Hot, Quick and Thick

Hot, quick and thick is moving

2006-07-23T23:36:00.000+09:30

Over to WordPress and generously hosted by Aaron over at beachbrewery.com

The new URL is http://hotquickandthick.beachbrewery.com/

Today's brew day went well, will update on it tomorrow... have been too busy playing with the new blog software tonight.

Blunt Force Trauma!

2006-07-20T17:34:00.000+09:30

I cracked the grain for my barleywine today, 15kg of Joe White Trad Ale. For revision, this is the recipe I posted a couple months ago:

Blunt Force Trauma

OG 1.100
~100 IBU
~30 EBC
20-23L

Joe White Trad Ale 15kg

Pacific Gem 14.4%, 20g @ 60
Simcoe 13.3%, 20g @ 60
Pride of Ringwood 9%, 20g @ 60
Cluster 7.2%, 15g @ 30
Fuggles 3.8%, 7g @ 30
Goldings, 5.6%, 20g @ 15
Pacific Gem 14.4%, 20g @ 15
Simcoe 12%, 20g @ 15
Amarillo 8.5%, 20g @ 15
Chinook flowers, ~20g @ flameout

Coopers pale ale yeast, slurry.

66°C mash
20°C ferment

I have decided on a few alterations/addendums:

I will mash at 64°C to help the attenuation a little more, and probably stretch it to 90 minutes if I can wait that long.

After much deliberance I [edit] almost decided to drop the Coopers yeast. Last year I brewed an aussie strong ale (Old Regret) that produced some heavy fusels thanks to a high ferment temp and right now I am drinking a coopers sparkling ale that is producing a ghost of similar flavours which made me worry about high gravity ferments and the yeast's ability to deal with them. However, I have decided to be a true brewing pioneer and see if I can get the yeast to work for me.

I am going to throw maybe 300g of Thomas Fawcett crystal and 200g of chocolate malt into the second runnings and draw it off for a small beer. The beer I make with that will be purely a spur of the moment decision, however I am going to aim for a starting gravity around 1.040. This small beer will provide the yeast starter for the barleywine while the wort sits patiently in a jerry.

I am going to try to keep the barleywine ferment between 15-20°C by the strip thermometer on the fermenter until it reaches approximately 50-70% apparent attenuation (ie from an OG from 1.100 to 1.050-1.030. Then I will allow it to raise to a maximum of 24. I am hoping this will help the yeast finish without allowing any dodgy by-products.

Something I am also considering, but ultimately will probably dismiss, involves saving extra yeast slurry from the small beer. Then, periodically waking sampes up with a fermenting barleywine injection and adding it to the fermenter to give the ferment some fresh yeast. My main concern over this is adding too much yeast, and ultimately I think I will skip the idea, though it is one I will consider in future.

Finally, the hop schedule might change slightly thanks to the consumption of old stock and the gathering of a kilo of new over the last month. It's all good.

cleaning

2006-07-19T17:53:00.000+09:30

After my last brew day I hosed out my kettle on the day, unscrewed the tap and forgot about it. After three or so weeks in the carport I decided it needed a good clean.

After giving the kettle a good scrub, I tipped a little neat phosphoric acid in the bottom and gave that a scrubbing, no before photo but rest assured it was very brown beforehand:

The dark spots seem to be where I had a little corrosion already, I am interested to see what happens to them as the bottom of the pot browns up again.

Despite a quick rinse, the tap still held a fair bit of porter wort and some nice mould growth. It got a disassemble, soak and clean. As you can see, there are more than a couple parts to it:

Also have new shelving for the shed, Ikea's finest:

Looking at them, they would possibly make a nice brew stand. They are rated to hold 65kg each however at 36cm deep might be a little shallow to hold everything properly and would probably need anchoring to a wall for safety's sake.

In unrelated news, looking forward to tasting stevesa's lambic :)

Berry wheat bottled

2006-07-14T22:21:00.000+09:30

15 litres all up, bottled a little later than I would have liked but it's still tasting nice. Berry flavour is a lot milder than the last one i did, and it has a good subtle tartness to it that will be complemented well by the carbonation. Primed at 7g/L to get sufficient fizz. It's hazy, most likely pectin.

Next time I won't bother with the mix of berries and just go straight raspberry. That works well and makes for a more identifiable fruit flavour IMO. Next mulberry season I want to attack the tree back home too and go for a hefeweizen base. The colour on that ought to be impressive.

SG updates,

Porter 1.060 - 1.015
Rye 1.048 - 1.010

Helles is not moving very quickly, it's almost too cold outside for it and I think I may have underpitched a little.

porter and the rye (and helles)

2006-07-13T00:39:00.000+09:30

After a heavy hit from the heat belt, the american rye has dropped to 1.012. It is almost murkier than it was at 1.018 so I am going to reattach the heat belt to it soon to bring the temp back up to the low 20's. The porter has dropped from 1.060 to 1.018 in less than a week, and is tasting promising, the heat belt is on it right now to bring it back up from 16.

Also checked the helles, it is down in the 1.020 range and putting out some good lager fart gas. All good on that front.

Berry Wheat, Helles, Porter

2006-07-08T19:15:00.000+09:30

Syphoned the berry wheat last night, it was a royal pain in the ass. Had to syphon as the snap tap was blocked with berries, but my hose not only was only just long enough, but it had a kink in it that kept blocking. With all the time, exposure and handling required to get the beer syphoned I am wondering if the beer will end up infected, oxidised or both.

Finally got around to pitching yeast in the helles and the porter last night, 26L of Helles and ~18L of porter. That makes it almost two weeks from brewing to pitching, about as long as I am comfortable with stretching it. Recipes are:

Bloody Helles

OG 1.046
20 IBU

85% Pils
10% Munich II
5% CaraPils

Hallertauer Magnum bittering
1g/L Hersbrucker plugs flameout
0.5g/L Spalt flameout

2308 Munich Lager

Mash Paddle Porter

OG 1.060
40 IBU

70% Trad Ale
20% Munich I
4% CaraAroma
4% TF Choc
2% Black Patent

Hallertauer Magnum bittering
1.5g/L Fuggles plugs @ 15

Coopers Ale yeast

Only deviation on brewday was that the Helles flameout hops got thrown into the jerry of hot wort as I forgot to add them at flaemout. That will probably increase the bitterness a little, hopefully not too much. Will definitely increase the hop flavour I think. Somehow I managed to hit my target OG of 1.060 on the porter exactly, impressive considering by that point of the day I wasn't remembering much.

While barleywine will indeed be next, I am contemplating sitting down to write an oatmeal stout and a tripel recipe tonight.

Cluster in the Rye - Update

2006-07-06T21:25:00.000+09:30

The ferment on this beer is going exceptionally slowly, 1.048 to 1.016 in over three weeks and I would like it to drop another three points before I do anything with it. The krauesen is still active on top even if it has died right back and the beer is still very cloudy so I am not worried about it being stuck just yet. Plus, two days ago it was 1.018, which was when I slapped on the brew belt and brought it from 16-18°C up to 22. I think that is helping.

The bitterness seems to be quite good, I wouldn't have wanted to take it any higher than the low 20 IBU range. I am having difficulty pulling the Cluster flavour out from the rye, as I have never used either before. There's nothing in the hop profile that says XXXX to me at the moment, nor that reminds me of my CAP. I expect it to be more apparent when the beer is finished and cleared though. And bubbly.

Next on the brew schedule is barleywine. That will be a rather experimental brew, with lots of room for stuff to cock up. Looking forward to it. The second runnings of the barleywine will be converted into whatever sort of beer I feel like making on the day.

updates

2006-07-04T23:19:00.000+09:30

A busy month and a few other distractions means I have been a while between updates. Sitting down with one of my last bottles of my red indian pale ale last night, I realised how nicely it has come into form and it made my beer gene flare active again, encouraging me to post an update. The RIPA needed a month to mature, it has only just recently become the beer I meant it to be. Unfortunately, at just over a month in the bottle I have the wrong side of a 6-pack left. It is just now approaching AIPA territory, but without the aggressive bitterness associated with the style.

On the 12th of July I bottled my Smoked Schwarzbier and my Big Brew Day Corona. Both are still not ready to drink which is very frustrating, they both taste like they need another two weeks in bottle minimum, and the schwarz has the additional complication of underattenuating. At the moment it tastes like a porter. The corona is tasting eerily similar to how my glacier summer ale did last year, especially while not yet fully conditioned.

Last weekend I had a double brewday, porter and helles. Also invited a few brewers around, sampled a few beers and in general managed to not remember a few chunks of the day. Was a good day, but I still haven't pitched yeast into either wort. Recipes of both to come with further updates, and thanks to everyone who rocked up.

Also needing doing is racking my berry wheat, it will have to be syphoned as the berries have blocked the snap tap. It is more than ready to bottle, but i want to try and settle out a bit more of the crap first, the last berry beer i did was bitty with berry and that detracted from the appearance. My american rye has had a very slow ferment, largely from sitting at the low end of 1010's temperature range. I ought to check the gravity again tonight, it should be finished by now. At last sampling it was around 1.025 and tasting pretty good.

Next on the list to brew will be a barleywine and a small beer, i think. And after that, a german pilsner.

Brewed - Cluster in the Rye

2006-06-08T18:45:00.000+09:30

Brewed the American rye today, all went reasonably smoothly. Hit either 70% efficiency or just under. Made another last minute decision on the rye and upped the malted rye to 600g, so a total of 6.6kg with around 19% rye.

I took a bit of extra care on recording volumes this batch. 19L mash in, 1 litre boiling water at mash out, 25L batch sparge. 13L first runnings at 16 brix , 25L second runnings at 6 brix. 38L in kettle at 9.5 brix.

Lost a bit of wort in the kettle because my pickup tube flipped up a half inch when i had to tighten the locknut on the outside of the kettle. Not sure how much is in the jerry but there's probably 25L at 1.048, maybe a little more.

Some photos of the day,

All the kettle fittings soaking in some hot water. lazy man's way of cleaning them:

The grains in the mash tun; malted rye in the brown corner, flaked rye in the, er, brown:

Doughing in left me with an impressive doughball, a quarter of it left here:

The first runnings came off successfully but the second stuck halfway through. I don't find a stuck sparge to be too big an issue, cutting the grainbed always gets it going again:

It was wildlife day today at the hot quick and thick brewery, one bee fell in the mash. Well, after I closed the lid on it:

... and later on another fell into the kettle, and mr mouse made another appearance around the wheelie bins.

Lastly, the tail on my kettle lets in air when the hose is even slightly stretched, so today I implemented an ad hoc fix for that. Will either get some reusable plastic hose clamps or get a new hose tail.

The rye flavour in the wort was subtle but nice. I suspect both it and the mouthfeel will be a lot more prominent once the ferment is over. The only sort of indication of the near-mythical viscous nature of a rye malt brewday was the final hop addition; the Cluster pellets broke up but refused to sink into the wort, instead they sat there like a big green puddle.

This weekend I will bottle the Corona & the Schwarz and rack the american wheat onto berries. Next brew I will need to decide between porter and helles.

American Rye

2006-06-07T17:20:00.000+09:30

Cluster in the Rye

OG 1.048
24 IBU

39.7% JW Trad Ale
39.7% Weyermann Pils
11% flaked rye
4.8% CaraRed
4.8% TF malted rye

Hallertau Northern Brewer bittering
0.7g/L Cluster flameout

1010 American Wheat

I bought the grain on Sunday but have been putting off brewing it. Last night I picked up a couple kilos of rye malt from wee stu and have decided to bump up the rye in the brew as a last minute alteration, hence the odd percentages.

And yes, I chose Cluster just so i could make a bad pun of the title. Brewday will be in a couple days.

Also need to bottle both my lagers, and this weekend will rack the American wheat onto those frozen mixed berries.

RIPA and other miscellany

2006-06-05T17:54:00.000+09:30

Made the pleasant discovery that my red indian pale ale is quite quaffable after only a week in the bottle. I was struggling to work out whether I should classify this as an american pale ale, an american amber ale, or an american ipa, especially after notonly not hitting my target gravity but also having to dilute the beer slightly with my faux corona at bottling.

It seems that even with diluting with an unlagered lager the beer is coming up well, and is still very strong. I suspect it's a little more malt heavy than a normal AIPA but the hop presence is too assertive for an american amber. Mildly disappointed with the carared too in the colour stakes, I was not expecting anything vivid, but what I have is not anything I couldn't get with other blends of grains. However the flavour is very pleasant for a beer with 7.5% crystal, and I expect the malt profile will only improve over the next two months. What I do not know is how the decline of the hop profile will correlate with this. At the moment it tastes like the impromptu Cascade dry hopping was an excellent idea, it's providing good flavour to the underlyning chinook pine and also helps balance the generous malt bill.

I am thinking by the time the competition period rolls around the bitterness will be more emphasised though the hop flavour may be lacking a little. Or, the beer may be all gone.

The smoked schwarzbier is suffering from severe evaporation issues, although the smokiness is not really present. Next brew along these lines I will drop the rauch and see if the brew has a different flavour. Corona was in need of more lagering at last sampling, will retest it tonight and see if it's ready to bottle. The Schwarz definitely is, when I can find the time. Also on the to do list is brewing the American Rye. Last week's brew is nearly fully attenuated and tasting fairly nice. I am not sure if 1010 has a nice ester profile or if it really emphasises the late hopping I use with it. I guess I will find out in both the rye and when I brew an alt with it.

Berry Wheat Brewed

2006-05-30T18:47:00.000+09:30

At this moment in time it's only an American wheat, berries will be added to secondary. Bill the brewery assistant came around to help on Sunday, as did brewery assistant Emz, lured by the prospect of helping brew a fruit beer.

Berry Wheat

OG 1.044
18 IBU

JW wheat malt 50%
Weyermann pilsner 40%
Weyermann carapils 7%
Weyermann acidulated malt 3%

Simcoe bittering
Amarillo 0.5g/L @ flameout

Wyeast 1010 American Wheat

and in secondary, 800g total of:
raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants
mainly raspberries

Efficiency was down to 60%, not sure why. End result is 20L of 1.044 beer in the fermenter, yeast pitched tonight. I only pitched half the starter, it's around 1.6L and at high krausen and I will use the other half in an American rye to be brewed soon.

I also deployed one of my mashmaster thermometers in the brew, mounted very professionally:

And another photo, with em stirring the sparge:

Bill left his pink jacket at home that day.

Also, when pitching the yeast tonight I noticed a good reason to move all my grains to a higher shelf in the cupboard:

Bottled - RIPA

2006-05-28T02:05:00.000+09:30

Bottled the RIPA tonight in a very late night bottling session. First off I racked the Corona to my new jerry so I could have a regular fermenter free for bottling. In good news, not only did the jerry come with a tap (screwed into the underside of the lid) when the label said tap not included, but it also held 25 litres of beer when the label said 22. And a good thing too, because that didn't occur to me till after I racked.

My favourite bit is how it has WATER written across the side of the jerry.

I racked the corona specifically so I would have a fermenter free. I prefer to bottle in these because the whirlpool action of the cylindrical vessel mixes the priming sugars evenly. Also, I wanted to use a normal fermenter for the RIPA so I could fit a sediment reducer to the inside to catch the leaf hops and prevent them getting into the bottler. However, I forgot about that until after I'd sanitised the fermenter for bottling, and could not be stuffed going to find one.

It turned out it did not matter, as no hops made it from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. Not even all the beer made it, the hops had plugged the snap tap so badly that the beer stopped flowing altogether after 15 litres. That left me a few litres left in the fermenter, and more annoyingly priming sugar dissolved in the beer in the bottling bucket enough for 17L when I had 15L in there only. To solve that I dragged out the corona and racked a litre of that on top of the bottling beer, to give 16L at a priming rate of roughly 6.8g/L.

Once I'd given up on the remants of the RIPA, I blew the hops out of the tap and poured myself a pint of the remainder. Fortunately no brewery assistants were around to photograph me with my lips wrapped around the tap.

Bottling, my new valve decided that it was going to be a retard and fall off half a dozen times. It is not nice reclaiming the tip of a bottling valve from a bucket of beer dregs and spraying it and hands both before reattaching, all in 4°C weather. Eventually I gave up and filled my bottles by turning the tap and using the plastic length of the valve only. And after that, my printer ran out of black ink, refusing to print any labels at all. Upon switching to full colour it printed 24 of 24 labels before giving up again and freezing completely. Happy days.

Brew turnover

2006-05-25T16:24:00.000+09:30

My Red Indian Pale Ale and Smoked Schwarzbier have both been in fermenters for over three weeks, the schwarz was racked to secondary around two weeks ago (now 1.050 - 1.013) and the RIPA is still in primary (1.054 - 1.012). I think this is a fairly good indication of why I can have three fermenters full at all times and still struggle to keep myself in beer, because it is a rather long brew cycle.

I am going to fine the RIPA with gelatin tonight when the temperature drops, and bottle it on Saturday. Overall it will be around five weeks from brewing to drinking. The schwarzbier will be around seven weeks, factoring in a lagering period of a couple weeks. My Corona is two weeks into fermenting (plus one week of the wort sitting in the cube), and has nearly attenuated fully (1.044 - 1.008), so has just come out of the fridge for diacetyl rest and to help the attenuation. This one will be at least 6-7 weeks before drinking also. Plus I have a batch of classic american pilsner that needs another week to condition, and the remnants of old würt and paddlesteamer as well as a couple bottles if IPA.

If I say an average of 23L per batch for these three batches, and an average of 6 weeks turnaround, then assuming continuous production that is around 11.5 litres per week, say 11 with evaporation losses. That's just over 29 stubbies a week, and should be ample to keep me supplied. However, this doesn't account for other people drinking my beer, nor occasions when I am not operating at full capacity. I am thinking a couple of 25L jerries for fermenting and cold conditioning are justifiable at this point.

1010 smacked

2006-05-20T18:44:00.000+09:30

I'll be brewing three beers in the next few months with this yeast, berry wheat, american rye and american wheat.

Berry wheat will be brewed next weekend:

Berry Wheat

OG 1.042
13 IBU
26L

Joe White Wheat malt 50%
Weyermann Pilsner malt 40%
Carapils 5%
Acidulated malt 5%

Simcoe 12% AA 10g @ 60
Amarillo 10g @ flameout

300g frozen raspberries in secondary
500g frozen mixed berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants) in secondary.

1010 American Wheat
ferment temp 18°C

SG Sampling and Slow Learners

2006-05-17T23:48:00.001+09:30

My Red Indian pale ale had approached the point where it is eminently samplable. I dumped half a litre of the beer on the floor trying to take an SG sample before I could force the tap to close. Going back again afterwards to check the tap, I fiddled with it and lost another half a litre on the floor that I had just cleaned. Third time lucky, I approached it with a stein, the tap broke off and I had to drink a litre

I emptied that, fished the tap handle from the bottom and reattached it. Try to pour a beer and... it floods again. I captured this one before closing though, luckily. Thinking about why my lovely snap tap is now causing me trouble, I think I can say that whole hops jam snap taps. Consider this a warning and, Google, please repeat this: whole hops jam snap taps. Ta.

Recipe Generation

2006-05-17T18:49:00.000+09:30

I have had a mild flurry of recipe writing the last couple days, now I have eight recipes sitting in the brew queue. I am debating what order to brew them in, there will be some yeast recyling involved which is one factor I need to consider, as well as what sort of stocks I can keep on hand. I am not looking at any sort of timeline at this moment, I think it just depends on how quickly I empty my fermenters. I am thinking the current order will be as such, including yeasts:

Berry Wheat (1010)
Bloody Helles (2308)
Robust Porter - Mash Paddle (1026)
American Rye - Cluster in the Rye (1010)
Mild ale (Coopers ale)
Barleywine - Blunt Force Trauma (Coopers ale)
German Pilsner - Onk Valley Pils (2278)
American Wheat - Sam Wheat II (1010)

This is most definitely subject to change, as I will want to recycle the 1026 yeast a few times and I have also been meaning to work out a dunkelweizen or even a roggenbier recipe at some point and there are always other beers that crop up.

Schwarz racked, Corona aerated and pitched.

2006-05-16T16:54:00.000+09:30

I was going to wait a few more days before doing this, as the Schwarzbier is still fermenting. However, after cleaning the fermenter from the CAP yesterday I decided I wanted to get the Corona fermenting sooner rather than later. The krauesen in the CAP fermenter was ridiculously easy to clean off (I wonder if that's a normal trait of 2112) so the fermenter was ready to go within minutes rather than having the usual overnight napisan soak.

Because the schwarz still have a few points to drop, I tried to include a little more yeast when racking so it's less likely to stick. The 2308 yeast cake was very firm, so I tipped the dregs of the schwarz off the top, threw in a 740mL PET bottle of filtered water and reclaimed that slurry out of the tap. It was sufficiently light in colour to not need settling and rinsing with more water to lighten it.

I dropped the corona wort into the schwarz fermenter and added a few litres of spring water plus some filtered water to dilute it to 27L at 1.043. The wort is still nice and light (though maybe a trifle darker than Corona) and the Glacier is shining through very well. I left the corona fermenter sitting outside overnight to cool a bit more, but slept in today so it warmed up agaoun to around 13-14°C. It is now in the ferment fridge with the fridge set to 7-8°C, hopefully the yeast was not too active just yet. The schwarz is sitting out in the carport, it is sufficiently fermented to cope with a raise in temp to 13-15, I think.

The RIPA has three more gravity points to lose. I chucked a cascade plug in it last night just for the hell of it.

In other good news, I unearthed a bottle of my wheat beer. I will be saving it specifically to reculture the 3068 from it.

CAP bottled

2006-05-14T23:21:00.000+09:30

Bottled my classic american pilsner tonight. A low attenuator, 1.040 to 1.014, partly because I used 2112 Cali lager yeast and partly (or moreso) because it was wort from the dregs of Grumpy's mash tun from their Tomcat classic american pils. This is the third beer that has underattenuated from the very last runnings of their tun, so I am inclined to believe that the very final runnings from a large mash do indeed include less fermentable carbohydrates. Excellent for a light beer, but tricky if you're doing anything else. It does taste very nice though, and should make an excellent mid-strength beer.

I have set aside a few stubbies of this one for comps, as well as a few of my steam beer. I am going to do that for each beer that fits competition guidelines over the next couple months, and attempt to have a good crack at SABSOSA and ANAWBS. I also look forward to help judging at ANAWBS this year. Though not any category my own beer is in, of course.

Blunt Force Trauma

2006-05-14T14:20:00.000+09:30

aka the barleywine I am going to brew sometime in the next month or so. I settled on the American style because it'll help me use up more of my hops, as well as adding in a few of my fresher ones to help pep up the flavour a little. It's worth pointing out that I'd never do a hop regime this complex normally, and that it's subject to change without notice.

Blunt Force Trauma

OG 1.100
~100 IBU
~30 EBC
20-23L

Joe White Trad Ale 15kg

Pacific Gem 14.4%, 20g @ 60
Simcoe 13.3%, 20g @ 60
Pride of Ringwood 9%, 20g @ 60
Cluster 7.2%, 15g @ 30
Fuggles 3.8%, 7g @ 30
Goldings, 5.6%, 20g @ 15
Pacific Gem 14.4%, 20g @ 15
Simcoe 12%, 20g @ 15
Amarillo 8.5%, 20g @ 15
Chinook flowers, ~20g @ flameout

Coopers pale ale yeast, slurry.

66°C mash
20°C ferment

I have no idea if the Coopers yeast will even go that high, but I'm willing to find out. Volume and gravity on this beer are both a little vague because I am going to use the first runnings only. I am going to add some chocolate malt and crystal to the sparge and collect the second runnings for a mild ale. The barleywine wort will be racked hot to a cube and set aside while the mild ale ferments, and then part of the yeast cake from the mild will be pitched into the barleywine. I am also going to aerate again around ten hours after pitching in the barleywine, to help make sure the yeast is ok. And I'll add some nutrient too. I have only done one high ABV beer before, that was a partial mash Imperial stout that started at around 1.092. It worked out well, but the ferment could have gone smoother. I used 1318 London Ale III for that one.

The other tricky bit will be 15kg of grain in my 55L mash tun. I think I can just manage it for the mash, but the batch sparging will probably be done in multiple steps since I am not set up to fly. I'll also have to watch for grainbed compaction. I have had the mash bed compact on me a few times recently due to running off too fast, but I am hoping that even with 15kg a slow, careful runoff will help me get through it without drama. Then again, this entire brew is forging into new territory for me so it should be an interesting affair.

Paddlesteamer and Old Wuert

2006-05-08T21:12:00.000+09:30

I have been sample both this weekend, Paddlesteamer has a head on it that is so luxuriously thick that it seems like cheating for a beeer less two weeks in bottle, and the beer itself is lusciously balanced. The malt punches me in the throat and says hello, have another. Old Würt displays a stronger presence of the 2112 yeast than Paddlesteamer due to the significantly lesser malt and hop profile. Also very nice though, but at the moment Paddlesteamer is the clear winner.

Big Brew Day 2006

2006-05-07T19:08:00.000+09:30

Yesterday I went to a Big Brew Day with a group of fellow Adelaideans. It was an excellent day, with five people brewing and one intrepid soul brewing twice (well done, Steve). I'd made a snap decision the day before that I was going to brew rather than drink on the day and I'm glad I did as I had a very good brew session.

Photos of the day

This is what I brewed:

Nine Coronas

OG 1.044
16 IBU
6 EBC
28 litres

Weyermann Pils 85%
Thomas Fawcett flaked maize 12%
Weyermann acidulated malt 3%

Simcoe bittering
~1g/L Glacier at flameout

2308 Munich lager yeast
10°C ferment

I had a concentrated boil for this one, starting with around 26L at 1.048 and finishing with 17L at 1.072. This was partly intentional and partly a bit of a booboo, ultimately I wanted a small enough volume to fit into a 17L wort drum to take home. I had only just 17L by the end of it, including racking almost all of the trub into the cube. I will cut the trub out after I dilute the wort, that way I won't lose as much in gravity points, though for a little I was considering leaving the wort undiluted and brewing an Imperial Corona. I was also originally going to dilute to 1.040 but changed my mind and am leaving it just slightly more concentrated so it does not get too weak.

My other difficulty now is juggling fermenters. I have three fermenters, all full. My CAP has finished fermenting, so I will rack that to a 20L cube to free the fermenter for the Corona. Then I will bottle the CAP out of a 17L wort cube once secondary is complete, and I will have to bottle the Red Indian pale ale out of the 20L cube. That'll be a tricky issue, as the RIPA is around 24L or so. I could either bottle in two stages, lose some wort, bottle a couple straight out of the primary and bottle prime... or buy another fermenter.

I'll also be using yeast from the Schwarzbier in the Corona, so am going to have to consider washing the black out of the yeast to prevent it discolouring my nice light Corona. I have not yet decided if I will ferment it right away and just draw off an active sample of yeast, or leave it till the Schwarz ferment is over so I can grab some of the cake after racking. That would also free up space in the ferment fridge, which is yet another issue because I can only fit one fermenter at a time in there. I was going to drag it out and put the Corona in, as the days are getting cold here now. I think I might just throw the wort in the fridge and leave it till the Schwarz has fermented and the CAP has been bottled, that will ease the logisitics all round.

double brewday - RIPA and Smoked Schwarzbier

2006-05-03T19:37:00.000+09:30

For my first double brewday it went extremely well, aside from mash runoff sticking on one beer and sparge on another. Even with that, I started at around 10-10:30 and was finished (excluding cleanup) by 3:30.

Red Indian Pale Ale

24.5L
OG 1.054
ABV 5.3%
48 IBU
23 EBC

mash temp 66°C
ferment temp 21°C

6kg grist
50% Weyermann Pils
42.5% Weyermann Munich I
7.5% Weyermann CaraRed

Simcoe 12% AA 10g @ 60
Simcoe 12% AA 20g @ 30
Simcoe 12% AA 20g @ 15
Simcoe 12% AA 20g @ flameout
Chinook (home grown flowers) 20g @ flameout
Fuggles (plug) 15g @ flameout

Whitelabs WLP008 East Coast Ale

Some small changes here from the original recipe, I subbed pils for the trad ale malt to keep it a little lighter and I put in a heap of chinook flowers instead of the flameout simcoe addition. Plus, I was a little hung over and overshot my volumes by a fair margin so it's a little lighter on than the AIPA style, but that doesn't really bother me. It just means I have more beer. I am not seeing much red tint to it, but it's still quite cloudy. Fermenting, the hop flavour is coming through stronger than in the wort.

Smoked Schwarzbier
24L
OG 1.050
ABV 5%
23 IBU

mash temp 66°C
ferment temp 11°C

5kg grist
66% Weyermann Pils
22% Weyermann Munich
8% Rauchmalz
4% Carafa Special II

Hallertauer Magnum 13.9% AA 13g @ 60

Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager

I did this one second and it went very smoothly, despite the fact that by that point I cared more about drinking than brewing. I actually overshot, I was aiming for an OG in the low 1.040s. The colour is rich and dark, will be good once beer and clear.

The RIPA was run off into a fermenter, the schwarz into the cube. The former dropped and pitched on Monday night, the latter today.

Bottling - Wuert and Steam

2006-04-26T23:51:00.000+09:30

Had an improptu but effective double botting session on Monday night. Old Wuert and Paddlesteamer are now in bottle, and they are looking disturbingly clear. I took some pictures:

The essentials for bottling are there, beer and beer. The small beer is RIS, which is the start of why I went to work on ANZAC day hating everything.

This is why you always look at your bottles before you bottle. PS Hi Roach!

And what happens when your printer shits itself.
I eventually got it working:

These two beers had very similar starting gravities, so the ABV demonstrates the difference between crystal in one and rice in the other.

Hop Catalogue

2006-04-21T21:01:00.000+09:30

I'm going to brew a barleywine soon and was considering using it as an opportunity to rid myself of a lot of my old hops, I still have a lot of 2005 harvest sitting in my fridge that I really should be using. While writing the recipe I decided to catalogue what hops I have, this is the full list:

USA Northern Brewer 8% 90g
DE Northern Brewer 9.5% 100g
2005 Chinook flowers 10g
2006 Chinook flowers ~100-200g
2006 Wuerttemberger flowers 5g
EKG 5.6% 20g
EKG 5.2% 80g
Simcoe 13.3% 20g
Simcoe 12% 100g
Fuggles 3.8% 7g
Fuggles plug 15g
Cluster 7.2% 40g
Tettnang 5.3% 120g
Magnum 13.9% 50g
Herbrucker plugs 2.5% 110g
Spalt 4.5% ~300g
Amarillo 8.4% 100g
Amarillo 8.5% 7g
DE Northern Brewer 9.5% 100g
Glacier 5.8% 25g
Pride of Ringwood 10%? 40g
Pacific Gem 14.4% 80g

So, yeah. I have a lot of hops. I'll be throwing a blend of mostly english and american hops into the barleywine.

Drinking the Wheat

2006-04-20T22:21:00.000+09:30

The wheat beer lived up expectations and was drunk over easter, if only just. It was a little raw but still fully carbonated, which is fairly good for a beer half a week in the bottle.

Drinking it right now, I wish I had left it longer, with over a week's maturation it is almost perfect but over half the batch is gone already. I need to save a couple bottles for reculturing so I don't have to buy another 3068 strain anytime soon.

The CAP is fermenting well, judging by the krauesen. Sitting on around 16°C.

This weekend I am going to bottle the old würt lager and the steam beer, and brew the red indian pale ale and a smoked schwarzbier. I have altered the RIPA recipe slightly, and I'll post the schwarzbier recipe on brewday.

Hop Harvest

2006-04-18T20:06:00.000+09:30

I picked up my harvested hops from back in the Riverland this weekend.

Chinook:

Wuerttemberger:

Some slight difference there, but the chinook is in its second year and the wuerttemberger is a low yielding variety. I am going to put some of the chinook into my red indian pale ale when I brew it.

The odd white bits have disappeared from the surface of my steam beer since chilling it again, I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

I have also finally pitched yeast into my CAP (OG 1.040), over a week after brewing. There was no gas production in the cube and the wort tasted fine, so I am happy with having the flexibility to do this. I was going to bottle the wuerttemberger tonight, but after racking it I remembered that my bottling valve is nearly rooted, so I'm going to bottle it after I get a new one. Both the wuert lager and the steam are tasting excellent, particularly the wuert. It has taken on a lovely honeyed sweetness plus a subtle noble spiciness. The steam has some similar flavours so I assume it's the 2112. If so, I really like that yeast and will be using it again in future. It will be good in the CAP too, I think.

Wheat Bottled, CAP brewed

2006-04-10T23:32:00.000+09:30

A long sober bottling session, and it's apparent that I need to replace my bottling valve as it fell off four times making me waste a bottle each time. The original intention was to bottle this beer on the weekend and be drinking it on the easter weekend, but I'm not sure it'll carbonate in time now.

Classic American Pilsner brewed last Friday, thanks again to dropping into Grumpy's on brewday. I've got around 17L at 1.040 (or slightly higher), hopped with Magnum to 26 IBU and Cluster & Tettnanger aroma additions. It's sitting in a 17L cube waiting for me to bottle the steam beer or the wuerttemberger lager so I can use part of the 2112 yeast cake from either. It'll probably be the wurt lager, there's *cough* some funny white bits floating on top of the steam. The beer itself tastes fantastic however.

Beery Updates

2006-04-03T21:34:00.000+09:30

Things are looking more optimistic for the northern brewer ale and the low gravity american pale. They both have improved a lot with the last week in bottle. The northern brewer one will never be a great beer but it's got a thick creamy head, has lost the caramel and the thinness that were an issue at first and has turned into a good quaffer. The apa seems to have fallen perfectly into step, carbonation is right, hops are strong but crisp and delicious, and it no longer tastes like a puny thin 3% ABV beer with too many hops. It's a hard one to put down.

Bad Bottling

2006-04-03T00:38:00.000+09:30

I bottled my alt tonight, only 13 740mL PET bottles. Since the alt had stuck at 1.020 I didn't want to take the time or risk to bottle to glass, and while there were 17 bottles worth in the fermenter I only had 15 PET bottles left. While I was bottling the tip came off the bottling valve twice, meaning I had to waste a bottle each time to reclaim the tip.

When I had finished bottling I went to clean the fermenter out and noticed a lovely little scum floating on the surface of the dregs. The beer has the same infection I had before xmas last year, I think it was still housed in the fermenter and the extended time I left this beer gave it avenue to grow. I can't taste it in the beer yet, fortunately.

The really annoying thing is that the sole reason I bottled this batch tonight was to free the fermenter so I could drop my wheat wort into it. I cancelled that plan once I saw the infection, the fermenter is now soaking in napisan solution and the wheat yeast has been pitched into a wort oxygenated by a vigorous stir only. What really irritates me is that if I'd checked the alt fermenter earlier I would have probably pitched the wheat yeast 12 hours ago.

Wheat

2006-04-02T00:36:00.000+10:30

I brewed a wheat beer today:

OG 1.040
FG ~1.010
15 IBU
~4% ABV
9 EBC

50% JW wheat
47% Wey. Pils
3% acidulated malt

Hersbrucker plugs bittering
10g Glacier @ 15

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephaner wheat

25 litres in the fermenter, the biggest brew I've done yet. While the bulk of the ferment cools overnight I have drawn off a litre and cooled it to throw the yeast into, I figure it needs waking up after sitting in the fridge for over a week. Other than that I'm not bothering with a proper starter, it's an activator pack and I want to underpitch slightly to try to bring out more of those yeasty wheat flavours.

The brew went smoothly, runoff was a little slowed but not too bad. The last litre or so of the sparge didn't want to come out till I cut the grainbed up a little. The tap on my kettle is a piece of shit and will be disposed of very soon, the racking hose wouldn't sit and seal on it properly despite numerous attempts on my part and hot wort burns to my fingers. Also ran out of gas while heating the sparge water so it got a bit of an extended mash.

No boilovers for what might be the first time. 35L in the kettle was a bugger to lift but still not quite too heavy. The wort is very pale and looks great. I'm really hoping I can push this beer through and have it ready by Easter, I know that's not entirely out of the question for a wheat.

Miscellaneous Updates

2006-04-01T13:22:00.000+10:30

Old Würt, OG 1.051 FG 1.012
Paddlesteamer OG 1.050 FG 1.014

I had forgotten that 2112 is a poor attenuator, but it doesn't really matter. Both are tasting fine.

The alt has not only stuck at 1.021, but has also dropped clear. I am just going to bottle to PET, because I suspect it's not so much stuck as finished. Straight from the primary too, since it's clear and I can't be bothered investing any more of my time into this beer.

My saison is tasting excellent. The IPA is fairly good, Southern Brewer is a bit dull and caramelly and the American hop delivery system is a little too out of whack and wasn't carbonated enough at last tasting.

I've joined a BJCP study group with a bunch of like-minded Adelaide brewers, it should be interesting and I look forward to learning a lot more about the beers I'm drinking. A few of us Adelaideans recently caught up with Chris White of White Labs yeast and he answered a few of our questions about yeast and took the time to talk to us about several different things. It was a good evening and very generous of Chris to take the time to talk to us.

Brewing that wheat today, finally.

Pack Smacked

2006-03-19T19:36:00.000+10:30

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephaner Weizen

It's an activator pack, which is really a waste of money for the extra cost when I'm going to be making a starter, but Grumpy's didn't have a normal-sized pack. I haven't written down the recipe for this beer yet, but it will be fairly simple; 50:50 wheat:pils malt and bittered with hersbrucker plugs to 14 IBU, unless it takes too many plugs. There might also be a slight flavour hop addition in there too.

Also on the drawing board with the same yeast is a berry wheat. And a Dunkelweizen. And a Roggenbier.

Red Indian Pale Ale

2006-03-16T19:45:00.000+10:30

It's worth preceding this post with the statement that think American IPA is a misnomer and it particularly irks me when a big citrusy American beer is called an IPA sans the preceding A.

That being said, I just couldn't resist formulating this recipe:

Red Indian Pale Ale

21L
OG 1.061
ABV 6%
55 IBU
23 EBC

mash temp 66°C
ferment temp 21°C

50% JW Trad Ale
42.5% Weyermann Munich I
7.5% Weyermann CaraRed

Simcoe 12% AA 10g @ 60
Simcoe 12% AA 20g @ 30
Simcoe 12% AA 20g @ 15
Simcoe 12% AA 20g @ flameout
Amarillo 8.4% AA 10g @ flameout
Fuggles (plug) 15g @ flameout

Whitelabs WLP008 East Coast Ale

If the Fuggles looks odd, think of it as Willamette. I want it in there because I get a little bored with citrus and fruit salad APAs. I also had great difficulty deciding on the quantity of CaraRed to use in this recipe, since I have never used it before.

I was going to brew this next, but looking at the recent beers I have done (Genuine Hop Delivery System, IPA, Alt, Steam) I think I will do a low IBU beer next. Most likely a wheat with a recultured Schneider Weisse yeast..

Steam Brewday

2006-03-14T22:10:00.000+10:30

Brewed the steam beer today, or this evening. Aside from a little too much jiggling around trying to get the mash temp right, things went fairly well. It looks like efficiency has improved again, up to 73%. Have 20.5 litres of wort in the fermenter at 12.5°Bx. Will double check by SG when the wort is cooled.

No boilovers today and the burner was very well behaved. I moved the baffle closer and put some tiles in front of it as a heat shield which seemed to make the flame a lot more consistent, I didn't have to dick around with turning rings on and off or adjusting gas flow, it was just fourth ring off once boiling and gas reg dropped down as low as possible.

I was meaning to try whirlpooling again but completely forgot. Left 2 litres in the kettle again, and while the wort is not as clear as the würt wort was, it's not looking too bad:

Tastes nice too, yankee northern brewer really does taste different to german.

Gravities and Tastings

2006-03-13T17:52:00.000+10:30

Alt - SG 1.021. Around ten days or so into ferment, I think. Tastes mighty fine, big malt character and a lot of spalt. Am going to move it out of the fridge tomorrow to make room for the steam beer.

Würt lager - SG 1.035. Definitely not ready to sample, stupid lagers.

Saison - Just over a week in the bottle, it's not fully carbonated yet, no head and quite hazy (yes, I'm impatient), but is tasting very nice. Difficult to describe the flavour, but there seems to be a nice balance of flowery aroma, spiciness, candied flavour and tart finish. It could possibly stand to be a little less bitter but I don't think it's too far over the top.

IPA - Needs time, esters are too strong and beer is still a little bit young. Am conciously trying to save it, Southern Brewer will be drunk first as sacrifice.

Southern Brewer - Bland and thin. Untill I looked up the recipe again I was wondering if I'd used pils malt or something. As it is it tastes like I mashed at 64. Should be just fine to knock back though, and the mintiness of the northern brewer really shines through.

Mild APA - mmm, hops. Too bitter for the gravity, or too light for the bitterness. A little thin but that's not surprising. Also too young, again not surprising. Very cloudy.

Paddlesteamer Cali Common will be brewed tomorrow.

Wuerttemberger Update

2006-03-07T22:54:00.000+10:30

Only just pitching the yeast now, the cube has been sitting in the fridge the last couple days all nicely sealed up with the sides sucked in like a jam jar lid.

However, now that the starter is in there is around half a litre of headspace in the cube. I'm fermenting right at the bottom of 2112's range so I think I can get away with it, especially since it's a lager yeast.

The fridge will only hold one standard-sized fermenter (plus a couple cubes and jerries of various sizes) and the alt is still in there and only partially fermented, so I am considering just moving the alt out to finish up so I can move the würt lager to a normal fermenter. Will help get a bit more aeration happening too.

Wuerttemberger Lager Brewday

2006-03-05T18:09:00.000+10:30

I brewed the wuerttemberger lager today, with the help of an associate from university. The brewday went quite well, and I've documented some of it in pictures. Click to embiggen.

Mash is underway and sparge water is in there waiting to do its thang. 5 litres of first runnings only, at around 18°Bx.

Bill the brewery assistant stirs in the sparge water.

Sparge temp, with a little difference between my two thermometers. Need to check to see which one's the right one; I normally brew to the red one.

Sparge was around 23 litres, at around 6°Bx.

Bill the brewery assistant stops to have a gander at hot, quick and thick.

Baffle is in place for the boil, it doesn't stop all breeze but it's better than nothing. Maybe.

Hops weighed out and ready to go. That puny pile of pellets is my bittering addition of Hallertauer Magnum. The fresh bowl of Wuerttemberger is only 11g worth.

Bill the brewery assistant scrapes some Magnum back down into the wort.

My cube, a little overfilled with napisan solution. This solution has soaked four fermenters so far and is still going strong.

The leftover trub in the kettle, around two litres worth. Wish I'd gotten some shots of racking to the cube, the wort ran crystal clear aside from the odd flower flitting through the tube. And a lot more than the odd flower by the end of the racking.

End result was ~19L of 12.5°Bx wort in the cube, for an efficiency of around 68%. I'm happy with that.

And a shot of the wort. I am also very happy with the clarity and the colour.

Saison Bottled

2006-03-05T01:25:00.000+10:30

It's a little bit more bitter than I'd like, next time I brew this beer I will drop it back by 5 IBU or so. Either that or up the gravity a little, that would work too. I think I didn't need to fart around with so many different hops. It's like adding spices; you don't need to because the yeast speaks for itself. Next time I think i will just add some Hallertau or similar. I'd like to get ahold of some Strisselspalt for it, I think that would be great. Or my Precoce de Bourgogne if the damned thing ever grows.

The yeast has produced some wonderful flavours, while this one is at the bottom end of the style I can see how this beer works well as a higher gravity yet still refreshing style. Would knock you for a six too. Better brew one.

Bottling - AMA

2006-03-04T20:47:00.000+10:30

American Mild Ale, aka:

Twelve PET longnecks of the stuff from a starting batch volume of 20 litres. That's less than half the batch bottled.
Losses include a couple litres to racking (normal), several litres to pre-bottling evaluation (somewhat more than normal) and two bottles lost during the bottling process. One was half full when I noticed a nasty mould smear in the bottle, so I turfed it. The other the $%&#ing valve fell off the bottler into the bottle, so i had to sacrifice the bottle to get it out. Drank that bottle though.

Either way, bottling less than nine litres of a 20 litre batch is abysmal even by my standards.

Changes in Plans

2006-03-03T17:13:00.000+10:30

I had a brew sneak in on the brew schedule on Wednesday when I stopped in at Grumpy's for a beer and picked up 27L of 6-7°Bx wort direct from their mash tun. Thanks to a generous evaporation rate on my kettle, two hours after firing up I had around 14L of wort at around 13°Bx. It's an altbier grist and has been very generously hopped with spalt, US-56 is just starting to form a head on the fermenter now.

I am also changing the swillager brew, it will no longer have cluster in it. The cluster I am saving for another brew, in its place I have a bag of fresh wuerttemberger flowers that I am going to add at flameout. Will brew it on Sunday, ahead of the steam. I am looking forward to this one immensely.

Just had an IPA, it's tasting good but will be a lot better if I can manage to leave it for long enough. Southern Brewer is maturing slowly but steadily, in another couple weeks it will be ready. I am still inclined to blame the gelatin for retarding bottle conditioning.

Swill Beer

2006-02-26T18:02:00.000+10:30

This is the other beer that I will brew with the 2112 cali lager yeast. I was originally going to hop with cluster and pride of ringwood to make an XXXX style lager, but changed my mind when the steam beer rolled onto the scene, and because I have no PoR at the moment but plenty of other hops I need to use. Either way the intention is to make a plain easy-drinking beer to sit in between all those IPAs, saisons and steams. And also to get an idea of what Cluster is like as a late hop.

Swillager

OG 1.052
32 IBU
15 EBC

mash temp 65°C
ferment temp 16°C

85% JW or Wey pils
10% flaked rice
5% JW caramalt

Hallertauer Magnum bittering
15g Cluster @ 15
15g Cluster @ flameout

2112 Cali lager yeast

If I put this one on after the Paddle Steamer has finished fermenting then I may drop the ferment temperature by a couple degrees. I can't leave it too long, though, as I will be using the same yeast culture split between the two.

Steam Beer

2006-02-26T00:28:00.000+10:30

Next beer on the drawing board is a Caliornia Common. I've bought and smacked the 2112 Cali lager wyeast, it's ready to go into a starter but I can't be bothered tonight. I'm going to make a very big starter and use the yeast for a second beer a little later on in the week. I also managed to pick up some US Northern Brewer from Grumpy's, which pleases me.

Paddle Steamer

OG 1.050
42 IBU
4.6% ABV
32 EBC

mash temp 65°C
ferment temp 16°C

JW pale 60%
Weyermann Munich 25%
Weyermann Caramunich II 5%
JW wheat malt 9%
Weyermann Carafa Special II 1%

German Northern Brewer bittering
1g/L US Northern Brewer @ 15
1g/L US Northern Brewer @ flameout

Wyeast 2112 California Lager

Surprisingly Non-premature Tasting

2006-02-22T19:14:00.000+10:30

I am sitting here with a nearly empty glass of my IPA. Unlike Southern Brewer, it is ready to drink. This is a beer four days in bottle, nearly 7% ABV and over 50 IBU. And just to reiterate, four days in the bottle, and it is ready to drink. I am standing here beside myself. I think WLP007 is on my regulars list now.

Premature Tastings

2006-02-22T18:33:00.000+10:30

Half a week in the bottle, Southern Brewer pours crystal clear. Only half carbonated, at this stage has a burnt toasty caramel flavour.

I know this will disappear once the beer is fully conditioned. In past I have done a lot of brews with the Coopers ale yeast recultured from bottles, and it would always take a very long time to condition, throwing up caramel flavours for up to a month in-bottle. That extended conditioning time was the reason I stopped using that yeast.

This one was brewed with US-56, I have not used it before though I have used 1056 once. I am expecting it will condition quicker than the Coopers ones did. However, another factor I am considering is that it is the gelatin that is somehow causing this slowed conditioning time, as it's been the same brand of food (as opposed to specific for brewing) gelatin used in at least some of the batches involved. I don't remember the last time I used finings though, and I don't remember the last time i had a caramelly young beer either.

It's also worth emphasising that none of the other caramel-tasting beers I have brewed have had this burnt character to them.

And while we're on this beer, the Northern Brewer flavour has also vanished at least temporarily. I suspect it'll become evident again once the beer is actually ready.

I'll sample the IPA in a minute for curiosity's sake.

Finings

2006-02-21T18:46:00.000+10:30

As I said in my last post, of the two beers I bottled on the weekend, one included gelatin finings and one did not. Here is a direct comparison of a bottle from each batch:

On the left is Southern Brewer, on the right is To India with Love. As you can see, Souther Brewer has come up far, far clearer. It also used a less flocculent yeast and was bottled straight from secondary rather than racked to a bottling bucket.

I always put at least one beer from each batch into a clear bottle for precisely this reason; so i can see what is going on.

Since it wasn't a dedicated scientific comparison I don't know if it was the gelatin that did this, but I would be foolish to rule it out as the most likely cause. Either way it is some deeply impressive clarifying that will probably extend my conditioning time, if anything.

Bottling

2006-02-19T02:49:00.000+10:30

I was a lazy fool who didn't soak the primary fermenter from the Saison to dekrausen it, so I had no clean bottling bucket to rack to. Since I'd given it a week CCing in primary before racking to secondary, I decided it was clear enough to bottle from secondary. Threw in a measure of gelatin along with the priming sugar in an effort to clear it up a little more in compensation.

A disappointing yield of 14L, a couple litres lost to racking and a couple more to evaporation. Used a sediment reducer in the bottling vessel to strain out the fuggles plug, and it worked. Could smell the hop flavour oozing out of this one as I bottled.

It feels good to have beer in bottles again.

Russian Imperial Stout

2006-02-18T00:40:00.000+10:30

Mine's not as good as it was. I bottled it August last year.

How does a 9.8% ABV stout go from sublime to past it in half a year?

It's not tasting oxidised, it's just thin and aniseedy. Thin for a RIS, that is.

Progress Report

2006-02-14T22:46:00.000+10:30

I just racked my Southern Brewer to secondary, it has been sitting at 3°C along with the IPA for a week now. It's not quite clear but most of the yeast has dropped out, and the minty flavour isn't quite so strong.

The IPA has picked up a goodly portion of fuggles flavour, I think it is ready to bottle anytime. And it has finally stopped fermenting. This beer make my lips numb. Quite a punch after the Southern Brewer sample

The APA stalled at 1.013, I've since pitched a sachet of SAF S-04 and it seems to be moving again but it's too soon to tell.

The Saison appears to have finished fermenting, it's at 1.010 which is ample attenuation for the style and smack-dab on the bottom end of the BJCP guidelines. Cloudy as all hell, I'll give it a bit of cold conditioning and maybe some gelatin finings.

All of them are now tasting great, if I do say so myself. Realistically i could have had Southern Brewer racked and bottled by now, but it will keep. The APA is the one I am worried about, as a low gravity beer it will have a shorter lifespan, and I wanted to push it through to bottle much sooner since it would benefit the most from drinking young. The IPA is also ready to come out, but an extra week or two won't hurt it. The only difficulty now is finding time to bottle.

The Yeast that Wouldn't Quit

2006-02-08T23:40:00.000+10:30

After racking that IPA I drew off a few samples, one of those was for another SG reading. It had dropped to 1.009. I noticed over the course of yesterday that I regularly had to bleed off pressure from the cube even with the samples I was removing. Today I took another reading, and it has dropped to 1.007. That's 1.007 down from 1.060, or over 85% apparent attenuation. Whichever way you slice it, I'm impressed.

Repeat tasting says that if it's an infection, it's not a bad tasting one at all. I'd better make extra sure though.

Headspace

2006-02-07T17:51:00.000+10:30

As they say, limiting headspace is important for avoiding oxidation in secondary.

That's a plug of fuggles floating in the neck of a 17L cube filled with IPA. I have since drawn off a few samples to get the level down a little.

Gravity Readings

2006-02-04T18:18:00.000+10:30

IPA

OG 1.060
current gravity 1.011

Very impressed with WhiteLabs 007. This beer is a real thirst-quencher. Love the Goldings on the end, I almost don't want to fuggle it in secondary. Will rack it tomorrow.

Saison

OG 1.051
current gravity 1.019

Yeast flavours are delightful, nice backup of malt and an interesting combination of warming and cooling effects. If only the yeast wasn't so slow.

Northern Brewer ale

OG 1.043
current gravity 1.014

Needs to lose a couple more points, the mintiness of the northern brewer is making it a little sweet and cloying. I think the caramalt is standing out too. Will be a lot better once conditioned, settled, cold and fizzy, I think.

Mild APA

OG 1.035
current gravity 1.017

The hops reach out and grab my with the glass halfway to my mouth. Bitterness takes up residence quite comfortably. Clearly has a way to go yet so I'm not drawing any conclusions, but I reckon it'll be great.

Ferment Watch

2006-02-02T20:28:00.000+10:30

With four beers sitting in primary, I am in a waiting game. In retrospect it was foolish to do an IPA and a saison when I needed a quick-turnaround beer to bolster supplies.

My favourite pasttime while waiting for my beers to ferment and condition is sampling. Some beers get a sample for specific gravity readings every day while in primary, and by the time they're in secondary I usually give up all pretence of needing a sample and just start filling my glass straight from the cube. One day I think I will try to do an ordinary bitter or a mild ale like that, it's cheaper than kegging.

The IPA is down to 1.016 from 1.060, the Saison is down to 1.022 from 1.050. Both have dropped two points in the last day and both are tasting mighty fine, although the Saison in particular is exquisite. I am definitely looking forward to having that one in bottle and ready to drink. The northern brewer ale (I really need a better name for that) has a krausen forming but the mild APA was not showing much in the way of activity. I hope that one stays quiet during the ferment, it only has a couple inches of headspace.

A Brewday in Summary

2006-02-01T00:22:00.000+10:30

The northern brewer pale ale went down today. It could have gone better, but there were no major dramas. The main negative of the day was atrocious efficiency. And by atrocious, I mean bad. Down in the 50% range bad. Mulling over it after the wort had hit the fermenter, the following possible reasons were considered:

- I didn't have enough sparge water. I could have upped that half as much again.
- Sparge water wasn't hot enough
- When I started running the sparge water into the mash tun, I left the tun valve open for the first 30 seconds. It was over the kettle at least, so it was like the world's worst fly-sparge technique.

While I know these would contribute in varying but small degrees, the main reason was discovered whilst emptying the mash tun... the crush was abysmal. Whole grains abounded. My lesson (re)learned for today is to check my crush every time.

I get very good flow from this tun so I think it will handle a fine crush well.

Another issue was hitting my strike temp, the 10°C rule of thumb went a little askew with the extra grain and hot water, from now on I'll use software to calculate it, I think.

On the positive side of this brew, no boilovers. That and since I was using the converted keg HLT I thought I would try a slightly different method of doughing in; I attached a length of hose to the spigot and pushed the other end to the bottom of the dry grains in the tun. Filling like this meant no trapped air in the grainbed and no doughballs with no stirring needed. Let's hope it works as well in future.

All in all I got the brew to fermenter with no real drama (despite a few missing litres), and I wandered off to everyone's favourite local brewhaus to have a pint. Unfortunately this coincided with their brewday, and I ended up returning home with 25L of pale ale wort fresh from their mash tun, SG 1.028. So as the sun set, I found myself boiling up my second batch for the day.

I decided to turn the wort into an APA as while brewing the northern brewer ale I had been battling urges to sub in simcoe as a replacement. Since the wort was so low in gravity and I wanted a beer with a lot of hop flavour, I skipped a bittering addition altogether and dosed it up with 2x20g lots of simcoe and amarillo at 15 minutes, and the same again at flameout. By the quick & dirty calculations I did at the time, that ought to be more than good enough for bitterness in the mid to high 20 IBU range.

End result, roughly 20L of wort with an OG around 1.034-35. And 80 grams of late-hopping, so it's not going to be a shy creature. I haven't tasted the wort yet, it's cooling very slowly in a cube in the cool night air outside and tomorrow I will pitch some US-56 into it. Out of the four beers I now have in primary, I suspect it will be ready first.

Brewday Tomorrow

2006-01-30T18:24:00.000+10:30

I have a nice simple brew planned for tomorrow:

Southern Brewer

28L
OG 1.045
FG 1.011
ABV 4.5%
25 IBU
15 EBC

5.7kg JW Trad Ale (95%)
300g JW Caramalt (5%)

Northern Brewer bittering
20g Northern Brewer @ 10 mins

US-56 dried yeast

60min mash @ 66°C
60 min boil

I want to do more simple beers over the course of this year, and I think this one is a good start. My ideal aim is to have it so I never run out of simple session beers yet will always have more interesting styles like the IPA and the Saison on hand. I think it's good homebrewing PR to have "normal" beer on hand for those folks who aren't familiar with all those funny weird beers.

It'll also be the largest-volume beer I've brewed to date, I have the capacity now so I might as well start using it. At some point in the future I will look at doing split batches with two different yeasts and at partigyle brewing.

New Fridge

2006-01-28T20:53:00.000+10:30

Well, not a new one in any sense of the word. Sometime a year or so ago a friend and I bought a fridge and installed a new thermostat in it for cheesemaking. The fridge has been residing in their residence since then, as it was the residence with more room for residing.

However, since I've moved I have more room for things like multiple fridges, and we haven't made any cheese in ages so I now have the fridge here. It's keeping the beer fridge company in the carport.

Obligatory photos:

Not much to look at, but loads of personality. Or something.

Check out the quality professional work on the new thermostat.

Unfortunately I can't fit two fermenters in it. I can probably do a fermenter and a jerry on the bottom shelf and a cube on the top, though.

In there at the moment is my wort kit IPA, coming down from 22 to 20 or so, fridge is set at 18 and running nicely. Both it and my saison are fermenting a little sluggishly. Saison is sitting comfortably at 25°C in my bathroom and starting to pick up the pace on the ferment.

first brewday

2006-01-24T20:43:00.000+10:30

I brewed my first beer at the new location and on the new gear yesterday. I would say the day was successful. I took photos but couldn't be bothered resizing and uploading them.

Fired up the HLT at 1 PM, on 3 rings the burner took 19 minutes to heat 17L of water to strike temp. I decided to forego the big HLT and just used a cheap 19L pot instead, just tipping the water into the tun. Makes it a lot easier to try and hold a stick thermo in there.

Strike water went into the esky before the grain, grain went in with a minimum of doughballage. The paddle took care of what few balls there were no worries, and the manifold stayed in place perfectly. Hit mash temp almost perfectly, 67°C. The tun bulkhead leaked a tiny little bit but stopped in short order. I was expecting this as I didn't have anything to tighten the lock nuts with other than my hands.

There's a bit of heat loss from the tun though, I lost 3-4 degrees over an hour, I was originally going to do a 90 minute mash but cut that to around 70 once I realised I was losing temp. I figure my options are to other cut a piece of styrofoam to sit on top of the mash for more insulation, or brew bigger batches so there's more thermal inertia.

Flow from the tun was very good, this recipe had only 10% wheat but I am looking forward to trying a wheat beer and seeing how the flow holds up. Ran clear very quickly on the vorlauf, and I ended up with 10L of first runnings in the kettle at 17°Bx. I was hoping for (though not really expecting) a water loss if 1L/kg grain, so it seems two more litres stayed in there somewhere.

Sparged with an additional 17L, sparge water at 80°C then 72°C once in the tun. Second runnings were 7°Bx for 15 litres, giving me 25L in the kettle at 10°Bx.

On 4 rings the burner took 18 minutes to bring the wort from 60°C to the boil. I had a bugger of a time keeping the boil consistent; every time the wind died down the kettle would boil over. I did not lose too much to boilovers, as I caught it almost just in time each time. The kettle spigot did not leak, which I am glad about. However I do have to apply thread tape to it which I do not like; it makes it a lot harder to keep clean and that's the only spot in the system where cleanliness is a real issue. I will probably replace the spigot with threaded pipe and a ball-valve at some point.

I made a rather poor attempt at a whirlpool then went to the service station to buy a bag of ice (and an iced coffee). On returning I racked from the kettle to a clean fermenter and dumped it in the laundry trough along with the bag of ice. Despite the poor whirlpool the end result was only 2L loss to trub (with a tiny little bit of hop debris in the fermenter). Final volume was 19L, 17L in fermenter. I topped up to 19 with filtered water and the yeast starter comprised another litre. Did not pitch the starter till around midday today.

Just a side note, cooling in the laundry trough is a temporary measure; I intend to buy the Shirron plate chiller from morebeer.com at some point when I can afford it. For now I also need to make sure I can get the wort out of the kettle with almost no hop debris or other trub in it, as I don't like the thought of trying to clean it out of that sucker.

Dropped to a new fermenter a few hours ago for a bit of aeration and it's now sitting outside at around 25°C. End result was 20 litres at approximately 1.050, at the low end of the saison scale but almost exactly what I was aiming for. Efficiency is roughly 65%, nothing stellar but again almost exactly what I estimated I would get and that's the important bit.

And now we wait.

a new brewery

2006-01-21T18:44:00.000+10:30

I have had a rather long-term plan towards upgrading from kitchen to outdoor brewing, and the last couple days have seen some rather rapid steps in that direction. I had fun on Thursday playing with my bits and pieces, and thought I would write about the direction my brewing is taking.

First we have the paddle. Cost me nothing thanks to the generosity of a fellow brewer, but are cheap as chips in any case:

Next up is a jug. Everyone needs a jug, especially a sexy 5L one like this.

Its first task will be measuring quantities in my HLT and my kettle so I can score them onto my paddle.

Next we have the hot liquor tank:

It's a dodgy old converted keg that I bought for $50, tap inclusive. I was originally going to use it as a heated mash tun, till I found a better offer. For the first few brews I am probably not even going to use this, I have a cheap 19L pot that will hold enough to serve as a HLT for 5kg batches.

I also bought the hose fitting for the HLT's valve today, though I have decided not to use a hose for it at least at first. However, I do wonder how big a difference there would be in heat loss between running hot liquor through a hose into the mash tun and just pouring it in free.

And now we come to the mash tun:

It's not even my esky, I was given permission to borrow my father's on the condition that I 'keep it clean'. And another shot of it:

It's a 55L esky, I should be able to mash around 10 kg of grain in it with no worries at all. There'll be no doing that while I still have to lift equipment around, though.

The manifold in it looks thusly:

I chose a SS mesh one because they're easy to make and the mesh was readily available. Both good reasons for the lazy brewer and the unskilled handyman. I'm not worried about channelling since I will be batch sparging. I'm not expecting my efficiency to be out of this world, but if I can get 70%, especially on the first brew, then I will be content.

It's also not attached properly in this picture. I was going to use SS hose clamps to hold it on, but there's a gap in the underside of the mesh near the threaded pipe. I've since changed my mind and narrowed the diameter of the final inch so I could just jam it inside the pipe.

Here's the kettle:

It's a 60L aluminium pot that I picked up for $80 last year sometime. I even had someone else drill the hole for me (thanks Jaz!). I still need to file the edges of the hole down a little before I use it.

The thread on the tap pictured is very short, and I am a little concerned that it will not seal properly. Time will tell.

Next is the pickup in the kettle:

The pickup tube was from the keg that I'm going to use for a HLT. It's just jammed into there, so (again) I don't know if it will leak or not. It's in pretty tight though. Like everything else, I have no idea how well this will work. I also had fun buying all these bits and pieces from the hardware store, I had no idea what I needed and was just grabbing bits and pieces that looked approximately right. Most of them were, fortunately.

It's also nice to have a bit of copper in there.

This is my newest purchase, four rings of pure power. Not that I've ever used one, but it certainly looks the part. It's even too wide for the HLT so I'll have to run it on three rings when heating that. I plan to pick up a cheap 3-ring second hand soon for the HLT. Tomorrow I'll go buy a gas bottle if I can find somewhere that doesn't charge like a wounded bull for one.

And lastly, here's the general layout I'll be using when I brew:

Clearly it won't be jammed into the corner by the aircon like that, I'll bring it further out into the open. And there will be some bricks right under the burner to stop it from boiling the desktop. I picked up some tubing today for running between the mash tun and kettle and kettle to fermenter. No chiller yet, that's a future purchase. For the moment I'll just cool overnight in ice water.

I bought 5 kilos of grain today for my saison and my pack is smacked and swollen. If all goes well then tomorrow I will be popping the cherry on my new system. It's certainly a step up from the kitchen brews.

Zago HY Cuvee

2006-01-15T21:37:00.000+10:30

http://zago.it/en/hy75.htm

I bought a bottle of this recently for a paltry $26.95. The description on the site is pretty much correct, but what it doesn't mention is how sweet and full-bodied it is. It's fruitier than a Sydney parade and thicker than two short planks. I would call it a real dessert beer, with no accompanying dessert needed.

Out of curiosity I mixed it back with a little of my dark ale. I tried this again the other night and the burnt flavour of the black malt has died down immensely. It mixed well with the HY beer, the black malt flavour cut through the sweetness well and turned it into what would be a very fruity (and strong) porter.

Bless me father

2006-01-12T19:28:00.000+10:30

...for I have sinned. It has been over a month since my last brew session.

That was the American wheat, brewed on 3rd of Dec as a quick turnaround beer for Christmas. After that I didn't have the time to do it, plus moving house put a damper on brewing plans.

I'm also not counting the dump & stir nor the wort kit wort as brewing. I dumped the kit beer the other day, it was horribly average, solventlike and I'd ran out of time to bottle before moving.

And speaking of moving, I am sitting on the carpet in the corner of the lounge room of my new place of residence. I have a magnum of American wheat, the final bottle of the batch, to celebrate my first night here and for a beer that had the shadow of infection looming over it, it is damned fine.

It has been a very variable beer, to begin with it was thin and watery, at Grumpy's someone said it had a metallic taste. At Christmas (which it was intended for) it had a real nectarine flavour and aroma to it which was gorgeous, but the beer was still a little thin. All throughout it has had a wonderful lemony hint of Glacier. This final bottle is still light in body but the carbonation has reached a point where it makes the texture beautifully creamy.

This brings my beer supplies down to nine bottles of imperial stout, a few bottles of tettnunga (guess the hop) dark ale with too much black patent, a couple bottles of australian stout with too much roast barley, and around half a batch of Old Regret, an aussie strong/sparkling ale with a fusel issue. Funny how the bad batches always stick around.

Infection!

2006-01-02T01:15:00.000+10:30

I had one recently, first ever. It's been across three batches, but the same infection as by the time I figured out the first one, two more beers had hit the fermenters used for it, and they clearly hadn't been cleaned properly.

It really starts with a lackadaisical approach to cleaning your fermenters, stemming from only brewing or bottling when you have a couple hours to spare at the end of a night. That means fermenters sitting around for weeks or more with beery dregs in the bottom, and when brewday comes you realise at around midnight, while the wort is cooling, that you need to clean one.

Then, I brewed an alt using SAF K-97 dried yeast. The yeast was dry-pitched at some horrible hour of the morning, and took around 4 days to fire up. The beer did not taste nice once the ferment finished, so it had an extended primary and secondary as often happens when I'm not too thrilled about a beer and am too busy to tend to it. Once it hit the bottle and conditioned for a few weeks, I noticed a film had developed on the surface of the beer, one that transferred to the glass and looked like this.

The next troublemaking beer I put down was vaguely an india pale ale. It suffered from a stuck ferment, I think because it was a very impromptu brew so I had no starter, but I did have a whitelabs 008 tube so I used that. I think the yeast was not quite up to the job, but it's the first time I've used a pitchable tube. Anyway, the upshot was that the beer sat in primary at 1.020 for a few weeks.

Inbetweentimes, I brewed an American wheat using 1010 as a quick turnaround christmas beer. From an OG of 1.042 (and with a good starter) it fermented out in three days, I left it for another couple, racked to secondary for another few days, then bottled. A couple days into bottle conditioning, I noticed the same film as in the alt. Just under a week in bottle, I threw the whole batch into the fridge and left it, and it was fine.

The india pale, however, developed this, and still had not fermented out fully. I gave up on it and turfed the batch.

And then, we come to my reason for writing this post. Being rather disheartened by that point, I gave one of my fermenters the cleaning and sanitising of a lifetime then did a dump & stir of a coopers draught kit plus a 'booster pack' that has been sitting around here for at least a year. The intention here was to see if the infection would rear its ugly head again, and if it did after the clean I gave my gear then I would probably cry a little.

Tonight I decided the beer had been in the primary long enough to give the all-clear. I was originally going pour the beer down the drain once I reached this point, since it was really just a cheap way of green-lighting my cleaning process. However, I've reached a point where I'm running awfully low on beer, so out of curiosity I decided I'd follow through and bring this batch to bottle. I racked it to secondary on top of a freezer-bag's worth of homegrown chinook hops that I've been meaning to use for almost a year now. I will leave it for a few days on that, then bottle to PET. Then, a few weeks later we'll see what my first kit & kilo for over a year tastes like.

Windhoek

2005-12-28T01:35:00.000+10:30

Last Friday, recognising that I was in the position of being unable to brew for almost a month and having Christmas coming up, I bought a slab of Windhoek Draught in 450mL cans for $40 to help see me through. There's a sixpack of it left now, looking at the site I am hard pressed to argue with the claim that is is the most sessional beer in the Windhoek range.

A belated merry christmas to all my friends and family, and a happy new year.

Saison

2005-12-26T11:10:00.000+10:30

One of the next beers on my list to brew is a Saison. Like a lot of styles I've never brewed or even tried one before, so the recipe is based on what I've read of the BJCP guidelines for the style and other people's recipes I've read on the internet.

As summer's hit I'm remembering that I sometimes struggle to keep any brews below low to mid 20's. Until I get some better cooling set up (which is also on the to do list), I think a Saison should fit the bill perfectly. The only downfall at the moment is I'm moving house in around 3 weeks time so do not have time to fit another brew in, especially not a saison considering how long the yeast can take to ferment fully.

The recipe is, as follows:

30 IBU
OG 1.058
FG 1.011
(estimates only)

70% weyermann pils
20% weyermann munich
10% joe white wheat

Northern Brewer bittering
Glacier 10g @ 15
Challenger 10g @ 15
Spalt 10g @ 15

3724 Belgian Saison yeast

90min mash @ 66°C

60min boil

The gravity and colour are on the lower end of the style, as I want a good summer quaffer. A little malt but an attenuative wort, hopefully the high attenuation on the yeast won't make it too dry, we'll see. NB because I have plenty of it spare at the moment, Glacier to introduce a lemony flavour, Challenger for a marmaladey flavour and Spalt for a little spiciness. I know the yeast should introduce a fair bit of spiciness but I think a little more won't hurt. No added spices for seasoning like a lot of recipes include.

I've got no idea what it'll turn out like or if it will be true to style, but I'm looking forward to it.

Beer!

2005-12-21T23:20:00.000+10:30

That's what this blog is about, beer. That is, the brewing and consumption thereof. I started brewing (or assisting the fermentation of) my own beer a couple years ago and since then it has grown to be by far my favourite hobby, that and the drinking. Along with the drinking comes the talking, if I'm not careful I will bend anyone's ear on the subject if they express too much interest.

I am currently teetering between part-grain part-extract and all-grain brewing, I have been brewing partial mashes for just over a year now with the following setup:

First, we have the mash tun:

This sophisticated device holds 2.5kg of grain with 6L water, enough for a batch of approximately 20 litres or more with an additional 1.5kg liquid malt extract. Sparging is an additional 8 litres water in three consecutive batches.

Which brings me to the sparge arm. This incredibly technical device allows to me to achieve a staggering 70% brewhouse efficiency with a good crush:

From there we go to the kettle. Also shown in this picture is the hot liquor tank:

The kettle is a 19L job that cost me about that much from a cheap store. HLT is on loan till Mum wants it back.

Ultimately I end up doing boils of around 13 litres and add the extract at the end to avoid having a high gravity boil. It works out acceptably for some or most styles. More importantly, it's a very simplistic setup requiring only a 6-pack esky, a cheap pot or two, an adequate heat source and a laundry sink for cooling.