Brew Day!! Watcha' got, eh!? 2015

[porschemad911]

I successfully bulk primed and bottled my Oktoberfest tonight, aiming for about 2.7 volumes of CO2 for this one. I saved a couple of 1 litre jars of Wyeast 2206 slurry and will let them settle out in the fridge for a while while my mopped floor is drying and then consolidate into a 3rd jar.

 

My Bestmalz Red X malt arrived today, so I'm contemplating use it and the yeast I saved to make a red lager. The malt came with a recipe for an NZ-hopped red lager, so I am thinking of doing something similar but using the American hops I have on hand. For some reason I am drawn to using Centennial all the way through (@FWH, @5mins & @flameout).

[ben 10]

Slight change of plans.

Didn't make the Amber the other day.

 

Currently have the water on and the grains crushed for this...

 

Recipe: Maris Mild

Brewer: Grumpy

Style: Mild

 

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l

Estimated OG: 1.039 SG

Estimated Color: 29.2 EBC

Estimated IBU: 23.6 IBUs

 

Ingredients:

------------

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

3.30 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 1 -

1.50 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -

1.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -

3.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 4 90.9 %

0.30 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (350.7 EBC) Grain 5 7.8 %

0.05 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8 Grain 6 1.3 %

15.00 g Challenger [8.30 %] - First Wort 60.0 mi Hop 7 15.2 IBUs

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -

30.00 g Challenger [8.30 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 2 Hop 9 8.4 IBUs

 

 

Mash Schedule: BIAB, Full Body

Total Grain Weight: 3.85 kg

----------------------------

Name Description Step Temperat Step Time

Saccharification Add 32.35 l of water at 72.2 C 68.9 C 60 min

Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I'll use MJ's Burton Union yeast with this.

[Honest Abe1525229476]

Sorry' date=' Mr L. I imagine you're more used to be called Mr President, but I do have a habit of confusing everyone including myself. Way to go, BTW. When you get the hang of bulk priming it is one helluva lot easier than putting drops in each bottle, IMHO.

 

Cheers.

 

PS. I'm sure you're aware that when using pale malt grains they need to be mashed and not just steeped. Just thought I'd mention that.

[/quote']

Antiphile,

No I didnt know that Pale Malt grains needed to be mashed, as I have only steeped them but no issues that I know of as yet. I have a friend that has been brewing for years and he only advised me to steep them, and I have tasted his brews and they are really good.

 

I dont quite have the gear as yet (not allowed to cause wife said) to go full grain/mash but working up to it and hope to in the near future to go that way.

 

Will agree that bulk priming was a heap easier, but fingers crossed it works out fine. It was just another corner I have turned in the progress of home brewing with many to go.

Cheers

[porschemad911]

No I didnt know that Pale Malt grains needed to be mashed' date=' as I have only steeped them but no issues that I know of as yet. I have a friend that has been brewing for years and he only advised me to steep them, and I have tasted his brews and they are really good.[/quote']

G'day,

 

I guess a mash is a steep with more attention paid to the temperature and water / grain ratio (although that can be pretty wide). If you were steeping for half an hour or more at between about 60 - 70C then you were in fact doing a mini-mash

 

Cheers,

 

John

[Canadian Eh!L]

Thanks Chad. Have you thrown any of the wild yeast at one of your Big Island IPAs to compare the difference?

Nah, I haven't been able to get Nelson S. hops for quite a while at my supplier so I haven't made the BIIPA in some time. I do think my wild yeast (the cabin strain) would go nicely with the BIIPA. This yeast presents a very dry, earthy/funky flavour profile that would suit the oaked/white wine flavour of this recipe. Food for thought....

[Canadian Eh!L]

Slight change of plans.

Didn't make the Amber the other day.

 

Currently have the water on and the grains crushed for this...

 

Recipe: Maris Mild

Brewer: Grumpy

Style: Mild

 

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l

Estimated OG: 1.039 SG

Estimated Color: 29.2 EBC

Estimated IBU: 23.6 IBUs

 

Ingredients:

------------

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

3.30 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent 1 -

1.50 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 2 -

1.50 g Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 mins) Water Agent 3 -

3.50 kg Pale Malt' date=' Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 4 90.9 %

0.30 kg Caraaroma (Weyermann) (350.7 EBC) Grain 5 7.8 %

0.05 kg Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (1000.8 Grain 6 1.3 %

15.00 g Challenger [8.30 %'] - First Wort 60.0 mi Hop 7 15.2 IBUs

1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -

30.00 g Challenger [8.30 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 2 Hop 9 8.4 IBUs

 

 

Mash Schedule: BIAB, Full Body

Total Grain Weight: 3.85 kg

----------------------------

Name Description Step Temperat Step Time

Saccharification Add 32.35 l of water at 72.2 C 68.9 C 60 min

Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 7 min 75.6 C 10 min

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I'll use MJ's Burton Union yeast with this.

 

Wow, Ben! Way to brew a Mild ale. Looks great! Were you inspired by my "Golden Mild" thread?

 

Your recipe has too much late hops for the style, but not for your taste. I don't know your water profile, but I might have added a little more CaCl to promote the malt character for such a low gravity brew.

 

Tell us how it turns out.

 

I'll be brewing my mild next. I think

[porschemad911]

Slight change of plans.

Didn't make the Amber the other day.

 

Currently have the water on and the grains crushed for this...

 

Recipe: Maris Mild

Brewer: Grumpy

Style: Mild

Looks great Ben, something different to your usual for sure!

[Beerlust]

Slight change of plans.

Didn't make the Amber the other day.

 

Currently have the water on and the grains crushed for this...

 

Recipe: Maris Mild

Brewer: Grumpy

Style: Mild

Looks great Ben' date=' something different to your usual for sure![/quote']

+1

 

The ABV% suggests to me it might be another one to impress the father-in-law with.

 

Cheers,

 

Lusty.

[antiphile]

My Bestmalz Red X malt arrived today' date=' so I'm contemplating use it and the yeast I saved to make a red lager.[/quote']

 

Woohoo! We are (or at least I am) expecting great things from you, Little John. Please, please, please, try to get some photos so I can drool over it.

[ben 10]

 

 

Tell us how it turns out.

 

 

Will do. And I understand about the late hops. I read the style and thought I'd do what I do anyway.

Partially inspired in that I read the thread and was then looking for another low alcohol beer to make and I though why not?

 

another one to impress the father-in-law with.

 

More so to enable him to drink and not do a grandpa Simpson and micro nap mid sentence.

And now that I have more fermenters I think I should probably back off the alcohol content on a few.

Not young anymore.

 

Thanks for the comments guys and we'll see how it goes.

 

Oh and I don't think it will struggle being malty enough with that amount of caraaroma.

[antiphile]

No I didnt know that Pale Malt grains needed to be mashed' date=' as I have only steeped them but no issues that I know of as yet. I have a friend that has been brewing for years and he only advised me to steep them, and I have tasted his brews and they are really good.[/quote']

G'day,

 

I guess a mash is a steep with more attention paid to the temperature and water / grain ratio (although that can be pretty wide). If you were steeping for half an hour or more at between about 60 - 70C then you were in fact doing a mini-mash

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

+1 to what IcyBoy said. Since you're doing it with malt extract, with that quantity of grain I'd strongly suggest a stovetop partial mash in a largish saucepan or a smallish stockpot. It really is very easy if you use a thermometer to get the temps right. If you wanted to try it, this is one approach:

 

1. Place 2.5 litres of water on the stove, and bring the temp to 70C. Put in the 750g of crushed pale malt and the 250g of specialty malt. Check the temp and if necessary, use slow heat to bring up to 65C. Check every 10 mins to maintain the heat around 65C for 30 mins, with an occasional stir.

2. After 30 mins, strain out the grains, and put the remaining liquor into another saucepan, and boil for 30 mins without the lid. It doesn't need to be a really rollicking boil, but you certainly want to see some surface action to boil of any diacetyl precursors. If you are going to boil the hops, you can add them at the appropriate time as well.

3. Place the lid on at the end of the boil, and cool down the saucepan contents in a sink of cool/cold water. I usually change the cold water after 10 mins to get the temp to about room temp.

4. Then strain the contents into your fermenter (a normal kitchen mesh strainer is fine), add the rest of the recipe and proceed as normal.

 

Without mashing the 750g of pale malt, you're likely to end up with a rather high FG in that batch.

 

Anyway, it's your option, Mr Pres.

 

 

[Honest Abe1525229476]

No I didnt know that Pale Malt grains needed to be mashed' date=' as I have only steeped them but no issues that I know of as yet. I have a friend that has been brewing for years and he only advised me to steep them, and I have tasted his brews and they are really good.[/quote']

G'day,

 

I guess a mash is a steep with more attention paid to the temperature and water / grain ratio (although that can be pretty wide). If you were steeping for half an hour or more at between about 60 - 70C then you were in fact doing a mini-mash

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

Thats what I do John, steep for approx 30 min about 60 to 70 degrees. 1kg grain to 3L spring water

 

Cheers

[Honest Abe1525229476]

No I didnt know that Pale Malt grains needed to be mashed' date=' as I have only steeped them but no issues that I know of as yet. I have a friend that has been brewing for years and he only advised me to steep them, and I have tasted his brews and they are really good.[/quote']

G'day,

 

I guess a mash is a steep with more attention paid to the temperature and water / grain ratio (although that can be pretty wide). If you were steeping for half an hour or more at between about 60 - 70C then you were in fact doing a mini-mash

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

+1 to what IcyBoy said. Since you're doing it with malt extract, with that quantity of grain I'd strongly suggest a stovetop partial mash in a largish saucepan or a smallish stockpot. It really is very easy if you use a thermometer to get the temps right. If you wanted to try it, this is one approach:

 

1. Place 2.5 litres of water on the stove, and bring the temp to 70C. Put in the 750g of crushed pale malt and the 250g of specialty malt. Check the temp and if necessary, use slow heat to bring up to 65C. Check every 10 mins to maintain the heat around 65C for 30 mins, with an occasional stir.

2. After 30 mins, strain out the grains, and put the remaining liquor into another saucepan, and boil for 30 mins without the lid. It doesn't need to be a really rollicking boil, but you certainly want to see some surface action to boil of any diacetyl precursors. If you are going to boil the hops, you can add them at the appropriate time as well.

3. Place the lid on at the end of the boil, and cool down the saucepan contents in a sink of cool/cold water. I usually change the cold water after 10 mins to get the temp to about room temp.

4. Then strain the contents into your fermenter (a normal kitchen mesh strainer is fine), add the rest of the recipe and proceed as normal.

 

Without mashing the 750g of pale malt, you're likely to end up with a rather high FG in that batch.

 

Anyway, it's your option, Mr Pres.

 

Cheers ive cut and pasted you above into my brew diary for future references. Thanks heaps, if I go that way I'll have to do it when wife is at work as she hates that smell and we all know happy wife happy life LOL.

[Otto Von Blotto]

DMS precursors, not diacetyl. My turn to be anally retentive.

[antiphile]

Eek! Well spotted, bruiser. Sorry 'bout that.

[Honest Abe1525229476]

Well ive just finished putting down a Coopers pale Ale (Green Can) a previous batch, however I am going to bulk prim this time round and see if I can find any difference in the taste.

 

I still fresh to home brewing after a 20 year spell and then I was only a teenager and didnt have the current resources and ingredients that i have now.

 

But progression is slow and still in the experimental stage to find a brew that I can handle drinking all the time, but thats half the fun hey.

 

Cheers

[Scottie]

Sorry' date=' Mr L. I imagine you're more used to be called Mr President, but I do have a habit of confusing everyone including myself. Way to go, BTW. When you get the hang of bulk priming it is one helluva lot easier than putting drops in each bottle, IMHO.

 

Cheers.

 

PS. I'm sure you're aware that when using pale malt grains they need to be mashed and not just steeped. Just thought I'd mention that.

[/quote']

 

I've got this one by the horns now, I hope it doesn't do me in like it did poor old *****. What is it that defines the term mash. I've done 45 minutes and 90 minutes, but mostly 60 minutes. So I've been reading up, some dudes do 30 minute mashes, and one gut is adamant that while 30 minutes will do the job it is actually at 40 minutes where the theory of diminishing returns kick in. It is also interesting that the major concern here is not OG but the attenuation, i.e. FG, that can be achieved. So one, Scottie, wonders if people are doing mini mashes, that is 30 minutes of base grain at somewhere between 62 and 70 degrees, that are not making up the bulk of the fermenatables = then does it really matter if it is only half the time.

 

The question that remains in my drunken head is what, given a suitable temperature range, defines the mash, time or product

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

[Scottie]

Sorry' date=' Mr L. I imagine you're more used to be called Mr President, but I do have a habit of confusing everyone including myself. Way to go, BTW. When you get the hang of bulk priming it is one helluva lot easier than putting drops in each bottle, IMHO.

 

Cheers.

 

PS. I'm sure you're aware that when using pale malt grains they need to be mashed and not just steeped. Just thought I'd mention that.

[/quote']

 

I've got this one by the horns now, I hope it doesn't do me in like it did poor old *****. What is it that defines the term mash. I've done 45 minutes and 90 minutes, but mostly 60 minutes. So I've been reading up, some dudes do 30 minute mashes, and one gut is adamant that while 30 minutes will do the job it is actually at 40 minutes where the theory of diminishing returns kick in. It is also interesting that the major concern here is not OG but the attenuation, i.e. FG, that can be achieved. So one, Scottie, wonders if people are doing mini mashes, that is 30 minutes of base grain at somewhere between 62 and 70 degrees, that are not making up the bulk of the fermenatables = then does it really matter if it is only half the time.

 

The question that remains in my drunken head is what, given a suitable temperature range, defines the mash, time or product

 

Cheers & Beers

Scottie

Valley Brew

[antiphile]

Really good point, Scottie. I admit I don't have any firm basis for advising Abe to do a 30 min mash & a 30 min boil. It only seemed to be intuitively OK given the 750g is comprising only about 15% of the grain bill.

 

Anytime I do an AG, I wouldn't dream of anything less than a 60 min mash, and offhand I can only recall one that was actually less than 90 mins. I do know it's rare for any of my AG boils to be under 90.

 

So I suppose more than anything else I might have been trying to make it as quick and easy as possible to encourage Abe to at least mash and boil a base malt for 30 each instead of not doing it at all. And thinking about it, I can see I could be justifiably criticised.

 

Correction needed: come to think of it, probably the first 3 BIABs I ever did were 60/60. Then 3V came to the fore and IMHO my times have increased and results have improved. And if anyone tells you they can do a triple decoction in under 2 hours, they are full of sh...

 

So, what is a mash, eh? I'd have to think about it much more, but off the top of my chromed pate, I'd say it was the process of converting unusable starches to fermentable maltose. I wouldn't include time in it; time only matters when discussing the efficiency or effectiveness of the process. That at least distiguishes it from steeping, which is merely dissolving the previously converted maltose.

 

But that's just first thoughts.

[Beeblebrox]

Not exactly brew day, but bought some new supplies yesterday, & have a current batch almost ready to bottle, so will be doing a quick turnaround in the next few days.

 

The current batch is a Coopers Canadian Blonde, made with 1kg LDM which was boiled with some Galaxy & Citra (12g Citra 40 mins, 15g Galaxy 20 mins).

As I've only got a rudimentary temp control system (water bath), I've made this batch with S23, essentially doing an ale as a lager. It's on its third week now, keeping nicely chilled, but should be ready by the W/E for bottling.

As I can't properly lager it in the FV, I'll bottle it, condition/carb for a few weeks, then lager the bottles, which will just require some creativity in rearranging the fridge contents.

 

I was planning on moving up to extract brewing, but that can wait until a few more batches down the track.

 

Next batch will be a Coopers Pilsener with 1.5kg ultra light malt extract, 15g Saaz & S23 again.

Clearly my last lager for the year, as by the time it's bottled it'll be too warm for another lager batch using my crude temp control method.

 

I still make all my batches to 23 litres, as I'm pedantic (or anal if you prefer), & as I'm still bottling, 23 litres gives me 30 bottles which conveniently fit into 2 boxes of 15.

 

Not sure what comes next, but I went about 2 months without brewing anything (& drank almost all my stock of beer), so at least I'm thinking ahead again now, & doing my best to build up stocks so I don't have to buy too much ready made beer!

 

I've become big on using malt now, & can't see myself returning to using simple sugars, other than for carbing.

[phil2803]

Scored a couple of cooper's fv yesterday the old type with the air locked lid. Woolies homebrand lager, 2kg of white sugar and a 1.5L yeast starter from the cooper's mexican kit. Bubbling away ferociously as we speak so all good, the foam is nearly hitting the lid.

[antiphile]

As I can't properly lager it in the FV' date=' I'll bottle it, condition/carb for a few weeks, then lager the bottles, which will just require some creativity in rearranging the fridge contents.

 

I was planning on moving up to extract brewing, but that can wait until a few more batches down the track.[/quote']

 

Sounds really good, Phodder. I wouldn't lose any sleep if you can't fit all the bottles into the fridge, though. I won't swear on the Klingon dictionary, but I seem to recall the tradition of lagering in Germany began with the beer being left to condition in caves that were kept naturally at 8 or 10 degrees. The upshot being that you can successfully lager them at higher temps, but it just takes longer. So if you have a cool place under the house or in the corner of the garage, you could just whack a carton of them there, and by summer you should have a very enticing brew.

 

Of course, it means you might have to do another brew while your waiting. Wouldn't that be a shame?

[Canadian Eh!L]

Hey Guys,

 

I put down a brew with a friend last weekend and I didn't get around to post about. It was suppose to be a Old/Mild ale Partigyle brew day, but things went sideways on us and we didn't get the gravity we were looking for on the first runnings. We decided to abort the partigyle plan and just brew another ESB. I have to try the parigyle another day

 

Old Parti Pale ale 40 Litre batch

 

6.5Kg ESB malt

.8 Kg Flaked barley

.8 Kg Victory Malt

.4 kg Honey malt

30g Magnum (60mins)

60g Cascade Whirlpool (30 min steep)

40L Golden tap water

10g CaCl

5g Gypsum

3g Epsom salt

WLP028

 

Mashed @ 66-67C for 75mins OG 1.052 IBU 36ish

[Beerlust]

G'day Chad!

 

You're really into this partigyle brewing stuff aren't you?!

 

For those unaware, it is about using the second runnings etc. from the grains used in producing your main brew wort. Rather than discarding this, a lower level gravity wort can be obtained by further sparging these same grains (if I understand the practice correctly).

 

Your main brew does need to be of a higher gravity to start with (post 1.060 I would suggest to be worthwhile), to obtain a worthwhile gravity through the partigyle process.

 

You're asking a lot here Chad if wanting any consistency, given the different brews you are making & then wanting some sort of consistent OG from the wort wanted for partigyling. If I was ever to want to use secondary runnings for future brewing, I'd want a very consistent process in place that guaranteed certain outcomes within a few gravity points.

 

It's an interesting process Chad, & I hope you eventually formulate a method that can guarantee a certain outcome from it.

 

Cheers,

 

Lusty.

[antiphile]

I understand what you mean, BeerLolly, but just imagining the outcome from the recipe, you gotta admit, that is going to be one seriously flavoursome brew.

 

Not ever having used honey malt, I'm having difficulty working out how the 60g of late cascade will go with it, but it'll be a screamer for sure.