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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.
Those PET bottles are okay and, in my experience, far more reliable than swing tops. Looks to be a decent price as well.
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.
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 Fresh, current season hops, yeast thats not out of date, DME thats fresh (use Malt Miller if poss for this as they shift quite a bit of it ensuring its not stale).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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.