Ahhh, The Dark Side Is Sooo Near..

[Pollux]

I bottle, so not a drop will be wasted....

Mildly annoyed at myself, forgot to taste the OG sample, it okay, I can always grab a shot glass worth when I pour it into the fermenter.

 

[chappo1970]

Pollux CONGRATS!

Looks like it went off well mate.

 

[Pollux]

I've been given the all clear for an arvo brew today........

Got some food shopping and household duties to get out of the way first, then it's on again

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Top Stuff!

and great work with the photos as well!

Any issues with your camp-mad insulation? no chance of it melting onto your urn?

 

[Bribie G]

Textbook BIAB brew Pollux :icon_cheers:

couple of hints: a pair of ten dollar leather (suede stuff) long - cuff gardening gloves are a good investment

I'm brewing a bit over gravity, so if I would normally use 4.5 K I would up that to 4.75 or - bugger it why not - 5.00, and nudge the 30g hop addition to 35g.... and so on.

So when I end up with that similar volume to yours in the cube I chuck in a couple of 1.5L jugs of boiling water to bring the level up a bit. I aim for 24L in the bottle which makes the exercise a bit more productive than just 20 or 21.

Well done. You now have the bug. And when you get to brew five or six you'll be thinking 'how bloody easy is this !!'

Good job your'e young and fit for carrying jerries up and down stairs

 

[smollocks]

Can you elaborate a bit on the problems you had with the hop sock?

Would it be better to not use a sock, or do the advantages outweigh the slow draining time?

 

[Pollux]

The hopsock simply needs refinement, I will make another soon with a less tightly woven fabric.....It was okay if I tilted it but the wort couldn't drain through the hop bed and the fabric at the same time.

Still better than having to clean them out of the urn though.


As for the camping mat, no issues but I took it off when it was still hot to clean the urn and it kept that shape until today when I restretched it onto the urn.

Still need to get some welding gloves, or HTFU maybe.....

And yes, the exercise of carrying the cubes up and down the 4 flights of stairs should burn off the beer belly I'll get from the beer....The grain is now in airtight buckets and tubs in the garage, so are the kitchen scales, hope the missus doesn't want them back anytime soon...

 

[Pollux]

Round 2......

23ish litres to the cube...

I'm much happier with that one. All targets hit.

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Pollux - do you use a pickup tube on your crown?

 

[Fantoman]

Did my first BIAB today and all went well...

Was 2.5 litres short after I pulled the bag out, but was a few points higher in SG than Beersmith predicted, so topped up with a couple of litres of water...

Ended up hitting my OG spot on to the cube which is good and have adjusted my equipment in Beersmith accordingly... Am very happy with the brew today so now I just have to wait for the cube to cool and hope it doesn't get infected (cube was Starsan'ed prior to NC'ing so it should be fine).

All up it look about 5 hours, but i'm sure with some refinement I can knock an hour off it... The good thing is the Urn is dead easy to clean, just hit it with the hose and a scrubbing brush and it is clean...

One thing I did learn is not to pull the bag up too high too quickly as I did and ended up with wort draining from the bag down the outside of the urn :angry: but hey, if that was the worst that happened, then it was pretty good B)

Will be doing another next week (Tony's LCBA) and am looking forward to it! :super:

Congratulations again Pollux you (and I) have done well! :beer:

 

[Pollux]

I don't use a pickup tube, I simply take advantage of knowing that if I drain to the base of the tap's inlet I leave 2L behind.

Fantoman, great to hear you went well.

 

[Pollux]

Well, it's only been in the bottle for a grand total of 4 days...But I couldn't help myself...


OMFG!!!!


I hereby declare it to be the best beer I have ever brewed....

No to go and open a bottle of my last ever extract, this is going to be disappointing now....

 

[Katherine]

ha ha ha sounds like us... try to keep some... Its good to see how a beer evolves...

 

[Pollux]

I should be able to, been brewing like a madman to lift stock levels....

 

[fcmcg]

I should be able to, been brewing like a madman to lift stock levels....

Congrats man...
Awsome effort to get 2 in 2 days
Must speak to SWMBO about needing more play money lol
I need to lift my stock levels too !
I've just started grain brewing and opened a stubby sat night that was only a week old and reckon it's the best beer i've ever had lol
Good luck for your future bews too !

 

[raven19]

Now to go and open a bottle of my last ever extract, this is going to be disappointing now....

But it must be drunk to make room for more AG beer.

I understand the above, have been doing the same of late, reducing KnB stocks to make room for more AG...

 

[clean brewer]

But it must be drunk to make room for more AG beer.

I understand the above, have been doing the same of late, reducing KnB stocks to make room for more AG...

Ive had to do the same the last 2 days, drink some extract brews ive got in the fridge as Ive had no beer in kegs, just kegged my Belgian Wit and Batz Altbier today so that will be ready nicely tomoz night... Most of the leftover extract brews I had in bottles went to work to use for Batter and the ones I thought were not too bad, I kept, so its not the end of the world, but still not as good as my AG beers...

I seem to be having a problem getting a good rotation going with my 4 kegs, cant keep up, I really want 2 for drinking, 2 ready to be drunk and 2 fermenting or Cold conditioning ready to go into empty kegs.. I think ill just brew 4 nights this week to get right on top of it....

 

[KHB]

Round 2......

23ish litres to the cube...

I'm much happier with that one. All targets hit.

Bought 2 off these last week good to see they work well. Plan on fermenting one and putting the other one in the fridge for later when doing double batches!

KHB

 

[Pollux]

Congrats man...
Awsome effort to get 2 in 2 days

I actually did 4 in 4 days. 2 are bottled, one is fermenting, the other should be pitched soon...But it can wait, I want to get my hopburst (brewed since then) into a fermenter...

This means I effectively have 5 batches done.

Bought 2 off these last week good to see they work well. Plan on fermenting one and putting the other one in the fridge for later when doing double batches!

KHB

They work best when you workout to 23L to the fermenter with a cooling loss of 5%......

 

[Sunshine_Brewer]

. I think ill just brew 4 nights this week to get right on top of it....

sounds like a plan CB