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January ROTM - Old Town Lager


jennyss

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12 minutes ago, PaulS36 said:

Also

I ended up starting the boil with 3 litres instead of 2. I rinsed the malt after steeping. 
glad I did as there wasn’t much liquid at the end of 30 minutes of boiling. 

Yep Paul always a good idea with slightly more water and when you boil don't have it boiling flat knacker, just a nice "rolling" boil as they say.  In other words just a tad more than a simmer if you get my drift otherwise you boil it almost dry.

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On 1/31/2023 at 1:03 PM, UncleStavvy said:

Batched Up this ROTM last week. Found the  Carahell grains a lot harder to crack with the rolling pin than the choc malt barley I use in the stouts. Wort seems to be a low activity type with nOT a lot of froth. I'm proceeding with my usual lager SOP so I'll take an SG tonight. If it looks good I'll raise the temp to 18⁰C for a diacetyl rest then chill it back down for bottling Saturday.

Haven't been on much lately. Hope everyone had a great Xmas and New year. Happy brewing.

Found the malt hard to crack with a rolling pin too.

would it be okay to give them a couple of pulses in a blender? Or would I end up with flour?

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3 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

Yep Paul always a good idea with slightly more water and when you boil don't have it boiling flat knacker, just a nice "rolling" boil as they say.  In other words just a tad more than a simmer if you get my drift otherwise you boil it almost dry.

Good to know. I boiled the $&@! Out of it

🤣🤣🤣

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2 minutes ago, PaulS36 said:

Found the malt hard to crack with a rolling pin too.

would it be okay to give them a couple of pulses in a blender? Or would I end up with flour?

Paul, stick with the rolling pin method but sit the zip-lock bag on a chopping board or block of wood and belt the grains with the rolling pin not just try to roll them.  Someone on this forum used to use a coffee grinding machine with one of the blades removed or something.  I will call him into the conversation to clarify @Journeyman , can you clear that up please?

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41 minutes ago, jennyss said:

@iBooz2, how about a mortar and pestle to crush the grain? And how crushed should the grains be please?

An excellent idea @jennyss so from now on using a mortar and pestle to crush grains shall be forever known as the JennyySS Method.

See the pic for an idea and you can experiment with finer crushes (almost flour) and a crush similar to the pic.  If you use a crushed grain steep in all your brews you will see a massive difference in the head and head retention with your K & K beers.  I have been banging on about this simple addition for years and now very glad to see that Cooper's DIY beer recipes are now incorporating a Carapils addition to nearly all their recipes now - good job.  Learn to do this step Jenny (and other brewers) and see the results for yourself.  You will give yourself an uppercut once you realize the difference it makes and wonder why you did not do this earlier in your brewing journey.

You can also buy a small amount of milled grains (Carapils or whatever) from your LHBS, they might just charge a $1 extra to mill it for you and they will supply it in a zip-lock bag.  It will need to be used in a short time so it does not absorb moisture etc. but a couple of days would be perfectly fine.

Crushed grain image 2 -resized.png

Edited by iBooz2
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On 2/6/2023 at 5:05 PM, iBooz2 said:

...Someone on this forum used to use a coffee grinding machine with one of the blades removed or something.  I will call him into the conversation to clarify @Journeyman , can you clear that up please?

I use a Sunbeam EM0480 grinder. They have a range of similar ones but I have 3 of these because I'm a coffeesnob. (no really, there's a website called that n'all 😄 ) I took out the bottom burr & removed the shims & then I grind on the highest number (25 on the ring dial) & it comes out perfect as well as very even & hardly any dust. Top of pic is the pre-ground from LHBS, lower is after a pass through the grinder.  1002943009_GrainGrinder.jpg.9fc1d3319286de24af02944bf95ef418.jpg

Edited by Journeyman
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  • 2 weeks later...

So the ROTM Old Town lager......Ended up 2 weeks in the fermenter and 3 weeks in the bottle and well I gotta say, this is one fine lager. Lovely clear amber, slightly malty with nice head retention for its age. Will only improve with more ageing.....if it lasts that long. Definitely make again. Cheers all.

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10 hours ago, UncleStavvy said:

So the ROTM Old Town lager......Ended up 2 weeks in the fermenter and 3 weeks in the bottle and well I gotta say, this is one fine lager. Lovely clear amber, slightly malty with nice head retention for its age. Will only improve with more ageing.....if it lasts that long. Definitely make again. Cheers all.

Thanks for posting @UncleStavvy, I have been hoping to hear people's results from the Old Town Lager ROTM. This is very promising.  I'm keeping my kit till June when I can keep the brewing temperature down. I guess you used a 'fermenting frig' and temperature controller? What was your brewing temperature range please?

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