop matter floating about.

After that it was amazing. The flavour, aroma and clarity is top notch. Easily the best beer I’ve made. See second pic.

Keg hopping for the win. I can’t wait to make another Verdant IPA with this method

 

[DocAnna]

‘Had a glass or five this evening”
Yep that sounds like it was enjoyable . How did you add the gelatine- did you open the keg or push it in through one of the posts?

 

[Moe]

‘Had a glass or five this evening”
Yep that sounds like it was enjoyable . How did you add the gelatine- did you open the keg or push it in through one of the posts?

Haha it was purely in the name of science.

I depressurised the keg, opened the lid and chucked it in. It was only open for a few seconds and then I purged it again.

I reckon the keg will be gone before any effects of oxygenation become apparent anyway

 

[Moe]

I made a Mangrove Jack’s Raspberry hard seltzer a few weeks ago. I purchased it on a whim as it was on offer (£16ish?) and thought it would be nice to have a keg on for the summer as my wife likes these.

Ill be honest, after reading how hard it is to get a clean fermentation to make these, and the fact that nearly every LME beer kit I have ever made has come out rank I had very low expectations.

I made it exactly as the instructions stated. It has come out amazing; no weird homebrew taste, really clean flavour with a hint of raspberry, dropped crystal clear and I’ve got it ice cold and gassed up to high heaven in the keg. I’d highly recommend to anyone.

I priced up buying dextrose to make a seltzer without buying a kit, but once you’ve also purchased flavouring, finings, yeast, sweetener and nutrient you’re pretty much looking at the price of the kit anyway. I’ll add another one to my next beer ingredient order for sure.

 

[Moe]

I’ve got some hornindal slurry in the fridge that’s been there a year. I’ve made a 1L starter with 105g light DME to see if I can coax it into action.

If it works I’m going to pitch it into a golden ale this afternoon or tomorrow. If not I’ll use the CML Pia that I’ve got.

Was hoping for the beer to be ready for next weekend so I’m hoping the yeast will show some sign of life.

 

[Moe]

This yeast has gone the way of the dodo.
Plan B it is

 

[Moe]

This yeast has gone the way of the dodo.
Plan B it is

Looks like the yeast is showing signs of life.

Academic now as I’ve got some more hornindal from CML to pitch.

 

[Moe]

Best Laid Plans Golden Ale

I’ve had the ingredients for this for a while. The father in law asked me to brew it for him coming over this weekend.

The original recipe is one I have brewed twice before, its the golden ale and is in this thread.

I left it til last minute and thought I’d brew it on Sunday. I had some hornindal in the fridge so thought I could do a hot and fast ferment to have a drinkable beer by the weekend. I made up a starter with it to see if its any good. It wasn’t showing any life yesterday so I ordered a packet of “Horn” from CML. I also thought it would be rude not to order 100g of Māori Mingle hop mix too.

I thought I’d try and get away with a really short brew after work today and do a 30m mash and 30m boil as I had to go out this evening.

I did an iodine test after 30m and it was still black so I decided to go out and left it mashing for 3 hours.

Came home, did a 30m boil, chilled and put away in fermenting fridge @32C. Hoping that this will be fermented out by Friday so I can force carb and start drinking Saturday. I am aware that it wont be at its best, but I’ve done this before and it was half decent, and then got better in the keg.

Recipe:

4.1kg Pale malt
350g caramel malt

5.5g Citra lupomax@30m
5.5g Galaxy lupomax@30m

1/2 protofloc and a load of yeast nutrient @10m
10g of each again @5m
17g of each @FO
Should be approx 24 IBU

Pitched CML horn @31C and set to ferment at 32C

Recipe OG was 1.044 based on 71% efficiency, my OG was 1.047, no doubt down to the stupidly long mash. Should come out at 5% ABV.

If it comes out rubbish Ill bang in a 100g dry hop of Māori mingle in my keg hopper. Ill try it first. Actually I’ll probably dry hop it anyway

TLDR: Planned to brew a nice beer, put it of for ages and so bodged something together this eve.

 

[Moe]

Cropped some of the hornindal this eve.

It’s got a thick Krausen on it, and the blow off activity has slowed down a bit since this morning.

Yeast looks really healthy, I’ve got a good bit in a jar in the fridge now for a future brew. I won’t leave it over a year this time though

 

[Moe]

The year old hornindal I made a starter from on Sunday has started airlock activity. Currently on about 1 bubble per minute.

I wonder if it’s the hornindal or if it’s something else in there?

I’ll give it a few days to settle down and then give it a sniff

Academic now as the beers on and I’ve got a jar of fresh cropped yeast in the fridge

 

[Alan_Reginato]

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.