The Homebrew Thread

[TiggaPlease]

Should be a great drop. Centennial is an awesome hop.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Yeah, I really enjoyed the Tower 10 IPA. Even though it was 70IBU, I would never have guessed it because the hop flavour really shines through.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Brewed the aforementioned IPA last Friday, got 65% efficiency which I'm happy enough with seeing as it was about 2kg more grain that I usually use. There was a fair amount of wort left at the end of the boil so should have boiled for another 20 or so mins I reckon.

Anyway pitched it on to the blonde ale's yeast cake Sunday morning and it was full krausen when I checked on it Sunday arvo, the fermenting fridge smells amazing!

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Cracked my blonde ale on the weekend. Tasted like I scooped a spoonful of margarine out of the tub and ate it.

Hopefully the diacetyl goes away otherwise it's a dumper. Was only in the bottle for 5 days though. Tasted great out of the fermenter when I bottled it too.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Ouch, I haven't had a dumper so far although back when I was doing kits n bits + bottling I had a batch of gushers once, still drank them though.

How long did you keep it in the fermenter before bottling? And what temp did you ferment at?

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

2 weeks or so all up in the fermentor at 18 degrees and cold crashed.

First brew I used gypsum and lactic acid but I only used fairly small amounts.

Hopefully it's just from the fermentation process in the bottle, as diacetyl is produced during fermentation.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

I brewed up another Cream Ale on Saturday and used Gypsum, Epsom, Magnesium Sulfate and Citric Acid as per a profile I did up on Bru'n spreadsheet - man that tool is awesome. Nailed my gravity target of 1.051 and used harvested yeast from my last Smurtos Golden Ale. It kicked off so quickly and was down to 1.014 within 3 days.

The Beersmith update is pretty good too - loving the session tab.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Brewed a Tower 10 IPA clone today.

I did a massive mash volume of 27litres which was lapping right at the top of the robobrew. Did a small 6L sparge and ended up with a mash efficiency of 76% and total efficiency at 70%.

I recommend you try a full volume mash. Maybe go with 25-26L though and see how your efficiency goes.

I also added 2ml of Lactic acid and 2g of gypsum but apparently according to the brewers on AHB water chemistry doesnt significantly effect efficiency.

Wow, that is a massive improvement. How did you go with recirculation? Was it tricky at all?

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Brewed the aforementioned IPA last Friday, got 65% efficiency which I'm happy enough with seeing as it was about 2kg more grain that I usually use. There was a fair amount of wort left at the end of the boil so should have boiled for another 20 or so mins I reckon.

Anyway pitched it on to the blonde ale's yeast cake Sunday morning and it was full krausen when I checked on it Sunday arvo, the fermenting fridge smells amazing!

Have you ever had any issues pitching onto a yeast cake? I was all set to try it myself and then read up about it on the internet. So many brewers recommend against it as they believe you will end up 'over-pitching'.

So I decided to harvest my yeast just to be safe. It was super simple - just boiled a stainless steel scoop and 2 jars for ten minutes and then scooped the yeast cake and thin layer of beer into the jars. I ended up just pouring it into the second jar as a good swish got it all viscous. I then kept the jars at the back of the fridge where it's coldest and brought them up to room temp on brew day before shaking vigorously and pitching.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Wow, that is a massive improvement. How did you go with recirculation? Was it tricky at all?

Yeah was almost impossible without wort spilling over the edges and grain overflowing into the main kettle.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Have you ever had any issues pitching onto a yeast cake? I was all set to try it myself and then read up about it on the internet. So many brewers recommend against it as they believe you will end up 'over-pitching'.

So I decided to harvest my yeast just to be safe. It was super simple - just boiled a stainless steel scoop and 2 jars for ten minutes and then scooped the yeast cake and thin layer of beer into the jars. I ended up just pouring it into the second jar as a good swish got it all viscous. I then kept the jars at the back of the fridge where it's coldest and brought them up to room temp on brew day before shaking vigorously and pitching.

I've pitched on a yeast cake about 3 times now and it's always been fine, I can imagine the over pitch would be an issue if you were brewing a yeast driven beer, but with American Ales it works great. I've only scooped in to a jar on one occasion but didn't get round to brewing again for ages so ended up chucking it.

I checked the gravity of the IPA on Wednesday arvo (4 days from pitching) and it was about 1.008, will probably start the cold crash tonight and be ready to keg on Sunday.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

So a week later on my blonde ale the diacetyl taste has dropped I would say 75%. So hopefully it will all be gone in a few weeks.

Just dry hopped my tower 10 IPA clone with 20g of cascade and 20g of centennial. I have high expectations for this brew. Will cold crash it maybe next Thursday and bottle it next Saturday.

That would be roughly 3 weeks in the fermentor.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Wow. The Cream Ale was at 1.006 by Friday night. That's a 46pt drop in 5 days.

 

[TiggaPlease]

That'll knock you on your arse - 6% cream ale :|

English Bitter style thing on the weekend (Didn't have any EKG or Fuggles though, so cascade for aroma...)

3.5kg Maris Otter
0.25kg Medium Crystal
0.05kg Roast Barley
15gm Magnum @ 60
25gm Cascade in the cube
S-04 @ 19c

Got 70% brewhouse again, seems that these smaller grain bills are giving a boost in efficiency, quick stir of the mash before lifting the bag.

Started the cold crash of the IPA yesterday, will fine with gelatin in the fermenter then keg during the week. Dry hops will be hopped in the keg. Tastes fantastic out of the fermenter, really looking forward to it.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Yep, probably didn't think this one through. Not really a session ale is it?

 

[TiggaPlease]

Bloody S-04 it tastes pretty good but it is bloody temperamental, pitched on Saturday arvo, full krausen by sunday arvo - was planning on increasing the temp yesterday when I got home to ensure complete fermentation but of course the yeast had dropped out completely at 1.020...

Fermenter has been swirled and heat belt used to up the temp to 20.5.

Prick of a yeast.

Keep telling myself I won't use it again, need to actually follow through!

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

So my diacetyl issue with the blonde ale seems to have disappeared and it has turned into a really great beer thank god.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Glad to hear that's sorted itself out. I did a 150gm keg hop on the IPA I made and I really thought I'd f**ked up and overdone it til yesterday when it finally calmed down and started tasting great.

How did the tower 10 turn out?

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Tower 10 tastes great after a week bottle conditioning.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

I haven't done any brewing since the Cream Ale that is still on tap and really coming into its own (It feels like it needs an extended cold conditioning period to mellow out the corn aftertaste to my liking)

But I was chatting with my barber the other day and we came up with an idea that I really want to try - Crunchie Milk Stout

Similar to the Big Shed Brewing Golden Stout Time Dessert Stout that ended up taking out 3rd place in the People's Vote at GABS this year:

https://craftypint.com/beer/3529/big-shed-brewing-golden-stout-time

I'm thinking lots of dark roasted malts, a shitload of lactose and 2 bags of those snack size Crunchie bars crumbled up and thrown in the mash and possibly after primary. I'll aim for about 7-8% ABV and will limit this to a 10L brew.