What did you brew today?

[An Ankoù]

A quick 15 litres of Summer Lightning while musing on the perfect bitter. I love Summer Lightning, but I don't consider it a bitter.

 

[cushyno]

Currently mashing Wheeler's recipe for 23L of Burton Bridge Golden Delicious.
A simple one to build up stocks, this is a new recipe for me and I've no idea what the original was like. Very light colour, fruity with a mouth watering bitterness. Hoping MJ M36 will give it the fruitiness it's supposed to have.

 

[An Ankoù]

Currently mashing Wheeler's recipe for 23L of Burton Bridge Golden Delicious.
A simple one to build up stocks, this is a new recipe for me and I've no idea what the original was like. Very light colour, fruity with a mouth watering bitterness. Hoping MJ M36 will give it the fruitiness it's supposed to have.

I've had a couple of Burton Bridge ales and found them very quaffable. Never heard of GD, though. Just had a look at their website and they do a massive range including two milds. Must investigate further.

 

[cushyno]

I've had a couple of Burton Bridge ales and found them very quaffable. Never heard of GD, though. Just had a look at their website and they do a massive range including two milds. Must investigate further.

Yes, I too looked at their site, a decent little resource for knowing hops additions, though no quantities stated. GD has gone under a few names, one of which was Summer Ale. I like the look of the Bramble Porter too, gotta give that a go sometime

 

[chthon]

I have been busy changing my brewing from one afternoon in the weekend to three evenings.

1. Days before: gathering water, adding minerals, weighing malts and sugars
2. Day before the mash: crushing grains
3. Mash evening: Started at 18:30, ended at 20:30 with filtered and pasteurised (short boil) wort, another half hour to clean up. This could be shortened by using a proven recipe, because I had to adjust my mash pH. Sealed kettle with a plastic bag to cool overnight.
4. Boil evening: put on furnace at 17:00, on a small heat, turned on the heat fully at 17:45 and got the boil going at 18:10. Done at 19:10, put the kettle in an ice bath to drop temperature somewhere at or below 80°C, sealed kettle with a plastic bag, let cool overnight.
5. This evening, rack wort into fermentation vessel and add yeast. However, this will probably be the last time that I need to do this. It is the last brew with hop flowers, from now on I only use pellets, and then I can add the yeast immediately to the cooled wort in the boil kettle.
   This last step can then be skipped in the future.

After the kraüsen is gone, rack into a properly airtight fermenter.

 

[moto748]

Made my usual bitter-style brew, but this time I went for it and replaced the half-kilo of brewing sugar I normally use with extra grains. However, batch size ended up a little bigger than I expected, so I might end up stirring some of it back in! All depends on the FG. I have a small jug full cooling in the fridge so I can check gravity later.

 

[Nottsbeer]

I've just finishing bottling my first brew in nearly 10 years . Have started with Festival Landlords. Tasting very nice so can't wait for the conditioned article. Now have the dilemma of selecting my next kit.

 

[Spit]

Just finished my first all grain The boy Taylor from malt Miller using shiny new grainfather all went pretty well apart from the silicone gasket partly coming off when doughing in i don't think it made any difference. Ended up with 22l at sg 1050. Great experience looking forward to next weekend to get another on.

 

[obscure]

Making an attempt at a Saison with Aurora and Saaz
Fermentor Volume11L
Expected Packed Volume 9L

Grain-bill
Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt 2.8KG
Weyermann Carapils 0.2KG
60 Minute mash at 65°C planned (Start temperature was 66.2°C dropped to 64.8°C by the end of the mash)

Hops
20g Aurora 9.35% AA 45 Minutes 29.36 IBU
10g Aurora 9.35% AA 5 Minutes 3.19 IBU
10g Saaz 5.35% AA 5 Minutes 1.82 IBU

Yeast Lallemand Belle Saison (11g sachet)

OG 1.051
Final Gravity (Fingers crossed) 1.004
Expected ABV 6.17%
Efficiency 59%

I’m going to be honest here I bought the Auora hops because I rather liked the name and thought the description of Floral, Spicy, Lemongrass sounded good (The Saaz I was buying alongside a few other hops for various brews) and then had to decide what to do with them, so this is the result. Saison isn’t a style I’ve tried making before but I’ve being trying a few commercial examples and am starting to really enjoy it so decided to give one a try.

Brew day was fairly smooth (I’m a stove top BIAB brewer) so mashed the 3KG of malt in 10L water heated to 72°C which hit 66.2°C after I mashed in was aiming for 65°C but I can live with this and hopefully won’t make too much difference by the end of the mash this dropped to 64.8°C.

Little annoyed that my efficiency was slightly below my normal 62% (which I know isn’t fantastic to begin with) but I’m not going to loose any sleep over it yeast is pitched and hopefully will taste decent.

 

[StoutWolf]

Having enjoyed the Woodforde's NOG kit that I brewed late last year, I've given their admirals reserve kit a go today.

 

[NormanHurst]

11.5L Marmalade Witbier today

50% Bestmalz Heidelberg
30% Dingemans Pale Wheat
20% Flaked Wheat
---
15g Tettnang @ 60
9g Coriander Seed @ 10
1 sliced and dried Seville Orange @ 10
---
Wyeast 3944

The grain bill is loosely based on a recipe from Stan Hieronymus's Wheat Beer book. Hoping for a good spring time refresher.

 

[StoutWolf]

Following on from yesterdays Woodforde's kit. Up early today to brew an 8l stove top MO and Simcoe SMaSH. Set a 6 bottle beaverdale cabernet sauvignon kit going whilst I was at It, to occupy the downtime.

 

[Pavalijo]

Yesterday started my Festival Golden Stagg. My last kit maybe (?) - going BIAB AG after this.

I rehydrated the yeast for the first time in 28c water (boiled and cooled, sprinkle yeast and cover, 15 minutes, stir, and pitch after another 15 minutes). I got airlock activity sub 10 second bubbling within about 9 hours and is going like a train this morning. I read that rehydrating in tepid water reduces cell death on rehydration and after some very slow ferments decided to give this a go.

After drinking my early brews too early but then finding out just how superb my last bottle of Razorback was (at around 5 months) I have had a push to get ahead this winter - so currently have conditioning (shared between son and me) Youngs AIPA, MJ Juicy Session IPA, Cwtch and Razorback. I have Simply Ginger Beer for the missus (and me on a really hot day) to be poured over ice and lime this summer.

So now I can start on smaller batch AG and enjoy the process. I am on page 38 of the 86 page Clibit thread on simple SMASH method - and having read the advancing experiences of others on there I will be starting with a few more ingredients - can’t wait!

For those newish kit brewers like me who haven‘t read the Clibit thread it’s well worth a read - here:

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/

 

[Alastair70]

Munich Helles rebrew, swapped the Saaz 15min addition for Mittlefrau this time. Otherwise, same recipe as the January brew. Healthy OG of 1.050, bang on target.

 

[dan125]

AG143 - Hodgepodge Pale Ale

8 malts and 7 hops to clear out the odds and sods from the store cupboard
1.047
35 IBUs
8 EBC

 

[Burlyman]

I felt a bit adventurous today and did a summer ale with some beets in it..
I was hoping it will have a pink hue but the wort turned out bright orange.. almost like iron brew..
lol.. will have to see how this one turns out..

 

[Clint]

Water is on for Gumballhead!
I've revised the recipe a little...bitter with magnum,80g Amarillo at 80c hop stand then a 120g dry hop with Amarillo.
Yeast...US 05 as I'm out of MJ west coast.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Yesterday I brewed 21 litres of NZIPA

4000g pale malt
700g lager malt
300g Munich malt
200g Carapils
100g Melanoidin
200g Spelt oats
20g Nelson Sauvin @ 60m
20g Rakau @ 15m
15g Rakau @ 3m
Will dry hop with 30g NS
CML Pia yeast @ 19C
OG 1060
BHE 73%
IBU 40
SRM 6.5

 

[Clint]

All done... efficiency down to 65% from my usual 70+....could be the grain bill of around 50% wheat..not to worry it looks ok! Missed OG by three points..

 

[samale]

My lemon and rosemary rye Saison has dropped from 1.056 to 1.004. sample jar tastes promising considering I have not dry hopped with the lemon zest and Sorachi ace hops.
I plan to add the dry hop when it's cooler. Currently at 27, going to start the cold crash