PilgrimHudds Brewdays

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I've seen recipes suggesting adding gravy browning... :D
IMG_20211008_190206.jpg

And then the instructions on the side label tell you how much to add to three gallons of beer.
 
Busy morning at Wheal Rose Brewery today, it seems to be quite popular at the moment and I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon with some sort of exmoor gold clone, with that in mind I overnight mashed at 65c

3kg otter
1kg vienna
1kg munich

Brought it up to 75c for a little while then sparged and brought to the boil.

40g challenger @60
20g ekg @15 with protofloc
30g ekg hopsteep at 80c for 30mins.

Cooled and checked gravity and it came to 1056, slightly more than I wanted so diluted with another litre to make it 1053, which should end up around 5% with CML Midland doing its job.

I also bottled up my el dorado and galaxy pale and old ale. Both of which I'm very happy with so far. The pale, full of citrus flavour and aroma. The old ale perhaps a little sweet but good for a Christmas sipper.

The pale ale finished at 1010, making it 5.7% or so, a little stronger than anticipated.

The old ale, finished at 1020 and so ended up at 6.5% with a lovely chrimbo twist.
 
At home on annual leave at the mo, although I told myself that I wouldn't brew for another 2 weeks or so, my plans changed today so decided to brew another kiwi pilsner.

4kg pilsner
1 kg vienna

Mashed at 62c for 90, sparged and brought to boil.

15g magnum
10g southern cross @60

15g southern cross @ 10 and 1/4 tab of protofloc

40g southern cross, hopsteep at 70-75c for 30 mins.

A lot of trubby gunk in this one, I only got 15l in the FV (going for around 19) and more boil off than expected. OG 1056 so I diluted with 2l to make it 1049. Cooled to 20c then put in fridge to get it down to 12c, pitching Bavarian Lager yeast. Hopstand was at a lower temp than usual as the IBU was coming out at around 40.
 
I'm just trying to figure out how you managed to "lose" 4L 😁🤔

It's only 80g hops, not loads even by my standards so not like you'd expect it to absorb much.

I bet if you were to collect all that gunk (that's what I do) it would settle out nicely and you'd reclaim a good few pints 👍
 
Bottled up the Exmoor Gold Clone last night, meant to do it last week but i've had a cold to end all colds and not felt like it. The CML Midland really packed down and I got 38 bottles of pale ale. Finished at 1018 so the abv is dead on what was predicted at 5%.

Tasted pretty good but am a bit disappointed with it's cloudiness. I'm getting this a lot with Pale Ale, generally my other beers are clear and lovely looking and that includes my lagers. This seems to happen whether I use Protofloc (or not), cold crash (or not), all sorts of different yeast, malts have changed and stayed the same. Some of my recipes have oats which I realise may include the haziness but conversely my 'Pine Rapids' Pale Ale which was darker than expected (crystal malt darker than advertised) was crystal clear. The wort when I transfer from Klarstein to FV is very clear so it's something happening in the FV. Any ideas?

I'll take a pic....
 
That is strange. Do you know your water profile? Thinking insufficient calcium perhaps? If that hasn't been dry hopped above, that's the only thing I can think of.
 
Hmmm not really spared much thought to water profile, I did get a report from south west water last year but not really read it. Being in Cornwall my water is quite soft.

No, no dry hop with this one. They do drop clear, my bramling x ipa has only recently dropped clear but has been in bottle since july?
 
Hmmm not really spared much thought to water profile, I did get a report from south west water last year but not really read it. Being in Cornwall my water is quite soft.

No, no dry hop with this one. They do drop clear, my bramling x ipa has only recently dropped clear but has been in bottle since july?
Hmm... This calcium thing is interesting, and you've certainly mentioned to me before you have soft water there... And I'm sure I've read something somewhere about calcium being a factor in clarity...

I appreciate Devon isn't Cornwall (#jamfirst) but because I'm geeky enough to do this 🤓, I brought a sample of water home from my summer holiday...

Compared to my mega hard Berkshire water (high in both calcium and hardness) it was mega soft, very low in both hardness and calcium - ideal actually for making Pilsner!

(I think my mega hard water is a factor why dark beers seem to work for me)

So assuming your Cornish water is similarly soft you might try adding a bit of gypsum (hoppy) or calcium chloride (malty) and see if that gets you where you want to be.

It's really easy to get lost in the minefield of water treatment - but the chances are since your water is soft you won't need to add any acid, and it's just a case of adding some salts to bring the mineral content a little closer to ideal. Think of it simply as the beer equivalent of adding a little seasoning to your cooking.

If we can get an idea what your actual water profile is I'm happy to give you some pointers 👍
 
Hmm... This calcium thing is interesting, and you've certainly mentioned to me before you have soft water there... And I'm sure I've read something somewhere about calcium being a factor in clarity...

I appreciate Devon isn't Cornwall (#jamfirst) but because I'm geeky enough to do this 🤓, I brought a sample of water home from my summer holiday...

Compared to my mega hard Berkshire water (high in both calcium and hardness) it was mega soft, very low in both hardness and calcium - ideal actually for making Pilsner!

(I think my mega hard water is a factor why dark beers seem to work for me)

So assuming your Cornish water is similarly soft you might try adding a bit of gypsum (hoppy) or calcium chloride (malty) and see if that gets you where you want to be.

It's really easy to get lost in the minefield of water treatment - but the chances are since your water is soft you won't need to add any acid, and it's just a case of adding some salts to bring the mineral content a little closer to ideal. Think of it simply as the beer equivalent of adding a little seasoning to your cooking.

If we can get an idea what your actual water profile is I'm happy to give you some pointers 👍

Cheers mate, I'll try and dig out something.
 
Hmmm not really spared much thought to water profile, I did get a report from south west water last year but not really read it. Being in Cornwall my water is quite soft.

No, no dry hop with this one. They do drop clear, my bramling x ipa has only recently dropped clear but has been in bottle since july?
Sounds like the calcium could be a factor. Easily rectified if you can get an idea of what's in your water already without having to delve to deeply into the subject. 100-150ppm will definitely help. You can "cold crash" instead to speed up the process but upping the calcium (if needed) should definitely help.
 
FWIW @pilgrimhudd , I had a look at the water report for your area.

Similar to mine, it's not the easiest to read to get the hardness or calcium content so worth considering getting a couple of test kits (honestly it's really simple!).

But sodium, sulphate and chloride are given clearly - and all low.

If I'm reading it right it's actually not a million miles away from Tesco Ashbeck! And who brews with Ashbeck and always seems to have crystal clear beer? You could probably do a lot worse then take a close look at @foxbat 's recipes and the mineral additions he's using.

I did a quick test calculation for an IPA recipe of mine using Ashbeck as the source water - it's a few grams of gypsum, a little calcium chloride and maybe a pinch of table salt and then the water profile is bang on for the style.
 
FWIW @pilgrimhudd , I had a look at the water report for your area.

Similar to mine, it's not the easiest to read to get the hardness or calcium content so worth considering getting a couple of test kits (honestly it's really simple!).

But sodium, sulphate and chloride are given clearly - and all low.

If I'm reading it right it's actually not a million miles away from Tesco Ashbeck! And who brews with Ashbeck and always seems to have crystal clear beer? You could probably do a lot worse then take a close look at @foxbat 's recipes and the mineral additions he's using.

I did a quick test calculation for an IPA recipe of mine using Ashbeck as the source water - it's a few grams of gypsum, a little calcium chloride and maybe a pinch of table salt and then the water profile is bang on for the style.
Ashbeck certainly works well for pale ales and I've used it quite a lot in the past before I had a RO system to mix with my tap water. I've found that if you use it as it is, depending on the yeast, it can take a fair bit of time to clear (OP said his beer does clear but it takes time). One option is to store cold to encourage it to drop clear, but upping the calcium from 50 to 100 or 150 definitely helps the yeast drop out a lot quicker in my experience and you'll be more likely to get clear beer from the fermenter. A combination of gypsum and chloride (if water is close to ashbeck will help - or one or the other depending on what you're aiming for). I know a lot of the water styles listed subscribe more to the US theory of lower calcium. In my experience, higher calcium will help in getting clear ales more quickly.
 
Back
Top