What did you brew today?

[DoctorMick]

I did a sort of Boddingtons clone today for my father-in-law. Twentieth brew in the Grainfather, not that I am racing Doctor Mick in any way :)

4kg Maris Otter
220g Caramalt
120g Torrified Wheat

42g Challenger / EKG @ 60m (18/24)
20g Bramling Cross @ 10m

The smallest grain bill I've done to date in the GF and it was a bit different.
Mash went very well and the sparge was very rapid indeed.

I checked the FV this evening and it has kicked off already with one of the bottles of recycled slurry from 21st August brew which was the Cornish Tin Miners Ale from the Greg Hughes book (which is very good indeed, and first drunk only this week).

You'll catch up when I attack mine with a hammer if I have another inefficient brew day next week!

Even before my efficiency issues I've found sparge to be very quick with small grain bills, it can be difficult to keep the water level up.

 

[Robin54]

Another EKG smash for me. The last two I did had a lovely earthy nose that Im really enjoying. Ive got a friend coming around next week, who has never brewed, and Im going to let him select the hop..options being EKG, Chinook, Pacific Jade and Cascade...should be interesting.

 

[JerryP]

I did a brew yesterday (Sunday). Was a bit of a shambles as I had been up early to drive and pick up my son from Cambridge before taking him to a party. So I did not start until early afternoon.

Usually I like to get everything weighed and ready the night before, but not his time! Unprepared, so kept forgetting things in my rush. But anyway, my Simcoe and Citra IPA is fermenting away as I type!

(Probably did not help that I also transferred my Winter Warmer ale (strong, dark ale with cinnamon and ginger) into the pressure barrel the same time. Well, I had to - it was in the FV I needed for the IPA!

In the end was a late night of cleaning after all that...

Hopefully it will all be worth it!

 

[BeerCat]

A Rye APA with Chinook, Ahtanum and Simcoe.

 

[Slid]

You'll catch up when I attack mine with a hammer if I have another inefficient brew day next week!

Even before my efficiency issues I've found sparge to be very quick with small grain bills, it can be difficult to keep the water level up.

I found the sparge very quick, too, When I put the numbers into Brewmate (I took an SG reading of 1040) it said 67% efficiency, which I think is acceptable.

 

[JFB]

Put 12l of "old ale" together this evening, used the greg hughes grain bill and had a hop use up from the fridge.
20g target at 70 min and 50 of brambling cross at 10 min.
Ended up with 11L @ 1079 so this is looking to be my biggest brew so far:drunk::drunk:
Pitched with safbrew s-33
Roll on 13 weeks time...

 

[marlon]

Brewed a Bavarian style smoked beer yestersay. (Holy Smoke kit I got last week from Ellie-Claire...it was 6 months past sell-by date). Only my 2nd all grain, but it went well. Took ages though - 6 hours by the
time I'd cleaned up and put away. OG was 1.056. It's in brewfridge at just 11deg C. Seemed a but cool to me, but instructions said 9 - 14 deg C. Nothings happened yet - might wind it up a little bit later if there's no action soon.:!:

 

[Poochops]

Just put on a tiny rebel cwtch, 7 weeks till Christmas, will it be ready in time!
Bottled a New Zealand pilsner yesterday and tomorrow i need to bottle an IPA. its a never ending job this brewing lark :lol:

 

[Razor]

Today I decided to try to brew a Braggot. Just a 1gal to try with 1.02kg of honey, 1kg Maris Otter and 15g hops.

 

[MickDundee]

My mash water is on to heat now for Greg Hughes Belgian Pale, but with the Caramunich swapped for CaraBelge.

I've had efficiency issues with my last 2 brews so I'm going to take my time with this one, mash for 1hr 20 and boil for 1hr 15 to see if it helps.

Edit- mash now on at 67C. I was aiming for 66 but couldn't be bothered fancying about to get the temperature down a single degree.

Edit 2- solved my efficiency problems with the longer mash and boil. 71% efficiency compared to 60% with my steam beer. I'd prepared for 65% so it's going to be stronger than I planned at 5.9%.

 

[JFB]

Time is flying and I hadn't got any beer for xmas on the go. So just boiling a smog rocket clone.
I'm a little worried that the rauch malt didn't seem as smokey as the last time I used it.
I also want to get a punk ipa clone made in time. With only one heat mat I will be pushing it.

 

[MyQul]

Time is flying and I hadn't got any beer for xmas on the go. So just boiling a smog rocket clone.
I'm a little worried that the rauch malt didn't seem as smokey as the last time I used it.
I also want to get a punk ipa clone made in time. With only one heat mat I will be pushing it.

Whats your receipe for that. I brew GH's smoked porter after trying a smog rocket. Both the smog rocket and my smoked porter are/were lovely

 

[MyQul]

Brewed my house bitter today but changed the hops for the same ones(challenger/EKG) and schedule (60/15/1) as an old speckled hen clone reciepe I found

 

[JFB]

Whats your receipe for that. I brew GH's smoked porter after trying a smog rocket. Both the smog rocket and my smoked porter are/were lovely

20L
1.53 pale malt
1.53 beechwood smoked malt
.560 munich
.410 flaked oats
.310 dark crystal
.310 brown malt
.310 chocolate malt
.100 caramalt
.050 black malt

mash @ 66

8g magnum 60 min
14g chinook 30 min

us-05

ferment @ 19c

Taken from craft brew book

 

[MarkMayf]

Not today, but this week, I brewed my own recipe for the first time. I have probably used too many types of hop (5!) to know quite how they work together, what flavours I am getting etc, but it's my first and I got carried away! I dry hopped a small amount today, after 5 days in the fermenter. Again, probably a pointless exercise as I have no baseline beer to compare it against, but hey ho!

 

[MyQul]

20L
1.53 pale malt
1.53 beechwood smoked malt
.560 munich
.410 flaked oats
.310 dark crystal
.310 brown malt
.310 chocolate malt
.100 caramalt
.050 black malt

mash @ 66

8g magnum 60 min
14g chinook 30 min

us-05

ferment @ 19c

Taken from craft brew book

Thanks :hat:

 

[Slid]

The Cornish Tin Miners ale I bottled in late August is a really fine drink right now and today's brew is very similar. I had no Crystal malt, so used ~ 425g each of Biscuit and Caramalt as well as just over 5kg of Maris Otter.

Hops were 22g Admiral @ 60 mins and then 15+15g of First Gold and Bramling Cross @15mins and the same again @ 0mins. US 05.

Today's mash was a bit slow to recirculate through the Grainfather, so I gave it an extra 10 mins or so before mashing out. Got a lot of break material through to the FV as well, but not as much as in the days of doing partial mash brews with 12L from a stove top mash and a one can kit.

Then I wasted the rest of the day watching the rugby and drinking up lowish strength kit beer bottled back in May / June. Tasted pretty good, TBH after 6 months in the bottles. :thumb:

 

[dad_of_jon]

Something dark and Belgian with an Og of 1063, and yes candi sugar was involved :lol:

I did a 15 min boil with 50g of simcoe at 5mins and left stand for 30 mins.

 

[Amidared]

Been a long day. I did two brews with the same grain bills and yeasts but both with single hops. I expect the two beers to be very different even though its only the hops that were swapped. One with Citra and one with EKG. Both had 50g @ 25 mins, 50g@ 5 mins and are getting dry hopped with 50g for three days. Both in the FVs, all cleaned up and now its time for a beer

 

[Dutto]

Started what will hopefully be a "low alcohol" (+/-3%) rosé cider for Christmas using Lidl AJ and Grenadine from France.

Cold, wet and miserable day to be starting a brew, but great for drinking it! :thumb: :thumb: