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.

Kegged Timothy Taylor Landlord clone 20150705-beerworksttl

I put clear brite finings in the fermenter yesterday as the beer is pretty cloudy. This helped somewhat but not completely.

I filled 3 minikegs and had 4 bottles left over.

Taste test 20150613-amarillopale

Another taste test now this has been bottled around 4 weeks.

The beer has cleared nicely and is carbed  up. The head could be a bit better,  but it is still ok.

It tastes absolutely great and it is very drinkable indeed. A bit like Black Sheep ale.

20150624-coopersbittermod bottled today

I bottled the Coopers modified bitter today.

I used 2 minikegs and 17 PET plastic bottles so I think around 18 litres. 4 Coopers drops in each keg.

I got the Brewferm minikeg starter kit with the CO2 pump.

Labelling my beer with milk

I made up some labels in Photoshop and stuck them onto the bottles with milk. The idea comes from the book Home Brew Beer. They are easy to get off and the milk doesn't actually smell.

It is easy to print 9 labels on a sheet of A4 paper using Lightroom or making up a template in PS.

Then just stick them on. It took about half an hour from start to finish to do 40 bottles.

The finished product.

Moving the bottles of 20150606-razorbackipa and 20150613-amarillopale to the basement.

It's now been over two weeks so I am moving the Razorback IPA and the Amarillo PA to the cool of the basement.

Might do another taste test later.

20150624-coopersbittermod ready to bottle

The Cooper's bitter modificaton is going to be bottled this weekend.

Final gravity was 1.012 (OG 1.052) giving an ABV of 5.2%

It is very clear and tastes passable at the moment.

Taste test Razorback IPA - 20150606-razorbackipa

Taste tested the Razorback kit IPA again after 1 week in the bottle. It tastes OK but there is a definite hint of banana which implies that the fermentation temperature was too high. I have now moved my fermentation vessels to a cooler part of the house.

Taste test 20150613-amarillopale

The PET bottles are rock solid on the Amarillo PA so I think this is carbed up. Decided to give one a taste test.  It tastes pretty good so I am really pleased with it given it has only been in the bottle 1 week. If this improves it will be awesome. I have just designed an all grain version which I might try in the Grainfather next weekend.

Timothy Taylor Landlord clone bubbling away 20150705-beerworksttl

The Landlord clone is bubbling away at 18C.  Pitched the yeast at 22 yesterday. According to Grainfather the cloudiness is proteins caused by the hot break during the wort boil and should settle out during fermentation. So hopefully it will be OK.

First day with the Grainfather all grain brewing system. A couple of problems.

I used my Grainfather for the first time today. Here is a step by step walkthrough.

I am trying the Timothy Taylor Landlord clone from Beerworks. The kit uses Maris Otter rather than the Golden Promise used by TT. The hopping schedule also looks quite different to other clones I have looked up.

I put the water in the boiler (17.8 litres for 5.3kg of grain). The thermostat said 17C and it took over half an hour to get up to mash temperature of 67C (but I forgot to put the lid on which would have speeded things up).

I mashed for 1 hour and the wort looked really clear. I had heated 14.4 litres of sparge water to 77C and mashed out for 10 minutes at that temperature.

This is where I think problems began because the sparge was really fast as though the grains were quite loose. The wort was quite cloudy at this point just before the boil and had sediment floating around in it. The gravity reading at this point was 1.043.

I also could not get the boil temperature past 99C. Although the wort was clearly boiling nicely the thermostat never read HH which indicates a boil. I just proceeded anyway.

I boiled for an hour putting the hop additions in muslim bags.

I then attached the wort chiller which brought the temperature down to 22C pretty quickly and then I syphoned the wort into the fermenter.

The wort was still quite cloudy though and I only ended up with 19 litres in the fermenter instead of the target of 23 litres. The wort is quite pale - much paler that TT Landlord, but we will see how it tastes eventually.

Not sure what I did wrong or even if it is that critical. Hopefully the beer will clear in the fermenter at some point. The OG was 1.050 which should give an ABV of 5.2% if the FG comes down to 1.010 as suggested in the recipe.

I have found out that the temperature issue is probably due to the temperature probe not being fully inserted into the base of the unit. So I will try and fix that for next time.

Designing bottle labels

Playing around with Photoshop designing labels:

Set up the Grainfather

My Grainfather arrived today. I bought it from here. I also got a Timothy Taylor Landlord all grain kit and the special cleaner that the company recommend for the unit.

It took about an hour to assemble it and half an hour to clean everything for first use.

Overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO68EQS39zw

Cleaning the wort chiller:

The videos on the website are invaluable:

Assembly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CINs3FtdDwQ

Brewing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUONP5YNq0s

Cleaning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L10S5Fx0xY

I also found these videos really useful:

A complete video of a novice going through the process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XliRz1JROtE

Some very useful hints and tips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbEPiSa7bXI

Another walkthrough and review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY29_865C8o

Might try the Landlord clone tomorrow if I get the time.

Grainfather on the way

Just ordered a Grainfather for all grain brewing.

http://www.grainfather.co.uk/

It should arrive tomorrow along with a Timothy Taylor Landlord kit.

Bottling day (20150606-razorbackipa and 20150613-amarillopale)

Today I bottled the Razorback IPA. The OG was 1.048 and FG 1.008 giving an ABV of 5.2% which seems a bit low. Got 41 pints.

I also bottled my Amarillo Pale Ale partial mash (recipe here). OG was 1.050 and final 1.006 giving an ABV of 5.8% Got 39 pints.

Had a quick taste of both. The IPA was difficult to call at this stage, but the Amarillo already tasted very promising...

20150531-YoungsAAA

My first attempt at brewing (a Young's American Amber Ale) has been in the pressurised Young's keg now for 2 weeks at around 20C so I am now taking it down to the cooler basement for a further 2 weeks.

I had a quick taste of it. It is still a bit cloudy, but it actually tasted OK and had a good head. I hope it will improve over the coming weeks. I was worried that I had fermented it at too high a temperature initially (28 Celcius at one point) which might have resulted in the production of esters (causing a fruity flavour). This does not appear to be the case so I am pretty pleased with it.

20150624-coopersbittermod numbers

All went smoothly with the mod.

OG 1.052 so a bit over. 20 litres in to fermenter. Yeast added at 21 Celsius.

Making a modified Coopers extract bitter this evening

I am modding a Cooper's Bitter kit this evening.

The recipe from Beersmith software:

It's just a 15 minute boil of the Dry Malt Extract with the hops. Then into the fermenter with the liquid extract from the kit and Cooper's brew enhancer 2. I am using Safale S-04 yeast and I will dry hop for 5 days.

This is based on an idea by Gash Slugg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7iqgerF748

I am going to name my batches in date format (so this one is 20150624-coopersbittermod) so I can keep track of them.

Three homebrew ale batches on the go.

From left to right: Razorback IPA (2 weeks and still fermenting); Partial mash Amarillo Pale Ale (1 week and stopped fermenting), kegged and pressurised Young's American Amber Ale (now in keg for 1 week after 2 weeks in fermenter).

Gravity readings.
OG on the IPA was 1.048. (20150606-razorbackipa)
On the Amarillo, OG was 1.049, final 1.010 giving an ABV of 5.1% (20150613-amarillopale).
On the Young's AAA, OG was 1.050, final 1.010 giving an ABV of 5.2% (20150531-youngsaaa)

I messed up the temperature on the Young's AAA with it going up to 28 Celsius at one point so it finished fermenting early (but it was my first ever attempt at home brewing). I left it for 2 weeks, dry hopping for 5 days at the end.

Taking the hop bag out of my Razorback IPA

The hop bag has been in the IPA for 5 days now so I am removing it.

The brew has been fermenting for 2 weeks and is still going fairly steadily so I will just leave it for now.

Potential small all grain batch

Thinking of trying this next.

Amarillo pale ale recipe

This recipe is adapted from a post by clibit on the UK homebrew forum.

Posted via Blogaway

First three brews

So far I have three brewing experiments on the go.

First is a Young's American Amber Ale kit. I put this in a pressurised keg last week.

Second is a Festival Razorback IPA kit. I just dry hopped this with the hops that came in the kit. It is still fermenting.

Third is a partial mash made with Coopers Australian lager extract, US05 yeast, Maris Otter and Crystal malt, and Amarillo hops. Recipe to follow.

First post

This is a blog to record my experiments in homebrewing beer. Mainly to keep a record for myself of successes and failures.