NPi Brewday

[dwhite60]

Now that wasn't so hard, was it? Congratulations!

For a first time that was a pretty good run!

 

[NPi]

Full production line in effect now, I've just bottled 10l of the pilzner (with dark malt), brewed another batch of Guinness (12l), and finishing up fermenting my Kölsch (23l).

The pilzner was split between 2 glass demijohns, with my original intention to lager for many weeks. However being the impatient so and so, that I am I'm hoping to lager in the bottle. When bottling the first demijohn I made a right mess, not being able to find my little bottler, I was left trying to stop a syphon with my finger. Thankfully the bottler turned up over night and the 2nd batch was a breeze.

My Guinness batch was fairly uneventful, save for it being the first time I have built a starter. I poured in the yeast last night, fully expecting it to be off like a steam train this morning, only to find the airlock silent. Having lifted the lid and seen a large krausen, I was confused. Only to realise I hadn't put any steriliser in the air lock .

Thankfully the airlock is now bubbling away loudly.

The Kölsch is still 6 points away from being finished, however it's looking to be about 0.7% stronger than planned. Sad as it sounds, coming out at 6% this is my strongest AG yet.

My warchest of beers really is growing now, so much so I've started giving it away again.

I've still not decided on my next brew, but I'm thinking hop fiction clone, or another simple brewdog beer. Any recommendations?

Cheers all!
Nick

 

[NPi]

Well 12l of Guinness, 23l of Kölsch and 23l of English IPA all got either bottled, demijohned or brewed over the last 2 days, as well as managing to acquire 4 lovely strong German beer crates. Good times.

The Guinness clone bottling went as smoothly as the beer, with no problems at all. I think what made it easier was the fact I washed all my bottles together in oxy overnight in the bath, before sanitising only the bottles I needed before I used them. This batch was carbonated much less than the previous. Whilst nicely carbonated the first this, the reduced priming should be better en keeping with the style.

The Kölsch was bottled just as smoothly in 330ml bottles, with it coming out at 6% I though it only wise. 10l of the Kölsch was also decanted into 2 demijohns, for further lagering. My only worry now is that I've left the beers inside to carbonate, even though its a lager yeast. Will this higher temp swing cause any off flavours?

Finally, the English IPA, this was a recipe "borrowed" from the Geterbrewed kit, brewed short to 23l (originally 25l). This hopefully should result in about 5%. As with my previous large batches, heating the mash and boil meant I ran late and short on time. This resulted in having to leave the wort to no chill, however I made no amendments to the hop schedule. Hopefully because I removed the hops in the hop bags this shouldn't cause any further problems.

For the IPA I used CML Pia, building a 1l starter the night before. This is the first time I have used this yeast, and it was off like a train. The airlock was bubbling an hour after I put it in the FV.

 

[NPi]

Well I still haven't learnt, time after time am I being caught out by how long it takes to heat my large pot. Even on all 4 burners it barely registers a rolling boil. I am keeping my eye out for a 3kw induction hob big enough to take my pot. I would likely spring for a smaller non commercial 2kw but I fear the full pot may rock off, spilling its contents mid brew.

My latest painfully long brew day was for a table beer, again borrowed from the geterbrewed website. The original 25l recipe has been scalped to 23(ish), giving it a .3% bump in ABV. The recipe makes use of some lovely tropical hops, that smelt great whilst brewing. Other than the silly long delays the brew went well, with me being able to pitch straight on to the yeast cake of the English IPA, bottled the night before.

I knew the yeast was very much alive with it trying to escape the decanter I was keeping it in, before quickly crashing it back into the beer fridge. In the end almost all the yeast cake went in, so it's likely horrendously over pitched, but we will see what effects that will have.

Planning my next brew now, I'm thinking of doing the hunter foundation pale, by Brewdog. Mainly because it uses up my open malt so well, and the hops are nice round (and low) figures.

Anyone had any experience with swapping to induction, over pitching or Hunters foundation pale?

 

[cossie.j]

I’ve used the mangrove jacks California yeast a few times, i can’t remember what one it was exactly? But it’s perfectly normal to see yeast sitting on the top of the krausen and the FV as its a top fermenting yeast. Ive done a few Cali commons with this one and they turned out perfect after conditioning for a few weeks. That much so, I have another in my FV at the moment ; ) happy brewing, it looks as though you’re brewing some great beers

 

[NPi]

I’ve used the mangrove jacks California yeast a few times, i can’t remember what one it was exactly? But it’s perfectly normal to see yeast sitting on the top of the krausen and the FV as its a top fermenting yeast. Ive done a few Cali commons with this one and they turned out perfect after conditioning for a few weeks. That much so, I have another in my FV at the moment ; ) happy brewing, it looks as though you’re brewing some great beers

It had me really worried for a while but has been a great beer since

 

[cossie.j]

It had me really worried for a while but has been a great beer since

Yeah me too, i was using my fermzillas so i could see exactly what was going on. But now using ss fermenters I don’t get to see that? Keep us updated on your brewing journey, as i found it a great read ; )

 

[NPi]

Today was a hard/great beer day. With some extra time on my hands and an empty house, I managed to brew 23l of a (sort of) West Coast IPA, and bottle over 33l of my little big beer and my black pilsner.

The Little Big beer came out at 3% and tasted great. I dry hopped with some Cascade I had left over and it came out very tropical. Will be nice to have a beer to share without threat of falling asleep!

Having cold crashed the little big beer before racking I was very happy to find an incredibly compact yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter. In fact so compact I had to dig it out by hand to get rid of it.

The black pilsner had been in secondary fermentation demijohns for a few weeks, but unfortunately not at the temperatures I would like. It seems you really just can't make lagers well in the country without extra cooling. That said, it tasted very crisp, so maybe the temperature will have less effect than widely reported.

Lastly, the West Coast IPA, originally this went a bit **** up, with me forgetting to order half the hops required . Thankfully, a quick late night post and I was rescued by @samale and @Cowman (thanks again) . In the end I managed to exceed my OG by a long way and hit my volume target. This combined with the lovely smell of Sorachi Ace and Columbus it's sure to be a good beer. Now I just have to make sure I have the bottles required for it, when it comes to bottling!

In other beer related news, both the Kolsch and the EIPA are coming along great. I know that both would benefit from some conditioning (particularly the EIPA), but I just can't keep my hands off them.

Next on the list is a Belgian Single, followed by either a very pricey IPA or Sasion. Recommendations are very greatly received.

Cheers, Nick

 

[samale]

Out of interest what is your volume of beer

 

[NPi]

Out of interest what is your volume of beer

About 23l a brew at the moment with my large pot, but I have a smaller pot I used to do 12l brews in. The large pot would probably let me brew up to about 40l if I wanted, but it's just not logistically possible. At the moment I have a bit more time on my hands, but in future I'll likely have to go back to the smaller pot, as the bigger takes so much longer to reach a boil.

What size batches do you typically brew?

 

[NPi]

Whilst I've not updated this thread in about 3 months, I've still been brewing!

In the time I brewed a Belgian IPA, an AAA, and now a Munich bitter, but best of all I've been able to update my equipment. To go along with my previously purchased 50l pot, I've now got a matching lid and a 2.7kw nisbets induction hob. I also purchased a 3l kilner jar for my starters, along with a life changing 5l plastic jug.

These upgrades have made such a change to my brew day, with the mash heating in record time, full rolling boil being a breeze (even when turned down to 1.5kw).

I've also used my first liquid yeast (mainly due to the price! ) , which has lead to me experimenting with yeast cropping, re pitching in a new beer.

 

[NPi]

With this new 5l jug, I've now (finally!) been able to get an accurate measure of my liquids post brew.

With this I've been wanting to try and measure my efficiency and yeild. I wonder if anyone could help.

Whenever I brew using brewfather app, I always seem to exceed targets.

My most recent example, my target was 1040, with me achieving 1050. My target to fermenter was 23l but I ended up with 24.25?

Does this just mean I need to adjust my settings?

 

[NPi]

I thought with this thread quickly becoming my ramblings of a mad man, I'd rename it and move it to the Brewday section.

 

[NPi]

Last Friday I managed to crack on with 23l of lager (95% lager malt with 5% Vienna), pitched at 13degrees, using M84 yeast. I used mandarina bavaria as both for both bittering and aroma. I was considering dry hoping with another 50g of the same, or adding some Mandarin/tangerine orange zest to the beer whilst fermenting, but in the end I decided against it. With so few posts on the forum about the posts I'd rather split the batch into 2 5l demijohns and add zest then, bottling and leaving to lager in bottles the rest.

With the weather being so cold now I take the lager out of my brew fridge and store in the unheated spair room, that's at about 16degrees.

With the lager out the way, I've an empty brew fridge crying out to be used. Having recently fallen in love with Titanics Plum Porter, I decided to brew @Hazelwood Brewery version, with some slight malt tweeks.

Brew day was pretty smooth, having weighed out all grain and water the night before. I even attempted heating my mash with my inkbird. Unfortunately with the lag between the induction hob and the inkbird I overshot my target temp, fortunately the heater was only set to 65, so once I added the grain it only meant a small wait to start the mash.

Mash and boil went well, if only more of a pain now with Brewfather not letting me add further batches without upgrading to premium .

Getting the wort down to temp was far easier with such cold weather, after using the immersion cooler to about 50degrees, I left my pot to cool outside without much hassle at all.

Taking my SG once cooled I've overshot my target by 2points, even when my efficiency was set to 75%.

Now the wort is in the fridge falling those last few degrees, before I pitched a large starter, now I just need to get on and order the plum essence.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Last Friday I managed to crack on with 23l of lager (95% lager malt with 5% Vienna), pitched at 13degrees, using M84 yeast. I used mandarina bavaria as both for both bittering and aroma. I was considering dry hoping with another 50g of the same, or adding some Mandarin/tangerine orange zest to the beer whilst fermenting, but in the end I decided against it. With so few posts on the forum about the posts I'd rather split the batch into 2 5l demijohns and add zest then, bottling and leaving to lager in bottles the rest.

With the weather being so cold now I take the lager out of my brew fridge and store in the unheated spair room, that's at about 16degrees.

With the lager out the way, I've an empty brew fridge crying out to be used. Having recently fallen in love with Titanics Plum Porter, I decided to brew @Hazelwood Brewery version, with some slight malt tweeks.

Brew day was pretty smooth, having weighed out all grain and water the night before. I even attempted heating my mash with my inkbird. Unfortunately with the lag between the induction hob and the inkbird I overshot my target temp, fortunately the heater was only set to 65, so once I added the grain it only meant a small wait to start the mash.

Mash and boil went well, if only more of a pain now with Brewfather not letting me add further batches without upgrading to premium .

Getting the wort down to temp was far easier with such cold weather, after using the immersion cooler to about 50degrees, I left my pot to cool outside without much hassle at all.

Taking my SG once cooled I've overshot my target by 2points, even when my efficiency was set to 75%.

Now the wort is in the fridge falling those last few degrees, before I pitched a large starter, now I just need to get on and order the plum essence.

For me the “Special Ingredients” plum flavour is best. I believe 0.5ml/litre is a good dose rate. I hope you enjoy it. Good luck!

 

[NPi]

For me the “Special Ingredients” plum flavour is best. I believe 0.5ml/litre is a good dose rate. I hope you enjoy it. Good luck!

Ever considered using Cherry in stead of the plum? I'm considering ordering both

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Ever considered using Cherry in stead of the plum? I'm considering ordering both

I’ve thought about it but haven’t done it yet. I did buy several other flavours so got that far and I have enjoyed Clementine and Passion Fruit in saisons.