To do ...

[Waylon]

Kolsch is my next brew planned

 

42litres something like this if I can get hold of Mt hood

 

Im ordering some Mt Hood & sazz hops

7.5kg German Pilsner malt

2 kg wheat malt

And mashing 57 @15min

@63 40min

& 67 degrees 45 min

77degrees 10 min

28g Mt hood 60

50g saaz 15min

28g mt hood 15min

 

WLP029 @ 16 degrees then 18 onwards after 4 days crash chilled day 8 chilled for @2 weeks @ 3 degrees

[Otto Von Blotto]

Next 3 I think will be the planned Stout brew, then maybe a German style lager to use up some of the Hersbrucker and also my Hallertau flowers (and so I don't have to bugger around distilling a heap of water), and then I might do another red ale since that hasn't been on tap for a while.

 

The schedule has been mucked up a bit by that infected cube, so just improvising a bit here.

[Waylon]

At what stage do you intend using your Hallertau flowers in to your lager Kelsey?

 

My last brew I throw all my fowers (24g goldings & 34 casade 36 litres brew)in @ 10 min... I'm looking forward too trying my rad ale creation!

 

Have you planned your stout yet or is it a standard recipe?

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah I was thinking the same, late additions, 5 or 10 mins or something. I still have more on the bines to pick, probably today or tomorrow, then I can work out a recipe once they're dried and packaged, as there are no new ones forming now (finally!)

 

The stout brew I haven't come up with a recipe yet but I have a fair idea of what it will be from the last one I brewed. Decent amount of MO and roasted barley, smaller amounts of choc, black patent, maybe a touch of crystal. Gonna use Willamette to bitter it simply to get rid of the stuff as I'm not much of a fan of it from lighter brews I have used it in.

[King Ruddager]

Alright, wedged an AG pale in there but I've got the stuff for the simcoe golden now and so that brings me to the end of my list, other than the Kolsch.

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

Mayble I'll do something a bit different, like a cider or ginger beer?//

[porschemad911]

Batch 33 - Local brewpub-inspired Galaxy / Motueka pale ale

Well' date=' experimentations with Coopers commercial ale yeast moved this down the list slightly. And for a couple of weeks now I've had an empty fermenter sitting around, the recipe sorted and the ingredients on hand. Unfortunately spare time has been an extremely rare commodity, so I haven't managed to brew it yet.

 

When time is short ... do a kit brew! So I've also been looking at the Coopers Best Extra Stout recipe with interest. It sounds like a nice recipe, so I am thinking of making a starter with the Coopers commercial yeast I've got in the fridge and use that to ferment this one. I'll need to time the bottling right since I'm waiting for a visitor to come and empty one of my Tap-a-Draft bottles with me. Of course I could just drink it all first, but I think they'd enjoy it.

[porschemad911]

When time is short ... do a kit brew! So I've also been looking at the Coopers Best Extra Stout recipe with interest.

So I've bought the OS Stout kit' date=' dextrose and a tin of LME to make this. The only catch is that after cycling to my LHBS I discovered they were out of all the Coopers LME tins. This left me with Briess Traditional Dark LME as the closest substitute.

 

The LHBS owner assured me it was basically equivalent, but I'm not so sure. I don't know what the makeup of the Coopers Dark LME is, but Briess quotes the malt percentages of their Traditional Dark LME as:

• 54% Munich Malt 10L
  
• 30% Base Malt
  
• 13% Caramel Malt 60
  
• 3% Black Malt
  

 

Given this, I'm thinking I might end up with quite a different beer to the Coopers Best Extra Stout. Oh well, I'll give it a go this week and see how it turns out!

 

[King Ruddager]

Hang on ... it's a long weekend! Maybe I can get two brews down

 

Might see if I can squeeze that kolsch (style) in after all. Roughly 85% pilsner and 15% wheat, and whatever hops I've got left over in my bucket. Easy peasy

 

Oh, and Wyeast 2565 kolsch yeast.

[porschemad911]

Given this' date=' I'm thinking I might end up with quite a different beer to the Coopers Best Extra Stout. Oh well, I'll give it a go this week and see how it turns out![/quote']

Time to bottle this up tonight. I'll be following a slightly complicated bottling regime:

• transfer 9 litres to my bottling cube, bulk prime and fill 24 x 330ml stubbies
  
• fill 1 6 litre Tap-a-draft bottle from the primary fermenter, add 6 Coopers carb drops
  
• fill the rest into 500ml bottles (maybe 8 - 10), each carbed with a single Coopers carb drop
  

 

That'll give me a few different serving sizes and options and I'll hide the case of stubbies away in the back of the cupboard for a while.

[porschemad911]

Since there's no 'Done' thread, I'll have to post the follow-up here

 

After soaking a case of 330ml bottles I realized I only had 15 bottle caps on hand. So I quickly switched my plan to filling 2 x 6 litre Tap-a-draft bottles and 14 x 500ml bottles, all straight out of the fermenter. Everything went nice and smoothly and I have now have 19 litres of packaged Stout.

 

I don't know if this is going to be any good though actually. Over the last few days it has formed a bit of a vegemite flavour. Strange, there was no sign of this earlier. I did eat a fairly spicy Vindaloo before tasting the hydrometer sample though, so my taste buds could be all over the place. See how it tastes carbonated and after spending some time in the bottle. I'm not too worried though, for some reason every batch seems to taste a bit weird on bottling day.

[King Ruddager]

Hang on ... for the first time ever I think I've got entirely through my "to do" list! I guess that means it's time for another Viking Beer

 

Before that though, I've gone and bought a can of Home Brand Draught. I'm going to split it between two fermenters, adding some grains and hops to one of them to see whether it's possible to polish a turd.

[Beerlust]

...to see whether it's possible to polish a turd.

I remember this discussion coming up some years ago on the forum. Canadian Eh!L has frequently claimed you can't' date=' but AdamH proved you apparently can!

 

https://www.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/12181/?page=3#p125623

 

Funny stuff!

 

Good luck with your polishing Ruddy!

 

Lusty.

 

[King Ruddager]

The Home Brand Draught has actually been done before, although I can't remember any discussion of the results.

[Mark D Pirate]

Almost ashamed to admit it but might need to try doing a megaswill for less evolved friends , was too lazy/busy on my only day off this week to bottle my dark ale (partially because I couldn't decide if more hops was needed for balance ) let alone put down a double batch of a partial mash Smurtos (double batch to keep wheat %lower )

 

Considering how steep the learning curve gets and the extra equipment needed to move to AG I dare say i'll keep with partial BIAB for now at least until I have my techniques nailed down and can afford to move up

Not so much a "to do " as a "to buy" from now on

 

 

 

[King Ruddager]

If you're doing partials then the step up to BIAB is about $300 - the cost of an urn. The rest is easy.

[Waylon]

Hey markoman

Theres just just as much advancement in partial mashing as there is BIAB

Its the step mashing and temperature control plus the sparging out that is tricky part!

 

My mate brews drought cans 2x cans for 25 litres or 4x cans for 50 litres its a good megaswill....

Chuck in some dry hops of choice and its ok! just gotta make sure you have enuf yeast...

 

The no brand cans are vary low in bittering so if you double them you get the bitterness plus the double yeast... great cheap easy brew that is suprizingly drinkable... 50 litres for fifty bucks

 

 

[jeremy-o]

Any of you guys used peated malt before?

 

I'm having a bit of a moment of indecision planning for what to brew this weekend - I'm thinking I'll have a crack at a smoked bock, but my LHBS only has smoked wheat malt or peated malt. I'd prefer to keep it traditional (and German), though I don't necessarily have to. With these options I'd rather keep it all-malt and use the peated stuff but peat has a specific kind of medicinal quality and I'm not sure if this will overwhelm the wood smoke quality I'm going for.

 

So the question is, give in to wheat, give in to peat, or go a bit further afield to acquire the right ingredients? I guess I just have to make the call and see how it goes.

[jeremy-o]

Sounds like I can get a hold of German smoked malt as part of a small grain bill elsewhere. So it looks like I'm fairly settled for this weekend:

 

---

HOME BREW RECIPE:

Title: Copernican Rauchbock

Author: jeremy-o

 

Brew Method: BIAB

Style Name: Classic Style Smoked Beer

Boil Time: 60 min

Batch Size: 11 liters (fermentor volume)

Boil Size: 14 liters

Boil Gravity: 1.041

Efficiency: 75% (brew house)

 

STATS:

Original Gravity: 1.052

Final Gravity: 1.008

ABV (standard): 5.67%

IBU (tinseth): 27.75

SRM (morey): 19.11

 

FERMENTABLES:

1.6 kg - German - Pilsner (65.3%)

0.4 kg - German - Smoked Malt (16.3%)

0.2 kg - German - Dark Munich (8.2%)

0.15 kg - American - Caramel / Crystal 90L (6.1%)

0.1 kg - American - Chocolate (4.1%)

 

HOPS:

10 g - Northern Brewer, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.8, Use: Boil for 45 min, IBU: 17.99

15 g - Ella, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Aroma for 5 min, IBU: 9.76

 

YEAST:

Fermentis / Safale - Saflager - German Lager Yeast W-34/70

Attenuation (avg): 83%

Fermentation Temp: 13 C

Pitch Rate: 1.5 (M cells / ml / deg P)

[Hairy]

Good move getting the right smoked malt. I have used Weyermann smoked malt several times and it is great. It is a bit more subtle and smoother than the peated malt.

 

I haven't brewed with peated malt before but I have tried it in other's home brew. If you were making a smoked porter (or similar) then you could get away with the peated malt by scaling it back a little. But in a rauch type beer, where the smoke is the focus, you would be better off with the German smoked malt.

[Hairy]

I am officially out of beer (I keep official records)

 

I blew my last keg last night and I now have no beer in kegs and no beer in bottles (home brew or commercial).

 

I do have a fresh wort kit I have fermented that is due to be kegged on the weekend so not all hope is lost. But it is time to get brewing:

 

1. Pacific Ale - will brew this one on Sunday. Hopefully I feel OK after GABS on Saturday.

2. Dark beer - either a smoked porter or coffee stout.

3. Vienna Lager

4. ESB or American Amber

[Hairy]

An update to my list. Kelsey is making me feel guilty.

 

1. Pacific Ale - will brew this one on Sunday. Hopefully I feel OK after GABS on Saturday.

2. Kelsey's Red Ale

3. Dark beer - either a smoked porter or coffee stout.

4. Vienna Lager

5. ESB or American Amber

[ben 10]

Lager time.

And a sour pale is on the cards soon too....

Holgate Hop Tart is the inspiration.

[Otto Von Blotto]

No need to feel guilty mate...

 

I don't really have a brew to do list at the moment, apart from my red ale next Saturday.

 

I do have brew related to do lists though. First on the list is to replace my brew fridge door seals. Had them dropped off earlier with instructions. Looks pretty easy.

 

After that brew day is done, I have to start prepping my hops plants for next season. I've got a couple of 2mx1m raised garden beds; each of my two plants will go into one of these beds and I'll set up a proper trellis as well. The stupid Hallertau plant has started sprouting new shoots already too

[Otto Von Blotto]

So I just went to Craftbrewer before and picked up another sack of MO, 5kg of Munich II, and also two 90g packs of Saaz hops.

 

My to do list now in regards to brew days sits at one (apart from this week's red ale): A Bo Pils, and this time fermented with the proper f#$^@n yeast! After that I'll probably do a couple of pales, probably an APA and an ESB or something. It's nice to keep a rotation of different styles on tap.

[King Ruddager]

Alright, lager weather. Got a Viking Beer to brew first, then it's time to take advantage of the ambient coldness.

 

1. Viking Beer (my seventh iteration!!)

2. Vienna Lager Smash

3. Pilsner (or perhaps generic Aussie lager)

4. Oktoberfest

5. Something inspired?