Your current / planned brews

miggs

Currently have 50L of blackberry wine, 1Gallon of elderberry wine and another gallon of beetroot wine all at different stages of fermenting.
Just made some sloe gin today.
Planning to buy more fermenting vessels soon so I can make more beer. Not sure what type yet, probably some kind of winter beer.

Khannie

miggs wrote: »

50L of blackberry wine

What weight of blackberries did you use for that much?

miggs

About 16kgs. Luckily this year was very good for blackberries so it was not too difficult.

Khannie

That's good work. I got about 2KG with the kids. I was about 2 weeks too late though. Made some syrup (for pancakes) with about half a kilo. Going to make some apple and blackberry cider with the rest. I have high hopes for it.

miggs

Over all myself and my girlfriend picked about 25kgs. made a lot of jam and blackberry crumble and the wine of course. Still have a few kgs frozen. I'm lucky to have a lot of free time and live in the middle of nowhere with loads of blackberries around.

wotswattage

By Halloween I'll have finished drinking my Coopers Dark ale which was delicious. Everyone who tasted it thought so too I'm well chuffed with my first go :cool::cool: And I'm hooked now too:D:D
Found some good advice here too so thanks guys!

Next up is a Red ale. I'll prob be going via a kit again then start experimenting for 2014..

Any suggestions for a good Red Ale kit? I'm Loving Franciscans Rebel Red so maybe something along those lines?!?
I'm also looking to fit a tap to my vessel as the siphon is a pain in the hole to be using. Anyfone find any taps to be better/worse to use?

avfc1874

wotswattage wrote: »

By Halloween I'll have finished drinking my Coopers Dark ale which was delicious. Everyone who tasted it thought so too I'm well chuffed with my first go :cool::cool: And I'm hooked now too:D:D
Found some good advice here too so thanks guys!

Next up is a Red ale. I'll prob be going via a kit again then start experimenting for 2014..

Any suggestions for a good Red Ale kit? I'm Loving Franciscans Rebel Red so maybe something along those lines?!?
I'm also looking to fit a tap to my vessel as the siphon is a pain in the hole to be using. Anyfone find any taps to be better/worse to use?

i've a tap on one of my buckets and it makes life a lot easier, i made an ale myself turned out great, only downside is you give out bottles for people to try and end up with not enough for yourself:rolleyes:

tteknulp

wotswattage wrote: »

I'm also looking to fit a tap to my vessel as the siphon is a pain in the hole to be using. Anyfone find any taps to be better/worse to use?

This might be of help to you.

Its the way i bottle really easy and quick .

http://bit.ly/1ajFwpF

wotswattage

Thats EXACTLY what I plan on doing!

Khannie

I have my apple and blackberry cider on the go. Looking forward to it.

tteknulp

I made this one on 22th Oct,

Belgian style tripel

2 x 1.5 Brewferm tripel kits
2 x 500g extra light DME
450g light honey
450g lyles Golden syrup

200g abbey malt steeped for 30 mins @ 68c

honey and syrup added 5mins from boil end

Hops
Styrian Goldings 28g added to boil @ 60 mins

Safele T-58 yeast 14g
made to 23ltrs

O.g 1078

howamidifferent

I put on a DOCs Merlot 30 bottle wine kit two weeks ago, it takes about 6 weeks so another few weeks left before I can bottle it.

Last night I had some time so put on 9 different WOW varieties in 5 Ltr water bottles. Had bought multiples juices and sugar a few months back but only got around to it last night. Should yield me another 54 bottles of various wines.

I've done the standard WOW ( White Grape & Orange ) and the "Easy White" (White Grape & Apple ) previously and both went down well with all who sampled. So this encouraged me to try some random mixtures.

Looking forward to sampling these.

Brewdog

Tried this beauty after a month conditioning in the shed. I have to say this is the nicest beer I have made so far and it tastes so good im not sure I even want to drink it. I will be making some more soon!

aligator_am

Going to stick on a Coopers Irish Stout for Christmas, did it before and added in a bag of Demerara sugar, it tasted pretty strong but the Dad loved it (he milled a few bottles of it with the xmas dinner).

Was also thinking of having a crack at a batch of Cerveza.

Am still using kits, not ventured in to the more advanced side of things but would like to dabble with it in the future.

drumswan

Drinking: Dry Irish Stout, Turbo Cider
Conditioning: Imperial Chilli Chocolate Porter
Fermenting: 1.065 OG quadruple hopped American IPA
Planning: Something Belgian, any suggestions?

baron von something

anybody have any ideas for a festive type beer.a few friends want me to brew a christmas special as my beers normally turn out quite good.i was thinking maybe a blond beer wit some orange peel and cinnamon maybe?what do you guys think

tyler71

Brewdog wrote: »

Tried this beauty after a month conditioning in the shed. I have to say this is the nicest beer I have made so far and it tastes so good im not sure I even want to drink it. I will be making some more soon!

Looks nice- would you mind sharing the receipe? I love Golden Ale. There's a bit of a struggle when you make a nice beer-do you share it a lot or keep it to yourself, every bottle is given away grudgingly!

baron von something

seeing as its so close to christmas a lot of my first/second/third etc. choice products are sold out and i really need to get cracking to have a brew ready for christmas

i've settled for a lightly spiced elderberry pils but i'm just wondering how do i give it a 'darker' flavour.would putting a dark spraymalt work in a light beer or would something like coopers brew enhancer 2 give it a more maltier profile

BeerNut

You could steep some dark crystal malt and add that in. Say 500g in 3L of water at 60C for 20 minutes.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Drinking: Cooper's IPA with 1.5kg of LME and dry-hopped with 50g of Cascade. I'm delighted with this as the GF loves it. She normally dislikes my taste in beer so it's a surprise.

Conditioning: A Ditch's Stout variation - Cooper's Irish Stout, 1.5kg of LME and 500g of dark brown sugar.

Fermenting:

A second batch of the IPA. This will be dry-hopped again with 50g of Cascade. Only difference is this time I've added 500g of sugar (150g dark brown and 350g white) on top of the 1.5kg of LME.

Blackberry wine. This has been fermenting for ages, Followed CJJ Berry's recipe from First Steps in Winemaking. Started it on the 1st of October. Smells amazing. Tasted it about 3 weeks ago and it tasted more like a port due to the sweetness, had a wonderful blackberry aftertaste though, just needed to ferment out a bit more.

Wurzel's Orange Wine: My second batch, only put it on last night. This one is going to be a bit more Rosé looking as I used a white/red grape juice mix as I didn't have any white grape juice.

sharingan

This beer was meant to be a Ginger Honey IPA. Not my best planning, involved both screwing up the recipe bill, and the mash day.

It balanced out a little after an extended stay in the fermenter, but it is closer to a christmassy ESB than anything else now.

Reminds me a lot of what I did last year, which was just ginger & DME with some spices, but its a bit more refined this time.

Clear bottles are just to monitor the colour. I expect them to be consumed first.

tteknulp

tteknulp wrote: »

I made this one on 22th Oct,

Belgian style tripel

2 x 1.5 Brewferm tripel kits
2 x 500g extra light DME
450g light honey
450g lyles Golden syrup

200g abbey malt steeped for 30 mins @ 68c

honey and syrup added 5mins from boil end

Hops
Styrian Goldings 28g added to boil @ 60 mins

Safele T-58 yeast 14g
made to 23ltrs

O.g 1078

Quick edit : bottled 14th November f.g 1014 i moved from primary after 2wks into carboy left in eaves of attic @ 15c to help drop yeast & clear it up for 5 days before bottling , its near clear in bottle already . Now condition for a few months.

Edwardius

made an amber ale today, 3.5kg maris otter, 500g crystal, 100g carapils, Northern at 60, cascade at 20, williamette at 5
US-05 yeast. Made 22 litres to 1.046 so it won't be too strong but should be 61IBU

Imperial chocolate stout was amazing but I'm going to hide it away for a few months. I "aged" 8 litres of it on oak for three weeks, will crack a bottle soon for testing purposes.

Going to bottle the Youngs barley wine tomorrow, I've a feeling that it will need some time to age.

next up: Oatmeal stout and an IPA. I'm not sure what strength though, maybe 5.5-6

I don't know what to do after that lot though. Tempted to try a lambic because I just leave it around and forget about it for six months

Anyone know a good red wine kit?

sharingan

tteknulp wrote: »

Quick edit : bottled 14th November f.g 1014 i moved from primary after 2wks into carboy left in eaves of attic @ 15c to help drop yeast & clear it up for 5 days before bottling , its near clear in bottle already . Now condition for a few months.

how do you find T-58 ? I know its often advised as the basic stand in for a lot of belgian styles, but I used it on a pale ale (all base malt) and I found the yeast spicyness a bit harsh and unsubtle. It also clashed with significant hop bitterness.

Not my best recipe experiment, but I would like others experiences of T-58, as I am tempted to shy away from it.

tteknulp

sharingan wrote: »

how do you find T-58 ? I know its often advised as the basic stand in for a lot of belgian styles, but I used it on a pale ale (all base malt) and I found the yeast spicyness a bit harsh and unsubtle. It also clashed with significant hop bitterness.

Not my best recipe experiment, but I would like others experiences of T-58, as I am tempted to shy away from it.

I find t-58 quite good for for beers above 7% as a sachet will reach f.g. Quite easily i agree about spiceyness and some times citrus flavours ,it suits belgians i find .

S-33 would be better for pale ale as finishes cleaner too.its from edme strain i think.

howamidifferent

Bottled 30 bottles of Pinot Grigio last night.
I've done one of these earlier in the year and its a nice simple white.

sharingan

tteknulp wrote: »

I find t-58 quite good for for beers above 7% as a sachet will reach f.g. Quite easily i agree about spiceyness and some times citrus flavours ,it suits belgians i find .

S-33 would be better for pale ale as finishes cleaner too.its from edme strain i think.

I have S-33 and I was thinking in that direction. My T-58 beer was session strength.

There are some guys who have used Danstar Belle Saison to good effect. Its a Saison strain, so it will munch through malt like nobodies business. Hoping to experiment with it for Saisons soon, but I dont think it would be a general purpose yeast. Might try it with a Dubbel (and forego any sugar additions).

Khannie

Bottled my apple and blackberry cider last night. Only got 9 litres out of it as I left it a bit late to go blackberry picking this year.

Antisocialiser

Plan to start my second ever brew on Monday (just waiting on my 15L brewpot to arrive)

Coopers IPA 1.7kg with 900g Medium Spraymalt and 100g brewing sugar. Hope to ferment for a week and then dry hop with 50g Saaz hops for another week before bottling. My plan is to have it ready for xmas. Still very much a novice so any tips / advice would be welcomed!

2.6kg malt extract; I'm hoping for a medium-full bodied, medium alcohol content IPA!:D


And just about to start my limoncello now, thanks again for the advice dararyder!

baron von something

did a brewferm pils extract with 1kg of muntons dark spraymalt.it says it normally takes 6-8 wks for it to be ready but i have the temp up slightly in hopes to have it finished by dec27 which is 5 weeks from yesterday

added 4 sticks of cinnamon and 500g of elderberries.its bubbling and gurgling away nicely and the aroma is amazing