BREW DAY!! WATCHA' GOT, EH!? 2019

[Pezzza]

6 minutes ago, Beer Baron said:

That’s the plan. It’s just hard to save up that much with my small budget. It will come eventually 

Fair enough mate.  Ah well maybe in the meantime have a look for a more cost-effective provider.  Think Cheeky Peak Wodonga might be worth a look... I got some kegging gear from them and while I was there picked up some specialty grain... chocolate malt and smoked malt... that was not real cheap at around $6kg per kilo but one uses less of those... 

And they seemed to be making up quite a few All Grain recipes for shipping out...  Even with a swag of hops and severe shipping you'd hope a 12L NEIPA should not cost you $75...  but honestly when you can buy ONE 500ml bottle of Craft Beer from Grog-Shop at $17 you are a long way ahead yet. 

[MitchBastard]

My (Aussie) Osbourne Lager Bubbling away.

pretty basic.

5kg Barrett Burston 

.35kg Munich 

.150kg carapils. 
 

17g POR @60

25g @ FO 

 

i really wanted to chill this bastard but given our current water/drought sitch I couldn’t justify wasting water when I can cube it.  On another positive I’ve worked out all my equipment and numbers are being hit. Finally. 
 

 

[John304]

2 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Pray tell where?

Beer belly pooraka in Adelaide.

[Pezzza]

4 minutes ago, John304 said:

Beer belly pooraka in Adelaide.

Sweet thanks Cobber.   Am in the scrub NSW but will be chasing this up.  Got plenty bags of stuff at the mo I need to use up... but that is good advice for the future as I would very much like to have a crack at some nice Aussie Coopers Malt!  Txvm. BB

[John304]

Most of their gear is reasonably priced, not sure on freight, I pick up 

JG

[Beer Baron]

2 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

i really wanted to chill this bastard but given our current water/drought sitch I couldn’t justify wasting water

Last time I chilled I put the water into my water tank so it wasn’t a complete waste

[MitchBastard]

4 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

EDIT

17g POR @60

25g cascade  @ FO 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Mash is underway, doing 50 at 63, 20 at 72 before mash out, then bag drain and rinse, FWH steep, so I probably won't get the boil started for another 3 hours

First brew day since the solar was installed, pretty cool powering it all from our own production. 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Otto Von Blotto

[ben 10]

9 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

First brew day since the solar was installed, pretty cool powering it all from our own production. 

Congrats, had mine on for a few years... tis good.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Putting down a double IPA to clean out some leftover hops. This one will be kegged with 60gm of keg hops. Should go down well and be nice and hoppy. Fermented with a 2.5L starter of American Ale 1272

 

[Pezzza]

7 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Putting down a double IPA to clean out some leftover hops. This one will be kegged with 60gm of keg hops. Should go down well and be nice and hoppy. Fermented with a 2.5L starter of American Ale 1272

Hey Greeny! 

Three questions for you (sorry to bother as you are having a busy day no doubt... I am not brewing as I have some water issues I need to sort out unfortunately... the blooddddy drought and previous issues with my rainwater tanks and shittty pipelines taps and fittings... may even need to fetch brewing water in when I do the next one)

1. What sort of ABV are you targeting in the final product?

2. Does double IPA mean just amping up the Hops?

3. With keg hopping - do you just drop in hop sock or tealeaf-ball full of hops into the keg holus bolus and then remove them only after drinking the keg dry?

Cheers and good luck with the festive brew!

BB

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

1 minute ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Hey Greeny! 

Three questions for you (sorry to bother as you are having a busy day no doubt... I am not brewing as I have some water issues I need to sort out unfortunately... the blooddddy drought and previous issues with my rainwater tanks and shittty pipelines taps and fittings... may even need to fetch brewing water in when I do the next one)

1. What sort of ABV are you targeting in the final product?

2. Does double IPA mean just amping up the Hops?

3. With keg hopping - do you just drop in hop sock or tealeaf-ball full of hops into the keg holus bolus and then remove them only after drinking the keg dry?

Cheers and good luck with the festive brew!

BB

Hey mate.

Yeah having a good day. Yeah i feel for you guys on the land. Hope it rains soon for you.

Im targeting mid 7s. DIPA range from 7.5 up to about 10 but i dont like them super strong.

DIPA is more hops . More IBU and i like more speciality malt in it too to balance off the extra bitterness. 

I usually use a tea ball but this wont be enough to allow 60gm to expand. Ill be tying off a hop sock and tying it to the underside of my keg lid. I leave them in all the way. I find it doesn't give grassy flavors but some think it does. What it does give you though is about double the hit of a dry hop. I would have to dry hop about 100gm to get the same hit as a 60gm keg hop.

[Pezzza]

10 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Hey mate.

Yeah having a good day. Yeah i feel for you guys on the land. Hope it rains soon for you.

Im targeting mid 7s. DIPA range from 7.5 up to about 10 but i dont like them super strong.

DIPA is more hops . More IBU and i like more speciality malt in it too to balance off the extra bitterness. 

I usually use a tea ball but this wont be enough to allow 60gm to expand. Ill be tying off a hop sock and tying it to the underside of my keg lid. I leave them in all the way. I find it doesn't give grassy flavors but some think it does. What it does give you though is about double the hit of a dry hop. I would have to dry hop about 100gm to get the same hit as a 60gm keg hop.

Schweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet Little Betty!  Yeeehaaa!  Sounds ripper mate.  Go you good thing!   And I reckon 7+ is a great number : )

Yeah the water thing is problematic... drought is one thing... but the Landlord's crrrrrrap fittings when I first got here have confounded the issue... long story but a pain in the...

My virgin IPA in the Keg was nominally 8+ but I am happy to not go too much above that.  Funny that first-keg-IPA-brew might be more of a DIPA given the ABV and extra malt and extra hops.. I just brew stuff that seems right and am not really that well aligned with the BJCP Guidelines as me mate @PaddyBrew2 would attest to ; )  

Too much of a 'free spirit' ha ha 

Though I do take in what the brewers do on this site and bed-time reading for me is generally Palmer : )

Anyway - I reckon I need to have a crack at a Kegging-hoppage - hop sock or teaball whatever in the keg - cos I sorta think I really did not get the 'bang-for-buck' on my late hopping in the FV for this first keg brew... is very good don't get me wrong and others' opinions have been very positive.. but I really thought I would get more hop aroma ooooomph.

So is keg hopping then fine-and-dandy if one is doing a secondary 'natural' carb in the keg (NOT force-carbing) ?

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

I have never naturally carbed and did a keg hop. I hae always force carbed when keg hopping. Cant hurt trying it though. I dont see how it would cause an issue.

Rules are made to be broken mate. With IPAs there are a couple of rules i have found that works though. Match the ABV to the IBU or thereabouts. Half the IBU in the initial bittering and half from late hops. They both give me a result im happy with.

[Norris!]

Put down a quick extract brew to fill some kegs and send out.  I might do a double dry hop or keep it like it is. If I do double dry hop, it will be with another 65g of mosaic, still weighing that option up.

Having a taste of the hazy pale ale while I brew, that I kegged and bottled yesterday, will post pictures later, it looks good and tastes nice. The bitterness let's you know it isn't juice but the aroma makes you think it is. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Norris!

[Maurice79]

First go at an American Wheat. Usually do a German hefeweizen for each  summer so decided to try something different to use up our cascade hop flowers.

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
2.40 kg               White Wheat Malt (4.7 EBC)               Grain         1        50.0 %        
1.20 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC)           Grain         2        25.0 %        
1.20 kg               Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC)            Grain         3        25.0 %        
5.00 g                Amarillo [8.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min  Hop           4        4.8 IBUs      
5.00 g                Cascade [7.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           5        4.2 IBUs      
100.00 g              Cascade [5.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  10.0 Hop           6        9.6 IBUs      
40.00 g               Amarillo [8.10 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  10. Hop           7        6.2 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124 Yeast         8        -            

 

 

 

[Pezzza]

1 hour ago, Maurice79 said:

First go at an American Wheat. Usually do a German hefeweizen for each  summer so decided to try something different to use up our cascade hop flowers.

 

Those flowers look great M.  Did you dry them and keep in freezer?

Edited November 16, 2019 by Bearded Burbler

[Maurice79]

8 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Those flowers look great M.  Did you dry them and keep in freezer?

Dried, vacuum sealed then stored in fridge or freezer depending on space. I'm thinking of trying to make some hop plugs next year to save a bit of space. 

[Norris!]

3 minutes ago, Maurice79 said:

Dried, vacuum sealed then stored in fridge or freezer depending on space. I'm thinking of trying to make some hop plugs next year to save a bit of space. 

I have never looked into that, what would it entail? Sounds pretty cool.

[Maurice79]

19 minutes ago, Norris! said:

I have never looked into that, what would it entail? Sounds pretty cool.

Its basically compressing the dried flowers. Can use a drill press or something similar to compress in a tube. In theory they will stick together and stay compressed. I haven't tried yet but could be helpful for storage. 

[BlackSands]

Sovereign IPA    -   18 litre AG English IPA

Continuing my exploration into lesser known hops this is a first ever crack at an English IPA.  I've sourced some very affordable UK Pioneer hops for $3.50/100g and some UK Sovereign for $5/100g - one obvious advantage of choosing lesser known hops!   It's hard to know why some hops fall out of favour - maybe I'm about find out!      I read however that Sovereign is a worthy sub for the likes of Goldings and Fuggles etc so I'm not too worried at this stage. 

It's interesting to note the stark contrast between this style and it's American counterpart.  Apart from the use of traditional English ingredients these beers seem to line up more with APA's in terms of IBU, ABV etc.  It was interesting to also note when looking into the style that dry hopping was often not part of many of the recipes I reviewed, though I'm actually doing a 2.8g/litre dry hop charge in this one.  I'm also following a more modern trend with the style and keeping the malt base simple and light.    The inclusion of a nominal percentage of simple sugar, often caramelised, was a common feature I noted, so I've also included some in this recipe, which additionally helps get my ABV on target. 

    

• 3.2kg GF Ale Malt
• 0.3kg GF Light Crystal
• 0.35 Raw Sugar
• 25g Pioneer Hops @45mins
• 25g Sovereign Hops @20mins
• 25g Sovereign Hops @10mins
• 25g Soverein Hops @5mins
• 25g Pioneer Hops (Dry)
• 25g Sovereign Hops (dry)
• M36 Yeast
• 5g each Gypsum & Calc Carbonate

| ABV=5.8% | EBC=15 | IBU=43 |

 

I'm 45 minutes into a 66ºC mash... so far so good...

Edited November 21, 2019 by BlackSands

[ben 10]

35 minutes ago, BlackSands said:

this is a first ever crack at an English IPA

I love a good malty English IPA. I'd up the ibu to over 50 if it was me. Probably approach 60.
Looks good though.

[BlackSands]

2 hours ago, Ben 10 said:

I love a good malty English IPA. I'd up the ibu to over 50 if it was me. Probably approach 60.
Looks good though.

I was err'ing on the lower end of the scale out of consideration for the 'bitter-phobics' in the house, but I've taken your recommendation onboard anyway, sod 'em!  I extended the boil time so it should have landed close to 50 IBU now.   

Unfortunately the mash fell well short of my target OG this time.  No idea why.  Back to my more usual 70% as opposed to close to 80% on the previous brew.  Looks like it'll be a 5.2% beer.

Just pitched the M36 yeast slurry, so we're all done for the day! 

Edited November 21, 2019 by BlackSands

[ben 10]

26 minutes ago, BlackSands said:

but I've taken your recommendation onboard

Good, need some decent bitterness to be an IPA

[ben 10]

Quote

Recipe: Belgian Session
Brewer: Grumpy
Style: Belgian Blond Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 L   
Estimated OG: 1.034 SG
Estimated Color: 9.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 27.4 IBUs

Ingredients:
------------
Amt              Name                                             Type          #          %/IBU         Volume        
1.50 kg          Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC)             Grain         1          50.0 %        0.98 L        
1.50 kg          Wheat Malt (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EBC)           Grain         2          50.0 %        0.98 L        
10.00 g          Styrian Goldings [4.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop           3          5.8 IBUs      -             
3.65 g           Brewbrite (Boil 10.0 mins)                       Fining        4          -             -             
45.00 g          Melba [12.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20.0 min      Hop           5          21.6 IBUs     -             

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unsure what yeast yet, either Forbidden Fruit or Leuven Pale Ale