Rauchbier aka Smokey-Dokey 25th & 26th November 08

[Wez]

Great set of pics Brew :thumb:

I like the collecting at full speed one :thumb:

 

[BrewStew]

oh, i used 80g of challenger and 120g of northern brewer for this brew. all in for the full 60 min boil. should be about 35 IBU's but the hops were a little old though i did try to accommodate through beersmith's hop age calculator

 

[BrewStew]

Great set of pics Brew :thumb:

I like the collecting at full speed one :thumb:

thanks... but be honest now... the pics are crap! :lol:

i had to put my foot behind the fermenter to start with because the pressure kept trying to push it away!

 

[Vossy1]

That's a proper brew session....love the fog in the garage :lol:

FV's on creamish carpets :twisted: ....go yeasties....go :P

 

[BrewStew]

:lol: :twisted:

at one point i couldn't clearly see my feet through the fog

just hope the towels hold back any overflows *fingers crossed*

 

[Aleman]

Have you ever thought of doing a 100% Rachmalt beer . . . . Ok its out of style as the style should be dark, but I did do a Pale Rauch one year that was very well recived . . . . and I've done a 50% rauch . . . not overpowering at all

 

[BrewStew]

i've thought about it, but i actually cant enjoy more than a pint of the real stuff... it's just too over powering for my tastes to be a quaffer. it's still nice though. i also dont fancy the cost to make 80 of litres of it!

 

[BrewStew]

this is now down to 1.012... 5% on the nose and 75% attenuation. i dont think i'm going to get any more out of this so i'm gunna rack some to cornies tonight, then bottle about 80 bottles at the weekend :thumb:

i'll be sampling this after i've racked it and will let you know what it's like at this early stage :)

 

[BrewStew]

could only be bothered racking one to corny tonight. will do another tomorrow and then bottle the other two at the weekend.

had a sample and to be honest, i'm not happy with it it's grassy and very, very bitter :cry:

the hops are so strong you cant taste the subtle smokeyness i was aiming for. i seriously need to get some hallertauer in :?

hopefully this will mature and mellow enough in time for xmas :pray:

 

[A T]

Mellow in three weeks? i'd have it drank before that :grin: I'm sure it'll be a good one in a few weeks mate

 

[BrewStew]

drank 85 litres in under 3 weeks?

i'd pay to watch you try :lol:

i hope so mate... otherwise this'll be the first brew i'll be pouring down the drain for a reason other than an infection

 

[Vossy1]

the hops are so strong you cant taste the subtle smokeyness i was aiming for. i seriously need to get some hallertauer in

It's only a week old and it's 1.050 OG...give it a chance :shock:
At a week per 10 points maturation it won't be ready until at least the end of the 1st week of Jan and if it's still too hoppy then just leave it longer.

 

[BrewStew]

hmmm. maybe... but i wanted to drink it for xmas!

the last one i did was lurvely straight out the fermenter. infact i've almost come to the assumption that if i dont like it as it is in the fermenter, then i'm not gunna like it when it's matured... hopefully this assumption will be broken this time :pray:

 

[Vossy1]

I've done a couple which were way too bitter in the fv but they came good with maturation.
One did take 4 months though
The taste left after 4 months was far more complex than any of my other brews to date, hence me starting DP recipes soon...it's a whole new brew game

 

[BrewStew]

heh i'm too impatient to do a DP ... maybe when i've got a massive stock pile of beer i'll consider it

 

[Aleman]

But Stew, you forgot that you should have only showed the boiler those hops you weren't supposed to put them in the beer :lol

 

[BrewStew]

:lol:

 

[Vossy1]

:rofl:

 

[BrewStew]

the mrs and i have just finished bottling 85... yes EIGHTY FIVE bottles of Rauchbier, and i Kegged another one. so i've got two cornies full now and my bar is covered in full bottles.

it took swmbo and i just an hour and a half to transfer two fermenters of beer into my big boiler doubling as a bright beer tank, mix in boiled sugar, sanitise and fill the 85 bottles, cap them and clean up that's not bad! this is why i didn't send the bottle filler back.. i knew that even with it's faults it'll come in handy sooner rather than later

the bottle filling and capping part actually took 35 mins :party:

oh and hooking up the bright beer tank to the other hole on the filler worked a dream... it was actually filling faster than i could fill the bottles... so that cock up on the manufacturers part is actually a really good thing :thumb:

here's the setup while the second cornie was filling :

here's the first fermenter being racked to the "bright beer tank":

swmbo's sorting the bottles :

bottling station ready for action:

i couldn't get pics of the system in progress this time because it was so fast paced i didn't get chance... but here's all 85 bottles sat on top of my bar where they will sit for 2 weeks before being moved to my freezing cold garage (some bottles are hidden behind the tap stand):

job done! :clap:

 

[A T]

Somebody is gonna have a merry (hic hic) Christmas :lol:
Nice job Stew and well done for getting Swmbo involved :thumb: