PilgrimHudds Brewdays

[pilgrimhudd]

Oh, and thanks!

 

[foxbat]

No I'm not really a big lager fan but nice to have a try at something different and see what it comes out like!

When I did a Galaxy lager it tasted to me like a pale and crisp Galaxy ale. It was good beer but I think my brain is wired to expect a certain flavour to mean lager and it just got confused with the tropical fruity hops. It'll be interesting to see what you think.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

When I did a Galaxy lager it tasted to me like a pale and crisp Galaxy ale. It was good beer but I think my brain is wired to expect a certain flavour to mean lager and it just got confused with the tropical fruity hops. It'll be interesting to see what you think.

Yep, I agree I think it'll be more hoppy than any lager I'd have had so I suspect I'll think something similar. I'm looking forward to brewing this one more than any I've done recently.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

So everything worked out ok, 15g magnum at 60, 20g rawika at 5 and whirlpooled 30 at around 80c for 15 mins. Had a lot more boil off than expected, that and I think the grain held onto more than usual which means I've probably got around 17l at an og of dead on 1050. Child commitments mean that I've cooled to 40c dumped into the fv and put in the fridge to cool before I pitch the yeast.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Dry hopped my kiwi pale yesterday with 30g of motueka and pacifica.

Also slowly getting rid of beer that's past its best or wasnt any good in the first place to free up some bottles for my pale and pilsner.

Crossmyloof and geterbrewed order came in yesterday, new capper and ingredients for my next 2 planned beers, GH's old ale and Honey Ale using 500g honey from a colleagues beehive.

 

[Slid]

The honey ale should be interesting and much better than one using commercial honey. Good luck with it!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

The honey ale should be interesting and much better than one using commercial honey. Good luck with it!

Hope so, the one I did before with essentially Tesco's basics honey was pretty good but it took a long time to condition!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Bottled the kiwi pale tonight, 85g sugar in 200mls water, 5ml in each bottle, around 18l out of the fv.

Straw coloured, quite clear, watermelon aroma, and loads of KUMQUAT. No not really, none of that. It's going to be quite delicate I think.

Fg was 1010, but tasted drier than that. Making it 4.4%, my friends were complaining that I wasnt making sessionable beers so here it is... ungrateful sods.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Exhausted! Double brewday today, firstly going for 18l of GH's Honey Ale. I'm using a colleagues own honey, tried a bit before chucking in, out of this world lovely.

4.5kg Otter
350g Biscuit
100g Carapils
250g Crystal

Mashed at 66c for an hour

Challenger 12g @ 60
500g Honey @ 5
Target 8g @ 1

Cooled and pitched CML Four. OG 1056 IBU 10.

For my 2nd a 10l Braggot using @An Ankoù recipe with a tweek or two.

1.4kg Otter
500g Rauch
200g Dark Crystal

Mashed for an hour at 68c

Now here's where things got sketchy, I had a couple of phone calls, little one wet herself bla bla bla and completely lost how long i'd been boiling for so I used 10g Magnum for bittering @ around 45 mins I reckon now. I used 1 kg of Lidl honey, not the cheapest, not the most expensive either.... and 15g of sweet orange peel. @5 mins.

As a result I got far less boil off and ended about 14l (impossible to tell before I poured into fv) I did consider chucking back in the boiler and boiling again but couldn't be arsed. As a result 10l, finishing at 1058 in the fv and chucked the rest, annoyingly. Pitched Mangrove Jacks mead yeast.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Bottled up the kiwi pilsner, 85g sugar in 200mls water, 5ml per 500ml bottle, 34 bottles.

Looks golden, juicy almost not as clear as I hoped but still time. Grapefruity taste maybe, malty aftertaste, quite nice. Vaguely fruity aroma. Fg was 1010, makes it 5.2%.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

The braggot is turning a lovely colour in the fv, annoyingly had plenty more room for another litre or two in the fv, but I left some space for fermentation, the mead yeast was nowhere near as vigorous as beer yeast.

 

[matt76]

Sounds good, I'll be interested to hear how the braggot tastes

Re. FV's and bottling, I assume that one is glass 15L-ish???...

But don't you usually use plastic buckets with a tap and then bottle straight from there with priming solution in the bottle?

Reason for asking is I've been thinking how to reduce oxygen exposure at packaging for hoppy beers.

Kegs just don't make sense to me for small batches and lots of different styles of the go at the same time.

So if I stick with bottles, then eliminating the bottling bucket seems like a quick win

But what I can't figure out is how to stop hops clogging up the bottling wand (unless you bag them)

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Sounds good, I'll be interested to hear how the braggot tastes

Re. FV's and bottling, I assume that one is glass 15L-ish???...

But don't you usually use plastic buckets with a tap and then bottle straight from there with priming solution in the bottle?

Reason for asking is I've been thinking how to reduce oxygen exposure at packaging for hoppy beers.

Kegs just don't make sense to me for small batches and lots of different styles of the go at the same time.

So if I stick with bottles, then eliminating the bottling bucket seems like a quick win

But what I can't figure out is how to stop hops clogging up the bottling wand (unless you bag them)

Hi matt, its 11l, plastic, looks bigger though.

No, so I bag my dry hop hops. Siphon from the fv into bottles then prime them individually with a syringe.

I agree kegs isn't practical.

Can't you use your bazooka thing to stop the hops clogging your tap?

I've got a couple of beers to send up, are you happy for me to send them, what with covid and stuff.

 

[matt76]

Hi matt, its 11l, plastic, looks bigger though.

No, so I bag my dry hop hops. Siphon from the fv into bottles then prime them individually with a syringe.

I agree kegs isn't practical.

Can't you use your bazooka thing to stop the hops clogging your tap?

I've got a couple of beers to send up, are you happy for me to send them, what with covid and stuff.

Main thing with the filter is getting it, and the syphon tube, to stay in the right place. But I suspect, yeah, I could figure it out - might have a wet dry run with water to see if it'll behave itself.

Do you use a bottling wand in your setup? Use a syringe or something to start the syphon and then shove the bottling wand in the tube?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

No I just use use a syringe to start the siphon (used to suck it through) and dump the end in the bottle. I have a clamp on the syphon tubing to stop/start. I have been thinking about either going back to a bottle bucket or buting an fv with tap and batch priming from that. Although I have quite an efficient little system going now bottling is still a ball ache and something I really dont like doing!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Went to do an overnight mash for GH's old ale last night, imagine my horror when I realised I'd used all my munich on my pilsner!! What to do.....

So I had a quick check on what I had and needed to be used up and came up with this, my take on a southern brown ale. Just getting to the boil now.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

All done and in the brewfridge cooling.

Tell you what the overnight mash makes such a difference. I again overestimated boil off, going for 19l in the fv I got around 21l, and that at 1062! So I added another litre of boiled water. I've not tapped that into the app to see what difference that makes yet.

Wort tastes nice, super sweet and you can really get the first gold.

According to brewsmith ibu's 21, darker than I thought, perhaps I added slightly too much black or chocolate malt.

 

[fury_tea]

All done and in the brewfridge cooling.

Tell you what the overnight mash makes such a difference. I again overestimated boil off, going for 19l in the fv I got around 21l, and that at 1062! So I added another litre of boiled water. I've not tapped that into the app to see what difference that makes yet.

Wort tastes nice, super sweet and you can really get the first gold.

According to brewsmith ibu's 21, darker than I thought, perhaps I added slightly too much black or chocolate malt.

It may lighten up a tad when it's finished as well. They can look darker when there's still some particles floating in it.

How's the braggot looking now?

Looks very interesting that does. I've got a couple of meads going but neither are really very good. It's a bit disappointing to wait a year for something that doesn't taste how you imagined. Wouldn't mind trying ba braggot though

 

[pilgrimhudd]

It may lighten up a tad when it's finished as well. They can look darker when there's still some particles floating in it.

How's the braggot looking now?

Looks very interesting that does. I've got a couple of meads going but neither are really very good. It's a bit disappointing to wait a year for something that doesn't taste how you imagined. Wouldn't mind trying ba braggot though

Happy to send you a bottle when it's ready. Though I'm disappointed in the likely abv, it'll be interesting to see what it turns out like, I think it'll take some months to condition properly.

Its gutting isn't it, my apple and blackberry wine is ok but is a bit paint stripper ish. A year in the making.....

The braggot is still very two tone but defo dropping clear (dark), not sure whether to wait till it drops completely before bottling?

 

[fury_tea]

Happy to send you a bottle when it's ready. Though I'm disappointed in the likely abv, it'll be interesting to see what it turns out like, I think it'll take some months to condition properly.

Its gutting isn't it, my apple and blackberry wine is ok but is a bit paint stripper ish. A year in the making.....

The braggot is still very two tone but defo dropping clear (dark), not sure whether to wait till it drops completely before bottling?

I'd definitely wait, I got impatient with my summer fruits mead (also I was in the process of moving house) and bottled a week or 2 early, it's resulted in a layer of sediment in the bottles which is annoying because it's beautifully clear otherwise.

Both of my meads have the flavour of digestive biscuits as a very slight undertone, it's not unpleasant but it's slightly odd. I used rooibos vanilla tea as tannin and I'm sure it's that.

It's also completely dry, which doesn't bother me but it does lose a lot of the fruit flavour I think.

I'd swap a bottle of mead for the braggot but I honestly wouldn't be offended if you have a small taste and tip the rest away hahah.