What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

The Homebrew Thread

TiggaPlease

Guest
Messages
891
Just pulled the trigger on a pound each of the following:

2015 centennial
2016 ctz
2016 chinook
2016 mosaic

Ended up about $120 delivered from Yakima valley hops.
 

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997
I had a bit of a crisis last weekend. With the .30 Cal just having been pitched and the Peach Saison ready to have its peaches added, we had a ripper of a storm come through at about 3am Sunday morning. A lightning strike that sounded like it was directly over our house fried the modem and my 80L camping fridge that had the .30 Cal in it. I very quickly had to figure out how to fit two beers in my relatively small fermenting fridge. Solution was to pull the saison out and let it sit in the bathroom while sitting the .30 Cal and American Brown next to each other in the fridge. First time I've fermented in jerry cans. There was a bit of mess due to less head space than a fermenter, but they seem to be moving along just fine. Both ready for dry-hopping now and the .30 Cal is ready to be cold crashed for some longer term conditioning. The other problem I had was that the fridge can't really get to the lower temperatures needed for cold crashing (relied on the camp fridge for this).

Outcome - went out yesterday and bought another fridge off gumtree. It's huge and can fit at least two fermenters side by side. It's an upside down fridge so everything sits at a great serviceable height and it can go super cold. All of this for $120! Can't believe I hadn't looked for another fridge before. Now I can have an ale fermenting in my old fridge while cold conditioning or lagering 3 others in the new one. Just need a new STC-1000.

I'm even contemplating a Czech Pilsner next to make use of the new badass fridge.
 

TiggaPlease

Guest
Messages
891
The answer is always "more fridges" - I've got 2 fermenting fridges set up at the moment, and a 3rd in the garage I need to move into the brew room.
 

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997
Well I just pulled the saison out to keg it and it is a slush of icy beer. Whoops. Looks like the fridge works too well. Need to get that STC ASAP.

I tried the new Balter Pilsner at my local Saturday night - soooo dry but delicious. I think I'll do a Czech Pilsner and a big and ballsy IPA next
 

TiggaPlease

Guest
Messages
891
Thinking of trying to make a pirate life IIPA clone next. Gonna need a lot of grain and hops.

What system are you brewing on?

I'm going to brew an APA tonight - Giving Supernova malt by Gladfields a run for the first time, will go around 5% of the malt bill.

From their site:

Supernova malt is a new roasted malt from Gladfield that adds nutty, toasted caramel flavours to a beer. It can be used as a replacement for traditional crystal malts to change the flavour characteristics and reduce the beers residual sweetness. We start this malt with Canterbury winter barley and take it through our germination process before it is roasted to develop flavour and colour.

This is a great malt to be used in any beer style. We have already seen it used in Pilsners and IPAs between 10 – 25%. We also recommend its use in an Amber Ale up to 25%, it adds a rich depth of malty flavour and really makes this style shine. It goes well in a Porter up to 10-15%, complementing the darker roast malts and adding complexity. Also great for Pale Ales for great toasty caramel flavours that won’t overtake the hops, use 5-10%

Use: Adds toasted, caramel, nutty flavours to a beer
Rate: Up to 25%
 

Hardcore_Fan

Juniors
Messages
1,489
What's your system? Good to see another home brewer around these parts.

I bought a 6 pack of the Pirate Life IPA on the weekend - lovely drop.
Robobrew

Their IPA is good but their IIPA is insane, 8.8% and around 100IBUS. It totally destroys your palate, I had one the other night, then went back to one of my pale ales which is around 50IBUs and quite hoppy and it just tasted like a 15 IBU lager lol.
 

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997
Robobrew

Their IPA is good but their IIPA is insane, 8.8% and around 100IBUS. It totally destroys your palate, I had one the other night, then went back to one of my pale ales which is around 50IBUs and quite hoppy and it just tasted like a 15 IBU lager lol.

Nice. Good to see the Robo represented so well.

Will have to try the double. They know how to charge though - the sixer of IPA was $30! Where did you get your recipe from? AHB?
 

Hardcore_Fan

Juniors
Messages
1,489
Have seen one or 2 recipes, but haven't looked too far into it.

It might be $12 a can but it's 500ml and would be 3.5-4 standard drinks
 

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997
I tried the Peach Saison yesterday. Not so good. It does have a really nice peach flavour to it, but waaaaaaaay too much alcohol. It ruins the balance and the peach just ends up in the background drowned out by the alcohol. It finished up at about 0.997 FG and 7.8%, but there simply isn't enough malt flavour, hoppiness or bitterness to offset the raw alcohol taste. I'll leave it for a while and see if the flavours change but I'm thinking I should have left this as just a saison and I definitely used too much grain. Will definitely give another saison a go soon though.

I racked the Brown to secondary and onto 40g of Cascade and popped it in the fridge to cold crash next to the .30cal. The Brown tastes great so far and I think the Cascade dry hop will really set it off. Looking forward to this one being on tap.

I also spent a little time on my kegerator yesterday moving the gas bottle to the outside and finally plumbed up my third tap, so I can now truly serve 3 beers at once.

I'm thinking the following next:

* Quick and cheap Pacific Ale with Galaxy and some leftover Citra in my freezer

* Czech Pilsner

* Plain Saison

* Red IPA
 

TiggaPlease

Guest
Messages
891
That sucks about the saison. I took my keg of smoked porter out of the keezer yesterday, I'm going to leave it in a dark corner of the brew room for a couple of months, hopefully it will drink better when I pop it back in.

Brewed a pale ale on Wednesday night - Ale, Vienna and Supernova - Centennial, Chinook, Columbus hop combo. Will ferment with Mangrove Jacks M42 - New world strong ale.

Will be brewing an american wheat tonight - 50/50 ale/wheat, bittering with a dab of columbus then finishing with centennial.

Also kegged a leftover bits brew yesterday - It is tasting okay, could have turned out much worse, not overly hoppy or flavourful, just 25ish IBU and 4.1% of easy drinking.
 

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997
Brewed a pale ale on Wednesday night - Ale, Vienna and Supernova - Centennial, Chinook, Columbus hop combo. Will ferment with Mangrove Jacks M42 - New world strong ale..

What was your OG?

Was just up at the brew shop and Mick has a Russian Imperial going with M42 that started at 1090!

Picked up all the ingredients (bar the yeast) for Pacific Ale for $21!!! You can't get a kit and kilo that cheap...
 

TiggaPlease

Guest
Messages
891
What was your OG?

Was just up at the brew shop and Mick has a Russian Imperial going with M42 that started at 1090!

Picked up all the ingredients (bar the yeast) for Pacific Ale for $21!!! You can't get a kit and kilo that cheap...

OG was only 1052 from memory. I used the m42 in the red IPA I made and it tasted great so thought it would be worth a crack in a more sedate beer.

Hit all my numbers for the American wheat and surprisingly the wort running in to the cube was some of the clearest I've ever made.
 

Hardcore_Fan

Juniors
Messages
1,489
Here is my red IIPA I plan on making. I made the recipe myself, it's basically a combination of a pirate life IIPA clone I found and an American amber I have made. Hops are mostly from the Pirate life. I also considered adding some rye to the recipe, but decided against it as it is already quite complex with a lot going on.


Ingredients:

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

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 1 80.4 %

0.75 kg Munich Malt - 10L (19.7 EBC) Grain 2 11.0 %

0.50 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 3 7.3 %

0.09 kg Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 4 1.3 %

25.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop 5 33.9 IBUs

15.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 6.6 IBUs

15.00 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 7.2 IBUs

15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 9.4 IBUs

15.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 4.8 IBUs

15.00 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 10 5.3 IBUs

15.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 10. Hop 11 7.4 IBUs

15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 12 6.8 IBUs

15.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs

15.00 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 14 0.0 IBUs

15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 15 0.0 IBUs

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 16 -

10.00 g Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs

10.00 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 18 0.0 IBUs

10.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop Hop 19 0.0 IBUs

10.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 20 0.0 IBUs
 

TiggaPlease

Guest
Messages
891
I'd look at at least tripling the dry hop, 40gm is nowhere near enough for a big IPA in my experience.

Also what temp are you mashing at? I mashed my Red IPA at 65 but wish I'd gone maybe 63 instead as it has a bit too much body.
 

Frank_Grimes

First Grade
Messages
6,997
You might be better off with two packets of yeast with that OG also. Helps to get things started and you will get a healthier fermentation.
 

Latest posts

Top