YeastFace Brewdays

[YeastFace]

Next lot of ingredients arrived today after ordering yesterday morning. Top work by TMM and DPD as usual. Have a bit of time off in August so will probably brew then.

I accidentally added my recipe kit to my basket twice, in my haste to remove the duplicate items I removed both yeasts.

I've found the Andechs strain at another supplier so think I'll go for that. Postage is a bit of a kick in the balls so will have to get some other bits to soften the blow.

 

[YeastFace]

Today I brewed my annual Bière de Garde, bit later this year but should be coming good by the end of the year.

All Dingemans malts from GEB.

Single hop addition of Hersbrucker.

I tend to lose some efficiency when doing smaller batches, but forgot to adjust this so came up a little short pre-boil. Added 125g of dextrose and numbers ended up spot on.

Really happy with the colour and clarity on this. Wort tastes amazing.

11l @ 1.070 in the fermenter.

Just waiting for it to chill down in the ferm fridge as something happened with the chiller. Was reading 18.6° as I was recirculating but then started creeping up to 26° when I was transferring without me realising. Just when I thought I'd got the hang of using the counterflow chiller.

Have previously used WLP062 French Ale, WY1007 German Ale, and Imperial Dieter in previous versions but have opted for Lallemand Diamond fermented warm with this one which is perfectly acceptable for the style.

 

[YeastFace]

Around 22 hours after pitching, some life at last.

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 1.030. Have upped the temp to 17.5 and pressure to 15. Experience of pressure fermenting Diamond Lager seems a bit thin on the ground (think I said before) but hopefully still erring on the side of caution. Lots of sulphur from the sample, but I didn't get any off flavours.

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 1.014 and I think that should be it. A wee bit of sulphur so will give it a bit longer to clean up, then chill and transfer to keg to lager.

Happy the colour and clarity have continued post-fermentation.

Have high hopes for this one, once it's had some lagering.

 

[Brew_DD2]

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

Decent colour and clarity on it
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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

Clearly a man of good taste. My house lager is pretty much an Italian Pilsner. I split equal amounts of US (Cashmere) and German hops (Hallertau Blanc) for final 5 minutes. Have tried with various different hops for bittering and they've all come out great. Usually just go very simple with 100% Weyermann Pilsner grist, 75ppm:125ppm chloride:sulfate. Augustiner yeast strain.

 

[YeastFace]

Today was a bit of a disaster. Cleaned and sterilised some bottles earlier and went to bottle at lunch. Half way through first bottle, my Italian Pils keg kicked. Shame as the apple esters had gone and it was tasting well.

Thought I'd do a couple of bottles of Summer Ale, went to cap the first one and my capper has broke. Perhaps the neck shape of the German bottles don't agree. Annoying as have rarely used this since buying it.

Really need to brew something else quite quickly as out of drinking beer now. The bière de garde will need lagering for a good 8+ weeks.

I have ingredients for a Helles (and then a Heller Bock on the yeast cake) but have ordered some stuff for a British Blonde along the lines of Abbeydale Moonshine, Castle Rock Harvest Gold - but think I'll use Jester rather than US hops.

 

[YeastFace]

Kegged the 2023 vintage Bière de Garde earlier. First time using a lager yeast, but happy with the results. A bit of sulphur but think I've sorted that. This will lager for at least 6 weeks, but hopefully longer. Idea, as always but never works out, is to have this around Christmas.

Day off work tomorrow. Original plans have been scuppered. Keezer is empty and next two brewdays are lagers so perfect opportunity to brew something which can be turned around quickly.

Even though summer is probably behind us, I'm going to brew another Summer Ale. This one will be more blonde than golden like my last attempt. Aiming for something like Abbeydale Moonshine, Harvest Rock Harvest Pale, so along the lines of a Mid-Atlantic Pale Ale, but I'm going to use some modern British hops, rather than US ones.

Grist is simple. Equal parts MO and Lager, and a bit of wheat malt to help wih body.

Magnum for bittering, then Archer late, whirlpool, and dry hop.

Fermenting with Liberty Bell as really liked how it worked in the Golden Ale.

Should end up around 4.2% and ~30 IBU. Plan is to carb low and serve through stout spout to try to emulate a beer engine with sparkler.

 

[YeastFace]

Liquor treated and coming up to temp.

Have a few other errands to do today so glad this isn't a particularly complex brew. Forgot my checklist last brew and was slightly chaotic so remembered that this time. Even then nearly forgot the campden (I know it probably isn't completely neccessary but insurance).

 

[YeastFace]

Whirlpool is on

 

[YeastFace]

Bang on 1.041.

Exactly that straw colour I was after too.

 

[YeastFace]

In the fermenter and clean up was all done by 2:30.

Just waiting for some beer to be delivered, then a couple more chores and I can put my feet up.

 

[YeastFace]

.

 

[YeastFace]

Whitelabs WLP835 German X Lager starter is on. I only had a 1l flask so had to order a bigger one. Not sure where I'm going to hide it though.

Helles Lager with this tomorrow or Saturday. Won't pressure ferment but will spund towards end of fermentation. Plan is to use the yeast cake for a Heller Bock.

These Pure Pitch pouches are expensive, but the information you get from Whitelabs is great for calculating cells required and starter size. Estimated 95.62% viability (was manufactured end of July) and 150.5 billion cells per pouch.

1.7l starter should get me 370 billion cells, just above the recommended pitch rate of 359 billion.

I used these Propper wort cans. Again expensive but I bought them slightly discounted and to bump up basket to free delivery. So much quicker and cleaner than messing around with DME. Have frozen half of the second can.

 

[YeastFace]

Brewday is done apart from the cleaning. No spills or splashes or the usual errors and hit all my numbers so a good brew.

20l of Munich Helles. Lager malt, Munich, and a touch of Melanoidin to achieve an OG of 1.046. I have the capacity to decoct but not the time.

The lager malt is slightly undermodified so did a short protein rest.

Hops were 2 charges of Hersbrucker to about 19IBU.

Why did it have to be sunny and hot again today? Although I'm still not sure I'm using the CFC correctly. Will have to do a few tests with water.

Yeast as above is WLP835, the Andechs strain. Starter isn't quite done so if I can only pitch in the morning that's no problem.

Nice colour and clarity.

Now enjoying one of these.

 

[YeastFace]

There's always time for a mistake.

Collected 20l of chiller water in a plastic jerry can to clean with rather than waste. Finished cleaning and turn around to be faced with the full jerry can.

The thought was there.

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 9.5° this morning (got there about 2am but was too pissed to be messing about) so yeast pitched.

Starter was a bit sulphury, when the strain isn't meant to be a massive producer, but will try not to worry.

 

[YeastFace]

Inspired by @LeeH 's recent pumpkin beer, I decided to rebrew a Pumpkin Pie Porter I first made in 2016. I say rebrew but I no longer have the recipe so more of an homage.

I wanted to build up layers of biscuit, pastry, caramel, and burnt sugar so came up with a grist of Golden Promise, Imperial, Amber, Chocolate Wheat, DRC, Biscuit, Brown, and Caramalt.

Am also adding lactose to add creaminess (pumpkin pie usually contains either condensed or evaporated milk, and is often served with a dollop of whipped cream).

Possibly looks a bit busy, but each was selected for a purpose and I'm hoping will provide conplexity rather than be muddled.

Hops were Magnum to 26 IBU.

First task was baking one tin of pumpkin with some dark brown sugar. This was then added to the mash half way through the 90 mins.

Brewday was uneventful, pre-boil gravity and volume spot on. Ended up with 21l at 1.059 but assume the extra is from the pumpkin which wasn't accounted for in the predictions.

Another tin of pumpkin and 10g Pumpkin Pie Spice (Cinammon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Clove, Allspice) added to fermenter. I've not gone too crazy on the spice addition as can always add a bit more when kegging.

Fermenting at 20° with WHC Old English, which should hopefully get it down to 1.014 for around 6%ish. Am not fermenting under pressure, but will spund towards end of fermentation.

First time using an iSpindel too (I've just added an offset here as didn't calibrate it).

I will add some vanilla paste at kegging (as forgot to add at flameout).

 

[YeastFace]

FFS, I put the dip tube on the wrong carb cap, and then added the spunding valve. to that. Some wort has splurted out of the valve over the kitchen floor.

Why couldn't I have worked from home today?

Thankfully don't think that much has ended up on the floor.

 

[Brew_DD2]

FFS, I put the dip tube on the wrong carb cap, and then added the spunding valve. to that. Some wort has splurted out of the valve over the kitchen floor.

Why couldn't I have worked from home today?

Thankfully don't think that much has ended up on the floor.

View attachment 90759

We've all done it. Sad times!