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Absolutely not but was wondering mostly what harm may have come by it sitting on the yeast for over a month
 
you'll just have to taste it and see. You could get something called autolysis, where the yeast starts to break down, I'm not going to bias your thoughts by telling you what it tastes like though. Just taste the beer, if it tastes good to you then bottle it. It won't develop any deadly poisons or anything. might be the best beer you've ever made!
 
hey folks

sorry its been a while, I've been out of action planning and coordinating a 650km move

Moving from south Gippsland to Mildura over the next month or so but I'll be back up and brewing in no time
 
Fendercaster said:
Nice, grew up there. Still has a special place in my heart. All the best for the move
Cheers mate looking forward to it myself
 
Hey there folks

I'm back, moved house a couple of times and it wasn't appropriate to brew in any of the previous ones I moved to due to rental agreements, etc and constant hassles by landlords. Have a new landlord now who's chill as and I now also have a fridge (have moved to Mildura which is impossible to brew in unless you have a brew fridge)

About to purchase a temp controller to keep it at a nice 15-18 degrees and looking forward to putting my first brew in a while down so jumped on here for some advice and to read about what to look for

Still have a little home brew left from my last adventures which got a bit out of hand towards the end due to packing them up and forgetting about them but they're still great and taste amazing after a year in the bottles
 
Ended up purchasing the Inkbird Plug and Play ITC-308S for $50 delivered, should be here by the weekend or Monday more likely (knowing AusPost and their prompt service) so all going well I'll be putting a brew down this weekend or next. Already have all the goods to put together a nice extract American Pale Ale

I'll put up a bit of a review on the Inkbird once it arrives
 
Well, the InkBird came in and aside from the fact I haven't had time to do a brew yet (damn schedule with soccer, work and such) but have had the controller plugged into the fridge for the last month, it seems to be working well.

The last couple of weeks, the weather overnight here in Mildura has been down around the 0-2* mark and the controller seems to be struggling without a heat source inside the fridge to keep the temperature up. Every morning I go outside and can hear *Beep Beep BEEEEEP* from the shed because the alarm thing is telling me the temp is too low but once the day warms up, don't hear it again until the next morning. I'm sure the beeping is driving the neighbours nuts so perhaps I'll find an hour tonight to do the brew I've had waiting for the last 4 weeks.

Do people recommend putting a heat belt in the bottom of the fridge to keep the temps up overnight plugged into the controller as well or don't bother once I get the brew on?
 
if you use a heat belt make sure it is wrapped around the fermenter as they are designed to be. They get fkn hot and without being in contact with a heat sink (fermenter full of beer) they can actually melt.
 
Ah, damn I have left it on the base of the fridge, hopefully it's ok until I get home. I don't envisage the temp getting down below 18 degrees today though as the first beer in the fridge is now in and overnight it never went below 18 degrees with an active ferment. I have it nicely spread out so there shouldn't be any hot spots or concentrated areas of heat

So my first Mildura brew is in the fermenter and in the fridge. It's an American IPA of my own creation with the following:
Added to the pot with 9L water:
1kg Light dry malt extract
1 x can Coopers Wheat Liquid malt extract
60 min 56g Cascade
45 min 28g Cascade
30 min 28g Cascade

1 x can Coopers Australian Pale Ale (added after the boil)

Topped up to 23L with cold water
Pitched US-05

OG 1.055 according to the Coopers Hydrometer, I should really start using my better glass one that is more accurate but I also have Alcometers so can easily test the alcohol content with that.
 
Liam_snorkel said:
if you use a heat belt make sure it is wrapped around the fermenter as they are designed to be. They get fkn hot and without being in contact with a heat sink (fermenter full of beer) they can actually melt.
Done that one except it was on a fermenter .
 
Well, I was at my LHBS yesterday afternoon, I know the owner very well (took her away to Queensland on a work trip with her and her husband) and we were just shooting the sh!t for a bit about future, past and present brews when I noticed on the specials rack a pouch of DIY white wine. She tells me they brought it in about 6 months ago, they hadn't sold a single unit and it was due to go 'out of date' soon and that if I wanted it to just take it.

I'm not a big wine drinker but the missus loves a bit of plonk so of course I said many thanks and salutations and promised that I'd be back in a month with a bottle or two if it turned out drinkable. She said if I liked it I could also just take the other pouch which was a rose.

So long story short, it took about 15 minutes to put together, the instructions were pretty much spot on to get the kit down to the pitch temperature of 30 degrees (according to the instructions) and to be quite honest the unfermented 'must' or pretty much juice concentrate tasted nice to me. Recipe called for 3.5kg of sugar to be added to the fermenter but I accidentally added two 4kg bags of sugar (oops). Added in the oak chips and yeast, I used both the kit yeast and a baggie of EC-1118 just in case the kit yeasties had decided that sugar was no longer in their future and went on vacation

The must was a lot darker than I expected it would be for a white wine but perhaps it will change colour as it ferments. It's also possible that as it's getting a bit old in the pouch that much like the beer cans, it would darken over time a little

OG came out to 1.092 so presuming with EC-1118 yeast it takes it all the way down close to 1.000 (which I've found it to do in the past making ciders, in fact sometimes I've had it take a cider down below 1.000, my record was 0.988!) i should end up with some 12% wine, if we get to 1.010 should sit around 11%. Either way I'm sure the missus will enjoy it. I should end up with about 23 litres of something hopefully drinkable
 
Well, in a moment of madness, (or clarity) I visited the LHBS again last night B)

Have been looking at my 20L Big W pot and thinking to myself "now that I'm getting back on the homebrewing wagon, why not throw myself right in the deep end after making up my last brew"

Long story short, once the IPA I brewed up the other day is done (should be about 10 or so more days from experience) I'm going to try my first All Grain brew

I've got the pot and a thermometer already so realistically all I need equipment-wise is a grain bag to do BIAB right? Well, $45 at the LHBS later and I now am the proud owner of a grain bag, 4Kg of Pale Ale grain, 1Kg of Wheat and another fresh pack of US-05. I've already got a good supply of hops of all shapes, smells and varieties (like seriously, I have an addiction) so the next hard choice will be what to hop with. I'll be fermenting in the Coopers Craft Brew fermenter (the little baby version that uses the Mr. Beer Craft Series cans) so will be aiming for an 11L final volume for my first and probably second AG brews

Here's what I'm thinking will be my grain bill for my first BIAB experience:
1.50Kg of the Pale Ale Grain
0.70Kg of the Wheat Grain

With the following hop schedule, I'm hoping to end up with a nice crisp Blonde that'll keep a nice head and have some great flavour

2g Galaxyat 60 min
3g Citra at 30 min
5g Northern Brewer at 20 min
5g Cascade at 10 min

Second brew is likely to be an Amarillo IPA with following grain bill and hop schedule
2.5Kg Pale Ale Grain
0.30Kg Wheat Grain

11g Amarillo at 60 min
11g Amarillo at 30 min
11g Amarillo at 20 min
9g Amarillo at 10 min

Thoughts on these two recipes?
 
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