Nicks90's Brewdays

[matt76]

Erm, its handy to check things like pre boil gravity and post boil gravity - as a couple of drops on the glass cools to room temp almost instantly.
But as my head still works in normal hydrometer scale - i have to use the online calculator to convert it! Also its not as accurate as a hydrometer. i can normally read it accurately enough to show a difference from say 1.050 and 1.052 - but that level of accuracy isnt possible on the brix scale in my hydrometer.
Its a gadget. Not a useless gadget, but not essential!

Thanks for the info.

Being one to over-obsess about the numbers I'm prone to running round in a mad panic to cool a sample and check BG with my hydrometer - and if necessary recalculate hop additions to hit a specific IBU number! (yeah, I know it's stupid!) And do all this before my wort comes to the boil/boils over

And then in the end the boil-off and/or OG is different anyway or doesn't tally somehow.

So yeah, I can see how being able to take a reading much quicker would be handy. Or I could just chill out and stop worrying about the numbers

 

[Gingerbrews]

Cheers, will have a go at the weekend and use something like Challenger as a bittering hop.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi Matt you can just boil some hops later if you want more bitterness and a grain steep during the boil to adjust og, I work on 1kg of grain give 1 gravity point or there abouts

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 33

Summer Golden Ale mk2
Again i am revisiting some of my previous brews - this time AG9 - in an attempt to validate my opinion of the brew and to also just have a bloody nice pint!
So this time i am making a couple of tiny adjustments to the original recipe - mainly the use of first gold hops instead of admiral to get a more floral orangy aroma. So here it is:

3.5kg Irish malt
50gm crystal 300 EBC
100gm crystal 30 EBC
100gm rolled oats

20l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
10 g First Gold 60 min
10 g Challenger 60 min
20 g First Gold whirlpool @80C
20 g Challenger whirlpool @80C
Yeast, S-05

Should come out at the usual 5%abv with a medium 25 ibus and a nice straw-like 10 SRM

Edited to add: really looking forward to this. The smell and look as I poured it out the boiler was incredible. It's been AGES since I did an English hopped pale ale.

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 34

Apollo IPA
My IPA stocks need a significant boost - as i am feeling quite the hop head at the moment! As i got some Apollo hops on a special, decided to do a very hoppy predominantly Apollo pale ale. Whilst some people say Apollo can be a bit dank, i quite like it and i've had a few single hop IPAs using just this and found them lovely and grapefruity. So here goes nothing!

3.5kg Irish malt
100gm crystal 30 EBC
100gm rolled oats

20l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
10 g Apollo 60 min
10 g Apollo 5 min
20 g Cascade 5 min
20 g Apollo dry hop on day 5
Yeast, S-05

Should come out at l 5.5% abv with a punch 45 ibus and a lovely pale 6 SRM

 

[Nicks90]

Notgoblin clone has come good
Proper malt forward dark beer!!! Nomnomnom

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 35

English IPA
Time for a traditional IPA and stop making all this american rubbish :-)

3kg Irish malt
50gm crystal 300 EBC
200gm torrified wheat

20l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 21l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
10 g target 60 min
10g challenger 60 min
10 g target 5 min
10 g Challenger 5 min
20 g challenger at 80C for 60 mins
20g target at 80C for 60 mins

Yeast, S-05

reckoning about 4.5%, 40 ibu and srm of 8

 

[Nicks90]

Only been a few days but AG 35 badboy is smelling like an absolute cracker!


However plans for my next brew day are developing
Pinching @MyQul brut recipe with a few tweaks for stuff I have in stock.

Original Gravity (OG): 1.040
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010
Alcohol (ABV): 4.1 %
Colour (SRM): 3
Bitterness (IBU): 28

2kg Pale Malt
1kg Flaked Rice (cheapo rice crispies from tesco)

10g target 60 Min
20g first gold 10 min
20g Challenger 0 Min

Aiming for a pre boil vol of 23l and getting 18l in to the fv

 

[MyQul]

Only been a few days but AG 35 badboy is smelling like an absolute cracker!


However plans for my next brew day are developing
Pinching @MyQul brut recipe with a few tweaks for stuff I have in stock.

Original Gravity (OG): 1.040
Final Gravity (FG): 1.010
Alcohol (ABV): 4.1 %
Colour (SRM): 3
Bitterness (IBU): 28

2kg Pale Malt
1kg Flaked Rice (cheapo rice crispies from tesco)

10g target 60 Min
20g first gold 10 min
20g Challenger 0 Min

Aiming for a pre boil vol of 23l and getting 18l in to the fv

Id suggest some sort of dry hop or hop tea too

 

[Nicks90]

Cheers myqul, I think I have enough challenger left to Wang a dry hop in as well

 

[Nicks90]

Caught up with some bottling and labelling today, both look rather lovely!

 

[Nicks90]

Ag33 summer ale
What a blinder!!! And it's sunny here!

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 36

Stout Hearts
In line with the impending doom of coronavirus, thought it might be best to put a stout on. So heres a quick user-upper of some stuff i had in my barrel :-)

3kg Irish malt
150gm Carafa 111
210gm Chocolate malt
300gm porridge oats

18l mash at 65c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
10 g target 60 min
10 g First gold 30 min
20gm First gold 10 min

Yeast, some top cropped S-05 from AG35

reckoning about 5%, 35 ibu and srm of 33
so should be a good solid stout to warm the cockles of my heart whilst i hide away for the next 2 months!

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 37 and 37a

Summit IPA SMASH and a sour!
I was supposed to be brewing a Brut IPA today and popped to the shops to pick up a kilo of rice crispies (other brands available) to have a go at MyQuls recipe. But with the absolutely ludicrous situation, i went to 3 shops and could not find normal rice crispies....anywhere...... FFS!
So instead, as I am down to my last 2kg of malt, I thought sod it and will substitute 1kg of sugar instead. But being me, decided i would also do it as an american IPA, as i found a load of Summit hops in the freezer.

2kg Irish malt
800gm table sugar
200gm light brown sugar

20l mash at 63c for an hour followed by 2l rinse and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 18l wort for a 30 minute boil and 16l in the FV
Sugar will be added during the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Hops
10 g summit 30 min
10 g summit 10 min
20gm summit whirlpool

This is where AG39a comes in :-)
I am going to take 4l of the wort and put that in a demijohn and this will get dosed with the Cantillon Geuze dregs and left to do its thing for the next 6 months. If it works - happy days, i will have a sour IPA. And no, I havent bothered trying to culture the yeast and beasts up, or making a starter, or trying to anything. This will be a straight chuck it in and see.... if it does ferment, i'll let it finish off at 20C and then put it in my cellar at 12c for the remaining 6 months to hopefully sour up.

The remaining wort will get dosed with with some S05 and also left to do its thing in the normal way and dry hopped with more Summit towards the end.
With the sugar added instead of malt, I reckon this will have a real flinty dryness to it. Hopefully along with 45 ibu it wont be too face suckingly dry and bitter.

For the straight IPA, i reckon about 5.5%, 45 ibu and srm of 5
For the sour - god only knows..... but hey, fortune favours the brave right?

 

[Nicks90]

Wow - thats developed quickly!!!
2 days in and not a lot had happened. Day 3 and BOOM!

Had a smell and its 'beery' with a strange other note. Hopefully this is a good sign its working!
Sour Summit IPA anyone?

 

[Nicks90]

Still can't believe that this has taken off like it has just from the dregs of one bottle of cantillon in 4l of wort, with nothing done other than putting 200ml cooled wort in the bottle and giving it a shake and pouring it in!!!
Astonishing

 

[Nicks90]

Stout hearts has carb'd up.
Still needs conditioning but it's very promising!

 

[Nicks90]

Wow - thats developed quickly!!!
2 days in and not a lot had happened. Day 3 and BOOM!

Had a smell and its 'beery' with a strange other note. Hopefully this is a good sign its working!
Sour Summit IPA anyone?
View attachment 23637

Ohmygod, ohmygod
Had a sniff this evening and it's starting to smell slightly acidic with a citrus fruit aroma!!!!
I'm making a lambic!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Nicks90]

Bottling day for AG number 37 summit IPA SMASH

quick sneaky taste as normal and wow. Yes it's very dry, as I expected when using so much sugar, but it's got a huge citrus bite with a distinct lemon after taste. Once you have had a sip and you smack your lips, you continue to get a fresh zesty hit on the back of your throat. Very impressive
Let's hope this doesn't fade too quickly in the bottle.
I expected it to be thin and not very tasty, but it's still got a malty backbone.
Looking forward to this one carbing up. Should be a good spring thirst quencher

 

[Nicks90]

AG number 38

Session Bitter
Never one to sit idle, its time for another brew day. I just always feel something is missing if I dont have an FV bubbling away behind me in the office. So time to get my bitter on!

3kg Irish malt
200gm pale crystal/caramalt
100gm dark crystal 300
100gm cara-red

18l mash at 68c for an hour followed by a 4l sparge and a good bag squeeze
Leaving 20l wort for a 60 minute boil and 16l in the FV

Hops
5 g Target 60 min
10 g First Gold 15 min
10 g Target 15 min
27 g First Gold whirlpool
10 g Target whirlpool

Yeast, fresh pack of danstar Notty

Reckoning about 5%, 30 ibu and srm of 13
Should make a good sessionable bitter

edited cos I cant measure and used up some bits and it seemed a shame to break open the EKG when i had enough target and gold left....