20151031-YoungsAPA

Dry hopped for three days and bottled 2 days ago. Around 10 pints bottled and 3 minikegs. Tastes a bit on the fruity side which it didn't before the dry hopping so I hope this will subside. The fermentation was between 18 and 20 Celcius.

OG was 1.050 and FG was 1.008. So ABV is around 5.5%

20151031-YoungsAPA

I have not had a lot of time for brewing this last month. I have a couple of recipes to try with the Grainfather, but need to get some more stuff on the go so I am going to do a few kits. I am running very low on supplies.

First up is the Young's Premium American Pale Ale which I made up yesterday. I followed the kit instructions with no deviations. There is a dry hopping stage still to go. It only took about half an hour.

It is bubbling away nicely now at 18 Celcius. OG 1050.

20150903-CoopersDarkAleMod

I have barrelled the Coopers dark ale mod. There was 13 litres in all. OG was 1048 and FG 1012. Giving an ABV of 4.7%

Taste test of the Amarillo all grain pale ale (20150819-AmarilloPA-AG)

This has been bottled a week and the PET bottles are very firm. I only have 3 bottles as the rest is in minikegs. It looks clear until it goes in the fridge when I see the usual chill haze I always seem to get.

It is not totally carbonated yet, but it tastes fantastic. It is similar, but noticeably better than the extract version I did (which was also very good). It has a slight sweet, malty character and is very drinkable. I will be doing this one again.

Experimenting with the Grainfather and some extract (20150903-CoopersDarkAleMod)

I decided to use up some old ingredients that were lying around and attempted to use the Grainfather for an extract recipe.

I had a tin of Coopers Dark Ale, some US05 yeast, some Goldings pellets, 250g of light DME and a pack of Brew Enhancer 2.

I boiled up 10 litres of water in the GF and added the dark ale extract and the DME. I then boiled 15g of the pellets for 30 minutes and 10g for the last 5 (using muslin bags). I added 10 litres of cold water and used the chiller to cool the mix down to 18-19C. I then mixed in the Brew enhancer.

I ended up with 15.5 litres and on OG of 1048 so I lost 4.5 litres. Pitched the yeast at around 18C.

The Beersmith numbers looked like this, but the IBU will be wrong because I didn't boil the hops in the whole fermentables (enhancer was omitted).

I rehydrated the yeast (which I have not done before).

It took about 3 hours with all the cleaning and the fact that the heater kept cutting out and I had to reset it. So I may as well have just done it in a pan or gone all grain.

Reference: 20150903-CoopersDarkAleMod.

Kegged the 20150819-AmarilloPA-AG

I kegged the AG Amarillo into 3 minikegs with 3 bottles left over so around 15 litres. I added finings the night before and the beer is clearer than last time. The FG was 1.018 which is a little high. The OG was 1.059 giving an ABV of 5.4% and attenuation of 68%

I get a brewhouse efficiency of around 65% with the Grainfather so that is on the low side. I have added the efficiency figures into my profile in Beersmith.

I have also realised that my hydrometer has been reading 2 points too high so this will be taken into account from now on.

Brewing update and new batch 20150819-AmarilloPA-AG

Been busy so not much to report.

The TTL clone turned out very nicely, but it doesn't taste anything like TTL. Which isn't surprising given it used the wrong grain and probably not the correct flavouring hops. Two other people also tried it and liked it. I am down to the last 5l keg of this.

The Amarillo pale ale is also nice. The carbonation could be a bit better on some of the bottles.

The Razorback IPA is not so 'banana' now and is quite drinkable (10 weeks in). There is still a hint of it, but not nearly as bad as before and it is tolerably hidden behind the other aromas. Well carbed.

Yesterday I did another Grainfather brew (my second). 20150819-AmarilloPA-AG. An all grain version of the Amarillo pale ale:

The OG was much higher than 1.053 (actually 1.061 and tasted very sweet). Yeast was pitched at 18C. I'm trying the S-04 rather than the US-05 this time. I'm still getting protein deposits in the wort despite using Protafloc, but not nearly as bad as with the TTL clone.

It took over 24 hours to start bubbling in the airlock, but now it is going strong currently at 20C having come down from 22C last night.

Having just read Yeast by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff I might try a liquid yeast next time or work on rehydrating dry yeast before pitching. I have not been paying enough attention to pitching rates (in fact not any attention at all - just dumping the sachet into the wort).

My next plan is to brew an all grain IPA.