Home Brewing (Complete Noob)

hywelg

RedRabbit said:

Started my first pressure fermentation yesterday.  Started off at 10 PSI but it's dropped a bit overnight.  Fermentation has kicked off though so I'm hoping it'll pick back up a bit.  If not I'll give it another blast of co2 tonight.

It's an Indian Pale Lager - essentially a pilsner using an IPA hop schedule.  Opted for citra, mosaic and Simcoe for the hops.  Not going to dry hop this one but will do next time if the hop character isn't present enough.  Not going for a hop bomb so I think it'll be fine as is.  Should be a good one to have on tap over summer.

Been drinking my New World Pilsner these last few days. Very nice but the Nelson isn't at all prominent even though i chucked 100g at it. Serving at 2°C  so it's not surprising really. Will go 200g next time. 

RedRabbit

hywelg said:

RedRabbit said:

Started my first pressure fermentation yesterday.  Started off at 10 PSI but it's dropped a bit overnight.  Fermentation has kicked off though so I'm hoping it'll pick back up a bit.  If not I'll give it another blast of co2 tonight.

It's an Indian Pale Lager - essentially a pilsner using an IPA hop schedule.  Opted for citra, mosaic and Simcoe for the hops.  Not going to dry hop this one but will do next time if the hop character isn't present enough.  Not going for a hop bomb so I think it'll be fine as is.  Should be a good one to have on tap over summer.

Been drinking my New World Pilsner these last few days. Very nice but the Nelson isn't at all prominent even though i chucked 100g at it. Serving at 2°C  so it's not surprising really. Will go 200g next time. 

Think I had about 150g of hops in total with the majority going in at hopstand.  At just 5% it really didn't need much during the boil to get the bitterness to where I wanted it.

Haven't decided what I'm going to do in terms of serving.  My keezer is kept at 11°c and it's got an IPA and a porter in there at the moment so I'm not going to lower it much.  Given that I've ended up with a couple more litres than intended I'll probably bottle any that doesn't fit in the keg so I can keep some in the fridge.

RedRabbit

duotone said:

RedRabbit said:

Started my first pressure fermentation yesterday.  Started off at 10 PSI but it's dropped a bit overnight.  Fermentation has kicked off though so I'm hoping it'll pick back up a bit.  If not I'll give it another blast of co2 tonight.

It's an Indian Pale Lager - essentially a pilsner using an IPA hop schedule.  Opted for citra, mosaic and Simcoe for the hops.  Not going to dry hop this one but will do next time if the hop character isn't present enough.  Not going for a hop bomb so I think it'll be fine as is.  Should be a good one to have on tap over summer.

This is music to my ears!

I started my brew day at 10am today. Am having a 2nd attempt at Rob’s Belgian Witt. https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/robs-belgian-witt/

The first 5.75 Litre batch I poured away (earlier in this thread) So this time I’m using the remainder of the ingredients & brewing 17.25 Litres. Now that I have bought a 30 Litre bucket I can do this larger quantity. 

Will probably order some empty bottles https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/coopers-amber-pet-bottles/  as I am all out (30 bottles of German Weiss beer currently in my back room bottle conditioning).

Will let you know how it goes.

Good luck with it.  I've not done a wit yet but do intend to later this year.

Those PET bottles are okay and, in my experience, far more reliable than swing tops.  Looks to be a decent price as well.

RedRabbit

Just had a frustrating brew day.

Started off brewing what will be a double dry hopped citra IPA.  That bit went fine.  Small batch so used my BIAB set up and all went smoothly other than transposing the amount of mash water (used 17.5l instead of 15.7l).  Adjusted hops for the lower ABV so all should be fine.  Using kveik on this one so expecting sings of fermentation before I go to bed.

I then decided to bottle the pale ale I'd started a couple of weeks ago.  Haven't bottled with crown caps for years - how bad could it be?  Got a cap and part of the bottle neck stuck in my bench capper on the second bottle so had to resort to my hand capper.  Forgot that it doesn't like hobgoblin or badger bottles though.  Only had one of the latter but had to fight with half a dozen hobgoblin bottles.  The caps are on but I'm far from convinced they're air tight.  Ended up tipping the contents of the badger bottle down the sink as I just couldn't be bothered with it.  Took me 45 mins to do 14 bottles!

Only bottling in PET bottles and swing tops from now on.  If I had room I'd just get a couple more 10l kegs for the small batches.

Enjoying a beer now to de-stress.  I suspect there'll be a couple more to follow as well.

duotone

Bottled 24 (500ml) bottles of the Rob’s Belgian Witt. Was a pretty hassle free bottling process & my 1st time using the PET screw top bottles. Well worth the £10 I spent on them. 

I ordered a different beer kit, a ‘Muntons Flagship Beer Kit - Hazy IPA’. https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/muntons-flagship-beer-kit-hazy-ipa/

 Hoping this turns out better than the German Weiss Beer Kit that I previously tried, without the slight chemical aftertaste. If this isn’t a success, I might call it a day on Extract Beer Kits.

hywelg

duotone said:

Bottled 24 (500ml) bottles of the Rob’s Belgian Witt. Was a pretty hassle free bottling process & my 1st time using the PET screw top bottles. Well worth the £10 I spent on them. 

I ordered a different beer kit, a ‘Muntons Flagship Beer Kit - Hazy IPA’. https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/muntons-flagship-beer-kit-hazy-ipa/

 Hoping this turns out better than the German Weiss Beer Kit that I previously tried, without the slight chemical aftertaste. If this isn’t a success, I might call it a day on Extract Beer Kits.

Nothing wrong with extract beer, but why don't you move to doing your own recipes with DME? That way you have a lot more control over ingredients. Fresh, current season hops, yeast thats not out of date, DME thats fresh (use Malt Miller if poss for this as they shift quite a bit of it ensuring its not stale). From there you can develop your skills to include steeping of crystal malts, whirlpool hop additions, dry hopping, etc etc. Once you're producing good beer the last step to BIAB or full mash in a coolbox is a relatively small one.

duotone

Found this article on The Malt Miller helpful with regards to starting with kegging your beers; https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/blog/so-you-want-to-start-kegging-your-home-brew/

RedRabbit

duotone said:

Found this article on The Malt Miller helpful with regards to starting with kegging your beers; https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/blog/so-you-want-to-start-kegging-your-home-brew/

duotone said:

Found this article on The Malt Miller helpful with regards to starting with kegging your beers; https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/blog/so-you-want-to-start-kegging-your-home-brew/

I started with a Malt Miller keg starter kit.  Other than the gas and cooling it was everything I needed.  Of course 1 keg turned into 4 but I'm very happy with my keezer setup.  Bottling is reserved for small test batched and then only if the 10l keg is full.

RedRabbit

Kegged my first DIPA last night.  Not a huge fan of them myself but my boss's favourite DIPA has been discontinued (Verdant Allen) and he wanted to know if I could make something similar.  Don't know how it'll compare but the sample I took was good.  I tend to find DIPAs too sweet but Allen isn't too bad.  Added some sugar to my recipe to dry it out a bit.  Finished at 1008 so I think I succeeded there.

My own stocks are running low so planning a double brew day on Saturday.  A 19l batch of saison and a 10l batch of kolsch if the yeast gets here in time.  If not the kolsch will be replaced with the latest iteration of my continually tweaked IPA.

hywelg

I tried two new (to me) hops in my current double batch single hop in each. Riwaka and Talus. 450g in each 20l. Talus is very promising indeed. Currently cold crashing and kegging on Saturday.

RedRabbit

Not heard of those. I'll have to investigate.

The DIPA is fully carbonated.  I love burst carbonating in the small keg.  I actually quite like it.  Think I went too heavy on the mosaic while dry hopping - there's a resin/piney note to it which I don't get from citra or Nelson.  Still think it was a fair effort though.

hywelg

If you like Mosaic the give Equanot a try. Comet is also good, a bit grapefruity. Sabro is worth a try as a single hop but I found it quite sweet like Citra which I prefer paired with a sharper citrus hop. My Sabro Comet IPA was stellar. 

My next American brown will be Nelson and Mandarina Bavaria, approx 600g in 20l. Nelson is another sweet hop that needs balancing a bit with higher IBU's and a citrus/pine hop.

RedRabbit

I'll add comet and equanot to the list!  Think I've already got some Sabro in the freezer.

Changed my plans for the brew day.  Not a good idea to brew a kolsch that ties up the brew fridge for weeks when stocks are low.  Changed the kolsch out for a hazy IPA using Voss that I can just leave out on the side while the saison is in the fridge.

IPA is in progress (just bringing it up to the boil) either going to do the saison tonight or early tomorrow.  It's a little too hot to be doing a lot of brewing today.

hywelg

Kegged both mine today. Talus is very promising indeed. I'll let them condition for a couple of weeks, I'm not keen on drinking dry hopped beers too soon, don't like that front of the mouth bitterness they produce. 

RedRabbit

I don't mind a young IPA but then I don't think I'm dry hopping with anything like the amount of hops you generally are.  Yesterday's IPA was about as big as I go with 8g/litre.

It's taken me a while to find a kveik I get on with but Voss is fantastic stuff - pretty neutral up to 25° and just a hint of orange at warmer temps. Pitched at 3pm yesterday, full krausen by 9pm and activity is slowing down already this morning (slow by kveik standards - air lock is still going crazy).  Had to add my dry hops already for any hope of biotransformation.

hywelg

RedRabbit said:

I don't mind a young IPA but then I don't think I'm dry hopping with anything like the amount of hops you generally are.  Yesterday's IPA was about as big as I go with 8g/litre.

8g/l of dry hops is substantial, not Cloudwater DIPA level but still healthy. Much more and you'll be losing a lot of beer to the hops

RedRabbit

Taking a day off work to enjoy the weather and to brew the saison that I was meant to do on Saturday.

Trying a David Heath recipe for this one.  Very different to the last saison I did.  This one has orange peel and coriander in it, uses Candi sugar rather than honey and will be my first brew using co-fermentation.  Going to be pitching both a saison yeast and some Voss.  I'm a little concerned that the Voss will rip through it before the saison does its job but David's recipes have always worked out for me before so I'll trust him on this one.

RedRabbit

hywelg said:

Kegged both mine today. Talus is very promising indeed. I'll let them condition for a couple of weeks, I'm not keen on drinking dry hopped beers too soon, don't like that front of the mouth bitterness they produce. 

Just sampling a hazy IPA from North Brewing Co that is (as far as I can tell) a single hop brew with Talus.  Not sure I get grapefruit from it but definitely citrus and a little sweet, maybe a bit tropical.  Going to grab a bag with my next malt miller order.  I can see this working well in a low ABV IPA for a summer session beer.

RedRabbit

Hopefully just made a decent upgrade to my brewing gear.  I've finally taken the plunge and have bought a grain mill and a load of uncrushed grain (25kg marris otter, 15kg pilsner and some smaller bags of Munich, wheat, crystal etc).  Hoping to see an uplift in efficiency once I've dialled the crush in.

Was going to brew today but the mounting bolts for the mill were missing from the order and I couldn't find any that would fit.  Planned brews were a pilsner with huell melon (I was going to "cheat" and ferment under pressure) and an IPA with talus and galaxy.  Not sure the latter will be a great combo but there's only one way to find out.

RedRabbit

RedRabbit said:

Taking a day off work to enjoy the weather and to brew the saison that I was meant to do on Saturday.

Trying a David Heath recipe for this one.  Very different to the last saison I did.  This one has orange peel and coriander in it, uses Candi sugar rather than honey and will be my first brew using co-fermentation.  Going to be pitching both a saison yeast and some Voss.  I'm a little concerned that the Voss will rip through it before the saison does its job but David's recipes have always worked out for me before so I'll trust him on this one.

I've started drinking the saison already.  I shouldn't have worried over using voss - the saison yeast has certainly stamped it's personality on the beer.  As far as I can tell the voss just helped things move along a bit quicker both for the fermentation and conditioning.

Really impressed with voss.  It's now my standard yeast for IPAs and I can see myself using it a lot more in combination with other yeasts.  There's another Belgian tripel not too far in my future and I think I'll try a similar approach to the saison.