What did you brew today?

[Linalmeemow]

It's been a while... did the Chinook give you the grapefruit bomb that you were hoping for?

I sampled the first bottles last week and then again last night. No discernible grapefruit, this is a pine pine pine all the way, to the extent that I hope it mellows with age - it's pretty in-your-face at the moment! I used the conan yeast to do a semi-NE IPA with citra and mosaic that I'll be dry hopping next week which tastes and smells very tropical so far...

 

[StevieG83]

I brewed some red wine.
4 litres of stute red grape juice
1 teaspoon of pectolase
1 teaspoon of super wine yeast
1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon of citric acid
1 teaspoon of glycerol
1kg of sugar boiled in water

The RGJ had a lovely dark colour so i did not add tannin.

 

[Lawrence22]

Mango Pale ale brewed today. The last few brews I have had difficult brew days during the mash/sparge, final result has been great but the process a pain. I believed this was due to the grain crush so this time I ordered from a different supplier who I'd been told do a specific grain crush for the Grainfather. Todays brew day was a breeze and although I have taken a slight hit on efficiency my figures have come out almost exactly with what the Grainfather recipe builder suggests.
Now I have to decide whether or not to buy a grain mill or continue to buy from this supplier who is a bit more expensive, mainly due to postage.

 

[The Baron]

brewed a pineapple IPA with Cascade, Huell Melon and Nelson Sauvin also added 2 litres of pineapple juice after the boil which I have never done before. Will be dry hopped with the same

 

[Clint]

A bit of a user upper based on GH summer ale...pale,crystal plus some bits of carapils and torrefied wheat that needed using. Hops,EKG and progress..nearly stopped as run out of protofloc tabs but found some granulated Irish moss..water on!

 

[Slid]

Mango Pale ale brewed today. The last few brews I have had difficult brew days during the mash/sparge, final result has been great but the process a pain. I believed this was due to the grain crush so this time I ordered from a different supplier who I'd been told do a specific grain crush for the Grainfather. Todays brew day was a breeze and although I have taken a slight hit on efficiency my figures have come out almost exactly with what the Grainfather recipe builder suggests.
Now I have to decide whether or not to buy a grain mill or continue to buy from this supplier who is a bit more expensive, mainly due to postage.

Which supplier was this, please?
I have been having trouble with grain crush myself of late.

 

[Lawrence22]

Which supplier was this, please?
I have been having trouble with grain crush myself of late.

I usually used geterbrewed but this time I ordered from the maltmiller. I had read somewhere that if you ask them to do a grainfather crush they will do, just put it in the comments of the order. It was visibly less floury than than crush I had been getting from GEB.

 

[Clint]

all done...numbers bang on! Tastes great!

 

[Clint]

Hmmm....just done my usual BHE calculation using the forum calculator and it comes out a whopping 86.9%! Against my usual, consistent 65-69.
The only thing I changed to my usual mash,stir mash,drain,2 X 10 litres sparges is that at the end I continually sparged a recently boiled kettle through the grain bed into my jug...

 

[Mungri]

Indian Summer Lightning.
Used the last of my Maris Otter on this. Sack of Hookhead next I think.

 

[Remi Gee]

Hello Folks !

Today, i’m brewing a simple stout, using my homemade HERMS « brewboard »
No complicated electronics, just an inkbird temp’ prob to watch wort temperature and sparge water / Herms kettle temperature.

Got to leave, wort is about to boil !!!

Remi

 

[braziliain]

12L of the Camden Town India Helles Lager clone from the Brew book by Euan Ferguson. Sort of...

First attempt at a lager as I haven't wanted it taking up months in the brew fridge. So I'm going to attempt the Brulosophy quick lagering method. It's an expensive recipe though, so I hope it works out. There is 150g of dryhopping in a 12L batch!

 

[MyQul]

Ordinary Bitter yesterday using the Gales yeast strain which I pitched today. I'm going to add a Challenger hop tea at bottling time

 

[cushyno]

Hmmm....just done my usual BHE calculation using the forum calculator and it comes out a whopping 86.9%! Against my usual, consistent 65-69.
The only thing I changed to my usual mash,stir mash,drain,2 X 10 litres sparges is that at the end I continually sparged a recently boiled kettle through the grain bed into my jug...

Strange how the smallest changes make a difference in efficiency. I've been getting 75%+ for previous 4 brews, no sweat. Then last week decided to use a big BIAB bag inside the mash tun (coolbox) and while I nailed the temperature control, I only managed 65% BHE. I can only think the sparge water was channelling down the sides of the bag. Like your brewday on wed it seems decent BHE depends on a good sparge that washes all the grains thoroughly. I'm going to dabble with this next brew.

 

[Ginger_NutZ]

new member - first post.

Started woodfordes Admirals reserve. 17L, SG 1056. I got a bit carried away with the water. I would've rather done it short at 14-15L.

Reading these threads helped me through my first - Woodfordes Wherry starter bought from Wilko's.

Thanks.

 

[Flocculator]

366 Extra Brett PA and Drop Kick Nate. Now winter's coming i have the tropical vibe going.

 

[pvt_ak]

Working from home today ... so cheeky brew day in process.
Grapefruit Pale Ale
4.5 kg Golden Promis
250g Crystal

Hops I’m using Challenger and Apollo.
Grapefruit juice 1 litre in at flameout.

Not sure what will use for dry hop.
Perhaps citra or Amarillo

 

[StevieG83]

I brewed 4 gallons of Cider which i am going to freeze distil once fermentation has completed.

3 and half litres of lidl apple juice in each gallon demi john
Added about a pint of water and 1 kg of sugar boiled
1 spoonful of super wine yeast compound
1 spoonful of yeast nutrient

Once it has fermented i will put it into a secondary and add wine finings then bottle it into 6, 2 litre bottles.
Then once frozen drain the jack from the bottles. Should take about 1 hour.

Hoping for 46 percent.

 

[Dutto]

I brewed 4 gallons of Cider which i am going to freeze distil once fermentation has completed.

..........

Good luck with that plan!

Ethanol and water produces what is known as a "eutectic" point" at which the mixture will solidify. This is at -118*C.

If you look at the accompanying link ...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phase_diagram_ethanol_water_s_l_en.svg

... you will see a typical diagram for ethanol/water mixtures.

Above the "V" shaped line the mixture will be a liquid but below the same line the mixture will form a "slush" until such time as the liquid element of the mixture reaches -118*C,

The average domestic freezer is set at about -20*C.

If we assume that the cider has an ABV of 10% then from the graph:

• Water crystals will start to form at -4*C.
• As the temperature continues to fall to -10*C the more water crystals will fall out of the mixture and the ethanol percentage will rise to 20%.

At this stage it looks to be a piece of cake to remove the water crystals, however the crystals of water are tiny, ethanol is trapped between them and everything used to filter out the crystals from the ethanol needs to be maintained at -10*C.

The lower the temperature falls, the harder it is to remove the water crystals and the harder it is to maintain everything at the lower temperatures.

Believe me, if it was easy to distil ethanol by freezing then the Government would have made it illegal years ago.

If you want a higher alcohol cider then a much better system is to freeze the apple juice to concentrate the sugars and then ferment it into a +/-20% ABV Apple Wine.

 

[StevieG83]

Good luck with that plan!

Ethanol and water produces what is known as a "eutectic" point" at which the mixture will solidify. This is at -118*C.

If you look at the accompanying link ...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phase_diagram_ethanol_water_s_l_en.svg

... you will see a typical diagram for ethanol/water mixtures.

Above the "V" shaped line the mixture will be a liquid but below the same line the mixture will form a "slush" until such time as the liquid element of the mixture reaches -118*C,

The average domestic freezer is set at about -20*C.

If we assume that the cider has an ABV of 10% then from the graph:

• Water crystals will start to form at -4*C.
• As the temperature continues to fall to -10*C the more water crystals will fall out of the mixture and the ethanol percentage will rise to 20%.

At this stage it looks to be a piece of cake to remove the water crystals, however the crystals of water are tiny, ethanol is trapped between them and everything used to filter out the crystals from the ethanol needs to be maintained at -10*C.

The lower the temperature falls, the harder it is to remove the water crystals and the harder it is to maintain everything at the lower temperatures.

Believe me, if it was easy to distil ethanol by freezing then the Government would have made it illegal years ago.

If you want a higher alcohol cider then a much better system is to freeze the apple juice to concentrate the sugars and then ferment it into a +/-20% ABV Apple Wine.

I would still try it if it was legal or illegal to be fair. I will see how it turns out and go from there. I am following this recipe for anyone that wants to try it :)