Whats in Your Fermenter - 2024?

[stquinto]

I bottled and kegged my Botanical, and decided to knock up another version and dump it on the yeast cake. First time doing a dirty batch

This one finished at 1.006, that Coopers Commercial goes though the fermentables like sh*t though a goose !

It had been fermenting since 21st May, with a cold crash since Saturday. I used a Coopers Draught as the base kit, and added 15g of Citra to the juniper berries.

This one used an APA as a base and 48g of Centennial (maybe a bit of overkill) to 20g of juniper berries.

 

[jennyss]

On the left is my brew; 23L of Coopers Amber Ale with 1.25kg of LDM instead of the 1kg recommended on the can. The OG was 1040. On the right is my husband's 21L of Woolworths Lager with BE2, 1tbsp LDM and 1tbsp sugar. OG was 1041.

Both brews were mixed yesterday.  We're trying to up our production to save buying expensive 'supplementary' beers!

[Classic Brewing Co]

27 minutes ago, jennyss said:

On the left is my brew; 23L of Coopers Amber Ale with 1.25kg of LDM instead of the 1kg recommended on the can. The OG was 1040. On the right is my husband's 21L of Woolworths Lager with BE2, 1tbsp LDM and 1tbsp sugar. OG was 1041.

Both brews were mixed yesterday.  We're trying to up our production to save buying expensive 'supplementary' beers!

Yeah, that is definitely the way to go Jenny, the commercial prices are getting ridiculous, there are specials around but upping the production at home is always going to be the winner.

I reckon what you save can then be spent on more brewing products.  What am I saying? 

[Aussiekraut]

I put a Taiheke Pale Ale into the fermenter on Tuesday, pitched a goodly amount of US-05 from a starter, set the Inkbird to 18C and left it to its devices. Checked the pill and there was no action after 24 hrs. Knowing US-05, that is nothing unusual. Then there was still no action after 48hrs and I started to wonder. That was when I realised that the fridge was too cold. It was sitting at 14C and because ambient is rather cool, it never warmed up. So I dug out the second heat belt and somehow managed to get it in and close the fridge door properly, the latter always being an issue with this fridge. Now she has awakened and things are starting to happen.

I don't recall ever needing a heat belt in this particular fridge, but then I realised that last June and most of July I wasn't here to brew and the years before, the ferment fridges were in the house. By the look of it, I currently could brew a lager in there without temp control. A completely new experience  

[ChairmanDrew]

Put on a lager while the temps are still a bit chilly. But I made a slight mistake. I was planning to boil 25g of Wakatu hops for 30 mins then add 20g of Green Bullet for a 30 min steep. But after I put the hops in the boil I realised I had accidentally used Moutere hops instead of Wakatu, which has an exceptionally higher AA. So I reduced the boil time to 15 mins before adding the Green Bullet for the 30 min steep.

Does this sound like a good mitigation measure? I don't really want a super bitter lager.

[Shamus O'Sean]

15 hours ago, ChairmanDrew said:

Put on a lager while the temps are still a bit chilly. But I made a slight mistake. I was planning to boil 25g of Wakatu hops for 30 mins then add 20g of Green Bullet for a 30 min steep. But after I put the hops in the boil I realised I had accidentally used Moutere hops instead of Wakatu, which has an exceptionally higher AA. So I reduced the boil time to 15 mins before adding the Green Bullet for the 30 min steep.

Does this sound like a good mitigation measure? I don't really want a super bitter lager.

It was a good idea, but maybe not a short enough boil of the Moutere for what you were after.  I put those numbers into a typical lager recipe and got the following:

• 25g Wakatu 30 minute boil - 19 IBU
• 25g Moutere 15 minute boil - 32 IBU
• 20g Green Bullet 30 minute steep - 6 IBU

So your brew would be around 38 IBU.  Think Czech Budvar territory compared to Stella Artois territory (20 IBU).

I would still be very happy to drink it.

[ChairmanDrew]

3 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

It was a good idea, but maybe not a short enough boil of the Moutere for what you were after.  I put those numbers into a typical lager recipe and got the following:

• 25g Wakatu 30 minute boil - 19 IBU
• 25g Moutere 15 minute boil - 32 IBU
• 20g Green Bullet 30 minute steep - 6 IBU

So your brew would be around 38 IBU.  Think Czech Budvar territory compared to Stella Artois territory (20 IBU).

I would still be very happy to drink it.

Oh feck Well, at least it wasn't the full 30 min boil. Hopefully if I give it some time in the bottle it will mellow out a bit.

Well, for what it's worth, here's my recipe (as usual, loosely based off the Nelson's Light recipe);

 

25g Moutere hops, 15 min boil

20g Green Bullet hops and 250g of Gladiator malt added for 30 min steep

Cooled for 15 min in a sink of cold water

1.5kg Maltexo and 200g of dextrose

Topped up to 21l

Lallemand Diamond lager yeast. Currently fermenting at about 14 degrees.

Edited June 27 by ChairmanDrew

[Cult Of One]

OK so I have juiced 100+ limes and am attempting to make Lime champagne.

Looked around online and found a few recipes. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes. Its been in the FV 13 days and the progress is fairly slow but the gravity is coming down.

If its a dud at least all I have really lost is about $7 in ingredients (sugar, yeast and bicarb to reduce the acid content),

It smells awesome I must  say.

Edited June 28 by Cult Of One
I forgot to comment

[Cult Of One]

On 6/12/2024 at 3:57 PM, Classic Brewing Co said:

Yeah, that is definitely the way to go Jenny, the commercial prices are getting ridiculous, there are specials around but upping the production at home is always going to be the winner.

I reckon what you save can then be spent on more brewing products.  What am I saying? 

Agreed, the prices for a slab ate anywhere from $62-90 at the moment depending on brand even the basic stuff like VB. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

Had to dry hop my Black IPA 2 days ago.  Problem is I caught Covid 5 days ago.  Too sick to do the dry hop when it was supposed to be done.  Delaying the dry hop was not a big deal though. 

The real problem was I had forgotten a symptom of Covid is loss of the sense of smell.  On brew day (when I felt fine), I thought the Mosaic Lupomax hops smelled bland/stale.  I did not want to use them in the dry hop.  At the very least their effect might be zero, at the worst, it might ruin the beer.  Still I wanted to recheck their smell.

So firstly I measured out the Simcoe hops.  I was amazed that for me with the Covid, these had no aroma at all.  Just like sniffing air.  Next I measured the Citra hops.  Again no aroma.  My wife, who was sitting in the next room, asked me what hops I was using because she thought they smelled so strong (she had only just tested positive).  Luckily she was able to sniff the Mosaic and confirmed they were odourless.  So I swapped them out for Nectaron. 

So weird to drop 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew and smell nothing!  I hope I get my sense of smell back soon enough to appreciate this brew.

[jennyss]

9 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Had to dry hop my Black IPA 2 days ago.  Problem is I caught Covid 5 days ago.  Too sick to do the dry hop when it was supposed to be done.  Delaying the dry hop was not a big deal though. 

The real problem was I had forgotten a symptom of Covid is loss of the sense of smell.  On brew day (when I felt fine), I thought the Mosaic Lupomax hops smelled bland/stale.  I did not want to use them in the dry hop.  At the very least their effect might be zero, at the worst, it might ruin the beer.  Still I wanted to recheck their smell.

So firstly I measured out the Simcoe hops.  I was amazed that for me with the Covid, these had no aroma at all.  Just like sniffing air.  Next I measured the Citra hops.  Again no aroma.  My wife, who was sitting in the next room, asked me what hops I was using because she thought they smelled so strong (she had only just tested positive).  Luckily she was able to sniff the Mosaic and confirmed they were odourless.  So I swapped them out for Nectaron. 

So weird to drop 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew and smell nothing!  I hope I get my sense of smell back soon enough to appreciate this brew.

Wow - 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew! I will be interested to hear how this brew turns out. I am mixing a 23L extract brew of COPA today and adding a packet of BE2 and 500g of LDM.  I was planning to add 25g of Pride of Ringwood and 25g of Mosaic on about day 8 after fermentation has finished, and I thought I was being radical. The choice of hops is chance - it is leftovers.

[Classic Brewing Co]

2 hours ago, jennyss said:

Wow - 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew! I will be interested to hear how this brew turns out. I am mixing a 23L extract brew of COPA today and adding a packet of BE2 and 500g of LDM.  I was planning to add 25g of Pride of Ringwood and 25g of Mosaic on about day 8 after fermentation has finished, and I thought I was being radical. The choice of hops is chance - it is leftovers.

Those hops will be fine with the Pale Ale Jenny, Shamus is using that amount in an AG brew which will be boiled & there are bittering hops & aroma hops combined. I reckon it would taste divine. 

I usually use a minimum of 100 grams when I do a kit beer which I will be doing today but they won't go in until 4 days before kegging.

[Classic Brewing Co]

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Had to dry hop my Black IPA 2 days ago.  Problem is I caught Covid 5 days ago.  Too sick to do the dry hop when it was supposed to be done.  Delaying the dry hop was not a big deal though. 

The real problem was I had forgotten a symptom of Covid is loss of the sense of smell.  On brew day (when I felt fine), I thought the Mosaic Lupomax hops smelled bland/stale.  I did not want to use them in the dry hop.  At the very least their effect might be zero, at the worst, it might ruin the beer.  Still I wanted to recheck their smell.

So firstly I measured out the Simcoe hops.  I was amazed that for me with the Covid, these had no aroma at all.  Just like sniffing air.  Next I measured the Citra hops.  Again no aroma.  My wife, who was sitting in the next room, asked me what hops I was using because she thought they smelled so strong (she had only just tested positive).  Luckily she was able to sniff the Mosaic and confirmed they were odourless.  So I swapped them out for Nectaron. 

So weird to drop 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew and smell nothing!  I hope I get my sense of smell back soon enough to appreciate this brew.

 

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Had to dry hop my Black IPA 2 days ago.  Problem is I caught Covid 5 days ago.  Too sick to do the dry hop when it was supposed to be done.  Delaying the dry hop was not a big deal though. 

The real problem was I had forgotten a symptom of Covid is loss of the sense of smell.  On brew day (when I felt fine), I thought the Mosaic Lupomax hops smelled bland/stale.  I did not want to use them in the dry hop.  At the very least their effect might be zero, at the worst, it might ruin the beer.  Still I wanted to recheck their smell.

So firstly I measured out the Simcoe hops.  I was amazed that for me with the Covid, these had no aroma at all.  Just like sniffing air.  Next I measured the Citra hops.  Again no aroma.  My wife, who was sitting in the next room, asked me what hops I was using because she thought they smelled so strong (she had only just tested positive).  Luckily she was able to sniff the Mosaic and confirmed they were odourless.  So I swapped them out for Nectaron. 

So weird to drop 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew and smell nothing!  I hope I get my sense of smell back soon enough to appreciate this brew.

 

12 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Had to dry hop my Black IPA 2 days ago.  Problem is I caught Covid 5 days ago.  Too sick to do the dry hop when it was supposed to be done.  Delaying the dry hop was not a big deal though. 

The real problem was I had forgotten a symptom of Covid is loss of the sense of smell.  On brew day (when I felt fine), I thought the Mosaic Lupomax hops smelled bland/stale.  I did not want to use them in the dry hop.  At the very least their effect might be zero, at the worst, it might ruin the beer.  Still I wanted to recheck their smell.

So firstly I measured out the Simcoe hops.  I was amazed that for me with the Covid, these had no aroma at all.  Just like sniffing air.  Next I measured the Citra hops.  Again no aroma.  My wife, who was sitting in the next room, asked me what hops I was using because she thought they smelled so strong (she had only just tested positive).  Luckily she was able to sniff the Mosaic and confirmed they were odourless.  So I swapped them out for Nectaron. 

So weird to drop 210g of dry hops into a 23 litre brew and smell nothing!  I hope I get my sense of smell back soon enough to appreciate this brew.

Sounds like a nice concoction @Shamus O'Sean I hope you & your wife recover soon.

[Aussiekraut]

Finally pulled my finger out and got two brews going. The top is a Pilsner and the bottom a Helles. Both came from cubes to use up some older stock. The Helles is from April, the Pilsner from June. I finally have both pressure fermenters up and running. Both beers will ferment at 18C under 15psi. Should be done and dusted in two weeks.

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

44 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Finally pulled my finger out and got two brews going. The top is a Pilsner and the bottom a Helles. Both came from cubes to use up some older stock. The Helles is from April, the Pilsner from June. I finally have both pressure fermenters up and running. Both beers will ferment at 18C under 15psi. Should be done and dusted in two weeks.

 

Now we know what the new Cinder Block was for. 

Edited July 9 by Classic Brewing Co

[Brauhaus Fritz II]

Whipped up a little Stout which shall be a Sheaf Stout clone, which unfortunately got discontinued. The recipe is from some American chap. Didn’t hit the OG, mine is only 1050, but hopefully it will turn out nicely. On recommendation of my LHBS I pitched Nottingham @20 degrees and it took off really quick. 

[Back Brewing]

1 hour ago, Brauhaus Fritz II said:

Whipped up a little Stout which shall be a Sheaf Stout clone, which unfortunately got discontinued. The recipe is from some American chap. Didn’t hit the OG, mine is only 1050, but hopefully it will turn out nicely. On recommendation of my LHBS I pitched Nottingham @20 degrees and it took off really quick. 

I find Nottingham is great as long as you keep it under 22c so at 20c it will be spot on i fermented it once at 18c and got off flavours it looks a lovely colour in the kettle 

Edited July 9 by Back Brewing

[Brauhaus Fritz II]

20 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

I find Nottingham is great as long as you keep it under 22c so at 20c it will be spot on i fermented it once at 18c and got off flavours it looks a lovely colour in the kettle 

When I went into the garage this morning to check on my brew I couldn’t hear the airlock, bubbling any more. How could the yeast have calmed down so quickly after taking off inside 8 hours. Opening the fermenting fridge I found out what happened, the was no more sanitiser left inside the airlock. Luckily I always have a blowoff tube ready and the soothing bubbling continued.

[Classic Brewing Co]

27 minutes ago, Brauhaus Fritz II said:

When I went into the garage this morning to check on my brew I couldn’t hear the airlock, bubbling any more. How could the yeast have calmed down so quickly after taking off inside 8 hours. Opening the fermenting fridge I found out what happened, the was no more sanitiser left inside the airlock. Luckily I always have a blowoff tube ready and the soothing bubbling continued.

Nottingham can be an angry beast at times, there seems to be a sweet spot in the ferment temp that kicks in & can make quite a mess unless you are/have prepared for it. You have but it pays to check the level in the airlock at times, at least in my experience. 

[Red devil 44]

Double batch of Stone & Wood Clone, been fermenting for 3 weeks plus 6 day CC.

First day of R&R today so should get it kegged by this afternoon, I have no taps for these kegs at this point so I will just store in kegs in my fermenting fridge. 
‘I’m lucky I have a spare fridge with an Inkbird so I will utilise that as it may be a while before I get to these kegs, as next in line is my Japanese Lager & a Pale Ale patiently waiting to get a guernsey. 

 

[ChairmanDrew]

Just put on something simple, because any time you don't have something in the fermenter is time wasted My spicy rooibos tea beer that I made sometime last year was pretty successful, so figured I might as well do it again. This time I used the Lion Real Ale instead of the Coopers one. My experience with Lion extracts is that they are quite mild, so this time made 21L instead of 23L like last time. Otherwise, same same.

 

Lion Real Ale, 1.7kg

Coopers BE2, 1kg

8 bags of chai rooibos, steeped in 2L of water for 5-10 mins

Will add 5 more bags of tea to steep a couple of days before bottling.

 

[jennyss]

7 hours ago, ChairmanDrew said:

My spicy rooibos tea beer

Hi @ChairmanDrew, I can't get my head around what a spicy rooibos tea beer tastes or looks like. Do you have a photo from last year?

[ChairmanDrew]

5 hours ago, jennyss said:

Hi @ChairmanDrew, I can't get my head around what a spicy rooibos tea beer tastes or looks like. Do you have a photo from last year?

I don't think I have a photo, but if you've had the Real Ale you'll get a bit if an idea of what it tastes like. It's amber in colour and the chai rooibos gives it a bit of a spicy Xmas ale taste. It's probably the only beer I've shared with a few different people before and they all liked it. I actually recommend trying it sometime.

 

This is the tea I used, btw https://www.redseal.global/au/our-products/tea-brews-blends/red-bush-rooibos-chai/

Edited July 14 by ChairmanDrew

[Aussiekraut]

On 6/27/2024 at 5:33 PM, ChairmanDrew said:

Oh feck Well, at least it wasn't the full 30 min boil. Hopefully if I give it some time in the bottle it will mellow out a bit.

Well, for what it's worth, here's my recipe (as usual, loosely based off the Nelson's Light recipe);

 

25g Moutere hops, 15 min boil

20g Green Bullet hops and 250g of Gladiator malt added for 30 min steep

Cooled for 15 min in a sink of cold water

1.5kg Maltexo and 200g of dextrose

Topped up to 21l

Lallemand Diamond lager yeast. Currently fermenting at about 14 degrees.

38IBU isn't that bad. It's within the typical Pilsner range, which, while higher than a traditional lager, has nothing on a Stout or an IPA. It should make a tasty beer.

[ChairmanDrew]

3 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

38IBU isn't that bad. It's within the typical Pilsner range, which, while higher than a traditional lager, has nothing on a Stout or an IPA. It should make a tasty beer.

Indeed. I tested it straight out of the fermenter before I put it in the bottle just the other day. While it tasted at the higher end of bitterness of what you would expect for a lager, it was still tasting like a lager. As Sheamus said, maybe not what I was necessarily going for, but I might have just stumbled upon something good .