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Not usually a Sour fan. Had this one a couple times now, it is sensational.

@stquinto sounds like you have it all worked out now that's great.

Let us know if it tastes close to the original

I visited 2 RSL Clubs this morning, Marion & Plympton-Glenelg, a few quick shots of the latter attached. Both were packed, we had a couple of drinks with old Diggers in both but I left before the 2-up started. I am cooking a meal for a few tonight so I had to be on the ball. Cheers & Beers. Phil.

Thanks @Graculus, but that is not neat writing! In Primary School I was one of the last years taught to write in 'modified cursive' running writing, and that sample would have failed.

Very nice Jenny. Very neat writing too. I've had the odd brew started on certain days. ANZAC, birthday, New Years Eve, St Georges day, but I've never neatly written a label like that. Mine have barely legible numbers scrawled on the lid.

It's still fermenting. SG is at about 1.017 (OG 1.038), looks like it's still got a little way to go.

The hazy IPA is living up to it's name

Mate the colour looks spot on hiw did it taste when you were bottling it?

A little iodophor goes a long way so my 4 yr old 500ml bottle is stillin use. Today I noticed that the 1ml/1litre addition seemed to be paler than I think it used to be. I am wondering if it is degraded and less potent. I added more to be sure.

Sticks and Stones Pacific Ale Earle's Stone & Wood clone recipe courtesy of @Back Brewing

Pink Motel Rose's Sour Oak Aged Helles (community brew) Fresh Haze Hazy IPA Chilli choc hazelnut milk stout At The Mill Brewery for the Merri Mashers April meeting

After bottling my latest batch of Coopers Aust. Pale Ale this morning; I was in a bit of a trance writing out the labels and realized I had re-named one as Anzac Day Pale Ale! I thought I liked that and that's what half the bottles are now labelled.

Maybe transfer when it has a few points left to go so it will fill up the headspace with CO2 for you? As far as fermenters to limit oxygen. Glass with a bung would be best but with 4 weeks only i think plastic would be fine. If was 2 or 3 months + i would be more concerned personally. Thats my 2 cents.

Agree. People tend to go straight to the forum to ask questions and not look at FAQs. Most answers to questions are already there.

This one is 250ml but sadly only one on the shelf. They go for all sorts of crazy prices on the internet, I paid 50c. I still haven't decided if I am a collector or a hoarder, but I can't resist grabbing them when I see them.

I'm planning a porter I want to give an aged barrel feel to. I've done some digging on the topic and figured out how I am going to do this in the absence of an old rum barrel. I'll basically brew the porter and let it ferment for a week, by which time it should be done and dusted. I will then tack it into a 2nd fermenter, which will get a bag with rum soaked rum barrel oak chips added to it and then left for about four weeks to re-create that rum barrel flavour. From what I hear four weeks is a good time span for this without things getting overbearing. The only thing I haven't worked out is which fermenter to use for aging. Generally, I like the Coopers fermenters for their ease of use and with an active fermentation going on, they're perfectly safe. Higher pressure inside will prevent air from coming in and when in a stable temperature environment, there is no flow back of air. However, in an ambient environment, where the temperature will change a few degrees up and down, this is a different story, especially with no fermentation going on. Would one of those fermenters be suitable for the job? What if I taped it up? Should I reactivate the old screw lid fermenter I still have? The airlock hole is taped over and the lid can be tightened to prevent air from getting in. I'm also worried about oxygen exposure. I can't purge the FV with CO2 and basically the entire top third of the FV will be regular air with its 21% oxygen. Not ideal conditions to store. I don't want to tie up the FermZilla for 4 weeks, although that would probably be a good solution. Maybe rack into a cube and "commando oak?" That would reduce oxygen exposure significantly. But maybe I am just overcomplicating things. Any idea how I can tackle this?

Abbey de Rochefort number 6 (7.5%, dunno where the 6 comes from) Not half bad… that’s the extent of my tasting notes go, it’s past Cinderella’s bed time

My great uncle was Diver Derrick my family always salute him on ANZAC DAY

Have a great Anzac Day 2024 everyone.

I've not had a Coopers Sparkling in ages, I can only source COPA here. I tend to make brews at least 5%, it's the inner p*ss-head coming out in me... Either way, it's a lovely drop

One other point: last time I mistakenly ground up the oats and it kept clogging the circulation arm. I had to hover around the Grainfather during the entire mash (quite a long one, 2 and a quarter hours), blowing into the circulation pipe. Doh ! Yesterday I put them in whole, much better idea. Here's the recipe if you like. Guinness double batch - less roasted malt.pdf

I put in 4ml lactic acid for a cornie, and have also done the souring of the wort. Both work well IMHO. For the souring, I put aside about a pint of the wort before pitching. Over the course of the fermentation (I left it two weeks) the set-aside portion grew a fur coat and it had gone sweet. I binned that, and drew off a pint and left it to sour over the course of about three days. I then boiled it up to sterilise it and added it to the cornie. If I have a double batch I tend to do one cornie using each method to experiment. Since both are good, I reckon the lactic acid is less of a faff, and I have a litre of the stuff to use up... https://shop.theelectricbrewery.com/pages/dry-irish-stout#:~:text=A simpler solution is to,per 5 gallons of beer. After primary fermentation, put 3% (2.4 cups per 5 gallons) of the beer into a separate jug and pitch bacteria meant for producing sour beers such as Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus or White Labs WLP677 Lactobacillus Delbrueckii. This will develop the sourness, but can take time (sometimes months). You can also simply leave the 3% of beer out on the counter and let it go sour for a few weeks from whatever bacteria it picks up in the air. (Make sure to boil for 10 minutes before adding back in). This natural method of souring is likely what Guinness used to do traditionally. A similar option that some may find easier is to purchase commercial Guinness a few weeks ahead of the brew day, sour it by leaving it out in a bowl, and then freeze it. Thaw it the night before brew day and add to the boil 10 minutes from the end. A simpler solution is to add 88% lactic acid to the beer after fermentation is done, before kegging. This is said to be what Guinness does today because it's cheaper, easier, and more efficient than relying on bacteria. All is takes is around 3-4 ml of acid per 5 gallons of beer. Go sparingly adding 0.5 ml at a time with a syringe (without needle) until the taste is to your liking. You can also use this method to do a trial run to see if you like the results: Once the beer is kegged and on tap, add one to two drops with an eye dropper to a 16 oz glass of beer and see what you think. One drop per 16 oz is equivalent to 2 ml in 5 gallons. Careful not to overdo it! The last option is to replace 3% of the base malt (the Maris Otter (2.5-4L) and flaked barley (1.4-1.5L)) with acidulated (sour) malt (1.7-2.8L). This will of course affect your mash pH as well so careful to not have it go too low.

@stquinto different parts of that brew look like breakfast and tea. You have done a few Guiness clones now. Got the lactic acid ratio for you're liking or still experimenting?

I knocked up the Guinness clone yesterday. I put 200g less roasted malt. I panicked as it seemed more brown than nearly black, so I threw in some black malt powder. For some reason my OG readings were really off, I don’t think the samples were thoroughly mixed. I boiled it for 90 minutes, and ended up adding 7 litres of water to get it to 1.048 That’ll be two cornies full . It seems a perfect beer for the second outing of my kegmenter, as it won’t fit in any fridge, although at a pinch I could fit it in the keezer if I had to. I got a new floating dip tube for it, and the evoline to upgrade my beer lines