Your current / planned brews

Devi

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I see that's a Coopers IPA, I also dry-hopped one last night, using 30g Cascade.

Going to bottle next Saturday.

The carb drops won't add much, maybe 0.1% if even.

Ah id say it would be more than that, 1.5 carb drops is about 4g of glucose isn’t it? So 4 x 40(pints) would be 160g if you were batch priming Id say 0.2-0.4% depending.

lang

Yesterday, I bottled a Muntons Coinnosseur Yorkshire Bitter w/ Can of Light LME and Dry hop of Fuggles and EKG. Also put on a Coopers Cerveza Kit. Just went very basic on this one. Nothing special - Kit, 1kg extra light DME, 200g Brewing Sugar and the kit yeast. It's bubbling away nicely this morning.

The Cerveza is for the OH primarily... we are due our first child in August so this this brew should be just about ready by then for her to celebrate. I didn't want to mess with this kit at all as she's not a big Hop fan at all. I'll be putting on an IPA next and then I think it's stout time again.

I really enjoy Kit brewing and can't see myself 'progressing' anytime soon. I like the fact that in less than half an hour I can have a brew (of drinkable quality) on the go. I have been tweaking kits for a while, but sometimes it's nice just to throw the kit in, mix, add yeast and then leave.

blueshed

lang wrote: »

Yesterday, I bottled a Muntons Coinnosseur Yorkshire Bitter w/ Can of Light LME and Dry hop of Fuggles and EKG. Also put on a Coopers Cerveza Kit. Just went very basic on this one. Nothing special - Kit, 1kg extra light DME, 200g Brewing Sugar and the kit yeast. It's bubbling away nicely this morning.

The Cerveza is for the OH primarily... we are due our first child in August so this this brew should be just about ready by then for her to celebrate. I didn't want to mess with this kit at all as she's not a big Hop fan at all. I'll be putting on an IPA next and then I think it's stout time again.

I really enjoy Kit brewing and can't see myself 'progressing' anytime soon. I like the fact that in less than half an hour I can have a brew (of drinkable quality) on the go. I have been tweaking kits for a while, but sometimes it's nice just to throw the kit in, mix, add yeast and then leave.

you try one of these yet http://www.hambletonbard.com/products/beer-making-kits-brewing-beer.html/beer-kits-bulldog-brews-premium-homebrew.html

brewed one a few weeks ago, so so easy. at 4kg a kit no need to hack.

bottled it last Monday so will sample one next wend.

lang

blueshed wrote: »

you try one of these yet http://www.hambletonbard.com/products/beer-making-kits-brewing-beer.html/beer-kits-bulldog-brews-premium-homebrew.html

brewed one a few weeks ago, so so easy. at 4kg a kit no need to hack.

bottled it last Monday so will sample one next wend.

I was tempted to add one to my HBW order the other day, but hadn't heard enough to know if it was any good. Would be interested to hear what it's like. Which one did you brew?

stuchyg

Want to make another batch of ginger beer that doesnt look like gingery urine this time, could I steep some malt maybe to add a bit of colour

Lovely Bloke

stuchyg wrote: »

Want to make another batch of ginger beer that doesnt look like gingery urine this time, could I steep some malt maybe to add a bit of colour

I used a kilo of medium DME in a ginger beer 3 weeks ago, and it's a fairly dark colour.

tommiet

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wlp005
Yeast Starter: Yes 1000ml
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU: 29
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 18

9 lbs maris otter
1 lb crystal 30L
0.25lbs chocolate malt
0.5lb carapils

Mashed at 153 for 60 mins with 4 gallons of water.

0.5oz fuggles first wort hops (5.1%)
0.5oz styrian golding first wort hops (3.2%)
0.5oz fuggles @30 mins
1 oz styrian goldings @20 mins
1 oz styrian goldings @5 mins
1 protafloc added at 15 mins

goin brewing this next, but only goin with 3kg of maris otter.. I'll have to cut back the rest accordingly .... will that affect it much....?
heres a link to the original

sharingan

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Also eyeing up re-using the empty 5L bottles for secondary fermentation. Anyone ever done this?

I have bottled into them (for parties and the like).

If you want something to use for secondary get a demijohn. As you lift a plastic 5L, you will disturb any sediment, as the plastic deforms. Makes it no good as a secondary unless you were stuck

Lovely Bloke

Another brew day this saturday, three kits and an extract.

Three kits are all Coopers - an IPA, Bitter and Red Ale

Extract is as follows - for a basic light or pale ale.

500g Caramel/Crystal Malt
3kg DME
20g Cascade at 60, 30, 10, 0
20g Cascade to Dry Hop

We have an issue though, that's 5 x 20g Cascade hops. I only have 70g at the moment.

We also have EKG, Fuggles, Saaz, Hersbrucker and Challanger available.

which of them would you stick in, give the choice?

BeerNut

I'd save the Cascade for late and replace the 60 and half the 30 minute additions with Challenger.

Lovely Bloke

BeerNut wrote: »

I'd save the Cascade for late and replace the 60 and half the 30 minute additions with Challenger.

Thanks for that, what do you think of this

20g Fuggles 60
20g Fuggles 45
20g Chall 30
20g Chall 0

Dry hop with Cascade

BeerNut

It wouldn't be to my taste, but it'll still be beer at the end. Go for it.

stuchyg

I have the house to myself on sat so have decided to try my first extract brew which will be a blue moon clone. It will be a 1 gallon brew as my stock pot is 10 ltrs only. My recipe is as follows

200g carapils
500 dwe
Hallertau hops
Crushed coriander seed
Grated orange zest
Belgian wit yeast

Do ye reckon I will get the brew from the above

matrim

Got 10 liters of turbo cider on last night

howamidifferent

howamidifferent wrote: »

I put on 26L of Lidl cloudy Apple juice last night.
Picked up some frozen berries in Lidl also so will add to secondary in a few weeks. Looking forward to this...

Racked this to secondary on 01/05/13 onto another 4 Litres of cloudy Apple juice and 750gm strawberries. Moved to bottling bucket last night and primed with another 3 Litres of cloudy apple juice. Ended up bottling 59 x 500ml bottles and had the last half pint as a taster.

Works out at about 82 cent per 500ml I reckon.
Should be nice in a few weeks.

Lovely Bloke

Nice haul!

Khannie

Nice one. Interested to hear how the strawberries work out for you.

I only have the fruit of the forest berries and raspberries in mine. I have one conditioning in the bottle and another in secondary (with the added berries in muslin) at the moment. It is a massive hit with the missus, but takes longer to brew so requires more planning to have a constant supply of.

beans

This weekend sees an extract IPA on the agenda.

I'm using Bullion hops for bittering, and Pacific Gem for taste and aroma. The intention is something my lady-friend can get on board with - the only IPA she's ever not disliked has been Brewdog's Waimea IPA. Hoping the PG will be ok, as I couldn't find Nelson Sauvin anywhere.

Will be using a mix of Safale US05 and Wyeast 1056 for yeast.

Devi

Have an extract discover America pale ale and a cider/pear kit that was recommended on here planned for tonight. I’ve a mini-keg of APA in the fridge the past week, probably have a few while doing the brews.

stuchyg

My first extract brew has 20 mins left to go, im happy so far with my progress, my biggest worry was not steeping the grains right and getting stung by boil overs but so far so good.

Its a blue moon clone and recipe as follows

150g carapils
500g wheat spray
100g Dem Sugar
6g of Hallertau @ 30 mins
3g corainder leaf @ 15 mins
5g orange peel @ 15 mins
6g hallertau at Flameout

Lovely Bloke

This is our extract from yesterday



3kg DME
500g Crystal malt
Fuggles @ 60 & 45
Challanger @ 30 & 0
Dry hopping with Cascade for 7 days

Devi

Nice boiler baldy, does it work out more cost effective using gas?

stuchyg

That is as close as you can get to a boil over id imagine baldy

Lovely Bloke

Devi wrote: »

Nice boiler baldy, does it work out more cost effective using gas?

It was our first time using it, but there's loads of gas left.

I only have an electric cooker in my house, and we did an extract on it last time, and it took ages to boil, and was very hard to sustain it, with that it boiled fairly quickly and we were able to keep at a rolling boil, much better.

stuchyg wrote: »

That is as close as you can get to a boil over id imagine baldy

Yeah, it was weird, it kept kind of cycling between being high like that just boiling normally - it was about half full - a ten litre boil. Any more liquid and it would have gone over for sure.

Lovely Bloke

Hmmm, there's a fair stink off this extract, I might have to move it outside if it continues to be so stinky.

Any reason for this that anyone can think of? Last extract wasn't odourous at all.

Knifey Spoony

Currently enjoying my first homebrew, which is just a couple of days shy of being three weeks bottle conditioned (couldn't wait any longer really). It's a Copper's pale ale, so it's a light refreshing beer. Would make for a good session ale, maybe a bit too light for my usual tastes.

But, definitely a few lessons to learn for the next brew: use a bit more DME, could do with bit more of a malty kick to it and boost the alcohol content slightly, and use two carbonation drops per bottle, carbonation seems a bit low (used 1 and a bit drops in this brew). But otherwise, I very happy with it.

Herb Powell

Anyone have any tips for a Hoegaarden-esque witbeer? I'm half thinking of just trying the Brewferm kit tbh, with LME instead of sugar. Gonna be a wonderful summer beer

tteknulp

Herb Powell wrote: »

Anyone have any tips for a Hoegaarden-esque witbeer? I'm half thinking of just trying the Brewferm kit tbh, with LME instead of sugar. Gonna be a wonderful summer beer

id use candy sugar or golden syrup ,as more suitable for this style ,the triple and abbey are very good ,long condition required

Herb Powell

tteknulp wrote: »

id use candy sugar or golden syrup ,as more suitable for this style ,the triple and abbey are very good ,long condition required

Nice one, hadn't heard of using golden syrup before. What's the process for that? Do you just lob it in, or do you have to process it?

baron von something

my coopers lager will be ready tomorrow.had a sneaky bottle on tuesday.at 3.8% it was a bit light/watery.think it needed more than the 2carb drops i used too.hopefully it improved over the last few days or maybe i'm just too used to pilsner style beers.

Also bottled a better brew lager last nite.it both smelled and tasted remarkably similar to the highland cask brew that innis & gunn released last year.i put about 125g american medium oak chips in the brew.unfortunately i didnt soak them in whiskey though.maybe next time.super looking forward to see how the final product turns out