The Homebrew Thread

[Chicken_Hunter]

Its bottle conditioning now so i havent tried it. Had it in the fermenter for over 3 weeks. The wort tasted nice, different, but nice. Definitely has that spice, peppery flavour people talk about.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Arggggh discovered my biggest disaster to date this evening. Went to pour a cream ale from a nearly full keg, it blows foam, open the lid of the keezer and there's the contents of the keg in a pool in the bottom of the keezer. Prob 16 litres of beer gone.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

ouch...

 

[TiggaPlease]

To add insult to injury when I got the wet dry vac out to clean up the bottom of the keezer I sucked to much up and it spat beer all over the walls and floor in the dining room. Oops

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Worst i have had so far is a bottle bomb in an enclosed esky.

 

[TiggaPlease]

I only ever had one bottle bomb, it was in a closed plastic tub. Blew a hole in the top of the tub. Luckily I was nowhere near it when it happened.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Arggggh discovered my biggest disaster to date this evening. Went to pour a cream ale from a nearly full keg, it blows foam, open the lid of the keezer and there's the contents of the keg in a pool in the bottom of the keezer. Prob 16 litres of beer gone.

How do you reckon it happened? Poor seal on the disconnect?


With Mandarins in season I think I might try to copy the Flying Dog Bloodline IPA:

5.4kg of Pale Malt
450g of Crystal
680g of Wheat Malt

30g Magnum @ 60m
15g Cascade @15m
15g Cascade @5m
40g Cascade @0min
30g Cascade @ Dry Hop
15g Galaxy @Dry Hop

40g Madarin Zest @ Dry Hop
3.5 Cups of Mandarin Juice once FG reached

The original recipe calls for Citra, but given there is none available anywhere I will have to substitute cascade. Should still taste good and I might add another 40g of mandarin zest late into the boil.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Yep, must have been a poor seal.

The night before I'd switched the disconnect over to another keg for a sneaky schooie then switched it back. Will religiously use keg lube now and check the seal every time. Prob lost a fair amount of gas too.

RE Citra, you'll pay a lot for it but there's still some floating around: http://www.bulkbrewingsupplies.com.au/#!bbs-hops-store/z4gy8

I've never done a brew with fruit, keen to see how this comes out.

 

[JTrain89]

I tried making HB (Home Brew) once but I didn't really like it so now I stick to OJ

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

No citra? My LHBS always has it and at the same price as other hops. Unfortunately theres not really a substitute for it.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

No citra? My LHBS always has it and at the same price as other hops. Unfortunately theres not really a substitute for it.

I usually get all my stuff from Craftbrewer and they've been out for a little while.

Where is your LHBS? Actually just looking at the website for the place where I bought the Robobrew on the Gold Coast and they still have Citra available. $9.50 for 100gm is pretty good.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

I live in ipswich and use ipswich brew co. 90g packs for around $9-$10

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Right, so a bit of an update on what's on tap and what will be on tap:

On tap now:

1. IPA a friend brewed using Centennial, Mosaic and Cascade
2. Small Batch special IPA using Columbus, Cascade and a secret hop (PM for details) - will be called "Break Glass in case of Emergency"
3. The "rescue" coopers draught dry hopped with Galaxy

Brewing tomorrow/this weekend:

1. Dr Smurto's Golden Ale using 20% Rye and Cascade
2. Cream Ale using 800g of Polenta and leftover Bobek hops

We've got two consecutive long weekends coming up in QLD so I intend to make the most of them. I may even try to get the Bloodline IPA done over this period too.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Im fully stocked at the moment for a little while. My fermentation fridge is full of beer for storage, also have a large esky full of beer.

I bottled my american amber a few days ago, the wort tasted really good so thats a good indication it will be nice, its hopped with cascade and columbus.

Tried my saison, it is pretty good. My mrs likes it so thats a positive.

Also got a fait bit of my pacific ale left. Its really nice, but i think i f**ked up the gelatine addition. It has floaties in every bottle that sit around the bottom third that just wont settle. The first pour is always good, the second pour the floaties come out. Not sure what they are, they dont affect the taste.

 

[TiggaPlease]

I've got -

Tapped -

1. Saison
2. Cascadian Dark Ale/Black IPA
3. The Pale ale I posted earlier (this one was kegged on the weekend, still carbing up)

In fermenter -

1. Cheap arsed aussie lager - 4kg Ale Malt, Pride of Ringwood FWH to 30 IBU, Mangrove Jacks M54 Californian Lager @ 18.

In planning -

1. A dry stout - thinking something along the lines of 4kg Ale, 400gm Roast Barley, 250gm biscuit, 100gm choc, 100gm dark crystal. 35 ish IBU. Maybe S-04

2. Vienna SMaSH - 100% Vienna, Centennial to 35 IBU.

3. Another Amber ale, the last one I did was spectacular.

Might start trying to brew more darkish beers now that it's finally starting to cool down a bit at night.

 

[TiggaPlease]

The pale ale recipe I did on page 5 is an absolute ripper. Nice and malty. I love it.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

How is the Black IPA? I'm keen to test the upper limits of grain volume in the Robo and this might be the one to try.

 

[Frank_Grimes]

Successful weekend of brewing. I dry-hopped the Cascade/Rye Golden Ale and had probably my smoothest brew day yesterday with the Cream Ale. Everything went perfect from start to finish and I hit my target gravity with an efficiency of 70%.

The wort is super clear already.

 

[TiggaPlease]

How is the Black IPA? I'm keen to test the upper limits of grain volume in the Robo and this might be the one to try.

The black IPA is pretty tasty, If I brew it again I'll drop the Vic Secret from the dry hop though.

 

[TiggaPlease]

Successful weekend of brewing. I dry-hopped the Cascade/Rye Golden Ale and had probably my smoothest brew day yesterday with the Cream Ale. Everything went perfect from start to finish and I hit my target gravity with an efficiency of 70%.

The wort is super clear already.

Good stuff, I found the same thing with the cream ale I made, crystal clear from start to finish pretty much.

I've been tasked by the missus to make a raspberry ale (There was one on tap at Fortitude/Noisy Minor last time we went up to Tambourine) - I was initially considering a saison for it, but I think I'll go the way of a blonde ale with little to no late hops. I'll ferment as normal then rack on to frozen raspberry for a couple of weeks I guess.

The next beer i'll do after that will probably be another amber ale using a similar grain bill to the last one I mentioned, will use centennial and perhaps cascade.