What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[Malter White]

1 hour ago, Journeyman said:

There's a recipe for that? Is it just dry hop the EKG?

It's a 2 stage steep of EKG and a dry hop but quite simple still.

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/smoty-ale.html

[Malter White]

5 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

A spreadsheet isn't required for any kit beer.

I know it, brother. That's why I posted the photo. I saw the spreadsheet above it and thought, "What is all this?" It's like a foreign language to me.

[Journeyman]

16 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I know it, brother. That's why I posted the photo. I saw the spreadsheet above it and thought, "What is all this?" It's like a foreign language to me.

For me it's a quick way to see how things balance and even more, a simple way to present what I am brewing. Saves typing.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Journeyman

[iBooz2]

1 hour ago, Journeyman said:

For me it's a quick way to see how things balance and even more, a simple way to present what I am brewing. Saves typing.

I too use this spreadsheet for kits, I know its not required if sticking to the recipe, but as Mark says handy if you are making minor tweaks to see what will happen and predict most probable outcome.

Also damn good practice for when I take the next step and get back into AG.  I also have beer smith but have not played with that one until things get more serious.

Cheers - AL

[iBooz2]

5 hours ago, Waynealford said:

Had issues keeping a rolling boil on the ceramic stovetop, which cements for me the difficulty of going all grain, being able to boil in a certain range for a period of time, etc, in my kitchen.

Wayne, I had one of these wok burners in my camping arsenal so its now setup permanently in the brew shed.  On special at Anaconda for $84 at the moment.  Just need a BBQ gas bottle as it comes with its own regulator, has electronic ignition.  Boils a 20 pot no problems.

This works perfectly for me as now I do not have to carry a hot pot from the kitchen stove out to the brew shed were my cooling set up is.  Also don't cry tears of blood when I make a mess of kitchen cook top / benches and my ears don't bleed from a screaming wife.

Cheers - AL

[iBooz2]

5 hours ago, Ben 10 said:

Not quite true.

I am 800 metres above sea level and water boils around 97° to 98°c

And sea water would boil different again. ha ha.  Yes for every 30 ft of altitude difference from nominal sea level you drop 1 millibar of air pressure and every 1000 ft you drop 2 degrees C from the temp at sea level.

Cheers - AL

 

[Journeyman]

41 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

This works perfectly for me as now I do not have to carry a hot pot from the kitchen stove out to the brew shed were my cooling set up is.  

I have an old office chair on castors that I sit the FV on but my brew area is in the workshop which is half the double garage and on the same slab as the house. This wouldn't work if there were steps and unpaved area to a shed.

It took me more trips to the brew area than I care to admit to look at the chair on bloody wheels and realise it would carry the FV.  

[Journeyman]

57 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

I too use this spreadsheet for kits,

It is called the "Kit and Extract Spreadsheet" for a reason.

I'm still trying to work out what the bottom middle section is about, and it would be great if grain providers actually gave us the figures used on the grain sheet so we can add them, but it's been great for seeing how ingredients change things and getting a beer of the style chosen that shows all greens.

[Marty_G]

6 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

it would be great if grain providers actually gave us the figures used on the grain sheet

If you get from a HBS ask for the specs.  I get the specs for all the grain I buy.   This is for the last 8 kg of Pils i bought

[Journeyman]

6 minutes ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

If you get from a HBS ask for the specs.  I get the specs for all the grain I buy.   This is for the last 8 kg of Pils i bought

So far DuckDuck has enabled me to find specs on most of what I want to try but, like your spec sheet, it doesn't really match well with what the spreadsheet uses.

e.g. Grains have columns for "Name     EBC     Potential     Fermentability" EBC is common but 'Potential' and 'Fermentability' seem a bit rare to find in spec sheets. Potential is clearly a calc of some kind - most values are between 1.034 & 1.038 - I could guess and think this means a certain OG for a given amount in a given amount of water but how to calc it I have yet to find.

I could guess that Fermentability is the 'Extract fine grind' in your specs but is it? And do I use fine grind or dry basis and what is a fine grind - I've seen some cnovos on here from the gurus about how much the grind varies.

Until I can understand what the terms mean and how to get a figure from a sheet that means something to what I am doing, the spreadsheet is a Rosetta Stone for us new to the HB scene, foreign language or not.  

[Otto Von Blotto]

Fermentability depends on mash conditions, mainly the temperature, and also the yeast strain used. They wouldn't be likely to put this on a grain spec sheet because there is no one figure for it. 

Extract potential is worked out by mashing 1 pound of grain in 1 gallon (US) of water (455g in 3.78 litres) and recording the resulting SG. 

[Journeyman]

17 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Extract potential is worked out by mashing 1 pound of grain in 1 gallon (US) of water (455g in 3.78 litres) and recording the resulting SG. 

So could I work out the Potential from the spec sheet shown by @MartyG1525230263? (geez Marty, how many accounts have you had on here?  )

[Otto Von Blotto]

Not as far as I know. You have to physically do the mash with that grain to water ratio. 

Or you can find it on Beersmith and probably other places as well. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Otto Von Blotto

[Journeyman]

Well, in the search further down the rabbit hole I now have Daniel's "Designing Great Beers" to go with Palmer's "How to Brew" to read and understand. To parpaphrase Oates... "I'm just going offline and may be some time!"  

[Hoppy81]

Put 2 Pale Ales down 3 days ago and just kegged 2 x lagers, 1 with 1kg of natural honey straight from the farm. and a Coffee, Coconut and Fig stout that came out at 8%, tasted
Really good when going into the keg. 

[Red devil 44]

Dragged the 60L fermenter out last night ( hasn’t had a guernsey for a while ), cleaned, sanitized and brewed a double batch of Hefeweizen Wheat Beer.

Made my fermenting fridge with a removable timber shelf arrangement that I can unscrew for when I put the 60L fermenter in there, then put back when I want to do 2 fermenters at once with different beers but ones that will ferment at around the same temps.

Just my normal K & K with 3L liquid wheat malt for the double batch & 2 Hefeweizen Coopers cans.

MJ M20 Bavarian Wheat Yeast x 2.

Brewing at 18 degrees, checked this morning and she’s happily bubbling away, happy happy.

Simple beer to make being a K & K but goes down nicely & is very popular with the rellies & mates.

Sadly with my new job, and flying around Oz all the time my chances of going AG seem far off into the distance

Dont get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with K & K & I believe with temp control ( especially in SEQLD ) I’ve made some sensational beers  

‘But would like to progress down the rabbit hole further to AG eventually, one day

Cheers RD44

 

[Red devil 44]

6 minutes ago, Hoppy81 said:

Put 2 Pale Ales down 3 days ago and just kegged 2 x lagers, 1 with 1kg of natural honey straight from the farm. and a Coffee, Coconut and Fig stout that came out at 8%, tasted
Really good when going into the keg. 

Hoppy, I’ve tried natural honey twice with a lager & kegged, but they came out tasting very stale & flat.

Not sure why as honey is fermentable, so I’ve shelved the honey idea. 
I tried to base it on the Sleeman Honey beer I tasted in Vancouver, which was great. 
 

Hope yours turns out for you mate, be keen to hear the review when tasting time arrives. 
 

cheers RD44

[Hoppy81]

1 minute ago, Red devil 44 said:

Hoppy, I’ve tried natural honey twice with a lager & kegged, but they came out tasting very stale & flat.

Not sure why as honey is fermentable, so I’ve shelved the honey idea. 
I tried to base it on the Sleeman Honey beer I tasted in Vancouver, which was great. 
 

Hope yours turns out for you mate, be keen to hear the review when tasting time arrives. 
 

cheers RD44

Hi RD,

I had a taste test when kegging and it tasted great, nice hint of honey but not overwhelming. So fingers crossed when it's carbonated it is a great drop.

Cheers Hoppy

[Red devil 44]

3 minutes ago, Hoppy81 said:

Hi RD,

I had a taste test when kegging and it tasted great, nice hint of honey but not overwhelming. So fingers crossed when it's carbonated it is a great drop.

Cheers Hoppy

Have a crack at this if you can find it here, maybe Dan’s have it, nice drop.

[Beerlust]

Have just added the dry hop to my current kit based IPA. Went with 30gms of Centennial & Riwaka, & 65gms of Motueka. All the hops smelled nice & fresh & the combo should produce a nice aromatic over the predominantly Simcoe base.

How did this turn out Capt.?...

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

[The Captain!!]

1 hour ago, Beerlust said:

Have just added the dry hop to my current kit based IPA. Went with 30gms of Centennial & Riwaka, & 65gms of Motueka. All the hops smelled nice & fresh & the combo should produce a nice aromatic over the predominantly Simcoe base.

How did this turn out Capt.?...

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

I haven’t done it yet as my kegerator has sh!t itself. So need to move to Kveik and saison strains for a few weeks. 
Also finally got some Cashmere so I’m really interested in doing a single hop pale with Kveik for that one. 
 

But yeah as soon as I get my temp control back I’ll be replicating that for sure. How’s it smell so far?

[Shamus O'Sean]

Simple Pilsner SMaSH

• 3.2kg Pilsner Malt 5.3 EBU
• 65°C Mash for 60 minutes, 75°C for 10 minutes
• 90 minute boil
• 40g Hallertau @60 for 22.6 IBU
• Harvested MJ Bavarian Lager yeast

Punched in 85% Mash Efficiency in the Grainfather app (Based on my previous brew).  Got my brew virtually spot on.  Got about 18.5L into a 15L cube, was aiming for an 18L batch into the fermenter.  OG 1.042 exactly as calculated.  Predicted FG is 1.008 for an ABV of 4.5% plus 0.4% for bottle conditioning = 4.9%

I cubed this brew yesterday and today split it into two of the cute baby craft kit fermenters.  Starting them at 20°C to grow the yeast.  I will drop the temperature controller to 12°C tomorrow morning.  One of the fermenters I will dry hop with the 68g of Riwaka that I have for a NZ Pilsner style.  I will leave the other fermenter dry hop free.  It will be nice to compare these two.  I can see myself splitting a brew for a few times from here.

[iBooz2]

Compared to all you experts in here - nothing too amazing.

Got two batches of Coopers Mild Ale in separate FV fridges. First batch was using my first attempt at a single stage starter from 6 stubbies.  It has just commenced a cold crash under pressure of about 10 psi.  Second batch is in the Coopers FV and was done with a step up starter from 5 Cooper’s stubbies just to see if it ferments out any different.  Both were done at 20 C.  Second batch is just about to land at FG.

Cheers AL

[Instigator]

Got my Coopers Sparkling Ale down yesterday. Basically to recipe except I had a spare BE3 so that subbed out 500g of LDME and the 300g Dextrose, and added 200g of Maltodextrin.

Also my first attempt using CCA and my stir plate. Just had my first chance to look at the brew and it has a nice krausen, so I guess it's going well so far.

@iBooz2 I need to give the Mild Ale a crack. It's my go to mid strength so it's about time I tried making my own.

[ozlizard]

Last dry hops went in today for my NEIPA, 30 Cascade, 30 Centennial, 40 Azacca. The krausen was so thick I had to break  a hole in it to get the hops in the wort! Still bubbling after 4 days, so looking good.