The Homebrew Thread

[Chicken_Hunter]

Okay, here's the recipe I use for Stone and Wood PA:

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Brewer: Snow
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Snow's Equipment
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.80 kg Pale Malt (Barrett Burston) (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.87 %
1.80 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (1.8 SRM) Grain 39.13 %
10.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (60 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 3.5 IBU
5.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 9.6 IBU
10.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (20 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
12.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (5 min) Hops 2.9 IBU
35.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
70.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops -
1.00 items Sodium Metabisulphite (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05 ) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.43 %
Bitterness: 21.8 IBU Calories: 430 cal/l
Est Color: 3.3 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step 66.0 C
10 min Mash Out 76.0 C
Batch sparge 78C

Rumour has it that S&W use a Kolsch yeast so I may try that next time.

This is the one I found. The dry hop addition is different tho?, made by snow though.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Brewer: Snow
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Snow's Equipment
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.80 kg Pale Malt (Barrett Burston) (2.0 SRM) Grain 60.87 %
1.80 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (1.8 SRM) Grain 39.13 %
10.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (60 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 3.5 IBU
5.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 9.6 IBU
10.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (20 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
12.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (5 min) Hops 2.9 IBU
35.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
40.00 gm Galaxy flowers [14.90 %] (Dry Hop 10 days) Hops -
1.00 items Sodium Metabisulphite (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05 ) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.43 %
Bitterness: 21.8 IBU Calories: 430 cal/l
Est Color: 3.3 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step 66.0 C
10 min Mash Out 76.0 C
Batch sparge 78C

 

[TiggaPlease]

Looks like a pale ale to me not a blonde. I'd imagine that recipe would be too dark for a blonde using pale malt instead of pilsener.

I have a blonde ale cold crashing at the moment but made a few mistakes with it along the way. Its Basically 4.5kg Pilsener malt, 500g wheat, 500g munich, 44g Saaz @ 60 10g saaz at 10min.

Fingers crossed it turns out ok.

You'll be darker than that recipe with half a kilo of Munich. Bit of a moot point anyway seeing as a blonde is essentially a pale ale with less hops and less specialty malts.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Yeah but that recipe has 1lb of caramalt 10 which, from what i read is equivalent to munich I.

I just assumed blondes were just a pilsener grain with ale yeast.

When you look at the standards for both blondes and pales they are pretty much the same anyway.

 

[Twizzle]

you guys are alcoholics

anyway, I'm off to the pub

 

[TiggaPlease]

Just got 750gm box of cornflakes from Aldi, I'll probably wait til I have a fermenter free before brewing with them becaus I don't trust the cube I've got free for longer term storage.

The cream ale I'm making is simply

4kg BB Pale malt
250gm carapils
750gm cornflakes
30gm willamette @ 60
Will ferment with Nottingham nice and low, 15 or so.

Should be very lager like. 18 ibu.

Can't wait to pitch the yeast on the saison I brewed last night, but both fridges will be tied up for at least a week.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I looked at a cream ale and was tossing up whether to do it or not. The grain bill was a bit different though. I think it was half pale malt half vienna.

So looking at that recipe, whats the difference between a cream ale and a blonde ale?

 

[TiggaPlease]

Cream ale pretty much always has corn as an adjunct. Also no late hops in most cream ales.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Bit of a set back. My S&W clone has autolysis. I tasted it last night as I was about to dry hop and the distinct and foul rubbery taste and stench came through.

Somewhere between the end of the boil and pitching the yeast something has happened to start the yeast eating itself and producing this horrible flavour that essentially ruins the batch. The good news is that I discovered this BEFORE I added nearly 100gms of precious Galaxy flowers in dry hop.

Down the sink it goes and I think I'll chuck down a quick can of Pale Ale and steep some hops in for better flavour. Just to get something in my kegs...

 

[TiggaPlease]

RIP.

That's really disappointing. Hope you can isolate the issue quick smart.

I'll prob start cold crashing my Vic Secret Amber in the next couple of days, aroma isn't amazing from the hydro samples, but it seems to taste okay, I'll dry hop in the keg to try sort out the aroma issue.

My Equinox pale ale tastes great from the sample though. Will leave it in the fermenter for another week or so before cold crashing and adding gelatin.

I hope my current kegs last another week or two to keep me going (start of the season might not let it happen)

 

[miguel de cervantes]

what's the go with the legal status of all this? i'm assuming that making your own beer is legal but harder alcohols are not?

 

[TiggaPlease]

You're allowed to make 23 litres of beer a week for personal, non commercial consumption. Making spirits is illegal, however authorities generally turn a blind eye to it and stills are very easy to buy.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Yeah heaps of people make their own spirits, you can buy a still from any home brew shop and choose from hundreds of different flavours for your spirit.


I just bottled my blonde ale last night, i have to say that i could have a session on it straight out if the fermentor. Also the first time i have done a proper cold crash, also added gelatine as well.

Plan on making the pacific ale clone tomorrow or saturday.


What causes autolosys?

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Yeah heaps of people make their own spirits, you can buy a still from any home brew shop and choose from hundreds of different flavours for your spirit.


I just bottled my blonde ale last night, i have to say that i could have a session on it straight out if the fermentor. Also the first time i have done a proper cold crash, also added gelatine as well.

Plan on making the pacific ale clone tomorrow or saturday.


What causes autolosys?

Most of the time autolysis is either caused by funky, out of date yeast filled with dead cells, or fermenting at too high temperature for the yeast.

Either way, the yeast starts consuming these dead cells and the by-product is the awful rubbery taste that permeates every last drop.

In my case I suspect the age of the yeast, but it's too difficult to be sure.

I very quickly smashed in a can of Coopers Draught and boiled up some Brew Enhancer 2 for about 15min with 35gms of Galaxy added at flame out. Everything went into the fermenter and I'll dry-hop this with the rest of the Galaxy (about 100gms) after 10 days. Kinda interested to see how this will turn out.

I'll brew up the rye beer tomorrow in the Robo.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

You're allowed to make 23 litres of beer a week for personal, non commercial consumption. Making spirits is illegal, however authorities generally turn a blind eye to it and stills are very easy to buy.

I never knew about a limit per week. I'm guessing no one has ever been prosecuted for making a double batch in one week.

The thing about home brew beer is that if you f**k it up - you get bad tasting beer and that's about it.

With spirits if you f**k it up people can die...

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I think i am having a bit of a problem with storage. All my brews seem to end up tasting very similar after about a month conditioning. All grain, extract, pale ale to amber ale, all have a similar flavour.

Really annoying, it looks like ill have to run a third fridge in the house now to store the beer.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

What is the flavour you're getting? Is it an aftertaste? Or they're just all tasting kind of the same?

 

[TiggaPlease]

You should lose a bit of hop aroma over a month, but not a huge amount.

At about 3 months at room temp you'll certainly have much less aroma than fresh, but flavour shouldn't change too much.

Definitely seems likes something else is going on.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I have been doing a bit of reading and it might be wet cardboard, whatever that is meant to taste like. One of the things for that is high conditioning temps. We have had a lot of hot days, and come to think of it, I made a lager over winter when i first started that didnt have that same flavour. It obviously conditioned in winter when its colder.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Where are you storing the bottles? In dark boxes somewhere relatively cool? When I was bottling I stored the bottles in black plastic tubs in the room under the house which rarely gets above high 20s, never had a problem.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Where are you storing the bottles? In dark boxes somewhere relatively cool? When I was bottling I stored the bottles in black plastic tubs in the room under the house which rarely gets above high 20s, never had a problem.

In the bottom of a cupboard. My house gets pretty hot so they would have reached 30-32 degrees easily over the last few weeks.

I have made some minor modifications to my fermentation fridge. Allows me to have my fermentor + 26 PET bottles. The rest of my brews i have put in a large esky. A daily change of a frozen 3L milk carton should keep them cool.

I did a brew today, everything went perfect. First time using my immersion chiller with a pump, was able to get the wort down to 22 degrees within about half an hour. The coolest inhave ever piched yeast is at around 30 degrees. This should have a pretty good impact on flavour.

I made a pacific ale. But changed a few things.

2kg wheat
3.2kg pale ale

5g galaxy at mash
7g galaxy at 60min
10g galaxy + whifloc at 20min
12g galaxy at 5min
25g galaxy at flame out
10g williamette at flameout (needed to sub this in as i didnt get enough galaxy)


25g galaxy dry hop
15g williamette dry hop

I mashed my robobrew for 60min with 20L of water. Still only managed around 65% effiency. I recirculated 2-3 litres every 15min. Also stirred it about 3 times during the mash. The only thing now i can think of to improve effiency is to mash for 90min. Thoughts?