Coopers Real Ale

[going down a hill]

i am the crazy one here that likes to add unusual things to my brews. am currently doing a real ale with 2kg dex, some malt i boiled up from the raw grains (don't ask me how much because i don't know) 15g magnum hops and prepare yourself; a whopping 850g of honey. i can imagine that one will be bubbling away for well over a week, possibly a fortnight.

I don't know what to say about the grains because I have only steeped a couple of times, but I would back off on the dex. From what I have read it will add a thinness to your beer. Sounds a bit gross to me.

 

[petesbrew]

Yeah settle down with the dex, Jivesucka.
What's the gravity on that monster?

 

[petesbrew]

Pitched the yeast tonight but it smelled a bit weird. I had an extra culture of a different yeast which I started up as well. Glad I did!

Parsons Green Bitter
1.7kg Coopers Real Ale
1kg LDME
260g Crystal (steep)
20g Fuggles 6.1% @ 60min
15g EK Goldings 5.1% @ 15min
15g EK Goldings 5.1% @ 0min
10g EK Goldings dry hop @ 7 days
10g Target dry hop @ 7 days
Timothy Taylor Landlord Ale yeast

OG=1040

 

[petesbrew]

Checked it out this morning and there was a nice thick krausen.
A great start to the morning!

 

[RobboMC]

i am the crazy one here that likes to add unusual things to my brews. am currently doing a real ale with 2kg dex, some malt i boiled up from the raw grains (don't ask me how much because i don't know)

I hope you don't mean boiled as in really BOILED. Grains do not respond well to boiling. Apart from all the books, I know first hand as a mate who went AG walked away from a heating brew and it boiled momentarily. He bottled anyway, and I had to be very polite and drink one or two, but it was mouthwash!

Grains should onkly be held at around 70-75 deg C, do not boil!

Nothing wrong with adding waht you want to a brew, it's your creation. You really should at least write down what's in your brews, what if it turns out magnificanet and you can't reproduce it?

 

[Bribie G]

The OP was using up leftovers, which is fine.
Personally, though, I always found the Real Ale not to be a good candidate for fiddling with, although perfectly good on its own with a box of BE2. Even when I had already started full mash brewing, I got in a Real ale and BE2 to show my buddy how to do a kit brew and the results were quite passable, with an 18 degree fermentation, gelatine, polyclar and cold crash for a week in a cube.

If doing kits n bits I would always go for (and still occasionally do so, for example the partial Cerveza I did for Xmas) - use a lighter kit such as Cerveza or Canadian - less flavours to fight against.

Edit: if you are getting heavily into modding the kits but still not able to make the leap to AG, I'd recommend switching the base to 2kg of LDME instead (watch out for chill haze but) and then you are really doing your own stuff.

 

[petesbrew]

WTF?

Went to dry hop mine yesterday and found a trail of ants crawling up the fermenter, and round the thread of the lid (coopers fermenter).
First time that's happened. And yep, the lid wasn't tight enough.
I opened it up, picked all the ants out of the lid (didn't see any floating in the beer, but there's a lot of hop crap on top), dry hopped with 10g Goldings & Target and closed it up tight.

Important thing is it still tastes like beer. And the name has changed to Ant Farm Ale.

 

[petesbrew]

WTF?

Went to dry hop mine yesterday and found a trail of ants crawling up the fermenter, and round the thread of the lid (coopers fermenter).
First time that's happened. And yep, the lid wasn't tight enough.
I opened it up, picked all the ants out of the lid (didn't see any floating in the beer, but there's a lot of hop crap on top), dry hopped with 10g Goldings & Target and closed it up tight.

Important thing is it still tastes like beer. And the name has changed to Ant Farm Ale.

Tasted it over the weekend. Turned out great. Not fantastic, but great. Finally something worth drinking after a bad start to the brewing year!

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

<snip> ...after a bad start to the brewing year!

You too? First 2 beers of the year with poor (nonexistant) temp control were rubbish hangover causing beers.

Put down a pale on Monday, temps are cool down there. Krausen formed but airlock not bubbling, so I'm happy as. Yeast is slowly eating, rather than going crazy and giving me nasty fusels.

Goomba

 

[slapbass351]

i am the crazy one here that likes to add unusual things to my brews. am currently doing a real ale with 2kg dex, some malt i boiled up from the raw grains (don't ask me how much because i don't know) 15g magnum hops and prepare yourself; a whopping 850g of honey. i can imagine that one will be bubbling away for well over a week, possibly a fortnight.

How is the brew going? Should be interesting jive.

 

[slapbass351]

How did it go?