What's in Your Fermenter? 2017

[Otto Von Blotto]

There is no 23 litre version of that beer . It used to be brewed as a 25 litre batch, but when I got a couple of 20L cubes I had to scale recipes back to 21 litres if they were going into one of those cubes. Originally I used those cubes for keg only batches, but now I have a mini keg to blend ales in so I use them mainly for lagers now. I've had a batch of the Ace of Spades Porter sitting in a keg since mid-late February, which will be going on tap with the next block of 3 kegs. Looking forward to tasting it!

 

As for what's in my FV, at the moment a heap of water and sodium carbonate, but tomorrow 21/22 litres of Bo Pils will be going in, the first time that this recipe will be fermented with Wyeast 2000 Budvar Lager yeast.

 

And at some stage very soon I need to order more Saaz hops so I can keep up supply of these pilsners.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[wild dog]

Hop Gobbler:25L

coopers EB kit

1 can Amber malt

500 LDM

150 choc malt

150 crystal malt

15g willamette steep 15 mins

nottingham yeast,dry hop 35g willamette

 

fv2, Sim city mid strength pale

1 can coopers pale

500 LDM

15g simcoe hop tea

yeast us-05

dry hop 30g simcoe

first time using simcoe ,smells the goods! cheers folks

[Otto Von Blotto]

I put my latest Bo Pils into the FV earlier today, this one has an OG of 1.0506, so assuming it gets down to 1.009-10 like they usually do, I should end up with a bit over 5% ABV in the keg. I know it was the right cube this time not just due to the color of it but the unmistakable aroma of Saaz that wafted out of the FV while I was tipping it in.

 

This recipe actually contained a bit of Magnum at 80 minutes because I didn't have enough Saaz left over to get the required bitterness and preferred to keep the later additions at the same weights.

 

Should be ready to keg in about 4 weeks from now, and then the red ale can go in with the oak chips.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[weggl]

21-L water 6kg sugar, carbon, yeast clearing agent. Makes sugar wine 14%, into the Air Still out comes 6.6L of 40% Vodka. Then turn then into Whisky, Bourbon, Rum, or what you like. I'm glowing in the dark.

Weggl

[Beerlust]

I have just finished squeezing the hop tea bag of it's held juices back into the FV, & begun crash chilling an interesting little Pale Ale using Wakatu, Cascade, & Amarillo. First time for a long while that I haven't used any crystal malt in the grist, but does have a little Aromatic & Munich malt in there to help with the maltiness. Will keg it this coming Sunday.

 

I also started the re-activation process on 6 stubbies of Coopers commercial ale yeast. All going well I'll pitch this into a starter on Sunday as well for a likely brew day next Tuesday. I'm looking forward to trying out some new hop varieties in that brew being Fortnight, Mandarina Bavaria, & reacquainting myself with the El Dorado hop that I used just the once in a brew last year. I'm going to put a bit more malt behind this brew than I normally would to push it into the 5.2-5.5% ABV XPA category. Hopefully it makes a nice drop.

 

Cheers & good brewing,

 

Lusty.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I just took my start of day 6 (5 full days since pitching) sample from my Bo pils that's currently fermenting away. It's a bit hard to read the hydrometer with constant bubbling from fermentation creating a head on it, but I'm estimating it to be around 1.025 at the moment. I'll let it go at 10.5C until I go to bed tonight which should see it drop another 3 or 4 points, and then I'll raise the temp controller up to 18C and let it come up by itself inside the fridge. It will then stay up there until 14 days have passed, but should reach FG in the next 2-3 days. Aside from the usual rotten egg aroma, it's smelling like it should be a ripper brew. I won't taste it until FG is properly hit though.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[Titan8]

Hey guys with respect to the Ace of Spades Porter i currently have in fv. Went into fv not last Saturday but the one before. Pretty sure it will be done. Have heat belt on it now. Would i be best taking it off the heat for a few days and let it drop to ambient of around 10 for a couple days prior to kegging. I can't CC as in Sydney until friday night but can get my son to unplug belt.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I would, any time saved chilling it in the kegerator is an advantage I reckon. I'd practice what I preach if I had a third fridge for keg storage

[Titan8]

Thanks mate appreciate the info. I thought about it and wondered if might benefit the end product. I have couple of these smart switches that i csn control from my phone. So might set one up for temp control in future. Son has confirmed he unplugged the belt so it will drop down fairly quickly.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I took the first FG check sample from my pilsner earlier. The krausen has pretty much fallen back in and the beer has cleared up a fair bit as well. The reading was approx. 1.014, so not as low as I was expecting but maybe this yeast doesn't attenuate as much as the Urquell strain. Despite the high potential FG, it didn't present overly thick when I took a small taste, and tasted quite nice for this early stage.

 

I'll take another reading on Monday, but if it doesn't drop any further then that would mean it reached FG in about 8-9 days, maybe even 7.

[Alcofrolic]

Aside from the usual rotten egg aroma' date=' it's smelling like it should be a ripper brew. I won't taste it until FG is properly hit though.

 

[/quote']

 

Hi all. What's the rotten egg aroma about?

Cheers,

Mike

[Otto Von Blotto]

Lager yeasts often throw this aroma during the fermentation phase, but it goes away after a while.

[Titan8]

English Cream Ale.

[Titan8]

Sorry I meant to attach Photo but once again I can see the attachment link.

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Checked the SG of my pilsner earlier, and it did drop slightly more since the previous reading and is now sitting at 1.0125, resulting in an ABV of 4.95%. I am confident that it is finished now (not that I'm worried about bombs), and will begin bringing the temp down tomorrow for its two week cold crash before kegging. If it's not completely finished I'm sure it will knock off the remainder in the keg when it comes back up to room temp for a few weeks or how ever long it sits there.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

[Titan8]

Haha, when im away i get my son to give me a report on my fv every couple days. He sends couple of photos every time. Fv, yeast collection and temp control reading. The last report he sent i could see a distinct blue mark on the fv just above the beer line. I was thinking oh shit i got mold. Asked him to check if that was really blue. He responded that what i was seeing was the blue rubber handle of my bottle capper sitting behind the fv.????

[Bird1986]

I have my first attempt at a belgian witbier in the fv sitting at 21c that I brewed on Sunday. The yeast I used WLP 400 is known for stalling so fingers crossed because I'm really looking forward to this one!

[porschemad911]

I made up the second of my 2 New World Lagers on Monday night and it is fermenting away happily now in my Cool Brewing bag at 14° C. This batch was made up to 21 litres with a TC 86 Days Pilsner kit, 1.5kg Coopers Light LME and 45g Topaz hops added at flameout and steeped for 30 minutes. I'll be adding another 45g Topaz as a dry hop in a week or so.

[ChristinaS1]

Just putting on this 4L batch of braggot now, as an experiment. It is a recipe of my own design and I have no idea what it will be like. I have never even tasted braggot.

 

Smokey Braggot

4L

 

200gm German smoked malt 18%

150gm malted rye 13.5%

75gm Caravienna 7%

75gm Caramunich 7%

3.4L water / wort

600gm honey 54.5%

10gm Mount Hood hops boiled x 30 minutes

2gm bread yeast added to last 5 minutes of boil (=yeast nutrient)

2gm S-04 yeast rehydrated

1gm Fermaid K yeast nutrient added 24 hours post pitch

1gm Fermaid K added 48 hours

 

OG 1.081 FG 1.008 ABV 9.6%

IBU 19 EBC 18

 

Making this BIAB style. I had wanted to use Willamette hops but they were out, so had to sub; I chose Mount Hood, which may turn out to be a mistake.

 

I decided to use strong tasting ingredients and a darker colour as the honey I am using is just cheap, grocery store honey, with a fairly strong flavour. Since the honey is unpasteurized, I may wait 12 hours after pitching to add it, to give the S-04 a head start over any wild yeast.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[Beerlust]

Hi Christina.

 

A very interesting beer you have on the go there.

 

Don't worry about the Mt. Hood, it's a terrific hop for bittering. A slight resiny character, a light spiciness, but above all else, very smooth.

 

I went looking for some of this the other day & couldn't get any. Wasn't happy.

 

One of my favourite bittering hops.

 

Cheers & good luck with the brew,

 

Lusty.

[ChristinaS1]

Hi Christina.

 

A very interesting beer you have on the go there.

 

Don't worry about the Mt. Hood' date=' it's a terrific hop for bittering. A slight resiny character, a light spiciness, but above all else, very smooth. [img']cool[/img]

 

I went looking for some of this the other day & couldn't get any. Wasn't happy.

 

One of my favourite bittering hops.

 

Cheers & good luck with the brew,

 

Lusty.

 

Thanks Lusty, that is reassuring about the Mount Hood hops. I have never used them for bittering before, so I had no idea they are so smooth. Just comparing co-humulone levels between Willamette and Mount Hood, and see Mount Hood is a lot lower, something which you obviously clued into a long time ago. So anyway, maybe I am lucky they were out of Willamette....I have used Mount Hood for late hopping quite often and like them a lot. Pleasant aroma and the little bit of piney spiciness keeps things interesting.

 

Interesting thing about this brew. Because I have something else in my brew fridge, I am controlling temps the old fashioned way. I have the demijohn sitting in a open beverage cooler full of water (too tall to be able to close the lid). I normally ferment S-04 at 20C, but the temp of my bath water wants to stay at 19C, and the brew itself seems to be staying at 19.5C. The airlock began bubbling 15 hours post pitch but it is bubbling much slower than usual and now, at the 24 hour mark, there is still hardly any krausen. I continue to hold off on adding the honey. I'll make my first Fermaid K addition in a few minutes.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[Beerlust]

I currently have an interesting experimental Pale Ale brew in the latter stages that uses some newish hop varieties. It uses the Coopers commercial ale yeast, Mandarina Bavaria, El Dorado, & Fortnight hops.

 

The first stage of dry hopping finished yesterday, & I removed those hops from the fermenter & squeezed out the liquid from the tea bag back into the FV. Tonight after work I'll add the second batch of dry hops & remove the FV from my fermentation fridge to condition for approx. another week before being crash chilled & kegged soon after.

 

The aromas are really nice, & you could certainly tell it was being fermented with the Coopers commercial yeast given the smells it was belching out during the active stage of fermentation.

 

I noticed there have been a few posts lately around beers made by Nail Brewing co. The El Dorado hop I'm using in this brew is the hop of choice Nail Brewing use in their "VPA" (Very Pale Ale).

 

Nail Ale VPA 6.5% ABV

 

I purchased a 4pk of these last year sometime, & was very impressed. I thought it was a lovely beer to drink. So much so, that I sought out the hop to try it.

 

The El Dorado hop is certainly a hop I plan to use a lot more often in the future.

 

Cheers & good brewing,

 

Lusty.

[Titan8]

Darker than expected. And i found out why my attachment link does not show. I have an extension that seems to block the link. Will upload some photos tomorrow.

[Xenon]

. cant delete. doh

[BlackSands]

Just pitched the yeast on a PM version of my first AG brew that I sampled just recently - recipe posted earlier in this thread. It's a munich-based pale ale, but this PM version of course includes 1.7kg LME in the bill. Looking forward to A/B-ing them in a month or so.