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RDWHAHB - What are you drinking


Scottie

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Currently drinking a very flat lack lustre green American wheat pale ale all grain from a fresh wort kit. It needs more time and wont be ready for xmas, I'm afraid I brewed it a few weeks to late and should of added some finishing hops.

 

It would also want to improve a hell of a lot to raise my current opinion on American wheat beers.

 

Such is life!

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It's nice to hear everyone is enjoying a nice home brewed beer around this time of year. happy

 

Nice looking beer Ben! (as usual) Buggar all chill haze there btw! cool

 

Just knocked off work & am enjoying a few Mosaic Pale Ales from the keg. Nice & refreshing after a hot, hard day on the job. joyful

 

Cheers & good brewing over the summer to all,

 

Anthony.

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Enjoying a bottle of my dunkelweizen tonight. Really nice flavour, rich, malty with some restrained esters. Unfortunately the carbonation is too low - a result of me not quite sealing the PET bottles properly during the first 7 days of bottle fermentation. A shame as the ones I capped in glass were carbonated perfectly.

 

I wonder what would happen if I opened these up, added another carbonation drop to each and left them for a while. Any more carbonation (or would my yeasties be too disinterested now)? Oxidation?

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Hi John.

 

Anyone for a dunkelweizen shandy? tongue

 

On a personal note for pure experimental purposes, I WOULD bring a couple up to room temperature, open them up, & pop a carb drop in, reseal them, then give them a bit of a tumble to dislodge any compacted yeast, & see what they are like in 3-4 weeks time.

 

I admit I don't know enough about oxidation with beer to know whether doing this might cause a more rapid deterioration of the beer flavour or not. That said, it would certainly be worth seeing if the carbonation improved I reckon. wink

 

Cheers & good luck with it.

 

Anthony.

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Cheers Anthony, I reckon I'll give it a go. Will let you know what happens for future reference. I'm sure it will be purely theoretical - you are probably more careful about sealing bottles than I was that batch. Somehow I forgot to cut the tamper-proof seal off, then the new caps went on fine but didn't quite seal tightly enough when screwed down as far as they would go. After realizing this I cut them off and recapped.

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My prior experience with home-brew was my Dad's old coopers setup which was awful. Last night with friends celebrating Christmas we got in to my first batch ever of the Coopers APA. Managed to polish off 1/2 the batch and even the James Squire & Little Creatures drinkers were getting in to it.

 

It was a lot of fun to brew, tasted great (slightly flat) and honestly when it's that cheap & there that much of it people tend to really let it flow! Amazingly though this morning, no headache & BSL's (Blood Sugar Levels) were spot on, better then normal actually...

 

Happy days :-)

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Cheers Anthony' date=' I reckon I'll give it a go. Will let you know what happens for future reference. I'm sure it will be purely theoretical - you are probably more careful about sealing bottles than I was that batch. Somehow I forgot to cut the tamper-proof seal off, then the new caps went on fine but didn't quite seal tightly enough when screwed down as far as they would go. After realizing this I cut them off and recapped.[/quote']

 

G'day PMS. Sorry, I meant PM911

 

I've had similar problems with 2 brews that I remember, and did similar things without any oxidation issues (though I'd have some concerns if I intended to leave the bottles for another 6 to 12 months after "fixing" them and before drinking). Both times they were in PET bottles.

 

One set, I topped up the carbing sugar 3 weeks after the original bottling when I underprimed them (I added a bit more dextrose in each but I'm sure that is exactly the same as using carb drops). The geat thing about PET is you can get a really good idea of the carbing level by the hardness of the bottle when you squeeze it. So it may turn out you don't need to do them all after you give each bottle a squeeze.

 

I don't have brewing notes with me ATM, but for some reason that escapes me now with the other brew, I poured all the bottles back into an FV, bulk primed with dex and the beer as well as 2 grams of rehydrated coopers yeast (in a 23 litre batch), and it worked out perfectly.

 

Of course as you well know, good hygeine is important, but both batches were absolutely perfectly drinkable, and it saved me from having to tip anything.

 

All the best to you and yours, and be good for a change over Christmas. Philby.

 

BTW, you really surprised me about the tamper proof seals. i never ever remove mine from new caps.

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My prior experience with home-brew was my Dad's old coopers setup which was awful. Last night with friends celebrating Christmas we got in to my first batch ever of the Coopers APA. Managed to polish off 1/2 the batch and even the James Squire & Little Creatures drinkers were getting in to it.

 

It was a lot of fun to brew' date=' tasted great (slightly flat) and honestly when it's that cheap & there that much of it people tend to really let it flow! Amazingly though this morning, no headache & BSL's (Blood Sugar Levels) were spot on, better then normal actually...

 

Happy days :-)[/quote']

 

Hey DB

It only gets better from here. Time in the bottle will fix the carbonation. 15 days in the fermenter is spot on, there will be plenty of yeast left for carbonation provided you primed at the correct rate.

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

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Thanks for the tips Phil.

 

When I say I forgot to remove the tamper-proof seals, I meant from the previous lot of caps. So when recapping the PETs for the new batch, each had 2 tamper-proof rings. Which don't quite fit and allow a good seal.

 

I did the priming top-up tonight. I reckon using dextrose rather than carb drops would have been safer - the carb drops are like dropping a Mentos into a bottle of Coke! The first one gushed, then I tried to pop the carb drop into the second and cap before it could gush ... and failed. For the third and fourth bottle it was like I somehow managed to tear a hole in the space / time continuum and screw the cap on faster than the eye could see after popping the carb drop in with no spillage.

 

I up-ended the bottles a few times and have now popped them back into storage to incubate. See how they turn out, the 2 that gushed have a couple of extra cm headspace but I'm not too worried if they end up casualties. Rather than worry, I had another homebrew biggrin

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Drank my very last bottles of my Hop Maestro recipe and my Nelson Sauvin wheat ale tonight. Both delicious, I will definitely re-brew the Hop Maestro recipe with some tweaks to the hop schedule (lowering the hop amounts of all things and changing one of the flameout varietals). Actually I think I'll re-brew it many times until it's perfect. Can't wait until summer's over and the temperatures drop a bit!

 

Why are my stocks so low? On Sunday evening my cul-de-sac had its annual Christmas get-together, and it turns out my neighbours really like these 2 beers which is great happy

 

I might have to order another case of Moo Goo biggrin

 

P.S. Also enjoyed a glass of 2009 Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz and another of the Campbell's The Empire Tawny - the holiday season must approaching and man I am going to be much fatter very soon!

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Thanks for the tip above (RE: 15 days is good in the FV). Also found mine a little flat but the wife bought me a Soda Stream for Xmas, so I'm going to try poring them in to the bottle & giving it a blast (it basically just injects CO2 in to liquid to carbonate them). Hopefully this works!

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Bramling Gold

 

Aroma is not overly hoppy, only dry hopped for 2 days, but it is slightly fruit and the Maris Otter is present on the nose as well.

The taste is current then Maris Otter with a bitter finish.

 

Would I make it again, would I use either hop again unsure.

I do need to read more of Anthony's posts about FWH, the bitterness is smooth but lingering - the numbers tell me this is the most bitter beer I have brewed and my palate confirms it. Also I am thinking that MO is more suited to Single Malt brews, I have several malts in this brew but the Maris Otter dominates.

 

Won't have too much trouble drinking it, I'm thinking it lacks the wow factor, but it is moreish.

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

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Hi guys.

 

I had a really good run of successful brews in the last 3 or so months of last year that produced some of my most enjoyable beers to date.

 

I put THIS brew down about 4 weeks ago, & carbed it up in the keg over the last few days or so. It's loosely based on a beer I brewed around that time last year.

 

FWHCascadeBrew.jpg

 

A little cloudy & my overall efficiency was down quite a bit, but I just love the colour & the cascade hop influence. Due to my poor efficiency producing the brew wort, it actually drinks at around 3.8%ABV.

 

Given that, I'd be pretty happy if someone handed me one of these & said it was a midstrength beer. happy

 

Sometimes even when you lose, you still win. wink

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony.

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Hi P2.

It does look very inviting. Perhaps B11's Redbeard Ale? If you made an Avgas-based beer like B10' date=' it could have been a B-52 Redbeard.[/quote']

 

lol

I have absolutely NFI what you are saying or its connotations but always admire & enjoy your wit & phrasing construction. cool

 

When you throw in 3 x B in your retort + the 2 x B in your avatar + my own B, I'm sorry, but I just get lost! sideways

 

Admittedly my experiences being lost in the 2nd group of B's have certainly been most enjoyable. joyful

 

The confusion isn't from being drunk, remember I'm drinking 3.8%ABV beer. wink

 

Cheers & good brewing,

 

Anthony.

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And here I am thinking I was the only one that didn't understand Antiphile tongue

 

Your beer looks good Lusty, I don't mind a cloudy beer. I once made a beer where I mashed too high and used a low attenuating yeast and ended up with a 2.8% ABV beer. I would never have brewed one that low but it ended up a cracker of a beer and I have made similar beers since. Brewing is just like a condom with a hole in it; accidents happen and sometimes they are welcome and sometimes not innocent

 

Tonight I am drinking a Smoked Chocolate Porter. Not really a summer beer but it is the best dark beer I have ever made love

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Bramling Gold again

 

Training my palate. I'm liking the nutty current flavour that's coming through from the malt and hops. As I said MO seems suited to single malt and perhaps this one should have been a SMASH as the Vic Secret is lost in here somewhere. I'm also liking the lingering bitterness. I'm liking the 3.8% ABV as well, ended up having 1/2 a dozen on Saturday night after tapping the keg.

 

Happy Tastings

Scottie

Valley Brew

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Hi Hairy.

Your beer looks good Lusty' date=' I don't mind a cloudy beer. I once made a beer where I mashed too high and used a low attenuating yeast and ended up with a 2.8% ABV beer. I would never have brewed one that low but it ended up a cracker of a beer and I have made similar beers since.[/quote']

Thanks Hairy. smile I wish I could take the credit for the nice orange hue, but in all honesty I can't. That Briess Golden LME is mainly responsible for that. Each time I've used it in conjunction with my grain mixes it throws that lovely orange hue. I can't get that colour from any other LME base. It was also my first use with the 1272 yeast that (as you stated) attenuated a little lower & left a little more body in the beer. I really like it, & am glad I went to the trouble & rinsed a couple of jars worth for future use. happy

 

Tonight I am drinking a Smoked Chocolate Porter. Not really a summer beer but it is the best dark beer I have ever made love

I'm hearin' that Hairy. I have a similar love for my Oaked Vanilla Porter. wink

 

Brewing is just like a condom with a hole in it...

You 'Glad Wrap' brewers deserve everything you get! Bahahaha! lol

 

biggrin

 

Cheers & good brewing' date='

 

Anthony.

[/size']

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Farmhouse Ale

47.1 weeks bottled

6.3%

Spice' date=' bubblegum and tart. Can't say I'm a massive fan - but I do have a fair bit to get through. It will be a very old vintage by the time I'm through.

 

IMG_03031_zps5dc469e9.jpg

 

Cheers

Scottie

 

This Saison

 

I think I'm warming to it. During my clean up nearly 2 months ago I transferred all of the 500ml bottles to the beer fridge - cold conditioning. This is based on the Moo Brew seasonal Saison (same same) and the recipe Over the Moon Saison. At the fabulous Taste on Tuesday I had some of the real thing on tap. New Years eve I had just 1 glass of the Home brew version - it seemed nicer and really close to the Moo Brew Saison. Tonight I had 2 500ml bottles. It is close to 60 weeks bottled and really giving me confidence that you can age beer in bottles. There may be hope yet for that 2011 ESVA that I brewed.

 

Happy New Year

Scottie

Valley Brew

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Hi Scottie.

 

Given your descriptors of this beer, it appears you've produced a really good beer in the Saison style. It looks lovely in the glass from the pic too.

 

For the most part, a Saison really is a seasonal beer ideally suited to drinking in hot weather. Low FG, light bodied, higher carbonation, fruity & funky.

 

For someone who predominantly drinks EB's & ESB's, this style of beer would come across as a real culture shock to the palate.

 

The main problem you have down there in Tassie is not too much real hot weather on a consistent basis! tongue

 

The weather is a stinker here in Adelaide today at around 43°C & tells me Summer has truly arrived looking at the forecast for the next week or so. The Taswegian's will cop a bit of this heat so I'd put a few more of your Saison's in the fridge in preparation for this added heat, & ween your palate off the EB's in the meantime. wink

 

Cheers & good summer drinking,

 

Lusty.

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G'day Brewers, Well some days you do have a win, back in May and after setting up a temp controlled fridge I put on a TC Czech Pils followed the recipe here...

 

It was Okay but I wasn't happy with it, anyhow I sat it in my Temp controlled storage at 14° C, that was over 6 months ago, yeah baby, It's all about time, just had a couple of stubbies, crystal clear, all sharpness and strange flavours have all come to a point of getting together and harmonious for a nice beer. wink

 

I'm a happy home brewer right now. happy

 

Envious of you bastards with good cameras, mine sucks and blows at the same time. surprised

 

Cheers

 

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Hello my fellow Magna driving mate!

 

I'm glad your Czech Pilsner has come good. happy

 

Unfortunately for most who brew this style of beer as a home-brewer for the first time, most neither have the means to brew it at the correct fermentation temperature &/or the patience to allow a beer that is primarily produced for its malt character to age suitably before drinking it. sad

 

You have accomplished both & deserve the appropriate reward as such. biggrin

 

I actually enjoy the beer style but can't be stuffed with the fermentation time, processes & aging time before it really is suitable for drinking. I feel this style of beer is one that has a lot of scope for diversity moving forward ahead of many other beer styles.

 

Enjoy it while it lasts. wink

 

Cheers & good brewing,

 

Lusty.

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