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What's in Your Fermenter? 2017


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Currently I have an APA with Brooklyn and Centennial in the FV. This is my favourite hop combo at present love

 

In a cube and next to be fermented is an ESB with Target & Challenger (with a little Styrian Goldings thrown in). I will be stirring up some Wyeast 1469 for this one.

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I'm loving my small change to the standard Coopers Draught.

 

I originally thought both the Lager and the Draft were a bit "thin" (sorry, I'm new and my terminology is not up to scratch).

 

I have been adding a third of a can of Black Rock Light LME, approx 600gms to the mix. The body and flavours are very much to my liking. It ferments at 21-22 degrees. Goes in at OG 1035 and FG 1001/2 for an ABV of 4.8%.

 

It will be a little high in ABV for upcoming summer guzzling, but great right now.

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Well the in-laws have come and gone' date=' but unfortunately my poor neglected pils is [b']still[/b] in my fermenter (tomorrow it will have been in there for 4 weeks).

Well last night my wife had her first nice dinner out with friends since giving birth to our baby Dean, so of course I took advantage of this and invited my sister over to help me with the bending and lifting of bottling this batch. Little baby Dean, who had conked out after going to bed dead tired, started bawling right before my wife left, so for moment I thought we might not actually get anything done. But, after some cuddles and some songs to get him back to sleep I instructed and supervised my sister to bottle this batch up. Of course she did a pretty dodgy job, but that's little sisters for you. After bottling and saving a litre of yeast slurry and beer we crammed the fermenter full of recyclables from the kitchen recepticle and then into the recycle bin it went. It certainly made it easy not having to clean the fermenter after bottling!

 

So I am now back to one fermenter (my little Craft DIY one), which I am very happy about. Since my wife's gone out today to a bridal shower I reckon I'll start cracking and steeping the chocolate malt to get my Macho Macchiato-based batch going. I saved a pretty decent amount of WY2308 slurry so it should turn out to be one helluva Imperial Baltic something-or-other.

 

I think the best part of the evening was when my wife came home, and was telling us that her friends were asking at the dinner 'Aren't you feeling worried about your baby?' to which she replied, 'No, not at all'. And I think she actually meant it, knowing that some cuddles from Dad and some dodgy lullaby singing = a baby sleeping peacefully until the morning. Even through the Prince of Persia which my sister and I watched after bottling and cleaning up.

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I think the best part of the evening was when my wife came home' date=' and was telling us that her friends were asking at the dinner 'Aren't you feeling worried about your baby?' to which she replied, 'No, not at all'. And I think she actually meant it, knowing that some cuddles from Dad and some dodgy lullaby singing = a baby sleeping peacefully until the morning.[/quote']

 

I love stories like this one John. New generation of parents sharing responsibilities!

 

You have brought back memories from about a year ago when my daughter was 7 or 8 months old. My only opportunity to bottle was after the kids (plural!) were asleep in bed.

 

I sanitised all my bottles and they were draining in my bottling rack (aka dishwasher) and I had bulk primed, transferred and bottled about half the batch when I heard my daughter stir and start crying. I thought it would be a quick pat and resettle. Well 1.5 hours later I returned to my bottling and was committed and didn't finish until past midnight!

 

Well worth it for beer, glorious beer.

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Have just squeezed the dry hop bag of it's held juices back into my current brew & placed my FV into crash chilling mode. Will likely keg this later in the week. The brew smelled really good from the Enigma dry hop, so it is looking promising as I had hoped. happy

 

In the meantime I have a bit of a dilemma, as I currently don't have a spare keg, so will have to do the hard yards & finish off the IPA keg that I have been smashing over the last few weeks so that I have a keg to transfer the new brew into.

 

...or then there's my Mosaic Amber Ale in the other keg that is drinking a treat! Decisions, decisions. tongue

 

It's a tough life I know, but someone's got to do it. wink

 

biggrin

 

Cheers & good brewing,

 

Lusty.

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Dry Hopped my DPA today, day 7 , SG was1.016 which is a bit higher than I was aiming for. This ones got the stubborn Krausen, hopefully the increase in temp and the dumping of the hop can get me another points.

 

Tasted OK and looks to be where I want it. 20g Mosaic and 10g of Cascade should top it off.

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

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DPA (Deliberate Pale Ale)

Just on two weeks with the dry hop of Mosaic (20g) and Cascade (10g) on its 6th day. Tested the SG and its a bit low at 1.011, tasted the SG sample and its close. Dropped the temperature setpoint to 2 degrees.

 

Can't wait.

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

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Transfered the Leftovers APA that i brewed into the FV this morning, and pitched the US05 starter at 18°C. I am using the Kelsey starter method and i was curious how much actual yeast i am putting into the batch, so i measured it and its about 45mls. I dont know what that means exactly but at least i know a measured amount now. Anyway it ended up being 23 litres at 1.045 OG and around the 46 IBU mark. Will dry hop in 5 days or so with a total of 140g mixed hops. I think i might try a smaller strike water volume next batch as i am aiming for 22 litre batches.

 

Cheers!

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I have a mexican cerveza in the fermenter.

1 can of mex cerveza

1 kg BE2

1 packet of m54

25g of citra and galaxy added to a 5 min boil for flavour and steeped for 15-20minutes while cooling off the 5l. Smells great. I needed to get something going after not bittering a lager/pilsner type of beer enough. This was a quick and easy beer to mix together that took about 45 minutes from start to finish. I will probably dry hop after 6 days, pull em out after 5 days and then cold crash and fine before bottling on day 14. After my bittering issue I decided to go back to basics and use a kit and kilo but see how a short aroma boil effects the beer, a beer I am familiar with. I will then try a short flavour boil next time, with the same type of hops to see what that adds to the beer. I am hoping this gives me some experience and what to expect from different boil times. Great thread a lot of tasty recipes on here.

 

Cheers,

 

Norris

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Seeing that I've only been brewing for about 3months I'm still on the simple side of things for the time being. Last night put down the recipe for Coopers Mild ale. It's been hot here for the last couple of days so I held off till last night knowing that temps were going to drop back down and would hopefully allow me to keep temp around 18-20 for the 3-4 following days.

 

For the previous 4 brews I've just chucked the kit dry yeast in on top before closing up the FV. Seeing that I was steeping Saaz hops for 20mins I decided I would rehydrate the yeast just for something different. By time it came to pitch the yeast it was starting to bubble/foam in the cup. Checked on it this morning and there was a good layer of krausen and by lunch time the sounds of bubble rapidly escaping the airlock could be heard. So now it's just wait and monitor.....wait and monitor.. wait and monitor..... and probably consume a few of my dark ales from the last brew.

 

cheers

Glenn

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Finally got another batch in the fermenter now, the 4357th batch of Bo Pils. This one was brewed the weekend after we moved into our new place and pitched on Friday with 2000 Budvar yeast. Currently in the fridge at 10C and will be taking an SG sample tomorrow to see how it's progressing. If it's low 1.020s I'll raise the controller to 18C and let it rise.

 

OG was 1.0463, and if it gets down to the predicted 1.008 FG I'll get about 5% ABV. Good to be back into it again, although I suspect I'll be buying beer again in another month or so as the kegs will definitely run out before I get the next three filled.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

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Nelson Gold (#2)

(Partial Mash)

 

1.50 kg Gladfield Pilsner Ale Malt 39 %

0.30 kg Gladfield Aurora Malt 8 %

0.30 kg Gladfield Toffee Malt 8 %

1.70 kg Coopers (OS) Lager 45 %

10g Waimea - Boil 15.0 min

25g Nelson - FO

25g Nelson - Dry Hop 3 Days

Nottingham Slurry

 

| OG=1.042 | ABV=4.3% | EBC=11 | IBU=30 |

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Quick USA Porter

(extract)

 

1.7 kg Coopers (OS) Dark Ale

2.0 kg LME

0.1 kg Gladfield Med Crystal Malt - 30 min steep

0.1 kg Gladfield Dark Chocolate - 30 min steep

25g Southern Cross - 30 min steep

2 x Kit Yeast

 

| OG=1.048 | ABV=5.0% | EBC=53 | IBU=35 |

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got around to bottling my Imperial Baltic Milk Porter tonight (Macho Macchiato ROTM pack made up to 11 litres). I bulk-primed to about 4g/l, aiming for a fairly low level of carbonation.

 

I had an extra litre or two after filling my bottles, so drank that and the verdict is ... sensational! 1.095 OG to 1.030 FG will give about 9% ABV once bottle-conditioned, but I can't taste the alcohol at all ... it is smooth, rich, roasty and delicious.

 

Next batch in the fermenter will be an all-grain ... something. Since I've still got heaps of Centennial in the freezer, the thought of a Bell's Two Hearted Clone is quite tempting.

 

Cheers,

 

John

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Hi John

 

Good to hear you have found some more time in your life to throw down an AG brew. I've been a but busy of late so cubes r empty but I do have two lagers in the CC phase in my fermentation fridge. Will have to get brewing a hoppy ale in a few weeks. I have a bit in my stockpile so want to drink it while it is fresh and hoppy and not waste any by leaving them a while.and drinking past their prime.

 

Bells two hearted looks like a fantastic recipe. Thanks I will save. Haven't had a lot of luck with my brews including centennial recently. Haven't got that citrus and pine punch that it is known for.

 

Perhaps the 250gm bag I bought was not stored properly or past its prime. Will bookmark this brew and get to it in the future tho.

 

Cheers,

Jools

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Taiheke Gold

(Partial Mash)

 

1.50 kg Gladfield Pilsner Ale Malt 38.5 %

0.20 kg Gladfield Aurora Malt 5.1 %

0.30 kg Gladfield Toffee Malt 7.88 %

1.70 kg Coopers (OS) Lager 43.5 %

200g Sugar 5.1%

5g Waimea - FWH 40mins

25g Taiheke - FO

25g Taiheke - Dry Hop 3-Days

5g Gypsum

Nottingham Slurry

 

| OG=1.042 | ABV=4.4% | EBC=10.5 | IBU=32 |

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