What are you brewing 2024

[Half Pint]

I do the same when I am not carbonating - both times it happened after I added fresh kegs and hooked them up to carbonate. I would have thought I'd be able to hear it a well, and I could have sworn I checked the duotight connections - but in the morning on both occasions a gentle pull actually removed the hose from one of he two new disconnects. (I am pushing them all the way in to the second click).

Don't know if I am doing something wrong with the duotights, or maybe worth replacing some of the connectors but I hadn't expected it to be so easy for gas to leak with this kind of setup as seems very widely used. Def could be a me issue.

I recently lost a bout a litre of beer through a leaking disconnect on liquid post.
Actually was not a problem with the disconnect. I thought it was probably a bad o-ring but when I went to replace it I found the problem was the machining of the post; I removed a sliver of steel (like a very thin, broken ring) which had not been cleaned off after manufacture.

 

[Narapoia]

Where is your bottle located?

Im just waiting on delivery of one of the inkbird co2 detectors to sit in my Keezer so it will alarm if the co2 level goes up (encase I forget to turn the bottle off)

https://inkbird.com/products/wi-fi-co2-detector-ink-co2w

Next to the Keezer feeding into the 5 way manifold on the outside. Might look into the detector...

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Just brewed an Altbier it's fermenting away at 16C, got myself another Maxi, bargain at the moment $199!

 

[philrob]

What recipe did you use WEAL ?

I have great memories of several days in Dusseldorf about 10 years ago drinking lots of different Altbiers.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

What recipe did you use WEAL ?

I have great memories of several days in Dusseldorf about 10 years ago drinking lots of different Altbiers.

It was one of these, I substituted the hops for ones easily available.
https://byo.com/article/the-special-altbiers-of-dusseldorf/

 

[TwoCrows]

Munich Dunkel brew day this week.
Mexican lager and an Aussie Draught with Super Pride hops, get ready for the Holiday season.

 

[Half Pint]

I just bottled an (alleged) APA (13.5L). First use of the new bottling gun. Didn’t carbonate the beer; primed the bottles for bottle conditioning.
Newfangled contraption went ok. Probably better than the old bottling wand and spigot. Either that or I’m just blowing a bit of CO2 into bottles for fun. I wonder if I’ll notice any difference.

I have a Dry Irish Stout (11L) on the bench, day 5.
Mainly I’m growing WLP004 for some more projects, but I’m still looking forward to having a ~4% Stout available. Reverted back to the old ‘classic styles’ series book by Michael Lewis (although the recipe section is all from Ashton ‘Mr Wizard’ Lewis). Nothing very remarkable in it but I took his advice and chopped up the flaked barley in a blender.

 

[TwoCrows]

I have a bottling gun, but sadly I have not used it yet (10 years of dust). Interested to hear how your process went. I have a local guy just starting out wants to bottle.

My last Irish stout was developed from beer junkies on YouTube.
I do enjoy a clean stout and 004 is that indeed. I use 004 on a red Irish ale and then move it to a stout. Two birds one stone sort of thing.

 

[Half Pint]

I need to sort out the ‘time and motion’ aspect a little better. I set up the gun with a bit more line length than I really need but better too much than not enough.
I used a 4 litre oxebar keg to help me sanitise the beer line and purge the gas lines. That was fairly straightforward.
I used a demijohn as a resting place for the gun when I needed to set it aside.
I had a jam pan to hold my bottles as I filled them. The process was actually pretty clean but there’s always scope for a bit of spillage.
I set gas pressure to about 3psi, gave the bottles around 8 seconds gas (no idea if that’s enough or overkill) then filled with beer. The beer wasn’t totally flat as I used a spunding valve during fermentation. Consequently there was a little bit of foam. More than I’m used to, but bugger-all really.
Next time I might try bottling carbonated beer. I expect that might be more exciting. As an experience this was not really so different to bottling with a wand and spigot. Just more complicated with the hoses, and hand got a bit sore holding the trigger but that’s arthritis. Hopefully the CO2 injection into the bottle serves some beneficial purpose.

I’m planning to do a bottled Irish Extra Stout with 004. Haven’t used the yeast for decades and have almost forgotten what it’s like but thought I’d try it in a few small batches of various styles.
Irish Red is a style I think I’ve never attempted. I’ll probably do a Northern Brown, but now you’ve mentioned it I’m thinking about the IRA as a possibility.

 

[TwoCrows]

Great way to sanitize and store bottle gun during your process.
I have no cold storage for the bottles, I have a small shed in the back yard that gets so hot in summer.
Crash chilling after ferment and allowing the beer to heat up again just feels wrong for me.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

My recent brew is an India Pale Lager extremely highly hopped with a low ABV 70+ IBU of Noble hops and again a fermentation temperature of 16C. The yeast is Mangrove Jack California lager yeast.
Very green wort due to hops another 100 gram to go in for a 30 minute hop stand.

Shooting for 1,038 so close enough.

And taking off quite nicely.

 

[Half Pint]

Have been watching Four Priests Brewery on YouTube over the last couple of years, and decided to have a crack at Andy’s British Golden Ale (Summer Ale?) ‘Murgy Straight’. Had to adjust the grain bill slightly to account for local availability of course. Also, I couldn’t make his water profile unless I used chalk, and that’s too much chemistry for me.
OG (planned) 1.041 (actual; 1.042)
Predicted FG 1.009 (recipe 1.006)
Grain:
70.4% Fawcett Golden Promise
19.1% Simpson’s Maris Otter
7.7% Joe White Wheat Malt
2.8% JW Caramalt
Mash Temp 65° x 60 minutes
Mash pH 5.36

Boil 1 hour
Boil additions:
20 minutes
4.9 IBU Talus, 5.4 IBU Citra
10 minutes
5.6 Talus, 5.3 Citra
Hopstand 30 minutes at 78°
28g Talus, 14g Citra

Yeast: Bluestone San Diego
ferment at 19° 10 days, then drop to 4° for remaining 4 days.

Dry hop day 5:
24g Talus, 34g Citra
Hops stay in until racking ie at day 14.

Managed to water the garden with most of the water from the chiller. Had everything cleaned up and put away before 3pm. Walked the dog 1 hour ie during the mash, made a loaf of bread incorporating a cup of grain from the mash, and watered the veggie patch all while brewing a batch of beer. I felt quite virtuous.
The gravity sample tastes very good. Hopefully I can keep the rest of the process on track.