CairnsBrewer
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G'day,
Just sharing my latest design with you all.
I call it the 'spiced lager'
It contains the following ingredients;
1x Coopers Lager can
1x Coopers Brew enhancer 2
24.5 litres of double filtered water (i filter my water using the ceramic filter, and then the fridge jug)
100g of standard honey
100g of caster sugar
1x granny smith (peeled)
2tsp nutmeg
2tsp cinnamon (standard 'dutch' cinnamon that you get from woolies)
2 trays of ice cubes (roughly 100g)
Method;
1. Sterilise everything, as per normal guidelines. (that is, ensure there's no wild yeast on your equipment)
2. Filter the water (this may take some time... it takes me roughly 4 hours to get about 24.5 litres, but its worth it - better quality water means better quality beer)
3. Heat the can of lager in hot water
4. Set up fermenter with sediment reducer (little cap facing downwards, to prevent sediment)
5. Get a pot, and pour the 100g of honey, aswell as 100g of caster sugar, with about 200ml of the water into it. Heat it up to about 160degrees. While its heating up, add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut the apple with a knife into small chunks, and stir everything together, adding the apple to the batch aswell. It should boil, therefore you must turn it down a bit (you'll see the liquid foam a bit, and look like a pale yellow colour). Let it boil for about 2 minutes maximum. Turn off the stove and let it sit, stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes.
6. Pour 2 litres of water into the fermenter, followed by the can of lager, followed by about 100ml of hot water (boil some of the filtered water) and swirl that around, trying to get 100% of the flavour from the can
7. Up end the packet of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 into the fermenter
8. Stir the concoction together for a little bit, trying to even it all up.
9. Add the contents of the pot, adding some extra water from the batch into the pot to get the rest of the flavour out and into the fermenter. Stir the ingredients together in the fermenter.
10. Add the rest of the water into the fermenter, so that the fermenter reaches the 24.5litre mark. Adding the two trays of ice cubes to the batch to cool it down below room temperature by about a degree or two.
11. Stir the total contents of the wort together for about 2-3 minutes, breaking up the pattern, and ensuring that the contents are evenly mixed together.
12. Take a reading of the initial gravity of the wort - I had 1046 as the initial reading
13. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the top of the wort (the liquid that is in the fermenter)
14. Place/screw the lid tightly on the fermenter, adding the air lock with water to the halfway marks indicated.
15. Write down the initial gravity on a piece of paper (or, like i do, use a chinagraph pencil and write on the fermenter)
What to do next;
Well, at the time of posting this, i'm upto the 3rd day after sealing the fermenter, and have noticed that its quite active - the yeast grew highly (about 2 inches) in the fermenter, and the air lock has been bubbling away. The readings that I have so far are;
Initial: 1046
Day 1: 1030
Day 2: 1022
Day 3: 1014 (the day i posted this)
The colour is light and golden, which i anticipate will clear up after fermentation.
I plan on doing a double racking of this beer, which should remove all of the excess sediment left suspended in the beer. For those of you who aren't familiar with 'racking' then i suggest you read the next part, or find someone who has experience in racking beer.
How to rack a beer;
Just before you have finished fermenting your beer, get a clear hose pipe (available from nearly all home brew shops) and connect it to the tap on the fermenter. Have a second fermenter below (usually on the ground) under your fermenter with beer in it. Take off the lid of both fermenters, and place the other end of the hose into your 2nd fermenter. Open your tap, and watch the beer flow into the other fermenter (make sure you sterilised the hose). When you have the last inch in the first fermenter, dont tip the fermenter to 'get the last drop'. Leave it alone!! It's all sediment and stuff that you are trying to get rid of. Close off the tap and take the hose away. Put the lid on the new fermenter, with an airlock (with water in it) and set it in the position where the previous fermenter was. Most people would add a sediment formula to the beer, and some even add extra sugar to completely brew out the rest of the yeast in the beer (which i think can cause alot more sediment, and make the beer sweeter). Leave the fermenter in its position for 24hours, and do the whole process again (for even clearer beer). You will notice the high levels of sediment in the bottom of the fermenter, after each 'racking'. Hopefully by the time you bottle your beer, there will be a very fine layer of sediment in the bottom of the fermenter.
Note: This can cause infection to your beer, so be careful - ensure all your gear is sterilised, and preferably work indoors where there are no cats/dogs/flies/dust etc.. Infection only occurs when you are lazy, and dont take simple precautions.
In the end, I am looking at about 20litres of total beer, losing 4.5litres in the racking phase. I am hoping that the beer is a clean, pale lager with slight honey and spice flavours- resulting in a beer that can be enjoyed by a multitude of people across the board. I am inspired by a beer that I drank about 8 years ago, whilst in Perth, at a pub called "The last drop" which had a beer called "Bavarian style beer" - apparently they brewed their own beer, which was a superbly crafted spice beer. I also enjoy a beer from WA called "Beez Kneez", which is a honey based beer.
Also another important factor is temperature - my beer is on a steady 22degree's celcius, aided by the air conditioner... which often means that the beer is quite expensive to produce (that is, high electricity bills)
So therefore, I plan on extending this brew out to about 8 days, maybe 9 days to get a clean, clear, crisp honey and spice flavour that will prove refreshing during the dry season up here in Cairns.
A further few post's will be added to detail the progress of this brew.
Yours sincerely, and in brewing tradition,
Andrew
Just sharing my latest design with you all.
I call it the 'spiced lager'
It contains the following ingredients;
1x Coopers Lager can
1x Coopers Brew enhancer 2
24.5 litres of double filtered water (i filter my water using the ceramic filter, and then the fridge jug)
100g of standard honey
100g of caster sugar
1x granny smith (peeled)
2tsp nutmeg
2tsp cinnamon (standard 'dutch' cinnamon that you get from woolies)
2 trays of ice cubes (roughly 100g)
Method;
1. Sterilise everything, as per normal guidelines. (that is, ensure there's no wild yeast on your equipment)
2. Filter the water (this may take some time... it takes me roughly 4 hours to get about 24.5 litres, but its worth it - better quality water means better quality beer)
3. Heat the can of lager in hot water
4. Set up fermenter with sediment reducer (little cap facing downwards, to prevent sediment)
5. Get a pot, and pour the 100g of honey, aswell as 100g of caster sugar, with about 200ml of the water into it. Heat it up to about 160degrees. While its heating up, add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut the apple with a knife into small chunks, and stir everything together, adding the apple to the batch aswell. It should boil, therefore you must turn it down a bit (you'll see the liquid foam a bit, and look like a pale yellow colour). Let it boil for about 2 minutes maximum. Turn off the stove and let it sit, stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes.
6. Pour 2 litres of water into the fermenter, followed by the can of lager, followed by about 100ml of hot water (boil some of the filtered water) and swirl that around, trying to get 100% of the flavour from the can
7. Up end the packet of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 into the fermenter
8. Stir the concoction together for a little bit, trying to even it all up.
9. Add the contents of the pot, adding some extra water from the batch into the pot to get the rest of the flavour out and into the fermenter. Stir the ingredients together in the fermenter.
10. Add the rest of the water into the fermenter, so that the fermenter reaches the 24.5litre mark. Adding the two trays of ice cubes to the batch to cool it down below room temperature by about a degree or two.
11. Stir the total contents of the wort together for about 2-3 minutes, breaking up the pattern, and ensuring that the contents are evenly mixed together.
12. Take a reading of the initial gravity of the wort - I had 1046 as the initial reading
13. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the top of the wort (the liquid that is in the fermenter)
14. Place/screw the lid tightly on the fermenter, adding the air lock with water to the halfway marks indicated.
15. Write down the initial gravity on a piece of paper (or, like i do, use a chinagraph pencil and write on the fermenter)
What to do next;
Well, at the time of posting this, i'm upto the 3rd day after sealing the fermenter, and have noticed that its quite active - the yeast grew highly (about 2 inches) in the fermenter, and the air lock has been bubbling away. The readings that I have so far are;
Initial: 1046
Day 1: 1030
Day 2: 1022
Day 3: 1014 (the day i posted this)
The colour is light and golden, which i anticipate will clear up after fermentation.
I plan on doing a double racking of this beer, which should remove all of the excess sediment left suspended in the beer. For those of you who aren't familiar with 'racking' then i suggest you read the next part, or find someone who has experience in racking beer.
How to rack a beer;
Just before you have finished fermenting your beer, get a clear hose pipe (available from nearly all home brew shops) and connect it to the tap on the fermenter. Have a second fermenter below (usually on the ground) under your fermenter with beer in it. Take off the lid of both fermenters, and place the other end of the hose into your 2nd fermenter. Open your tap, and watch the beer flow into the other fermenter (make sure you sterilised the hose). When you have the last inch in the first fermenter, dont tip the fermenter to 'get the last drop'. Leave it alone!! It's all sediment and stuff that you are trying to get rid of. Close off the tap and take the hose away. Put the lid on the new fermenter, with an airlock (with water in it) and set it in the position where the previous fermenter was. Most people would add a sediment formula to the beer, and some even add extra sugar to completely brew out the rest of the yeast in the beer (which i think can cause alot more sediment, and make the beer sweeter). Leave the fermenter in its position for 24hours, and do the whole process again (for even clearer beer). You will notice the high levels of sediment in the bottom of the fermenter, after each 'racking'. Hopefully by the time you bottle your beer, there will be a very fine layer of sediment in the bottom of the fermenter.
Note: This can cause infection to your beer, so be careful - ensure all your gear is sterilised, and preferably work indoors where there are no cats/dogs/flies/dust etc.. Infection only occurs when you are lazy, and dont take simple precautions.
In the end, I am looking at about 20litres of total beer, losing 4.5litres in the racking phase. I am hoping that the beer is a clean, pale lager with slight honey and spice flavours- resulting in a beer that can be enjoyed by a multitude of people across the board. I am inspired by a beer that I drank about 8 years ago, whilst in Perth, at a pub called "The last drop" which had a beer called "Bavarian style beer" - apparently they brewed their own beer, which was a superbly crafted spice beer. I also enjoy a beer from WA called "Beez Kneez", which is a honey based beer.
Also another important factor is temperature - my beer is on a steady 22degree's celcius, aided by the air conditioner... which often means that the beer is quite expensive to produce (that is, high electricity bills)
So therefore, I plan on extending this brew out to about 8 days, maybe 9 days to get a clean, clear, crisp honey and spice flavour that will prove refreshing during the dry season up here in Cairns.
A further few post's will be added to detail the progress of this brew.
Yours sincerely, and in brewing tradition,
Andrew
I would like to see some pics
