Your current / planned brews

Herb Powell

Excellent, thank you. And yeah, I paid attention enough in chemistry class to have a feeling that mixing the bleach and vinegar straight might make chlorine gas, and be a bad thing.

Martyn1989

Herb Powell wrote: »

Gonna do my first ever brew today based off a Finlandia Traditional ale kit, pretty excited.

I read that the bleach/vinegar steriliser doesn't require rinsing-can anyone confirm that?

Merry Christmas!

Yep 30ml of each vinegar/bleach (never mix neat) and your good to go. Think I'm getting a brew done later too

Herb Powell

I may have fcuked it up already-I noticed just as I was about to haul it all off to ferment, that there was a leak down by the tap. That wasn't going to work, so I decided the best thing to do was soak my hand and arm in sanitiser, and go in to tighten it. I stopped the leak and my (sanitised) arm was only in the bucket for 10 seconds, the lid open just a tiny bit. So fingers crossed. I won't be surprised if I have contaminated it, but I'll know in a few days.

Also, is an OG of 1.43 normal? That's what it seems to be. Or have I destroyed it with sugar? I was just following the kit instructions.

Martyn1989

Herb Powell wrote: »

I may have fcuked it up already-I noticed just as I was about to haul it all off to ferment, that there was a leak down by the tap. That wasn't going to work, so I decided the best thing to do was soak my hand and arm in sanitiser, and go in to tighten it. I stopped the leak and my (sanitised) arm was only in the bucket for 10 seconds, the lid open just a tiny bit. So fingers crossed. I won't be surprised if I have contaminated it, but I'll know in a few days.

Also, is an OG of 1.43 normal? That's what it seems to be. Or have I destroyed it with sugar? I was just following the kit instructions.

Ive been struck by the leaky tap before, it was a batch of all grain ale stuck in the pressure barrel, ended up losing that one. Theres a huge chance of infection from your arm but you had few other options, carry on like normal and you may be lucky. I've done worse and got away with it

1.043 is normal, a tad on the lowside, but around what alot of my beers are as I like relatively low abv beer (4% or so). Good luck and merry xmas!

Herb Powell

Martyn1989 wrote: »

Ive been struck by the leaky tap before, it was a batch of all grain ale stuck in the pressure barrel, ended up losing that one. Theres a huge chance of infection from your arm but you had few other options, carry on like normal and you may be lucky. I've done worse and got away with it

1.043 is normal, a tad on the lowside, but around what alot of my beers are as I like relatively low abv beer (4% or so). Good luck and merry xmas!

:eek:

How? What??

Khannie

On the leaky tap thing: You can tighten the tap from the outside. It may end up pointing the wrong direction during the brew, but no harm there. If you over-tighten it a bit then for priming then fix it afterwards and you should be OK.

If you santised your arm I'd say you'll get away with it. Hopefully anyway. Sure let us know. I'd like to know how far you can push it before a bad brew sets in. Luckily for me I've never had one yet.

Herb Powell

Well she's bubbling away like mad anyway, since about midnight. There is some foam (haven't opened the lid to see, not going to take that unneccessary risk) and it's at 23 degrees C. Smells a bit like passionfruit. If fermentation is done sometime next week I'll see what the story is, but so far so good. Might get away with it alright......

lang

Herb Powell wrote: »

Well she's bubbling away like mad anyway, since about midnight. There is some foam (haven't opened the lid to see, not going to take that unneccessary risk) and it's at 23 degrees C. Smells a bit like passionfruit. If fermentation is done sometime next week I'll see what the story is, but so far so good. Might get away with it alright......

Good sign that it bubbling away. That foam on the top (called Kraussen) is exactly what you want. You're brew should bubble away quite nicely for a few days and then the Kraussen will die down. Give it at least a week before checking the Gravity reading and then once you have two reading of the same rate then you know fermentation is finished. You can either bottle or transfer to Secondary, up to you entirely.

banjopaul

banjopaul wrote: »

Picked up a John Bull IPA kit recently. Planning on using 1kg of enhancer ( http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-kit-enhancer-1kg-p-184.html ) and probably some light DME i have left over from a previous brew.

Anyone know if it'd be worth picking up some extra hops? It's my first kit, so not sure to what extent I can mess around with it. Was thinking of adding 30g of Cascade pellets. Would this go straight in to the primary fermentor?

Forgot to update on this earlier. I dry hopped with 20g of Cascade pellets in Secondary in a muslin for about 5 days in the end. Turned out pretty nice, in my opinion anyway, and most people who've tried it liked it.



Also, I was given this a Young's harvest bittter kit can as a gift. Link.

Anyone tried this? Anything fun that can be done with it? I presume the usual advice of using beer enhancer or malt instead of sugar applies?

Edwardius

I did exactly the same with the John Bull IPA kit. Dry hopped with 30g of cascade hops. Turned out very well too! I'd probably try hop tea if I was brewing it again.

I have coopers pale in the bucket now. Gonna murder it with hops in a few days!

Herb Powell

A little update on my dodgy brew.

I'm fairly sure I got away with it. Tastes and smells like beer, most of the fruity smells are gone. I'll give it a few more days to check the FG then maybe a week, then bottling time. But all seems well so far.

I just finished bottling another coopers IPA kit, I really liked the last one. I might do another one to keep a steady supply going.

tteknulp

Just opened a bottle of my hoeggarden/blue moon clone ,very nice flavour to it , coriander flavour needs to mellow a bit , very refreshing drink . Im going to put on a continental pils with some saaz dry hopped ,and a pale ale with cascade and chinook as i have 2 buckets free

syngindub

Bottling English Bitter tonight.
Kit + 500g Light Malt, 500g Brewing Sugar.

lang

Got another kit brew on this afternoon. Details below:

John Bull Traditional English Ale
Coopers Amber LME
Windsor Yeast 11g
Hop Tea: 20 minute boil (30g Cascade @ 0min, 10g EKG @ 15min)
Topped it up to just over 23L and the yeast was pitched at 21C.

Everything stirred the bejaysus out of. It's a bit of an experiment to be honest. I havent used either this Ale kit or Amber Malt before so just trying it out. I have used a John Bull London Porter Kit which was very nice and polished off the last of that over the Xmas New Year. Gonna give it at least a week (more likely 10 days) in Primary and then prob put it in Secondary for about 2 weeks. Will see how it pans out as to whether I Dry Hop this one.

At the moment I have a Coopers IPA Kit in Secondary. I was gonna Dry Hop it but not too sure. It is quite hoppy as it is, but might mellow a bit and may need the extra hoppage to get it over the hill.

Edwardius

Err... I've been busy

-Got through almost all of my first "brewbuddy bitter" kit with the help of a few accomplices. I opened and tested a bottle every few days and each one was an improvement over the last. It had that cidery "tang" from using table sugar but it went down fairly well.

-The 12 litres of Lidl cloudy cider was nowhere near enough. It was reaching proper carbonation levels around new years and it turned out very well. Don't have a whole lot left after sharing it out.

-John Bull IPA+spraymalt and dry-hopped with cascade: this is carbonating up nicely but still has fairly poor head retention. It is delicious though. Anyone who's tried it has been impressed and it was clear after only a few days.

-Pineapple wine: nasty nasty stuff. Powerful though.

I'm currently fermenting:

-Coopers APA, added a cascade hop tea and dry hopped with the same, gonna bottle tomorrow

-plum+banana+honey+cardamom+cinnamon wine, Not sure what I was thinking but after two weeks in primary it tastes kinda champagney. I'll rack it a few times and carbonate it.

-various wines, some involving lidl grape juice and varying levels of glucose, also have a youngs wine kit waiting to be bottled. Initial impressions of the latter are negative, I'll leave it for a few months.

-Mead: only about 2 litres as a trial batch

Next up:
-Coopers Irish Stout with added vanilla and possibly coffee.

-Finish a ghetto all-grain setup and run a "hobble wobble" ruby ale mashkit that I got from the homebrew company. It's pretty optimistic at this point but the consequences are hardly dire. I'll have pics of the setup if it works out well, it's basically buckets, ball valves, heating elements and insulating material.

-Large cider batch in time for the summer. Thinking of doing 25 litres of regular cider, 10 litres of elderflower or something else.

-Proper banana wine.

I've given up drinking till march though :P

scrapsmac

5am Saint Clone

3kg light dry malt extract
0.25kg crystal 60l
0.15kg crystal 120l
0.1kg Munich malt

Lots of hops for this one!!

30g Nelson sauvin
20g amarillo

Dry hop with

10g simcoe
10g cascade
10g centennial

Trusty us-05 yeast

Honestly don't know how this one will turn out. I enjoy the citrusy flavors from simcoe and I've read amarillo is a must for this beer. I'm not a hop head by any means but this is one beer I can happily guzzle!

Critique the recipe please folks

mayto

It says on their site they dry hop it with nelson sauvin too. Looks like a nice recipe, I take it you put it through brewing software to calculate colour etc. I tasted a clone someone made a few years ago and it was unreal.

scrapsmac

Havnt=mayto;82647934]It says on their site they dry hop it with nelson sauvin too. Looks like a nice recipe, I take it you put it through brewing software to calculate colour etc. I tasted a clone someone made a few years ago and it was unreal.[/Quote]


Havnt put it though yet.shamelessly taken from another site. Have a buddy doing the same recipe the same time so it will be interesting to see the results

syngindub

Coopers English Bitter.
After 12 Days bottling i couldn't wait any longer to try

Herb Powell

Broke the rules a bit and had a shnakey taste of my Finlandia ale.

Despite me sticking my arm into the wort, it did NOT get infected. Ended up around 6% I reckon, I can certainly feel the alcohol anyway. There is a slight whiskey aroma (I blame the yeast-the dregs smell a lot stronger than the rest of it), but I reckon it'll go, and it doesn't taste at all unpleasant. A hint of soft fruits, haha

I'll gladly drink them, can't wait to see what it REALLY turns out like (because it can only get better). It's a beer I would be happy buying in a shop, tbh.

Tube

Tube wrote: »

We did a group buy of hops recently so I have a few Kg of Bramling Cross. I've done a 20L batch, 7.5% abv, that had 70g of Bramling Cross at 60 min, another 70g at 10 min, and another 70g at 0 min. I will dry hop it with, you guessed it, 70g!

Going through a diacetyl rest at the moment, but it tastes fantastic. For anyone who has never used Bramling Cross in anger, you don't know what you're missing!

I opened a bottle of this tonight. 280g of Bramling Cross were used and the final ABV is 8%. This is a candidate for the National Brewing Championships in March.... if only I could enter!

lang

lang wrote: »

John Bull Traditional English Ale
Coopers Amber LME
Windsor Yeast 11g
Hop Tea: 20 minute boil (30g Cascade @ 0min, 10g EKG @ 15min)
Topped it up to just over 23L and the yeast was pitched at 21C.

Gonna give it at least a week (more likely 10 days) in Primary and then prob put it in Secondary for about 2 weeks. Will see how it pans out as to whether I Dry Hop this one.

So, yesterday I tranferred this to Secondary. Saw some ominous little white 'spots' on the top of the brew (should have taken a photo) but decided to rack it anyway in the hope that it's not an infection. I took a sneaky taste and there were no funny 'off' flavours or smells from it so hopefully it'll be all good. Ended up being nearly 2 weeks in Primary. (OG: 1.048; SG: 1.018)

Will leave it for at least two weeks before I bottle it.

lang wrote: »

At the moment I have a Coopers IPA Kit in Secondary. I was gonna Dry Hop it but not too sure. It is quite hoppy as it is, but might mellow a bit and may need the extra hoppage to get it over the hill.

With the Coopers IPA I left it in Secondary for 18 days in total. On day 9 I added 30g of leaf Cascade Hops. I bottled this yesterday and got 39 500ml bottles out of it. I'll give it 2/3 weeks before sampling.

scrapsmac

Did a simple centennial extract ale today.

2.3kg of extra light dme
0.5kg of carapils

8g centennial at 45 and 20 mins
8g cascade at 10 and 5 mins

Notty yeast!

Trying to keep this one at low temps for a crisp taste. Sitting at 16 now.

Herb Powell

Final verdict on my first brew (then I'll feck off and leave ye alone);

Total success. Dangerously drinkable for it's 6+% ABV, I am seriously surprised at how easy it is to make decent beer. This one will be taking the sting out of essays for weeks

I'll have to get another one going soon.

tteknulp

I have a 2 can on at moment ,(or toucan as the aussies call it ) its 1x cooper wheat & 1x coopers cerveza + 1 kg wheat spraymalt ,started @ 1069 hoping to get it to 1016 abv 7.1 ,its in secondary now with 50g cascade leave for 2wks ,was 10 days in primary,already tastes good ,cant wait to get it into swingtops and condition

Tube

scrapsmac wrote: »

Did a simple centennial extract ale today.

2.3kg of extra light dme
0.5kg of carapils

8g centennial at 45 and 20 mins
8g cascade at 10 and 5 mins

Notty yeast!

Trying to keep this one at low temps for a crisp taste. Sitting at 16 now.

Low and slow! Prepare for a 2 week fermentation, but the end result should be good!

Was this a 45 min boil?

syngindub

As more and more bottles are becoming available it's time to think about the next brew.
I'm moving all up market next and going to dive head first into an extract kit.
Thinking about one of these http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/extract-beer-kits-c-164.html

I realise this will be more time consuming that the kits i have done in the past but what the hell. It's good fun.
So is there any more equipment i need to purchase. Presume i'll need a thermometer for the boil or i could just
use the one i have been using up to now.

Thinking of going for the Blonde Ale, anyone done this? ( no smart answers )
Going to do some reading up this weekend but apparently i need 2 X 1.5 cans of Malt Extract . This seems like a lot of malt compared to what goes into a standard kit !..

howamidifferent

I'm on a major run. Started my first home brew on Dec 23rd and put on my 5th last night.

First was Coopers Canadian Blonde, then a Coopers Wheat Beer, Bottled a Coopers IPA last night, then put on a Czech Pilsner and a few days ago I put together a 28L batch of Khannies Apple Cider recipe.

So 3 kits in the bottle and two on the brew. Have another 2 kits left in the box to do. Another Czech Pilsner ( cos they were cheap at a tenner each ) and a Coopers Irish Stout.

When this stuff is completed conditioning in the bottle I wont be seen for a month

EDIT: Oh and I almost forgot, I bought a 5l demijohn to try a batch of mead as well...

tteknulp

Just put on a muntons gold continental pils ,its a 2 can kit replaced kit yeast with sa t-58 yeast ,going dry hop with 40g saaz when in secondary.