Brew Day!! Watcha' got, eh!? 2018

[Lab Cat]

On 10/30/2018 at 2:59 PM, Lab Rat said:

Brew #6. Having another crack at a Pilsner, as my last one is an average lager. Didn't get any Saaz happening there at all.

Black Rock Export Pilsner. BR Blonde LME. 50g Saaz. Will do a short boil with some, then toss in the rest for 15-20m, after it's cooled.

As I don't have temp control and will brew at 18-20c, I'm using US05, only because they didn't have Nottingham, which I've done ok with.

Well this turned out pretty crap. Yes, it's beer, but nothing like I was hoping for, which was a bitter lager. This is a bland, malty lager, very much like the bog standard coppers lager, but with malt. It's like I didn't add any hops at all, I certainly can't taste any.

So I'm giving up on trying lagers with ale yeast. This was the 2nd attempt and they've both been meh, even though the fermetables and yeasts have been a bit different with each.

My best beer was the black rock pale, with 100g of dry hop added, and a BE3 style mix, but it only came out at 3.5%, so a bit thin on body. Next best was the Coopers bootmaker, which was at the other end of the body spectrum. I think they suggest too much malt, being 1.5kg.

Next up is the Black Rock craft APA, 1kg dry malt and 70g Mosaic dry hopped. BR suggest their 1.7kg liquid malts with their extracts, but I used that with the last one and I think it's too much malt.

[ben 10]

5 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

too much malt.

can be an issue with kit brews, chuck some dex in for the abv if you wnt it, ferments to nothing and helps with decreasing the maltiness

[Lab Cat]

Cheers I can always thrown 200 of dex if i need to kick things up without adding more malt.

I think the bigger issue with this brew was BRs recommendation to use their liquid malts in place of fermntables. US05 went nuts on it and wouldn't drop the krausen. It was still really muddy after day 11 with a half inch of dense foam, so I dropped gelatine in it.

When I did the first pale with a BE3 style mix, it ended up thin and low in abv. The shop was surprised as they reckon it should have been 4.5 easy.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'm surprised too. A kit and kilo of be3 should have been around the 4.5% mark if it was brewed to 23 litres or so. What OG and FG did you record on it? 

[Wobbly74]

Decided to try a kolsch for summer after quite enjoying them while in cologne recently. Trying wlp029, will ferment at 15C. Did a double batch because why not. Good efficiency again from the reiterated mash. Did the first short rest at 55, stepped to 63 then went straight to sparge the first mash, reset to a strike temp +1.5 degrees, mashed in the second lot of grain, rested again at 63 followed by mash out, sparge and then boil. Once again, pushing the kettle volume a bit followed by a 3L top up at flameout. 

Bombed Out

All Grain Recipe

Batch Size: 48.33 l	Style: Kölsch (5B)
Boil Size: 55.00 l	Style Guide: BJCP 2015
Color: 6.3 EBC	Equipment: 58L Keggle
Bitterness: 22.0 IBUs	Boil Time: 60 min
Est OG: 1.046 (11.4° P)	Mash Profile: Temperature Mash, 3 Step, Light Body
Est FG: 1.011 SG (2.9° P)	Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
ABV: 4.5%	Taste Rating: 30.0

Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	#
64.00 l	Beaumaris, Vic	Water	1
10.40 g	Calcium Chloride (Mash 60 min)	Misc	2
2.40 g	Calcium Chloride (Mash 60 min)	Misc	3
0.75	Campden Tablet (Mash 65 min)	Misc	4
0.25	Campden Tablet (Mash 60 min)	Misc	5
8.60 kg	Premium Pilsner (Weyermann) (2.8 EBC)	Grain	6
200.0 g	Caramalt (Joe White) (49.3 EBC)	Grain	7
200.0 g	Munich II (Weyermann) (16.7 EBC)	Grain	8
40.0 g	Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.4%] - First Wort	Hops	9
90.0 g	Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.4%] - Boil 10 min	Hops	10
1.00	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10 min)	Misc	11
30.0 g	Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.4%] - Steep 5 min	Hops	12
2 pkgs	German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029)	Yeast	13

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Looks very nice there wobbly. My next weekend brewday will be a kolsch as well. Such a good drink for summer.

[supernerdy]

Today's brew is simple..first of my bigger brews and a copy of what some of the other guys have done (Similar to Coopers Session Ale)

1kg x LDME

1 x Coopers Australian Pale Ale

15gr x Galaxy Hops

15gr x Enigma Hops

US-05 yeast

Boiling the hops to make a solution today and will add another 15gr of each at day 7 for dry hopping.

Simple and hopefully works well as this is my holidays beer so wish me luck

[Smashed Crabs]

Nice Super, iv made very similar brews and am a massive fan of Galaxy. Nice simple easy to drink brew right there.

[Lab Cat]

9 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I'm surprised too. A kit and kilo of be3 should have been around the 4.5% mark if it was brewed to 23 litres or so. What OG and FG did you record on it? 

1.038 - 1.012. I don't know the exact mix in the fermentables as it was a shop mix, but it looked to be about 50% malt. They said it was similar to BE3

 

[supernerdy]

2 hours ago, supernerdy said:

Today's brew is simple..first of my bigger brews and a copy of what some of the other guys have done (Similar to Coopers Session Ale)

1kg x LDME

1 x Coopers Australian Pale Ale

15gr x Galaxy Hops

15gr x Enigma Hops

US-05 yeast

Boiling the hops to make a solution today and will add another 15gr of each at day 7 for dry hopping.

Simple and hopefully works well as this is my holidays beer so wish me luck

and shes in.. annoyingly used a cheap thermometer strip and it isnt showing me anything

 

[Smashed Crabs]

Checked on the RIS before I left for work this morning, was only in the FV and the air lock was going off its tits! I'm unable to take a gravity reading atm due to the thickness of my condensed wort but iv worked it out to roughly 12.6% ABV if I top up to the 20L mark. Just wee bit higher then the original recipe on the site. Dare say I might top up 23-25Litres unless I wanna have one beer and call it a night lol. Hopefully the 3 x kit yeast + the Slurry I pitched are enough to bring this monster down.  

[Otto Von Blotto]

1 hour ago, Lab Rat said:

1.038 - 1.012. I don't know the exact mix in the fermentables as it was a shop mix, but it looked to be about 50% malt. They said it was similar to BE3

 

Yeah that works out about 3.8% bottled, still quite a way under the 4.5% figure though. Perhaps there were more unfermentable sugars in it than in be3. It should have dropped another 4-5 points to achieve that ABV. 

[Lab Cat]

1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Yeah that works out about 3.8% bottled, still quite a way under the 4.5% figure though. Perhaps there were more unfermentable sugars in it than in be3. It should have dropped another 4-5 points to achieve that ABV. 

We'll never know. The store puts the mix together and they expected I'd get something around 4.5 as well. With my next one I'm going back to pales.

I was going to do the Bootmaker again, but drop the malt to 1kg and a lot of dry hop. But Black Rock have a craft range, so will try their APA. These are pricey compared to Coopers ($29), so hoping for something good. I'm using a simple recipe which made good beer when brewed with a standard pale kit. Just the K+K and 70g of mosaic dry hopped and kit yeast.

[Silmaril]

5 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

I'm using a simple recipe which made good beer when brewed with a standard pale kit. Just the K+K and 70g of mosaic dry hopped and kit yeast.

So far the Coopers Pale Ale can I used with a Citra dry hop has been my best beer yet. Will definitely do that one again and may even get more adventurous on the hop quantity. 

 

[Lab Cat]

9 minutes ago, Silmaril said:

So far the Coopers Pale Ale can I used with a Citra dry hop has been my best beer yet. Will definitely do that one again and may even get more adventurous on the hop quantity. 

 

Same here, with the black rock pale. I might have only got 3.5%, but the dry hopping saved it, everyone who's tried it loved it. I went big and used 100g hops, which would induce a few heart attacks on here. 50-50 of Citra and Mosiac. I didn't leave as much room as needed in the chux, so the 100g probably never fully steeped into into the wort.

I don't know how hoppy the craft black rock APA is, so 70g mosaic should be enough, and I will leave plenty of room in the bag.

in contrast, the occasions I've boiled and steeped hops has delivered little or nothing, flavourwise. My English bitter had boiled fuggles in it and is pleasantly bitter, but that could be the kit.

[Smashed Crabs]

@Lab Rat considered trying brewing a unhopped extract and doing all the bittering / flavor And aroma hops yourself?

[Lab Cat]

58 minutes ago, Smashed Crabs said:

@Lab Rat considered trying brewing a unhopped extract and doing all the bittering / flavor And aroma hops yourself?

Not really. I don't know enough about the types, flavours and amounts of hops I like to do this. Not sure how this would help either, given all the hopped up kits I've used, bar one, haven't imparted noticeable hop additions I've made anyway?

This Black Rock APA is an exception. My OG sample has a huge hop hit. The only other thing I can taste is the malt, which is to be expected. But this kits has a shitload of hop.

Strangely (and now starting to get annoying) is my OG is low yet again, at 1.040. So if I end up at 1.012, which is where almost all my brews have stopped, I'm looking at another midstrength beer. I don't mind mids, but I want to be able to make them when I want, not all the time. The only beers that have got past 5% are my Bitter and the Bootmakers, which is brewed with 1.5kg malt.

[Otto Von Blotto]

A 1.7kg kit and 1kg of fermentables will always give an OG of 1.038-40 in 23 litres. There's no way to increase the ABV other than increasing the added fermentables, decreasing the batch volume or using 1kg of straight dextrose/table sugar instead of malt, which wouldn't taste very good. 

[Smashed Crabs]

All G, just a suggestion. I noticed a massive flavor and aroma difference in doing my hopping with my small batch AG as iv noted in my previous batches that the ones iv done hop teas and some small boil additions that the flavors I was looking for weren't there.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I don't know why, but I noticed the hops stood out more in my AG brews compared to extract or kit brews. Late and dry hops were more noticeable for some reason despite being of similar amounts. It's one reason I kept up AG and never went back to extracts. 

[Lab Cat]

7 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

A 1.7kg kit and 1kg of fermentables will always give an OG of 1.038-40 in 23 litres. There's no way to increase the ABV other than increasing the added fermentables, decreasing the batch volume or using 1kg of straight dextrose/table sugar instead of malt, which wouldn't taste very good. 

Now I'm confused. When I've posted about my low ABVs, any responses have been that a KK should return around 4.5%. Yet all my Ogs have been around this level, so how can any of my beers be expected to get to this ABV? I understand I'd need to add more dex if I want to kick it up. But I ahven't as here and the beer shops are telling me a Kit with 1kg mixed fermentables or malt, should deliver 4.5 or more

[Smashed Crabs]

8 minutes ago, Lab Rat said:

Now I'm confused. When I've posted about my low ABVs, any responses have been that a KK should return around 4.5%. Yet all my Ogs have been around this level, so how can any of my beers be expected to get to this ABV?

if you used a kilo of dextrose that will give that and since you don't know the percentage make up of your LHBS kilo that's meant to be like BE3 there's could 50% Maltodex 25%LDM 25%Dex. Could always go 1kg of LDM and 200grams of Dex that will bump your ABV up.

[Otto Von Blotto]

1 minute ago, Lab Rat said:

Now I'm confused. When I've posted about my low ABVs, any responses have been that a KK should return around 4.5%. Yet all my Ogs have been around this level, so how can any of my beers be expected to get to this ABV?

If you don't increase the fermentables or reduce the batch volume, by fermenting out to a lower FG. The maltodextrin that is likely in those mixes you're using doesn't ferment which leads to a higher FG and also gives only 700-800g of fermentables in that 1kg. If you used say 750g dry malt and 250 dextrose it would probably drop lower than 1.012, giving a higher ABV. If it finished at 1.008-9 from 1.040 instead of 1.012 then you'd get about 4.5% in the bottles.

 

[Lab Cat]

 

10 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

If it finished at 1.008-9 from 1.040 instead of 1.012 then you'd get about 4.5% in the bottles.

 

Still confused Otto. I'm using an ABV calculator app, and those calculations come out at 3.7%. Are you supposed to allow extra for the sugar added for conditioning?

The mid pale I did was 1038-1012 and 3.5 was my calculators abv. It's definitely a lighter alc beer, no way it's got up to 4.5 during bottling.

[Titan]

8 hours ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Looks very nice there wobbly. My next weekend brewday will be a kolsch as well. Such a good drink for summer.

Yeah i loved the kolsch. Memories of when i worked in Germany 20 years ago. Loved how they served it also, think it was 200ml glasses. I have tried a kolsch here, but only once and it was terrible. Would love to try and do my own. Let me know how it goes wobbly.