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What's in your fermenter? 2019


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10 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

So what do we do to passivate the SS - I just went off and brewed regardless... any passivating advice?

It's basically just an acid treatment, but it shouldn't really be necessary unless the surface has been scratched deeply enough to expose the bare steel under the chromium oxide layer or there is rust evident. 

What it does is cleans the steel, and then exposure to the air creates the protective chromium oxide layer. In industrial situations they use nitric acid baths, but at home generally oxalic acid is used.

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12 hours ago, Ben 10 said:

FV 1 IPA 67 (my style)
FV 2 IPA 67 ( @Beerlust style)
FV3 MJ Rosé cider
FV4 TPW
FV5 TPW
FV6 Flanders red (in 25/05)
FV7 still on the shelf, need to passivate the stainless.

....and people thought I was joking when I posted the following pic a few years ago...

Ben10_Fermenting.jpg

Myth busted. 😉

Cheers,

Lusty.

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1 hour ago, MitchBastard said:

Cheers mate.

 

too much light crystal? 

Don't listen to him Mitch, Ben is scared of the stuff! 😜

The light crystal malts can be real light, & only contribute moderate sweetness levels. Once you start using crystal malts above approx. the 100 EBC mark it does pay to watch your percentages a little more carefully vs the ABV mark you're brewing at to avoid excessive sweetness & retained body in the final beer from them.

To be fair to Ben, he resides in a fairly tropical zone with increased humidity a lot of the time. If I lived in that climate, I probably wouldn't want a lot of cloying sweetness in my beers either. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

Edited by Beerlust
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Cheers Lusty @Beerlust haha.

well...I was reading about percentages and came across something stating that American pale ales have 10-15% crystal Malts in the grain bill. True or Nar? 

Not sure if I’d call mine and American P but Taking this into account and not wanting a darker pale ale I went for the lightest I could get a hold of  and went for round numbers of 10%. I don’t enjoy beers on the sweeter end of things  and In all honestly it’s not sweet at all funnily enough.  super happy with the sample. 

Yew

Edited by MitchBastard
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23 minutes ago, MitchBastard said:

well...I was reading about percentages and came across something stating that American pale ales have 10-15% crystal Malts in the grain bill. True or Nar?

Yes they do. Again climate comes into it. You look at regions like the pacific north west near the Canadian border, the north east coast including places like New York & Boston etc., along with mountain country like Colorado, & these places do produce American Pale Ales that have higher weights of crystal/cara malts due to the very cold weather for fair whacks of the year. The southern east & west coast areas still produce beers like these, but you'll find as a general rule their bigger selling beers use less of these more cloying malted grains in their beers due to generally warmer weather all year round. Places like Texas, California, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida etc.

Karl Strauss's Pintail Pale Ale, is a good commercial example of that style (IMHO).

Cheers,

Lusty.

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2 minutes ago, Ben 10 said:

...Sometimes though I don't even see the point at all. Pale to Munich 4:1 or something is good.

Yup. Munich is a good substitute for crystal malt where the climate doesn't quite suit.

Cheers,

Lusty.

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Put the dry hops into my leftovers pale ale earlier today. 30g Cascade, 26g Waimea, and whatever of Vic Secret, Centennial and Motueka. All up there was about 80-85g split over two large tea strainers. Cold crash begins Wednesday, and will keg it the following week. I'm thinking I'll save this one and the following pilsner for my birthday BBQ the day after the AFL Grand final. 

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3 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

Cheers mate.

 

too much light crystal? 

For my tastes it wouldn't necessarily be too much, but it would probably depend a bit on the mash temp as well, as mashing crystal malts tends to lessen the amount of unfermentable sugars released from them compared to steeping them by themselves, as the enzymes break them down somewhat. Lower mash temps mean fewer unfermentable sugars. 

Whenever I make the SNPA clone I use 400g medium crystal and it doesn't taste too sweet or cloying to me. 

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Supernova Pale Ale

| ABV = 5.2% | IBU = 32 | 

  • 1.7kg Coopers Cerveza
  • 2kg GF Am. Ale Malt
  • 400g GF Supernova Malt
  • 200g Sugar
  • 30g Kohatu @30 mins
  • 30g Pacifica @30 mins
  • 20g Kohatu @5mins
  • 20g Pacifica @5mins
  • 10g Gypsum
  • M42 Yeast

FV in the fridge currently fermenting at 19ºC.  Also in the fridge are 29 bottles of a just bottled Real Ale based batch for a weeks conditioning/carbonation while the fridge is warm.  This one is actually tasting really crisp, clean with a particularly nice contribution from the late boil and dry NZ Styrian Goldings hops...     😜

 

 

Edited by BlackSands
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An experiment of sorts.

Made a simple porter

74% base

12% Munich

6% heritage crystal

8% Choc malt

Now I have split the batch 4 ways,

1 Control

2 5lts with 500g cherries

3 5lts with 500g raspberries

4 5lts with a stick soaked in bourbon

(I know I have over done the fruit ratio but meh)

See what it's like in 4-5 days, then I'll blend them and see what monster I have created.

20190821_162046.jpg

Edited by Gully85
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1 hour ago, Gully85 said:

An experiment of sorts.

Made a simple porter

74% base

12% Munich

6% heritage crystal

8% Choc malt

Now I have split the batch 4 ways,

1 Control

2 5lts with 500g cherries

3 5lts with 500g raspberries

4 5lts with a stick soaked in bourbon

(I know I have over done the fruit ratio but meh)

See what it's like in 4-5 days, then I'll blend them and see what monster I have created.

 

Sounds festive to me Gully.  What was your stick you soaked in bourbon - bit of old gum tree or cinnamon or something else even better?

Good luck with it mate!

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3 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Sounds festive to me Gully.  What was your stick you soaked in bourbon - bit of old gum tree or cinnamon or something else even better?

Good luck with it mate!

It was a French oak stick, that has been medium toasted. I have laced it with makers mark buorbon so hopefully it doesn't over power the beer given it's only around 6%.

Very interested to see what happens with this as it opens a blending experience like no other. Oak rasberry porter anyone?

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Largish IPA and a mid stout in the FVs today, 

Going away for the weekend in a few hours so when I get back I’ll turn them up a few degrees and do the first dry hop of the IPA

Had so much oil in the FV on top of the wort it looked and smelt fantastic. Looking forward to this one 

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Following on from above... Not sure whats going on but I am for the second brew in a row I am reading low on my OG.

Just read 1.064 for the Coopers Vintage Ale '19 which IanH spreadsheet calculated should've read 1.069.

I ensured all ingredients were dissolved this time around in hot water and that I did not overfill.

Hydrometer reads 1.000 in plain water... Got me beat.

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9 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Is the hydrometer designed to be read at the top or bottom of the meniscus? It's generally a difference of about 2 points between the top and bottom. Also temperature skews readings, but it would have to be pretty high to read that much lower.

Not sure to be honest, it is this hydrometer though.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282614917215

The wort would've been about 21C when it was measured so temp shouldn't have played a roll. 

Mitch. 

Edited by MitchellScott
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