Toast Beer / Homebrew Thread

Player most likely to be a beer snob

  • Sam Butler

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Andrew Gaff

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Jack Watts

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Brant Colledge

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Jonathan Giles

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

DanWCE

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 2, 2015
19,578
41,737
AFL Club
West Coast
Yeah but how would I carb? I could give it a week, test the carb levels and then pasteurise if it’s fizzy enough.

Seems risqué but maybe if I use PET...

I was thinking you'd pasteurise after carbonation was complete. You would have to factor in enough fruit to be fermented into co2 whilst retaining enough residual fruit to get its impact.

The alternative is you let the bottles carbonate then store them all in the fridge.
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
I was thinking you'd pasteurise after carbonation was complete. You would have to factor in enough fruit to be fermented into co2 whilst retaining enough residual fruit to get its impact.

The alternative is you let the bottles carbonate then store them all in the fridge.
Yeah nah not risking storing them all in the fridge - our power has gone out a couple of times over summer already.

I think the post carb pasteurise might be worth experimenting with though.
 
Okay so cracked the "Japanese Rice Lager" today. Bit of a disappointment.

Firstly it's hazy as *. That's beyond my control.

Secondly it taste like an Oktoberfest more than Asahi. Not entirely a bad thing but not what I was hoping for.

Lastly it has zero head retention and goes flat after 5 minutes. Primed with 6g of dextrose slurry per litre I would've thought it'd be okay, but alas it did not go the way as planned.

Drinkable? Yes. Fine if you get it down fast or if you're on your 5th pint like I am you obviously don't notice as much. Just disappointed it wasn't what I was hoping.
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
So I did my first sour this weekend.

It’s gonna be a bit more sour than I planned, but at least I know the process works now!

Pretty straight forward, just extra time required

Pics to follow
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
View attachment 618360
The robo with about 25L of bacteria-filled wort. This is after 24 hours.

I pre-acidified the wort to about 4.5 pH using 88% lactic acid and then sprinkled in about 3 g of the freeze dried lactobacillus plantarum powder.

I was expecting to come back and see a mess of white s**t on top and/or a really gross sour milk smell, but got neither.

Didn’t even see any signs of activity underneath the glad wrap. So naturally I assumed it wasn’t really doing much

Tested the pH again and it had dropped way down to 3.5, and had a little sip. It was actually delicious - sour as buggery but still sweet because the wort hadn’t fermented yet. But I had high hopes for the final product.

View attachment 617957
This was the wort heating up for the second boil (to kill off the lacto bugs and to reduce the volume/add late hops.

As you can see there’s trillions of bugs all squirming around dying from heat.

After I boiled I check the pH again and it had dropped way down to 3.2!!! And the gravity was way higher than I expected (great mash effeciency).

So I decided to dilute with a further 2 L of boiled water.

I whirlpool hopped with about 30g of mosaic and 15g of pekko that I had sitting around.

And pitched Wyeast 1318 London ale III after it had chilled down to 19°

Was worried that it wouldn’t ferment because of the low pH, but after 8 hours it was already active and smelling amazing.

Excited
 

DanWCE

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 2, 2015
19,578
41,737
AFL Club
West Coast
View attachment 618360
The robo with about 25L of bacteria-filled wort. This is after 24 hours.

I pre-acidified the wort to about 4.5 pH using 88% lactic acid and then sprinkled in about 3 g of the freeze dried lactobacillus plantarum powder.

I was expecting to come back and see a mess of white s**t on top and/or a really gross sour milk smell, but got neither.

Didn’t even see any signs of activity underneath the glad wrap. So naturally I assumed it wasn’t really doing much

Tested the pH again and it had dropped way down to 3.5, and had a little sip. It was actually delicious - sour as buggery but still sweet because the wort hadn’t fermented yet. But I had high hopes for the final product.

View attachment 617957
This was the wort heating up for the second boil (to kill off the lacto bugs and to reduce the volume/add late hops.

As you can see there’s trillions of bugs all squirming around dying from heat.

After I boiled I check the pH again and it had dropped way down to 3.2!!! And the gravity was way higher than I expected (great mash effeciency).

So I decided to dilute with a further 2 L of boiled water.

I whirlpool hopped with about 30g of mosaic and 15g of pekko that I had sitting around.

And pitched Wyeast 1318 London ale III after it had chilled down to 19°

Was worried that it wouldn’t ferment because of the low pH, but after 8 hours it was already active and smelling amazing.

Excited

Did you check your pH again after diluting it? I'm guessing it is back around 3.5?
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
Did you check your pH again after diluting it? I'm guessing it is back around 3.5?
Yeah it’d be a bit higher, but no I didn’t. I’ll measure it again post ferm

It’ll be more sour than tart, but I also used a fair bit of Vienna malt and a British yeast that finishes sweeter than most, plus the passionfruit on top...I think it’ll be pretty damn smashable.
 
Apr 10, 2004
6,870
8,453
perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
49ers, Liverpool
RO water has made a great improvement to my beers. Also just great for the fam to drink. Water tastes so much better. Had tap water at restaurant the other day and it was truely horrible. Amazing the difference it makes to Perth's s**t water. Took my water from about 350ppm to 40ish. Highly recommend getting one!
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
RO water has made a great improvement to my beers. Also just great for the fam to drink. Water tastes so much better. Had tap water at restaurant the other day and it was truely horrible. Amazing the difference it makes to Perth's s**t water. Took my water from about 350ppm to 40ish. Highly recommend getting one!
Yeah man every time I come back to Perth I’m shocked how bad it smells/tastes.

Especially at restaurants when they keep it in the fridge for ages.

How much is an RO system?

Luckily Melbourne water tastes like Mount Franklin in comparison
 
Apr 10, 2004
6,870
8,453
perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
49ers, Liverpool
Yeah man every time I come back to Perth I’m shocked how bad it smells/tastes.

Especially at restaurants when they keep it in the fridge for ages.

How much is an RO system?

Luckily Melbourne water tastes like Mount Franklin in comparison
Guess like most things it's how much you want to pay. How many stage filters etc. Can get cheap Chinese ones off eBay for about $100. I went with a good company in tassie, with storage tank, tap etc. You probably don't need one in Melbourne, your TDS will be almost as low as my RO :(
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
906CD2CF-3473-4DC5-9AFB-334F899D01F2.jpeg

I bottled my sour last night. To carbonate the bottles I used predominantly natural passionfruit flavour extract (presuming 75% fermentability) and a bit of sugar.

I’m hoping this will lock the passionfruit flavour and aroma right in the bottle.

I only used the extract in PET bottles though, in case the extract is more fermentable than I calculated. Just carbonated with sugar for the glass bottles.
 

FKASC

Reid’s Like Copium
May 28, 2017
24,427
46,586
AFL Club
West Coast
Also I cracked one of the stouts I made last year. About 9 months in the bottle.

It tastes INCREDIBLE. None of the off flavours that I used to hate about that batch. I wish I didn’t drink so many before and just aged them all. I would pay $10 for a longneck if it was sold commercially. that’s how legit it tasted
 

DanWCE

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 2, 2015
19,578
41,737
AFL Club
West Coast
Also I cracked one of the stouts I made last year. About 9 months in the bottle.

It tastes INCREDIBLE. None of the off flavours that I used to hate about that batch. I wish I didn’t drink so many before and just aged them all. I would pay $10 for a longneck if it was sold commercially. that’s how legit it tasted

I'm hoping that happens with my barleywine that I completely forgot about. Put a bottle in the fridge last week.
 

Wally Walpamur

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 23, 2016
6,150
11,930
AFL Club
Fremantle
Sorry to intrude. I’ve managed to pick up a few bottles of Cantillon this week and have multiple of a few variety. Looking for a Nath, Vigneronne or Lamvinus. I have a spare Rose de Gambrinus, Gueuze, Kriek or Grand Cru Bruocsella to trade.
 

DanWCE

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 2, 2015
19,578
41,737
AFL Club
West Coast
Sorry to intrude. I’ve managed to pick up a few bottles of Cantillon this week and have multiple of a few variety. Looking for a Nath, Vigneronne or Lamvinus. I have a spare Rose de Gambrinus, Gueuze, Kriek or Grand Cru Bruocsella to trade.

I have no cantillons unfortunately but DanWCE may know of someone

The local allocation was snapped up pretty quickly. Some of the guys grabbed them for trade currency more than for enjoying. You could try the Beer Trades FB Group.

Personally I'll probably only hunt down kriek and RDG anyway and they're fairly easy to find.
 
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