Sam's brew day's

[samale]

Hopefully this thread will encourage me to keep better records of My brew days. Currently on tap I have Belgian strong ale, Belgian single, hazy pale ale which I am not too keen on and a coffee porter. The coffee in the porter is really overpowering, it might age well.
I brew using a burco boiler and a grain bag, nothing fancy. I also do not chill my brew, I leave it overnight to cool. I currently don't use brewing software but go of experience. In my system I normally get 20 litres into the fermenter, 19 litres when complete.
I have a Belgian tripel cold crashing and a ESB fermenting. My next brew will be an Altbier, this is a new style for me. The starter is at its second step up, this is wlp036. I saved one liter back from the ESB for the starter. Thawed and reboiled

 

[Pennine]

Looking forward to following along! I didn't realize you were an all time no chiller.
Are you kegging or do you mostly bottle?

 

[samale]

I keg most of my beers, I have tried kegging my Belgian beers. I prefer them in the bottles so I will revert back to this for my tripel

 

[devexwarrior]

At a slight tangent, you mention Altbier, when stationed in Germany, our local was over the border in Holland and although the local Alt and Pils were both excellent in their own right, we drank (in Biblical quantity) 'Schuss' a half and half mixture. I throughly recommend it, though for the sake of your partner you may wish to occupy the spare room and sleep with the window open (and the toilet paper in the fridge).

 

[Rodcx500z]

I remember going to Denmark and Sweden in the 70s on the 2 day boat trips for 25 quid, SV Dana Anglia and Tor Scandanavia, they did a half and half was very dark and very good and made your legs wobble, 1 pound a pint, the Danes Swedes and Norweigians thought it was for free

 

[Rodcx500z]

Sorry Sam i was replying to Devex's post

 

[samale]

Today was meant to be brew day but it's -2 this morning


I might mash indoors tomorrow and boil in the garage

 

[samale]

So I got a brew on today, west coast style pale ale. Just a collection of what I had available.

3kg extra pale malt
1kg pale malt
500g Munich
300g carapils
150 Cara ruby

20g Columbus's @30mins
20g Columbus's + 20g cascade @10mins
30g el Dorado+30g cascade@flameout

Dry hop 70g El Dorado and 50g cascade

Yeast CML five.
I will update the numbers later.

 

[samale]

Looking to brew an Altbier next, just working out a recipe. It's looking like this so far, using Jamil recipe I found online. I am scaling to suit my set up. Plus I like working with easy figure's so I will round to suit

3.5kg pilsner malt
700g dark Munich
500g Cara Munich 3
50g carafa 2

Magnum to bitter and tettnaget late. Yeast is WLP 036 German Altbier yeast.

Any suggestions, I am aing for around a starting gravity of 1.046 for 20 litres

 

[samale]

I brewed the Altbier today then realised afterwards the recipe asked for aromatic malt. Not much I can do now. So this is what I ended up brewing

3.4kg pilsner
1kg light Munich
500g cara Munich 3
50g carafe 3

15g magnum@60mins
20g tettnaget@15mins

Og 1.050

It's currently cooling in the garage overnight

 

[Rodcx500z]

It will be beer maybe not the right beer

 

[Pennine]

I brewed the Altbier today then realised afterwards the recipe asked for aromatic malt. Not much I can do now. So this is what I ended up brewing

3.4kg pilsner
1kg light Munich
500g cara Munich 3
50g carafe 3

15g magnum@60mins
20g tettnaget@15mins

It's currently cooling in the garage overnight

This one looks better than the Munich 3. I don't think leaving out the aromatic will matter in this one with all the Munich you have. How's the colour?

 

[samale]

This one looks better than the Munich 3. I don't think leaving out the aromatic will matter in this one with all the Munich you have. How's the colour?

Colour is spot on, I am going to ferment at 15. Then cold crash for a few weeks..I would like a nice bright beer. Yeast pitched at 14 today

 

[samale]

Kegged my best bitter tonight, looking at brewing another porter next. Probably go with the same recipe as before. This is based around the kernel recipe. I will use brambling cross hops.
I need to get my tripel bottled, then it's time to think about the recipe for my biere de garde

 

[samale]

Mash is on for another porter.


4.6kg Minch malt
500g brown malt
500g dark crystal
500g chocolate malt
120g black malt

All brambling cross hops

15g@fw
20g@15mins
30g@10mins
40g@5mins
65g dry hop

Yeast will be WLP 023
Og 1.060

Last porter came second in the monthly competition. It was marked down for being slightly thin. So I have upped the mash temp to 68 and added some calcium chloride to the mash.

 

[samale]

My summer tripel is in the bottles finally. 4 weeks in the fermenter. Looking at building my starter for my biere de garde

 

[Pennine]

My summer tripel is in the bottles finally. 4 weeks in the fermenter. Looking at building my starter for my biere de garde
View attachment 81561

How long do you let sit before you try your tripels?

 

[samale]

How long do you let sit before you try your tripels?

Normally I try one at 4 weeks then 1 every month until I feel it's ready. I want to build up a stock of bottle conditioned beer. Bier de garde next then a dubbel

 

[samale]

Dry hopped the west coast pale ale with 70g El dorado & 50g Cascade. Started the cold crash, should keg on Friday. Checked the Altbier gravity, its still a bit high (1.018). I will up the temp slowly from 15 to 20 before cold crashing and lagering. Looking to hit 1.012

 

[samale]

The starter is on for the bier de garde. WLP073, this will need two steps up. Also received my hop's Barbe Rouge. Brew day is looking like Sunday or Monday