Unpacked the shopping,the next half dozen

[LarryF]

Brewing tonight, bottling a Coopers Amber Ale with a E.K Golding/First Gold hop tea. Instead of dry hopping this I added a late Bramling Cross hop tea. OG:1052, not bottled it yet so don't know the FG. With the S04 in there for rwo and a half weeks on temp control and a week with no heat I'm expecting something under 1010 but we'll see. Brewing tonight means I can get behind the FV so I can unpack my shopping:

Festival German Weiss
Festival New Zealand Lager
Festival Vienna Red Lager
Muntons Gold Continental Lager
Wilko Cerveza / Newkie Brown (you can take the kid out of the estate........)
MGJ Bavarian Wheat and Californian Lager yeast
Bramling Cross
Sovereign
Northern Brewer
Challenger
500g light spray malt (to be divided between the four boxed kits)

I'll be mixing and matching the kit hops and yeasts with whatever takes my fancy on the day. I'm doing the Festival Weiss tonight and I'll be adding 125g of light spray malt and a Bramling Cross tea (as they're already open) I'll decide 5 days before bottling whether to dry hop or add a late hop tea. Right I'd better crack on.

 

[Poochops]

Festival kits are ace, the New Zealand Pilsner is spot on, very hoppy at first but once it calms down it's great ice cold. You're going to be a busy fella how long will it take to use them all up?

 

[LarryF]

Festival kits are ace, the New Zealand Pilsner is spot on, very hoppy at first but once it calms down it's great ice cold. You're going to be a busy fella how long will it take to use them all up?

As of late I've been turning a brew around about every 3 weeks, so that lot should be about 4 months or so. Saying that though, the lagers are very popular with visitors so we'll see how it goes.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

That's a nice haul there Larry. It looks like you broke into the back of a Home Brew Store delivery truck.

I've got a Coopers Amber Ale hopped with Cascade in the FV at the moment.
Last weekend I opened the brewfridge to make sure it was fermenting. The smell was great.
I had to open the fridge a couple more times just to make sure. I've left it a bit late to dry hop this one, so I'll do a hop tea when bottling.
I got the urge to do this one when I came across half a dozen bottles in the garage that were a year old. Bloody lovely.

 

[Graz]

I'm definitely giving the German Weisse a go this year.

Happy brewing!

 

[LarryF]

I'm definitely giving the German Weisse a go this year.

Happy brewing![/QUOTE
It's kicked off really nicely with the re-pitched S04.

 

[LarryF]

That's a nice haul there Larry. It looks like you broke into the back of a Home Brew Store delivery truck.

I've got a Coopers Amber Ale hopped with Cascade in the FV at the moment.
Last weekend I opened the brewfridge to make sure it was fermenting. The smell was great.
I had to open the fridge a couple more times just to make sure. I've left it a bit late to dry hop this one, so I'll do a hop tea when bottling.
I got the urge to do this one when I came across half a dozen bottles in the garage that were a year old. Bloody lovely.

Hello Pete, long time mate.
This is a bit strange. Last night I bottled a :

Coopers Amber ale
23L 09/04 - 03/05/18 - 2 weeks temp control, the rest no heat band
S04 - no stater
1kg BE, 70g soft dark sugar
20g EK Golding, 20g First Gold 1 hour steep.
30th April 30g Bramling Cross hop tea added to FV (I just didn't get round to dry hopping )
OG:1052 - FG: 1008 -6%
Bottled to 600ml, 1tsp sugar.

Can you believe it?

 

[Poochops]

A three week cycle sounds great for a thirsty household! Last year I was putting a brew on 2-3 every weeks and we're still working through it all. I've only done one this year because there's so much needs drinking still, it's killing me because I've got 5 brews worth of grain recipes in stock.
Have you considered going AG? It's well worth it you know.

 

[Ciaran12s]

Lubbly jubbly! Is that a week's shopping or a month's?

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Hello Pete, long time mate.
This is a bit strange. Last night I bottled a :

Coopers Amber ale
23L 09/04 - 03/05/18 - 2 weeks temp control, the rest no heat band
S04 - no stater
1kg BE, 70g soft dark sugar
20g EK Golding, 20g First Gold 1 hour steep.
30th April 30g Bramling Cross hop tea added to FV (I just didn't get round to dry hopping )
OG:1052 - FG: 1008 -6%
Bottled to 600ml, 1tsp sugar.

Can you believe it?

G'day Larry.

Your Amber Ale sounds good.
I love EKG and was planning on using that in my next Amber Ale. I think First Gold is a very similar hop to EKG according my hop substitution guide.
I'm not really a fan of Cascade although it seems to be a favourite on the Coopers forum.
Someone suggested it would go nice with Amber Ale, so as I had some spare I tried it.
It was OK, but then I came across the year old ones the other week and it was great.
That's why I thought I'd give Cascade another go.

EKG next time. I only used the kit yeast. I had some 04 that I'd used on about four different brews.
I had a bit of a problem with it on the last pale ale, so I decided to ditch that.
A new 04 arrived this week. I'll see how many brews I can get out of that.

 

[LarryF]

A three week cycle sounds great for a thirsty household! Last year I was putting a brew on 2-3 every weeks and we're still working through it all. I've only done one this year because there's so much needs drinking still, it's killing me because I've got 5 brews worth of grain recipes in stock.
Have you considered going AG? It's well worth it you know.

I did a couple of 23L BIAB's that turned out well enough for my first couple of go's. I found them to be very long days bottling and brewing and as I'm doing it in the kitchen it's not practical tying it up for the day. I can turn the whole thing over, bottling and brewing from start to cleaned up in 4 1/2 hours with a kit and I'm really enjoying the beer. Lately I've started working overtime at the weekends and that's giving me less and less time to drink and to brew. I know what you mean about over stocking, when I started brewing I was doing a brew every 2 weeks for nearly a year and WOW's, TC's and Fruit Punches in my enthusiasm. I had beer, wine, cider etc everywhere, MrsF. was going mental so I started fermenting for 3 or even 4 weeks and it lets me hold a reaonable amount of beer and a nice mix to select from.

 

[LarryF]

Lubbly jubbly! Is that a week's shopping or a month's?

If I fire up my old FV in the shed I could turn that lot over in 6 weeks, 240 pints....very tempting.

 

[LarryF]

G'day Larry.

Your Amber Ale sounds good.
I love EKG and was planning on using that in my next Amber Ale. I think First Gold is a very similar hop to EKG according my hop substitution guide.
I'm not really a fan of Cascade although it seems to be a favourite on the Coopers forum.
Someone suggested it would go nice with Amber Ale, so as I had some spare I tried it.
It was OK, but then I came across the year old ones the other week and it was great.
That's why I thought I'd give Cascade another go.

EKG
Inext time. I only used the kit yeast. I had some 04 that I'd used on about four different brews.
I had a bit of a problem with it on the last pale ale, so I decided to ditch that.
A new 04 arrived this week. I'll see how many brews I can get out of that.

G'day Larry.

Your Amber Ale sounds good.
I love EKG and was planning on using that in my next Amber Ale. I think First Gold is a very similar hop to EKG according my hop substitution guide.
I'm not really a fan of Cascade although it seems to be a favourite on the Coopers forum.
Someone suggested it would go nice with Amber Ale, so as I had some spare I tried it.
It was OK, but then I came across the year old ones the other week and it was great.
That's why I thought I'd give Cascade another go.

EKG next time. I only used the kit yeast. I had some 04 that I'd used on about four different brews.
I had a bit of a problem with it on the last pale ale, so I decided to ditch that.
A new 04 arrived this week. I'll see how many brews I can get out of that.

Pete
I've used First Gold and UK Cascade quite recently and liked them both. The next time I'm shopping I'll get some EKG and try it as an addition to dark ale and then something very light to see what it's like both ends of the scale.

 

[foxbat]

I think First Gold is a very similar hop to EKG according my hop substitution guide.

My 'house bitter' uses First Gold. I wouldn't say it was too similar to EKG. The flavour notes I get are of orange marmalade, a bit like Challenger. It combines very well indeed with Fuggle in an amber bitter.

 

[Pirate_Pete]

My 'house bitter' uses First Gold. I wouldn't say it was too similar to EKG. The flavour notes I get are of orange marmalade, a bit like Challenger. It combines very well indeed with Fuggle in an amber bitter.

I had a look when someone else mentioned First Gold before. The substitution chart I have says it's similar to EKG, but really I have no idea.
I'm not even sure I can buy it here in Australia. I haven't looked. Maybe I will when I've used the hops in my freezer.
I've made the Coopers Hop Gobbler which has both EKG & Fuggles in it. I like both those hops.

 

[Norfolk79]

The Festival Kits, especially the Vienna Red, are ace.

I usually leave my brews for 3 weeks or so in the fermenter. Gives me chance to empty a keg so I don’t have to bottle the beer. Why is it when you’re trying to empty a keg it just keeps going and going?

 

[MickDundee]

It's kicked off really nicely with the re-pitched S04.

Wouldnt you want to brew the German Weiss with a wheat beer yeast rather than S-04?

 

[LarryF]

I'd just bottled the first brew using the S04 and wanted to get another 2 or 3 brews out of it. Also, the

Wouldnt you want to brew the German Weiss with a wheat beer yeast rather than S-04?

I'd just bottled the first brew using the S04 and wanted to get another 2 or 3 brews out of it. Also, the reviews didn't say one way or the other with regards to the kit yeast so I opted for the one that I know. Re-pitched S04 has always taken off well for me..