What's in Your Fermenter? 2021

[ChristinaS1]

Put on a small batch of cider yesterday using homemade juice from apples from an old tree at our cottage. Fermenting with WLP095 slurry and a touch of MJ M20 Bavarian Wheat yeast.  After it ferments I will split the batch and then add pear juice and honey to one half while keeping the other half pure apple. 

I have had the old tree tested genetically and it is not a known variety, so it grew from a core someone discarded. I have named the tree Bear's Delight (because the bears love it). I am going to take apple samples to a couple of local cideries and try to convince them to grow Bear's Delight in their orchard. I think it will be a good cider variety as it has some tannins. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Christina. 

Edited September 26, 2021 by ChristinaS1

[Tone boy]

4 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Put on a small batch of cider yesterday using homemade juice from apples from an old tree at our cottage. Fermenting with WLP095 slurry and a touch of MJ M20 Bavarian Wheat yeast.  After it ferments I will split the batch and then add pear juice and honey to one half while keeping the other half pure apple. 

I have had the old tree tested genetically and it is not a known variety, so it grew from a core someone had discarded. I have named the tree Bear's Delight. I am going to take apple samples to a couple of local cideries and try to convince them to grow Bear's Delight in their orchard. I think it will be a good cider variety as it has some tannins. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Christina. 

That would be quite a legacy Christina, if you can get that variety into commercial production. Good vibes and positive vibrations to you

[Malter White]

13 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Put on a small batch of cider yesterday using homemade juice from apples from an old tree at our cottage. Fermenting with WLP095 slurry and a touch of MJ M20 Bavarian Wheat yeast.  After it ferments I will split the batch and then add pear juice and honey to one half while keeping the other half pure apple. 

I have had the old tree tested genetically and it is not a known variety, so it grew from a core someone discarded. I have named the tree Bear's Delight (because the bears love it). I am going to take apple samples to a couple of local cideries and try to convince them to grow Bear's Delight in their orchard. I think it will be a good cider variety as it has some tannins. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Christina. 

This new apple variety and it's cider might just be the Kopi Luwak of the cider world.  
Kopi Luwak being the coffee referenced in the movie Bucket List. The coffee beans are harvested from the dung of a small furry mammal. Perhaps that's how your tree started life, Christina? But from a bear.

[Thirsty Jim]

I lived in the deep bush for a year or two on the banks of a river that ran through it.  It was very isolated.  One day I was sitting on the river bank and spied what looked to be ... no, it couldn't be.  I swam to the other side for a closer look and it was indeed a fruiting apple tree.  We did have kayak-ers  paddle down the river from time to time and I imagine one of them tossed an apple core and nature did the rest.   The following year there was a flood and the apple tree wasn't there anymore.

Good luck Christina.  It sounds delicious.

[Pezzza]

13 minutes ago, Thirsty Jim said:

I lived in the deep bush for a year or two on the banks of a river that ran through it.

Whereabouts if you don't mind me asking TJ? @Thirsty Jim

14 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

grow Bear's Delight in their orchard. I

Sounds like a beaut Christina - have you tried striking some cuttings? @ChristinaS1

[Thirsty Jim]

[MitchBastard]

22 hours ago, Graubart said:

That's Festive @MitchBastard Mitchie

My latest lager - sorta I guess a bit like a 'Helles - reminds me of 'Flaschbier' ie beer out a bottle - and specifically Augustiner...

in Munich ; )

Like @MitchBastard Mitchie what you said bog standard beer what you get for a Euro ; )

 

In this case bog standard is being used as a term of endearment.

helles looks good mate. Good clarity 

[kmar92]

A simple wheat beer: T/C Preacher's Hefe, 1.5kg wheat malt extract, 500g rice malt syrup and a touch of dry wheat malt with Lally Munich Classic for the yeast.

The krausen eruption has subsided somewhat on Day 4 but I am glad I had the collar on. Beautiful banana/clove aromas in the ferment fridge and I have been doing the ferment at the top end of the Munich Classic's range to get the most of the esters, fermented @21.5°.

[Tone boy]

Hey peeps and freaks,  

Well today I brewed a bit of an Aussie Lager for a mate who has been forking out north of $70 a slab for gluten-free beer. I offered to brew a gluten reduced beer for him and he chose to go with an Aussie Bitter. 
So with a bit of help from the Coopers recipe archive, and some helpful advice from @Journeyman, @iBooz2and @Shamus O'Sean I cobbled together a bit of a recipe, borrowing bits from here and there to suit what I had in stock. 
So here it is … the Mongrel Bitter

coopers Canadian Blonde tin

BE3

600g Gladfield Pilsner malt 

250g Dextrin malt (both mashed at 65 degrees C for 60 minutes, 30 minute boil)

10g PoR and 10g Saaz (both at 10 mins) 

Clarity Ferm 10 ml

repitched W34/70 at 10 degrees C 

23 litres fermenting at 12.5 degrees C 

OG 1.046  IBU: 37

Thanks for your help guys. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out

Edited September 27, 2021 by Tone boy

[ChristinaS1]

8 hours ago, Graubart said:

Sounds like a beaut Christina - have you tried striking some cuttings? @ChristinaS1

If by "striking some cuttings" you mean grafting onto rootstock, yes I have tried that. Last year I planted two baby Bear's Delight trees at our cottage, and one in our backyard in the city, and gave my brother-in-law one for his cottage. But none of them are old enough to produce apples yet, which will take another six years or so.....A local tree nursery has made 20 baby Bear's Delight trees and is attempting to sell them in his nursery. He says that if people buy them, he will continue to propagate them, but if they don't, he will stop. Fingers crossed the public buys some.....

Cheers,

Christina.

[ChristinaS1]

10 hours ago, MUZZY said:

This new apple variety and it's cider might just be the Kopi Luwak of the cider world.  
Kopi Luwak being the coffee referenced in the movie Bucket List. The coffee beans are harvested from the dung of a small furry mammal. Perhaps that's how your tree started life, Christina? But from a bear.

No doubt there are many feral apple trees that started in a pile of bear poop all over the valley @MUZZY.  But Bear's Delight appears to be growing on what was once the rubbish heap of the old homestead, which is now a hill. If I dig around in the dirt I find things like an old shoe, a rusted out can, or tiny glass pill bottles. The farmhouse has long since rotted away. The only sign it was ever there is a depression in the ground where the foundation used to be....Yes @Thirsty Jim people come and go on the landscape, and leave apple trees behind.  

Bear's Delight is not the only apple tree growing on this hill, there are four others, but they all produce crappy apples. 

Edited September 27, 2021 by ChristinaS1

[stquinto]

2 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

No doubt there are many feral apple trees that started in a pile of bear poop all over the valley @MUZZY.  But Bear's Delight appears to be growing on what was once the rubbish heap of the old homestead, which is now a hill. If I dig around in the dirt I find things like an old shoe, a rusted out can, or tiny glass pill bottles. The farmhouse has long since rotted away. The only sign it was ever there is a depression in the ground where the foundation used to be....Yes @Thirsty Jim people come and go on the landscape, and leave apple trees behind.  

Bear's Delight is not the only apple tree growing on this hill, there are four others, but they all produce crappy apples. 

A mate of mine had sewege problems whereby the waste pipe which ran just below his back door got broken, and, well, there was a big puddle of you-know-what. He had it fixed and and thought that was the end of the story..... Until a tomato plant grew there the following year, and produced tomatoes. His kids wouldn't touch them. Kids eh ? What are they about ?

[Malter White]

5 hours ago, Tone boy said:

Well today I brewed a bit of an Aussie Lager for a mate who has been forking out north of $70 a slab for gluten-free beer. I offered to brew a gluten reduced beer for him and he chose to go with an Aussie Bitter. 

So with a bit of help from the Coopers recipe archive, and some helpful advice from @Journeyman, @iBooz2and @Shamus O'Sean I cobbled together a bit of a recipe, borrowing bits from here and there to suit what I had in stock. 
So here it is … the Mongrel Bitter

coopers Canadian Blonde tin

BE3

600g Gladfield Pilsner malt 

250g Dextrin malt 

I'm confused.

[Tone boy]

6 hours ago, MUZZY said:

I'm confused.

Clarity ferm Muzzy. 
My friend isn’t a coeliac (or however you spell it) but he can’t handle the gluten in regular beer. 
Clarity Ferm apparently reduces gluten to the international standard for “gluten free” although apparently there’s a small amount of gluten left behind (less than 20 ppm). 
 

[Journeyman]

12 hours ago, Tone boy said:

Thanks for your help guys. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out

I'll be interested in how far the SG drops.  Sounds like a decent brew - what does he normally like to drink?

[Malter White]

1 hour ago, Tone boy said:

Clarity ferm Muzzy. 
My friend isn’t a coeliac (or however you spell it) but he can’t handle the gluten in regular beer. 
Clarity Ferm apparently reduces gluten to the international standard for “gluten free” although apparently there’s a small amount of gluten left behind (less than 20 ppm). 
 

Cheers, Tone. It's only 9am here and I've already learnt something new today. I may as well go back to bed. My daily goal already achieved.  

[Classic Brewing Co]

6 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

Cheers, Tone. It's only 9am here and I've already learnt something new today. I may as well go back to bed. My daily goal already achieved.  

That's it Muzzy no need to overtax the brain, we need to save energy for producing fine beers. 

[Tone boy]

57 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

I'll be interested in how far the SG drops.  Sounds like a decent brew - what does he normally like to drink?

I’ll try to remember to keep you updated on the SG Jman. It’s bubbling away nicely this morning. The software says it’ll get to 1.008, but it won’t. Mine never get that low. 
In our younger days we would just get stuck into whatever beer they were serving at the pubs- usually Carlton draught. Lately he’s been getting into a GF pale ale (O’Brien’s I think). I was fully expecting him to request a Pale Ale, but instead asked for a bitter. I asked English bitter? But no, more like a Melbourne bitter came the reply. Hence my version of the “true Aussie bitter”

If he’s been swilling pale ale I think he won’t mind a bit more body in the beer than the megaswill option - hence the BE3 and steeped grains. I’ll bottle prime with white sugar.

 

[Journeyman]

42 minutes ago, Tone boy said:

The software says it’ll get to 1.008, but it won’t. Mine never get that low. 

I was drinking O'Brien's for a time - the local in Bendigo got it in for me. Nice drop.

Be prepared for the SG to go lower than you are used to. I had a couple of beers at 7%+ expected and both got down to ~1.002 and hit 9.3% and 9.5%. The more unfermentables you have in there the larger the effect of the enzyme I think.

[Pezzza]

19 hours ago, kmar92 said:

A simple wheat beer: T/C Preacher's Hefe, 1.5kg wheat malt extract, 500g rice malt syrup and a touch of dry wheat malt with Lally Munich Classic for the yeast.

Magic KMar a beautiful thing.... yeah it does seem Lally Munich does need a bit of head room ; )  

Looks very nice mate 

[Tricky Micky]

On 9/28/2021 at 8:15 AM, Tone boy said:

Clarity ferm Muzzy. 
My friend isn’t a coeliac (or however you spell it) but he can’t handle the gluten in regular beer. 
Clarity Ferm apparently reduces gluten to the international standard for “gluten free” although apparently there’s a small amount of gluten left behind (less than 20 ppm). 

Been doing a bit of research on this Toner @Tone boy mate, and IIRC Christina @ChristinaS1 uses Clara Ferm and seemed to suggest the same thing. I wonder if I use this product along with  Dry enzyme (Drier Beer - low Carb) would I be producing a low carb, reduced Gluten beer to enjoy in the knowledge it may reduce farts and reduce my weight all at the same time?  A guilt free beer? Is that possible? 

[ChristinaS1]

2 hours ago, Mickep said:

Been doing a bit of research on this Toner @Tone boy mate, and IIRC Christina @ChristinaS1 uses Clara Ferm and seemed to suggest the same thing. I wonder if I use this product along with  Dry enzyme (Drier Beer - low Carb) would I be producing a low carb, reduced Gluten beer to enjoy in the knowledge it may reduce farts and reduce my weight all at the same time?  A guilt free beer? Is that possible? 

Not sure if the dry enzyme will reduce your weight. With dry enzyme you end up with fewer carbs but more alcohol, which is also fattening. ...

Cheers,

Christina.

[Tone boy]

3 hours ago, Mickep said:

Been doing a bit of research on this Toner @Tone boy mate, and IIRC Christina @ChristinaS1 uses Clara Ferm and seemed to suggest the same thing. I wonder if I use this product along with  Dry enzyme (Drier Beer - low Carb) would I be producing a low carb, reduced Gluten beer to enjoy in the knowledge it may reduce farts and reduce my weight all at the same time?  A guilt free beer? Is that possible? 

Hey Mick, yes mate it was @ChristinaS1 Christina who I noticed was using clarity ferm in the first place. Apparently no influence on taste which attracted me to this option. I’m not particularly worried about gluten, and this batch is for a friend. Mind you I may keep a few bottles for myself just to ensure quality control of course

Not sure if there’s such a holy grail as a guilt free beer…if you want to lose weight you should probably give up beer! But where’s the fun in that?! Or exercise like a crazy person (and still cut back on beer).

I do a lot of exercise but my weight has been creeping up over the last 6 months - I need to cut back on the beers a little bit too I think  

Cheers 

 

[Journeyman]

2 hours ago, Tone boy said:

I do a lot of exercise but my weight has been creeping up over the last 6 months - I need to cut back on the beers a little bit too I think

It's probably the age, not the beer.

At least that's what I tell myself!

[Malter White]

This is no big deal but I thought I'd post it for the benefit of any novice brewers that might be reading.

Its called Green Neck Lager and you'll find the very simple recipe on the Recipes page. If you have temperature control it's a real advantage but the first time I ever made this beer I did it at ambient temperatures (21C-22C) and it was still very nice.

This time around I have a fermentation fridge and I subbed out some BE3 for some dextrose so it's a bit less malty.