Brew I Put Down - Neils Bastardised Centenarillo

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KingKong

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For my third brew following two strait kit and kilo brews I thought I would give Neils Centenarillo a go. Following the last two k&k brews, I made a bar fridge, heat pad and temperature regulator set up, that keeps a temp within the degree. I thought this would help to improve my brews. I've also only ever used the provided yeast and I think the US-05 should help me out with a better brew also.

I whent to the local home brew store and they had no Centennial so a quick google and I replaced the Centennial with Cascade taking a random web pages advice. I also had to replace the Coopers Light LME with Black Rock Light LME .

For the hop additions I made stocking tea bags (next time I think I will just throw them in and then strain into the fermenter). Though would this make much difference?

Any way the recipe I used was - 3kg Black Rock LME, 0.5KG Dextrose, 20g Cascade @ 30 mins, 40g Amarillo @ 20 mins, 40g Amarillo @ 10 mins, US-05 yeast.

24 hours in an its bubbling away nicely at 17.2c .

Once primary is done, I plan to rack this onto 172 grams of dextrose following the begginers guide to bulk priming AHB article.

Any thoughts ? Let me have it , I'm here to learn ! Also next thing I plan to use is the spreadsheet everyone seems to like, I havnt been able to download it yet, my computer for some reason doesnt like it.

Cheers,

Kongy
 
Good start mate took me 4 yrs before I started doin what ur doin now after 3 beers. I just leave hops in don't even strain. Could be wrong but hey tastes great
 
Good start mate took me 4 yrs before I started doin what ur doin now after 3 beers. I just leave hops in don't even strain. Could be wrong but hey tastes great

Yeah. You don't need to strain, just add some whirfloc or irish moss to the boil.

Sounds really good mate, as per my sig - Cascarillo is my favourite combo! - you'll love it :D:D:D
 
Yeah. You don't need to strain, just add some whirfloc or irish moss to the boil.

Sounds really good mate, as per my sig - Cascarillo is my favourite combo! - you'll love it :D :D:D

And I forgot. Don't rack until bottling - just rack it over the water boiled/sugar mix on bottling day - give it 2-3 weeks in primary and you'll be laughing!

Flying along so early you are!
 
For a 23l batch 172g seems a bit high for dextrose priming. I usually go with 150-160g nothing too exact but gives good carbonation. I like my beers fairly fizzy.
 
I'll have a look into the whole whirfloc and irish moss idea. Just found the next research topic!

The 172g is strait from the AHA Bulk Priming Calc. Though 160 to 172 isnt a massive difference in CO2 volumes, looks like roughly 2.6 @ 160g to 2.8 @ 172g. APA is 2.2 to 2.8 CO2 volumes (according to the Calc). Dunno ? Guess it comes down to personal prefference. I will have to see how it turns out and go from there? I dont think 172g is risking any bottle bombs.
 
You won't get bottle bombs - I like my APA's highly carbed too!

Whirfloc is just so simpld, add half a tab to the boil with 5-10 minutes to go. That's IT!!!
 
Not sure if there is any benefit in using either with an extract recipe.

There certainly is. Assists trub coagulation. Clearer beer, even if there are less proteins in extract brewing.
 
Guess I will just see how it turns out and next similar brew Ill try with the whirfloc and see if it is worth it. Whats the cost of this stuff ? Not that it is a major factor, but cost-benefit is a factor for me.
 
Just my opinion but I stopped using any clearing agents even filtering. All I do is crash chill it at end of ferment for a few days keg/bottle and let it settle. First pour is sometimes cloudy but rest is perfect for me. Who wants to put any chemical stuff in a perfect natural necter :)
 
Guess I will just see how it turns out and next similar brew Ill try with the whirfloc and see if it is worth it. Whats the cost of this stuff ? Not that it is a major factor, but cost-benefit is a factor for me.

It's going to cost less than 20 cents a brew. However I'm still struggling to understand why an all-extract beer-maker needs whirlfloc. The product bonds with proteins which drops out of the wort at the end of the boil, leaving a trub cone when whirlpooling. The hint is in the product title. Whirl(pool) Floc(culation). Youre not required to be doing a full batch boil, and I would suspect that hot break material is left behind at the time of the extract's manufacture when transferred for vacuum evaporation to create the syrup consistency.

Ask yourself what you believe to be your clarity issues. Do you think it's barley proteins? Or do you think it's yeast in suspension?

You can use all of these products to your heart's content, your local store sure will love you for it and you might be of the illusion that it makes a difference, but the power of auto-suggestion is deceiving. If you think your extract beer is cloudy, I would suggest you look into fining agents such as gelatine, which (I believe) bond to the yeast particles and drop much of them out. However in a side by side test on a split batch, it has also been found that a week of cold-chilling post-fermentation produces identical results.

Clearer beer can also be achieved by using a more flocculant yeast, such as many of the English styles.
 
Sounds very complicated. Im not to worried what it 'looks like' , cause end of the day I will be drinking it , not hanging it on the wall. Later down the track when I'm brewing to a higher level I guess I will have a look at it. For now, Im just trying to make the stuff taste good !!!
 
Sounds very complicated. Im not to worried what it 'looks like' , cause end of the day I will be drinking it , not hanging it on the wall. Later down the track when I'm brewing to a higher level I guess I will have a look at it. For now, Im just trying to make the stuff taste good !!!

Whirlfloc will not make your extract beer taste any better or worse. Focus on other things, such as yeast varieties, and steeping spec. grains, and leave the coagulant science for later, if you decide to move onto all grain. All the best.
 
Temp control and good yeast (throw the tin yeast away) was my biggest thing to make my beers bloody better, then I discovered hops, mmmmmm then I bought a big pot, to boil up in. It's endless but you will now have nice beer. Better than you can buy I say. But just be patient. Don't just bottle it after a week and start drinking it a week later. I did that for ages till I bought a second fermenter. Now I get a constant flow of beer. Still gotta taste it about a week thought. Purely for research sake though.
 
Temp control and good yeast (throw the tin yeast away) was my biggest thing to make my beers bloody better, then I discovered hops, mmmmmm then I bought a big pot, to boil up in. It's endless but you will now have nice beer. Better than you can buy I say. But just be patient. Don't just bottle it after a week and start drinking it a week later. I did that for ages till I bought a second fermenter. Now I get a constant flow of beer. Still gotta taste it about a week thought. Purely for research sake though.


Well Im actually pretty proud of my temp control (STC1000 rigged to two power points controlling a bar fridge and heat pad inside the bar fridge). I've been looking through the Op Shops for a big boiling pot, yet to find one! Only thing with the second fermenter is I can only fit one in my temp controlled bar fridge/heater at a time. And I was thinking when I bottle the brew I would use the same temp contolled fridge for the next two weeks ? Because it gets a bit cold of a night here .
 
So you want to bottle it and keep in a fridge. As long as the temp is warmer I think so It can carb up. I need to keep one brewing at least to keep up with consumption. I have friends who love my cooking haha
 
How big do you want? Big W often have 20L pots for around $20, including a vented glass lid.


I looked in big w ( very quickly) the other day. But Ill keep an eye out in there from now on. That sounds cheap.
 
Soooo,

10 days later and today I racked it onto 156grams of dex. I had a few little teething problems with my syphon set up, so lost probably 0.5 to a litre of beer (noooooo :angry: ) . But that was my first time, so now Ive got it set. Lucky i choose a little less dex! It wont happen again! B)

While I was bottling the brew, I noticed compared to my last two k&k brews that this one was a lot more cloudy at bottling?

10 days primary. OG 1.064 FG 1.014. Racked onto the 156g of dex. Taste fine, smells fine. Just very cloudy beer at this stage. Any thoughts, this is my first all extract brew so im not really sure what it should look like?

I wanted to leave it a few weeks in primary (no need for the primary/secondary argument please) but simple fact is Im running low on beer so thought 10 days was a happy medium with the FG consistent over the last few days.

Thoughts would be great!
 
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