So, I am up to my 6th AG brew - have done many a kit brew in the last 4 years and a few micro brewery bashes before that. The main driver being cheaper beer without compromising quality. So far, pretty much everything I have brewed is way better than a TED or other similar corporate bollocks.
that said, I am still looking to make a decent if not awesome beer at a reasonable price. that said...????
So I have been reading articles here and there, and without blowing smoke up your arse, I have found this forum to be of good value.
to the punch.
I purchased a dodgy mill (the sausage screw type) as the HBS didn't have a roller in stock, 25kg of Jow White Trad Ale (wouldv'e prefered Pale Malt - again not in stock locally) and some wheat malt and for some reason some Carapils - had for some reason thought it would be a good inclusion but seem to have realised I should have got some Caramalt.
I butchered and old 20L esky of the wifes and put a bung in it and made a copper manifold and made myself a mash tun (albeit a small mashtun) bought a cheap ass 20L urn off ebay, made a dodgy copper tube chiller thingy with 1/2 inch water pipe (which I run tap water through not the beer for approx 10-15 mins with a bit or wort stirring towards the end) and get the beer to a reasonable 28ish deg C before pouring into the fermentor and cooling to a pitch temp of 20-24 deg C and henceforth set out on my great beer making adventure.
Bloody marvelous!
I have stuffed around a bit with the sparge and worked out a slower sparge does help to get a better SG and that a higher temp = a sweeter finished product as the books/webpages descript.
I was/am/are looking to make an APA in the light of LCPA (my favourite - although it was better 5 years back than the current incarnation) and/or and IPA of similar but hoppier and stronger content - whatever that means < Something flipping awesome! ( a long journey I know)
Using 3.6kg of the trad malt and 200g each of the wheat and Carapils I made my first 4 beers with varoius amounts of Galaxy and Amarillo with an SG approx 1060 down to 1012 - ended up with 12L (13 preboil) for the first brew and managed somewhere between 14-16L for the others as I have stuffed around with the mash and the milling (or should I say grind of the grain). For the last two I have used Nelson and Amarillo.
So far the main issue I have had after bottling (bottle conditioning) is what initially seemed like the formation of diacetyl (butterscotch) in my beers - which in doing kit brews hasn't been a problem - however, after reading a few bits lately it could well be a factor of oxidation. Said taste wasn't there before the bottle using normal sugar and/or raw sugar. In fact, the first brew tasted awesome flat but somewhat dissipated after a week or two with a buttersctotch flavour once bottled.
Beer doesn't last long at my place... I have actually found that many a beer have tasted much better greener for some reason.
So I thought after some info on diacetyl I decided that I needed to up the temp at the end of the ferment as suggested (3-4 out of the 10-20 days depending on time available to bottle and brew etc) - ferment is generally around 18-20 deg C. It seems that my latest brew, now nearly 3 weeks in the bottle at 20-22 deg C is tasting less sweet and more metalic/blah/I will drink it anyway because it took a fair while to make and it still is better by far than a TED!!!!!!!
When I sparge, as I have small mash tun, I up the temp to 75 C (from 65-67) with boiling water and then drain slowly into the urn. The PVC tube is not always full of liquid (i.e. air is in there) when I am draining into the urn and add more 70ish deg C water to reach approx 17-18L in the urn for a 60-90 minute boil. Min hops is 45 minutes.
I have also in the last 2 brews upped the grain bill to 4.5kg of ale and 300grams of Wheat and 250grams of Carapils to try to get 18L of final brew (with 3-5lL water after cooling to reach a 1060-64 OG. I have noticed a slightly better head retention with the 300grams of wheat.
Is my problem oxidation caused at mashout with air in the tube, or is it actually Diacetyl. To be honest, I havent bothered with mash PH, water bollocks or other factors yet. As said, I have had no issues with kit brews and the 1st AG I did tasted awesome before bottling. I have also had no probs with infections - except for the occasional bottle (10 out of 1000 or so, if that! - ok, not totally sure but I am sure I have bought more than 2000 crown seals).
I am interested in any suggestions - if you wish to bash me as some seem to like then go ahead. If I can learn from your bashing then maybe I will become a better brewer. If you wish to enlighten me of the errors of my ways then I shall take heed and deffinitely brew a better beeer but can't garuantee I wll be a beter spelar is I might well be shlightly pished....
cheers.
the b00f! (not my name, it's just short for boofhead!)
that said, I am still looking to make a decent if not awesome beer at a reasonable price. that said...????
So I have been reading articles here and there, and without blowing smoke up your arse, I have found this forum to be of good value.
to the punch.
I purchased a dodgy mill (the sausage screw type) as the HBS didn't have a roller in stock, 25kg of Jow White Trad Ale (wouldv'e prefered Pale Malt - again not in stock locally) and some wheat malt and for some reason some Carapils - had for some reason thought it would be a good inclusion but seem to have realised I should have got some Caramalt.
I butchered and old 20L esky of the wifes and put a bung in it and made a copper manifold and made myself a mash tun (albeit a small mashtun) bought a cheap ass 20L urn off ebay, made a dodgy copper tube chiller thingy with 1/2 inch water pipe (which I run tap water through not the beer for approx 10-15 mins with a bit or wort stirring towards the end) and get the beer to a reasonable 28ish deg C before pouring into the fermentor and cooling to a pitch temp of 20-24 deg C and henceforth set out on my great beer making adventure.
Bloody marvelous!
I have stuffed around a bit with the sparge and worked out a slower sparge does help to get a better SG and that a higher temp = a sweeter finished product as the books/webpages descript.
I was/am/are looking to make an APA in the light of LCPA (my favourite - although it was better 5 years back than the current incarnation) and/or and IPA of similar but hoppier and stronger content - whatever that means < Something flipping awesome! ( a long journey I know)
Using 3.6kg of the trad malt and 200g each of the wheat and Carapils I made my first 4 beers with varoius amounts of Galaxy and Amarillo with an SG approx 1060 down to 1012 - ended up with 12L (13 preboil) for the first brew and managed somewhere between 14-16L for the others as I have stuffed around with the mash and the milling (or should I say grind of the grain). For the last two I have used Nelson and Amarillo.
So far the main issue I have had after bottling (bottle conditioning) is what initially seemed like the formation of diacetyl (butterscotch) in my beers - which in doing kit brews hasn't been a problem - however, after reading a few bits lately it could well be a factor of oxidation. Said taste wasn't there before the bottle using normal sugar and/or raw sugar. In fact, the first brew tasted awesome flat but somewhat dissipated after a week or two with a buttersctotch flavour once bottled.
Beer doesn't last long at my place... I have actually found that many a beer have tasted much better greener for some reason.
So I thought after some info on diacetyl I decided that I needed to up the temp at the end of the ferment as suggested (3-4 out of the 10-20 days depending on time available to bottle and brew etc) - ferment is generally around 18-20 deg C. It seems that my latest brew, now nearly 3 weeks in the bottle at 20-22 deg C is tasting less sweet and more metalic/blah/I will drink it anyway because it took a fair while to make and it still is better by far than a TED!!!!!!!
When I sparge, as I have small mash tun, I up the temp to 75 C (from 65-67) with boiling water and then drain slowly into the urn. The PVC tube is not always full of liquid (i.e. air is in there) when I am draining into the urn and add more 70ish deg C water to reach approx 17-18L in the urn for a 60-90 minute boil. Min hops is 45 minutes.
I have also in the last 2 brews upped the grain bill to 4.5kg of ale and 300grams of Wheat and 250grams of Carapils to try to get 18L of final brew (with 3-5lL water after cooling to reach a 1060-64 OG. I have noticed a slightly better head retention with the 300grams of wheat.
Is my problem oxidation caused at mashout with air in the tube, or is it actually Diacetyl. To be honest, I havent bothered with mash PH, water bollocks or other factors yet. As said, I have had no issues with kit brews and the 1st AG I did tasted awesome before bottling. I have also had no probs with infections - except for the occasional bottle (10 out of 1000 or so, if that! - ok, not totally sure but I am sure I have bought more than 2000 crown seals).
I am interested in any suggestions - if you wish to bash me as some seem to like then go ahead. If I can learn from your bashing then maybe I will become a better brewer. If you wish to enlighten me of the errors of my ways then I shall take heed and deffinitely brew a better beeer but can't garuantee I wll be a beter spelar is I might well be shlightly pished....
cheers.
the b00f! (not my name, it's just short for boofhead!)
