PilgrimHudds Brewdays

[pilgrimhudd]

Liquor back to bring it in to line?

Or maybe just add 2-3 times the amount of priming sugar, I'm not sure

Har har har.....

Didn't have time to grab the bigger fv from the house, it would have needed a bleddy good clean anyway what with the builders there. We'll see how it ends up....

 

[foxbat]

Well you can tick Doppelbock off the styles you've brewed up to now! Hmm though it's more of an ale so I guess there'll be a Belgian style that matches.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Well you can tick Doppelbock off the styles you've brewed up to now!

Yes! Awesome, nice one foxbat, a doppelbock brewed accidentally on purpose.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Righto another 10l brew on the way. This time a semi smash Amarillo pale ale.

2.25kg maris otter
250g flaked oats

Mashed at 65c for 1 hour.

Amarillo 10g @60
20g @ 10
20g dry hop

Yeast, american west coast will pitch at 21c but will probably end up at 18-20 in the utility.

ABV 5.17
IBU 34.8
EBC 8.6 according to beersmith.

It's my first pale ale for quite awhile so looking forward to this one.

 

[matt76]

Looks good, will be interested to hear how this turns out - if I have a favourite hop it's probably Amarillo

There was some discussion the other day about the GH Amarillo SMASH and whether Amarillo is any good for bittering - I've only ever used it late on though personally I wouldn't lose any sleep over using it early in the boil.

Just FYI, in my BIPA I dry hop with 15g each Citra and Amarillo into ~10L, and for my IPA I use 40g Amarillo + 20g Citra in the same volume. So if you wanted to I reckon you could be more heavy handed with the dry hop but, you know, your beer & your choice

Best of luck with it

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Cheers matt, I was planning on doing the same one again in a week or so and I bought the exact amounts to do so, otherwise I may have gone more hop heavy.

The mrs has complained about the hoppy beers lately too so as this one is for her birthday party I thought I'd go easy.

I'm definitely brewing up that bipa again soon, I need some more of my favourite, simcoe!! Not had amarillo before so looking forward to it.

 

[matt76]

I tried my Bitsa SCA the other day - this is the one where I might have been a bit heavy handed with the lactic acid

Anyway, that had 10g Amarillo at flameout (no dry hopping). Sure, there's a bit more sourness there than intended but otherwise it's still drinkable and the hops are actually quite juicy. So I reckon the hoppiness will still come through with the amounts you're using.

The best way I can describe Amarillo is tangerine - I really like it.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I came up a bit short, 7l in the fermenter, an og of 1060 something. Fermentation has started and its bubbling away nicely, it's a bit stronger than I was hoping for, not read if this is possible, could i add 2l of bottled water into the fermenter now or would that bugger up the fermentation process?

 

[foxy]

I came up a bit short, 7l in the fermenter, an og of 1060 something. Fermentation has started and its bubbling away nicely, it's a bit stronger than I was hoping for, not read if this is possible, could i add 2l of bottled water into the fermenter now or would that bugger up the fermentation process?

Bugger up, you will more than like be adding more oxygen when the yeast is in the anaerobic stage.
I have got my name down for one of these pilgrim, ideal for small batch fermenting.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Ahh yes oxygenation....hadn't thought of that.

That's a piece of kit kit, how much would that set you back?

 

[foxy]

Ahh yes oxygenation....hadn't thought of that.

That's a piece of kit kit, how much would that set you back?

In your money 26 GBP including pressure kit, not out here just yet, as soon as I get one I will do a review, not into pressure fermenting so much now but I am interested to see what the guts of a keg looks like when its working.

 

[An Ankoù]

So it seems as though my dunkel has suffered the same fate, a very faint taste of TCP at the mo, but from experience it only gets worse.

I have an unexpected day off tomorrow so I'm going to brew a 10l batch of the dunkel, using a different fv and Campden tablet as I also have a suspicion about my water. When it comes to it I'm going to use new siphon tubing and bottle direct from the FV using @cushyno 's syringe priming sugar method. Fingers crossed!

There are two sources of TCP flavour, chlorine or infection. As you've been concentrating on sanitisation, let's look at the chlorine. Are you using bleach or Milton or Brewcleans or any sanitiser/sterliser that contains chlorine and then not rinsing? If you are, then I think we've found the problem. I use bleach to "deep clean" as you are all sick of hearing. But I always rinse thoroughly with sodium metabisulphite solution- not to sanitise, that's already been done- but to remove all last traces of chlorine. Similarly use half a campden tablet in your mash water and another half in your sparge water and don't add ANY tap water that hasn't had a few grains of Camden tablet in it. Again, not to sanitise the water, but to kill the chlorine that may lurk there.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

There are two sources of TCP flavour, chlorine or infection. As you've been concentrating on sanitisation, let's look at the chlorine. Are you using bleach or Milton or Brewcleans or any sanitiser/sterliser that contains chlorine and then not rinsing? If you are, then I think we've found the problem. I use bleach to "deep clean" as you are all sick of hearing. But I always rinse thoroughly with sodium metabisulphite solution- not to sanitise, that's already been done- but to remove all last traces of chlorine. Similarly use half a campden tablet in your mash water and another half in your sparge water and don't add ANY tap water that hasn't had a few grains of Camden tablet in it. Again, not to sanitise the water, but to kill the chlorine that may lurk there.

Thanks for the message. Yes I've considered chlorine, I do use milton, and I don't rinse. Oddly it doesn't happen to all my brews though.

For the last two brews I've used bleach and given it a thorough rinse and star sanned. I'm not using a bottle bucket and am using sterile siphoning equipment appropriated from where I work so I know its sterile.

I was going to use a campden tablet but left them at home. I also got a water report from southwest water as our water does sometimes smell rather chloriney... the report doesn't show anything unusual however.

 

[An Ankoù]

Thanks for the message. Yes I've considered chlorine, I do use milton, and I don't rinse. Oddly it doesn't happen to all my brews though.

For the last two brews I've used bleach and given it a thorough rinse and star sanned. I'm not using a bottle bucket and am using sterile siphoning equipment appropriated from where I work so I know its sterile.

I was going to use a campden tablet but left them at home. I also got a water report from southwest water as our water does sometimes smell rather chloriney... the report doesn't show anything unusual however.

The more I see, the more I suspect chlorine. I've been caught out here because most days you can't smell any chlorine in the water and then, on some, you can. There's definitely a difference in levels from day to day as , usually, a cup of tea tastes fine, but on the chloriney days it's awful. Go with the Campden, would be my advice.
I should add that I was caught unawares here in France, as, when I brewed in Poole, I used to draw my water from the hot-water header tank in the loft (don't ask why, it wasn't by choice) and never new about the horrors of chlorine. I guess it evaporated through standing. I lost three out of six or seven brews before I realised what was going on.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Thanks, I'm very thorough with my cleaning so i'd be really disappointed if I found out it was my cleaning regimen! I had thought it was the bottling bucket but I have done nice beers and have used it to bottle with so wasn't convinced.

I have a feeling that my clansman was infected, I had a stuck fermentation and it sat in the fermenter for 4 days doing nothing. These bottles were tcp flavoured but also gushed at room temp. Since then i've had some nice beers and obviously some bad ones, no rhyme or reason for it which is why I was veering towards chlorine too.

What strength of bleach do you use? i've been using 2.5ml per litre?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Anyone else find the american west coast yeast bubbly? My demijohn has about a 1cm of krausen and a huge bubble sat in the middle that must be 10cm high and half the width of the demijohn with lots of little ones around it. Not seen this before!

 

[foxy]

Anyone else find the american west coast yeast bubbly? My demijohn has about a 1cm of krausen and a huge bubble sat in the middle that must be 10cm high and half the width of the demijohn with lots of little ones around it. Not seen this before!

I got this in an ale, I presume its because of the heat caused by the yeast travelling up the centre of the fermenter.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Wow, that's a weird one!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

This was earlier, bigger and more central now.

 

[samale]

This was earlier, bigger and more central now.

View attachment 21355

I would get that if I transfer straight on to a previous brews yeast cake