The home brew thread

Bilboblue said:
Have I made a booboo by not checking the gravity when I first put my IPA into the FV then?

Not at all Bilbo.
It just means you wont be able to accuratly determine your abv.
So you will just have to go off the kit average..

Give it two weeks to ferment down and then happy days all round.

Cheers
Taxi
 
Taximania said:
Bilboblue said:
Have I made a booboo by not checking the gravity when I first put my IPA into the FV then?

Not at all Bilbo.
It just means you wont be able to accuratly determine your abv.
So you will just have to go off the kit average..

Give it two weeks to ferment down and then happy days all round.

Cheers
Taxi

cool, thanks.

I'll just have to judge abv by how quickly I get pissed then :D

Smells great already and only 3 days in.... looks awful though !
 
Taximania said:
Bilboblue said:
Taximania said:
Not at all Bilbo.
It just means you wont be able to accuratly determine your abv.
So you will just have to go off the kit average..

Give it two weeks to ferment down and then happy days all round.

Cheers
Taxi

cool, thanks.

I'll just have to judge abv by how quickly I get pissed then :D

Smells great already and only 3 days in.... looks awful though !

Primeval soup to be sure but much more tastier than heinz.

If its a two can kit ? and I think it was and you did not add any more fermentables to it then your final ABV should be as stated on the box.
Cant check back through the thread as I am grafting and slowly typing back with sausage fingers on the android : (

Yep, two can kit, no extras.... St. Peter's IPA.
 
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Just bottled the wherry.... Took bloody ages as everything needed sterilising and had to wait until the kids were asleep before I could get started.. Hence a late bottling finish time. Standing proudly on the kitchen table right now (note the appropriate colour scheme in the walls).

Went to a local health food shop (which happens to also sell homebrew gear) for some caps earlier and inevitably came out with another lot to get started on. I now have, stocked into the cupboard; a muntons premium lager kit, 1k of brewing sugar and 500g of spraymalt light. Do I use all of the sugar and spray malt for the lager?
 
Hi Crabbers.
Not sure on additions.
Is it a single or double tin.
What is the larger kit you just got ?

Your Wherry is looking good with the hard graft now behind you.
Now the waiting game begins ; )
Tick tock tick tock tick tock ... ..

Been trawling the net for the last couple of days to try an solve a problem

I dry hopped three batches with Hallertau Mittalfrau sometime in July
One of the batches was the Coopers Australian
Had a taster and that's just fine and am pleased with the result.
Still happy to leave this for just one more week for luck and then we will start to vacuum it all up.

Second was the Coopers Brewmaster pilsner that I ice packed up to bring the ferment down to 13c.
One of the two Coopers kits that used the lager yeast .
Anyway I cant try a taste test of this batch to see if there any good as I transfered them into two litre bottles and am currently largering them at 2c until October.
Plus I don't want to go and irk myself further by finding out that this batch may have a problem too !

Then last but not least was the Muntons gold continental pilsner kit
This was the double malt tin that required no additions.
Tasted it today, they were bottled into 330ml Becks bottles.
Lord help us all !
Patagonian bat piss would have provided a more pleasurable tipple.
Carbonation was fine for the style, the colour and mouthfeel were ok but it just gave off this awful taste and aroma of grass ?
The hops by the way were sterile and vacuum packed.
I even applied hand gel before preparation and weighing.
I boiled the muslim bags and sterilized in solution so it cant have been that.
And anyway it says it is a rarity for hops to add infection to an already fermented down batch.
To quote John Palmer brewing manual
Hops can be added to the fermenter for increased hop aroma in the final beer. Its best done late in the fermentation cycle. If the hops are added to the fermenter while it is still actively bubbling, then a lot of the hop aroma will be carried away by the carbon dioxide. It is better to add the hops (usually about a half ounce per 5 gallons) after bubbling has slowed or stopped and the beer is going through the conditioning phase prior to bottling.
When you are dry hopping there is no reason to worry about adding unboiled hops to the fermenter. Infection from the hops just doesn't happen.
The type of hops I added to all three batches were Hallertauer Mittelfrüh
Grown:Germany
Profile :Pleasant, spicy, noble, mild herbal aroma
Usage:Finishing for German style lagers
AA Range: 3 - 5%
Breweries have been producing dry-hopped beers for hundreds of years evidence clearly showing that dry hopping does not lead to beer spoilage.

Anyway I bought 100gram and divided it equally between the three batches at 33g and dry hopped for 12-14 days
I am beginning to think I left them in the FV way too long and over hopped as Palmer said half an ounce and I added well over the ounce.
Just guessing but that does not explain why the Coopers Australian tastes good.
Herbal aroma is one thing but this was quite strong offensive and unpleasant to the smell and taste.

Obviously narked and pissed but more interested to know why the Coopers turned out good and yet the Muntons has not.
I emailed Muntons as I am curious to know as what has happened.

The last few batches I have recently done were dry hopped with Sazz and only in the wort for 4-5 days.
This may have made a difference,I hope so
If I don't get things wrong then how will I know to get them right if that makes sense.
It doesn't but that's what the wife said to pacify me .

A remedy for now is I have just moved the full 60 bottles into a brew fridge at 2c
It can't be lagered as it used an ale yeast but the equivalent cold conditioning at this very low setting for another six weeks might allow the grassy aroma to blend into the wort and mellow out. Time will tell.
By the time my big birthday comes in Octoberfest if it hasn't bucked its insidious ideas up then it will unfortunately become 60 bottles of drain cleaner.
So sad to have to destroy something you created with your own fair hands.

It took me an absolute age to sterlise and fill the mini 330ml bottles and cap them all individually one by one.
I am obviously well not happy but life goes on.
Worst things at sea.
Bed time and tomorrow is another day
Still don't understand it though
Happy brewing everyone
 
The kit I've got is muntons premium lager and its a single tin kit. Actually not checked how much sugar they recommend yet, but really just wondered whether to add the spraymalt on top of the standard amount of sugar or in place of some of it.

Sorry to hear about your grassy lager. Obviously I'm not clues up on it, but it seems plausible that a grassy taste would result from the hops being too long in the fermenter. Did you leave them in for the same amount of time on both the coopers and the muntons?
 
Crabbers said:
The kit I've got is muntons premium lager and its a single tin kit. Actually not checked how much sugar they recommend yet, but really just wondered whether to add the spraymalt on top of the standard amount of sugar or in place of some of it.

Sorry to hear about your grassy lager. Obviously I'm not clues up on it, but it seems plausible that a grassy taste would result from the hops being too long in the fermenter. Did you leave them in for the same amount of time on both the coopers and the muntons?

Yes the same time frame with all three batches and the same hop weight.
This is why I find it so confusing.
Maybe the hops have reacted differently to the ingredients of each batch
Some of the noble hop varieties including the Sazz and Hallataur strains do carry a hint of grassiness in their aroma.
However this aroma was way beyond this and completely overpowered my brew.
Again the Coopers Australian was unaffected .
I know that lagering over a prolonged period precipitates out sulpherous odours tannins and yeast
and improves its body, head, and its desirable flavours
So maybe the cold conditioning for another six weeks will allow these overplayed ? hops of mine to mellow out and assimilate nicely into the beer.
Fingers crossed pal.

Re your lager question I would maybe avoid using just dextrose as this will produce you a thin beer with little body.
Throw in maybe 500g dme and 750g dextrose for a good balance with a reasonable abv
Or just use the 1k muntons brew enhancer pack alongside 250g dextrose.
Its only a question of personal preference and taste.
For a more malty beer increase to 1k DME (light spray malt) with 250k dextrose.
But have a play around with all your batches and see whats best for you Crabbers
If you start increasing the fermentables beyond this then you risk altering the balance of the kit.

If the Muntons pilsner does not improve then I have decided not to throw it down the plug hole after all.
Instead i plan on giving it out to family and friends for Christmas telling them how hard I worked to create it.
The spirit of Christmas will not allow them to say that it stank of Patagonian bat piss.
They will be polite saying they thoroughly enjoyed it and thanking me for my thoughtfulness and kind consideration during the festive season.
I hate waste !

Off to the coffin its sun up in 20 minutes
C you all Monday
Adios
 
I have had my first taste of the wherry this evening..and it was an excellent pint. I understand it gets better ..can't really see how..but will leave the rest undisturbed ..i really thought it was all for nought when the barrel leaked...i hated that fucking carpet anyway...bottoms up, cheers
 

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