What is Your Go-To Beer to Brew

[porschemad911]

13 hours ago, Worthog said:

I've been throwing away IPA's and English Bitters. Only a couple of dozen or so to recoup the glass bottles, and knowing I won't enjoy them. 

What aren't you enjoying about them? Is it just that you've found you don't like those styles, or is it those particular batches that you're not a fan of?

Cheers, 

John

[Worthog]

2 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

What aren't you enjoying about them? Is it just that you've found you don't like those styles, or is it those particular batches that you're not a fan of?

Cheers, 

John

In the past I went for IPA and English Bitter types at all the craft breweries. When I first made them I liked them, using hops like Fuggles,  Chinook, EKG, etc, but I made them too big and to high ABV's, like 6% and higher. I like those very rarely now. Would still buy and taste at craft breweries though.

I had been going back and tasting my aged brews but finding I liked them a lot less now that  I have made really good AG Pales.

I needed to produce the best "drinkers" I could, varying slightly in fruit and ABV for winter and summer. The best session beers are Pales so I have been perfecting my summer and winter variants.

Cheers

Edited May 15, 2019 by Worthog

[King Ruddager]

Leftovers pale

[Potatoes]

On 4/23/2019 at 8:36 PM, joolbag said:

My crowd pleaser is Ben10s recipe for a stone & wood pacific ale. 60% pale malt, 40% wheat malt. 25g whirlpool hop, 25g cube hop, 50g dry hop. No boiled hops.

 

Quick question- when you do this do you still do a 60 min boil, even though no hops go in?

[Otto Von Blotto]

5 hours ago, Potatoes said:

Quick question- when you do this do you still do a 60 min boil, even though no hops go in?

I'd imagine so. The boil has other functions than facilitating bittering hop additions.

[ChristinaS1]

On 4/30/2019 at 2:39 AM, Titan said:

I grew up in Scotland, my choice of beer was limited to Tennants Lager or McEwens export with the odd bottle of Newcastle brown or a Carlsberg Special brew. When i was 16 i joined the army and sampled my first english bitter in Aldershot. It was flat and tasted like $hit. When i was a little older i moved to England, Lincolnshire in fact and my local had the standard John Smiths varieties of bitters plus a guest beer every week. These bitters were vastly different from my first bitter taste and i fell in love with the style. The best beer i ever had was a tetleys bitter when i went to watch a rugby world cup game. I had tetleys before but never was it this good. Since i have been brewing i have strived to perfect the English bitter style of beer. I have come close on a few occasions but the last one i did was spot on. It will become my go to beer.

@Titan

I am belatedly reading this thread. Just wondering if you posted that perfect English Bitter recipe somewhere on the forum? If so, please point me to it. If not, could you post it somewhere? Very interested to see it. Thanks. I love English Bitters. 

Cheers,

Christina

Edited May 18, 2019 by ChristinaS1

[BlackSands]

46 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

@Titan

I am belatedly reading this thread. Just wondering if you posted that perfect English Bitter recipe somewhere on the forum? If so, please point me to it. If not, could you post it somewhere? Very interested to see it. Thanks. I love English Bitters. 

I've been meaning to ask the same question.  I've brewed a lot of bitters and many have been quite good but I'd love to see someone elses version - particularly one they hold in such high regard!    

[joolbag]

20 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I'd imagine so. The boil has other functions than facilitating bittering hop additions.

@Potatoes exact what @Otto Von Blotto said. I suppose I could shorten the boil to 30mins if I needed to, but time is not a huge factor for my brewery, def not 30mins so I stick to my process and volumes.

[BlackSands]

On 5/18/2019 at 3:45 AM, Otto Von Blotto said:

I'd imagine so. The boil has other functions than facilitating bittering hop additions.

While it's true that the boil performs many functions e.g. halts enzyme activity, sterilises the wort,  concentrates the wort to some extent, drives off DMS etc etc.  The question is, on a homebrew scale can all this be achieved in 30 minutes?  I think it probably can.   

[Otto Von Blotto]

Perhaps, perhaps not. Most of us who do all grain are basing our volumes on a specific boil time as well though. Mine is usually 75 minutes but I'll go to 90+ when I make lagers. It's easier to just keep using the same boil time than recalculating volumes.

[Potatoes]

16 hours ago, joolbag said:

@Potatoes exact what @Otto Von Blotto said. I suppose I could shorten the boil to 30mins if I needed to, but time is not a huge factor for my brewery, def not 30mins so I stick to my process and volumes.

Sounds good. I think I’ll try it! 

[Titan]

Looking now for this will post when I find it. Note this is a AG recipe so can't convert to anything else.

[ComfortablyNumb]

On 4/24/2019 at 10:59 AM, Beerlust said:

I enjoy experimenting too much to brew the same beers. I have 4-5 I've brewed multiple times but am erratic about when I brew them.

I too like to experiment but I found a few favs.

I do enjoy a low carb type beer as I don't like getting bloatie but I also like a bit of spicy flavour so early on when I first started I brewed a Canadian Blonde and added a cup of jalapenos and birdseye chilli (half a cup of each). It produces a taste where the spicy sneaks up on you, front of the tongue you can taste the light fruity flavour then at the back on the tongue you get the zing of the chilli with an ABV of around 6. I think this was dumb luck getting this one right the first time and I have been able to reproduce that flavour.

The wife likes APA with a zesty flavour, so I added indian lemon grass, lemon juice and dry hops. It's seems to be popular with a few of our friends too. The missus also like a cider so I've brew couple of those, one with added cinnamon, cloves and star anise. ABV around 5 for both.

And I love a honey stout, a friend produces his own honey which I add although he scolds me for steeping it, I don't want to introduce any wild yeast. And there is a variation in flavour depending on the honey. ABV comes in at around 5. If you know a way of getting rid of wild yeast from honey without destroying to much of the flavour I'd like to know.

I've found I like a few different IPA's, hard to nail down fav in that category.

Then there is what I like to call the lawn mowing brew which is a ginger beer, sometimes I'll add lemon grass and chilli and it usually has an ABV around 4. Mow the back lawn the have a brew then mow the front lawn and have a brew.

I do loosely document each brew and have roughly been able to reproduce the flavour of some brews but I do like to play with the flavours.

[Beerlust]

Hi ComfortablyNumb.

5 hours ago, ComfortablyNumb said:

...And I love a honey stout, a friend produces his own honey which I add although he scolds me for steeping it, I don't want to introduce any wild yeast. And there is a variation in flavour depending on the honey. ABV comes in at around 5. If you know a way of getting rid of wild yeast from honey without destroying to much of the flavour I'd like to know.

Depending on how long you are steeping for & at what temperature, this acts as a form of pasteurisation for the honey, killing germs, bacteria & wild yeasts that may be present. Just concentrating on the yeast component for a minute, it is said at approx. 40°C this temp begins to cripple yeast cells, & once into the mid-high 40's & beyond it is said yeast will die.

As is with pasteurisation this is often time dependent. Basically lower pasteurisation temperatures usually require longer "steeping times" to completely kill off certain bacteria. But given we're just talking about killing off yeast & attempting to retain certain aroma/flavour components of the honey you may be able to get away with steeping around 45-50°C for a set pasteurisation time-frame at this temp to just kill off the yeast.

Your honey producing mate must have a reason he dislikes you steeping his honey the way you do, so perhaps ask him what temperature & time-frame he pasteurises his honey to avoid wild yeast infections/fermentations, & just mimic that process when you prepare the honey for your brews. 

5 hours ago, ComfortablyNumb said:

...Then there is what I like to call the lawn mowing brew which is a ginger beer, sometimes I'll add lemon grass and chilli and it usually has an ABV around 4. Mow the back lawn the have a brew then mow the front lawn and have a brew.

It sounds like you need to add a couple of side lawns there. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

[ComfortablyNumb]

1 hour ago, Beerlust said:

Your honey producing mate must have a reason he dislikes you steeping his honey the way you do, so perhaps ask him what temperature & time-frame he pasteurises his honey to avoid wild yeast infections/fermentations, & just mimic that process when you prepare the honey for your brews. 

Thanks for the tip, I think I may have been steeping at to high a temperature.

My honey supply mate filters his honey, doesn't pasteurise. He tells me it destroys to many of the flavours. He could give me 3 jars of honey from 3 different hives and they'd all be different colours and different flavours.

[Beerlust]

48 minutes ago, ComfortablyNumb said:

Thanks for the tip, I think I may have been steeping at to high a temperature.

My honey supply mate filters his honey, doesn't pasteurise. He tells me it destroys to many of the flavours. He could give me 3 jars of honey from 3 different hives and they'd all be different colours and different flavours.

If I was going to use his honey in a beer, I'd pasteurise it on some level, because if you don't you are leaving the door open for some form of bacteria to possibly interfere with your primary fermentation before your desired yeast can takeover the wort as it is already present in the honey on some level.

Spreading the fresh honey on toast or using it in baking might be fine un-pasteurised, but in the process of fermenting beer I would suggest it is fraught with peril (IMHO).

I hope that helps,

Lusty.

[porschemad911]

11 hours ago, ComfortablyNumb said:

Thanks for the tip, I think I may have been steeping at to high a temperature.

My honey supply mate filters his honey, doesn't pasteurise. He tells me it destroys to many of the flavours. He could give me 3 jars of honey from 3 different hives and they'd all be different colours and different flavours.

I dissolved raw honey in 40C water for my mead. I guess the high ABV (14%+) would have resisted infection from wild yeasts. Aroma was beautiful.

So make your next honey stout an imperial version? 

Cheers, 

John 

Edited May 21, 2019 by porschemad911

[Beerlust]

On 5/22/2019 at 7:44 AM, porschemad911 said:

I dissolved raw honey in 40C water for my mead. I guess the high ABV (14%+) would have resisted infection from wild yeasts.

The alcohol is there at the END of fermentation, not the BEGINNING when it is just unfermented wort. The wild yeasts & bacterial spoilage organisms generally take root at the beginning & begin to ruin batches before the desired pitched yeast can establish enough numbers to control the wort & its fermentation.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

[der kleine Drache]

2 hours ago, Beerlust said:

The alcohol is there at the END of fermentation, not the BEGINNING when it is just unfermented wort. The wild yeasts & bacterial spoilage organisms generally take root at the beginning & begin to ruin batches before the desired pitched yeast can establish enough numbers to control the wort & its fermentation.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

If the mead shows signs of not starting to ferment properly there are agressive "killer" yeasts that can remedy the situation. Champagne yeast can be one alternative. 

[Alpaca Brew]

I usually have an all Pilsner malt, Centennial for bittering and I change out the aroma hop, on tap.  Easy drinking under 5% alc.  I would rather have a few than just one.  This winter I will do a stout.  I have never done one before because I am the only one who like a stout and I thought a keg would be a bit much.  This year I think I am up to the challenge.  An Irish red is also in the plans.

[porschemad911]

14 hours ago, Beerlust said:

... before the desired pitched yeast can establish enough numbers to control the wort & its fermentation.

Good point, probably a good idea to pitch a solid amount of yeast then so it can dominate quickly. I pitched a decent whack of Coopers Ale/lager kit yeast blend slurry,which probably helped mitigate the wild yeast population in the honey. Resulted in an extremely clean fermentation, might have been good with some funk actually! 

Cheers, 

John 

[Beerlust]

5 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

...I pitched a decent whack of Coopers Ale/lager kit yeast blend slurry,which probably helped mitigate the wild yeast population in the honey. Resulted in an extremely clean fermentation, might have been good with some funk actually!

FGS John, It's Funky Cold Medina, not Funky Cold Mead!  

Typical Pacers fan,....not quite there. 

P.S. That shot by Kawhi Leonard to sink Simmons & the 76'ers was cruel, but awesome at the same time. Kawhi Leonard is a gun player. 41 points or something in that game.

Cheers,

Lusty.

Edited May 24, 2019 by Beerlust

[porschemad911]

3 hours ago, Beerlust said:

P.S. That shot by Kawhi Leonard to sink Simmons & the 76'ers was cruel, but awesome at the same time. Kawhi Leonard is a gun player. 41 points or something in that game.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to watch one game this season. I have been playing at least one a week though. I guess the players just keep changing and maybe I just find it more fun playing than watching these days. 

I do remember watching Kawhi play right from his rookie year. He always had a lot of potential, worked hard and was fortunate to get some great coaching and team-mates. Great to see him succeed at such a high level, particularly as he's not one of the idolised players in the league.

Speaking of the Pacers, you know who I wish had been able to stay healthy? Jonathon Bender. He was a great athlete, with a lot of skill and an intelligent, generous human being too. But knee trouble will get you in the end... Would have ended like Danny Granger at best. 

Cheers, 

John 

Edited May 24, 2019 by porschemad911

[Titan]

On 5/18/2019 at 10:45 AM, ChristinaS1 said:

@Titan

I am belatedly reading this thread. Just wondering if you posted that perfect English Bitter recipe somewhere on the forum? If so, please point me to it. If not, could you post it somewhere? Very interested to see it. Thanks. I love English Bitters. 

Cheers,

Christina

Posting it now on your English Bitter Thread.

[ChristinaS1]

@ComfortablyNumb Re: brewing with unpasteurized honey. Sorry to be late to the discussion. Many good suggestion have already been made, but here is mine. Use Lalvin EC-1118 / your local brand of Prise de Mousse yeast. It is a killer champagne strain (most widely used yeast in the world) that will knock out wild yeast. It is not able to ferment maltotriose,  so will help to preserve some mouthfeel in a recipe with a high percentage of honey.  Pitch at 22C to help it get going quickly, as it can be a slow starter at cooler temperatures....To get an idea of what FG to expect from your recipe,  select Windsor yeast in your brewing software, which likewise does not ferment maltotriose. Note: I am not suggesting you ferment with Windsor yeast, just punch it into your software, for the sake of recipe formulation.

But killer yeast do not act on bacteria, just other yeast. To try to reduce the risk from bacteria in unpasteurized honey, don't add the honey until fermentation is slowing, like on day three, so alcohol is already present. A side benefit of adding the honey later is that fewer aromatics will be blown off during fermentation, although fermentation will kick up again after you add it.

For a stout you might as well pasteurize the honey, or use cheap, store bought honey, as the roasted malt flavours are so strong. You won't notice the loss of some of the more subtle honey aromatics.

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited August 5, 2019 by ChristinaS1