YeastFace Brewdays

[Donegal john]

A week in from Brewday (above post was a few day's late) and it's down to 1.014, so not quite finished (predicted FG 1.010).

Sample is tasting good. Bit of sulphur which I think Nottingham can produce (I think that's what M42 is anyway). Have increased to 20° to hopefully finish up over the next week.

Just in case and as I haven't used Chevallier before those that have are there any attenuation differences? @An Ankoù @Pennine @Donegal john?

No attenuation issues either and funnily I thought it brought the hops out a bit more than other malts and gave a really smooth malt flavour and very good body to the beer but as I used 100% chevalier I had to mash for twice the normal time.
It’s a fantastic malt.
Edit.
I would say it can handle bitterness better than other malts

 

[YeastFace]

Today I've tested my water alkalinity and PH and updated my water profile as water board have published new water report.

Overbuilding a starter of Imperial A10 for my next two batches.

 

[YeastFace]

The PWM controller on my stirplate failed a while back, have a new one coming next week but want to brew tomorrow.

Thought I could get it to work but I think the fan is going too fast to catch the stir bar nicely and get a decent vortex.

 

[YeastFace]

Italian Pils

Couldn't decide between an Italian Pils or Peach Saison, both of which I had ingredients for, but as I had already bought the Ashbeck for the Pils I went for that.

Grist is equal parts Weyermann Eraclea & Crisp German Pilsner, and 5% Weyermann Carahell. Smelt great and distinctly nutty.

Was going to use all Ereclea but have read it's quite formidable on it's own, plus mixing it with Crisp helped keep the cost down.

Did a single decoction for a bit of fun now I have a 15l stockpot.

Didn't quite hit the next step, but I eyeballed the pull for the decotion and the G40 got up the degree quickly.

Thought I'd sample one of my beers before cleaning my lines later. JG disconnect must be knackered, that's about 4l of stout in the keezer. Cleaned it up, using a whole kitchen roll and inventing some new curses in the process.

Numbers were spot on. First time using a refractometer, but calibrated it against a hydrometer. Will just be useful if I need to make any mash or pre-hop boil adjustments to increase gravity. How do people take pictures of this, took me ages. This was pre-boil, 8.5°P/1.034.

Was doing a whirlpool so ditched the hop bags I normally use and freed the hops. Magnum for bittering, Spalt Select for flavour, and Saphir for Aroma. Got a decent hope cone.

Decent colour on it.

First time using Novalager. The lower pitching rate and lack of sulphur and diacetyl were my considerations here. Seems to be suited to Hoppy Lagers and whilst this won't be in your face hoppy, hopefully that will mask the dominant red apple esters people are getting with this strain.

All tucked away. Went into fermenter at 15° and am chilling down to 12° to help supress the red apple.

Will do a split dry hop with rest of the saphir.

 

[YeastFace]

Novalager took a while to get going, but she's going off now

 

[YeastFace]

I'm not even sure if anyone reads these (plays tiny violin ) but after kegging the Italian Pils it was time to get another brew on so I hopefully have something to drink whilst that lagers.

Peach Iced Tea Saison.

Grist was a mix of pale, imperial (for colour addition mostly), wheat, and oats.

Mashed at 64.5° to encourage a dry finish (Farmhouse in non-diastatic so won't go particularly low) but 1.006 or thereabouts should be perfectly achievable.

Hops were Challenger (which I've read have a green tea note) and Archer (which has stone fruit characteristics). The Challenger smelt lovely and almost lime-like, but the Archer was quite dull in comparison.

15g Challenger and 5g Archer went in at 60 mins, 25g of Archer at 20 mins.

Whilst I ordinarily do 20l batches, this was 22l as I imagine the fermenter fruit addition will increase losses. Also want this to be relatively low strength, and Brewfather didn't seem to account for any sugar additions from the fruit.

Added 1kg of Funkin' Peach Puree at whirlpool (added this to a hop sack and whilst most came out, I did have some fibrous material in it. Hopefully that will help result in a relatively clear beer), with 7.5g sweet orange peel and 25g Archer & 5g Challenger.

Ended up with 22l at 1.036. The second peach addition should bump this up a little bit - will calculate later).

Using Lallemand Farmhouse for the second time. Starting it off at 22° for a few hours so the yeast settles into it's new home before raising.

Looked at some of the trials and a couple of breweries who fermented at 25-26° mentioned peach, so hopefully that should work well here.

 

[YeastFace]

Thanks, Rod

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 1.007 this morning (80% attenuation in 3 days is good going). Added another 1kg of the Peach puree.

Calculated that will bump the OG up from 1.036 to 1.038, should finish about 1.006 so 4.2%.

Will dry hop in another couple of days.

Definitely tastes like saison from the sample jar.

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 1.005 following the fruit addition and at 86.5% attenuation I imagine it's done. That's 4.3%, which is a bit more than the 3.8% I was aiming for, but now have made a fruit addition gravity calculator so can factor this in next time.

Sample was tasting great. Definitely more peach aroma and flavour following the second addition. Saison spiciness is still there. Finish is nice and dry. Good mouthfeel and not thin as I worry about with table-strength saisons.

Have dry hopped with 25g Archer, will bring down gradually to 2.5% over the next couple of days and aim to keg either Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

 

[YeastFace]

Brewed an American IPA (veering towards the West Coast, but on boundaries of an Imperial) with the 3kg base malt and 100g Strata from TMM for the Elusive competition. Won't be using those ingredients for my entry so thought I'd brew something I don't normally do.

Stats - 11.5l into FV, 9.5l into keg.
OG - 1.070, FG - 1.013, ABV - 7.5% IBU - 53, EBC - 12

Grist - 3kg Simpsons Low Colour Maris Otter, 1kg Vienna, 250g Simpsons Caramalt (this smelt fantastic). Mash at 64.5° for 60 mins + 10 mins mashout.

Hops - 20g Strata at 30 mins.
40g Strata, 40g Galaxy, 20g Cascade 30 mins whirlpool at 75°c.
40g Strata, 40g Galaxy, 20g Cascade dry hop.

I think this will be the hoppiest beer I've made, especially at what is a half batch for me.

Yeast - Lallemand Köln (not 100% to style, but I had a pack that needs using and there are some West Coast breweries using Kölsch or other German Ale strains in their IPAs).

Mash efficiency was better than planned, ended up with less volume at a higher gravity as had the boiler output on too high. Liquored back with 1l and was bang on.

In the fridge at 17.5°c. No signs of life as yet.

Some pics:

Grain bed after small 1l sparge

220g of hops

Whirlpool addition

Large hop cone

 

[Rugby Fan.]

Getting serious brewery envy from these threads!!!

 

[Alastair70]

Brilliant write ups, thank you. I’m going to have to put a bit more effort into my own going forward. I particularly like the photos .

 

[Clint]

Agree...I'm failing miserably!

 

[dave_77]

I'm not even sure if anyone reads these (plays tiny violin ) but after kegging the Italian Pils it was time to get another brew on so I hopefully have something to drink whilst that lagers.

Peach Iced Tea Saison.

Grist was a mix of pale, imperial (for colour addition mostly), wheat, and oats.

Mashed at 64.5° to encourage a dry finish (Farmhouse in non-diastatic so won't go particularly low) but 1.006 or thereabouts should be perfectly achievable.

View attachment 85773

Hops were Challenger (which I've read have a green tea note) and Archer (which has stone fruit characteristics). The Challenger smelt lovely and almost lime-like, but the Archer was quite dull in comparison.

15g Challenger and 5g Archer went in at 60 mins, 25g of Archer at 20 mins.

Whilst I ordinarily do 20l batches, this was 22l as I imagine the fermenter fruit addition will increase losses. Also want this to be relatively low strength, and Brewfather didn't seem to account for any sugar additions from the fruit.

View attachment 85777

Added 1kg of Funkin' Peach Puree at whirlpool (added this to a hop sack and whilst most came out, I did have some fibrous material in it. Hopefully that will help result in a relatively clear beer), with 7.5g sweet orange peel and 25g Archer & 5g Challenger.

View attachment 85774

Ended up with 22l at 1.036. The second peach addition should bump this up a little bit - will calculate later).

View attachment 85776

Using Lallemand Farmhouse for the second time. Starting it off at 22° for a few hours so the yeast settles into it's new home before raising.

Looked at some of the trials and a couple of breweries who fermented at 25-26° mentioned peach, so hopefully that should work well here.

How did you find the lallemand Farmhouse?

 

[YeastFace]

Second time using it, first was a table spelt saison, and I really like it.

It definitely has a classic spicy saison characteristic for me, and you can get different results playing around with the temperature.

I'm not sure I would use it for anything over maybe 1.040 OG as don't think it would finish dry enough as I like in Saison.

According to my notes, attenuation achieved were 80.9% (Spelt Saison - 1.032 to 1.006) and 86.5% (Peach Saison 1.038 to 1.005)

Saying that there are obviously ways and means (mashing low, not using any caramel malts, using sugar), so would give it a go .

 

[YeastFace]

No sign of life in the fermenter yet, but Köln does have a long lag time and the pack was quite old, albeit "in date" and always stored in the fridge. Having checked it does look like I've underpitched as Lallemand are recommending 1.7g/l which would be ~21g.

The only other yeast I have in the house is Mangrove Jacks M41, so may end up with a Belgian IPA.

 

[Rugby Fan.]

No sign of life in the fermenter yet, but Köln does have a long lag time and the pack was quite old, albeit "in date" and always stored in the fridge. Having checked it does look like I've underpitched as Lallemand are recommending 1.7g/l which would be ~21g.

The only other yeast I have in the house is Mangrove Jacks M41, so may end up with a Belgian IPA.

Take your yeast out of the fridge on brew morning (same as you would for a Sunday roast). I did a kölsch recently with 11g of lallemand Köln and was plesently surprised to find the airlock tearing it up the next morning.

I also use yeast nutrient and splash the wort heavily as possible when transferring from kettle to fermenter, sprinkling in the yeast about 5 liters in.

Lastly, I transfer a few degrees above target temp so that it'll come down to target temp by the time the yeast wakes up.

 

[dave_77]

Second time using it, first was a table spelt saison, and I really like it.

It definitely has a classic spicy saison characteristic for me, and you can get different results playing around with the temperature.

I'm not sure I would use it for anything over maybe 1.040 OG as don't think it would finish dry enough as I like in Saison.

According to my notes, attenuation achieved were 80.9% (Spelt Saison - 1.032 to 1.006) and 86.5% (Peach Saison 1.038 to 1.005)

Saying that there are obviously ways and means (mashing low, not using any caramel malts, using sugar), so would give it a go .

Ahhh cool ..I'm using it this weekend in a Trappist Single
I did speak to Mr lallemand about it at Brewcon re comparison to Belle Saison and he said it wasn't as dry or expressive which is way I have gone done the T Single route with it.
Doing a traditional Saison in a couple of weeks and sticking with the Dupont strain for that one.

 

[YeastFace]

Ahhh cool ..I'm using it this weekend in a Trappist Single
I did speak to Mr lallemand about it at Brewcon re comparison to Belle Saison and he said it wasn't as dry or expressive which is way I have gone done the T Single route with it.
Doing a traditional Saison in a couple of weeks and sticking with the Dupont strain for that one.

I think it will work well in a Single.

Not sure if you've seen this Best Practice Sheet, but gives some indication into what esters or phenols you might get with different fermentation temperatures. There's also a really good, long video on YouTube where they go through the trials they did with breweries.

 

[YeastFace]

Take your yeast out of the fridge on brew morning (same as you would for a Sunday roast). I did a kölsch recently with 11g of lallemand Köln and was plesently surprised to find the airlock tearing it up the next morning.

I also use yeast nutrient and splash the wort heavily as possible when transferring from kettle to fermenter, sprinkling in the yeast about 5 liters in.

Lastly, I transfer a few degrees above target temp so that it'll come down to target temp by the time the yeast wakes up.

I do take out of the fridge to get acclimatised. I meant that I'd had it for probably a year and has always been stored in the fridge until that time.

Interesting on pitching yeast at a higher temp than fermentation. Is that just for dry? Apart from the past 3 brews, I usually use wet and the usual advice is to pitch a bit cooler or at the fermentation temp I think.