What did you brew today?

[Ajhutch]

What came with the kit.

Well I don't have any experience with the kit so can only offer general advice and good thoughts! It might be worth ordering up a pack of Belgian yeast from Crossmyloof, and by the time it arrives you'll know of your swirling and warming has worked. If not, chuck a different yeast in and see what happens. If it doesn't do anything it's only another pound or so cost.


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[Gerryjo]

Tried making popcorn today and what a mess so have threw this together with no idea how it's going to turn out.
3kg Propino malt
1kg Porridge oats
340g Cara Amber
160g Cara red
100g Special B
50g Chateau Café light 240
50g Crystal 240
250g Popcorn
250g Flaked puddind rice
200g Desicated Coconut

All in the mash tun which I have underlet.Mashing with 25l at 66° and then I'm going to try recirculating with two pumps maintaining the boiler at 75° which had 10l of water.
Boiled for 15mins prior to hop additions which were
60min 20g Galena 13%aa
30mins Mosaic 11%aa
10mins 10g Galena & 10g Mosaic
0 mins 20 Galena & 20g Mosaic
Currently in cube chilling to 15° in fermentation chamber.Yeast to be pitched tomorrow.

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

Basically, the kitchen cupboard, short of the glace cherries. :thumb:

 

[simoncbn]

Did a small test brew of 20L with fresh fuggles picked today in my garden. First year growing them and got about 500g. Bittered with 25g Simcoe at 90 mins, 100g fresh fuggles at 10 min then the rest at 0 mins. 90% pale malt, 10% caramalt, Safale 04. We'll see in a few weeks time!

 

[Martybhoy]

How'd you manage to make a mess making popcorn?

 

[Slid]

Today was my very first ever wheat beer. Wort made from 55% Maris Otter and 45% Wheat malt. As it is a 25L brew, I had 5.5kg of malt altogether. Used a sparse seeming 20g of Northern Brewer to bitter at first wort, some of which looked a bit like cabbage - but not much can be done about that now.

Was a bit nervous about getting sticky mashes and sparges with wheat, so I made sure I had a full 20L of water in the GF at doughing-in and also was very careful to give the process a full 25mins of OCD stirring along the lines championed by David Heath. Mash went well, as did the sparge for an estimated brewhouse efficiency at around 67% - very much as normal, really.

Lot of protein looking deposit at the end. I guess this is very much the usual thing with this style.

Only slight glitch was that the pump and recirculation tube got very clogged up with stuff. In the end I ran water from the tap back through the recirculation pipe, spraying the kitchen quite liberally in the process. Seemed to do the trick, though. I do not know whether the recipe is to blame or whether this is just an accumulation of stuff over the 17 months I have been using the equipment.

Will add the blackberries - 2-2.5kg or so, in paint straining nylon bags, at some point during the initial 2 weeks fermentation, then rack as usual for another week. Could be "good to go" once the bottles carbonate.

Had a couple of samples of this at just under 5 weeks. Not too bad at all. Very astringent at first, but that seems to have faded a bit. Very easy to drink and not particularly cloudy. I did not carbonate it much, only a bit more than for a "normal" barley based beer, but since I drink most of them at around twice the age, perhaps I should have primed it a bit more.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I tried my hand at something I call a Dubbel Porter, using a mix of brown and chocolate malt, dark candy syrup and somewhat more caramel than normal, fermented with Safbrew BE-256.

Sweet Dubbel Stout - Belgian Dubbel (18B)
================================================================================
Batch Size  6,150 L             
Boil Size   8,150 L             
Boil Time   60,000 min          
Efficiency  80%                 
OG          1,067 sg            
FG          1,013 sg            
ABV         7,3%                
Bitterness  40,0 IBU (Tinseth)  
Color       153,8 ebc (Morey)   

Fermentables
================================================================================
Name                            Type   Amount     Mashed  Late  Yield  Color        
Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel           Grain  1,025 kg   Yes     No    80%    7,0 ebc      
Caramel                         Sugar  171,000 g  No      No    99%    1.900,0 ebc  
Amber Malt                      Grain  133,000 g  Yes     No    75%    43,3 ebc     
Brown Malt (British Chocolate)  Grain  133,000 g  Yes     No    70%    128,0 ebc    
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L      Grain  133,000 g  Yes     No    75%    39,4 ebc     
Chocolate Malt (BE)             Grain  133,000 g  Yes     No    73%    905,5 ebc    
Total grain: 1,728 kg

Hops
================================================================================
Name           Alpha  Amount    Use         Time        Form    IBU   
Challenger     5,5%   18,000 g  First Wort  60,000 min  Pellet  37,5  
Kent Goldings  3,4%   6,000 g   Boil        10,000 min  Pellet  2,5   

Miscs
================================================================================
Name            Type    Use   Amount      Time        
Yeast Nutrient  Other   Boil  500,000 mg  10,000 min  
Irish Moss      Fining  Boil  500,000 mg  10,000 min  

Yeasts
================================================================================
Name            Type  Form  Amount  Stage    
Safbrew BE-256  Ale   Dry   5,00 g  Primary  

Mash
================================================================================
Name                Type         Amount   Temp      Target    Time    
Conversion          Infusion     4,827 L  70,806 C  65,000 C  1 hr    
Saccharification    Temperature  ---      ---       70,000 C  30 min  
Final Batch Sparge  Infusion     4,905 L  82,893 C  74,000 C  15 min

be-256? - that tried to climb up the stairs and strangle me in my sleep

I needed a blow off tube on the blow off tube :lol:

 

[Slid]

be-256? - that tried to climb up the stairs and strangle me in my sleep

I needed a blow off tube on the blow off tube :lol:

Was it featured in a Doctor Who episode from the late 1960's? Or maybe it was Quatermass?

More seriously, with a grain bill like this, does the yeast, however bloodthirsty, really need any more by way of nutrient?

 

[chthon]

be-256? - that tried to climb up the stairs and strangle me in my sleep

I needed a blow off tube on the blow off tube :lol:

I got a kraüsen of 5 to 6 cm, impressive indeed. Luckily it was only 6,5 L in a bucket of 11L.

By the way, as active as this one is, would it be related to Westmalle yeast? I have heard horror stories about that one too.

And my next brew would be based upon propagation of Westmalle yeast from a bottle.

 

[chthon]

Was it featured in a Doctor Who episode from the late 1960's? Or maybe it was Quatermass?

More seriously, with a grain bill like this, does the yeast, however bloodthirsty, really need any more by way of nutrient?

I do not know either, but for stouts, porters and darker beers I got relatively low attenuation in the past, so I wanted to do everything to get this up. Mash low, try to get good aeration in the wort, build a small starter, and also add some nutrients.

 

[Linalmeemow]

The saison from the Greg Hughes book in my new SS Brewtech bucket. Bang on the 1051 OG, pitched at too high a temperature (29c) but I've got it coming down to 24 in the brewfridge at the moment before I move it back up towards 28 as the week goes on. I'm harvesting the yeast to do a red gooseberry saison next with the this year's crop from the garden.

 

[Clint]

Hello all
A busy day! First run with my full volume ag gear! Recipe Black IPA from the gh book. Everything quite easy with the new stuff! Strike water at 77°c gets the mash virtually bang on. Went with 2.5 litres per kg leaving 20 or so for the sparge. After deliberations I decided to try a batch sparge. Vorlaufed mash then took first runnings then added full 20 litres to tun. Stirred and left to rest for a bit..then Vorlaufed again then dropped to boiler.
Could only achieve a gentle boil on my hob even on the large gas ring but I think I got it. Moving the boiler to the sink was something I hadn't considered at 20 litres plus. .doable if very careful..might extend the chiller hoses for this and chill in situ.
Dropped the wort to the fv and got a gnats under 23 litres!
Og...1054...recipe...1054!!
It's now in the brew fridge at 19°c.
Oh,the hooter.....whilst cleaning the tun out I tipped it up to swill out and the lid got me!!
As from next time I will line it with a bag!
Cheers M for the last minute advice!
Pleased with my first go? You bet!

 

[Linalmeemow]

Hello all
A busy day! First run with my full volume ag gear! Recipe Black IPA from the gh book. Everything quite easy with the new stuff! Strike water at 77°c gets the mash virtually bang on. Went with 2.5 litres per kg leaving 20 or so for the sparge. After deliberations I decided to try a batch sparge. Vorlaufed mash the took first runnings then added full 20 litres to tun. Stirred and left to rest for a bit..the Vorlaufed again then dropped to boiler.
Could only achieve a gentle boil on my hob even on the large gas ring but I think I got it. Moving the boiler you the sink was something I hadn't considered at 20 litres plus. .doable if very careful..might extend the chiller hoses for this and chill in situ.
Dropped the wort to the fv and got a gnats under 23 litres!
Og...1054...recipe...1054!!
It's now in the brew fridge at 19°c.
Oh,the hooter.....whilst cleaning the tun out I tipped it up to swill out and the lid got me!!
As from next time I will line it with a bag!
Cheers M for the last minute advice!
Pleased with my first go? You bet!

Just bottled the GH black IPA a couple of days ago. The test half pint I drank as I was bottling was bloody lovely - good choice for the new kit!

 

[Clint]

..the hooter!

 

[BarnBrian]

42 litres Harvey Sussex Bitter clone.

 

[Gerryjo]

How'd you manage to make a mess making popcorn?

The pan I had used had a lot of surface area and wasn't getting the kernels to an even temperature plus I wasn't using oil and not paying attention too what I was doing...

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[Sadfield]

Brewing an Export Stout that will be split into two batches, one fermented out drier with Brett C and the other aged with Oak whisky barrel chunks.

 

[GerritT]

Show meads. Bit low in gravity, small one is 1116, other one is 1090. Both should be 4 higher but then again the water was warm and the honey might have been light. Rosemary honey btw.
However, both 1 sachet D47 after the teaspoon of nutrients and the obligatory moob shake, both bubbling a few times per minute. Hopefully drinkable Xmas 2018.

 

[BeerisGOD]

Great pics fellas. So much more helpful to newbies. Clint if it leaves a scar and the brew turns out a belter it won't be such a bad tale to tell

 

[sdt7618]

..the hooter!

Hope you didn't drip in the beer