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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.
I use exclusively dry yeast tbh so I can't help you there I'm afraid
 
The Köln/M41 blend has got it down to 1.016 already, so 76% attenuation. Hoping it will finish arounf 1.010/11 so have increased temp to help it finish off. Will dry hop when it's getting close to FG.

Tasting the sample, the spicy phenols work well with the fruitiness of the hops. Darkstar did a Galaxy and La Chouffe yeast beer, Red Shift, as a special many years ago (shame it was a one-off as I absolutely loved it) and this shares some qualities with my memory of that.
 
Working on my TMM/Elusive Entry recipe today. Have a name, style, and theme. Aiming to keep it under £30 for a 19l batch (brief is it has to be commercially viable - watch a 1kg dry hopped NEIPA win 😁).

Am off tomorrow (daughter's first day at nursery 😭) so may pick up a few beers as "research".
 
This finished at 1.010, so 8% which is more than enough.

Dry hopped on Wednesday and have been bringing the temp down steadily since then.

Will keg on Sunday evening; possibly Monday morning (as my old man's birthday Sunday so we'll see how the celebrations turn out) with some Brausol added as it seemed to work quite well in the Italian Pils.
 
Today I got a British Golden/Summer Ale on. Something easy drinking and hoppy.

Key stats

OG: 1.044, FG: 1.010, IBU: 30, EBC: 8.7

Grist is simple: MO, Imperial, Malted Wheat, Caramalt. Guidelines say no crystal but have used a little Caramalt to help with colour and I think it smells amazing. This is for drinking not competing in any case.

20230630_081016.jpg


Hops are all UK Cascade.

Yeast is Mangrove Jacks M36 Liberty Bell.

Brewday was pretty uneventful, ended up with 20l at 1.046 so a bit more efficiency than I'd estimated. Had to liquor back 500ml as had underestimated my boil off slightly.
20230630_124052.jpg


Have made some checklists as using several different apps (I design in either Beersmith or Brewfather, then copy into Grainfather) means I always forget something.
20230630_081933.jpg


The hops were 4.35% rather than the 6.28% advertised (and the QR code didn't work so couldn't check) so had to do some last minute recipe calculations which will result in slightly less bitterness and less hop aroma (had to move some of the dry hops to the bittering addition). Annoying but hopefully not too much of an impact.

Got to try out a couple of new toys.

GF Whirlpool Arm - Got a much better whirlpool and hop cone here than I have managed with the recirc tube.
20230630_124245.jpg


GF wortometer - Nice to be able to judge the CFC flow rate easier than having to find, clean, and sanitise my thermometer each time. My water was 22.5° today which is ridiculous.
20230630_122325.jpg


Now cooled down and pitched. Going to ferment at 20° and dry hop with the 25g UK Cascade I have left.

Peach Saison whilst clearing out the grain basket in the drizzle.
20230630_165510.jpg


Hopefully this will be ready to drink before the end of July.
 
Down to 1.011 (feel free to correct my reading of the meniscus) so probably finished.

20230705_192917.jpg


Have dry hopped with the remaining 25g UK Cascade. Will start to bring down temperature tonight and then keg Sunday or Monday.

Decent clarity in the sample, but will add some brausol into the keg. Was tasty enough although bitterness was perhaps a little unrefined. Hopefully this might change with carbonation.
 
Attempt 2 at an Italian Pils. This time fermenting in a Fermzilla All Rounder.

Was happy with the malt bill in my first attempt, so that hasn't changed too much. Mix of Crisp German Pilsner (to keep costs down), Weyermann Eraclea, and a touch each of Weyermann Carahell and Carafoam.

Grist bag
20230720_091744.jpg



I didn't massively like the red berry note I got, which I'm blaming on Saphir, so that's out. Using mostly noble hops here.

L-R Magnum, Saaz, Tettnanger, Spalter Select x2, Hallertau Mittelfrüh (some of these are for dry hop)
20230720_080003.jpg


Have kept water profile similar, but evened up the Chloride:Sulphate ratio (first attempt had more chloride, but perhaps muted the hops a little).

Brewday was pretty uneventful. Annoyingly pump stopped during whirlpool and I didn't notice, but added another 5 minutes with pump on and got a decent hop cone.

Coneage
20230720_140207.jpg



Hit my gravity and ended up with about 0.5l extra in the fermenter.

Decent colour and clarity on it
20230720_140950.jpg


Couldn't get any lower than 23.5° through the counterflow chiller as mains water too warm. Fermenting at 16° so a while to go in the ferm fridge. I pitched at 19° as the all rounder was starting to squish. Within the range of the yeast so although I wouldn't normally pitch warmer than fermentation temperature, hopefully no harm done.

I intend to ferment at no (well atmospheric, for the pedants) pressure for 24 hours and then bump up 5psi each day until I reach 15psi. This should hopefully give me enough pressure to cold crash without needing too much of a gas top-up.

I have held the dry hop bag in place with a magnet, but they're just about touching the top of the wort. I'm not sure I'll bother doing this again and will just depressurise, add dry hops, and then repressurise the fermenter in future.

Worst part of brewing, emptying the mash tun and cleaning up.
20230720_184922.jpg
 
The tube heater is too close to the fermenter and cable isn't long enough for it to be anywhere other than the compressor hump.

Oh and , trying to move the fermenter into a different position (didn't work, door wouldn't close,) the hop bag dropped in.9

I ducking give up.
 
Attempt 2 at an Italian Pils. This time fermenting in a Fermzilla All Rounder.

Was happy with the malt bill in my first attempt, so that hasn't changed too much. Mix of Crisp German Pilsner (to keep costs down), Weyermann Eraclea, and a touch each of Weyermann Carahell and Carafoam.

Grist bag
View attachment 88079



I didn't massively like the red berry note I got, which I'm blaming on Saphir, so that's out. Using mostly noble hops here.

L-R Magnum, Saaz, Tettnanger, Spalter Select x2, Hallertau Mittelfrüh (some of these are for dry hop)
View attachment 88081

Have kept water profile similar, but evened up the Chloride:Sulphate ratio (first attempt had more chloride, but perhaps muted the hops a little).

Brewday was pretty uneventful. Annoyingly pump stopped during whirlpool and I didn't notice, but added another 5 minutes with pump on and got a decent hop cone.

Coneage
View attachment 88082


Hit my gravity and ended up with about 0.5l extra in the fermenter.

Decent colour and clarity on it
View attachment 88083

Couldn't get any lower than 23.5° through the counterflow chiller as mains water too warm. Fermenting at 16° so a while to go in the ferm fridge. I pitched at 19° as the all rounder was starting to squish. Within the range of the yeast so although I wouldn't normally pitch warmer than fermentation temperature, hopefully no harm done.

I intend to ferment at no (well atmospheric, for the pedants) pressure for 24 hours and then bump up 5psi each day until I reach 15psi. This should hopefully give me enough pressure to cold crash without needing too much of a gas top-up.

I have held the dry hop bag in place with a magnet, but they're just about touching the top of the wort. I'm not sure I'll bother doing this again and will just depressurise, add dry hops, and then repressurise the fermenter in future.

Worst part of brewing, emptying the mash tun and cleaning up.
View attachment 88084
I do like Italian pils(actually all hoppy pills), fancy a swap when it's ready?
I have recently brewed German pils based on Schonramer Pils which should be ready in 4 weeks.
 
Do you find it hella stiff to put in and out? Mine is ridiculous I hate it. Always just use the mash paddle to whirlpool cos I can't be bothered towing with it. I get a nice cone even with 200g of hops in the hopstand with the paddle though so all good 😁

Incredibly. Yesteday it tore a bit of the silicon washer inside the recirc hole. Will try some lube next time as Starsan isn't making it wet enough.


Stop giggling in the back.
 
80% attenuation in 5 days.

Fermented at 0psi for 24 hours, then 5 for 24 hours, 10 for 24 hours and 15 for 48 hours.

Started at 16°, then raised to 20° on Day 4. Reducing temperature now.

Sample tastes decent, if not exactly hoppy enough. Won't use a hop bag again. Haven't for years but tried the magnet trick which didn't work. Considering keg hopping but may leave as is.
 
Kegging the Italian Pils later on.

Not 100% happy with the dry hop character. Did not weigh down the hop bag with sufficient baking beans so it's been floating the whole time, and doesn't seem to have extracted much.

I know it's meant to be subtle, but this is near non-existent.

Am going to keg hop with 15g Hallertau Mittelfrüh until I'm happy with the impact and then transfer to a serving keg.
 
Kegged, very painless.

Managed to use the All Rounder pressure to transfer about half, then switched over to CO2 as it was getting slow.

1000043732.jpg

Keg spund set to lower pressure than pressure in fermenter. Worked but very slow.

1000043733.jpg

Hooked up external CO2 at 5psi and keg spunding just below that to avoid the Co2 coming out of solution.

1000043737.jpg

Bit left, but can deal with that. Here is the offending "Unsinkable Hopbag".

1000043738.jpg

Stole DudeBrews' Fining Injection Technique, some Brausol going in, although a bit short as only had 3ml and not the 3.8ml I generally use.

1000043739.jpg

Lager. Lager. Lager. Obviously very green so won't try to critique it now. Will lager for at least 2-3 weeks before I try it again.

Some observations. Overall, really impressed with the All Rounder. Dry hopping seems to be a pain, but I do lean towards maltier styles so I can live with that. Was able to cold crash with absolutely no issues.

The Spundy is ****. Gauge is upside down, the gauge cover falls off, and it's incredibly hard to get on and off the posts. Much prefer the G2 Compact Spund, which has none of those cons.

Next up I have ingredients coming for a Helles and then a Heller Bock with the Ayinger yeast.
 
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Kegged, very painless.

Managed to use the All Rounder pressure to transfer about half, then switched over to CO2 as it was getting slow.

View attachment 88286
Keg spend set to lower pressure than pressure in fermenter. Worked but very slow.

View attachment 88287
Hooked up external CO2 at 5psi and keg spunding just below that to avoid the Co2 coming out of solution.

View attachment 88288
Bit left, but can deal with that. Here is the offending "Unsinkable Hopbag".

View attachment 88289
Stole DudeBrews' Fining Injection Technique, some Brausol going in, although a bit short as only had 3ml and not the 3.8ml I generally use.

View attachment 88291
Lager. Lager. Lager. Obviously very green so won't try to critique it now. Will lager for at least 2-3 weeks before I try it again.

Some observations.Overall, really impressed with the All Rounder. Drop hopping seems to be a pain, but I do lean towards maltier styles so I can live with that. Was able to cold crash with absolutely no issues.

The Spundy is ****. Gauge is upside down, the gauge cover falls off, and it's incredibly hard to get on and off the posts. Much prefer the G2 Compact Spund, which has none of those cons.

Next up I have ingredients coming for a Helles and then a Heller Bock with the Ayinger yeast.
Cracking looking pint 😉
 
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