What's in your fermenter? 2019

[supernerdy]

On 2/9/2019 at 5:21 PM, supernerdy said:

I said I wasn't going to brew again till after summer and after I have a good supply of glass bottles.. but a trip to beer belly has changed that as well as the weather being more mild. I started with the craft kit before upgrading to the 30ltr but have decided my next beer will be a craft. I'll call this one the left-over IPA as I am using hops I already have in the freezer.

Planned ingrediants (8.5ltr total)

1x Mr Beer Diablo IPA

500gr Light dry male extract

70grm Enigma

70grm Galaxy 

Plan is to use 35gr of each of the hops in a 10 minute boil and then dry hop the remainder.

I was going to use 1kg of dry malt but that brings the anv up to 9% which is a little high as my aim is 6-6.5%. Here's hoping it works out =D 

Annd shes in.

Changed the bittering hops to 15gr of each and will dry hop with another 20gr of each in about a week. Also ended up using the 1kg of light dry malt.. now to wait

[Beer Baron]

5 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Start from 18, drop to 12;

24 hours later drop to 9.7, 24 hours later drop to 7.5, 24 hours later drop to 5.2, 24 hours later drop to 3 then leave for 1.5 weeks or so before kegging and continuing the lagering in the kegerator. All up the process doesn't take any longer than my old crash to zero and leave for two weeks (maybe an extra day) but it does produce a cleaner lager. 

I need to try something like this. To go from 18 to 2 in 1 drop makes my fridge work very hard

[Otto Von Blotto]

It makes mine work hard too although usually it powers through it pretty easily. Not so much where it sits now though because it gets quite warm out there and with the humidity lately it's icing up the freezer chest, which prevents it cooling properly. 

But the main reason why I do that with lagers is flavour. 

[Beerlust]

6 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Hey Lusty, fair point on the timing. It does annoy me a little only having one fermenter currently but once I have two it'll be easier. 

My ramp down goes like this, keeping in mind that I lager them warmer than my usual cold crash to keep the yeast active.

Start from 18, drop to 12;

24 hours later drop to 9.7, 24 hours later drop to 7.5, 24 hours later drop to 5.2, 24 hours later drop to 3 then leave for 1.5 weeks or so before kegging and continuing the lagering in the kegerator. All up the process doesn't take any longer than my old crash to zero and leave for two weeks (maybe an extra day) but it does produce a cleaner lager. 

Thanks. 

[Rowbrew]

I bottled the Bootmaker based Amber Ale yesterday morning to free up my fermenter so i could get the NEIPA on the chew. I ended up pitching 350ml of US-05 slurry from the Amber batch into it. Checked it this morning and it is starting to form a krausen, so should be pumping by the time i get home tonight. First stage dry hops will be added in a couple of days then the next stage dry hops a few days after that

[Brettmo]

Newbie here.

Currently have a mangrove jack's blonde lager pack + 1.2kg lme (that came with the starter kit) cold crashing until I get time to bottle.

Then onto a coopers pale can. I'll probably keep it simple as I would like to get a feel for the base by itself before experimenting too much. So probably just 500g of ldme + 500g dex.

[elLachlano]

Day 2 and Downhill White IPA is going great guns. I've always read about guys getting blowouts out the airlock. I've never really seen that myself before so the fact that the K97 has filled up half the headspace in the FV is exciting!!

[Rowbrew]

So fermentation is well underway on my NEIPA and have to say that it hardly created a krausen. Im not really suprised though using US05. It looks like a super thick hop tea at the moment, lovely. I added the 1st stage dry hops this morning being 20g each of Mandarina Bavaria, El Dorado, and Galaxy. I bagged them up this time because i want to remove and squeeze before adding the 2nd stage dry hops, which will be 30g of each of the same a few days from now. Will keep you all posted!

Cheers!

[headmaster]

Pic of my Cherry Catharina Sour. Going to blow the ABV a tad at 7% bottled. The 4kg of cherries I added bumped the gravity up 10 sg points 

Pretty much 50/50 pils/wheat, hersbruker and saaz, soured with yoghurt lacto starter, Saf K97 German ale yeast. Very tasty so far, nice fresh cherry flavours and aromas. Will cold crash in a day or two as cherries pretty much fermented out after three days. 

[Rowbrew]

It looks lovely Headmaster. I wish my Cherry sour didn'tturn into vinegar! Oh well, i have another sour lined up to brew soon. I might try the cube sour method this time instead of souring in the kettle

[headmaster]

Thanks Rowbrew, it is amazing how the brewing process can take fruit like this, and because it's a low O2 environment, (yeast scavenge the O2, CO2 layer inside the Coopers FV) it does not oxidise and continues to taste like the fresh fruit you added, even though its not refrigerated. 

A clear sign of oxidation in beers like this is a change in colour. if this were to change to a more brown colour, that would indicate oxidation and it would taste no good. 

I made a cider with added mulberries recently, and a mate at work did the same. He couldn't work out why his was brownish and tasted nothing like my deep purple and tasty one, turned out he didn't use a bottling want, he just filled from the top which would have splashed a lot of O2 into it. That would have oxidised the fruit before the yeast doing the carbonation could scavenge it out of solution. 

I do think the kettle sour method is just fine if protected from oxygen,  too much O2 exposure can allow some aerobic bacteria to operate that can produce isovaleric acid which tastes and smells like foot odour and rancid parmesan cheese. 

There are also anaerobic bacteria like Clostridium butyricum that can produce Butyric acid, producing flavours such as bile, vomit and once again rancid cheese. Protecting from O2 won't prevent this one, but this bacteria cannot live below 4.7ph, so this is one of the reasons to pre-acidify your wort down to 4.6ph to provide some insurance against this and other stuff (like botulism, which is very rare but not impossible). Generally only good bacteria can live below that ph. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by headmaster

[headmaster]

On the same topic, another mate of mine made a NEIPA, some of the bottles were stored warm for carbonation, like 25 degrees, and some at about 16 degrees c. The ones stored warm carbed up quickly and it tasted great. The ones stored cooler took much longer to carbonate and they had the classic oxidised off flavour of cooking sherry and slight wet cardboard, plus very muted and slightly unpleasant hop flavour and aroma. 

This would have been the much faster carbonation fermentation activity in the ones stored warm, scavenging the 02 that ended up in the drink before it could oxidise the beer too much 

[kenf]

This week an all Grain Pale Ale with Cascade hops & a 134 Saison with a twist lemon Thyme & in a few days Blueberry!

[#granted+brew]

Day 7 for my Czech Pils, it has gone as I'd hoped so far.

Last night I checked the gravity and it was 1.018 so i lifted the temp from 10°C to 18°C on the controller and just let it rise up by itself with the ambient temp. By this arvo it was just getting to 18°C.  

For the first time i was going to do the 'kelsey method'  thing with the hydrometer sample. But I'm a geek and I spilt the hydrometer that I was going to keep in the fridge so will take another one tomorrow night 

Cheers, Lee

 

Edited February 15, 2019 by #granted+brew

[ChristinaS1]

On 1/27/2019 at 1:06 PM, ChristinaS1 said:

Just put down this partial mash English Bitter recipe of my own design:

1.7kg Coopers APA

1.3kg Briess Golden LME

350gm Bairds Maris Otter malt 9.4%

225gm Crystal Wheat 6.1%

75gm C120L 2%

65gm TF Pale Chocolate 1.7%

7gm Cascades boiled x 15 minutes

30gm Willamette boiled x 15 minutes

S-33 Gen 2 slurry from pervious batch

3gm Cascades DH

15gm Willamette DH

 

I usually use Vienna as the base malt in my partial mashes, but am using Maris Otter for this. It is my first time using Maris Otter.  I am kind of expecting not to be able to notice the difference as the percentage is only 9.4%, but maybe I will. 

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

I just bottled this brew and am excited to report that, for the first time ever, I have succeeded in capturing something close to what I have tasted in the pubs in England. I am very pleased. I am not sure what accounts for the authentic taste, whether it is the 350gm of Maris Otter in the partial mash, or the 65gm of Thomas Fawcett's Pale Chocolate (using both for the first time), or the combination of the two. That is not to say I would not change anything. The recipe could no doubt be improved by using S-04 or a liquid English yeast, and somewhat increasing the amount of Maris Otter.

BTW, based on BlackSands ribbing, I bumped up the amount of Cascades to 7gm. I know that part is not English, but it is good.

Cheers,

Christina.

 

[Hairy]

2 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

I just bottled this brew and am excited to report that, for the first time ever, I have succeeded in capturing something close to what I have tasted in the pubs in England. I am very pleased. I am not sure what accounts for the authentic taste, whether it is the 350gm of Maris Otter in the partial mash, or the 65gm of Thomas Fawcett's Pale Chocolate (using both for the first time), or the combination of the two. That is not to say I would not change anything. The recipe could no doubt be improved by using S-04 or a liquid English yeast, and somewhat increasing the amount of Maris Otter.

BTW, based on BlackSands ribbing, I bumped up the amount of Cascades to 7gm. I know that part is not English, but it is good.

Cheers,

Christina.

 

It was probably both that helped. Definitely up the Maris Otter and go with an English style yeast next time. You will be much closer.

[Hairy]

I am brewing an ESB next up. I need to get some more Wyeast 1469 for it.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Day 1 of the pale ale fermentation is underway finally. Pitched just now, ended up with 24 litres although I'm only using a 19 litre keg so some will be wasted. Might fill the two PET bottles I have from when Ben sent me his beers though. 

I put the cube in the brew fridge when I went to bed last night at about 1:30, pulled it out about half an hour or so before transferring to the fermenter so I could remove the bung, fit a tap and then allow the trub in it to settle out again. It's currently sitting at 17.5 degrees and dropping (fridge is off, set to 18), so exactly where I wanted it for pitching. I figure it will probably drop another degree at the most before it starts warming up again. The last pale ale I pitched about 12 degrees and it was fine so I'm not concerned about it.

[Beerlust]

I've just removed the Enigma dry hop from my current Coopers DIY Enterprise Lager brew. I'm openly a fan of Nelson Sauvin & HPA have done a terrific job producing the Enigma hop that has many similarities to Nelson Sauvin. I'm fast becoming a fan of this hop. The aromatics from it are really lovely.

I am still mildly concerned with the flavour of the beer at this point though. The brew appeared to ferment quite quickly & unexpectedly before I took a SG reading & began the diacetyl rest. I think it's just yeast that appears to still be in suspension but am not completely sure at this junction from the sample I drew & tasted a short while ago. Anyways it's now in cold condition mode & will stay that way for the next week where I will then look to keg it provided it tastes OK from the FV next week.

Fingers crossed it's just yeast in suspension causing the slight flavour issue I detect. 

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Checking it an hour or so later and it was still at 17.5 and now at 17.7 so if it did drop it didn't drop far. On its way up to 18.3 to kick the fridge in so should have proper fermentation underway within the next 24 hours.

I'll dry hop this brew a couple of days before the cold crash, and also do a small keg hop with 10g each of the late hops used. Just have to dig the recipe out to find out what they were

[porschemad911]

I bottled up my latest saison tonight. I filled a 6l Tap-a-draft bottle and 8 x 500ml bottles. It will be nice having a 9% oaked imperial black saison on tap in winter. It's tasting great, rich yet dry and complex, with the oak subtly smoothing everything out.

Cheers, 

John

Edited February 18, 2019 by porschemad911

[Otto Von Blotto]

No krausen on my pale ale earlier today but there was an inch or so on it when I got home about 7 tonight. There may have been some forming when I left at around 1, but I'm using my second fermenter for this one and I can't see through the lid as easily. 

Forgot to clean the other one for a couple of days after kegging that English ale and it went all manky inside. It's about 6 or 7 years old now though so I'm thinking of chucking it and getting another new one anyway. 

[bennysbrew]

St Pat's Day nears, thought I'd do a quick turn around Irish stout. One tin I've never used.

Simple recipe, Irish stout tin, 500g ldm, 300 dextrose, 150g choc steeped, 25g fuggles steeped. 

Syringe will be in heavy use 

[Rowbrew]

I removed and squeezed the second stage dry hops in my NEIPA earlier today and took another hydro sample. Its sitting at 1.010 from 1.066 which makes for about 7.4% I also decided to add some gelatin and do a cold crash this time around, only because the last NEIPA I made had alot of yeast still in suspesion and had this intense spicy character to it that i can only think of as yeast burn. Oh well see what happens i guess

Edited February 19, 2019 by Rowbrew

[Beer Baron]

27 minutes ago, Rowbrew said:

I removed and squeezed the second stage dry hops in my NEIPA earlier today and took another hydro sample. Its sitting at 1.010 from 1.066 which makes for about 7.4% I also decided to add some gelatin and do a cold crash this time around, only because the last NEIPA I made had alot of yeast still in suspesion and had this intense spicy character to it that i can only think of as yeast burn. Oh well see what happens i guess

Very nice looking sample. How was the taste??