LordEoin Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 So anyway, after buying a couple of 33l fermenters and all the bits and bobs, I ended up here... So I might aswell introduce myself, in case I decide to stay. The details of my life are quite inconsequential... where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy. My mother was a fifteen year old named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. Brewing wise, I started out small while staying in Sydney for a while, making ginger beer in an old 2liter coke bottle with a simple recipe I found in an internet cafe while the ladies of King's Cross paced around looking for 'patrons'. Tasty stuff, the ginger beer that is... Eventually my visa ran out and i ended up back in Ireland where i found a box of old demijohns in a charity shop. So naturally wine was next on my list. You know, the stuff that fancy people drink... I started fancy on it too, making some fantastic wines from wild elderberries and blackberries, etc. Again, tasty stuff. Picking wild fruit is tedious though, so i decided to cheat with the last batch filling one demijohn with apple juice, one with cranberry, then pineapple, grape, orange, etc basically anything that had no preservitives. add sugar, yeast and ailock and wait. And wait... But then i got bored of waiting. Recently, a mate of mine was looking for someone to make him a load of bottles of beer as a comemorative gift from his birthday, so i agreed to do the work if he pays half for all expenses from fermenters to brew belts, carbonation drops to trial jars. he keeps the first batch, i keep the equipment. We settled on the Wheatbeer, and off i went. The sterilization was the worst bit as i'm used to just bunging a couple of demijohns into the oven for 30 minutes, but the brewing itself went fairly smoothly after watching a few videos on youtube and reading the little instruction leaflet a few times. I had no idea how a hydrometer worked, so i've not got a clue what the OG was. Thanks to an itching curiosity and the handy tap on the fermenters, I got used to reading gravity and tasting fermenting beer. It bubbled mad for a week at 24C then settled at Final gravity of 1.010 so my 500ml glass bottles were primed with 1.5 carbonation drops each (split with a sterilized wood chisel), filled up and capped with some lovely shiny red crown caps. 4 days in and nothings popped or fizzed yet, so looking good! At the moment, I have 5 gallons of assorted wines to my left, a ingredients kit for Australian Bitter to my right (any idea how this fares against VB by the way?) and 86 pint bottles of wheatbeer behind me and not a drop to drink... typical maybe i'll open a sneaky bottle anyway to check up on progress. quality control, yes, quality control... I'll let you know how i get on later anyway. edit: mmmm, fairly light and no head, but glad i had a premature tasting, age will fix it :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Welcome to the forum LordEoin, or should I say Dr Evil? Very entertaining post first up. It makes a change from the stuff I usually post. Wheat beers are generally 'early drinkers' so it should come good fairly quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Well, a month into it and I'm back. Cheers Hairy, glad I could entertain you for a few minutes. [biggrin] I had a look for my post a few times and though it got removed or something, then i stumbled upon it today when reading through other threads stealing knowledge and ultimate wisdom. After all, when the Apocolypse happens later in the year who are all the rest gonna go to to get beer, eh? ME! And if they don't pay my rediculous prices I'll throw them back to the zombie masses. Anyway, The wheat beer worked out well, although it stayed pretty light and never got much of a head. Tasty though. A bit too tasty... (early drinkers is right) By the time my mate wanted to take 'his' beers I had grown quite fond of them and polished off about 25 of his 80 for 'quality control', so had to buy another kit to top the supplies back up. The first batch (X2): brewmaster wheatbeer + 300g dextrose and 500 light spray malt Water to 23liters OG - 1.035 (based on later data), temp 20 7 days at 24C with brew belt FG - 1.010 1.5 carbonation drops per 500ml glass bottle. aprox 3.9% volume 86 bottles verdict - after the month it was VERY drinkable but stayed light, with little head Once that was bottled and aging, i used one fermenter to make my second brew Premium Australian Bitter + 1.5kg malt extract (syrup) water to 23liters OG - 1.042, temp 24C 7 days at 24 C FG - 1.010 1.5 carb drops per 500ml glass bottle aprox 4.8% Volume 44 bottles verdict - very bitter on bottling, after 3 weeks of sitting it is fizzy and holds a head when very chilled, first bottle is quite bitter, the rest slide down to ma belleh with ease That malt extract is magic but expensive. Would using all powder spray malt do the same business, and how much dry spray malt is the same as a 1.5kg of malt extract syrup? As I said, i had to replace a bunch of my mate's beers, so brew 3 was again brewmaster wheatbeer (X1) Exact same reading apart from 26 C when adding the yeast and FG which was 1.009, making it about 4% For this one though, I mixed the dextrose, kit and spray malt together in a big pot on low heat because it was so annoying trying to stir the malt in the first time. Sticky lumps and what not... 24 hours into the brew it was fermenting so violently that the foam had blocked the airlock and my fermenter lid bulged like a balloon. the gravity dropped from 1035 to 1015 in that 24 hours alone. This one (although very young at the moment at about 2 weeks) has a much nicer malty flavor. Anyone know if it is because of the way i mixed the ingredients or because i added the yeast at a higher temperature? I was gutted having to replace the test run first brew with this better quality version..ah well,i had fun.. And that brings me to brew 4: Australian Lager + 1kg dextrose water to 23 liters OG -1.036 at 24C 7 days at 24C with brew belt FG - 1.004 (a bit low?) 1.5 carbonation drops per 500ml glass bottle. aprox 4.8% volume aprox 43 bottles verdict - the bottles are cooling at the moment after sterilizing in the oven, i'm just wasting time because i want to sit here for a while drinking one of the Australian Bitters before I have to go sit on the floor and fill all those bottles.. Had a pretaste, and it tastes pretty poor even for its stage. Weirdly sweet and bitter. Ah well.. After reading through the forums it looks like nobody really likes what that kit makes.. I'll know better and not buy it again. Maybe I'll get a pleasant surprise when I run out of Wheatbeer and bitter! [happy] As you can see,I'm starting to get the hang of it. I've been slowly building my 500ml glass bottle stash up too, so soon it will only cost the price of the ingredients. Ahh well, time to go bottle this lager... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 As you can see,I'm starting to get the hang of it. I've been slowly building my 500ml glass bottle stash up too, so soon it will only cost the price of the ingredients. Ahh well, time to go bottle this p**swater lager... Sounds like it is going well LordEoin. I've have many bottles in my collection, and even though kegging is coming up I intend to alternate putting higher ABV brews into bottles. Anyway I just recently came across Crabbies Ginger Beer (Well SWMBO did) which is in sturdy 500ml bottles. I have a dozen now and think they are ideal for home brewing, on the face of it they seem very similar to the Coopers long necks. Regarding the Lager I posit that most people make it first or at least very early on while being both overly eager and not attuned to the process. Hence the poor results! I think that your lager is more likely to suffer from 1kg of Dextrose rather than anything else. My first one was pretty good, but my temp was at 16 - 18'C (because in Winter I also live on a cold Island), it wasn't anywhere near my favorite but was well received by 1/2 dozen others who loved it. I did another with Light Malt Extract and medium Crystal Malt grains and at that stage it was one of my top brews. I am going to pull the Lager kit out again later in the month to see if I can turn it into a Fat Yak, considering the Fat Yak I have now is my least impressive (young) beer so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Funny you mention Crabbie's, i only discovered it a couple of weeks ago myself. I wasn't expecting much from it, but it really surprised me[biggrin] How does the Coopers Ginger Beer kit compare? I've actually been buying empty bottles, because the bottles i had been collecting previously were of all shapes and sizes, and removing the labels was getting frustrating. The bottles are very similar to the Crabbie's ones and are only about 7EUR for a dozen(i recon that it is more effort effective to earn that money at work, than spend the time unpaid). I figure that they'll last forever (apart for a few that go missing or fall to their deaths), and they're easier to store if they're all the same. The only problem is that I'd love if they were clear so i can see the clarity, colour and deposits, but we can't all have it our way (as much as the Burger King would argue to the contrary). It's getting to a point now where my empties are almost covering my needs, although that is a litle problem as I keep drinking my brews as soon as they taste GOOD and dont give them time to get AMAZING. But soon I'll not need to buy any more and I can finally dump my boxes of assorted mismatched bottles. Kegging sounds appealing, and I hope it goes well for you, but for now though I'm gonna stick to bottles as I have a lot to learn about the brewing before i can start worrying about kegs. Knowing me, as soon as I have a keg I'll be wondering where and how I can build my bar. After all, there's no point in a keg without a tap, and no point in a tap without a bar, and no point in a bar without peanuts, and no point in peanuts and a bar without a stool to sit on, and no point in sitting at my bar drinking beer and eating peanuts without a big TV to stare at when the conversation dips. Ooh, and I'd need an Arcade Machine full of retro classics. I need a bigger kitchen! [sad] Lets not get ahead of ouselves... I feel a lot better about the Original Lager now that it is bottled and it should be fine. I think that I was just feeling negative because of the thought of bottling, and reading about all the other lager fails. I opened one this evening to get a more neutral opinion on it, and it actually seems pretty good. Even though it is only a day old, cloudy, warm and flat I ended up drinking the whole pint[happy] With a few weeks chilling and carbonating it will be the bees knees! Regarding the sugar,the site i bought the Lager kit from said Coopers recommend the 1kg dextrose. Which brings me to a few things I've been wondering about sugars... 1 - It had an 'all malt' bundle too that replaced the 1kg dextrose with 1kg Extra Light Spray Malt. Are dextrose and spraymalt interchangeable at the same quantities? 2 - The site also has Lactose and Fructose(levulose). What's the difference between fructose, lactose and dextrose? 3 - I've never heard of Crystal Malt Grains and they don't seem to sell them. What are they? 4 - I figure my Australian Bitter went so well because I used a 1.5 kg tin of Cooper's malt extract (syrup), but it's expensive and nearly doubles the cost of ingredients. Does anyone know a mix for dry sugars/malts that would be similar to this wet mix? I've seen a lot of people talk about 'BE2' googling shows this is 250g maltodextrin + 250g Light Dry Malt Extract + 500g dextrose. What is maltodextrin (from what i can see, it doesnt ferment but gives a creamier pint and more head) and is LDME 'light spray malt'? Does BE2 replace the sugar (ie just kit + BE2)? 5 - for priming, i've been using one and a half carbonation drops per 500 ml bottle. It's a pain splitting them evenly, and i have to sterilize my chisel each time. I tried adding 4(ish) grams of dextrose to bottles before filling but it just made it froth as it filled.I tried adding it afterwards but it went like a damn volcano. I've seen a lot of people advising 'bulk priming' on other threads, but not found a guide on how to do it. I presume it means to add all the sugar to the fermenter prior to bottling, but i can't think how to do this withouth mixing the lees (the crap at the bottom is called lees for wine making, is it the same for beer? or just dregs?) back into the brew or having an uneven distribution. Is there a guide on here somewhere that can be linked? Or can someone explain it? 6 - This one's a long shot... My mate recently ended up with diabetes, so the fella i'd like to 'imbibe' with (i kno the fancy wordz) needs to know how much sugar he takes in. So I'd like to be able to mark each brew with a sugar content as well as the normal %alcohol. I presume there's some way of calculating the sugar content of a beer based on the ingredients, OG and FG, but can't for the life of me find it. Anyone know? Sorry for all the questions, they just all sprang to mind when you mentioned the 'Light Malt Extract and medium Crystal Malt grains' mix, and googling gives a lot of facts without context and opinion. It would be amazing if one god-like being knows all answers, but if not I'll split any remaining questions into separate bite-sized threads with subject lines that appeal to the breed among us who relish in demonstrating their superior knowledge [wink] Thank you! Time for a Wheat Beer me thinks! [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I'll have a crack at answering some of your questions, even if it is too keep the post active as a lot of Brewers here get busy on teh weekend and posting tends to drop off, an interesting phenonema (Me I have just woken after coming off nightshift and am just vegging out in front of PC). How does the Coopers Ginger Beer kit compare? Only 3 weeks bottled and not tried yet, SWMBO keeps asking the same question, I'll give it another fortnight then chill one for her. I've been wondering about sugars... 1 - It had an 'all malt' bundle too that replaced the 1kg dextrose with 1kg Extra Light Spray Malt. Are dextrose and spraymalt interchangeable at the same quantities? Not quite, sugars ferment out more completley than malts, eg 1kg dex with kit will be around 4.6% whereas kit with 1kg dry malt gives 4.3%. The other 0.3% equates to some residual sweetness. 2 - The site also has Lactose and Fructose(levulose). What's the difference between fructose, lactose and dextrose? Lactose does not ferment out, that is it results in a lot of residual sweetness - although I can not comment on this from experience Milk is for Babies and Cats and won't be going in any of my beer. 3 - I've never heard of Crystal Malt Grains and they don't seem to sell them. What are they? Speciality grains, you crack the grain and steep it in water @ 65 - 70'C for 30 minutes. The easy way for Kit & Kilo brewers to close the gap on Extract and All Grain Brewers, especially when using Coopers kits. What is maltodextrin..... Does BE2 replace the sugar (ie just kit + BE2)? Maltodextrin = an unpopular ingredient with most brewers here, it does not ferment out leaving added body and residual sweetness - it also gives you gas but hey that's only natural [lol] . Yes use BE2 without sugar, but % ABV will be lower, you can still add a little sugar to compensate 5 - for bulk priming.... (the crap at the bottom is called lees for wine making, is it the same for beer? or just dregs?) For bulk priming you need another FV to rack your beer onto, you mix your dextrose in a little hot water to dissolve then rack your beer onto it. I have never used dextrose to prime, but have used sugar and castor sugar, no volcanos. The lees is called the trub and yes you don't want to disturb it. 6 - This one's a long shot... I'd like to be able to mark each brew with a sugar content as well as the normal %alcohol. I presume there's some way of calculating the sugar content of a beer based on the ingredients, OG and FG, Mate, most people find this funny but for the past 5 months I have been avoiding carbs (but still drinking beer, click on this link A long post and I can't be bothered proof reading it so please Lord Eoin excuse my spelling and any errors in grammar. [innocent] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 gramatical [lol] there was a gramatical error with your grammar [lol] [lol] Peace and sorry, couldn't help it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 I'll give it another fortnight then chill one for her. Wow, i do not yet have the patience for 5 weks waiting and a week chilling. I'll check SWMBO's posts and see his praises... The other 0.3% equates to some residual sweetness I differentiale between sweetness and maltiness. Sweetness= ok, maltiness= awesome[biggrin] Lactose : Milk is for Babies and Cats i didn't even make the connection... i'm just not going to say any more about this in disgust... Crystal Malt Grains : Speciality grains, you crack the grain and steep it in water As I can't get it i'll forget it, but I'll remember what it does. 'Kit & Kilo' i assume that this is a term describing me. Kit+1kg sugar, that's ok because I'm learning [wink] Maltodextrin = ****it does not ferment out So, like Lactose? my stomach is still in a knot over lactose, how did you manage to implant an image of milking mothers into my head? bulk priming Ahh, so rack onto sugar, then bottle, sounds easy. Next batch... also, Trub, i like that word. Never liked lees so much, probably because the river Lee runs through my hometown. Silly brains. And don't worry about grammer and all that, experience is worth far more[biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 gramatical [lol] there was a gramatical error with your grammar [lol] [lol] At least he's good at punctuation mate! [tongue] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 TBH, if you can break down your posts you will likely get more responses as they are usually very long. Personally I just skim very quick over them because I simply don't have the time to read them thoroughly. I do apologise for this though. PS. you only need a fridge for kegs and they are far easier to manage than bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregT5 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 I'll check SWMBO's posts and see his praises... Might clear something up here.. SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed = The Minister for Fun & Finance The War Office The Better Half The Wife You will see this reference on here on a fairly regular basis but will never see any posts by her [cool] [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 The Minister for Fun & Finance Never heard of that one before. I had heard of "Minister of war & Finance" though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 bulk priming Ahh, so rack onto sugar, then bottle, sounds easy. Next batch... That should read rack onto dissolved sugar, you will have inconsistant carbing if it is not liqified. Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien E1 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 bulk priming Ahh, so rack onto sugar, then bottle, sounds easy. Next batch... That should read rack onto dissolved sugar, you will have inconsistant carbing if it is not liqified. Yob I've never had an issue with dry dextrose when bulk priming. I find the transfer from tap to tap mixes it in nicely. The only problem I have is that I have to hold the hose on at the coopers fermenter end, because it likes slipping off otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 TBH' date=' if you can break down your posts you will likely get more responses as they are usually very long. [/quote'] No worries, I just wanted to get my bulk of questions out of the way so as not to spam the forums with 5 or 6 threads which would mostly be related. Most of it is clear now, so any later questions will be going on their own threads if i can't find the answer elsewhere :) That should read rack onto dissolved sugar I find the transfer from tap to tap mixes it in nicely I suppose either dry or wet would do the same job after a quick mix, but disolving the sugar first sounds like a good plan to stop the foaming when the bubbles hit the dry sugar. Thanks for the advice. I have a pretty snug fitting hose and a handy height table, hopefully i can just attach the hose, turn the tap and let gravity do its job ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 fair where fair is due... it's only been a week since bottling this lager kit and i cracked one open out of curiosity's sake. Already both the sweetness and the bitterness are fading. It pours with a nice thick head, and although it fades quickly some time will fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I'm not fond of the Lager kit TBH. However, a few more weeks will certainly improve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 happy st pat's day fella [bandit] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 Yeah, lot of people seem to dislike it. My guess is because there are so many commercial lagers out there that our taste buds are fine tuned to them, making everyone very picky about lager. And cheers yob, many happy returns. The one day of the year where it is a duty to drink too much. To the pub! [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 LordEoin wrote: How does the Coopers Ginger Beer kit compare? Only 3 weeks bottled and not tried yet, SWMBO keeps asking the same question, I'll give it another fortnight then chill one for her. it's been another 2 weeks... any verdict? The Minister for Fun & Finance Never heard of that one before. I had heard of "Minister of war & Finance" though. They must be very different SWMBOs...[biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 LordEoin wrote: How does the Coopers Ginger Beer kit compare? I'll give it another fortnight then chill one for her. it's been another 2 weeks... any verdict? The Minister for Fun & Finance I had heard of "Minister of war & Finance" though. They must be very different SWMBOs...[biggrin] Two weeks to the day? Must be SWMBO asked me to put one in the fridge yesterday, I put two in. After she drank the first I asked what she thought, she was very impressed and proceeded to consume the other. This means I will be brewing more Coopers Ginger Beer kits unless I can come up with a Honey Wheat Beer that meets her tastes. As for the Minister of scenario, I would argue that all SWMBOs start life out as the Minister for "Fun and Finance" then after some time (varies with each minister) they out grow that portfolio and assume that of Minister for "War and Finance". They still have a passing interest in "Fun and Finance" however "War" tends to hold most of their attention. This is especially true when HWSNBO finds a hobby such as home brew which dominates his time so much that he becomes the minister for "Beer and Skittles". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 I'm making a wild guess here... but HWSNBO = he who sees no body other? Either that or 'he who sh*gs no body other' I'm deffo on the latter. looking's not cheating.... Anyway, sounds like a glowing review. Added to my 'planned' list. Did yougo with the recommended, or did you fancy it up a bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 ... Did yougo with the recommended' date=' or did you fancy it up a bit?[/quote'] Regarding the recipe I went with the standard on "How to Brew". As for the acronym I made it up (I think), He Who Should Not Be Obeyed. I do however think you interpretation of the ancronym is [cool] and [biggrin], the sort of thing that Jimeon would say. I love the Irish sense of humour, I guess most Aussies do as it ain't that much different to ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.