What's in Your Fermenter? 2021

[Pickles Jones]

39 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Hi Tone boy. $7.95 AUD for 100g? I wish! Galaxy are $3.79/ oz (28g) CAD at my LHBS. At today's exchange rate that is $4.07/28g. 

Vienna is malty but less sweet than Munich. I find it really helpful in adding depth to kits. It does need to be mashed though, if you buy it as a grain. Briess make a liquid malt version, if you can get it. 

Happy brewing TB.

Cheers,

Christina. 

 

Just as a matter of interest what is the tax component of the price.

[ChristinaS1]

8 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

Just as a matter of interest what is the tax component of the price.

Zero. There is no sales tax on hops or malt in Canada, only on ready made beer. I suppose they are considered food. Do you have to pay tax on hops in Aussie?

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by ChristinaS1

[Pickles Jones]

9 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Zero. There is no sales tax on hops or malt in Canada, only on ready made beer. I suppose they are considered food. Do you have to pay tax on hops in Aussie?

 

I'm not certain if Hops are taxed here could be regarded as food also. When I buy them I only get a receipt for the total price not a break down of the GST component if any.

Our GST rate is 10%.

Coopers now sell a range of Hops their price for 25Grams of Citra is $5.95.

[ChristinaS1]

3 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

I'm not certain if Hops are taxed here could be regarded as food also. When I buy them I only get a receipt for the total price not a break down of the GST component if any.

Our GST rate is 10%.

Coopers now sell a range of Hops their price for 25Grams of Citra is $5.95.

Our GST rate is 15%!

Citra is the same price as Galaxy at my LHBS.

I made a bulk purchase of hops last year from an online vendor and got Citra from them, which made them much more affordable. But their price on Galaxy was not reasonable, so I did not get any. 

[iBooz2]

3 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Our GST rate is 15%!

Citra is the same price as Galaxy at my LHBS.

I made a bulk purchase of hops last year from an online vendor and got Citra from them, which made them much more affordable. But their price on Galaxy was not reasonable, so I did not get any. 

Yikes 15%, I would imagine our Aussie government will be eyeing off this level for GST in the near future (colloquially called the "get stuffed tax" here in AUS).

I am surprised you are not growing your own hops @ChristinaS1 as Canada would have the ideal climate in most parts I would have thought.  Our local garden suppliers here in Melbourne sell several varieties for the home garden.  They do not sell IP licensed varieties like Galaxy though.  Unfortunately I do not have the room here to grow them.

Edited June 23, 2021 by iBooz2

[Goldcoast Crow]

OK so my next beast will be a stout, and I enjoy the coopers original best extra, yes it's a bit stronger than I have been brewing but I also am not dropping big sessions at the Mo, but looking at the recipe I came across lcdme and dextrose, what are these talking about please. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

7 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

OK so my next beast will be a stout, and I enjoy the coopers original best extra, yes it's a bit stronger than I have been brewing but I also am not dropping big sessions at the Mo, but looking at the recipe I came across lcdme and dextrose, what are these talking about please. 

Dextrose is as below, not sure what you mean by lcdme, someone will know unless you have mispelt it. 

Dextrose brewing sugar, often referred to as "corn sugar" or "glucose" can be used in place of white sugar "sucrose" in either your fermentation or for priming your beer when bottling or kegging. Dextrose is faster to dissolve than white sugar and 100% fermentable. Dextrose often referred to as Corn Sugar: Probably the most common of the sugars discussed in brewing, Dextrose or corn sugar is made up almost entirely of glucose/dextrose. It will ferment completely, contributing more alcohol content than a similar amount of malt extract, and will lighten the body and flavor of the brew. Corn sugar will also ferment very rapidly, and will thus shorten the time your beer will need to spend fermenting. The most common use of corn sugar is as a priming sugar during the bottling process.

 

[Goldcoast Crow]

2 hours ago, CLASSIC said:

Dextrose is as below, not sure what you mean by lcdme, someone will know unless you have mispelt it. 

Dextrose brewing sugar, often referred to as "corn sugar" or "glucose" can be used in place of white sugar "sucrose" in either your fermentation or for priming your beer when bottling or kegging. Dextrose is faster to dissolve than white sugar and 100% fermentable. Dextrose often referred to as Corn Sugar: Probably the most common of the sugars discussed in brewing, Dextrose or corn sugar is made up almost entirely of glucose/dextrose. It will ferment completely, contributing more alcohol content than a similar amount of malt extract, and will lighten the body and flavor of the brew. Corn sugar will also ferment very rapidly, and will thus shorten the time your beer will need to spend fermenting. The most common use of corn sugar is as a priming sugar during the bottling process.

 

Sorry, TCDME

[Popo the Reprobate]

2 hours ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

OK so my next beast will be a stout, and I enjoy the coopers original best extra, yes it's a bit stronger than I have been brewing but I also am not dropping big sessions at the Mo, but looking at the recipe I came across lcdme and dextrose, what are these talking about please. 

 

Maybe LDME? Light Dry Malt Extract. Or maybe Thomas Cooper's Dry Malt Extract.

This one  Extract or this one Extract.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Popo
Including both links.

[Goldcoast Crow]

32 minutes ago, Popo said:

 

Maybe LDME? Light Dry Malt Extract. Or maybe Thomas Cooper's Dry Malt Extract.

This one  Extract or this one Extract.

Must be the Thomas coopers as it was tcdme.... Thanks

[ChristinaS1]

5 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

I am surprised you are not growing your own hops @ChristinaS1 as Canada would have the ideal climate in most parts I would have thought.  Our local garden suppliers here in Melbourne sell several varieties for the home garden.  They do not sell IP licensed varieties like Galaxy though.  Unfortunately I do not have the room here to grow them.

Ditto here. We moved to the city a few years ago and garden space is limited.

A friend of mine who lives in the country knows of some hops growing on an old homestead. The house has been abandoned and long since mouldered away but the hops are still growing. Maybe I should ask him to show me where they are and I could give them a rub and smell them. The are most likely Cluster, or possibly wild hops. I have heard wild hops can be quite catty, and that would not be my thing. But it might be fun to use in a small extract batch....Can someone tell me how to tell when to harvest them?

Cheers,

Christy.

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by ChristinaS1

[Malter White]

13 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Ditto here. We moved to the city a few years ago and garden space is limited.

A friend of mine who lives in the country knows of some hops growing on an old homestead. The house has been abandoned and long since mouldered away but the hops are still growing. Maybe I should ask him to show me where they are and I could give them a rub and smell them. The are most likely Cluster, or possibly wild hops. I have heard wild hops can be quite catty, and that would not be my thing. But it might be fun to use in a small extract batch....Can someone tell me how to tell when to harvest them?

Cheers,

Christy.

 

Going by what I've seen on the forum I'd suggest @Maurice79 is the person to ask on hop growing tips. His crop looks amazing.

[Pezzza]

Verdant having a decent sorta go it seems... smells beeeeeeeyooooooodiful

[Barramullafella]

23 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Sounds like you have invented BE4. 

I hope you are using more than the kit yeast with that amount of fermentables? How many grams of yeast come with those Woolies cans? A lot of kits only come with 6g. Could be why your brews are sweet. Maybe they are under attenuated? Or did you use another / more yeast?

Cheers,

Christina.

Lol BE4 - do ya think I can get a commission  .  I am only using the kit yeast which is 7gm or abouts, may even be 5gm with Woolies. Good point about brew might be under attenuated. I will try either some more ale yeast or even a different ale yeast next brew and see how that goes, though I am using a Coopers OS Lager as base for next experiment. Thanks for the tip, ChristinaS1.

[Barramullafella]

On 6/16/2021 at 12:34 PM, Barramullafella said:

Yeah Classic I tasted the Woolager Plus which included 1kg Saunders LME and 250gm Dextrose and 250gm Maltodextrin and Woolies Lager 1.7kg.

It is is early for a true valuation as only been 3 weeks in the bottle.

Also, the Woolager Malteaser included 1.7kg lager, 250gm dextrose and 1kg DME. It has only been in bottle 12 days so yet to give a true verdict on it as well. Patients lol.   

Gave the Malteaser anudda test sample and is maturing in the bottle nicely. A little sweet but not as much as the Plus I thought.  My report so far:  Smell: Beer with no yeast smell; looks like beer; tastes a cross between ale & lager – light tang, balanced malt/hops, though slight sweet, very pleasant tasting; plenty of carbonation; the head was present during pouring but disappeared quick.  Week 4 will give a better indication during that taste test. Cheers.

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 minute ago, Barramullafella said:

Gave the Malteaser anudda test sample and is maturing in the bottle nicely. A little sweet but not as much as the Plus I thought.  My report so far:  Smell: Beer with no yeast smell; looks like beer; tastes a cross between ale & lager – light tang, balanced malt/hops, though slight sweet, very pleasant tasting; plenty of carbonation; the head was present during pouring but disappeared quick.  Week 4 will give a better indication during that taste test. Cheers.

 

the head was present during pouring but disappeared quick.  

Sounds like it is all good, but you should have better head retention, IMHO I would suggest Christina's tip on extra yeast may make a difference, most of my recent brews have improved enormously since the use of LME & using white sugar for priming, maybe time to do a glass detail ? 

Anyway as long as the beer tastes good you are winning.

Cheers.

[Shamus O'Sean]

Was not sure where to post this:  Brewday thread or What's in Your Fermenter.  In the end, I went for the latter.  Brewed this all grain recipe on Sunday just gone.  Put into a cube and popped into my FV tonight with some Lallemand Munich Classic yeast (Krausen collar fitted, in case).  I did that because on my normal brewday, this coming Saturday, I am having some dental work done and brewing will be the last thing on my mind.

Dunkelweizen

• 3kg Wheat Malt
• 1.795kg Munich Malt (That's how much I had left)
• 260g Crystal Malt
• 100g Acidulated Malt
• 80g Carafa Special II
• 33g 2.6% AA Hallertauer and 12g 4.4%AA Hallertauer 60 minute boil
• Water additions to convert my Melbourne Water profile to the Dunkelweizen style
• 200 bil cells Lallemand Classic Munich Wheat Yeast
• Mashed at 68°C, plus 75°C mash out
• Fermenting at 17°C for 5 days plus 19°C for 4 days

Other stats:

• ABV 5.2%
• OG 1.050 (1.051 predicted)
• FG 1.011 
• EBC 27
• IBU 15
• Batch volume 22.5 L

[RDT2]

On 6/23/2021 at 8:23 PM, Graubart said:

Verdant having a decent sorta go it seems... smells beeeeeeeyooooooodiful

I just kegged my first verdant smells good. I was surprised by the krausen also I checked it one day there was hardly any the next day boom  Thought it was going to be like 05 but was a little more aggressive. Not as spectacular as your Munich classic though

Edited June 24, 2021 by RDT2

[Tone boy]

On 6/23/2021 at 8:57 PM, ChristinaS1 said:

Ditto here. We moved to the city a few years ago and garden space is limited.

A friend of mine who lives in the country knows of some hops growing on an old homestead. The house has been abandoned and long since mouldered away but the hops are still growing. Maybe I should ask him to show me where they are and I could give them a rub and smell them. The are most likely Cluster, or possibly wild hops. I have heard wild hops can be quite catty, and that would not be my thing. But it might be fun to use in a small extract batch....Can someone tell me how to tell when to harvest them?

Cheers,

Christy.

 

Hey Christina. I was reading this a while ago and found it again on the interwebs after reading your post. It was written by someone in the northern hemisphere because they were suggesting to harvest after summer from mid August to mid-late September. For us southerners it would more likely be March I guess. Anyway I hope it helps, sounds like a fun experiment.

Here’s how to tell if your cones are ready: Squeeze the hop cones.Do they feel papery, light and dry? Do they spring back to their shape right away? Then the cones are ready. If they still feel “green” and stay compressed for a moment when you squeeze them, it’s too soon for harvesting. Smell them. Roll them around in your hands. Do they smell pungent, like a mix of grass and pine and citrus and onion? Do they release a sticky yellow powder? If the answer is yes, you are ready to harvest. If not, wait. It’s that simple. 

[Pezzza]

9 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Water additions to convert my Melbourne Water profile to the Dunkelweizen style

Beautiful beautiful @Shamus O'Sean Shamus!

Look forward to viewing and hearing of the DW results!

Can you advise what you did re water?  Be keen to know what sorta things can be done...

I am somewhat of a Luddite and just use me rainwater as rainwater and that's it and all about it... as compared to guns like yourself and Award Winning Mitchie @MitchBastard 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Graubart

[Shamus O'Sean]

13 hours ago, Graubart said:

Can you advise what you did re water?  Be keen to know what sorta things can be done...

Hi Graubart, I do not do anything overly special.  I just follow what the software (Brew Father) tells me.

I start with researching the water in my area.  I think my water comes from the nearby Cardinia and Silvan Reservoirs.  So I have a profile of the elements in my local water.  Then I pick a target style or water profile for where a beer is brewed.  The software tells me what to add to get as close as possible to what I am aiming for.

For the Dunkelweizen style I added:

• 1.04 g — Baking Soda (NaHCO3) — Mash
• 0.93 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Mash
• 0.93 g — Chalk (CaCO3) — Mash
• 2.14 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Mash
• 0.98 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Mash
• 0.91 g — Baking Soda (NaHCO3) — Sparge
• 0.81 g — Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) — Sparge
• 0.81 g — Chalk (CaCO3) — Sparge
• 1.85 g — Epsom Salt (MgSO4) — Sparge
• 0.85 g — Gypsum (CaSO4) — Sparge

Other than the Epsom Salts, these were clearly not much in the way of additions.  Maybe my local water would have been completely fine for this brew.

 

[Shamus O'Sean]

Photo of my fermenter tonight with Dunkelweizen. Poor man's temperature controlled fermentation chamber.  Cardboard box in the garage (Melbourne winter).  Ceramic tiles on the bottom.  Heat belt sitting on the tiles.  With temperature controller set to 17°C.  Ambient temperature should keep the chamber cool.  Heat belt should keep it around 17°C.

 

[Malter White]

On 6/23/2021 at 7:44 PM, Popo said:

 

Maybe LDME? Light Dry Malt Extract. Or maybe Thomas Cooper's Dry Malt Extract.

This one  Extract or this one Extract.

@Goldcoast Crow It's neither of these. It's Thomas Cooper DARK malt extract in the 1.5kg tin.
I think I told you on another thread I made the https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/best-extra-stout.html but I reduced the dextrose from 1kg to 2 cups and made the batch to 25 litres. It came in at around ABV 4.4%. 
I'm very pleased with the results. I feel the key to it turning out so well was the use of CCA yeast cultured from a 6 pack of Pale Ale.

[Popo the Reprobate]

4 hours ago, MUZZY said:

@Goldcoast Crow It's neither of these. It's Thomas Cooper DARK malt extract in the 1.5kg tin.
I think I told you on another thread I made the https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/best-extra-stout.html but I reduced the dextrose from 1kg to 2 cups and made the batch to 25 litres. It came in at around ABV 4.4%. 
I'm very pleased with the results. I feel the key to it turning out so well was the use of CCA yeast cultured from a 6 pack of Pale Ale.

Of course. I've never used that one so it didn't cross my mind.

[Shamus O'Sean]

Update on the Dunkelweizen.

Took this photo just before lunchtime today.

Nice fluffy Krausen.  Too early to know if I needed to fit the Krausen collar.

Amazeballs aroma of banana.  I forgot to mention I am fermenting it with a starter of Lallemand Munich Classic Wheat yeast.  I harvested the earlier batch of yeast from a previous starter using the @Otto Von Blotto Method.  I did not get any banana the previous time I used this same yeast.  I hope the aroma carries over into the beer.  Fermenting at 17°C instead of 18°C in the previous brew.  I wonder if this minor temperature difference is producing the distinct banana aroma.