Shamus O'Sean

Get Ya Self a Pot of the Brew

Deuce Lager and Lime Milkshake IPA are 2 Coopers brews that use lime juice. Half a cup and 1 Lime worth respectively. Although the Deuce Lager uses the Canadian Blonde can, you could easily use the Mexican Cerveza can instead. I have not made either. But the Deuce sounds nice.

I didn't think they had colour TV back then.

Did another Hoegaarden Belgian Wit today. 2.0kg Coopers Pale Malt (I used this because I did not have any more Pilsner Malt, should be close enough) 1.7kg Coopers Wheat Malt 1.3kg Pilsner Malt 500g Rolled Wheat 250g Rice Hulls (No stuck mash and the sparge was effortless, for all the wheat in the malt bill) 21g East Kent Goldings - 50 minute boil 12 Saaz - 15 minute boil 7ml Lactic Acid in the mash water 25g Coriander Seed (crushed) - 5 minute boil 15g Bitter Orange Peel Powder - 5 minute boil 25g Coriander Seed (crushed) - "Dry Hop" 1 packet Lallemand Munich Classic Wheat Yeast Fermenting at 17°C for a few days. increase to 20°C for a few more days, then cold crash. Wort ended up very clear in the fermenter for a wheat beer.

Kaiju Krush - Side-by-side taste test. Commercial version Strong pineapple aroma Malty flavour with tropical notes Nice sharp bitterness Mine Much more subtle aroma (although this is the last bottle, just over two months after bottling), seems more citrus than pineapple Quite similar flavour, but smoother bitterness Hazy, whereas the commercial is clear I only dry hopped mine for two days. Maybe I could have done it for longer for more aroma. Both are really nice beers. Not identical, but the HB version is a good tribute to the original.

Thanks Mick. This was a few days after cold crashing and fining with Isinglass and Polyclar. Lovely clear amber colour. It will look great in a glass.

Kegged my Bent's Poke Cranking Shaft IPA last night. Great aroma from the fermenter. I am sure this will be a cracker again.

My tasting notes of the brew I did of this are here

Hibiscus Kolsch, Recipe of the Month from January 2023. Sweet berry fruity aroma and flavour. Slight tartness in the taste. A little wine-like. Nice enough, but I doubt I would make it again. The froth has a slight pink tint to it. Not sure if you can pick it up in the photo.

I have never done it, but you could decant off 3-4 litres of the partly fermenter wort. Put it in a pot and bring to the boil. Add say 25g of Galaxy or other higher alpha acid hops. Boil for 10 minutes. This should give you around 10 extra IBU's, and a BU:GU ratio similar to what you would have had before adding the extra 1kg of Dextrose. As you note, get it cool and then blend it back into the brew.

I always sanitised my bottles and the caps before filling. I only clean the Grolsch seals in place. Because they are flexible you can slide you finger around their under-side. But even then, I am not cleaning every nook and cranny. They get dunked in the sanitiser before use.

Great to hear you are going in the right direction OD. It helps to have somebody to go with. The commitment you make to each other keeps the momentum going.

Happy Birthday, Phil. Nice choice

If nothing else, plenty of dead yeast cells as nutrient for any living ones. Assuming...

Sorry for your loss, mate.

So my Passionfruit Catharina Sour, with the pellicle in the fermenter has also formed a pellicle in the keg. I opened the keg this morning. Reasonable pressure in the keg. Looked like it was at least partly carbonated. I could see bubbles rising. It did not smell bad. My guess is that it has continued to ferment. I will take a SG reading later on. Should I hook it up in the kegerator and serve it through the system? I am obviously worried about sanitising the line/tap afterwards. Maybe I should hook it up to gas in the kegerator, but use a cheap picnic tap for serving. Yes, I think I will do that, unless I get advice that suggests otherwise. Fuzzy photo inside the keg

I did 3 dirty batches in a row onto the previous yeast cake, so 4 batches all up, including the original (using Lallemand Diamond Lager yeast). The first batch was Isinglass-ed and Polyclar-ed, the next 3 were only Isinglass-ed because I ran out of Polyclar. The finings being in the slurry did not seem to affect the subsequent beer in any way.

Thanks for the review. Go for the Kegland one. Another $20-30 is money well spent. Having said that, Charlie, you will get a few good years out of this grain mill (I hope). The "slot-together" hopper looks a bit unstable.

I use liquid Isinglass after 24 hours of cold crash. It helps to settle out yeast and other solids. The Mangrove Jacks brand has instructions. For a standard 23 litre brew, decant 300ml of the brew into a sanitised glass jug. Add and stir in 100ml of Isinglass. Gently pour back into the fermenter and give it a gentle stir. Then I use Polyclar to deal with chill haze. I use 0.25g/L. So around 6g in a 23 litre batch. Pretty much the same process as @Otto Von Blotto (because I copied him). Measure into a sanitised glass beaker. Add about 200ml of boiling water. Sit on stir plate for about an hour. Pour into fermenter and gently stir it in. I once used about twice as much Polyclar compared to the proportions above. It actually made the brew more cloudy. Therefore, the take-away is you can over-do it.

Great work. Sounds like you will make beer. Also sounds like you did your research and thinking before doing this brew. Sometimes though things do not go completely to plan. You will learn from it and do better next time.

The COPA keg just blew tonight. I will get one of the Catharina Sours on tomorrow. The CSA keg will probable blow tomorrow. Here's hoping (but also not).

White text again

Mmmm! Bacon

@iBooz2 and @Hoppy81, I doubt @Pale Man intended anything by his post other than commenting about different grain suppliers. Gee, I guess there are "terms of use" but I could not easily find item i). I have referred to Coopers, Kegland, Keg King and others heaps. A member referencing a supplier's website is not the same as a supplier promoting their business. RDWHAHB.

1.5kg of Light Dry Malt will get this brew up around 5% which is suited to the style. If you are okay with that level of ABV, go for it. 1kg of LDM is closer to 4.2%. Although its ABV is less, the bitterness will be more noticeable. I did the Brew A IPA in 2018 with 1.6kg of LDM. It was nice. Around 5% is not over the top alcohol content.