Your current / planned brews

Khannie

deRanged wrote: »

This hobby is not for the instant gratification crowd

Hehe. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.

stuchyg

Bottled my ginger beer today, then racked my ipa into secondary and dry hopped with summit. Last action of the day was making a coopers stout kit. Exhausted now

I'll be bottling my dry hopped coopers IPA later, I went with cascade, lovely smell off it. I'm going to do another stout/ dark ale combo with oak chips and whiskey as soon as the ipa is bottled. It turned out so well last time I've been hankering for more.
When that's done I'm thinking of moving up to extract brewing.

Eramen

Me and a friend are going to be brewing an 'Irish' stout tomorrow or Thursday. It's our first stout so any feedback/suggestions will be appreciated! We've seven very good brews under our belt but the amount of grain here is above and beyond the quantities we have used before, all that flaked barley.. etc

The recipe we are thinking over, something along the lines of:

Partial Extract

Batch size: 48 liters
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG


5.3kg Light DME 58.7%
500g Munich Malt 5.5%
2kg Flaked Barley 22%
800g Roasted Barley 9%
300g Chocolate Malt 3.3%
150g Acid Malt 1.5%

[Should I take out chocolate completely? will it have much effect in a stout? I know in a lighter ale it would]

[Also will the Munich (the only base malt I have around atm) have enough conversion power in the mash to convert the specialty grains or will I need to use more?]

80g EKG (60 mins)

20g EKG (20mins)

or

100g EKG (60mins)

[I know Irish stout traditionally doesn't have flavoring hops but we don't mind]

US 04 in fermenter 1

Nottingham in fermenter 2


Thanks guys!

beans

Eramen wrote: »

[Should I take out chocolate completely? will it have much effect in a stout? I know in a lighter ale it would]

I used 3% chocolate malt in my last stout, which was decidedly chocolatey

beans

In an effort to clear out some of my stores of grains and hops, I've got a Belgian Dubbel / Strong Brown Ale sitting in primary at the minute.

I decided to use two different strains of yeast in this one - Wyeast Belgian Abbey 2 (#1762, which is supposedly close to a Westmalle yeast), and Belgian Strong Ale (#1388, allegedly close to what's used in Duvel).

It's fermentation started very slowly, nothing visible for nearly a week, activity racking up for a few days, now slowing off again. Hydrometer tests reveal that it's almost done after 13 days, but there's still an awful lot of yeast in suspension so I'm going to give it another week.

It tastes nicely malty today, god knows how it'll finish up though.



Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.50 kg Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 76.0 %
0.12 kg Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2.6 %
0.12 kg Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 2.6 %
0.12 kg Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.5 %
0.08 kg Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 1.7 %
0.02 kg Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 0.4 %
100.00 gm Tettnang [5.10%] (60 min) Hops 25.0 IBU
17.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (10 min) Hops 1.5 IBU
0.45 kg Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 9.8 %
0.20 kg Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 4.3 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Abbey II (Wyeast Labs #1762) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs Belgian Strong Ale (Wyeast Labs #1388) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Estimated Original Gravity: 1.070 SG (1.040-1.080 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.017 SG (1.012-1.018 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Color: 30.2 SRM (10.0-20.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 26.5 IBU (20.0-35.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 3.8 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 6.9 % (3.2-7.8 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 6.1 %

Sky King

Khannie wrote: »

Hehe. Absence Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

FYP

In other news I have done a few beers now and have finally taken the plunge with a wine kit.

I quite like nice wine and am wary that this will produce minging results.

Experiences?

howamidifferent

I did my first wine kit in February , a five day white wine kit it was called...left it in primary for 2 weeks and a few days in secondary. I've since bottled and drank a few. It was drinkable, nothing super but nothing offensive either. I have about 20 bottles left that I may leave for a month or so before tasting again.

I have another 7 day white win kit waiting to go on when I have the empties for it.

scrapsmac

I have a small 4 litre cascade smash in a Demi john. I wish to dry hop with about 5g of cascade. If I remove the bung from the primary will it become oxidised? Also how much of my precious beer will the hops absorb?

Sky King

howamidifferent wrote: »

I did my first wine kit in February , a five day white wine kit it was called...left it in primary for 2 weeks and a few days in secondary. I've since bottled and drank a few. It was drinkable, nothing super but nothing offensive either. I have about 20 bottles left that I may leave for a month or so before tasting again.

The idea of a 5 or 7 day kit really goes against the grain (no pun intended) with me... Maybe a kit which takes longer has better results?? From what i read online a couple of months in the bottle is really necessary to take the raw edge off a homemade wine.

scrapsmac

15 litres of a sweet chocolate stout on. Extract with roasted barley, chocolate malt, crystal and lactose.

Came in at 1.060 with us 04 English ale yeast.

Hydro sample was smooth and tasty!!

Edwardius

Made a SMaSH ale with 7kg maris otter and centennial hops. Mashed at 64C. I went with 20g hops at 60min, 30g at 30, 20g at 15 and 15 at 0min, gonna dry hop with the last 15. Had a hillariously stuck sparge, which involved some serious swearing and scalding, came out with about 24 litres at 1.060 (I need to make things a bit more efficient) and pitched in a washed US-05 (I didn't have the foresight to make a starter). Had about three inches of headspace in the fermenter but the krausen blew out the lid after two days. Smells great! I think it might turn out to be a good summer ale if I haven't made an arse of the hop additions. Calculators reckoned about 60IBU so it could have a bit of a bite for some folks.

Eramen

Eramen wrote: »

Me and a friend are going to be brewing an 'Irish' stout tomorrow or Thursday. It's our first stout so any feedback/suggestions will be appreciated! We've seven very good brews under our belt but the amount of grain here is above and beyond the quantities we have used before, all that flaked barley.. etc

The recipe we are thinking over, something along the lines of:

Partial Extract

Batch size: 48 liters
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG


5.3kg Light DME 58.7%
500g Munich Malt 5.5%
2kg Flaked Barley 22%
800g Roasted Barley 9%
300g Chocolate Malt 3.3%
150g Acid Malt 1.5%

[Should I take out chocolate completely? will it have much effect in a stout? I know in a lighter ale it would]

[Also will the Munich (the only base malt I have around atm) have enough conversion power in the mash to convert the specialty grains or will I need to use more?]

80g EKG (60 mins)

20g EKG (20mins)

or

100g EKG (60mins)

[I know Irish stout traditionally doesn't have flavoring hops but we don't mind]

US 04 in fermenter 1

Nottingham in fermenter 2


Thanks guys!

Well I made this today, the wort tasted really nice, quite roasty indeed!

evolving_doors

Sky King wrote: »

FYP

In other news I have done a few beers now and have finally taken the plunge with a wine kit.

I quite like nice wine and am wary that this will produce minging results.

Experiences?

Just took the plunge and started a ' Wurzels orange wine' , would it be skangerish to bottle in flip top beer bottles?

lang

Put on this brew yesterday:

Coopers Original Real Ale (1.7kg Can)
Can of Liquid Malt Extract (Light)
300g Dry Malt Extract (Light)
Hop Tea: 30g Cascade Leaf @20m, 12g Fuggles Pellets @6m (The 300g DME was used in this with about 1.5 litres pre-boil of water)
Yeast: Safale s-04 pitched straight into wort, left on top for 10 minutes and then gently mixed in. Pitching temp about 22C
Checked on it this morning and all is bubbling away nicely. Will keep it in Primary for about 10-14 days, transfer to Secondary and Dry Hop with about another 30g Cascade.

Khannie

Armelodie wrote: »

Just took the plunge and started a ' Wurzels orange wine' , would it be skangerish to bottle in flip top beer bottles?

Not in the slightest. I stuck some of mine in 2L sprite bottles the last time.

evolving_doors

Khannie wrote: »

Not in the slightest. I stuck some of mine in 2L sprite bottles the last time.

grand, I just couldn't be arst buying a wine bottle capper corker thing.

I've notice that a few you tube videos dont bother covering the demijohn to keep the light out, is this just a beer/cider issue.

God this wine is a long term commitment for just a demi johns worth... The only logical solution is to make loads more asap..

Has anyone here done the WOW in 20 l buckets?

gazahayes

Made a crate to hold 24 500ml bottles beats cardboard boxes especially when they get wet.

joctcl

gazahayes wrote: »

Made a crate to hold 24 500ml bottles beats cardboard boxes especially when they get wet.

That's great, can you post some more detail about construction on a separate thread I would like to make some of them myself

gazahayes

joctcl wrote: »

That's great, can you post some more detail about construction on a separate thread I would like to make some of them myself

Found it all online here
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/how-make-beer-crate-12oz-beer-bottles-318788/
Just modified it to fit 24 bottles very simple to make only used glue and nails.

blueshed

got a coopers brewmaster stout and the lidl/aldi turbo cider brewing atm with a wheat beer kit and coopers ale kit next up

stuchyg

Racked my stout onto a shot of spiced rum and vanilla extract today. Smells amazing, here's hoping its a good mix

Herb Powell

Just have an IPA in the fermenter there, it's hilariously high gravity compared with my first brew. Can't wait to see how this goes.

KAGY

Had a bottle of Young's Barley wine last night eventhough its only been bottled a week. Seriously tasty evennow, esp for a brew that's meant to be long maturing. Proper two finger head thatlasts too. (It was in the primary for over 4 weeks though)
Confidence now restored after a disastrous stout and an even worse winter ale :-)

Khannie

I have two variations on a "classic".

1) Mixed berries + cloudy apple (1.2KG of berries to 11L of apple - put them in sanitised tights).
2) cloudy apple + juice of cooking apples.

Looking forward to both.

Herb Powell

**** **** **** ****, heating is gone, the temperature of my brew is decreasing, I hope to **** it can be fixed before my brew dies.

joctcl

Herb Powell wrote: »

**** **** **** ****, heating is gone, the temperature of my brew is decreasing, I hope to **** it can be fixed before my brew dies.

Light bulb, electric rad, Christmas lights in a box will generate heat

Herb Powell

joctcl wrote: »

Light bulb, electric rad, Christmas lights in a box will generate heat

I have a fan heater into the room now, I'll see how it goes. Absolutely infuriating though, wanted to get a nice brew on this one, and then the heating ****ing goes. It's probably ruined.

Khannie

Does heat make that much of a difference?

lang

gazahayes wrote: »

Made a crate to hold 24 500ml bottles beats cardboard boxes especially when they get wet.

Looks very nice. Might built a few myself. I always have a brew in the bottles and the cardboard boxes are beginning to get a bit tatty. Did you have a specific plan you got from interweb or did you just work out measurements youself? Would just have to make sure to store them outta the light or keep covered with blanket or something.