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 .

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Hairy Lager

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Where have you got it fermenting? Are you able to control the temperature?
MontgomeryBurnsExcellent.jpg

Did you take a gravity reading?
Like Dan said any temp control is good control. If you could get it to a constant 18C you'll make a better beer.
Even a wet towel with a fan blowing on it does the job.

Got your sterilization stuff and bottles ready?
G'day lads, I've got the brew in an enclosed laundry with a oil heater, it was on 26 degrees when I got up for a slash last night, but is now back to 22 degrees after opening the door of the laundry for a few hours.

Yesterdays Gravity reading was at 31 (whatevers? don't know the term, maybe you could help me out here) ,it was the same this morning, 24 hours later.

Is 18 degrees preferred over 23 as it says in my instructional video that 23 is required?

I have a nice Kruesen on top again, should I be stirring the Brew each day?

Yeap have those PET bottles with the kit, how long should i brew this puppy for, says 6 days on the Coopers
instructional vid, Cheers in advance for your help.
 

DanWCE

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G'day lads, I've got the brew in an enclosed laundry with a oil heater, it was on 26 degrees when I got up for a slash last night, but is now back to 22 degrees after opening the door of the laundry for a few hours.

Yesterdays Gravity reading was at 31 (whatevers? don't know the term, maybe you could help me out here) ,it was the same this morning, 24 hours later.

Is 18 degrees preferred over 23 as it says in my instructional video that 23 is required?

I have a nice Kruesen on top again, should I be stirring the Brew each day?

Yeap have those PET bottles with the kit, how long should i brew this puppy for, says 6 days on the Coopers
instructional vid, Cheers in advance for your help.

What yeast are you using? Definitely dont stir it. The beer has now created a nice blanket of co2 as protection for the yeast so you dont want to introduce o2 and oxidate the beer.

23 may be okay for your particular yeast but that was my motivation for asking. Most ale yeasts like high teens for early fermentation and much higher temps will produce hot alcohols/phenols which dont taste so great.
 
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G'day lads, I've got the brew in an enclosed laundry with a oil heater, it was on 26 degrees when I got up for a slash last night, but is now back to 22 degrees after opening the door of the laundry for a few hours.

Yesterdays Gravity reading was at 31 (whatevers? don't know the term, maybe you could help me out here) ,it was the same this morning, 24 hours later.

Is 18 degrees preferred over 23 as it says in my instructional video that 23 is required?

I have a nice Kruesen on top again, should I be stirring the Brew each day?

Yeap have those PET bottles with the kit, how long should i brew this puppy for, says 6 days on the Coopers
instructional vid, Cheers in advance for your help.

I would expect the gravity reading to come down over 24 hours when there are signs of vigorous fermentation. Sounds kinda dirty doesn't it.

Like Dan said 23 is ok but a lower temp will give you more rounded flavour insread of a stronger one ofter full of small faults left over from rushing the fermentation.
Coopers say 23C because they want to make sure you cook it good and proper and convert all those simple sugars into alcohol and to stop people from having exploding beers.

Think of it like cooking meat. Say pork.
Roast it at 180C and you get burnt dryed out crackling with a strong flavour cause by cokking quickly at a high temp.
Take the same piece if meat and cook it at 100C for 9 to 12 hours and you get pulled pork. Meat so juicy is pulls apart with no strong burnt fatty flavours.

Best advice I ever recieved early in my brewing career was to think about how the professionals do it.
You want to replicate what a big brewery does from start to finish but use better ingredients so it doesn't taste like the bottom of the Swan.

Quality water. Maintain mash temps. Gentle transfer during hot side. Vigerous transfer before pitching yeast. Pitching the right amount of yeast. Temperature control during fermentation. The list goes on.

With a kit beer like you are currently brewing all of the hot side has been done for you. Leaving sanitation and fermentation temperature as the two most important things required to make a good beer.
I've tasted kit beers as good and sometimes better than full mash beers. They had a few steeped hops and used a better yeast but real good results are achievable.
It all starts with sanitation and temp control.
An old fridge makes an awesome fermentation chamber.

Sorry for the info overload :D
 

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Hairy Lager

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I would expect the gravity reading to come down over 24 hours when there are signs of vigorous fermentation. Sounds kinda dirty doesn't it.

Like Dan said 23 is ok but a lower temp will give you more rounded flavour insread of a stronger one ofter full of small faults left over from rushing the fermentation.
Coopers say 23C because they want to make sure you cook it good and proper and convert all those simple sugars into alcohol and to stop people from having exploding beers.

Think of it like cooking meat. Say pork.
Roast it at 180C and you get burnt dryed out crackling with a strong flavour cause by cokking quickly at a high temp.
Take the same piece if meat and cook it at 100C for 9 to 12 hours and you get pulled pork. Meat so juicy is pulls apart with no strong burnt fatty flavours.

Best advice I ever recieved early in my brewing career was to think about how the professionals do it.
You want to replicate what a big brewery does from start to finish but use better ingredients so it doesn't taste like the bottom of the Swan.

Quality water. Maintain mash temps. Gentle transfer during hot side. Vigerous transfer before pitching yeast. Pitching the right amount of yeast. Temperature control during fermentation. The list goes on.

With a kit beer like you are currently brewing all of the hot side has been done for you. Leaving sanitation and fermentation temperature as the two most important things required to make a good beer.
I've tasted kit beers as good and sometimes better than full mash beers. They had a few steeped hops and used a better yeast but real good results are achievable.
It all starts with sanitation and temp control.
An old fridge makes an awesome fermentation chamber.

Sorry for the info overload :D
What yeast are you using? Definitely dont stir it. The beer has now created a nice blanket of co2 as protection for the yeast so you dont want to introduce o2 and oxidate the beer.

23 may be okay for your particular yeast but that was my motivation for asking. Most ale yeasts like high teens for early fermentation and much higher temps will produce hot alcohols/phenols which dont taste so great.
Great advice, thanks heaps!
So just put the brew vessel into the fridge not turned on an check each day is what you are saying,
as I happen to have 2 fridges lying around ATM.

Not sure what yeast, it just came with the kit. It was a little pack the size of a tea bag.

Temp still at 22 degrees, gravity has dropped to 19 and the head is still about 3 mm deep and the brew itself is cloudy as, does this sound right so far?
 

DanWCE

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Great advice, thanks heaps!
So just put the brew vessel into the fridge not turned on an check each day is what you are saying,
as I happen to have 2 fridges lying around ATM.

Not sure what yeast, it just came with the kit. It was a little pack the size of a tea bag.

Temp still at 22 degrees, gravity has dropped to 19 and the head is still about 3 mm deep and the brew itself is cloudy as, does this sound right so far?

Yep that sounds right. What was your original gravity (OG)?

I try not to check my gravity for 4-6 days, just let it do its thing.

Google STC1000 - its a temperature controller. So you plug that into power, and your fridge into that. Then tape the connected temp probe to the side of the fermenter in said fridge. Itll kick your fridge on and off to hold it bang on the temp youve set it to. In Winter itll warm the air up if you have a heat belt in there.

I got a piece of packing styrofoam and notched out a small section to stick my temp probe in. That way it accurately reads the temp of the fermenter and not the surrounding ambient air. During early fermentation the teml within the fermenter will be 1-2° hotter than what the probe says.
 

Hairy Lager

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Yep that sounds right. What was your original gravity (OG)?

I try not to check my gravity for 4-6 days, just let it do its thing.

Google STC1000 - its a temperature controller. So you plug that into power, and your fridge into that. Then tape the connected temp probe to the side of the fermenter in said fridge. Itll kick your fridge on and off to hold it bang on the temp youve set it to. In Winter itll warm the air up if you have a heat belt in there.

I got a piece of packing styrofoam and notched out a small section to stick my temp probe in. That way it accurately reads the temp of the fermenter and not the surrounding ambient air. During early fermentation the teml within the fermenter will be 1-2° hotter than what the probe says.
Cool, will just leave for the next couple of days then yeah?

OG is @ 31, has dropped heaps.(down to 19)

I'd burn down my house with that STC1000 I reckon ha, ha.

Confidence install me thinks, looks like a cheap and perfect solution this Summer though, may have to hit up a electrician.

Neighbor showed me his setup on Tuesday with aluminium kegs and a fridge that does a secondary fermentation as well, was nice and sexy.

Future purchase on the cards.:thumbsu:
 

DanWCE

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Cool, will just leave for the next couple of days then yeah?

OG is @ 31, has dropped heaps.(down to 19)

I'd burn down my house with that STC1000 I reckon ha, ha.

Confidence install me thinks, looks like a cheap and perfect solution this Summer though, may have to hit up a electrician.

Neighbor showed me his setup on Tuesday with aluminium kegs and a fridge that does a secondary fermentation as well, was nice and sexy.

Future purchase on the cards.:thumbsu:

Yeah leave it a week. You're at 1.6% alcohol currently.

You can buy the STC1000s prebuilt or get alternatives. I bought a China type from ebay for $30 but it doesnt do heating and cooling at the same time which is what Ill be upgrading to.
 
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I agree with everything :)

When I first started out I had a fridge but not any temp control so I used to place some frozen ice packs against the fermenter and wrap an occy strap around them :D

STC100 is the single most bestest improvement you'll ever make to your home brewing.
 

Hairy Lager

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I agree with everything :)

When I first started out I had a fridge but not any temp control so I used to place some frozen ice packs against the fermenter and wrap an occy strap around them :D

STC100 is the single most bestest improvement you'll ever make to your home brewing.
Next 3 day temp forcast is 22, 23, 22 or something legendary like that, the perfect beer brew temp.

Will keep oil heater on at night to keep my little baby warm at night, other than that all good, 6th beer.
:D:thumbsu:

...oh and I miss SC...:(...and footy.

Bathurst this weekend though, sweet!!

Cheers for help lads.
 

mattyc75

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SpaceClef

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Finally bottling my stout tomorrow.

Didn't ferment out quite as much as I expected but I ****ed up by transferring to a secondary before I went overseas.

Target FG was 016 but it was sitting at 020 when I got back.

Cranked up the heat pad for a day or two to see if the Drew Yeasties had one more hurrah left in them.

Still tasted bloody tasty at that gravity though and was already ~6.6% abv anyway, so all good.

Was tossing up whether to soak some vanilla pods in brandy to add some extract to a few bottles, but I'll leave that for another batch
 

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DanWCE

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Finally bottling my stout tomorrow.

Didn't ferment out quite as much as I expected but I stuffed up by transferring to a secondary before I went overseas.

Target FG was 016 but it was sitting at 020 when I got back.

Cranked up the heat pad for a day or two to see if the Drew Yeasties had one more hurrah left in them.

Still tasted bloody tasty at that gravity though and was already ~6.6% abv anyway, so all good.

Was tossing up whether to soak some vanilla pods in brandy to add some extract to a few bottles, but I'll leave that for another batch

1020 seems the happy FG for so many dark beers or specialty malt laden beers. I reckon thats about right. What yeast? S-04 loves to finish at 1020!

Nice work though man, hope you get a few cool Melb evenings to suck back a few!

Ive just poured a grapefruit IPA and its so clear. Means keg is about to pop. Finished the pale keg this week so just steri/sani that now then transferring my saison tonight.

Douple IPA mash in tomorrow, so pumped to brew again!
 

SpaceClef

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1020 seems the happy FG for so many dark beers or specialty malt laden beers. I reckon thats about right. What yeast? S-04 loves to finish at 1020!

Nice work though man, hope you get a few cool Melb evenings to suck back a few!

Ive just poured a grapefruit IPA and its so clear. Means keg is about to pop. Finished the pale keg this week so just steri/sani that now then transferring my saison tonight.

Douple IPA mash in tomorrow, so pumped to brew again!
It was that infamous Danstar BRY-97 west coast ale yeast. Lots of negative reviews online because apparently it often takes a couple of days before fermentation kicks in.

Kicked in after 8 hours for me, so no complaints there. But I don't think it's hugely attenuative.

What's S-04 like? I haven't only ever used Nottingham for my debut brew, S-05 for my second and third, and now 97 for my most recent.
 

DanWCE

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It was that infamous Danstar BRY-97 west coast ale yeast. Lots of negative reviews online because apparently it often takes a couple of days before fermentation kicks in.

Kicked in after 8 hours for me, so no complaints there. But I don't think it's hugely attenuative.

What's S-04 like? I haven't only ever used Nottingham for my debut brew, S-05 for my second and third, and now 97 for my most recent.

S-04 is an English ale yeast, pretty notorious for stalling at 20. But if you can get it to run out further its good. Goes well in ciders, just munches all the simple sugars.
 

Hairy Lager

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Just checking in to let you guys know that my Cervaza is at Day 5.

I has a nice looking honey colour and the kruesen has stopped completely.

Gravity reading is at 1010, has a few sexy bubbles now.

Has been sitting at 22C for the last 4 days firmly.

Tastes quite nice, lacks a little flavour though, but was expected with a Cervaza type.

Here2tellyouwhy ran into this dude at the local Home Brew shop who said that for the next one I should try a Morgans Master Malt Extract, instead of a enhancer 2 for my next batch, thoughts.

I bought one of these Morgans Master Malt Extracts and would be keen to give it a whirl, should I give it a go for my next Cervaza or should I try it with something else, suggestions?
 
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Just checking in to let you guys know that my Cervaza is at Day 5.

I has a nice looking honey colour and the kruesen has stopped completely.

Gravity reading is at 1010, has a few sexy bubbles now.

Has been sitting at 22C for the last 4 days firmly.

Tastes quite nice, lacks a little flavour though, but was expected with a Cervaza type.

Here2tellyouwhy ran into this dude at the local Home Brew shop who said that for the next one I should try a Morgans Master Malt Extract, instead of a enhancer 2 for my next batch, thoughts.

I bought one of these Morgans Master Malt Extracts and would be keen to give it a whirl, should I give it a go for my next Cervaza or should I try it with something else, suggestions?
I'd give it a go. It sounds like a kit consisting of mostly malt where as the brew enhancers are 50/50 malt/sugar at best.
A cervaza is pretty much just a malt beer with yeast flavours. Bugger all bitterness or hops used.
Malt is great for balancing out bitterness though so maybe try it with an ale or something with some hops the time after to get an idea of how the same malt kit differs from beer to beer.
 

DanWCE

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DIPA brew day went well for the most part, but my urn is offering up some lacklustre boils lately, so I didnt hit my target OG.

12 hours after pitching the yeast there wasnt any activity but the temp was reading 15. I plugged in the heat belt and warmed the ambient air until the wort hit high 16s and boom off went the yeast! Its now at low 17s with the belt off and fridge plugged in ready to keep the temps under control.

I am extra mindful of containing early ferment temps with this one so I dont end up with a boozy double IPA. After a week of fermentation Im going to add some dme and dextrose to boost the numbers 6 points to where they should've been. Hopefully the yeast will carry on and dry out the beer but Im not holding my breath. This is very much an experiment and the biggest beer I've done!
 
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