BREW DAY!! WATCHA’ GOT, EH? 2021

[jamiek86]

35 minutes ago, Red devil 44 said:

Yeah @jamiek86, further down the rabbit hole I plunge.

‘I’m back doing fifo work so thinking of doing 1 large brew whilst home, so looking at the 65L Brewzilla and a large fermenter, so can nail a double batch, as I’m busier than ever now.

All good fun, may go the kegmenter also

so many options lucky your wife is a goodin and you can do all that without eye rolls. I could do all that but I hate eye rolls lol.

[Red devil 44]

12 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

so many options lucky your wife is a goodin and you can do all that without eye rolls. I could do all that but I hate eye rolls lol.

She is awesome @jamiek86, that’s why I married her, got it terribly wrong the first time but that’s a distant distant long forgotten nightmare

[Pints]

Despite my aches and fatigue, did this stout this AM. 1.7 stout, 1kg DME,  300g dex. 20 L, kit yeast plus 1/4 or so sprinkle of hefeweizen kit yeast (lol, should be interesting ). Didn't take OG , hydrometer not working so good

 

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

Despite my aches and fatigue, did this stout this AM. 1.7 stout, 1kg DME,  300g dex. 20 L, kit yeast plus 1/4 or so sprinkle of hefeweizen kit yeast (lol, should be interesting ). Didn't take OG , hydrometer not working so good

 

Looks like you're brewing in the kid's room.

By the way, at 20L, those ingredients should have given you an OG of 1.050.

[jamiek86]

20 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Looks like you're brewing in the kid's room.

By the way, at 20L, those ingredients should have given you an OG of 1.050.

funny that before I scrolled down I was about to tell him that based on similar brews I had done in past. I don't use software but in always doing around the 20 litre mark I've found out usual readings I get are similar. If I bump up the litres the fermentables do too. 

Although since partial mashing I've gone over my preferred 150 mark a few times.

Edited December 28, 2021 by jamiek86

[Pints]

1 hour ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Looks like you're brewing in the kid's room.

By the way, at 20L, those ingredients should have given you an OG of 1.050.

Cheers SOS haha its my sons old drawers ya

[stquinto]

On 12/25/2021 at 7:09 AM, Shamus O'Sean said:

Mine got from 1.050 to 1.009 using White Labs WLP840 American Lager.  1.014 seems a little high for W34/70 (Dubbya).

I would warm it up to 18-20°C and give it a bit of a swirl.  I always warm my lagers to around this range just a bit after they get below 1.020.

Gave that a go @Shamus O'Sean. No change after three days at 20°C. Hmmm...

Will give it another swirl. I suppose I could stir the yeast at the bottom but imagine opening isn't such a bright idea. My window for using dubbya is quite short here (about 1 - 2 months) so I don't want to blow this one...

[stquinto]

1 hour ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

Cheers SOS haha its my sons old drawers ya

Ha ha ! Me too ! In the basement in the washing room. I had a sneaking suspicion when I was younger that in later years I would be lurking around basements... 

Edited December 28, 2021 by stquinto

[Pints]

6 minutes ago, stquinto said:

Ha ha ! Me too ! In the basement in the washing room. I had a sneaking suspicion when I was younger that in later years I would be lurking around basements... 

Haha what's the chances! They make for good brewing desks 

[BlackSands]

Southern Cross Bitter - been a while since I brewed an English bitter!  

A 20 litre stove-top AG batch to be fermented with my "house" voss slurry:

• 2.8kg GF Ale Malt
• 300g GF Medium Crystal
• 100g GF Biscuit Malt
• 50g GF Light Chocolate Malt
• 20g Southern Cross hops @30mins
• 30g Southern Cross Hops @ 10mins
• Kveik Voss

Just coming up to the boil now, hop charges at the ready! 

[jamiek86]

@stquinto not sure your exact recepie and guessing it was probably all grain. I've had plenty lagers of similar recepies finish 1.014 or higher. Even one I couldn't get below 18 with pilsner slurry and even a few got bottled with no problems rest in keg. Maby Shamus means swirl fermenter not stir it with spoon. I think if that's where it's at day after day it's done all brews different.

[Shamus O'Sean]

10 hours ago, stquinto said:

Gave that a go @Shamus O'Sean. No change after three days at 20°C. Hmmm...

Will give it another swirl. I suppose I could stir the yeast at the bottom but imagine opening isn't such a bright idea. My window for using dubbya is quite short here (about 1 - 2 months) so I don't want to blow this one...

I agree with @jamiek86. If it has not moved for a few days, it's done. Cold crash and bottle, or just bottle if you don't CC. 

I have also had the occasional lager finish around 1.014

[Otto Von Blotto]

First brew day for ages here. Hopefully will kickstart the brewery again to keep myself in good supply from now on. Doing a pilsner today, next week some time I'll do a pale ale. They'll be in cubes until the local brew shop reopens and I can get more dry malt for yeast starters. 

Up to mash out on the pilsner, then the bag will be drained and FWH added for a half hour steep before I boil it for ~2 hours. 

[stquinto]

9 hours ago, jamiek86 said:

@stquinto not sure your exact recepie and guessing it was probably all grain. I've had plenty lagers of similar recepies finish 1.014 or higher. Even one I couldn't get below 18 with pilsner slurry and even a few got bottled with no problems rest in keg. Maby Shamus means swirl fermenter not stir it with spoon. I think if that's where it's at day after day it's done all brews different.

 

8 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I agree with @jamiek86. If it has not moved for a few days, it's done. Cold crash and bottle, or just bottle if you don't CC. 

I have also had the occasional lager finish around 1.014

Thanks fellas. It is AG - pretty much the recipe Shamus posted up here a while back. 

In a fit of abject rage, aided and abetted by several large ones, I went down and gave it a damned good shaking last night. Well, a  vigourous swirl in any case. That will have taught it.

I'll leave it a few days and put some finings in.

I only have one fridge, which I am using for kegging, so I don't cold crash. I can fit the keg king junior in with one cornie so I can cold crash under exceptional circumstances i.e. the recipe specifically mentions it. As was the case with a Duvel clone - 20 days in the cooler...

[iBooz2]

Brew day yesterday another double batch of Leigh's Lager.  This is batch # 68 AG # 27.

This beer is so popular even with my double batches and pressure fermenting them quicker in the 58 Kegmenter I am having trouble keeping kegs up to consumption so had to do another big batch ASAP.  Just about to keg the same recipe which is now CC into 2 x kegs and when I do the Kegmenter will be back filled with theses cubes.  Diamond Lager yeast seems to be the benchmark for this pub style beer.  In the meantime, am bone dry of this beer except for a few stubbies which I want to keep as travellers.

Been playing around with both Beer Smith and Brewfather software (have subscriptions to both but will drop one soon as they are due) so the recipes may appear a bit different each time I post.

Edited December 29, 2021 by iBooz2

[iBooz2]

Tomorrows brew day will be another 1911 Carlsberg Pilsner.  This will be batch #72 AG # 31.

Very happy with this beer and just going to tweak it a tiny bit with a dry hop of Hallertau Blanc Hops.  Just a tiny amount to see if it improves the recipe in the right direction.  Don't want to stuff it up.

 

[iBooz2]

Some pics of latest LL.

The beauty of the big 70 Nano is I can do 45 L mash water plus grains (50 L mash water plus grains if you really push it to its limits) and the big 60 L pre-boil volumes so I can get 2 x full 22 L cubes and some left for making starters even with a 90" boil.  A general double batch is 45 L mash water and 10 K of grain, then 18 L sparge to give me the 60 L pre-boil which is about the maximum you would want to go to prevent a boil over.  Efficiencies are well up and over what my software predicts too so will try and post a pic of the stats once I get back into the recipe software.

Edited December 29, 2021 by iBooz2

[jamiek86]

Something a little different from my previous and usual brews that have been partial mash and propper lager yeast. 

Morgans golden sazz pilsner 1.7kg

Dry pilsner malt 1kg

Light dry malt 300 grams

half the LDM in litre of water mixed it boiled 15 grams perle for 8 minutes

added another 10 grams perle boiled 1 minute turned heat off but left pot on stove for 5 minutes.  Then strained this into pot with everything else mixed in. 

All in fermenter with pre chilled water up to 19 litres at 19 degrees. Pitched  one pack California Lager yeast 10 grams brew fridge on 18 degrees. First reading was 1.052 straight after mixing and taking sample 5 mins later was at 1.050 even after trying to mix up the tube sample will meet in middle at 1.051. 

So very light colour sample the tin Is that way plus the use of dry pilsner malt is light colour. Found mangrove jacks yeast is hardy so hopefully the one pack Is plenty. Considering it's more like an ale yeast giving lager flavour at 18 degrees. I didn't partial mash to compare tin to the first brew I bottled last year with only 1kg of LDM and was at 23 litres and tasted watery. This will be kegged and first one had no hops added.

Edited December 30, 2021 by jamiek86

[jamiek86]

also the first golden sazz was brewed on 25 degrees with kit yeast which morgans tells me Is ale yeast. Apparently none of their brew tins contain a true lager strain.