Daily diary of a virgin (first ever) home brew!

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

3 hours ago, Graubart said:

I am probably the only one around who never uses two packs of dry yeast come what may and make high OG beers most times... have made starters a plenty in the past...  I do use 11.5g dry sachets which are bigger than 7g packs... and also use plenty of 're-use' yeast slurry... but in general I reckon that 11.5g of say W34/70 or US05 can handle pretty much everything I can throw at it... But I am no expert by any means... I'll see if I can rope in my Yeast Coach @Greeny1525229549 Greeny to see what he reckons...  you there Greeny - your thoughts?

Yeah in my early days I did a lager at 10c with one pack of W34/70. It did finish but from memory took a long time and didn't taste too good. 9 times out of 10 an underpitch will finish though I don't think its good practice. I am a stickler for yeast pitch rates these days especially for ales. The reason being is it allows for repeatability. 1 pack of yeast for a batch will taste a fair bit different to 2 packs of yeast.

Lagers i just overpitch the crap out of it.

[pilotsh]

11 hours ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

1 pack of yeast for a batch will taste a fair bit different to 2 packs of yeast.

This interests me. 
Do you have (had) any examples of how the results would be, or were, different?

[Pezzza]

17 hours ago, pilotsh said:

I will rehydrate the Coopers Amber Yeast. Just not sure if I should rehydrate and add a Coopers Pale Ale sachet too. Still researching.

I would use both Coopers small packs if you have plenty... as I said I am a non-two-pack bloke - but I use the larger 11.5g sachets... or "mud" haha yeast slurry : )

Haha and now I see my experienced Yeast Coach @Greeny1525229549 comments above (am re-editing)... I think my above comments concur...

Except for the fact that @Greeny1525229549 is way further ahead regards the scientific well controlled pitching rates ; )

I think that my beers will taste different with imprecise pitching rates but at this stage in my brewing journey am not too concerned as all of my beers have tasted great and I am not actually at this stage trying to replicate and fine-tune especially for extra-cool beers like

@Greeny1525229549 Greeny you and your festive hi-tech Belgian Brews ; )

But I agree regards the Lagers and I do think that on average/across the board in general I would be an over-pitcher  

Edited January 1, 2021 by Graubart

[pilotsh]

This topic interested me so much, I even asked Coopers themselves for some input here: 

 

[Pezzza]

Just now, pilotsh said:

This topic interested me so much, I even asked Coopers themselves for some input here: 

 

Good idea well done @pilotsh : )

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

9 hours ago, pilotsh said:

This interests me. 
Do you have (had) any examples of how the results would be, or were, different?

Yeah it shows itself more in yeast driven beers like Belgians and saisons and wheats which throw esters and phenols. When the cells multiply they create the flavours. More multiplication will give more flavours. Higher pitch rate less flavour. Lower pitch rate more flavour.

My belgian quad recipe tastes a lot different at a 0.75 pitch rate v a 1.0 pitch rate.

I also find subtle differences in cleaner yeasts as well.

All this is assuming a consistent ferment temp as well as that is the other variable as higher temps will generally cause the yeast to throw more flavours as well. Kviek yeast is supposed to be an exception to this.

[pilotsh]

26 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

Higher pitch rate less flavour. Lower pitch rate more flavour.

Ahhhhh, Now I understand. So now I can see it depends if the yeast is giving a good or bad flavour (or one you are seeking) that will change the result if under or over pitched. Mmmmm.

[pilotsh]

Saturday 2nd January: Brew 014 pitched!

Malt: Canned- Coopers Family Secret Amber Ale BB date on can: 08/05/22 (for Americans that is 8th May 2022)

Extra Ingredients: 200g Cracked (by me) Joe White Light Crystal Malt, 200g Cracked (by me) Joe White Wheat Crystal Malt, Coopers Amber Malt Extract Can (1.5kg), 400g sugars worth of Maple Syrup (504ml of Kirkland Signature Maple Syrup), 400g Coopers Brew Enhancer 1, 15g of Mandarina Bavaria Hop Pellets.

Water: Any unboiled water was Coles Spring Water (plus a small amount of cold tap water and ice)

Preparation/Recipe: Brought 4 Litres of water to boil, let cool to 70C. Add 200+200 Cracked Light Crystal Malt, Cracked Wheat Crystal Malt, steep at 66C in oven for 30 minutes. Strain into another pot.

Sparge with 1Lt of 76C water. Rest for 15 minutes, then firm squeeze.

Sparge again with 500ml of 55C water. Rest 15 minutes, then firm squeeze.

Bring wort to boil on Mod-High Heat, boil wort lid off for 35 minutes.

Add 15g hops, boil for 10 minutes.

Cool in water bath for 15 minutes, strain into FV. Squeezed hops chux this time, to get all the Mandarina goodness out.

In clean pot, bring 2Lt water to boil, heat off. Stir in Maple Syrup, Amber Ale Can, Amber Malt Extract Can and Brew Enhancer 1. Add to FV.

Rinse Cans and pot with 500ml boiled water, add to FV.

Top to 23Lt with 10Lt Spring water from the Fridge, and a little tap water and ice.

Plan to batch bottle batch prime with Maple Syrup at 8g of sugars / Lt.

Yeast: Coopers Can Sachet, AND a Coopers Pale Ale Sachet BB Feb 2022.

Pitching Method: Rehydrated both sachets in tepid sterile water for about 20 minutes until nice and brown. Poured into (on to) wort.

Initial Wort Temperature: 22C, deliberately to kick-start, going into Kegerator immediately.

Temperature Control: Inkbird/Kegerator. Inkbird set to 18.9C, taped to side of FV.

Cooling- Kegerator set to 18C, plugged into the Inkbird, trigger at 19.4C.

Heating- 35W heat belt, plugged into the Inkbird, trigger 18.1C.

Initial Sample SG (OG): 1055.

Comments: A busy brew day with family involved: a substitute New Years Eve. Excited to see how this brew turns out! 

Photo(s):

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Sunday 3rd January: 25 hours (1.04 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: Cycling between 18.9C to 19.4C, inkbird target 18.9C

Comments: Nice bubbly Krausen, about 1.5cm thick.

Photo(s): 

 

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Monday 4th January: 52 hours (2.16 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 18.9C - 19.3C

Comments: Nice bubbly Krausen, now a light Latte colour AND great smell of banana bread when I open the Kegerator. I know this aroma: it is good! Go you good yeasts go!

Photo(s): 
 

Edited January 4, 2021 by pilotsh

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Tuesday 5th January: 73 hours (3.04 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 18.9C - 19.3C

Comments: Nice bubbly Krausen, nice banana bread aroma, normal progress.

Photo(s):  Nil

—————————

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Wednesday 6th January: 97 hours (4.04 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 18.9C - 19.3C

Comments: Krausen beginning to break, nice banana bread aroma, normal progress.

Photo(s): Nil

—————————

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Thursday 7th January: 121 hours (5.04 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 18.9C - 19.3C

Comments: Krausen mostly collapsed, still nice aroma, normal progress.

Photo(s): Nil

 

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Friday 8th January: 148 hours (6.17 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 18.9C - 19.3C

SG: 1016

Appearance: Milky orange muddy water.

Nose: Light pine, almost hints of mint. Tropical fruits.

Palate: Crisp. Bitter. Citrus pith, tangerine, mandarin. This could be the Mandarina Bavaria hops. I can control this by the length of my cold crash, when it happens.

Comments: Krausen collapsed, still nice weaker aroma, normal progress. Will test SG again tomorrow, if no change I will bump temperature to 20.2C.

Photo(s): 
 

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Saturday 9th January: 172 hours (7.16 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 18.9C - 19.3C

SG: 1016 (no change).

Comments: Bumped Kegerator up to 20.1C

Photo(s): Nil

——————————

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Sunday 10th January: 194 hours (8.08 days) since pitch.

Brew Temp: 20.1C - 20.4C

Comments: No noticeable activity. Will cold crash from tomorrow if no SG change.

Photo(s): Nil

——————————

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Monday 11th January: 216 hours (9.0 days) Pitching to cold Crash.

Brew Temp: 20.1C - 20.4C

FG (SG): 1016

Comments: Cold crash to 1.9C commenced.

Photo(s): Final SG

——————————

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Tuesday 12th January: 22 hours since cold Crash.

Brew Temp: 1.9C to 2.2C

Comments: Initial cold crash takes a while (10 hours to get it below 10C), but now to temperature in less than 24 hours.

Photo(s): Nil

 

 

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Wednesday 13th January: 46 hours (1.91 days) since cold crash.

Brew Temp: 1.9C to 2.2C

Comments: Cold crash progressing normally. Will taste after day 5 or so, to determine cold crash length, as final taste was “tart and tight”, so want to control the hops/bittering in this closely. I learnt from my accidental LGITW 2 week beez nees cold crash that it can actually help.... I think I made it better with the longer cold crash as it removed more hop oils and it wasn’t as funky by the time we got around to bottling it. Lol.

(Summary: not sure yet!)

Photo(s): Nil

[pilotsh]

On 1/14/2021 at 7:37 AM, pilotsh said:

Will taste after day 5 or so, to determine cold crash length, as final taste was “tart and tight”, so want to control the hops/bittering in this closely. I learnt from my accidental LGITW 2 week beez nees cold crash that it can actually help.... I think I made it better with the longer cold crash as it removed more hop oils and it wasn’t as funky by the time we got around to bottling it. Lol.

Brew 014: Coopers Amber Ale- Monday 18th January: 169 hours (7.04 days) since cold crash.

Brew Temp: 1.9C to 2.2C

Comments: Just like I predicted, it has mellowed! It doesn’t feel like it is as bitter, and has a more rounded mouthfeel! I am not sure yet if we will batch prime all with maple or do a half and half with half maple batch and half bottled with carbonation drops. I will get my folks to sample as well tomorrow, since they helped me make it, and see what they think!

Also, finally made up the spreadsheet, and SG and FG are only one point off! Amazing!

SG: 1016

Photo(s): 

[Pezzza]

On 1/1/2021 at 5:12 PM, Greeny1525229549 said:

When the cells multiply they create the flavours. More multiplication will give more flavours. Higher pitch rate less flavour. Lower pitch rate more flavour.

Hey Greeny - this is good stuff - and aligns with something recently discovered - via a Whitelabs presentation on youtube - and there the proposition put forward was that if you are going to generate off-flavours... that this is most likely to happen in the first 48 hours... which aligns with the period when the yeast  population is being generated rather than them just getting on with the job chewing through fermentables... at least from where I see things (might be wrong I guess too)... and then an interesting practical case where  a beginner mate recently got a local HBS KnK and inadvertently ran it in his hot shed at around 30 degC and had to tip it out... I rang the alarm bells when he told me how hot it was in there... and he then put into temp control but was way tooooooo late... interesting stuff. 

 

On 1/1/2021 at 5:12 PM, Greeny1525229549 said:

My belgian quad recipe tastes a lot different at a 0.75 pitch rate v a 1.0 pitch rate.

And your level of excellence on yeast management is very good mate... I think I live in the world of benign yeasts and mostly in an overpitch scenario... plus I really haven't been trying to replicate beers as am happy with different outcomes and so far with temp control and pretty good AG inputs have I think done ok... my only disasters were one burn-on (KL replaced element) and one bad spillage haha a clumsy donkey I was that evening ; )

[pilotsh]

Brew 013: Three Threes Beez Nees Nostalgia Brew: Friday 29th January: Taste test

Appearance: Slightly cloudy orange straw. Nice head that dissipates, but bubble patches hang around, like a normal beer!

Nose: Strong and distinctive: Honey, some floral notes, and hints of pine.

Palate: Honey and beeswax, light pine, definitely notes of cloves, even some nice bread dough.

Comments: Wow. What an aromatic, bold beer! Certainly Honey! I just wish I had primed off a few bottles with carbonation drops as a control to see what effect the honey batch prime had. Lucky I did carb drop prime 3 bottles of Brew 14: Maple Amber Ale, which I’ll post tomorrow (it’s hard to stick labels on sunken bottles covered of condensation).

Photo(s):

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by pilotsh

[Pezzza]

11 hours ago, pilotsh said:

Three Threes Beez Nees Nostalgia Brew:

Wow what a great result Pilot - well done - congrats mate!!!

[pilotsh]

Brew 014: Maple Amber Ale- Wednesday 27^th January 2021: 600 hours / 25 days from pitching to bottling. (Ferm 216h/9d, cold crash 384h/16d)  

FG (SG): 1015.5 therefore Brew 14 is 5.7%ABV (5.14+0.5). Spreadsheet check of 1015 and 5.4 makes sense. 

Appearance: Rusty Brown. 

Nose: Quite plain, nothing dominant. Hints of light pine.

Palate: Hints of earthiness. Light bitterness, that is not sharp, so the cold crash has helped. Maple priming will add complexity to final tasting notes.

Comments: Three bottles primed with Carbonation Drops as a control (Should have done this with the Beez Nees Brew). Batch primed remaining beer with 226ml of 100% Canadian Maple Syrup (Woolworths/Coles blend) dissolved in 500ml of off-the-boil water, then let to cool with the lid on. For 23Lt this is 8g sugars / Lt, so in this case it will be a little higher as I drew off 3 bottles first. After the cold crash, the SG(FG) was 1015.5, a small drop as yeast and hop oils were pulled from the brew during the two week cold crash. 

Cannot wait to taste this after the 4 weeks bottle conditioning! 

Photo(s): 

[pilotsh]

Proposed Brew 15

 

[Stickers]

looks tasty, is that a half box of BE1 or the "brewing sugar" that you're planning to add?

[pilotsh]

1 minute ago, Stickers said:

half box of BE1

this, for mouthfeel and head retention

[pilotsh]

Tuesday 16th February (just, at 00:30) 2021: Brew 015 “‘Bootmaker on a Rollercoaster’ American Pale Ale” pitched! 

Prologue: This brew was not what I wanted. I had to change it at the last minute (with wort in the FV) as all the cans of Coopers Light Malt I opened where mouldy. Luckily I had some dry ingredients at home and raided my ROTM Hazy IPA pack. Had I not, I would have been snookered and the wort wasted. The live log of the event can be seen here: https://community.diybeer.com/topic/15722-live-help-question-right-now-missing-ingredients-will-this-save-it-or-ruin-it/?do=findComment&comment=234243

SO, let’s see how it turns out.

 

Malt: Canned- Coopers Bootmaker (American) Pale Ale. BB date on can: 21/02/22.

Extra Ingredients: 300g Cracked Joe White Wheat Crystal Malt, Coopers Light Wheat Malt Can (1.5kg), 1/2 Box (500g) Coopers Brew Enhancer 2, 20g Mandarina Bavaria Hop Pellets.

Actual Ingredients to save the brew: 300g Cracked Joe White Wheat Crystal Malt, 1 Box (1.016kg) of Brew Enhancer 2, 1.5 boxes (750g) of Coopers Light Dry Malt, 20g Mandarina Bavaria Hop Pellets.

Water: Most of the unboiled water was 10Lt Woolworths Spring Water (from the fridge).

Preparation/Recipe: Brought 4 Litres of water to boil, let cool to 75C. Add 300g Cracked Light Wheat Malt, steep at 66C in oven for 35 minutes. Strain into another pot.
Sparge with 1Lt of 70C water. Rest for 10 minutes, then moderate to firm squeeze.
Sparge again with 500ml of 55C water. Rest 5 minutes, then moderate to firm squeeze.
Bring wort to boil on Mod-High Heat, boil wort lid off for 35 minutes.

Add 15g hops, boil for 5 minutes. Add a further 5g hops, boil for 5 minutes.

Cool pot in water bath for 15 minutes, strain into FV. Squeeze hops chux into FV.
In clean pot, bring 2Lt water to boil, heat off. Stir in Bootmaker Can, BE2 and Light Dry Malt. Add to FV.
Rinse Can and pot with 500ml boiled water, add to FV.
Top to 23Lt with Spring water (10L from Fridge).

Yeast: Coopers Can Sachet, 34019 R3559.

Pitching Method: Rehydrated yeast in sterile water at about 25C for about 20 minutes until nice and milky. Pour into Wort.

Initial Wort Temperature: 21C, deliberately to kick-start, going into Kegerator immediately.

Temperature Control: Inkbird/Kegerator. Inkbird set to 18.9, taped to side of FV.
Cooling- Kegerator set to 18C, plugged into the Inkbird, trigger at 19.3C.
Heating- 35W heat belt, plugged into the Inkbird, trigger 18.1C.

Initial Sample SG (OG): 1049.5 (About 3 points lows of the spreadsheet estimate!)

Comments: Let’s see how this turns out. The rollercoaster in the title of the Brew is a reference to the ups and downs of this brew, especially being snookered by the faulty/mouldy Malt Cans.

Photo(s):

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by pilotsh
added spreadsheet screenshot

[Pezzza]

5 hours ago, pilotsh said:

Let’s see how this turns out. The rollercoaster in the title of the Brew is a reference to the ups and downs of this brew, especially being snookered by the faulty/mouldy Malt Cans.

Good on you for the massive Recovery - great work @pilotsh Pilot and make sure that @CoopersS1 @Coopers DIY Beer Teamthat our friendly Coopers Team know about the faulty Malt cans and can help make sure you get some newies... 

[jamiek86]

23 minutes ago, Graubart said:

Good on you for the massive Recovery - great work @pilotsh Pilot and make sure that @CoopersS1 @Coopers DIY Beer Teamthat our friendly Coopers Team know about the faulty Malt cans and can help make sure you get some newies... 

Been thinking if they fill the cans warm and seal then cool down after sealed probably more common than we all realise. Would have condensation that allows mold at right conditions? I guess I'm stuck in ways I find it far better to warm in water lying down to make getting out easier and probably had many of these without knowing.