Brew Day What Have Ya Got - 2023

[Classic Brewing Co]

6 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Brew Day today was another Rice Lager.  Done the hard way by doing a cereal mash of the rice.  Not hard work, but adds lots of extra time to the brew day.

An absolute perfect example of organisation, cleanliness & precision.

It is a credit to you Shamus & others should take note & learn how to plan ahead & organise their brew day.

I can tell by looking you would follow the rule "clean as you go".

I was taught that in the Army as a Cook & it has never left me, the great part about it there is bugger all cleaning up to apart from your kettle etc.

I just noticed your comment on dirty batch but if that suits you, fine. I haven't done it at this stage but happy with my methods.

[Aussiekraut]

6 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Brew Day today was another Rice Lager.  Done the hard way by doing a cereal mash of the rice.  Not hard work, but adds lots of extra time to the brew day.

Cereal mash process:

• Heat main mash vol (22.4L) to 80°C
• Pause main mash temp at 80°C
• Transfer 10L to cereal mash pot with recirc arm
• Connect chiller and recirc.  
• Pause main mash at 40°C
• Heat cereal mash water in kitchen to 78°C
• Add rice and 1kg Pilsner
• Mash for 20 minutes at 74°C stirring the whole time
• Heat mash and boil for 30 minutes stirring the whole time
• Back out to garage and add back to main mash 
• Also adding grains and rice hulls

Recipe

• 5.5kg Gladfield German Pilsner Malt
• 1.5kg Rice
• 12g Magnum, 50 minute boil
• 18g Pride of Ringwood, 15 minute boil

Ingredients ready to go.

Very milky wort

Transferring to the FV.  Look away @Classic Brewing Co, its a dirty batch onto the yeast cake of the Rattenhund kegged yesterday.

Interesting choice of hops. I made a rice lager twice, once using Hallertauer and once Sorachi Ace. While the latter may be the more authentic choice, I preferred the Hallertauer. Never thought of using PoR but Magnum is good for bittering. 

[Aussiekraut]

Märzen.

6kg of goodness

 

The liquor is running nice and clear.

 

[Shamus O'Sean]

12 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

Mate that looks a full on pretty intense brew day

Certainly busier than usual.  Plus my brother popped around to collect a couple of kegs.  We chatted for ages.  I ended up mashing for about 90 minutes.  Then playing a bit of catch-up with the steps delayed while we chewed the fat.  Basically started around 8am and put the gear away around 8pm.  Still fun though.

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

An absolute perfect example of organisation, cleanliness & precision.

It is a credit to you Shamus & others should take note & learn how to plan ahead & organise their brew day.

I can tell by looking you would follow the rule "clean as you go".

I was taught that in the Army as a Cook & it has never left me, the great part about it there is bugger all cleaning up to apart from your kettle etc.

I just noticed your comment on dirty batch but if that suits you, fine. I haven't done it at this stage but happy with my methods.

Thanks Phil.  I am a massive procrastinator, so I have to try to be organised.  Even then it takes me ages.

Definitely follow the clean as you go rule.  In the past, I also tried doing 30 minute boils to speed things up.  However, I did not have time to clean the malt pipe, mesh screens, overflow tubes, etc in that time.  So I pushed the boil back out to 50 minutes.  That gives me a good window for cleaning and doing the various hop, sanitisation, yeast nutrient and whirlfloc steps.

Once the brew is in the fermenter, I will often stop for lunch and come back out to the brew space to clean the kettle afterward.  Unfortunately, my visiting brother and the rice cereal mash pushed my normal brew day out by over 3 hours.

I am comfortable doing dirty batches.  I plan to do a Munich Dunkel in a few weeks using the yeast cake from the Rice Lager brew.  So three brews with the one yeast.  It is the Pilsen yeast by Bluestone.  At about $18 a packet of liquid yeast, I want to spread the cost over a few brews.

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Interesting choice of hops. I made a rice lager twice, once using Hallertauer and once Sorachi Ace. While the latter may be the more authentic choice, I preferred the Hallertauer. Never thought of using PoR but Magnum is good for bittering. 

The Magnum and Pride of Ringwood were the most suitable hops I had in stock.  Magnum for its plain, some might say boring, bittering capabilities.  PoR because it is used in lots of Australian beers and more suitable in a light lager than some of the other modern hops I have.  I should call it an Aussie Rice Lager.

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Märzen.

6kg of goodness

 

The liquor is running nice and clear.

 

Beautiful clear and a lovely colour.  That'll be great come October.

[Hairy]

On 8/13/2023 at 10:41 AM, Aussiekraut said:

Märzen.

6kg of goodness

 

The liquor is running nice and clear.

 

Nice! I love a good Marzen.

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

Nice! I love a good Marzen.

Hey Hairy, MIA for a while, are you still brewing?

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Hey Hairy, MIA for a while, are you still brewing?

Not as consistently as I used to; I do it in spurts.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

On 8/13/2023 at 12:53 AM, Shamus O'Sean said:

Brew Day today was another Rice Lager.  Done the hard way by doing a cereal mash of the rice.  Not hard work, but adds lots of extra time to the brew day.

Cereal mash process:

• Heat main mash vol (22.4L) to 80°C
• Pause main mash temp at 80°C
• Transfer 10L to cereal mash pot with recirc arm
• Connect chiller and recirc.  
• Pause main mash at 40°C
• Heat cereal mash water in kitchen to 78°C
• Add rice and 1kg Pilsner
• Mash for 20 minutes at 74°C stirring the whole time
• Heat mash and boil for 30 minutes stirring the whole time
• Back out to garage and add back to main mash 
• Also adding grains and rice hulls

Recipe

• 5.5kg Gladfield German Pilsner Malt
• 1.5kg Rice
• 12g Magnum, 50 minute boil
• 18g Pride of Ringwood, 15 minute boil

Ingredients ready to go.

Very milky wort

Transferring to the FV.  Look away @Classic Brewing Co, its a dirty batch onto the yeast cake of the Rattenhund kegged yesterday.

I used to do it like you @Shamus O'Sean. Now i do the cereal mash in my robobrew with 15L of water and 10L water set aside. 1kg rice with 200gm pilsener. Gelatanise step them just bump it to 98c and hold it for 30. I dont boil it. Its cooked through in that time. Drop the robobrew temp to 65c and drop the 10L of cool water in and it drops the temp down to 62-65c. Add the rest of the pilsener back in and mash away for 90 mins. Saves stuffing around with another pot.

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, Greenyinthewestofsydney said:

I used to do it like you @Shamus O'Sean. Now i do the cereal mash in my robobrew with 15L of water and 10L water set aside. 1kg rice with 200gm pilsener. Gelatanise step them just bump it to 98c and hold it for 30. I dont boil it. Its cooked through in that time. Drop the robobrew temp to 65c and drop the 10L of cool water in and it drops the temp down to 62-65c. Add the rest of the pilsener back in and mash away for 90 mins. Saves stuffing around with another pot.

That's a really good idea. 

The funny thing is, the only reason I did the rice cereal mash instead of using Flaked Rice, was so I did not waste the $2 of plain rice I had left over from the first time I did a Rice Lager.  

Nevertheless, I will have to give your method a go at some time.

[Cheap Charlie]

11 hours ago, Greenyinthewestofsydney said:

I used to do it like you @Shamus O'Sean. Now i do the cereal mash in my robobrew with 15L of water and 10L water set aside. 1kg rice with 200gm pilsener. Gelatanise step them just bump it to 98c and hold it for 30. I dont boil it. Its cooked through in that time. Drop the robobrew temp to 65c and drop the 10L of cool water in and it drops the temp down to 62-65c. Add the rest of the pilsener back in and mash away for 90 mins. Saves stuffing around with another pot.

I will definitely give this a try

Do you sparge, and if so what's the quantity of sparge water on top of the 25L?

edit:

Just to clarify, I mean what is the batch size you are brewing with your 25L? I can probably do the math and tailor it to my system. I normally go for a 23L batch size.

Cheers.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Cheap Charlie

[Cheap Charlie]

Early start this morning, another pilsner, started 5am, on the boil before 8am.. Methinks I might do a second batch

[Aussiekraut]

Dough ball hunting after mash-in of a Bitsa Pale Ale

[Shamus O'Sean]

14 hours ago, Cheap Charlie said:

I will definitely give this a try

Do you sparge, and if so what's the quantity of sparge water on top of the 25L?

edit:

Just to clarify, I mean what is the batch size you are brewing with your 25L? I can probably do the math and tailor it to my system. I normally go for a 23L batch size.

Cheers.

I am guessing that @Greenyinthewestofsydney sparges with at least 8 litres.  With grain absorption (2L), water lost through the cereal mash (2.5-3L) plus boil off (3L).

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

On 8/19/2023 at 10:32 PM, Shamus O'Sean said:

That's a really good idea. 

The funny thing is, the only reason I did the rice cereal mash instead of using Flaked Rice, was so I did not waste the $2 of plain rice I had left over from the first time I did a Rice Lager.  

Nevertheless, I will have to give your method a go at some time.

Yeah i only do them now with the woolies rice. I figure the extra 40 mins or so is worth it.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

On 8/20/2023 at 7:27 AM, Cheap Charlie said:

I will definitely give this a try

Do you sparge, and if so what's the quantity of sparge water on top of the 25L?

edit:

Just to clarify, I mean what is the batch size you are brewing with your 25L? I can probably do the math and tailor it to my system. I normally go for a 23L batch size.

Cheers.

I do 19L batches. These i sparge with 2L only from the kettle. So 27L all up less grain absorbtion less the boil off usually gets me around that figure.

[Shamus O'Sean]

Today I brewed a Cherry Sour with a difference.  Coriander and Rosemary additions.  Unfortunately, Brewfather did not handle the Cherry Juice ingredient very well.  It overpredicted its contribution to the total fermentables.  I was aiming to produce a 30 litre batch.  In the end I had to settle for a 26 litre batch with a lower Original Gravity than intended.

• 3kg Coopers Pale Malt
• 2 litres Bickford's Cherry Juice
• 250g Coopers Wheat Malt
• 200g Acidulated Malt
• 18g Nelson Sauvin hops 20 minute boil (50 minute total boil time)
• 15g Coriander Seed 5 minute boil
• 4g Rosemary (Dry) 5 minute boil
• Lallemand Philly Sour yeast
• OG should have been 1.044; was 1.038
• Vol should have been 30L; was 26L
• ABV should have been 4.3%; will be around 3.8%
• EBC 28; IBU 10

Before Cherry Juice added

After Cherry Juice added

[Back Brewing]

5 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Today I brewed a Cherry Sour with a difference.  Coriander and Rosemary additions.  Unfortunately, Brewfather did not handle the Cherry Juice ingredient very well.  It overpredicted its contribution to the total fermentables.  I was aiming to produce a 30 litre batch.  In the end I had to settle for a 26 litre batch with a lower Original Gravity than intended.

• 3kg Coopers Pale Malt
• 2 litres Bickford's Cherry Juice
• 250g Coopers Wheat Malt
• 200g Acidulated Malt
• 18g Nelson Sauvin hops 20 minute boil (50 minute total boil time)
• 15g Coriander Seed 5 minute boil
• 4g Rosemary (Dry) 5 minute boil
• Lallemand Philly Sour yeast
• OG should have been 1.044; was 1.038
• Vol should have been 30L; was 26L
• ABV should have been 4.3%; will be around 3.8%
• EBC 28; IBU 10

Before Cherry Juice added

After Cherry Juice added

HUGE difference with the cherry juice

[Back Brewing]

24 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Today I brewed a Cherry Sour with a difference.  Coriander and Rosemary additions.  Unfortunately, Brewfather did not handle the Cherry Juice ingredient very well.  It overpredicted its contribution to the total fermentables.  I was aiming to produce a 30 litre batch.  In the end I had to settle for a 26 litre batch with a lower Original Gravity than intended.

• 3kg Coopers Pale Malt
• 2 litres Bickford's Cherry Juice
• 250g Coopers Wheat Malt
• 200g Acidulated Malt
• 18g Nelson Sauvin hops 20 minute boil (50 minute total boil time)
• 15g Coriander Seed 5 minute boil
• 4g Rosemary (Dry) 5 minute boil
• Lallemand Philly Sour yeast
• OG should have been 1.044; was 1.038
• Vol should have been 30L; was 26L
• ABV should have been 4.3%; will be around 3.8%
• EBC 28; IBU 10

Before Cherry Juice added

After Cherry Juice added

I nearly bought a pressure fermenter today but backed out at the last minute I don't know if I'm ready for it yet

[ChairmanDrew]

1 hour ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I was aiming to produce a 30 litre batch.  In the end I had to settle for a 26 litre batch with a lower Original Gravity than intended.

• ABV should have been 4.3%; will be around 3.8%

Most sours Ive ever had have been at the lower end of the abv spectrum. I reckon that will make for a nice summer squencher.

[Pale Man]

Back to basics today. First K@K for a long time. Coopers Bootmaker Pale Ale. Kilo of light dry malt. 600 grams of ale malt and 600 grams of wheat malt for a mini mash.

 

[jennyss]

16 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Today I brewed a Cherry Sour with a difference.  Coriander and Rosemary additions.  Unfortunately, Brewfather did not handle the Cherry Juice ingredient very well.  It overpredicted its contribution to the total fermentables.  I was aiming to produce a 30 litre batch.  In the end I had to settle for a 26 litre batch with a lower Original Gravity than intended.

• 3kg Coopers Pale Malt
• 2 litres Bickford's Cherry Juice
• 250g Coopers Wheat Malt
• 200g Acidulated Malt
• 18g Nelson Sauvin hops 20 minute boil (50 minute total boil time)
• 15g Coriander Seed 5 minute boil
• 4g Rosemary (Dry) 5 minute boil
• Lallemand Philly Sour yeast
• OG should have been 1.044; was 1.038
• Vol should have been 30L; was 26L
• ABV should have been 4.3%; will be around 3.8%
• EBC 28; IBU 10

Before Cherry Juice added

 

@Shamus O'Sean, What do you say are those 'fluffy lumps' in your brew before and after adding the cherry juice? They look just like what happens to most of my extract brews, often within about three hours of mixing. Is it 'cold break' or something else?

[Shamus O'Sean]

22 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

I nearly bought a pressure fermenter today but backed out at the last minute I don't know if I'm ready for it yet

They are more complicated than the Coopers fermenter.  But I use the two in the photo because I can split a 30 litre batch between them.  I also have a 35 litre Snub Nose that can also fit a 30 litre batch.  I only go to 27-28 litres in a Coopers FV.

Get a Quickie by Keg King.  With a 20cm length of silicon tube, it makes taking a sample so easy.

Cleaning them can be a challenge.  All of mine have pretty small openings.  Plus you can only use warm water - No hot water.  I can get rid of a fair bit of the crud with a silicon brush.  Then I do a soak with 6-7 litres of warm water with 6-7 teaspoons of Oxysan mixed in.

I also think you need a CO2 bottle to get the best out of them.  Either to pressurise to get your sample out at the start or for transferring at the end.

These days I only brew with about 2psi of pressure.  For me it is more about volume than speeding up fermentation with pressure at higher temperatures.