Toast Beer / Homebrew Thread
- Thread starter SpaceClef
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There's a myth that Jack Watts keeps beers in his beard during game day.
What did you end up brewing on the weekend SC?
Ive racked a BIPA and a session stout into kegs in the last week or so. The BIPA is BrewDogs shareholder black IPA. About 600g worth of hops in 19L.
The stout I purchased a wort kit from my local brewshop as I had run out of time to brew. It was pretty pissweak @ 1046 OG and the Nottingham yeast he sold with it ran out of legs so its finished up at 4%. I have bourbon soaked american oak chips and cacao nibs waiting to go into the keg for immersion.
Have had a couple of stalled ferments (using temp controlled fridge and I do BIAB in a 40L urn) so my next plan is to side by side ferment a BIAB versus extract and see if its a brewing process/water pH issue or fermentation/yeast/climate issue.
Ive racked a BIPA and a session stout into kegs in the last week or so. The BIPA is BrewDogs shareholder black IPA. About 600g worth of hops in 19L.
The stout I purchased a wort kit from my local brewshop as I had run out of time to brew. It was pretty pissweak @ 1046 OG and the Nottingham yeast he sold with it ran out of legs so its finished up at 4%. I have bourbon soaked american oak chips and cacao nibs waiting to go into the keg for immersion.
Have had a couple of stalled ferments (using temp controlled fridge and I do BIAB in a 40L urn) so my next plan is to side by side ferment a BIAB versus extract and see if its a brewing process/water pH issue or fermentation/yeast/climate issue.
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- #5
So I'm pretty new to homebrewing but I can definitely see why people get carried away with it.
Even missed the WC v Collingwood game boiling up my third ever batch (extract only - just a fan not obsessed)
Even missed the WC v Collingwood game boiling up my third ever batch (extract only - just a fan not obsessed)
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- #7
Interesting!
I haven't used grains yet as I've only ever had shitty share house kitchens to work in.
Made an American pale ale last weekend - probably borderline IPA given the 1061 OG but might not be hoppy enough. 18L
About 90g all up of centennial/citra/galaxy and will dry hop with about 10g cascade and citra over the weekend.
I chucked some dry wheat malt extract in there to try replicate aspects of MG Steam Ale, as its the lady friend's fave beer, and the last one I brewed was way too intense for her.
So hopefully it's not too malt heavy. I might just add more dry hops.
I would go a little heavier on that dryhop. Im not too familiar with extract but when did you add your hops?
Bitterness defines IPA as much as ABV for me. Now we are seeing XPAs which are higher ABV pale ales, less bitterness but beautiful aromatics. Garage Project - Dirty Boots is a lovely example and fresh stock just landed in the country.
Are you bottling or got a keg? I have seen guys do partial mash so basically adding a small amount of grains to extract and its supposed to be unreal.
Ahhh good old stalled ferments.
Shake the crap out of the fermenter to bring the yeast back into solution and maybe bump the temp up to 20C.
Most yeast will drop the wort a few points if you do a protein dyceltel rest.
Nottingham is s**t though imo.
Have you looked into fetting an oxygen set and gasses the wort with O2 before pitchingbthe yeast?
It gives you a much cleaner faster ferment which is great for keeping the nasty yeasties out of the game.
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- #10
Added about 45g at 60 mins, spread the rest out between 15 mins and 'flameout'
I'll be bottling for a while - I prefer having longnecks that I can give out/take to mates place/label if I feel like it. I don't really know what the advantages of kegging are, other than not having to wait for carbonation and the whole pimp factor
Partial mash will be my next step. I'm mostly concerned with temperature control as I don't want to fork out on fancy plumbing and s**t
I always do diacetyl rest. My ferments usually end up about 22-23° before I step-crash them to 0° then siphon into keg and carbonate. The only yeast thats been cooperative so far is US05. I used Mangrove M44 West Coast ale yeast on the bipa and it also stalled. But its a really high floc yeast so I think most of it dropped out of suspension early and probably also as the alcohol neared 7%.
o2 aeration is one thing Ill look into. I use gravity to aerate but read recently that I should only be doing it when temp has cooled right off otherwise the o2 molecules cling to the wort and separate during fermentation, effectively oxygenating the beer mildly.
With the bipa we connected my mash paddle to my cordless drill and 'whipped' it up.
Keg benefits to me are time, less cleaning, better and faster carbonation control, no sediment issues, ability to make keg additions (backsweeten cider, add more hops, oak, nibs etc). You can still rack bottles of carbed beer into bottles and cap them same as growler fills. They just need to be drunk soonish.
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- #16
Yeah maybe when I have my own place I'll set up a keg bar/Tom Lamb shrine.Oh and you can set up your keg/bar as a Shuey shrine
Agree that cleaning bottles is a pain in the ass. You can surely still add nibs and what not to the fermenter before bottling tho right?
Sure can. I soaked oak and nibs in bourbon to sterilize them with the intention of adding to primary but it was fermenting in my fridge with the bipa that was running slowly so I didnt want to over oak it, as I wanted to cold crash both beers together.
We have freshened up pales with hops in the keg before - as another addition to dry hop. You lose that versatility in bottles but its no big deal and if you drink it fast enough its a non issue. Backsweetening ciders is a no-go in bottles. If your lady friend gets into cider you should give one a go. Buy a heap of 3L juices off the shelf (make sure preservative & additive free) pitch yeast and let it rip! So easy
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- #20
So that would be putting back the sugar after the yeast has eaten it all? Wouldn't it start a new fermentation in the keg, or does the CO2 stop it?
Correct. With ciders I typically backsweeten with fruit juice. Yeast cant ferment when serving temp is a few degrees.
Thats the risk of doing it in bottles. Bottle bombs or undesired result as yeast just dries out the cider by converting all the sugar. You can backsweeten into bottle if the bottles are stored in fridge the whole time
Hah yeah I have a full range of Spiegelau and CRAFTD. Part of the blogging biz I guess..
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- #23
Good info.
Did you convert an old fridge into a fermenter storage? I think controlling the fermentation temp would be one of the most important facets
I have an old fridge with 2 heating pads in it, and all plugged into one of these: http://kegking.com.au/mkii-10-30amp-temperature-controller-heat-cool.html
You plug the fridge and heating pads into this, set the temperature and forget. If it gets too hot, the fridge turns on, and too cold, the heating pads turn on. Makes the fermentation process a lot easier and you are much less likely to have any flavour variations from one batch the next.
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- #25
dang. That's my next xmas present to myself
