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Homebrew thread

Started by Blue Jam, March 24, 2020, 06:20:38 PM

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Blue Jam

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on October 19, 2020, 10:54:51 PM
You have to avoid oil because it messes with the yeast growth, so I don't know how it'll work really. Check back in a couple months.

BJam I recommend a free app like beersmith if you're getting into adjuncts. Typically, you can select the extract kit you are using as a base recipe then add extra bits and it'll give you the impact on colour/strength in a very intuitive way. Worth a look, even the mobile version is alright.

Cheers Ferris!

Christmas puds contain oil but heating them might break that down a bit. The toasted coconut porter I made was fine, the oil didn't seem to slow down the fermentation, possibly because toasting the coconut hardened the oil. When the primary fermentation was done I saw little islands of of solid waxy stuff floating on the surface of my beer, and it appeared to be hardened coconut oil. I wonder if I'll get a similar thing happening with the Christmas pud...

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Blue Jam on October 19, 2020, 10:33:58 PM
Seb Cobb, the bags do kind of look like socks (and I have a pair of them) so perhaps the pud sock will act like a kicker.

When I was getting a kit at the homebrew shop I asked the guy in there if they did hop bags and he described them as brewing socks. I didn't need them for the current brew as they come with hop teabags but was thinking of giving it a go if this boosted ipa I've got going turns out ok. As it happens I've got quite a few sheets of cheesecloth going spare (as I only need a couple of small squares for chucking whole spices in pilaf rice and wringing out spinach pucks) so I might just dump them in that and tie a knot in it.

Anyhow I think you were asking about golden ales or something. I ended up getting this without really knowing 100% what a Saison was. I was torn between it and their Covfefe IPA and just sort of mentally flipped a coin.



QuoteA Belgian Style Saison.
A golden beer with spicy notes and a peppery Great British finishing hop.

Comes with carefully selected varietal beer yeast and a separate packet of finishing hops to so you can enjoy the taste and aroma of fresh beer.

Colour EBC: 12-16
- Bitterness EBU: 35-40
- Finishing Hops Included: Target (UK)



Ferris

Re: hop bags - I don't bother, bung the hops straight in. The oils diffuse into the beer (thanks alcohol) and the vegetal matter sinks to the bottom with the rest of the sludge. I use them for other things like cloves/spices or oak cubes if I'm feeling a bit fancy.

Re: saison, from a brewing perspective the only difference is the yeast strain you use to ferment, and I still find it odd they don't give you the strain info in the kit. I'd be interested in knowing what it is if it says on the packet - never got into saisons so it might be a good one to put on my wish list and knowing a commercial dry yeast is always helpful.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on October 24, 2020, 02:53:16 PM
Re: saison, from a brewing perspective the only difference is the yeast strain you use to ferment, and I still find it odd they don't give you the strain info in the kit. I'd be interested in knowing what it is if it says on the packet - never got into saisons so it might be a good one to put on my wish list and knowing a commercial dry yeast is always helpful.

This is the packet, dunno if the codes mean anything to you, they mean nothing to me!

Blue Jam

Got my fourth brew going, and my first case of stuck fermentation. After three days fuck-all was happening, no bubbling in the airlock, no krausen, no thick layer of yeast slurry visible at the bottom. I assumed the yeast was dead, probably because I had opened it and then stored it for a few months.

Fortunately I live a few streets away from Brewstore and was able to order and collect a sachet of a different golden ale yeast. Bunged that in on Wednesday and after about 18 hours the airlock was bubbling very aggressively... but only for 12 more hours. Only heard it bubble once since. There's a nice thick layer of krausen and a thick layer of yeast slurry and the brew definitely smells more like beer than sugar now, but is it okay? Did I just buy some very hungry yeast which did most of its work in 12 hours? Did I put too much yeast in (11g, the original sachet in the kit was 6g)? Is all this normal?

In other homebrew news my Belgian Dubbel kit arrived and I'm going to get a second fermenting bucket and airlock so I can have two brews on the go, one with Christmas pud and one without. Getting a bit obsessed here...

Sebastian Cobb

Ha I also ended up getting a second bucket. The ones on brew2bottle are pretty cheap but the lids are a little flimsy and very fiddly as you have to pop them off all around before trying to take it off. They seal well though.

I still need to stop or pause between brews sometimes just so I don't run out of bottles!

Blue Jam

I'm going to get two more brews done and then stack the buckets together and put all my homebrew kit in them and shove it all in the cupboard so we'll have room for the Christmas tree. Just got to find somewhere to put all the bottles now. I've got a load of Moretti bottles which are good because they're big so I need fewer of them, and they're brown so they're better for protecting the beer from light. Think we'll just have to get all 15 bottles of Prairie Vole drunk before Christmas.

Sebastian Cobb

I use a mixture of Lidl's Bavaria and Tyskie. Are Moretti bottles the same size? I got caught out with a couple of big Deuchars bottles - I didn't notice they required bigger caps until I tried to bottle them.

Sebastian Cobb

BTW regarding stuck brews etc - one of my kits has a slightly jagged edge that means the airlock doesn't get a good enough seal to bubble, I tend to look at the temp to see if it's still doing stuff +2 degrees seems normal and then it seems to drop down to room towards the end.

Ferris

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on October 24, 2020, 02:58:08 PM
This is the packet, dunno if the codes mean anything to you, they mean nothing to me!


No, sadly. Must remain a mystery!

Very jealous of you lot and your brewing adventures. My stuff is all in storage - move in date for the new gaff set for November 27th, if I'm quick I can get a Christmas stout ready to go.

Shamefully in all my years I never thought of buying commercial bottles and recapping them. What an idiot.

Blue Jam

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on October 24, 2020, 03:30:45 PM
I got caught out with a couple of big Deuchars bottles - I didn't notice they required bigger caps until I tried to bottle them.

I had that problem when I tried using Leffe bottles, d'oh. I think Moretti bottles are about 600ml, standard cap size though.

I hadn't considered buying bottles before. A mate of mine uses big flip-top bottles he bought specially, perhaps that's the way to go.

Blue Jam

Also during all this homebrew chat I have been preparing a batch of sourdough to make pizzas with later on. Craft beer and sourdough pizza? What have I become? I'll be growing a beard next.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on October 24, 2020, 04:12:05 PM
Shamefully in all my years I never thought of buying commercial bottles and recapping them. What an idiot.

It just seemed like a no-brainer to me, 60p for an empty bottle or a quid for one with beer in it, that I can drink.

Quote from: Blue Jam on October 24, 2020, 04:21:11 PM
I hadn't considered buying bottles before. A mate of mine uses big flip-top bottles he bought specially, perhaps that's the way to go.

I think Grolsh do swing tops too. Looking at brew 2 bottle, the choices seem to be glass swing-top or PET. Plastic beer bottles don't seem right to me.

Ferris

I had a stash of hacker-pschorr bottles, 500ml and the swing tops were basically indestructible. All recycled now :(

Sebastian Cobb

My first couple of batches were in lidl's better-than-bavaria Perlenbacher. They were crown caps but with a thread, it seems to some brewers using them is a cardinal sin but they sealed fine. I could see the threads getting worn over time and the crown caps not having anything to grip, but they were ok.

My old man's been cleaning the loft out, along with a Gamecube I was certain I'd lost, my Scalextric, including a TMNJ (Leonardo) on a skateboard, he's found another immersion heater, rotokeg and a floating syphon.

Ferris

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on October 24, 2020, 05:21:26 PM
a Gamecube I was certain I'd lost, my Scalextric, including a TMNJ (Leonardo) on a skateboard, he's found another immersion heater, rotokeg and a floating syphon.

Tutankhamen got nothing on that treasure trove.

Calistan

I started a Coopers Irish Stout kit last week. I used 1kg of extra dark spray malt and 300g of sugar. I think it was the first time I used spray malt, certainly I wasn't prepared for how lumpy everything became but I gave it a damn good stir. I was initially planning on leaving it in the fermenter for three weeks but I might bottle it a bit earlier since I'm self-isolating at the moment and bored to tears.

Wish I'd read about the vanilla beans thing beforehand, that sounds lovely.

Sebastian Cobb

I've not used spray malt, but have found some kits tell you to dissolve the sugar in the ~gallon of boiling water you add to the wort and some don't, I tend to just do it anyway as it's easier.

I'm sure it'll all be fine once you've added the rest of the water, it's going to dissolve eventually.

Blue Jam

Prairie Vole is ready for bottling now, gone from 1.043 to 1.008 on the hydrometer, but it tastes very bitter- not undrinkably so, but it's not great at the moment. Lots of bison grass aroma on the nose but I can't taste much in the beer. Please tell me it just needs conditioning and that it will mellow with age? Or is this just a failed experiment?

No signs of infection before you ask, it looks and smells clean as a whistle.

Ferris

It'll absolutely mellow, you're grand. We're getting to the limits of my understanding, but the carbon chains (?) that cause taste and aroma (?) break down over time (?) or something. I don't know - this is very much more your field than mine!

It'll be fine after 2 weeks. If you still want it to mellow more, you can leave it another 2 weeks and so on ad infinitum, though after about 2 months the changes will start to be more minimal.

Blue Jam

Cheers Ferris. It's definitely a hoppy bitterness, there's no hint of vinegar or anything suggesting contamination. Now I think about it the batch I brewed with the other half of this kit (Glory Vole) was not unlike this at first, just a bit less bitter, and that totally changed over four weeks and mellowed to a very refreshing brew indeed.

The bison grass is subtle but it's there! I put all five packets I got off eBay in there and hoped that wouldn't be overdoing it, if anything it could have done with one packet more!

Cheers, will do the bottling tonight and then get the Belgian ale on! Going to do the entire kit, bottle half of it and then add the Christmas pudding to the remaining half before bottling that after two weeks.

Blue Jam

Also I did use a different yeast for this one- still a golden ale yeast, but a different brand, so I doubt it'll be the exact same strain and the yeast will have produced the exact same esters etc. Thanks again, will keep you posted!

Ferris

Oh yeah the hoppy bitterness/aroma will definitely break down - it's why idiots like me who like hoppy beer get into dry hopping, hop backs, hop spiders, lupulin powders and all that sort of thing.

For the style you're after, it sounds like you have it spot on.

Will be very interested in the xmas pud brew! Good luck, I bet it's ace.

Ferris

Quote from: Blue Jam on October 29, 2020, 03:27:21 PM
Also I did use a different yeast for this one- still a golden ale yeast, but a different brand, so I doubt it'll be the exact same strain and the yeast will have produced the exact same esters etc. Thanks again, will keep you posted!

Don't mean to keep banging on about it, but are they telling you the strain? It seems really odd to me that they don't seem to do that in these kits (or maybe it's a UK thing?)

Sebastian Cobb

I've been buying from multiple kit makers and don't recall any of them saying.

I did notice that bulldog brews, with their trendy packaging and references like 'cofefe ipa' are made by Hambleton Bard, who were around when my dad was making homebrew.

Ferris

Might just be a quirk of Are Great Island that manufacturers don't bother. Fair enough I suppose, though the yeast is a big component so it's odd to leave you in the dark for no reason. The manufacturers must know and intentionally not telling people? Who knows.

Sebastian Cobb

Maybe it's just because they've got a vested interest in punting you kits?

Blue Jam

It was Danstar Nottingham Ale Beer Brewing Yeast, and ooooh look, there's a datasheet!

https://www.lallemandbrewing.com/docs/products/tds/TDS_LALBREW_PREM_NOTTINGHAM_ENGLISH_DIGITAL.pdf

Apparently it's a pretty neutral yeast which "allows hop character to dominate". Not much in the way of fruity esters then, rightio.

Got no idea what the original strain in the kit was, just that it was sensational for making bread!

Hi everyone.
I've been brewing various IPA and Amber Ale kits since the spring, adding a few bits and pieces, with decent results.
My latest brew was a Muntons Irish Style Stout kit, to which I added 1.5kg dark malt extract and 0.5kg dark spraymalt (as suggested somewhere online on a kit review site). Bottled it 3 weeks ago, priming at 6g/l. Opened the first bottles recently and it tastes great, but is completely without any head. There's a good bit of fizz to it, just looks like a glass of coke. Not the end of the world by any means, but obviously not how it should be. Any idea what I've done wrong?

Ferris

Quote from: Ed Sholda-Sneezuntows on October 30, 2020, 10:48:02 AM
Hi everyone.
I've been brewing various IPA and Amber Ale kits since the spring, adding a few bits and pieces, with decent results.
My latest brew was a Muntons Irish Style Stout kit, to which I added 1.5kg dark malt extract and 0.5kg dark spraymalt (as suggested somewhere online on a kit review site). Bottled it 3 weeks ago, priming at 6g/l. Opened the first bottles recently and it tastes great, but is completely without any head. There's a good bit of fizz to it, just looks like a glass of coke. Not the end of the world by any means, but obviously not how it should be. Any idea what I've done wrong?

Under-carbed maybe? I'm not familiar with grams per litre, but I'd typically carb a stout like that to ~2 atm of pressure. Have a look at this and see if you are over or under: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

(Actually I just had a look because I'm not that lazy! It looks like you are pretty much spot on so don't think it is to do with the sugar volume).

3 weeks in the bottle is plenty, so doubt it is due to time either. Couple things I can think of:

- how much headspace is left in your bottles? If you only filled them 1/2 full or something, the CO2 won't get forced back into the beer. I leave about 1" of space between the beer level and the bottle cap
- how long did you leave in primary, and how what abv % is your beer? If you stuck with kits and only added a few lbs of adjuncts it is probably fine, but I'm wondering if the yeast was knackered after hanging out in the primary fermenter for a long time or in a high abv environment?
- are your bottles sealed? You might have some CO2 leakage. I've never checked, but I bet you could put a balloon over one (or something) next time and see if it inflates a bit? Reusing crown caps can cause this.

...maybe? Honestly, it is probably fine - if I find I've undercarbed beer, next time I add an extra 1/2 of a head retaining grain (flaked oats usually) to the recipe. Likely not a solution here, and anyway your spray malt should sort of do the same thing so not sure if that's helpful. You could try leaving it another week as well, that's like a universal homebrewing answer.

The solution for right now is just pour the beer very aggressively. It feels wrong, but it'll (probably!) work and get the appearance you want and have basically no impact on the beer. If it is carbed (and it seems like it is), then it'll maintain the head if you manage to get one on there.

Alternative solution - maintain it is a dark mild and the style calls for minimal head, then you are in the clear and you can be all snobby and "oh don't you even know that yet I do" if anyone disagrees.

All the best with it!