New To Brewing

[RobboMC]

I will look into it, had a look on ebay and no fridges, put an add in our local trader. Doesn't come out for 10 days, cant wait that long. I read somewhere that if i buy a large bin with water and cold packs and drape a towel over the fermenter either side so its dangling in the water, it would reduce temp?

It will help. Evaporating water absorbs a lot of heat energy.

I brewed for 18 months in the ensuite shower, and simply kept cold water around the base of the fermenter.

Worked OK for a season, but eventually you will get to a point where you want to be able to CONTROL temperature, not just keep it down a little. By all means use the wet towels method, but always be on the lookout for a spare fridge.

I also keep all my brewed bottles in a frdige, it gets turned off about April and on again in October;
to keep storage temps always below 20 deg C. In your summer garage at 45 deg C your stored brews are getting killed.

 

[TmC]

I have a way to get it down to about 20C maybe more using ice blocks and towels. I am going to make a batch now using what i have on hand, hoepfully should turn out ok.

3kg (too much?) Morgans Malt Extract Pale Lager
500g Dex
12g Cascade
12g Saaz
US-05 Yeast

Any ideas if it will turn out ok?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Keep it at 20 degrees and it will work out fine.

Keep it below 20 degrees and it will take longer, but you will get something closer to "lager" rather than an ale (which will be a little more fruity on the palate).

Goomba

 

[Pennywise]

I'm wondering if you'll end up with enough bitterness, depending on when you plan on adding the hops, but assuming 12g bittering and the other 12g for flavour/aroma. You'll need more IMO

 

[TmC]

I have 12g of Cluster, will that work?

 

[Pennywise]

You really need to get your hands on a brewing program like Beersmith or Promash for brews other than kits IMO. Both BS & PM have trial versions so you wont have to fork out any cash if you don't like it.

But yeah, I'd throw the cluster & cascade in at 60 mins and flavor with the 12g of saaz in the last 15. Then I'd be trying my hardest to get some more hops (in this case Saaz), and dry hop in about a week with more Saaz, 20-30g should suffice.

Like I said, it's kinda hard to give you anything with out knowing what the AA% of the hops are, how large the boil volume is, what the boil gravity is (ideally 1.035-1.040). I really would suggest getting Beersmith or similar, don't rush the set-up of it and you will have an invaluble tool for recipe formulation.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'm wondering if you'll end up with enough bitterness, depending on when you plan on adding the hops, but assuming 12g bittering and the other 12g for flavour/aroma. You'll need more IMO

Generally with stouts they are early additions, because hop aroma is not meant to be prominent in the beer.

That should provide enough bitterness (I think, depending particularly on th AA% of the cascade), but I see your point, it isn't much. But don't forget that the dark grains add some bitterness in a stout.

Goomba

 

[Pennywise]

We're talking about stouts?

 

[TmC]

I added cascade and cluster about 20 minutes ago, then put in saaz (probably too early) but will see how she turns out, going to add dex and rest of the extract in about 10 minutes.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

We're talking about stouts?

Yeah, I don't over bitter them, as no-one I know drinks over bitter stout, where as everyone likes a dark ale style stout. I don't like too much acridity myself, but I do like them fairly bitter. Call it a Sweet Stout according to BJCP Style 11.2.

I do see your point though. If you want a bitter stout, it'd more than fit in with style 11.1 (or 11.3), though it does allow for variable bitterness according to brewer. The predominant thing is that there is a malty mouthfeel to it, regardless of whether it is higher or lower bitterness.

Not that I'm ever a style Nazi - just sayin' that a stout can vary from really bitter to only mildly bitter.

Goomba

 

[Pennywise]

You sure you got the right thread? I don't see any Stout ingredients in what we've been discussing :mellow:

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'm an idiot, I've cross threaded with the same OP.

*smacks palm onto forehead, proceeds to hurt palm*

 

[Pennywise]

:lol: hey it's usually me doing that sort of shit, lol

 

[TmC]

Pretty much just winged it, SG ended up 1038 and im trying to get temp down to put yeast in. Have it all wrapped up in towels sitting in water with nice big ice blocks floating around. Hope this works out better than my Coopers Cat Piss.

 

[Pennywise]

If you can keep that temp down & relativly stable, it should come up fine. A bit of crystal malt and some more hops for the next one hey

 

[TmC]

Sure is, put my order in for some centennial hops and amarillo with 1kg malt extract this morning, express post so i can try out that lager everyone seems to like

 

[Pennywise]

Champion.

Check out Neill's Centenarillo in the recipe DB, it's a damn fine beer. Another one that's garenteed to be a cracker is DrSmurto's Golden Ale

Edit: download Beersmith and have a fiddle with it so you can get your head around it for the next brew, took me a few go's to get it right

 

[TmC]

Thats the beer i am talking about, everyone seems to like it so i thought i might give it a go. Maybe next week.

 

[TmC]

Had a taste of my coopers beer, tasted awful :icon_vomit: Its been about 4 days since i started my third batch of beer. Details are above, there has been no action in the airlock but i am fairly sure the yeast is still working. I currently have it sitting in a tub of water with frozen milk bottles trying to cool it down, the temp has varied from 18-20 mostly but ran out of ice and rose to 25 overnight. I am wondering how long the initial stages of fermentation take? and is temperature control as important in the later stages, days 4-9 etc? Because my tap is in the water i have not been taking hydro readings but i was going to leave it for 8-9 days as i think that would be plenty. Any help would be great

 

[kelbygreen]

temp control is most important the first 36 hours. this is when the yeast are multiplying and eating the bulk of the sugars. After this is not so important but trying to keep a consistent temp right the way threw it ideal unless it calls for it (ie: get stuck fermentation or doing a lager). Depending on the yeast, temp and sugars will depend how long it takes. I find 10 days for ale yeast is good if its not finished by then somethings wrong. S04 I find hard to catch the kreusen it ferments fast but does the bulk fast (in like 3-4 days) and will chip away slowly at the rest might drop a point or 2 in the next 4-6 days and sinks like a rock to. I used to like US05 or 1056 but had a few just not ferment out properly and they didnt settle very well beer was cloudy after 8 days cc at .5c.

So there is to many varibles but take hydro samples is the best and have 3-4 days same gravity reading and your set. Cloudy beers are not overly worrying if you bottle as the yeast will settle in the bottle but when you keg and want to drink day or so later it becomes very important to get the yeast to drop lol