Home Brewing

[Spacehost]

7 minutes ago, minstrels said:

Funny, you've just scaled up and I'm thinking about scaling down.

I think 10ishL is just about where I want to be tbh. I’ve got some new fermenters that’d let me go up to 25 easy but I can’t imagine bottling that much again and maintaining my sanity.

[Spacehost]

Update: I had some doubts about how Mangrove Jack Cali Lager could cope at 14C ambient, but it’s absolutely powering away with a tiny initial lag. The fermenter outside temp strip is sitting at 18C so god knows how hot it is in the middle. Smells spectacular too; I’m definitely brewing with Hallertauer Mittelfreuh again.

[minstrels]

1 hour ago, Spacehost said:

Update: I had some doubts about how Mangrove Jack Cali Lager could cope at 14C ambient, but it’s absolutely powering away with a tiny initial lag. The fermenter outside temp strip is sitting at 18C so god knows how hot it is in the middle. Smells spectacular too; I’m definitely brewing with Hallertauer Mittelfreuh again.

That sounds really interesting. Keep us posted!

[Spacehost]

So I fully expected M54 to be a slow starter and have a protracted brew time- nope, totally finished 6 days in, assuming the needle doesn’t move any more. I’ve hit 7.9% expected ABV, and it tastes like it, but it’s also full bodied, bitter, and delicious. I want to drink this now, and really want to redo this at a sensible ABV. It’s built for pints.

 

You don’t get much if any of the hop aroma, we’ll see if it comes back.

[Spacehost]

I got about 7L off a 9.5L fermenter- I really need to work on my trub management- but it tastes amazing; I had the dregs while I cleaned up. Flat, warm, chunky, it was great. It’s conditioning now, two weeks is too long.

 

We should do a bottle swap.

[Sabes]

On 29/10/2020 at 14:45, Sabes said:

Finally got round to bottling this today. Smells, looks and tastes amazing. Blows the 2019 version out of the water.

 

Over-carbed this by some way - didn't take into account that a lot of what was in the fermenter was cherries rather than beer. Had one bottle explode at 1:00am and the others fiz up when opening so if you've not got a glass ready you lose half the bottle. I've had some froth up a bit when you open, but this one is something else.

 

Apart from that, it's amazing. Really fruity with a slight sourness, not too overdone. Best beer I've ever brewed, so gutted I messed up the carbonation.

 

Happy to do a bottle swap and dig out something less explosive.

[Spacehost]

Obligatory bottle art.

[Poppalarge]

I went on a mad brewing spree these last few months.  I came to realise that my home-brew has the same distinct flavour that can be detected in a NEIPA style, heavy hopped USA Pale and a Kolsch. Basically its there all the time. (all grain, keg finished).  

 

None of it tastes bad per se. But the lingering taste bothers me.  My water profile is fairly indistinct and I add stuff to it to make up for that. I have a habit of being impatient, but don't feel that this is explainable.    Thinking of clearing out all my kit for new stuff just to be sure, some of it is fairly old.

 

[minstrels]

What's the flavour?

[Spacehost]

I made a simple 5% SMASH out of Maris Otter, Mosaic and US-05 last month, and let me tell you, it’s the best, simplest beer. Easy drinking, keeps out of its own way but you really get that nice hop flavour. I need to do more like that.

 

So obviously, next up is a NZ IPA with three different kinds of hops that I’ll make with Saison or Verdant IPA yeast, then try to remake it with loads of some NZ fruit compote I had to order off Amazon because my mate says it’s great for brewing with. I’ll make it 7-8%.