Opinions Of My Latest Brew

[Mitcho89]

G'day guys,

I've been doing quite a lot of reading regarding more advanced brewing techniques for the beginner brewer and thought I'd put together a pricey batch. I'm confident enough now to really pay the money for the better quality kits and get the most I can from them.

Yesterday I put on:

- Black Rock Lager
- 1kg Ultra Blend
- Cluster hops (boiled for 15 min. Teabag then discarded)
- Safale US-05 yeast (re hydrated and pitched at 20C')
- S.G (Unknown. Broke hydrometer just before I needed to check)

The temperature is at 18C' and has not moved and will remain constant. After 2 weeks of fermentation I'll rack it for 4-5 weeks with finings and add more boiled hop for extra bitterness if desired and then bulk prime with 185g of Dex.

I would love some feedback if anyone has done something similar and had poor/great results. I just hope my hours of research were not in vein haha.

Thanks very much and kind regards,

Mitch.

 

[Bribie G]

I've never tried Black Rock Lager (NZ I believe?) but have heard good reports. I take it the Ultrablend is a blend of LDME, Dex and Maltodextrin? Similar to Coopers BE2 - would give extra body and head etc. The yeast is a good choice as it makes a good 'fake' lager if you keep it at or below 18 degrees.
Cluster isn't a bad hop for USA and Aus style brews. For something more Euro or 'premium' I would go Saaz.

As far as "pricyness" goes, those tea bags are good for beginning brewing to try different varieties of hop. However in the long term you are best to buy hop pellets in 90 or 100g packs (see sponsors at top of page) as they work out a quarter of the cost of teabags at least.
Also you can save a few bucks by keeping a sanitized bottle of yeast slurry for your next brew and, if this brew turns out to your liking, go for a cheaper Aus kit such as Coopers Lager and see if that is also to your liking.

Another tip would be to replace the 'ultra blend' with a kilo of LDME and get extra body and head by steeping 300g of Carapils and boiling the hops in the runnings for 15 mins before tipping into fermenter.

Happy brewing.

 

[Mitcho89]

I've never tried Black Rock Lager (NZ I believe?) but have heard good reports. I take it the Ultrablend is a blend of LDME, Dex and Maltodextrin? Similar to Coopers BE2 - would give extra body and head etc. The yeast is a good choice as it makes a good 'fake' lager if you keep it at or below 18 degrees.
Cluster isn't a bad hop for USA and Aus style brews. For something more Euro or 'premium' I would go Saaz.

As far as "pricyness" goes, those tea bags are good for beginning brewing to try different varieties of hop. However in the long term you are best to buy hop pellets in 90 or 100g packs (see sponsors at top of page) as they work out a quarter of the cost of teabags at least.
Also you can save a few bucks by keeping a sanitized bottle of yeast slurry for your next brew and, if this brew turns out to your liking, go for a cheaper Aus kit such as Coopers Lager and see if that is also to your liking.

Another tip would be to replace the 'ultra blend' with a kilo of LDME and get extra body and head by steeping 300g of Carapils and boiling the hops in the runnings for 15 mins before tipping into fermenter.

Happy brewing.

Thanks very much for the advice mate. I was speaking to the owner of my local brew shop and he told me that despite Black Rock being a NZ company, they are owned and operated by Castlemaine Brewers. It's meant to be one of the best for an Australian style Lager. Just a couple of quesions, what are Carapils? and how do you go about using the sludge from the first firmenter? I heard that it's meant to be a good quick starter and very reliable. After I decant the beer for racking, would I just stir up what's left and pour that into a bottle? I'd imagine I'd have to brew in the same of beer otherwise I'd pick up flavors by the slurry.

Cheers!

 

[Bribie G]

Carapils is the lightest of the crystal malts - link here - which don't need to be mashed for an hour but already contain soluble goodness for you to extract by steeping in hot water. Some crystals add complex grainy, caramelly and toasty flavours, others add colour etc.

Yes if you gently swirl the contents of the fermenter after bottling or racking and pour into a sanitized bottle then immediately put in fridge, you have a good dose of yeast for your next brew. For lagers and lighter beers there will be little or no flavour carry-over, but obviously you wouldn't want to save slurry off a stout and then pitch it into a delicate pale lager

 

[manticle]

Make sure you research steeping grains if you use the carapils - very easy to do and will help your brew but just a couple of things you need to get right.

Look up steeping specialty grains in the wiki articles section.

This discussion came up yesterday at the case swap - lighter coloured minimalist beers like lagers are hardest to get right, particularly with a kit. Not to say you won't produce something mighty fine but darker often gives more room for error (or is a bit more forgiving anyway).

 

[Mitcho89]

Thanks very much for the great advice everyone. I'll be looking forward to applying this new found knowledge to future brews. I hope this latest works out. So far I've done 4 kits with hops having to be added at they tasted horrible. I didn't know that dry hopping at the time was purely for aroma and not for bitterness, I was going for the total opposite.

Next beer I want to try out if this Black Rock Lager works would be a Carlsberg clone. Not 100% sure on what to use so far especially as hop type and technique go but it's nothing some good reading won't fix!

 

[petesbrew]

Yeah teabags are pricey per gram compared to buying 100g lots, but they're great for getting a feel of what you like.
And I wouldn't throw it away. For flavour/aroma, just drop it in the fermenter and bobs your uncle.

 

[Mitcho89]

Yeah leaving the teabag in the firmenter was what I did 4 times too many. I just wanted to get a bit more bitterness and that was it. Oh well, at least now I know where I went wrong.

Out of curiousity...A Carlsberg is a Pilsner style of beer isn't it? It say's on the bottle "all malt beer" so I think I'll do exactly what was recommended earlier in this tread and use a kilo of malt with the Carapils and use the right sort of hops boiled over steeped or used dry.

 

[Mitcho89]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to get a bit of feedback... It's stopped at 1018. The temp hasn't moved from 18C' using US-05 Yeast, BE2 and Cluster hops boiled 15 min.... It just sounds a little high to me. Ready to bottle me thinks? I've tried giving it a good stir but kick off. It's been the same since saturday..

 

[Pennywise]

Yes that is too high, when did you give it a stir?

 

[Siborg]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to get a bit of feedback... It's stopped at 1018. The temp hasn't moved from 18C' using US-05 Yeast, BE2 and Cluster hops boiled 15 min.... It just sounds a little high to me. Ready to bottle me thinks? I've tried giving it a good stir but kick off. It's been the same since saturday..

give it a bit longer. A little longer isn't going to hurt it. Give it another stir (sterilise your stirrer), see if you can raise the temp a little bit (wrap it in a blanket or two). Give it a few extra days and check then.

1018 plus priming sugar will most probably give you bottle bombs

 

[Mitcho89]

I put the brew on on sat the 17th. I gave it a stir last saturday. This is a bit worrying.. Maybe the yeast has lost it's kick?

 

[Pennywise]

IMO if it was roused 4 days ago there should have been some change in the gravity had it worked. Do you have another fermenter you can rack it off to? Or even just give it another stir and pitch some more yeast. Odd for US-05 to stall

Edit: Just noticed that the brew has only been in for 10 days, while it should be finished at this point (although it's obviouse it isn't) I'd be leaving any brew in the fermenter for 2 weeks regardless. If it's stuck after 2 weeks, then start thing about ways to fix it

 

[Mitcho89]

Thanks very much for the good information lads. It's sitting at 18C' so I'm just bringing the temp up now to about 22-24. When it's up to that I'll give it a good stir and kick up a bit of the sh*t that's on the bottom.

 

[Pennywise]

I wouldn't go as high as 24, stick with 20 at the moment and maybe ramp up to 22 over the course of a couple of days

 

[Siborg]

I wouldn't go as high as 24, stick with 20 at the moment and maybe ramp up to 22 over the course of a couple of days

+1

 

[Mitcho89]

Thanks again. It's sitting at a good 20C at the moment so I give it a good long but gentle stir. It usually ranges between 16-18. Quite cool but close to the optimum for this yeast so I've read.

 

[Pennywise]

For me, 16-18 is perfect for US-05, but I wouldn't want it dropping below 16 for fear of it stalling.

 

[Mitcho89]

16-18? Fantastic. How long did it take for your brews to ferment out mate? Sounds like 14+ days would be close.

 

[Pennywise]

At those temps usually 10 days. To be honest though, I don't even take an SG reading before 2 weeks anymore, but the 1 or 2 times I have it was done just after a week. It's always good practice to leave the brew for a week after ferment finishes so it can clean up any off flavours that may be produced during the ferment, though, at 17 degrees, there may not be many/any (with US-05 anyway).