What's in Your Fermenter? 2020

[James Lao]

Hi all,

Put this down last week, it’s pretty much my usual IPA but using Galaxy and Eldorado instead of the Simcoe and Mosaic ( still a bit of of Simcoe in the boil though!)

Citra Galaxy Eldorado IPA 23/4/20

 

Coopers Lager can 

Coopers LLME can

500g LDME

250g Wheat DME

350g White Sugar 

200g Caramunich II steeped at 65degC for 30mins in 2L

 

 HOPS

Citra 25g 10min

Simcoe 25g 10min

 

Citra 25g 5min

Galaxy 25g 5min

Eldorado 25g 5min

 

Allow to cool for 15 minutes, before actively chilling wort (5 litre boil)

 

24 litres

OG 1.060

FG 1.012

IBU 54

Keg 6.4%

Bottle 6.8%

 

Dry hop

Citra, Galaxy, Eldorado 25g each

 

28/4: 1.020

 

Took the Grav sample today and the smell was amazing!

Very tropical / pineappley  from the Galaxy and Eldorado combo??
 

Cant wait for this one!

 

Cheers

James

 

 

[Naughty Corner Brewing]

On 4/25/2020 at 4:46 PM, NewBrews said:

So all my fermenters were empty. I was cleaning up my brew area pending the arrival of some new toys for my brewery and thought I’d clean up some old ingredients I found sitting in the brew area and some opened packets of hops in the freezer and threw this in the craft fermenter.

Boiled up the LDM in a litre of water with the hops. Smell was amazing!!!

Might dry hop with some more galaxy and Enigma.

Yeast was a random packet of Coopers yeast I had in the fridge. It’s an ale one anyway.

Yeast started dropping on this so upped the temp from 18 to 20 and threw in 15g each of galaxy and enigma.

Smells good. Give it a SG test tomorrow and leave the sample there to see how it goes but probably cold crash it on Saturday or Sunday as it should be well done by then.

[Beerlust]

22 hours ago, James Lao said:

...Dry hop

Citra, Galaxy, Eldorado 25g each

 

...Took the Grav sample today and the smell was amazing!

Very tropical / pineappley  from the Galaxy and Eldorado combo??

It's a really nice separation of individual hop characteristics & their different aromas that should combine well.

I got close to trying this mix myself. You beat me to it. 

I'll look forward to your assessment of them combined.

Cheers,

Lusty.

[ChristinaS1]

Put this on. Once again no partial, due to Covid. Using Motueka for the first time. Motueka has an interesting profile: extremely high farnesene and linalool, like a European hop on steroids, but low in caryophyllene and high in gernaniol, like and American hop. I guess it is often used in lagers, but I was in the mood for a pale ale, so I paired it with Cascades. 

 

Cascades & Motueka Pale Ale

 

1.7kg Mexican Cervesa

1.5kg Light LME

300gm dextrose

25gm Cascades @ 20 min

20gm Motueka @ 5 min

30gm Cascades @ FO x 20 min hop stand

15gm Motueka @ FO x 20 min hop stand

10mL Clarity Ferm

25L RO water

20gm Cascades x 4 day DH

10gm Motueka x 4 day DH

Gen 2 WLP95 Burlington Ale yeast

 

I had planned this to be a 23L batch but the water got away on me and I ended up with 25L. Darn! I am a bit concerned I will get an overflow as Burlington Ale yeast is a very vigorous fermenter.  Will have to keep a close eye on it. 

 

Cheers,

 

Christina. 

Edited April 29, 2020 by ChristinaS1

[Otto Von Blotto]

Checked the SG on my ale earlier, down to 1.010 which is basically the predicted FG. Probably got there on Tuesday so I'm gonna drop the temperature tomorrow, add isinglass and polyclar over the weekend and keg next weekend. I may or may not have a batch ready to go in after that, depends if these bloody hops get here. 

[iBooz2]

A Heritage Lager of sorts.

1 x 1.7 kg can Coopers Lager

2 x 500 g packs Coopers Dry Malt Extract

250 g white sugar dissolved in 1.5 litres of hot water then brought to the boil to sanitise the sugar mix.

12 g Tettnanger hops steeped in the 500 ml of boiled water for 10 minutes

2 x 11g sachet's of SafLager W-34/70 Dry Yeast (did not use kit yeast) pitched at 17 C Temp then dropped to 12 C, currently sitting at 13.5 C Dry hopped my Neon Haze IPA today and kegging my first batch of Busty Blonde. Tomorrow will lay down another Busty Blonde. Cheers - AL

[iBooz2]

On 4/28/2020 at 3:48 PM, Norris! said:

They probably suggested or gave 1 packet because the esters this yeast will produce will compliment the brew, by underpitching.

I have used the yeast before and only used one pack on a 21l batch. It tasted good with nice esters that were not overpowering. I did repitch the slurry in another batch that was cleaner but I wouldn't say better just different.

Great answer @Norris! thanks for that, caused me to go and do some more reading / research.  I reckon you are on the money.

Coopers provided just the one AEC yeast sachet and of course there was the kit yeast stuck to the Preachers Hefe tin. just worried I may have stuffed it up not using the tin yeast as well.

In Coopers we trust!

Dry hopped the batch today, was at 1.020 SG.

Cheers - AL

[Pezzza]

6 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

W-34/70 Dry Yeast

a beautiful thing

[UncleStavvy]

Kicked off a Coopers Sparkling Ale this morning. TC Innkeepers sparkling ale kit, 1.5kg LDM, 300g white sugar. OG came in at 1.05. Did learn one lesson though, even 1.7L of boiled water to dissolve the malt and can topped up to 20L is still to warm to pitch immediately at 25ish degrees. Added 3L of very cold Puratap water from the freezer gave me 22° on the strip gauge.

Here comes the funky bit. Been discussing harvested yeast in another thread...pros and cons. I didn't want to slurry the cold yeast with the residual dark ale in the jar so I've tipped off all of it into another sterile jar (just in case). I added about 50ml of cooled boiled water into the jar and swished it up, then pitched about half of that into the wort. Fingers crossed it takes off ok. The yeast is Coopers Commercial and on first use it took a while to get going. Recipe calls for 21° so ye olde Inkybird is doing its thing

[Shamus O'Sean]

Mexican Stout - Brew day Friday

A stout using the Mexican Cerveza can I had sitting around.  Yes, I know I could have just bought a Coopers Stout can, but that would be too easy.  See this link for how I came up with the recipe: Can I Make A Stout From The Mexican Cerveza Can?

Final recipe was:

• 1.7kg Mexican Cerveza can
• 1.0kg Traditional Ale Malt
• 0.87kg Flaked Barley
• 0.47kg Roasted Barley
• 0.15kg Torrified Wheat
• 0.06kg Chocolate Malt
• 20g Magnum hops 30 minute boil
• 15g East Kent Golding hops 15 minute boil
• S-04 yeast

Compared to the IanH spreadsheet calculations I did, I dropped the Ale Malt from 1.5kg to 1.0kg becasue both the Grainfather app and Beersmith3 were predicting the FG being too high.  I also upped the Magnum addition because both programs predicted the IBU's being too high.

I did this as an induction cooker BIAB brew.  First mistake was using a false bottom, but not having enough water in the mash above the false bottom.  Mash was too dry, all of the grains were not covered with water.  Easy solution (which was also my second mistake) was to lift the bag and remove the false bottom, this gained probably 2.5L of water and covered the grains fine. 

60 minute mash trying to maintain 65°C.  Varied from 63 - 70°C for the first half of the mash, but settled down to 64 - 67°C for second half.  I moderated the temperature for the first half by monitoring and manually adjusting the induction cooker between 60°C and 80°C (these are the fixed settings).  I found it often overshot the target temperature.  The second half was done by setting the power of the cooker to its lowest setting, supposedly 200W.  This setting kept it more stable.  I know others wrap the pot in blankets/doonas and the like, but I did not plan to do that and thought I could keep it fairly constant with the cooker.

Maybe trying to use the cooker to control temperature was my third mistake, or at least combined with the second mistake, it led to the fourth mistake: A thick layer of burnt on wort.

Removing the false bottom also removed protection for the bag.  When I pulled out the bag it had enough holes (either because the bag caught on the temperature well or because it was damaged by the heat) in the bottom that half of the grain was left behind in the pot.  Luckily I had a spare bag and a couple of large pots nearby.  I was able to transfer the wort half full of grains, through the spare bag into another pot.  I also tipped the grains that were still in the original bag into the second. 

From then things went pretty well. 

• Sparged/rinsed with 4L of hot water. 
• 10L pre-boil volume. 
• Boiled for 30 minutes with the hop additions, half a teaspoon of Irish Moss and the Mexican Cerveza can added in the last 5 minutes of the boil. 
• 10-15 minutes after flame-out I added about 2L of ice and started a whirlpool. 
• Left sit for 20 minutes.  The wort was around 50°C. 
• Transferred to the fermenter. 
• Topped up with 10L of 1°C chilled water. 
• Came to just under 20L in the Coopers fermenter. 
• I was aiming for a 23L batch, but at 20L it's SG was already 1.042, so I decided to stop there. 
• I did leave at least 2L or wort behind in the pot because wort with a soupy consistency started to get sucked out of the tap.  In hindsight I could have added that to the fermenter because it would have probably settle out.  The extra 2L of wort, plus the 10L of water would have got close to the expected OG of 1.047 and my intended 23L volume.  Maybe the extra 0.5kg of Pale Malt the IanH spreadsheets has indicated originally would have made the difference, without having to include the soupy dregs in the pot.

Anyway, sample tube tasted good.  I could pick up a bit of the chocolate and a mild roast.  Miles away from a strong stout, but close to an Irish Stout as intended.  This one will be ready to keg within a week.  No point fining.  I will still cold crash though.

 

[UncleStavvy]

Nice foamy krausen at 10hrs in the sparkling ale. Now I can stop pacing in front of the brew fridge and relax

[UncleStavvy]

Pic doesn't do justice to the colour of the wort and it smells incredible. Sparkling ale

[Pezzza]

What's undergoing Ferment?

18 hours at 22 degrees C - Light Rye - having a crack at a no-knead recipe and with some new bread flour plus me old tried-n-true Rye Flour...

[Lab Cat]

**sigh**

So the Smooth Bitter was a bomb out, that's going to be stored long term and will probably still be 'kin ordinary. The rest of the molasses went in the bin. I got a Wheat beer on straight after or I'll run out of beer. 

Undeterred, I got another bitter on after bottling the Wheat. I went with the EB, Amber liquid and 250g Demerara. I attempted to balance any potential sweetness with bittering some Styrian. I topped out at 38 IBU, so didn't go too hard on the hops, as the EB kit is 32. Sampling tastes good, but has a late and lingering bitterness, that lingers, and....lingers. It's about done, but leaving it to clean up.

Is this going to smooth out any you think? 2 bitter fails in a row would be a PITA.

[Shamus O'Sean]

Should be OK LB.  I did similar with an EB, but just used 1kg LDM plus 3x10g East Kent Golding at 18, 12 and 6 minute to give me a shade over 38 IBU.  I think that the EB is a bit sweet to my tastes.  The EKG boil made it much better IMHO.

[Popo the Reprobate]

All my fermenters have been empty for a while as I'm sharing a fridge between kegs and fermenting. I've got some production underway now though.

In one is a 3Cs Pale Ale from Cheeky Peak. I haven't tried this recipe myself before, but a mate did and I was impressed. I'm hoping for the same with mine.

In the second is a bit of a novelty for my breastfeeding partner and the ladies in her mothers group. It's called the "Boobie Beer". It's a mid/light strength porter with some ingredients (figs, fenugreek, flaxseed, oats) that are meant to help breast milk production. It was an challenging brew day with a stuck mash AND a stuck sparge haha. Also overshot the gravity so had to dilute in the FV (1.028).

As I said, it's a novelty beer meant for a sip and a bit of a laugh.  At no point will any babies be at risk.  In all probability, she'll probably have a sip and I'll end up drinking the rest. Hopefully with no milk production though 

[Beerlust]

I removed the Galaxy dry hops from my little mid-strength beer last night, & set it to cold condition in the brew fridge. I will likely keg this on Friday.

Hopefully it reminds my partner of the Stone & Wood Pacific Ale she really likes atm.

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

[MitchellScott]

60L of Great Northern Super Crisp (hopefully).

An extract beer I have done for some good mates of mine who live on Great Northern. Would have attempted it as AG but I do not have the equipment to do a 60L batch in AG and they want 3 kegs filled at a time. Fingers crossed . The W34-70 is just starting to show activity after pitching on Sunday. Happily sitting at 10C.

[Journeyman]

18 hours ago, Lab Cat said:

**sigh**

So the Smooth Bitter was a bomb out, that's going to be stored long term and will probably still be 'kin ordinary. The rest of the molasses went in the bin. I got a Wheat beer on straight after or I'll run out of beer. 

Undeterred, I got another bitter on after bottling the Wheat. I went with the EB, Amber liquid and 250g Demerara. I attempted to balance any potential sweetness with bittering some Styrian. I topped out at 38 IBU, so didn't go too hard on the hops, as the EB kit is 32. Sampling tastes good, but has a late and lingering bitterness, that lingers, and....lingers. It's about done, but leaving it to clean up.

Is this going to smooth out any you think? 2 bitter fails in a row would be a PITA.

I had that bitter after taste mainly in back of the mouth in my EB - was gone at 2 weeks, mellowed into a far more blended effect.

[UncleStavvy]

Just cracked a smooth EB, only a week in the bottle. Got a ways to go yet of course but it's not offensive at all. Darker than what I expected though. Slight sweetness there, not that bitter at all really.

Edited May 5, 2020 by UncleStavvy

[Journeyman]

2 minutes ago, UncleStavvy said:

Just cracked a smooth EB, only a week in the bottle. Got a ways to go yet of course but it's not offensive at all. Darker than what I expected though. Slight sweetness there, not that bitter at all really.

This was mine - also came in a bit dark but most of mine do. I think it's because I empty the can into the boil near the end and the heat darkens it.

[UncleStavvy]

Same color here, mine's got some more carbonating to do by the looks

[Journeyman]

Yeah... this was 170g in 20L so maybe a bit over, particularly seeing that pic was at 4 days in the bottle.

And now it's beer o'clock for me...

[UncleStavvy]

2 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

Yeah... this was 170g in 20L so maybe a bit over, particularly seeing that pic was at 4 days in the bottle.

And now it's beer o'clock for me...

Wow, my EB has only a slight foam at one week in the fridge at 21°.....effin carbo drops. Starting to think the convenience is far outweighing the results

[Norris!]

@Popo

I love the 3c's pale ale from cheeky peaks. I actually based my House Pale ale off of it. Pretty much run with the base grain bill and sub out hops. I add acidulated malt to adjust the PH and mess with the water slightly and sometimes sub out the caramunich for carared and add some choc malt to get it a little more red. I think it is a very balanced beer, so I also up the dry hop.