RDWHAHB - What Are You Drinking in 2020?

[MUZZY]

2 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Except I am using it every day myself.  It is tons better than Sodastream.  

I will see how things go.  My currently brewing Pale Ale will be ready to keg in a week's time.  It might be looking for a spot to land.

Is there a dry ginger ale essence you can add to it? If I had the keg thing happening I doubt I'd use a tap for soda water but I have been known to have the occasional scotch & dry.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I love having soda water on tap, way cheaper buying cordial or syrups than bottles of soft drink. And it never goes flat.

[Shamus O'Sean]

8 hours ago, MUZZY said:

Is there a dry ginger ale essence you can add to it? If I had the keg thing happening I doubt I'd use a tap for soda water but I have been known to have the occasional scotch & dry.

I did see a ginger ale flavouring at some on-line shop.  Might have been Big W.

[Shamus O'Sean]

27 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I love having soda water on tap, way cheaper buying cordial or syrups than bottles of soft drink. And it never goes flat.

Boo Hoo to the day it, somewhat unexpectedly, runs empty though.  I have not got through the first 19L yet.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah that does suck but I usually just refill and high pressure overnight has it ready again the next day. 

[Journeyman]

It's young but it's a very nice drop already. My coffee stout was bottled Wed, 15th April and 1 bottle didn't fill all the way so I figured, WTH! Give it a try.

Coffee is pronounced but not overpowering, the vanilla is a kind of back of the tongue experience and the stout flavour is definitely there. Given it's 6 days in the bottle before it went in the fridge it's remarkably smooth. Has decent lacing happening already...

I look forward to trying it in a month or so. Definitely a repeater.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Journeyman

[Journeyman]

10 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Yes.  I thought similar.  What is the point of getting a fridge capable of fitting four kegs and only getting three taps.

I've only got 3 kegs at present but got 4 taps in the package due today. They're all going on the fridge door for expansion options.  (Auspost must be reading my posts - I got tracking to Melb, then to Adelaide and now it says it's in Murray Bridge. If they keep this up I might have to go to their FB site and apologise for bad mouthing them. ) 

[interceptor]

Drinking a Flanders from the tap... sure I may have ruined my entire keg set up with Brett but whatever...

[Journeyman]

1 minute ago, Ben 10 said:

Drinking a Flanders from the tap... sure I may have ruined my entire keg set up with Brett but whatever...

Shouldn't you use a glass?  

I'm just knocking off for an APA - also got an XPA in the fridge if I need it.

[The Captain!!]

1 hour ago, Ben 10 said:

Drinking a Flanders from the tap... sure I may have ruined my entire keg set up with Brett but whatever...

You'll just have to spray it down with high levels of iodine, from a high pressure cleaner at height, like a helicopter, or one of those fire water dumpers full of iodine water if you want to save ya tap system now mate ha ahhaha. 

You being careful with cross contamination? Im sure you are but yeah, you will F everything ha ha ha ha.

Cant wait to hear about the next Big Red Rye IPA/Brett beer.

[MitchBastard]

My faux German Pilsner. Still needs some clearing up. I keg fined with biofine. Pretty sure I’m going to throw the bottle Of biofine over the back fence after this lot.......I think it’s the culprit of some weird astringency issues I’ve had the last 3 times I’ve used it.....kinda weird. I bottled a few which doesn’t have the finning agent so will give it a go in about a week to see how that fairs against the fined lot. Anyway. It’s drinkable. 

[Itinerant Peasant]

12 hours ago, Journeyman said:

It's young but it's a very nice drop already. My coffee stout was bottled Wed, 15th April and 1 bottle didn't fill all the way so I figured, WTH! Give it a try.

Well done JMan and great it is working out... but 6 days in the bottle... and a plastic bottle at that... you gotta be keen... ha ha... brew up and brew on!  Cheers. BB

[Itinerant Peasant]

3 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

My faux German Pilsner. Still needs some clearing up. I keg fined with biofine. Pretty sure I’m going to throw the bottle Of biofine over the back fence after this lot.......I think it’s the culprit of some weird astringency issues I’ve had the last 3 times I’ve used it.....kinda weird. I bottled a few which doesn’t have the finning agent so will give it a go in about a week to see how that fairs against the fined lot. Anyway. It’s drinkable.

Hey Mitchie... looks a nice beer mate.  But hey I don't want to claim anything... but I seem to be getting some clarity on some brews without too much intervention...  obviously if you do the cool lager thing I did with some bottles late last year for months on end... yer gunna get a better result... but more recently even in the kegs... things seemed to settle down...

I guess too I am a sucker for US05 for Ales and W3470 for Cool Brews... so whether that helps.... high flocc yeasts?

But I did have a crack at FishGuts (Isinglass) and that seemed well positive as far as I can tell... I did buy some Gelatin... not used it yet... but just been having pretty clear beers without too much being added....

Anyway... I reckon I'd rather drink a cloudy beer than one that tastes shitttthouse cos it has some u-beaut polycationic coagulant added.

And I know we have had this argument before - on this forum -  but a really good mate of mine - who knows beer - reckons that Gt Nthn and VB are just power-headache material for him... why?

Is it the addition of polycationic coagulants for rapid clarification - or whatever other u-beaut compound to speed up the flocc process?   That may leave a residue - that gives my mate headaches time and time again without fail - and he can drink gallllllons of other beers without a worry...

If it's ffkkkkkkkkkkn Gt Northern it won't be the hops - cos there aren't any in it?!

[Shamus O'Sean]

Drinking the last of my, as my brother calls it "Truth Serum", Russian Imperial Stout.  This was bottled on 1 February 2019 so almost 1 year and 3 months old.  Maybe still not mature enough.

This brew has developed interestingly.  Early days (I had one bottle each month for the first six months) it was smooth, easy to drink.  As it aged a bit, it got more bitter.  The last run of the bottles, including this last one, were more like the earlier bottles.

I recommend this brew for the patient.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

28 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

 

Is it the addition of polycationic coagulants for rapid clarification - or whatever other u-beaut compound to speed up the flocc process?   That may leave a residue - that gives my mate headaches time and time again without fail - and he can drink gallllllons of other beers without a worry...

If it's ffkkkkkkkkkkn Gt Northern it won't be the hops - cos there aren't any in it?!

Lion or CUB would be using filters or centrifuges mate. They are not using finings. 

[Journeyman]

13 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Well done JMan and great it is working out... but 6 days in the bottle... and a plastic bottle at that... you gotta be keen... ha ha... brew up and brew on!  Cheers. BB

That's actually a long neck beside the glass and it was sacrificial - it only filled to about the bottom of the C on Coopers. So I figured it could be used to see if I had a workable brew or not - the recipe was a bit of a mishmash from various recipes I found.

[Journeyman]

12 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

And I know we have had this argument before - on this forum -  but a really good mate of mine - who knows beer - reckons that Gt Nthn and VB are just power-headache material for him... why?

I gave up on Carlton Draught tap beer years back because 4 (normal) schooners would leave me too crook to get out of bed next day - in the days when I could walk home after 15 pints of Guinness and still go to work next day.

I noticed it with a couple of others as well - figured after asking reps (working in and around pubs at the time) I was sensitive to the chemicals they add to quick-brew for profit.

On a positive note it eventually led me towards craft beers and eventually to home brew.

[Otto Von Blotto]

14 hours ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Hey Mitchie... looks a nice beer mate.  But hey I don't want to claim anything... but I seem to be getting some clarity on some brews without too much intervention...  obviously if you do the cool lager thing I did with some bottles late last year for months on end... yer gunna get a better result... but more recently even in the kegs... things seemed to settle down...

I guess too I am a sucker for US05 for Ales and W3470 for Cool Brews... so whether that helps.... high flocc yeasts?

But I did have a crack at FishGuts (Isinglass) and that seemed well positive as far as I can tell... I did buy some Gelatin... not used it yet... but just been having pretty clear beers without too much being added....

Anyway... I reckon I'd rather drink a cloudy beer than one that tastes shitttthouse cos it has some u-beaut polycationic coagulant added.

And I know we have had this argument before - on this forum -  but a really good mate of mine - who knows beer - reckons that Gt Nthn and VB are just power-headache material for him... why?

Is it the addition of polycationic coagulants for rapid clarification - or whatever other u-beaut compound to speed up the flocc process?   That may leave a residue - that gives my mate headaches time and time again without fail - and he can drink gallllllons of other beers without a worry...

If it's ffkkkkkkkkkkn Gt Northern it won't be the hops - cos there aren't any in it?!

I haven't found any flavour issues from the finings I use. Didn't really have any problems with biofine with flavour either, aside from it maybe accentuating the malt a bit. Certainly didn't cause any astringency and it shouldn't anyway. As far as I understand all it is is silicic acid and water. All of them drop out into the trub so you aren't drinking them anyway.

Those commercial lagers do use a heading agent to retain the foam which I think contains propylene glycol. Maybe that's the reason for the headaches, I can't think of anything else in them that would cause it, unless the fermentation process creates fusels or something. 

[MitchBastard]

@Bearded Burbler yeah I dunno mate. Just a process of elimination at this stage. Biofine is next on the chopping block. But as Otto says finnings shouldn’t affect taste. We’ll see once I try the non fined bottles. 
 

have you suggested to your mate maybe it’s the 12 schooners per session that might be causing the head ache? 

[Itinerant Peasant]

7 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I haven't found any flavour issues from the finings I use. Didn't really have any problems with biofine with flavour either, aside from it maybe accentuating the malt a bit. Certainly didn't cause any astringency and it shouldn't anyway. As far as I understand all it is is silicic acid and water. All of them drop out into the trub so you aren't drinking them anyway.

Those commercial lagers do use a heading agent to retain the foam which I think contains propylene glycol. Maybe that's the reason for the headaches, I can't think of anything else in them that would cause it, unless the fermentation process creates fusels or something. 

Mate maybe you are onto something there @Otto Von Blotto Kelsey!  That is quite a possibility.... cos my mate cops it like clockwork... said (before the halt to sport) had gone to 20-20 game... and all they had was Gt Nthn.... and he said he just copped it way bad... couple of those nasty plastic cups of half warm half flat tasteless GN and the show was over : (

He can slurp my brews till the cows come home and has never had an issue... bottles... kegs... Coops KnKs or AGs...  dry malt... liquid malt... all grain... nil ill effects.

 

Ha ha @MitchBastard Mitchie... just noticed your 12 schooners ha ha.... nargh... mate as above - two will do just fine of the wrong megaswill to smash him.

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by Bearded Burbler

[Itinerant Peasant]

22 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Drinking the last of my, as my brother calls it "Truth Serum", Russian Imperial Stout.  This was bottled on 1 February 2019 so almost 1 year and 3 months old.  Maybe still not mature enough.

This brew has developed interestingly.  Early days (I had one bottle each month for the first six months) it was smooth, easy to drink.  As it aged a bit, it got more bitter.  The last run of the bottles, including this last one, were more like the earlier bottles.

I recommend this brew for the patient.

Wow Shamus that is a cracking looking brew - well played mate!!!

Just a magnificent fine creamy bubbly top mate.... sennnnsational!

Shows just how great beers can be produced via secondary ferment in the bottle hey (even though kegs are good too).

Nice one Mate!

[Itinerant Peasant]

9 hours ago, Journeyman said:

That's actually a long neck beside the glass and it was sacrificial

Ha ha I musta had me beer goggles on

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Wow Shamus that is a cracking looking brew - well played mate!!!

Just a magnificent fine creamy bubbly top mate.... sennnnsational!

Shows just how great beers can be produced via secondary ferment in the bottle hey (even though kegs are good too).

Nice one Mate!

Thanks BB,

I did a quarter of the bottles with two carbonation drops and the other three quarters with one drop.  This was a one drop bottle.  The two drop bottles were always over carbonated.  Still happy with them all.

[rodge]

This is the St Rogue Red Ale, BIAB recipe from Brewman. Only the second brew that I’ve kegged. Really enjoying it. Smooth, malty with a good balance between sweetness and bitterness. I’ve tried carbing it at serving pressure, today is day 5, so may change yet. 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Gelatine has been reported to strip flavour but I'm not sure about that from my own experience because I didn't use it enough. Got the shits with the fluffy easily disturbed sediment it created. 

I've also shelved biofine for the time being. It resulted in an inch or two high layer of yeast at the bottom of the fermenter, which went above the tap level. Kind of pointless dropping it out like that when it just gets dragged into the keg anyway. 

Back to my old isinglass and polyclar regime which had always given top results, really good clarity and no effect on flavour.