Nicks90's Brewdays

[matt76]

Yeast is some top cropped American West Coast ale yeast BRY-97 from ag29

I assume that's cropped from AG59

Anyway, how's 59 doing, is it done yet? I started a brew on Friday with BRY-97. Having started getting going yesterday it then dropped from 1.040 to 1.024 overnight so I expect it'll be pretty much done by tomorrow evening.

Only used BRY-97 once before and I can't say I've noticed a particularly bit krausen. However, I've used WY1272 and M44 a few times, which are reputed to be same or very similar, and both have those took off like a rocket and tried to climb out through the airlock!

 

[Nicks90]

Yes it was top cropped from ag59!
That is still going strong, the fact I only took the top crop this morning shows it still munching it's way through sugars.

Talking of munching, can you believe it, but this is the krausen on ag61 4 hours after pitching the wort over that top cropped yeast. 3" foamy head already. This yeast is monstrous!!!

 

[matt76]

Cor, nice one guv I will be very interested to read how you AG61 turns out...

- Partly because of the yeast (and also the success or not of top cropping), I wasn't blown away with it, but that may have been my doing and I plan to circle back to BRY-97 at some point.

- And also because of your hopping. I hadn't really taken in the recipe but I've just read it again - I only do 30mins boils anyway, and quite regularly don't start adding hops until 20 or 15mins so I have no problems believing it can work fine with your first addition at 5mins. In fact I'm toying with the idea of no boil hops at all - just a 30min boil or less before chucking the hops in the whirlpool. There's a Basic Brewing Video on YouTube where James Sencer did this and they seemed happy how the beer turned out.

Best of luck with it - will keep my eyes peeled for updates

 

[Nicks90]

Thinking about my saison.... Its sat there staring at me from the fermenter and I keep thinking "orange! Wouldn't it be nice with a hint of orange"

Now I know normally you'd add it during the boil, but that boat has sailed and I'm not sure I am brave enough anyway. Too much scope to make 30 bottles of minge.
But what about if I pressed some orange peel in some vodka in a pestle and added a few drops to some of the bottles at bottling time?
Would this just be a terrible orangey bitter mess, or would it work and give a tiny hint of orange to the background aftertaste?
Would only be looking to experiment with maybe 6-10 bottles,

 

[Nicks90]

AG59 dry hop has been removed and its now been moved to the shed in anticipation of a cold weekend to do a cold crash au naturel.
dry hop for AG61 has been added - you can see the tide mark on the krausen - it reached to the 21l mark which is a 6 litre krausen. WOW!

 

[Nicks90]

Mammoth bottling session finished and I now have 99 bottles of beer.
Yes 99 bottles of beer!

Just need to get them labelled up this weekend so I don't confuse them and wait for a bit of carb'ing to occur.
Must also remember that both the ipas are nearly 6% and not my more usual 4.5% session strengths

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 62
House Bitter

3.5kg Irish malt
150gm crystal 30ebc
150gm crystal 360ebc
50gm carafa III

This time i am trying to be a clever clogs. I really fancied having a go at one of these multi-temp mashes that all you clever people talk about with your brewmiesterklarstenbrewmate gadgets. But as i use a tea urn, i had to improvise. I wanted to start off on the hot side to get some complex sugars to suit the english ale style and then finish with a cooler mash to make sure everything gets converted for max efficiency. Solution was to start at 69C and leave the thing unwrapped outside! Over a period of 90 minutes, it went from 69C down to 62C. Hahaha, appliance of science!
So 18l mash at 69c - 62C for 90mins followed by a 3l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 19l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
10 g Challenger @30mins
20 g Challenger @5 min

Yeast is some Lalbrew London English style ale yeast

Scores on the doors for this one: expecting 4% abv, 30IBUs and 32EBC

 

[matt76]

Interesting approach @Nicks90

Any updates on your recent hoppy beers made with BRY-97, AG#59 & AG#61? Or are they still in the FV / conditioning?

 

[Nicks90]

hi @matt76
the IPAs brewed with bry-97 are slowly carbing up. I have had a sneaky sample bottle of each and whilst the ElDorado is quite blurgh at this stage (it was last time, takes a bit of carb'ing and conditioning to really get on form. Quite amazing how the taste changes once carb'd up), the centennial and summit IPA is singing from the rooftops with sweet citrus juicy hops. OMG its just such a quality combination.
Loving this yeast, its really pulling the hop flavour forward and was monstrously vigorous on the brew itself.


as for AG 62
overshot my OG and hit 1.055 instead of the 1.050 i was aiming for. So diluted it with a litre of cooled boiled water and now have 17l in the FV. Means the IBUs will have dropped slightly, but only by a tiny amount. Shouldnt be noticeable
Also i realised i have some admiral hops in the freezer. Whilst these are predominantly a bittering hop, thinking the pine and citrus/marmalade might suit as a dry hop.
Anyone else done a dry hop with Admiral in an english ale?

 

[Nicks90]

so whats it like drinking 4 p[ints of saison befote 9pm......
well im kinda banjazzed to be honest and my spulling has gone ot pit.

its very mnoce thohgsgh but iu cantr reallly do much anynore anf i might fo to bed early.

 

[chrisb8]

AG number 62
House Bitter

3.5kg Irish malt
150gm crystal 30ebc
150gm crystal 360ebc
50gm carafa III

This time i am trying to be a clever clogs. I really fancied having a go at one of these multi-temp mashes that all you clever people talk about with your brewmiesterklarstenbrewmate gadgets. But as i use a tea urn, i had to improvise. I wanted to start off on the hot side to get some complex sugars to suit the english ale style and then finish with a cooler mash to make sure everything gets converted for max efficiency. Solution was to start at 69C and leave the thing unwrapped outside! Over a period of 90 minutes, it went from 69C down to 62C. Hahaha, appliance of science!
So 18l mash at 69c - 62C for 90mins followed by a 3l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 19l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
10 g Challenger @30mins
20 g Challenger @5 min

Yeast is some Lalbrew London English style ale yeast

Scores on the doors for this one: expecting 4% abv, 30IBUs and 32EBC

This sounds similar to the overnight mashes I have taken to doing recently. I start the mash at perhaps a degree or two above the intended mash temperature, wrap the mash tun in towels and a sleeping bag and then put it to bed for the night. In the morning it has lost around 10-15 degrees and is ready to sparge.

With a normal one hour mash I found my beers typically finished at 1.010-1.012 and had a bit of a sweet malty taste which wasn't always intended, eg. for a pale ale. I have found that overnight mashing gives the beer the body I want but also they finish at 1.006-1.008 so they don't have the slightly sweet finish.

 

[Nicks90]

6 pints in and i am pisheed/..'',,,,
might sleep on stairs or in office............ or crawl to bed.... beer = nice

wife = evil nagging bitch

 

[Nicks90]

nnnnnnnn, hmmmmmmm, ufffffffffff, grrrrrrrrrr
that wasnt a good idea on a school night.

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 63
Target Moderately Pale Ale
Not wanting to waste perfectly good ale yeast, decided after bottling AG62 to dump fresh wort on to the yeast cake and do another ale. I like Target and I like Admiral hops, both are considered bittering hops, with Admiral being a super-target replacement. But i think both have a certain nice citrus earthy piney aroma and work well throughout. Several really good beers use both as either a single hop or dual hop and taste great. So why not try and recreate it.

4kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 120ebc
50gm crystal 360ebc

Back to standard straight up mashing again.
So 20l mash at 66C for 90mins followed by a 2l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 19l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
8 g Target @60mins
20 g Admiral @5 min
15 g Target @5min

Yeast is London English style ale yeast cake from AG62

Scores on the doors for this one: expecting 5% abv, 30IBUs and 20EBC

 

[Nicks90]

In other news, the El Dorado and Centennial Summit IPAs are both a massive hit.
Not only do they make you fall down very quickly, but they are complete hop bombs. Interestingly the El Dorado was very tasteless to start with, but after a couple of weeks its really starting to shine. Really bizaar how thats happening like that, so dependant on full carbonation!

 

[Nicks90]

Nomnomnom

 

[Nicks90]

Ag62 house bitter is carb'ing up quickly, so had a cheeky taster for science purposes - of course!
Very malty and not much hop profile, as expected. Needs some time to gel, but extremely promising from a first taste. Went down very well with my fajitas for tea!!!

 

[Nicks90]

Further update on ag62 - not that keen to be honest.
Too malt forward, hop profile has become virtually non existent and it's just a bit blerrr. Oh well. Not sure if this is the yeast or I ballsed up my recipe measuring / weighing out, but it should have been pleasant.

 

[Nicks90]

However to offset ag62, our a new brew on

AG number 64
Get some hops ipa
Time to use up the last of my new world colonial hops and chuck another IPA on.

4kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 120ebc

Back to standard straight up mashing again.
So 20l mash at 66C for 90mins followed by a 5l dunk sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 22l of wort for a 60 minute boil and 18l in the FV

Hops
45g centennial @5 min
45 g summitt @5min

Yeast is good old wilko notty

Scores on the doors for this one: og of 1.050 and expecting 5% abv, 40IBUs and 15EBC

To increase the hop flavour, I did something new. After 'flame out' I lifted my hop bag full of my 5min additions and started the cooler. When it hit 70c I put it back in again and left it till the wart was at 20c.
No idea if it'll make a difference, but every little helps!

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 65
Another Moderately Pale Ale
AG63 moderately Pale Ale is absolutely fantastic, just about carb'd up and tasting brilliant, Admiral and target hops really go together well, so well i have decided to immedaitely do this one again. Couple of minor tweaks, but essentially not much difference to before and using up all my last malt stocks.

3.5kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 360ebc
100gm oats

So 20l full volume mash at 66C for 90mins followed by a good bag squeeze
Leaving 18l wort for a 60 minute boil and 15l in the FV

Hops
10 g Target @30mins
25 g Admiral @5 min
15 g Target @5min

Yeast issome notty i recovered from the ipa on ag64 that i bottled yesterday

Scores on the doors for this one: expecting 5% abv, 35IBUs and 20EBC