Everyone Should Make This

[Neill]

yeah sorry lads i'm not sure on the proper AA% on the hops i used originally - should really have written that down!

With regards to HCF, I believe that in such a small boil as i have been using (4L) and large hop additions (in our case 100g here) then it will under-utilise the hops and you will end up with less bitterness. I know i have done some larger boils with exact same recipe and they always come out more bitter than the smaller boils. Plug your details into the spreadsheet and aim for 30-60 IBU depending on what your tastebuds like :beer:

 

[ekul]

I made this a few days ago without reading the entire thread so i used the exact hops weights in the first post. It was actually my first extract brew and the wort smells and tastes better than any brew i've ever made so far! I think its going to be great, and it didn't even take much longer than a K&K. I think i will do extract brews from now on if this recipe tastes good.

I didn't realise that you are meant to have the hops in a hop bag so the pellets were boiled and are now in the fermenter. They are floating at the top so i hope it all turns out all right, i'm sure it will, probably just a bit more hoppy goodness. Still smells great.

Its taking a little longer to ferment though. Jumped from 1060 to 1020 in the first 2 days (18-20C, nottingham yeast) but another 2 days on it is still sitting at 1020. There's still bubbles on top (although it is kind hard to tell with all the hops!) so i think its just taking its time to finish the last morsels.

I'll let you all know how it tastes when its ready.

 

[Lobby Lobster]

I'm bottling this on Friday - only difference was I could only get us-05.

It's my first extract so I can't wait. Yeah ekul it sure does smell fantastic. I have spent many a minute with my nose over the airlock.

Good luck with yours.

 

[kelbygreen]

throwing all the hop pellets in doesnt matter it all settles out in the fermenter. I have only brewed this with us-05 and its still good. Got some notto to try but used on another brew

 

[ekul]

hasn't moved from 1020, does this mean its 'stalled'? I gave it a good swirl yday but that just made the bubbles disapear. I hope it works out as it has been the best smelling brew i've ever done. Freom reading on these forums it seems quite common for extract brews to stop at 1020...

I just tried to lift it out of my fridge and accidently dropped it back in (its got high sides, its pretty hard to get out/in when she's full), so if that doesn't get the yeast stirred up i don't know what will!! Fingers crossed!

 

[jzani]

Took my first gravity reading of this and had a first taste. Gravity only down to 1016, but it smells and tastes great.

Having trouble keeping the temp up to 20C down here in the South of New Zealand!

 

[kelbygreen]

Think my brew has stalled first time ever!! well not 100% sure as havnt taken a gravity reading. Put a brew down on friday and krausen in strong put on down saturday and no krausen I pitched 2 packs of coopers yeast (as running out of money so needed a cheap beer) one of the packs was from the kit (expiry some time in 2011) and the other yeast was bought from ross only a few days before

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Finally getting around to doing this brew! Been VERY slack lately with the brewing. But with the rigging up of my fridgemate and after tasting a variety of beers lately I am looking to get right back into it and will have both fermenters full and fermenting by Friday!

Using the same hop schedule as your original except I upped the Centennial to 30g to get more bitternes from my 8L boil. I simply added carared and caramalt to the list.

Goes as follows:

22L Brew. Boil Size: 8L

3kg Coopers LME
200g Caramalt (BB)
200g Carared (Weyermann)
30g Centennial 9.2% (30min)
40g Amarillo 8.2% (20min)
40g Amarillo 8.2% (10min)
500g Dextrose
Nottingham yeasty

OG 1050 FG 1012
Est ABV 5%
25 IBU
16.3 EBC

Can't wait to get brewing this afternoon.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Just something interesting I noted.

I have been using the trial on Beersmith and now that I've used it a bit and understand it I entered this recipe above and got the figures above.

Now I enter the exact same recipe and specifics in ianh's spreadsheet and I get different numbers. I get a calculated IBU of 37.2 an EBC of 8.8. Also the ABV is +0.5% higher in the spreadsheet. Not knocking either the spreadsheet or BS, just trying to understand how the 2 can get such different numbers?

 

[Neill]

hop concentration factor. we covered this a few pages back i think - have a read!

i've re-done this a few times and it's been a bit hit-and-miss with the bitterness, i really think we should all be doing 10L boils for consistency's sake because my results have varied considerably. Another contributing factor is the time between flameout and topping up the fermenter with cool water. that wort stays over 80 degrees for a fair while if you take your time, maybe it's upping the bitterness?

edit: Ekul, try bumping the temp up to 22 or so for four or five days, it might kick start the ferment again. notto seems to like a bit more temp at the end of the ferment to finish it all off - a bit like US-05.

the extract brews do tend to finish a bit higher, most of mine that use this base recipe of fermentables end up at 1014-1018, it doesn't effect the flavour at all adversely.

 

[Nevalicious]

hop concentration factor. we covered this a few pages back i think - have a read!

i've re-done this a few times and it's been a bit hit-and-miss with the bitterness, i really think we should all be doing 10L boils for consistency's sake because my results have varied considerably. Another contributing factor is the time between flameout and topping up the fermenter with cool water. that wort stays over 80 degrees for a fair while if you take your time, maybe it's upping the bitterness?

edit: Ekul, try bumping the temp up to 22 or so for four or five days, it might kick start the ferment again. notto seems to like a bit more temp at the end of the ferment to finish it all off - a bit like US-05.

the extract brews do tend to finish a bit higher, most of mine that use this base recipe of fermentables end up at 1014-1018, it doesn't effect the flavour at all adversely.

Strange, I made this for my first extract after reading what everyone has said about it. Neill, mine ended up at 1010 smack on (calibrated hydrometer, brewed in a fridge during the last portion of summer using us-05)

Having said that, that was only my first attempt and haven't brewwed any extracts since, you think I should expect higher FG's??

Cheers

Tyler

 

[husky]

Thumbs up from me, got down to 1014 and very tasty after two weeks in the bottle, nice and hoppy. Will definatly make some variations of this combination in the future. Used US 05 as its all I had handy.

 

[ekul]

Thanks for the tip Neill, i have had her sitting at 22 for a few days and she's not moving. I was thinking of giving it a bit of a stir to get those yeasties floating around again. Do you, or anyone else, think this is a bad idea?
Also, I have read not to splash when swirling, how much splash is bad? It ever so slightly splashed the other day, will this oxidise my brew?

I'm buying some more hops today to give this brew another go, the wort smelt so delicious and i want it to work. Going to try it with US05 though, as that yeast has worked for me. I have worked out that it gets down to 14-16C at night sometimes here, i think this flocculated the yeast from my brew. Outside temps are actually warmer, its a very cold house (great for summer though!)

 

[Neill]

1010 is good, i think the US-05 tends to finish them off a bit lower than the notto - or else you just pitched healthier yeast than me?

ekul: stir that baby hard. a bit of 02 won't make any difference that you can taste. just swirl the whole fermenter around for 30 seconds or so, that'll do the job. if it still doesn't go any lower then 1020 is where it's supposed to finish, just taste it, and bottle it.

 

[ekul]

well i stirred the yeast up and kept the fermenter warm but it didn't seem to want to budge. I bottled it last night. I tasted it, was a little little too bitter but the taste was amazing, waaaay better than anythng i;ve ever made before. i ordered more ingredients so i can do this again. I was unsure of how much to sugar to add to the bottles (1.25L pet bottles in case of explosions) so i did an experiment. 2 carb drops for 9 and 3 for the rest.

I also found out that my local HBS buys drums of coopers malt and then puts its in little chinese takeaways. So my beer just got even cheaper

 

[Neill]

1.25L bottles will require 3 carb drops. if you're quick, you can crack the other ones and add another drop then seal them back up again.

 

[ekul]

Well i tasted it the other day and my suspicions were correct, it is the best homebrew i have ever made. Def undercarbed but the taste makes up for it

I made another one up 3 days ago but like a retard i put under half the hops required.

So the additions were
18g cent @ 30
18g ama @ 20
18g ama @ 10

I thought all the additions were 20g (??!)and because my last brew was a little bitter for my taste buds i decided i should add a little less hops. It only dawned on me this morning what i have actually done. Should i dry hop a little? Or just hope that it turns out alright (i have discovered that there is a lot of hoping that everythings alright in homebrewing!).
I might just make another one up, pretty sure there is enough ingredients lying around (its not like i used them up in the last brew!)

Nice work Neill!

 

[enoch1973]

Just finished putting this one in the fermenter... made some slight variations...
I did a 1 hour boil and added 5g of Chinook 5m before the end of the boil.
I used some steeped grain as well... I wanted to do something wacky so I did:
200g CaraHell
200g of Caramel Rye
I did a 9l boil with the following hop additions:
10g Centennial 60m
10g Centennial 40m
30g Amarillo 20m
30g Amarillo 10m
5g Chinook 5m
Can wait to try it... first time I've used Centennial and Amarillo so I'm keen to see how it turns out...
It's got the DEX in it to... It's going to be a heavy one...
Thanks Neill...

 

[shina]

Pete your gonna love the amarillo the flavour is awesome.I use chinook instead of centennial and it turned out fine.The taste and flavour gets better after about a month in the keg.You should try Neils hallertau bomb another good drop as well....... :super:

 

[Parrothead]

I bottled mine yesterday. Of course I had a taste - great already, and the aroma is fantastic. The only variation I made from the original recipe was in using a Cooper's Traditional Draught tin that I had on-hand in place of one of the LME's. We'll give it a vouple of weeks and try one.