BREW DAY!! WATCHA’ GOT, EH? 2021

[bennysbrew]

Woolies Cascadian!  Woolies draught and malt, plus choc grains, plus lots of late Centennial, a homebrand contradiction

[jamiek86]

@bennysbrew is this homebrand recepie one you have done a lot? or homebrand cans in general?

[bennysbrew]

9 hours ago, jamiek86 said:

@bennysbrew is this homebrand recepie one you have done a lot? or homebrand cans in general?

Nah, but I read the Woolies 'larger' appreciation page on Facebook with amusement, so I thought why not contribute. I've made dark ale's from Coopers apa tins before, so thought I'd try the homebrand 'draft' for $9. 

 

Actually I made a neipa from the HB lager last year now I think of it in the craft fermenter. You throw that many hops , or grains I don't think the base tin matters to much, came up ok

 

I was going to use S04 slurry from my last batch, but I wasn't convinced there might have been issue with it tasting it at bottling, so I used the homebrand yeast, and a Coopers yeast. See how it go's..

1 Woolworths draught +1kg Saunders malt extract +350g choc grains +100g crystal +25g Centennial (5 m) +50g steeped + 25g (dry), 21l

The homebrand Cascadian 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Graculus]

1 hour ago, bennysbrew said:

Nah, but I read the Woolies 'larger' appreciation page on Facebook with amusement, so I thought why not contribute. I've made dark ale's from Coopers apa tins before, so thought I'd try the homebrand 'draft' for $9. 

 

Actually I made a neipa from the HB lager last year now I think of it in the craft fermenter. You throw that many hops , or grains I don't think the base tin matters to much, came up ok

 

I was going to use S04 slurry from my last batch, but I wasn't convinced there might have been issue with it tasting it at bottling, so I used the homebrand yeast, and a Coopers yeast. See how it go's..

1 Woolworths draught +1kg Saunders malt extract +350g choc grains +100g crystal +25g Centennial (5 m) +50g steeped + 25g (dry), 21l

The homebrand Cascadian 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please tell me it is a "LARGER" appreciation page. Is that really what they call it?

Personally I have a Morgans Blue Mountain Lager in the FV at the moment.
I was gifted the ingredients to make their Crown Lager (not Larger) recipe.
I must say at the moment it seems OK, and is hell of a lot lighter in colour than the last time I made this beer.
I think it was Worry Wort who posted a pic of his BML. That looked about the same colour as the one I made.

[Malter White]

3 minutes ago, Graculus said:

Please tell me it is a "LARGER" appreciation page. Is that really what they call it?

Personally I have a Morgans Blue Mountain Lager in the FV at the moment.
I was gifted the ingredients to make their Crown Lager (not Larger) recipe.
I must say at the moment it seems OK, and is hell of a lot lighter in colour than the last time I made this beer.
I think it was Worry Wort who posted a pic of his BML. That looked about the same colour as the one I made.

OMG they have called it LARGER but obviously taking the P155. They've even doctored up the tin's label for the profile picture. Haha.

[Graculus]

11 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

OMG they have called it LARGER but obviously taking the P155. They've even doctored up the tin's label for the profile picture. Haha.

Oh dear.
and the wording on the tin too.

Classic.

They're not too choosy about people joining are they.
Clicked join and a millisecond later approved.
I don't use facebook much, but I might have a look now and again, although I doubt very much I'd ever use a woolies kit.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Graculus

[bennysbrew]

Yep they love the toucan 'larger' with the Woolies passionfruit pulp tin 

[Marty_G]

Brew day is tomorrow and this is what is planned.  An Irish Red Ale.   

[Classic Brewing Co]

19 hours ago, Graubart said:

Haha @CLASSIC Phil you are way too kind mate... I guess the old Graubartigebräu Brauhaus has got a bit of a system going... haha and when I do brew the Brewery gets a tidy up (haha the Kitch) which is good.... and usually the floor has been washed clean after all the liquids flying around including lots of boiling water for sterilisation haha...  was worried about getting it all to work after some months layoff but it all has sorta come together... but three in three days will be enough for a bit... might do a Dunkelweizen when the current Hefeweizen is done and just put straight into same FV... that will bring me back up to 7 kegs... it was pretty poor form to have 9 and go back to 2 and a bit so thought I should crack on and bring the inventory back up... so hopefully get this puppy into SS FV tomorrow and have three fermenting nicely for a little while.  The HW is bllllardy cranking tho - so might even be able to keg later next week and get that DW in... see how it goes.  But it does feel good to be back brewing and not just imbibing haha!  (tho imbibing is plenty fun yesss) 

Credit where credit is due @Graubart  your Dunkelweizen,  Hefeweizen & all of those lovely beers you post are awesome. I suppose that kind of result can only be done with BIAB/AG but starting with partials & other additions may head me in the right direction. The next 2 beers I am brewing there will be cracked Crystal going in so I have to start somewhere.

Some of the guys have commented on Crystal, I think Hairy or the Blob but next trip to the LHBS I will be looking for something different.

Prost

[Norris!]

3 hours ago, CLASSIC said:

Some of the guys have commented on Crystal, I think Hairy or the Blob but next trip to the LHBS I will be looking for something different.

Prost

If you want colour think about using Munich, Vienna, dark wheat, etc instead of crystal malts or even victory malt, basically look for a malt versus crystal to add the colour, biscuit malt (use in low doses, well for my tastes at least) for example.

I use caramunich in 1 recipe but have used victory in its place and I like the results alot. More breadiness and toasty flavours from the malt, it increases those where as crystal can be cloying sweet and make the beer unbalanced, especially in this day and age where a lot of fruity hops are used which increases the perceived sweetness, for me that is the dig against crystal malts. But honestly, used in the proper proportions and in a good recipe they can work fine, just think about balancing that sweetness some how. Making the beer crisper, drier or/and more bitter are my solutions. 

All ingredients are good, we just use them wrong sometimes, well I do at least. It is all a learning curve. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Norris!

[Classic Brewing Co]

18 minutes ago, Norris! said:

If you want colour think about using Munich, Vienna, dark wheat, etc instead of crystal malts or even victory malt, basically look for a malt versus crystal to add the colour, biscuit malt (use in low doses, well for my tastes at least) for example.

I use caramunich in 1 recipe but have used victory in its place and I like the results alot. More breadiness and toasty flavours from the malt, it increases those where as crystal can be cloying sweet and make the beer unbalanced, especially in this day and age where a lot of fruity hops are used which increases the perceived sweetness, for me that is the dig against crystal malts. But honestly, used in the proper proportions and in a good recipe they can work fine, just think about balancing that sweetness some how. Making the beer crisper, drier or/and more bitter are my solutions. 

All ingredients are good, we just use them wrong sometimes, well I do at least. It is all a learning curve. 

Cheers for that @Norris! very much appreciated, I will take it all on board, definitely have to strike the right balance. 

Cheers.

[iBooz2]

Did not realize it had been so long since I had been on the forum.  I gotta lot of catching up to do.

We spent two  months plus caravanning and exploring up through NSW, all the places we normally just drive through but stayed a few days this time and looked around.  Got pushed up as far north as Gympie in QLD due to those big NSW floods before heading back south to Melbourne then bounced up to Mildura.  Because we had been cooped up so long with lock-downs and restrictions just had to get back out a see some country for a wee while.

And of course the beer stocks have all but disappeared since we got home, still got a few dozen bottles of lager that have been sitting at 2 C since middle of last year but they are getting swallowed fast so needed to get some brews happening.

Brew day today was just one of my favs, the Pacific Summer Ale AG version.  This is only a 20 Litre batch so I can test a no-chill cubing method out and start pumping out double batches to build up stocks quickly.  If my technique works and can get water volumes right from the get-go I hope to be able to do 2 x double mashes/boils in one day so end up with 4 x 20 Litre cubes out of the day’s work.

This Recipe for my 20 litre batch:

BB Pilsner Malt 3.00 kg

Weyermann Wheat Malt 0.75 kg

Caramunich type II 0.20 kg

Acidulated Malt 0.25 kg

Mashed schedule - 63 C for 30” then 70 C for 30”

Hops – 5 g Galaxy for 70”, then 10 g Summer for 30”, then 5 g Galaxy and also 10 g Summer for 10”.  Dry hop will be 30 g Galaxy on brew day + 3 say at around 1.014.

Windsor Yeast.

No salts or additives were added to the mash water as a test for this brew, just plain filtered tap water.  Mash PH was 5.6  Going to compare it to a tiny little bit of previous version sitting still in a keg just to see if the additives last time have made a noticeable difference.

Cheers - AL

[Pezzza]

7 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

Did not realize it had been so long since I had been on the forum. 

Welcome back Boozer! 

Just thought of you yesterday when I was doing an AG Wort and rolled it in about 3.5 hours (does not include the final cleaning of the SS Vessel)...  I just remember back to your first goes and you were concerned about the hours it took... and a few of us were saying give yourself a bit of time and a chance to get into the routine... suspect you are cranking them out with ease now mate? ; )

Glad you had some good hols and are back safe-n-sound!  Good luck with that brew mate sounds nice and I bet your 2 deg chill-stored bottle lagers are beauts!

Cheers Mate and Good Brewing 

[Classic Brewing Co]

21 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

Did not realize it had been so long since I had been on the forum.  I gotta lot of catching up to do.

We spent two  months plus caravanning and exploring up through NSW, all the places we normally just drive through but stayed a few days this time and looked around.  Got pushed up as far north as Gympie in QLD due to those big NSW floods before heading back south to Melbourne then bounced up to Mildura.  Because we had been cooped up so long with lock-downs and restrictions just had to get back out a see some country for a wee while.

And of course the beer stocks have all but disappeared since we got home, still got a few dozen bottles of lager that have been sitting at 2 C since middle of last year but they are getting swallowed fast so needed to get some brews happening.

Brew day today was just one of my favs, the Pacific Summer Ale AG version.  This is only a 20 Litre batch so I can test a no-chill cubing method out and start pumping out double batches to build up stocks quickly.  If my technique works and can get water volumes right from the get-go I hope to be able to do 2 x double mashes/boils in one day so end up with 4 x 20 Litre cubes out of the day’s work.

This Recipe for my 20 litre batch:

BB Pilsner Malt 3.00 kg

Weyermann Wheat Malt 0.75 kg

Caramunich type II 0.20 kg

Acidulated Malt 0.25 kg

Mashed schedule - 63 C for 30” then 70 C for 30”

Hops – 5 g Galaxy for 70”, then 10 g Summer for 30”, then 5 g Galaxy and also 10 g Summer for 10”.  Dry hop will be 30 g Galaxy on brew day + 3 say at around 1.014.

Windsor Yeast.

No salts or additives were added to the mash water as a test for this brew, just plain filtered tap water.  Mash PH was 5.6  Going to compare it to a tiny little bit of previous version sitting still in a keg just to see if the additives last time have made a noticeable difference.

Cheers - AL

Good to see you are back @iBooz2  we were starting to think you had given up the devil drink. 

 

[iBooz2]

44 minutes ago, Graubart said:

Just thought of you yesterday when I was doing an AG Wort and rolled it in about 3.5 hours (does not include the final cleaning of the SS Vessel)...  I just remember back to your first goes and you were concerned about the hours it took... and a few of us were saying give yourself a bit of time and a chance to get into the routine... suspect you are cranking them out with ease now mate? ; )

@Graubart I am only on AG batch #5 so its still hard yakka.  Today's no chill effort for 20 litres was 4.75 hours including clean up which is a BS amount of work for one keg.  And I keep looking at all those Coopers can's I have in stock and think "what the hell I am I doing? 

That tin and that tin, add water, yeast stir and done.  I am going to have you use up all those tins soon and probably will in a partial mash to get some head retention and slightly improve on tins but a K&K is still very temping time wise at this stage of my AG career.

But I am going to press on, and on, and on as the expense of of this gear needs to give me some / a big return, even if I have to use my own slave labour to achieve the outcome. 

Cheers - AL

[stquinto]

Golden Ale recipe today. I tweaked with an extra 10g Amarillo in the boil, and some leftover dextrose (450g) in the FV. The store room behind the garage is the new brewery as it is 18 degrees at the moment. In winter it’s perfect for dubya 34/70 ( about 13 degrees). 
The rest is the beer store cupboard, and by the boiler is for the conditioning batch. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by stquinto

[Malter White]

16 minutes ago, stquinto said:

If you didn't drink so much beer you'd probably hit the ball straighter, Dave, and wouldn't need a telescopic "fish my ball out the water" club in your bag.  

[stquinto]

3 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

If you didn't drink so much beer you'd probably hit the ball straighter, Dave, and wouldn't need a telescopic "fish my ball out the water" club in your bag.  

Got a point there Muzz, my best performances tend to be in the 19th hole

[Journeyman]

10 hours ago, MUZZY said:

and wouldn't need a telescopic "fish my ball out the water" club in your bag

One might note you recognised it.  I had no idea what you were talking about and had to use process of elimination, but apparently you have experience?  

Not going to be today, SWMBO is sick so that comes first, but got everything lined up for an XPA clone and a Fixation clone for tomorrow. 

Then I'm doing a pressure ferment lager in the cupboard - my first lager - so for the 1st time I will have 3 fermenting at the same time. Might have to do some drinking to make sure I have room in the fridge for the kegs.

[Goldcoast Crow]

62 stubs of dark/apa mix 

28 stubs of apa

32 stubs dark ale

All bottles and it's gonna be a long 2 week wait to test taste

[Classic Brewing Co]

6 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

62 stubs of dark/apa mix 

28 stubs of apa

32 stubs dark ale

All bottles and it's gonna be a long 2 week wait to test taste

Better put a lock on the door !!

[Norris!]

On 5/23/2021 at 10:33 PM, iBooz2 said:

@Graubart I am only on AG batch #5 so its still hard yakka.  Today's no chill effort for 20 litres was 4.75 hours including clean up which is a BS amount of work for one keg.  And I keep looking at all those Coopers can's I have in stock and think "what the hell I am I doing? 

That tin and that tin, add water, yeast stir and done.  I am going to have you use up all those tins soon and probably will in a partial mash to get some head retention and slightly improve on tins but a K&K is still very temping time wise at this stage of my AG career.

But I am going to press on, and on, and on as the expense of of this gear needs to give me some / a big return, even if I have to use my own slave labour to achieve the outcome. 

Cheers - AL

Hey Mate look at maybe splitting the brew day and preparing stuff the night before and even doing an overnight mash, wake up and boil.

Keep at it but use those tins also! If you liked what you were making keep cranking those out every other week and an AG batch the other week. Just a thought. FWK are the go also, about the same price as kits and just as good.

@Aussiekraut

Has a good process and does brew days in about 4 hours or so, your 4.75 ain't bad by the way with clean up, that is excellent. Do you/can you clean most bits during the boil? That is another time saver and then washout the kettle and clean it and sanitse, done. Just some options, hopefully some of the others will provide their tips also.

@Hairy
 @Green Blob

@Shamus O'Sean

@MitchBastard

@Greeny1525229836

@Graubart

And if I missed you, no offense but please add your time saving comments.

@Marty

[Goldcoast Crow]

43 minutes ago, CLASSIC said:

Better put a lock on the door !!

Is that for me or for others

[Goldcoast Crow]

Next job might be a stout, haven't tried a stout yet..... Hmmmmm

[Classic Brewing Co]

6 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Is that for me or for others

Well I meant for you but I don't know about the others.