Caribbean Siesta

[Bax]

Hey guys, its a recipe kit from coopers store, just looking for thoughts.

Have been eyeing off some kits for a while but with mid to high 30s around here lately I really need an easy drinker.

No love for Corona, but yes.

Based on the cerveza kit, 1kg of light dry malt.
25g of calypso hops, 10g for a 20min boil, dry hopping the rest of it.

Us05 supplied yeast.

Recipe and more info on this page.

https://store.coopers.com.au/shop/product/caribbean-siesta/

 

[carniebrew]

Recipe looks ok, are you able to ferment with temperature control, or are you at the mercy of the elements? 'coz this beer will be a LOT better if you can keep your fermentation temp around 18C with that US-05.

 

[Bax]

Definitely have temp control, will be dialled in at 18.

Anything else worth noting? Do I need a bit of muslin for the dry hopping? Or any better ways to avoid it clogging the tap?

 

[Bax]

Alright, brews down and bubbling away. OG 1044.

It's my first time smelling hops directly, almost sickly sweet, but a very nice smell.

Took a little while for the yeast to kick in, I'm assuming it was just because it takes a big longer for the yeast to get at the sugars in the malt compared to straight dex?

 

[GABBA110360]

IT'S NOT A BAD DROP
i'done the coopers recipe and it very drinkable
cheers
mine started at 38 and finished at 04

 

[Bax]

Well it's day 6 and I've hit 1010. Fermentation has slowed but looks like it's still bubbling away.

I'll drop some hops in on Sunday/Monday and bottle next weekend. Had a quick taste and it wasn't too bad at all. Hop taste came across (what I think were the hops anyway) So I'm interested to see how the remaining 15g go with dry hopping.

 

[menoetes]

Sounds good Bax, those Coopers recipe kits are pretty damn convenient and as I just learned, doing your own hopping smells great doesn't it? Good to see you're excited about the process as well as the beer. Keep on brewing my brother-in-beer

 

[Bax]

Well I finally got around to bottling yesterday, I had a massive hangover and it was the last thing I wanted to be doing, especially the little taste I had of the last few drops that were left in the bucket. Despite being hungover and struggling massively it actually tasted quite nice. I'm looking forward to tasting it in a few weeks time.

I really think it'll be lacking body though - which is fine I guess. Will wait and see.

Cold crashing worked well, but when I tilted my fermenter I dislodged a large chunk of sediment sitting just above the tap. I turned the tap off and waited a few minutes for it to settle out, really don't think it's going to be a problem though.

I normally let the bottles sit under the house in a box for carbonation, but temps have been high, the thermometer I had was reading 33 in the cupboard so I just chucked them back into the fermenting fridge at 20. Can't hurt.

 

[slcmorro]

I'm looking forward to tasting it in a few weeks time.

Wait at least a month. I started with kits and bits, and have progressed to all grain. I'm by no means an expert in either method, but I have just tried a couple of beers I made back in May from my kits phase, and they're a lot better than when I first started. I keep my bottles in a cupboard that sits around 14c for a month, and then I sit them in the fridge upright for another 2 weeks before trying them. Even then, I often leave them longer and they just keep improving.

A lot of people say they start to 'bottom out' with their improvements after 6 months as opposed to wine/spirits which improve steadily over years.

If you're going to drink them sooner rather than later, do yourself a faovur and hide say 5 away somewhere, and try one a month until they're gone

 

[Bax]

Oh for sure, can guarantee that it'll take me at least a few months to get a good chunk into the pile. I'll probably have 2 or three after a few weeks. But the rest will sit for months easily. I'm a very slow drinker - which really makes no sense home brewing so much beer!

 

[Bax]

Alright, coming back to add some thoughts on the recipe in case anyone is interested. I bottled on the 14th of October. So it's been close enough to 4 weeks. This one has only been in the fridge since this afternoon so it's not as cold as I would have liked. Regardless.

Colour, according to this chart I'd put it at a 4. Maybe a 5. As suspected there's absolutely no body in it, head disappears within a minute or two after pouring. Very small amounts of lace around the outside of the glass but head retention is non existent. Which is fairly well expected I guess.

Carbonation is a bit down, I bulk primed at 6g of dex per L. Which has resulted in slightly under carbonated beer. Oddly enough my bottles are swelling, but there's extremely low carbonation in the beer itself (perhaps too much head room in the bottle, same as always and I haven't had this problem before)

Flavour wise, I actually don't have any of what I class as twang, which is odd. I'm not sure it's because I let it spend another week in primary fermentation, or if it's because I used 15L of bottled water instead of my standard tap water. Which I think tastes fine, but is quite salty apparently.

With my first few brews I've noticed either an unusual sweetness, followed by a bitterness which I always assumed was the extract/hops, but I think I've been mistaking yeast for the bitterness I was tasting. (Sorry I'm knew to describing my tastes/smells) But I think in the past my beers have been too sweet without the bitterness to counteract

This time around it's quite a nice balance, the bitterness seems to hit you in the back of the mouth initially, as it fades it gets sweeter and the hops begin to come through a lot more. Again, new to describing tastes so it's hard and I'm probably going to pick up a lot of what others don't. But I definitely get fruit, apple and a slightly earthy undertone from the hops.

On the nose it's all hops for me. The hops are described as:

Hints of pear and apple, lemon lime, notes of earthly tea, pleasant

And I can't really argue with that, I'm getting more of an pear and earthly tea than lemon/lime.

Overall, this is my third brew, one that I'd actually share without fear of a joke about homebrew beer being sub par quality.

Thanks guys.