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BREW DAY!! WATCHA' GOT, EH!? 2020


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On 1/16/2020 at 2:25 PM, Lab Rat said:

Going to try a faux lager with Nottingham, read lots of brewers have done this. I did the Artisan as a real lager last time, and didn't get the strong clean crisp taste I associate with that style - it was still a pretty malty beer, even though I only used 1kg of LDM instead of the recipe 1.5. Lack of cold storage is probably the key thing. So seeing how this goes, lightening things up with BE3 and brewing at 14c. Not expecting a real lager by any means, if it ends up as another "summer ale" that's fine.

Coopers Euro, BE3, 200g LDM, 15 Hallertau 30m, 35 steeped.

Any suggestions welcome.

Sounds alright to me, but I have brewed all of one lager so... I think it will be crisp and should be clean with some nice no la hop aromas and flavours, Urquell like, possibly. 

Should be tasty. I can try some for you if you want. It would be my pleasure to drink free beer.

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On 1/16/2020 at 2:25 PM, Lab Rat said:

Going to try a faux lager with Nottingham,

I kegged one last friday and put it on tap on Wednesday not quite carbonated yet but tastes have been right on the money. Exactly what I was after.  It a it is a kit of Morgans Blue Mountains Lager with Rice syrup as the fermentable and Hallertau hop tea and dry hops.   Tastes very much like the Beerlao/Ankor/Cambodian clone I was after.  Very very happy with it.  

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Well AG brew number two went without a hitch, apart from having to add some water to the final wort as the evaporation rate had been too high.  @Bearded Burbler I changed the way i used the retic coller and it worked a treat got the wort to under 180. I ran the garden hose othrought the coil until it got to below 40 which was not too long. Then hooked up the retic which I had full of an ice slurry that I had made using old chinese food containers.  Took it to below 20 in about 10 minutes.  All up it took about less than 20 minutes.   

I had the wort on a great rolling boil for an hour but the evaporation rate was way too high. Lost 5 litres more than I wanted  added 5 litres of water and all is good. Took the OG from 1050 to 1040 which was what I was after.   

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1 hour ago, The Captain!! said:

Personally I wouldn’t want to stress a hef yeast. 
You could always make a starter with your liquid yeast to get some more cells. Get a 1l soft drink bottle, 500ml wort, shake it like it owes you money, pour in the yeast, then give it a day in a dark spot. 

You learn something new every day.  So you can make a starter as simple as that.  Makes sense as I will be no chilling so what better use of some leftover wort.  I’ve always shyed away from starters cos I thought you needed a stir plate , magnets , lab coat and bifocals 

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2 hours ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Depends whether he likes a banana hefe or clove type hefe. 

100bn in a 1056 brew might need a touch of a starter regardless though

Yeah that’s why I’ve said “I personally”. 🤪

But yeah definitely under pitched at 100. 
 

1 hour ago, PaddyBrew2 said:

You learn something new every day.  So you can make a starter as simple as that.  Makes sense as I will be no chilling so what better use of some leftover wort.  I’ve always shyed away from starters cos I thought you needed a stir plate , magnets , lab coat and bifocals 

yep, certainly can. Just leave it for 24hrs to give it the growth you’ll need after pitching. 
With the leftover wort I’d just chuck that in ya freezer till it’s at pitching temp then shake it up. 

Edited by The Captain!!
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22 minutes ago, The Captain!! said:

Yeah that’s why I’ve said “I personally”. 🤪

But yeah definitely under pitched at 100. 

A wheat yeast is very much like a belgian. A 0.5 million per ml per degree will give a much different result to a 0.75 to a 1.0. You very much have to play around with pitch rates and ferment temps to find your own sweetspot. Took me about 10 brews to nail my chimay blue clone and it all came down to pitch rate and ferment temperature. The malts and hopping are simple with these brews. 

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2 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

Well AG brew number two went without a hitch, apart from having to add some water to the final wort as the evaporation rate had been too high.  @Bearded Burbler I changed the way i used the retic coller and it worked a treat got the wort to under 180. I ran the garden hose othrought the coil until it got to below 40 which was not too long.

Guess you gotta run the water for that time to get below 40... but maybe you have enough water... and can water the lawn or garden with that volume...

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2 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

A wheat yeast is very much like a belgian. A 0.5 million per ml per degree will give a much different result to a 0.75 to a 1.0. You very much have to play around with pitch rates and ferment temps to find your own sweetspot. Took me about 10 brews to nail my chimay blue clone and it all came down to pitch rate and ferment temperature. The malts and hopping are simple with these brews. 

Totally agree with ya Greeny. 
 

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2 hours ago, PaddyBrew2 said:

You learn something new every day.  So you can make a starter as simple as that.  Makes sense as I will be no chilling so what better use of some leftover wort.  I’ve always shyed away from starters cos I thought you needed a stir plate , magnets , lab coat and bifocals 

Mate I just use a 'preserving jar'... 100g of LDME per L - think that is what Kelsey @Otto Von Blotto and Greeny @Greeny1525229549 recommended... dissolve the LDME in boiling water... let sit and calm down... (don't shake while boiling hot as it spits).... then shake shake shake... then cool in fridge or front of fan... till ok temp... then pitch overnight... ready to go in the morning.

In general works pretty well I reckon.  Just use boiling water to sterilise the clean preserving jar...  one of those big old jars with a rubber seal and clamp...

Does seem to work a lot better if you wear a starched clean lab coat and don some bi-focals so you could consider that as a continuous improvement initiative.  ; )  BB

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2 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

but maybe you have enough water... and can water the lawn or garden with that volume...

Tanks are full at the moment and I overlooked, well totally forgot, we also have a bore that runs for about 20 minutes.  I suppose you could get a dedicated tank to run the waste into so you don't lose it.  That is what I am thinking of doing.  

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3 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Mate I just use a 'preserving jar'... 100g of LDME per L - think that is what Kelsey @Otto Von Blotto and Greeny @Greeny1525229549 recommended... dissolve the LDME in boiling water... let sit and calm down... (don't shake while boiling hot as it spits).... then shake shake shake... then cool in fridge or front of fan... till ok temp... then pitch overnight... ready to go in the morning.

In general works pretty well I reckon.  Just use boiling water to sterilise the clean preserving jar...  one of those big old jars with a rubber seal and clamp...

Does seem to work a lot better if you wear a starched clean lab coat and don some bi-focals so you could consider that as a continuous improvement initiative.  ; )  BB

Yep. Any sterilized container can make a starter really. Though i recommend the erlenmeyer flask. Boil on the gas stove. Put it in the sink with a frozen coke bottle to cool. Pitch yeast with foil or glad wrap over it and an elastic band. Too easy.

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Opportunistic Brew Day... started late but it looks good so far... Mountain Black AG... Stout of sorts... plenty of Dark Malts... Chocolate - Carafa III - Smoked Malt - Roasted Barley and some Wheat (as usual) and with Voyager Veloria Schooner Malt as the base... Rainwater... Styrian Goldings as the Hop.  See how we go.  Got the "desert no-chill" happening overnight and will decant out the SS Mash Tun/Boil Kettle into FV and pitch my starter in the morning once things have come down to temp ; )

The dark brew in the glass that drained from the hop basket far RHS... shows that at least the colour is looking right... the chocolate aromas during malting were good as well. Cheers. BB

image.thumb.png.ffba5e52beb662f7efbb78abab628846.png

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Quote


Recipe: Weizenbock
Brewer: Grumpy
Style: Weizenbock
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 L   
Estimated OG: 1.068 SG
Estimated Color: 27.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 29.2 IBUs


Ingredients:
------------
Amt              Name                                             Type          #          %/IBU         Volume        
4.00 kg          Wheat Malt (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EBC)           Grain         1          65.6 %        2.61 L        
2.00 kg          Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC)             Grain         2          32.8 %        1.30 L        
0.10 kg          Carafa III (Weyermann) (1034.2 EBC)              Grain         3          1.6 %         0.07 L        
20.00 g          El Dorado [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min              Hop           4          29.2 IBUs     -             
3.65 g           Brewbrite (Boil 10.0 mins)                       Fining        5          -             -             

Forbidden Fruit Yeast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

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Old Peculier-ish

Finally got round to brewing this 20L batch today.  Inspired by Theakston's "Old Peculier"

A 75/25 (grain/extract/molasses) brew.  My original recipe included torrified wheat but I wasn't able to get any so ended up using pale wheat instead.  It's only 5% of the grist so I doubt it will make any noticeable difference against the heavier malts and molasses used in the recipe. 

Once again I've experienced an inexplicably high efficiency - 25% more than the more usual 65%, which meant I overshot my target of 1.048 buy 12 points! 😯  Not sure what's going in there, the mash process is the same every time I brew.    🙄  

OldPec_BrewDay.jpg

 

  • 2.4kg GF Ale Malt
  • 200g GF Wheat Malt
  • 200g GF Med. Crystal
  • 100g GF Shepherds Delight
  • 600g LME
  • 500g Molasses
  • 10g Green Bullet @50min
  • 25g Southern Cross @10min
  • 25g Southern Cross @FO
  • M42 Yeast

| ABV=6.5%!! | IBU=38 | EBC=38 |

Edited by BlackSands
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1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Maybe the grain is being crushed a little differently? I like GF ale malt, it produces great beers but I also get consistently good efficiency with it. It's high quality, was a bit disappointed when Craftbrewer had none in stock last time. 

Grain crush is the only variable that I can think of... one that I'm not in control of.  Two different stores... two different crushes.  But I really wouldn't have thought it would make THAT much difference??  

Edited by BlackSands
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4 minutes ago, BlackSands said:

Grain crush is the only variable that I can think of... one that I'm not in control of.  Two different stores... two different crushes.  But I really wouldn't have thought it would make THAT much difference??  

I guess it would depend on how different the crush is. If one is noticeably finer than the other then it could make a bigger difference. I never got good efficiency with a finer crush as I do with it being quite coarse, despite claims that the crush doesn't matter for BIAB. Some might have that experience but I didn't. 

Do you always use GF ale malt? I've found different malts result in different efficiencies in the past. Not by that margin but still a good 5-6%. 

Edited by Otto Von Blotto
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11 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Do you always use GF ale malt? I've found different malts result in different efficiencies in the past. Not by that margin but still a good 5-6%. 

I pretty much use GF exclusively.   One other difference this time is I didn't actually use a grain bag because it tore last time and I forgot to replace it!   I had to mess about usinga large seive instead.  Can't imagine that would account for much either though....    🤔 

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Yeah, it might make a bit of difference but I wouldn't think it would be much either. Sometimes it just happens for no apparent reason, like when I brewed a lager recently and wound up with a mash efficiency of 93.4% which is about 7% higher than I normally get. As a result the OG overshot by 7 points, although that could have been mitigated by reducing the length of the boil back to the intended 90 minutes. Instead I timed it based on the volume left in the urn, which I normally do anyway, I just normally don't get that high mash efficiency. I think the overall efficiency was around 83/84%, where normally I run at around 75%. 

Edited by Otto Von Blotto
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1 hour ago, BlackSands said:

I pretty much use GF exclusively.   One other difference this time is I didn't actually use a grain bag because it tore last time and I forgot to replace it!   I had to mess about usinga large seive instead.  Can't imagine that would account for much either though....    🤔 

Better liquid flow through from fluid in and out of the sieve holding the grist...  than you would maybe in and out of the bag?

 

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Recipe: Catharina Sour Cherry
Brewer: Grumpy
Style: Wild Specialty Beer
TYPE: All Grain, No Chill, Lacto Infected, Botchilism


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 21.00 L   
Estimated OG: 1.067 SG
Estimated Color: 6.7 EBC
Estimated IBU: 7.4 IBUs

Ingredients:
------------
Amt              Name                                             Type          #          %/IBU         Volume        
3.50 kg          Pilsner (Weyermann) (3.3 EBC)                    Grain         1          58.3 %        2.28 L        
2.50 kg          Wheat Malt (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EBC)           Grain         2          41.7 %        1.63 L        
5.00 g           El Dorado [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min              Hop           3          7.4 IBUs      -             
3.65 g           Brewbrite (Boil 10.0 mins)                       Fining        4          -             -             
1.00 kg          Cherry (Primary)                                 Other         5          -             -             
1.0 pkg          French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.28 ml]     Yeast         6          -             -             


------

 

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37 minutes ago, Bearded Burbler said:

Better liquid flow through from fluid in and out of the sieve holding the grist...  than you would maybe in and out of the bag?

 

No... it's not a sieve holding the grain... but rather it's a large one I pour the wort through after the mash. 

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Just now, BlackSands said:

No... it's not a sieve holding the grain... but rather it's a large one I pour the wort through after the mash. 

So does the milled malted grain just float around in the pot unrestricted?

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