What's in Your Fermenter? 2021

[Tone boy]

Thanks @ChristinaS1 

I did my first yeast harvest a few days ago and put it into 2 jars. I’ll remember to use 4 jars next time. When I pitch these ones I might only pitch 2/3 of the jar to avoid over pitching...

cheers guys

[ChristinaS1]

5 hours ago, Tone boy said:

Thanks @ChristinaS1 

I did my first yeast harvest a few days ago and put it into 2 jars. I’ll remember to use 4 jars next time. When I pitch these ones I might only pitch 2/3 of the jar to avoid over pitching...

cheers guys

Hi Toneboy. Yes, it is best to use less. You want there to a good number of healthy young daughter cells to ferment your wort, not just tired old cells from your previous batch. If you keep over-pitching from batch to batch, so that little to no cell growth happens, you will may run into fermentation problems such as a stalled ferment, or off flavours. 

The old rule of thumb says to use "about a cup" of slurry for an average gravity brew. Pay attention to the lag time. A lag of roughly 18 hours at 18C (or around 12 hours at 20C) is what you are aiming for. If the lag time is only 3-6 hours you are over-pitching; more than 24 hours and you are under-pitching. A pitching temp above 20C will shorten the lag further and make the lag time more difficult to interpret. 

If the yeast has been in the fridge for a few months, or the gravity is high, consider increasing the amount of slurry.

Admittedly it is all guesswork, which is another reason I opt go to only go three generations. 

Cheers,

Christina.

[Goldcoast Crow]

Been a while since I've been on here, just been trialling a few light beers and midstrength recipes, but I've been using my standard galaxy and Cascade hop tea bags.... I have generally done a pale or real ale from the kits and these hops go quite well with these kits, but I am trying a Canadian blonde kit and am after a bit of hop advice to go with this and a be2 brew? 

[Shamus O'Sean]

25 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

I am trying a Canadian blonde kit and am after a bit of hop advice to go with this and a be2 brew? 

Hey GC, I have a Canadian Blonde on tap at the moment.  I commented about it yesterday over on the RDWHAHB - What are you drinking in 2021 thread.  I found it a pretty neutral beer.  Good bitterness and good malt flavour.  

This advice will not help narrow choices down for you, but I think the Canadian Blonde would go with just about any hop.  It has a solid flavour so you may not notice much effect from noble hops like Hallertauer or Saaz.  Anything like Galaxy or Cascade would go well.  I did a hop steep with 25g of Lemondrop hops in one half of a Canadian Blonde batch.  It added a slight complexity to the flavour, but not an overwhelming difference.  It made no difference to the aroma.

[Goldcoast Crow]

1 hour ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Hey GC, I have a Canadian Blonde on tap at the moment.  I commented about it yesterday over on the RDWHAHB - What are you drinking in 2021 thread.  I found it a pretty neutral beer.  Good bitterness and good malt flavour.  

This advice will not help narrow choices down for you, but I think the Canadian Blonde would go with just about any hop.  It has a solid flavour so you may not notice much effect from noble hops like Hallertauer or Saaz.  Anything like Galaxy or Cascade would go well.  I did a hop steep with 25g of Lemondrop hops in one half of a Canadian Blonde batch.  It added a slight complexity to the flavour, but not an overwhelming difference.  It made no difference to the aroma.

Cool, thanks mate 

[Malter White]

3 hours ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Been a while since I've been on here, just been trialling a few light beers and midstrength recipes, but I've been using my standard galaxy and Cascade hop tea bags.... I have generally done a pale or real ale from the kits and these hops go quite well with these kits, but I am trying a Canadian blonde kit and am after a bit of hop advice to go with this and a be2 brew? 

I've made the Canadian Blonde tin a few times but no hop additions. I've used BE2 and BE3 in different batches and I prefer BE2 with this particular beer.

[Classic Brewing Co]

Mr Beer Craft Brew Kit 8.5l  DIABLO IPA

I have this underway ATM the photos are day 1 & 2, at 18 degrees it seems to be doing fine, I am at day 5 & it still looks OK, good smell.

The advice I was given was to dry hop around day 6 & use only 25gm for 8.5 litres  otherwise it would end up as a passiona drink.

I was thinking a Galaxy sachet as they are easy to access from Big W.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

Phil

 

[Malter White]

This morning I've mixed together an APA tin with BE2 using reactivated CCA yeast to 23litres. I also added 15g Cluster hops that were cold steeped overnight. I made two identical batches and got an unusually low OG reading from both - 1.032. Maybe I didn't mix them well enough but it seems odd that both read low. I'll take new readings tomorrow once the yeast has had a go at the sugars.
I've set ferment at 22C because my beer stocks are low and I want a fairly swift result.

Edited January 17, 2021 by MUZZY

[Classic Brewing Co]

My IPA is just the 1.3kg extract & the supplied yeast, I stuck with this to create a starting point as far as taste, hop presence etc , but after watching a few You Tube videos I have seen all sorts of variations with BE's being used & lots of other ingredients, so I suppose I will be doing the same in following batches.

I have to get the power connected in my allotted brew room that came with this apartment, so for now I am limited to Craft Beer size recipes around 8.5l although some suggest you can crank it up to 11l or more but have to watch ABV & bitterness levels.

I an source the rather small range of MR Beer 1.3kg tins from Brewmaker at Holden Hill so down the track I may find ways of experimenting to produce a larger quantity until I can get the 23l going.

[Malter White]

@CLASSIC Brewmaker is my closest LHBS also. Nice fella in there. He sold me my first ever home brew kit decades ago when his shop was opposite the Maid & Magpie Hotel.
Thanks for teaching me something new too. I didn't know BigW stocked hops. That's handy to know.

[Goldcoast Crow]

47 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I've made the Canadian Blonde tin a few times but no hop additions. I've used BE2 and BE3 in different batches and I prefer BE2 with this particular beer.

Cool thanks, might try half with hops, half straight up after that call..... Cheers

[Classic Brewing Co]

Bill from Brewmaker is a good honest bloke but I live at Camden Park so Brewcraft Torrensville is my closest, largest LHBS although Country Brewer, Kilburn or Beer Belly Pooraka are still OK.

Big W have a fairly large range of home brew supplies but I am pretty sure the only keep Brigalow Galaxy, I go to the one at Cross Road, Cumberland Park.

[ChristinaS1]

4 hours ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Been a while since I've been on here, just been trialling a few light beers and midstrength recipes, but I've been using my standard galaxy and Cascade hop tea bags.... I have generally done a pale or real ale from the kits and these hops go quite well with these kits, but I am trying a Canadian blonde kit and am after a bit of hop advice to go with this and a be2 brew? 

My MIL's favourite beer kit; she never adds hops to it. If I were going to add hops to the Blonde kit I would go with a classic North American hop like Cascades or Centennial, but you can use anything you like. 

Cheers,

Christina.

[Malter White]

@CLASSIC and there I was thinking we were neighbours. I'm at Newton. I'm a fairly infrequent visitor to Brewmaker though because I get most of my stuff here. Just the odd pack of hops.

[Classic Brewing Co]

I was at South Plympton for 12.5 years but moved to Camden Park in March last year - had to get a smaller place when Covid-19 appeared & slowed down my Stubby Holder business due to Hotel closures & travel restrictions but I know have more time to hone my skills at Home Brewing 

 

[Goldcoast Crow]

50 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

My MIL's favourite beer kit; she never adds hops to it. If I were going to add hops to the Blonde kit I would go with a classic North American hop like Cascades or Centennial, but you can use anything you like. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Great, never tried centennial, may try it

[Malter White]

22 hours ago, MUZZY said:

This morning I've mixed together an APA tin with BE2 using reactivated CCA yeast to 23litres. I also added 15g Cluster hops that were cold steeped overnight. I made two identical batches and got an unusually low OG reading from both - 1.032. Maybe I didn't mix them well enough but it seems odd that both read low. I'll take new readings tomorrow once the yeast has had a go at the sugars.
I've set ferment at 22C because my beer stocks are low and I want a fairly swift result.

Well there's a lot happening to this APA. I don't recall ever getting such a large krausen on one of these tins. Only difference to my procedure was the cold steep of hops. SG is now 1.030, which doesn't really tell me much about yesterday's reading. Tastes really good but it still has a lot of fermenting to go.

[Classic Brewing Co]

Good set-up Muzzy, nice big krausen. My big fridge for the 23l is not quite as high as yours. 

[Malter White]

49 minutes ago, CLASSIC said:

Good set-up Muzzy, nice big krausen. My big fridge for the 23l is not quite as high as yours. 

Thanks, Classic. The krausen is a real surprise. Only time I've had one close to that size before was a stout.

I got lucky with the fridge. A free kick from my aging parents. It was their former party/beverage fridge but they don't do much partying or drinking these days. It was just sitting idle under their verandah so I made a claim for it.

[Classic Brewing Co]

Nice one, my brew fridge, Westinghouse, was the parents, the old man bought it on 22/11/90 - I know this because he used to put vinyl dymo labels on everything ! Works a treat but not quite high enough for 2 x 23l as it has a bottom freezer. 31 years & still going strong.

[Waynealford]

I have the Dark Monk in there at the moment.  Added 290g of homemade candi sugar to give it that "belgian" feel, and it is now on 1.020 and not moving (down from 1.068).  Bang on the 6.5% it is advertised as, but should still go lower.  Putting in some dissolved sugar this arvo, give it a gentle stir, to try and kickstart the beasties again!  Looks nice, tastes nice, but reeeeeeeally don't want bottle bombs from bottling too early.

[iBooz2]

On 1/18/2021 at 7:14 AM, Goldcoast Crow said:

Been a while since I've been on here, just been trialling a few light beers and midstrength recipes, but I've been using my standard galaxy and Cascade hop tea bags.... I have generally done a pale or real ale from the kits and these hops go quite well with these kits, but I am trying a Canadian blonde kit and am after a bit of hop advice to go with this and a be2 brew? 

Have a look at this recipe for hop combos, I have made this several times although I used 1 x 1.5 kg tin liquid light malt instead of the 2 x 500 packs of DME to lower the ABV to around 4.2 %.. 

I reckon it is quite a nice summer beer.

Cheers - AL

Lightning Strike Summer Ale.pdf

[Malter White]

Jeez @Waynealford, you always have surprises for me. First coriander, now candi sugar. I Googled it to find out what it is. Love your adventurism.

[rugbrod]

 

On 1/10/2021 at 1:01 AM, rugbrod said:

Got three (Voss) Kveik brews down on Friday to coincide with a decent run of 30+ C weather. Did my first mini mash to bring a bit of haze and mouthfeel to a couple of these beers.

First is an 8L single hop Sabro hazy pale. Just a short 5min hop addition followed by two more dry hops at 12 and 24 hrs post fermentation.

Second is a 15L hazier take on a Stone and Wood, basically a single hop Galaxy hazy pale. 30/15/5/0 min hop additions and a dry hop at 12hrs.

Third is a 23L Kingsley's Ginger Beer. The classic tried and tested recipe.

The ambient temp has been sitting at around 30-32 in the room I have them in, so they're bubbling along nicely.

Happy to post full recipes if anyone is interested at all. I plan to cold crash these which is also a first, and then bottle.

Fingers crossed for a bountiful harvest.

 

On 1/13/2021 at 8:02 PM, rugbrod said:

All three of these fermented out within 72hrs and i did an ice bath cold crash for the two beers. The temperature wasn’t as low as I wanted it but it dropped all the hop matter anyway. I think this was good in a way as it meant that the yeast didn’t all drop (maybe, I actually don’t know).

Big day of bottling but it’s all in the cupboard now. Next batches will be some stouts that will hopefully be aged in time for winter.

 

So the PET bottles were nice and pressurised so I thought why not give them a taste.

3 out of 3 great kveik brews! Absolutely stoked. 

The stone and wood is really nice, around 4.5% and just really “summery” for lack of a better term. I’ll have to try a side by side of this because I think I’ve almost nailed it. Either way it’s delicious for my taste. The mouthfeel didn’t really come through from the oat mini mash but it’s still great  

Sabro hazy pale has a really mellow coconutty taste and the oat mini mash imparted a delicious mouthfeel too. 

Kingsley’s Ginger Beer was bang on also. Not surprised as it’s a tried and true recipe and my last one that I did with US05 was a hit, but I was stoked with the result given the 10 day turnaround from grain to glass.

Skål!

[Waynealford]

9 hours ago, MUZZY said:

Jeez @Waynealford, you always have surprises for me. First coriander, now candi sugar. I Googled it to find out what it is. Love your adventurism.

@MUZZY, I am always interested in the historical aspects of a hobby.  I read a lot of articles about how beers were done in the past, and how they have evolved.  By knowing the historical ingredients, and also comparing to styles, I am attempting to create the "original" flavours.  My end goal is all grain, and to do a traditional saison - whatever grain's leftover at the end of the year from other recipes, with traditional adjuncts, so that each year's "end of saison" is unique.  Experimenting with these ingredients (coriander, ginger, sage, candi sugar, etc) gives me at least some idea on what it will come out like!

 

TL,DR: I read stuff.