It is Cheating - isn't it?

[Scottie]

Hey Brew Dudes

My Fermenter has 20 litres of Wort bubbling away. 

The brew has Four Malts; Ale, Wheat Crystal and Aurora.

It also has three hops; Columbus, Centennial and Citra.

It came as 15 litres in a cube from All In Brewing, all I did was add 5 litres of water and one packet of re-hydrated US05.

All up including clean and sanitising of the FV this took 20 minutes. Oh well I'm on a journey.

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Mixer

 

[GingerNuts81]

Sounds like a worthy return or your time invested if you ask me.

 

[Hilltop hops]

I've made their Mosaic pale fwk, not bad if you're short on time and need to get your stocks up. Its a refreshing, easy drinker may have been better again with a decent dry hop. 

[BlackSands]

My daughter's LHBS sells thier own-brand fresh wort kits for $39.  That's probably not much more than what she might otherwise pay for the usual 'kit n bits' ingredients.  

Not a bad way to go I reckon if you're time-poor.

 

[Aussiekraut]

1 hour ago, Scottie said:

Hey Brew Dudes

My Fermenter has 20 litres of Wort bubbling away. 

The brew has Four Malts; Ale, Wheat Crystal and Aurora.

It also has three hops; Columbus, Centennial and Citra.

It came as 15 litres in a cube from All In Brewing, all I did was add 5 litres of water and one packet of re-hydrated US05.

All up including clean and sanitising of the FV this took 20 minutes. Oh well I'm on a journey.

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Mixer

 

Let us know how it turns out. My not quite so LHBS sells a whole plethora of those All In Brewing worts. I've been looking at those for a while but could never get myself to give it a try. 

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Yeah they are not bad at all. I did one a while back and it turned out well. It was fresh too. Was only about 3 weeks old when i put it down. The other benefit is you can drill a whole in it where the tap goes and you have a nice 15L fermenter after your done as well. I do my high gravity brews in 11L batches and it works great.

[Marty_G]

I have looked at the AIB worts but I am reluctance to do one as they sound far to hoppy for me ... It isn't the hops that i mind so much but it is the over saturation and lack of balance some of the craft beers have, way too much fruit and citrus and passion fruit  .... my thoughts are that they cater for a younger palate which has been bought up on super sweet stuff like Red Bull and the like ... has anyone who has an old school palate tried these and am I right? 

[Otto Von Blotto]

What happened to your brewery Scottie?

Marty I don't usually find the flavours over the top, I do think sometimes they try to overdo things and end up with beers out of balance but it hasn't been my experience that it happens very often. I think it's more that they're trying to be different from the rest, but to be honest most pale ales I've tried all tasted pretty similar to each other. Some better than others of course. 

I used to drink megaswill before I found all the craft beer, and most of it now I find bland as water. I like that there are beers out there with decent flavour; I don't really go for the ones that just taste like fruit juice though, I want some malt flavour and a reasonable amount of bitterness in there as well, with the fruity hops complementing the rest rather than being the only thing you can taste. But I guess that's the thing about craft beers, there's something to cater for pretty well everyone. 

[Scottie]

1 hour ago, Aussiekraut said:

Let us know how it turns out. My not quite so LHBS sells a whole plethora of those All In Brewing worts. I've been looking at those for a while but could never get myself to give it a try. 

Hey AK

Can't get access to my AG brewing kit at the moment as the Brewery is full of me recently separated son's household items. 

I went to my LHBS looking to put down a Coopers Hop Slam IPA. These caught my eye and at $50.50 with the US05 I thought it was a better deal, especially as the Cube doubled as a water container that could hold the extra 5 litres of water. This made mixing it in the garage directly into the Brew Fridge an easy task with no heavy lifting, i.e 15 litres with a handle rather than 20 litres in an FV with no handles.

The wort smelt amazing and I am planning a Cascade Dry Hop which should compliment the other hops nicely. 

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Mixer

[Scottie]

1 minute ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

What happened to your brewery Scottie?

My eldest ended up homeless just before Xmas. Moved in with us and the Brewery is currently a storage unit with all the brew gear at the back.

Cheers

[Otto Von Blotto]

Sorry to hear that mate. Best of luck to him getting back on his feet again. 

[Scottie]

18 minutes ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

I have looked at the AIB worts but I am reluctance to do one as they sound far to hoppy for me ... It isn't the hops that i mind so much but it is the over saturation and lack of balance some of the craft beers have, way too much fruit and citrus and passion fruit  .... my thoughts are that they cater for a younger palate which has been bought up on super sweet stuff like Red Bull and the like ... has anyone who has an old school palate tried these and am I right? 

Hey Marty

This is an age old argument. My Father reckons my 40 IBU beers were too sweet for him a XXXX Gold and Mainstream Lagers. I recently gave him a Cricketers Arms Pale Ale to try.  At $21 for 10 at Dan's he was going to purchase some. I however think the recipe has changed down a bit and it has lost some of its hop. 

A good IPA such as the Pirate Life has a hop aroma that hits in you in the face as soon as you rip the can open. But you could hardly call it sweet, the balance needs to be between hop and malt although I see what your saying if the bitterness isn't there.

For the record I will happily drink Great Northern on the tap if the pub doesn't stock a craft beer. My other go to non Craft Beer is Cascade Pale Ale.

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

[Otto Von Blotto]

It depends on how the hops were used too. I brewed an IPA a few years ago that was over 60 IBUs, and while it was nice, it was too sweet to me because not enough of the IBUs came from long boiled additions. It lacked that bite that I like in an IPA.

That's why I use IBUs as more of a guide. If you have two otherwise identical beers, one with all the IBUs coming from late additions and one with them all from early additions, the one with the late additions will likely taste sweeter than the other one, which may taste too bitter. 

[worry wort]

 I remember back in the late 70's living in Adelaide, Coopers bought out a box of beer, the wort with all the trimmings in a plastic bag in a box, you just added a bit of water and the yeast. That was before they moved to just the syrup in a can. It wasn't great, but then again it was only up against west end and southwark so it was a viable option.

[Aussiekraut]

56 minutes ago, Scottie said:

Hey AK

Can't get access to my AG brewing kit at the moment as the Brewery is full of me recently separated son's household items. 

I went to my LHBS looking to put down a Coopers Hop Slam IPA. These caught my eye and at $50.50 with the US05 I thought it was a better deal, especially as the Cube doubled as a water container that could hold the extra 5 litres of water. This made mixing it in the garage directly into the Brew Fridge an easy task with no heavy lifting, i.e 15 litres with a handle rather than 20 litres in an FV with no handles.

The wort smelt amazing and I am planning a Cascade Dry Hop which should compliment the other hops nicely. 

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Mixer

I think I might give it a try once my stocks are depleted. 

 

[Scottie]

1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

It depends on how the hops were used too. I brewed an IPA a few years ago that was over 60 IBUs, and while it was nice, it was too sweet to me because not enough of the IBUs came from long boiled additions. It lacked that bite that I like in an IPA.

That's why I use IBUs as more of a guide. If you have two otherwise identical beers, one with all the IBUs coming from late additions and one with them all from early additions, the one with the late additions will likely taste sweeter than the other one, which may taste too bitter. 

Hey Kelsey

I agree, that's why i always have 60 minute additions. I posted on here how I wasn't a fan of hop bursting after trying one of those new gen beers. Maybe his is what Marty has experienced. I hope this leg breaker has a good 60 minute addition of that Columbus.

 

Cheers

[Otto Von Blotto]

Same mate. I like a good bitterness in my pale ales, just enough to balance them. 

[Marty_G]

4 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I don't really go for the ones that just taste like fruit juice though, I want some malt flavour and a reasonable amount of bitterness in there as well, with the fruity hops complementing the rest rather than being the only thing you can taste.

That is pretty much what I was getting at it is about balance .... that is what me fear is with the AIB worts that they are not balanced but very heavily hop driven more to suit the younger palate ... as all I read when I look at their wort is Hop, hop, hop and more hop ... the thing I find with the really heavily hopped beers that use  hops like Galaxy while drinkable a couple do me ... just sit down and have a few while watching the footy ...   

[Hairy]

You’re a good man Scottie!

If it was a choice between my kids or my brewing gear I would like to think I would choose my kids, but well ......... 

BTW, fresh wort kits are handy keg fillers.

[Beer Baron]

3 hours ago, Hairy said:

If it was a choice between my kids or my brewing gear

Brewing gear!!!!! 

It never talks back and never lets me down. My kids will move out and start their own families but my trusty brewing gear will be by my side. 

My kids will dish out attitude but my brewing gear will dish out batch after batch of delicious beer🥰

[Cerveja]

Some might feel it's cheating Scottie but so is Kits and Bits compared to all grain. I say brew what you have time for, have fun doing it and enjoy the results. Nothing wrong with a FWK if that's where you are at.

[Otto Von Blotto]

6 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

That is pretty much what I was getting at it is about balance .... that is what me fear is with the AIB worts that they are not balanced but very heavily hop driven more to suit the younger palate ... as all I read when I look at their wort is Hop, hop, hop and more hop ... the thing I find with the really heavily hopped beers that use  hops like Galaxy while drinkable a couple do me ... just sit down and have a few while watching the footy ...   

I've never brewed one of their fwks but I have been to the brewery at Banyo and tasted a few of them. The pale ale and IPA I tried weren't fruit juice like to me. It's probably just a matter of picking the right one. A standard APA would likely be to your taste but if they have an XPA or a NEIPA then it may not be. I'm not really a fan of NEIPAs, they don't have the same firm bitterness as other IPAs so they tend to taste like fizzy fruit juice, and they look like Brisbane River water which isn't really appealing to me. I don't mind a bit of haze but there's a point where it's too much. 

[Worthog]

I've tried a couple of the All Inn Brewery 15L worts. I purchased them when I wanted cubes for no-chill, and I was also pressed for time.

$45 to brew a beer and get a decent 15L cube was reasonable.

I tried the Extra Citra Pale Ale and the Mosaic Pale Ale.

If you dry hop them they are too fruity but otherwise not bad and reasonably balanced, for my taste anyway.

Cheating? Yes, I felt so, but still justified by good, cheap beer. 

Cheers

[Beerlust]

If you load up the late boil & hot steeping phase with hop additions, you're going to get a fruit bomb. I still like these types of beers occasionally (more so in the hot weather), but am generally trying to produce beers that allow you to notice & enjoy aspects of the malt character as well. My recent SFWH beers are devoid of any hop additions late boil or steeping, but have a generous dry hop. For my tastes, I felt the balances were terrific.

Just my 2 cents,

Lusty.

[Worthog]

4 hours ago, Beerlust said:

If you load up the late boil & hot steeping phase with hop additions, you're going to get a fruit bomb. I still like these types of beers occasionally (more so in the hot weather), but am generally trying to produce beers that allow you to notice & enjoy aspects of the malt character as well. My recent SFWH beers are devoid of any hop additions late boil or steeping, but have a generous dry hop. For my tastes, I felt the balances were terrific.

Just my 2 cents,

Lusty.

I could not agree more, and I am just learning to back off the late hops in time and weight, and I am ceasing dry hop completely for my winter Pale Ales.

Cheers

Edited May 13, 2019 by Worthog