Beerlust Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 Hi Zaphod. I've read quite a number of your posts over a period of time with your experimentation's around this kit, so I am happy to read that you have brewed a beer you are very proud of that uses it as the base. It can be a real journey to reach a level of that satisfaction, so I'm hearin' ya! Congrats! Cheers, Anthony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chezza Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Great topic... I guess the grail for me would include a keg system, consistent brewing and every batch being the best yet. I have holidays coming up next week and want to try my hand at BIAB which I think will take me to the next level, I don't have plans to become an all grain brewer but every now and then when time allows I would like to put one one. If I happen to win the lotto one day then then a coldroom, 3v system, new wife, sleep in's, a chef, cleaner, helicopter, house at Sovereign Island, quiet kids, pool table in my man cave next to my indoor pool and 5 tap setup, being served by my new wife's nude friends Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted April 5, 2018 Author Share Posted April 5, 2018 Finally time for me to re-visit this thread. Earlier today I kegged & fast carbed THIS beer. The technique has worked extremely well (Thanks so much for the idea Christina! ). The beer itself is delicious (IMHO). The floral based FWH addition combined with the malt bill has produced a light honey-like flavour & builds toward a more citrus flavour middle palate, with aromas being predominantly citrus with a light floral component. It's the best beer I've brewed in over 2 years. The constant experimenting is starting to pay off. Stoked! The grail is now finally in sight for me. Cheers & good brewing, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristinaS1 Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Finally time for me to re-visit this thread. Earlier today I kegged & fast carbed THIS beer. The technique has worked extremely well (Thanks so much for the idea Christina! ). The beer itself is delicious (IMHO). The floral based FWH addition combined with the malt bill has produced a light honey-like flavour & builds toward a more citrus flavour middle palate' date=' with aromas being predominantly citrus with a light floral component. It's the best beer I've brewed in over 2 years. The constant experimenting is starting to pay off. Stoked! [img']happy[/img] The grail is now finally in sight for me. Cheers & good brewing, Lusty. Glad you are happy with the results. I will be curious to see what changes you make for the next brew. Did you bottle this? If so, could you please try to save a couple of bottles until the six week, and eight week point? I am very curious to hear how durable the flavour and aroma turn out to be, beyond the four week point. Cheers, Christina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Captain!! Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Glad your beer turned out delicious Lusty and that your beer is getting delightfully better. I’ve read through the thread from the start and thought it was very interesting. Growing up with my father a home brewer and liking different stuff then most of my mates were drinking I have always liked something different from the norm. My aim in life is to be as self sufficient as I can. Grow and breed my own food and live off grid. This is what has brought me to making my own beer. My grail or philosophy is simple. I want to brew the best beer that I can! However I feel this is going to be similar to my musical journey...... no matter how much you learn there is always much more to learn and I will never stop trying to get better. A friend once said to me when he helped me purchase my first guitar and it has stayed with me forever. Welcome to the journey my friend. It’s a journey that will take you to as far as you want to go however this can be never ending. I’ve got to a point with my beer now that friends will ask for my beer over the commercial stuff in my fridge. Which feels great but as above I don’t think I’ll ever reach my grail! Cheers Captain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddybrew Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 i started off this journey because ive always liked my beers and was extremely impressed by the craft scene when i arrived on these here shores the missus soon got annoyed when i spend $30 on a six pack of craft so bless her, she bought me the DIY kit, knowing that i would let it consume me and i would strive to make beer as good as the stuff i like. The grail for me is to evolve hopefully into all grain but im a realist also and know it takes small steps. people think of homebrew as cheap piss , intended to keep your pennies in your pocket and get you pissed on the weekend but the science behind a good beer , the great unwashed couldnt ever get or even contemplate. their loss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted April 6, 2018 Author Share Posted April 6, 2018 Glad you are happy with the results. I will be curious to see what changes you make for the next brew. The plan is to do an all Falconer's Flight beer using a similar malt bill. One addition @ FWH(30)' date=' one at flameout, & dry hop. Did you bottle this? If so, could you please try to save a couple of bottles until the six week, and eight week point? I am very curious to hear how durable the flavour and aroma turn out to be, beyond the four week point. These days I generally only make batch sizes to fit my kegs, with little left over. I squeezed enough after the keg was filled to bottle one stubbie, for just this purpose. Cheers, Lusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 The grail is now finally in sight for me. So where do you go from there? Move to AG and search for a new grail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worthog Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 I always loved the different tastes at craft breweries. My local ones are Bright, Beechworth and the Malt Shed in Wangaratta. SWMBO cannot get me out of the Bright Brewery when we visit. I got sick of Mega Swill, and what we pay for it is ridiculous, eg $48 for a box of mid strength. My goal is to make summer and winter beers I love to drink. I have moved through kits, to kits'n'bits; put down my first all extract beer recently. I have messed with different malts, for taste and head retention. I am now working through the different hops and have reduced my development list of hops to about 7. I am now massaging the differing hop usages so I can find my perfect beer. I am getting close after 44 batches now. I want to keep improving my beer so guests will want to drink it. I have no desire to go "all grain", I see that as too much work, and kegging would be to expensive and a little dangerous for me; so, I want to sit and drink my 'craft beers'. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil_McGlass Posted April 6, 2018 Share Posted April 6, 2018 Finally time for me to re-visit this thread. Earlier today I kegged & fast carbed THIS beer. The technique has worked extremely well (Thanks so much for the idea Christina! ). Its great when a new technique makes a great beer and you learn something significant. Assume we talking about the FWH and it's bittering and flavour contribution? Did you need the 20 minute boil addition, do you think? What I do is mash in a bag in the pot I boil in, I add my bittering hops after I mash out then lift the bag out and then keep the heat on. I get to the boil around 20 minutes later. Is that similar? Or do you need to rest the FWHs at a steady temperature before heating up to the boil? And, if so, what is the optimum temperature, I wonder?! I've also reduced my boil to 30 minutes. I don't add hops at the start of the boil, and I rarely hop during the boil now, as I can't chill quickly, so I use the period after the boil for flavour additions but still feeling my way with this. I'm still trying to determine the best way to use post-boil hop additions, in terms of temperature and duration, and bitterness calculations. And I now dry hop every beer that I want good hop aroma. In a recent brew I chucked in loads of hops at flame out and they got about 15 mins above 80C. The beer has tons of hop flavour, but not so much aroma. I didn't dry hop it. The hops were a mix of new American pellets and old English leaf hops I was using up, not the most aromatic mix possible. The flavour is superb, just a shortage of aroma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 All grain isn't much work, it's just time consuming although most of it is sitting on your arse waiting around so it does allow for other tasks to be done in the meantime. I never thought I'd go all grain either but after a while I warmed to the idea. Not much beats drinking a beer you've brewed totally from scratch . Anyway, each to their own, as long as what you're doing makes you happy that's all that matters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerlust Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 Its great when a new technique makes a great beer and you learn something significant. Assume we talking about the FWH and it's bittering and flavour contribution? Did you need the 20 minute boil addition' date=' do you think?[/quote'] I've done plenty of FWH beers, but this was the first with a short boil following the steep so I was a little unsure on how the bitterness might present by doing this. The 20min addition was purely there as backup to make sure I got some level of bitterness. The next brew will have no additions between FWH(30) & flameout. What I do is mash in a bag in the pot I boil in' date=' I add my bittering hops after I mash out then lift the bag out and then keep the heat on. I get to the boil around 20 minutes later. Is that similar? Or do you need to rest the FWHs at a steady temperature before heating up to the boil? And, if so, what is the optimum temperature, I wonder?![/quote']The hops need to steep at mash temps in the mash wort for approx. 20-30mins before being brought to the boil. I've also reduced my boil to 30 minutes. I don't add hops at the start of the boil' date=' and I rarely hop during the boil now, as I can't chill quickly, so I use the period after the boil for flavour additions but still feeling my way with this. I'm still trying to determine the best way to use post-boil hop additions, in terms of temperature and duration, and bitterness calculations. And I now dry hop every beer that I want good hop aroma.[/quote']Everyone's systems & methods are a little different, so a little patience, trial & error is often needed to get the best from your own setup. So where do you go from there? Move to AG and search for a new grail? Nice try.....again! I can't see me changing anytime soon. I add just enough grain to freshen up the extract bases I use & produce some good quality beer by the end of it. What do you do with all your used grain anyways? Cheers' date=' Lusty.[/size'] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil_McGlass Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 I did a partial mash brew yesterday, 30 minute boil, hops after the mash and immediately after the boil. And I really wasn't sure how to calculate IBUs from either of the two additions. The first addition was at isomerisation temperatures before and after the boil, but I'm not sure how long for or how much isomerisation takes place below boiling point. I added an arbitrary ten minutes in Brewmate! The second addition was added at flame out and the pot was plonked in cold water in my sink. Mainly cos I didn't want lots of extra IBUs adding. I'm wondering if a 60 minute boil allows more control over IBUs, as you know that most of the acids in that addition have been grabbed by your wort. So the periods before and after the boil aren't adding lots more bitterness from your first addition. You just have late additions to worry about. And if you measure wort temperature after the boil you know how long the wort is at isomerisation temperature so you can put that time into your brewing software, after a trial run or two. Hmm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 Mostly I just throw the grain in to the garden, but sometimes SWMBO takes some of it to make dog treats with. It makes a shitload of them though so even a whole batch doesn't get used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porschemad911 Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 All grain ... sitting on your arse waiting around ... Who has time for that! During my last all-grain batch I got so much housework done ... Cheers, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Captain!! Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 I figure the more housework I get done the more the wife will be happy with me brewing beer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porschemad911 Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 Lol, I figure it needs to be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 All grain ... sitting on your arse waiting around ... Who has time for that! During my last all-grain batch I got so much housework done ... Cheers' date=' John[/quote']Yeah, hence the "allows time for other tasks to be done" . I usually have time for a bit of both though. During Saturday's brew day I did the clothes washing and hung them out as well as the dishes during periods of waiting around. Once those were done I sat and relaxed during the boil and listened to the footy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joolbag Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I've got my system down to a T when brewing. It's such a passive activity and I do it on Fridays when I have the day off with the kids. I prep everything before dropping my son off at pre-school at 9am. I have enough time to heat, mill, mash, boil, cube, clean up before pick up at 3pm. In the middle there I can cook lunch for 2yo daughter, get her to have a nap, clean the house and sometimes tune/wash my bike. I'm going to struggle to find the time on weekends to brew when I eventually go back to full-time (5 days per week) again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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