PilgrimHudds Brewdays

[matt76]

To be honest I don't know - I went from just Tesco Ashbeck, to Ashbeck with additions, to tap water with additions - so I've never done a back to back

I just work on the basis that a small amount of this or that to get the water a bit closer to optimum is worth the effort - but that's just for me and the water here.

But from what I've seen your beer already tastes good, so if it ain't broke don't fix it!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Urrrgh just tried a bottle of my user upper dark tripel, absolutely disgusting, undrinkable solvent like taste, can still taste it 15 mins after, chuck away I think! Blllaaaaargggg! Thought It tasted funny at bottling but as the sample was very yeasty I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

 

[matt76]

It's probably down to the excess of chlorine and absence of any minerals in your water

Just kidding... Sorry to hear that mate, but fair play to you. I think one of the hardest lessons I've learned in the last couple of years is to be honest and realistic with yourself - if it's $h1t it's $h1t, no point pretending otherwise, ditch it and move on

(Though in this case it doesn't sound like you took much convincing )

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Haha probably!

Yeah no need to think about this one!

Intrigued as to why... a solvent taste points to high fermentation temps I've read... but it was in the brew fridge in the low 20's so I hope it's nothing more sinister. Especially as it did finish drier than I'd expected.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

A good day today, bottled up my weizenbock, 17.5l into various sized bottles, 70g sugar into 200mls water, tasted lovely and I had a near enough a pint of it out of the FV at lunchtime. Sweet but not cloying with a hint of banana, I imagine this will be nice when carbonated. Finished up at around 1014 which makes it 6.8%.

Meanwhile after chatting to @JonBrew on another thread I decided to brew a 10l Fig Stout and a 10l rum &raisin.

Using parts of my belgian stout and the forum xmas stout recipe I went with

4kg Otter
120g caramalt
200g light crystal
400g chocolate
200g special W
400g oats
80g roasted barley

I mashed in for an hour at around 68c

Sparged in the loosest possible way and started the boil, realised I had way too much liquid in the klarstein I drew off 1l and boiled for an 90mins to boil some of it off, ended up pouring back that litre later in the boil

25g Magnum @60

200g Brown sugar & 200g Lactose @15.

The OG was 1066, the sample I had... well I may have overdone it with the oats & lactose it was like drinking a smoothie! Hopefully the carbonation and alcohol will sort that out.

Cooled it quite quickly, groundwater temp has really dropped in the last week or two. Poured roughly 10l into each fermenter and pitched half a pack of CML Midland into each. Hopefully half a pack will be ok.

I plan to use a big old gin bottle fill it up with raisins and then pour in enough rum to cover, the raisins will then go into one of the fermenters in a week or so along with maybe 100mls of the rum. I will roast the figs for roughly 20 mins or until they look like they are cooking and squeeze them into the other fermenter after a week or so. I haven't figured out amounts yet.... I think i'll come to that when I come to do it and see it there in front of me. I presume the figs will drop to the bottom eventually, I know when I used raisins in a mead they dropped after 2 weeks or so.

 

[samale]

A good day today, bottled up my weizenbock, 17.5l into various sized bottles, 70g sugar into 200mls water, tasted lovely and I had a near enough a pint of it out of the FV at lunchtime. Sweet but not cloying with a hint of banana, I imagine this will be nice when carbonated. Finished up at around 1014 which makes it 6.8%.

Meanwhile after chatting to @JonBrew on another thread I decided to brew a 10l Fig Stout and a 10l rum &raisin.

Using parts of my belgian stout and the forum xmas stout recipe I went with

4kg Otter
120g caramalt
200g light crystal
400g chocolate
200g special W
400g oats
80g roasted barley

I mashed in for an hour at around 68c

Sparged in the loosest possible way and started the boil, realised I had way too much liquid in the klarstein I drew off 1l and boiled for an 90mins to boil some of it off, ended up pouring back that litre later in the boil

25g Magnum @60

200g Brown sugar & 200g Lactose @15.

The OG was 1066, the sample I had... well I may have overdone it with the oats & lactose it was like drinking a smoothie! Hopefully the carbonation and alcohol will sort that out.

Cooled it quite quickly, groundwater temp has really dropped in the last week or two. Poured roughly 10l into each fermenter and pitched half a pack of CML Midland into each. Hopefully half a pack will be ok.

I plan to use a big old gin bottle fill it up with raisins and then pour in enough rum to cover, the raisins will then go into one of the fermenters in a week or so along with maybe 100mls of the rum. I will roast the figs for roughly 20 mins or until they look like they are cooking and squeeze them into the other fermenter after a week or so. I haven't figured out amounts yet.... I think i'll come to that when I come to do it and see it there in front of me. I presume the figs will drop to the bottom eventually, I know when I used raisins in a mead they dropped after 2 weeks or so.

This sounds Great

 

[pilgrimhudd]

This sounds Great

Hope so! Not sure which I like the sound of better, hopefully they should be great for Christmas, although i'll probably be drinking them on my own!

 

[samale]

If it's any help I used 500g of dried prunes in my dark winter Saison. I heated them in red wine. This was all added to a mesh hop bag and everything added to the fermentor at 2 weeks.
It made it easier to remove them before bottling.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

If it's any help I used 500g of dried prunes in my dark winter Saison. I heated them in red wine. This was all added to a mesh hop bag and everything added to the fermentor at 2 weeks.
It made it easier to remove them before bottling.

I'm using 2 demijohns, one has a fairly large mouth but i reckon i'd struggle to get them out!

 

[samale]

How long do you plan to age this on the figs & raisins. You may lose a bit to sludge at the bottom.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

How long do you plan to age this on the figs & raisins. You may lose a bit to sludge at the bottom.

I'm thinking of adding everything in 1 week and then leaving it for 2 weeks. What do you reckon?

 

[samale]

I'm thinking of adding everything in 1 week and then leaving it for 2 weeks. What do you reckon?

The longer you can leave it the better. Try bulk aging in the carboys then bottling up, but I am no expert.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I might see how it's going and leave it for 4 weeks, don't want to push it and chance any infection issues...

 

[samale]

I might see how it's going and leave it for 4 weeks, don't want to push it and chance any infection issues...

I can't see how you would get an infection. I left the prunes in for just over 3 months but I was using a Brett strain.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Nor do I really, just overly cautious. Plus, i'm not sure how long the mrs will let me keep two fermenters sat in the utility.

 

[samale]

Nor do I really, just overly cautious. Plus, i'm not sure how long the mrs will let me keep two fermenters sat in the utility.

Hide them in the wardrobe

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I've added 150ml of 40% rum and 400g raisins to one 10l batch and about 700g of baked figs to the other, fermentation has gone off like a rocket, especially the fig one.

Is there any way of working out how much 150ml rum will affect the abv? Is 150ml in 10l too little to make much difference?

 

[matt76]

You don't state the ABV of your 10L batch, so let me assume 5% ABV...

You've added 150ml 40% rum:
150 x 0.40 = 60
So that's 60ml alcohol

10L of 5% beer:
10 x 1000 x 0.05 = 500
500ml alcohol

500 + 60 = 560ml alcohol total

That is in 10L + 150ml of liquid, so 10150ml liquid in total.

560 ÷ 10150 = 0.05517

So by adding the rum you've increased the ABV from my assumed 5.0% ABV to 5.51% ABV.

(If you do the maths then even if your 10L is actually 6 or 7% and then you're still increasing that by about 0.5% when you add the rum)

 

[pilgrimhudd]

You don't state the ABV of your 10L batch, so let me assume 5% ABV...

You've added 150ml 40% rum:
150 x 0.40 = 60
So that's 60ml alcohol

10L of 5% beer:
10 x 1000 x 0.05 = 500
500ml alcohol

500 + 60 = 560ml alcohol total

That is in 10L + 150ml of liquid, so 10150ml liquid in total.

560 ÷ 10150 = 0.05517

So by adding the rum you've increased the ABV from my assumed 5.0% ABV to 5.51% ABV.

(If you do the maths then even if your 10L is actually 6 or 7% and then you're still increasing that by about 0.5% when you add the rum)

Ahh that's actually quite straightforward/obvious when you put it like that! Thank you very much!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Looks nice this....