OK First Big Brew Day Since Starting Out (photos)

[CrovaxUK]

So only recently started out and have made a few small stockpan brews but together with my bro in law we've pulled togerher a plastic rig which can make 20-30 litre batches ( all grain ) so have been busy this weekend:

1st: Brown Ale (5.4%)
28 litres
5kg Maris Otter Pale
1kg Biscuit
1kg Crystal
0.3kg Flaked Wheat

55g kent Northern Brewer
50g Cascade (dry hop)
25g Willamette (dry Hop)

WLP002 British Al Yeast


2nd: 'One-Hop' Bitter (3.8%)
21 litres

3kg Maris Otter Pale
1kg Caramalt
0.5kg Crystal
0.2kg Flaked Wheat

70g East Kent Golding 70g 30min
70g Dry hop

WLP001 California Ale Yeast

3rd: IPA (4%)
21 litres

3.5kg Maris Otter Pale
1kg Crystal

Nelson Sauvin 50g 60min
Nelson Sauvin 50g dry hop

Dry Nottingham ale yeast


Looks like next weekend is going to be a bit of a bottling spree - dont think I've got enough empty bottles so will be getting some mates round to.. ahem.. make some room...

I'd love to hear some thoughts or recommendations from everyone else. Has anyone tried any similar styles or with similar hops?

My first time using wet yeast

 

[artyb]

quite a big brew day ...well done guys... :clap:

im sure it wont be ready for bottling next week though... :hmm:

 

[carl_saint]

Yeah well done! You love your crystal!

 

[Good Ed]

well done, you're going to have some very interesting tasting sessions :shock:

 

[pittsy]

looking good , you may have some sweet beer there though , a little heavy on the speciality grains but should still be good beer . Biscuit malt is lovely but around 200/400g may of been enough and similar to the others .

 

[CrovaxUK]

ok thanks for the tips - so wrt the darker grains how do you get the brown ale brown for example? Do people use things like roasted barley? I'll see how they turn out but the nelson sauvin recipe i've done before and is one of the best beers i've ever tasted - it was super fruity on the nose and nice and bitter.

gone out today to get some aquarium heaters after seeing some people using them for ferment temp control. gonna set it up tonight

 

[CrovaxUK]

so got my aquarium heaters set up in the bath and covered it with some lagging... not the most sophisticated or electrically... err... robust setup but i'll do for a few days. Seems to be keeping the temp at a steady 22 deg c.

they seem to be fermenting away nicely, will probably check the SG tomorrow to see how they're getting on.

On the brighter side the house smells nice and if this works i may get a second hand bath for putting in the shed if i ever get around to converting it to a brew space. i tried to get some rhino tubs but they didn't seem big enough to fit the heater element in and i was concerned about it touching the plasic a it gets pretty hot.

the aquarium heaters i am using are therse from pets at home

a bit pricey but i was in there anyway and had a discount voucher which needed using.

 

[lukehgriffiths]

Hi to get darker ales porters etc you can use chocolate malt and black malt or darker crystal. You can use a mild base malt. Roasted barley gives a stout type flavour and feel.

 

[alawlor66430]

Love the use of the bath lol

 

[CrovaxUK]

So all bottled and done, a few misakes - the brown ale had free floating hops in the fermenter instead of in a bag so choked up the tap a bit so lost a few pints there, also forgot to make up for lost water in the IPA so it ended up a bit stronger but all in all a successfull brew - took a long time to bottle it all up tho:

brown ale:
500ml bottes: 23
660ml Tiger bottles: 6
8 pint kegs: 2

IPA:
500 ml bottles: 31

Bitter:
500ml bottles: 38

got the bottles in an unused vivarium to go through secondary ferment. will move to the cellar in the next few days.

couple of photos of the bottling: this is only 2 thirds of it lol!

the brown ale:

the IPA

 

[joe1002]

Excellent.
I like the look of each of those recipes, particularly the first one :thumb:

 

[CrovaxUK]

thx for all the suport guys, has anyone used any of these easy kegs before? i heard they are easy to over prime so just used 3.5 teaspoons for 8 pints.

also now they've had a week to secondary ferment when will they be ok for drinking do you recon. I've never done a proper secondary ferment before, i've just bottled and put somewhere cold and wondered why its always flat lol.

 

[joe1002]

I don't use those kegs but a few on here do so hopefully someone will be able to help you soon.

If they are anything like bottles, they will need another week in the warm then somewhere cool for a couple of weeks+ :thumb: