PilgrimHudds Brewdays

[pilgrimhudd]

It's my first attempt at this style and I'm kind of winging it. Seems your hop additions were much bigger than mine if I read it correctly. I just did a 4x28g addition (of different hops) at flameout (80c). Bagged and left it in there for 30-40 mins while it cooled and I transferred. I'm working nights tonight so I'll probably do my first DH tomorrow afternoon when I get back. Was planning on leaving it 2-3 days then taking the hops out and DH again but I'm edging towards leaving them in. How many grams are your DH additions? I was thinking 140g for the first and 84g for the 2nd.

I'm just kind of making it up as I go along and it could be a ruined batch anyway, if you read my brewday post I forgot to campden my water until the sparge

Ha, I'm sure it wont be ruined! Yep I forget where I got my recipe from but yeah I hop 60g x 3 in the last 10 mins of the boil. Dry hopping with 80g first off and then 100g of whatever I have 2nd time round. What's the strength of yours? Mine wont be as nice as last time I dont think,it'll be too hoppy without the alcohol strength.

 

[fury_tea]

Ha, I'm sure it wont be ruined! Yep I forget where I got my recipe from but yeah I hop 60g x 3 in the last 10 mins of the boil. Dry hopping with 80g first off and then 100g of whatever I have 2nd time round. What's the strength of yours? Mine wont be as nice as last time I dont think,it'll be too hoppy without the alcohol strength.

It's quite reserved, aimed for 1.054 and ended a hair over 1.056

Probably 5.5% ish depending on the FG. I probably could've aimed a bit higher I guess but I am trying to get a lager out of these grains as well so need my pilsner malt for that! Too hippy isn't really a problem for me usually. I suppose I could up the alcohol with some sugar but I'm inclined to just leave it now.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

It's quite reserved, aimed for 1.054 and ended a hair over 1.056

Probably 5.5% ish depending on the FG. I probably could've aimed a bit higher I guess but I am trying to get a lager out of these grains as well so need my pilsner malt for that! Too hippy isn't really a problem for me usually. I suppose I could up the alcohol with some sugar but I'm inclined to just leave it now.

Ha! That's fair enough if that what you were shooting for, I was looking for 17l of 7.5% and I've got far less volume and abv!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Bottled my Simcoe and First Gold APA this afternoon, 80g sugar boiled in 200mls water, got 22x 500ml bottles. Finished at 1010 giving it a hefty 6.3% abv, almost 1% more than I was looking for, brewed it accidentally short.

Looks wise, it's cloudy which is a surprise, although I had moved the fv in from the fridge the hour before. It's also darker than I remember.

Taste is mildly bitter with a mildly fruity piney taste and aroma, far more subtle than many i've brewed recently. I think it'll be a warm afternoon type beer, served very cold which is why it's a shame it isn't more sessionable. Perhaps I should have dry hopped but i'm sure it'll be fine once carbonated and left to condition for awhile.

I also dry hopped my NEIPA yesterday with 20g each of simcoe, amarillo, citra and tomahawk.

 

[matt76]

I think everyone has their own brewing mojo and for me I keep coming back to Simcoe - bittering, late hop, dry hop, it's got it all. I'm intrigued though by the Simcoe/First Gold combo

I also dry hopped my NEIPA yesterday with 20g each of simcoe, amarillo, citra and tomahawk.

This is for, what, 17L or so? Quite right, don't mess about, throw the kitchen sink at it!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I think everyone has their own brewing mojo and for me I keep coming back to Simcoe - bittering, late hop, dry hop, it's got it all. I'm intrigued though by the Simcoe/First Gold combo


This is for, what, 17L or so? Quite right, don't mess about, throw the kitchen sink at it!

Yes, Simcoe is a fabulous hop, can't quite choose my favourite between it and Amarillo.

Not sure about the first gold, dont think it comes through as much as I was hoping, I used it for bittering where as I think it's probably better as a late addition aroma hop.

Just under, had a poor yield and only got 15l of NEIPA, this was my 2nd dry hop, 80g went in last week too.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

A belgian twist from the fisherman's stout recipe that I bid a few months ago.

I've been a bit disappointed with my yields lately so I was gunning for 20l in the fv for this one, why not 23l I hear you say? Because, I didnt think the klarstein would cope with the grain in the mash at the abv required.

Pale malt 4kg
Pilsner 2kg
160g crystal
160g caramunich
120g crystal
400g special b
260g roast barley

Mashed for 90mins at 68.

35g centennial @60
400g dark candi sugar @5

Plan to pitch t-58 at 18c and slowly raise the temp over the 2 weeks.

Had a mare with the malt hence 2kg of pilsner, my pale malt that came the other day was bleddy crushed!! I tried to crush it with pestle and mortar but sod that....

 

[matt76]

Just been rereading this - blimey that's gotta be, what, 7kg or so grain?

Out of interest, how did the Klarstein cope with that amount of grain and water? It must have been full to the brim during the mash!

Reason for asking is I'm planning to brew my Baltic Porter soon - 5kg grain bill and 15L water. It did cross my mind what challenges this might bring compared to my normal 2.5-3kg grain bills.

One idea is to abandon the grain basket as you do. Among other things I wonder if this might improve efficiency a bit as you haven't got a metal sleeve effectively creating two separate volumes of water - better mixing of the mash liquor etc.

Completely separate question, are you giving any thought to trading up to a bigger system given your recent penchant for larger scale brews?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Hi matt, yes almost 7kg, I neglected to say that my strike volume was 20l, so yes it was about an inch or 2 from the top, however the grain once wet sunk down and was quite loose after getting a stir. The main problem was that the top 8 inches or so, perhaps more was considerably cooler, perhaps 10c cooler than the temp at the bottom. I tried to get round this by drawing off a few litres from the tap and putting it back in the top.

Much better than when I did the neipa with grain basket. I had noticed before that the grain in the grain basket was very tight and the water surrounding the basket didnt change colour at all so wasnt mixing even after a stir.

It'll do a 5kg brew quite happily, you should be able to do full volume if you only want 10l at the end.

I started with 20l, took bag out and squeezed like hell, then placed bag in a big bucket with 6l water and sparged with it (in the loosest sense of the word). Added that back to the klarstein and ended up with a post boil volume of perhaps just under 19l.

Now, the negatives are that I only got an og of 1066 which was a full 10 below what was expected. And I've noticed that it does struggle to give me the expected efficiencies at this size of grain bill and required final volume. Perhaps I should have gone for 10l in the fv.... I mean, it'll still be a meaty 6.5% ish but not the 7 something i was going for.

To your last question, in a word yes... i am lucky enough to have a bit of land and a large garage that I do very little with. So I am looking at some options for going larger and perhaps in the long run selling a bit to the local shops? But that is not for awhile yet, I have a trampoline to dig in and a shed to build which will take me up to 2023...

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Just had another thought with regards to your Baltic porter, I reckon it should be fine with a full volume mash, around 15l? You could always mash with more water and boil for longer till you get the correct volume?

 

[matt76]

Just had another thought with regards to your Baltic porter, I reckon it should be fine with a full volume mash, around 15l? You could always mash with more water and boil for longer till you get the correct volume?

Thanks.

Yeah, I've been weighing up various options - I think I've decided I'll mash in with 15L as normal but probably without the grain basket. At the end of the mash I'll check the boil gravity (which I don't normally bother with these days) and if necessary I can extend my normal 30min boil to 45 or 60mins. I'll end up with a bit less beer of course, but it'll be the beer I want.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Bottled up my NEIPA, 22x 500ml bottles, fg was 1010 making it 6.8%. 80g sugar boiled in 200mls water.

To look at it is slightly disappointing, hasnt got quite the golden hue of last time. However fantastic fruity aroma and a more balanced taste, alcoholic but not overly so, fruity without the hoppy throat burn. Happy with this one.

 

[samale]

That looks good I just had a look at the recipe. I have failed badly with NEIPA to the point of giving up

 

[pilgrimhudd]

That's a shame, what happened with it, it's a lot of hops wasted if you bugger it up.

 

[samale]

That's a shame, what happened with it, it's a lot of hops wasted if you bugger it up.

The last one I went with 1 kg of golden naked oats. It basically turned brown. I tried my best to limit the exposure to air. In fairness I still drunk it but I put a lot of hops in it. Probably not something I will be rushing back to try anytime soon

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Ha! To be fair mine looks ok now, I'd have liked to bottle a few days ago as I think it was ready, hopefully didnt leave it too long. I left a couple of bottles from when I made one last year, after about 10 months it cleared beautifully

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Busy brewday today, I brewed GH's Baltic Porter, something I've wanted to brew for ages but not got around too.

Essentially the same recipe as gh, but swapped out the carafa for a little extra choc and caramunich. Scaled it down to get 20l in the fv, for once I ended up with more in the fv than planned, as a result my og was 1068. Looks great, tastes very nice, just cooling down to 10c at the moment, then pitch yeast.

First attempt at a lager ish type and am quite excited, should I expect to see slower activity in the fermenter due to the low temps or are the yeast just used to that temp and go for it like ale yeast?

 

[matt76]

Oh man I'm so jealous! I did that one last time, get it right and it's a cracker!

Hoping to brew mine this weekend, but I'm trying a different recipe this time from beerandbrewing.com .....

Have you seriously not used lager yeast before? What yeast are you using?

As far as I've found in general lager yeast can be a bit sluggish if your at the low end of the temp range but yeah it'll keep ticking over so just let it do its thing - but yeah, seems weird at first that it can ferment away quite happily at such a low temperature.

Last time I did a Czech lager (WY2278) I cooled the wort down before pitching and it took 2-3 days to get going - nervous times but it came out great. But it's not usually quite so sluggish!

Don't be tempted to rush it, make sure you give it plenty of time to condition once it's bottled - as I recall I was good and waited the full 12 weeks before having a taste, so good, really thick and poured almost like motor oil!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

The motor oils bit is what I'm looking forward to ha, read that description somewhere and thought I had brew that!!

Nope not used a lager yeast yet, its mangrove Jack's Bavarian, m 76.

Did you condition at low temp too? I was just fretting about having the brewfridge out of action for 12 weeks!

 

[foxbat]

should I expect to see slower activity in the fermenter due to the low temps or are the yeast just used to that temp and go for it like ale yeast?

Yes it can take a day or two to even start and then it just chugs along at a steady civilised pace. None of that rip-roaring, Mount Vesuvius in your airlock stuff that you get with some ale yeasts.