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Jun 19, 2013 19:44:07 GMT
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Hup! No pics at the moment, but my brewing is going from strength to strength. I'm doing BIAB brews once or twice a month and have been sharing amongst friends for constructive criticism. I don't think I've had a bad review yet from Mystery Machine, crossbones, smellyferret, Rich606, brawr or jrevillug so something is going right. Possibly a couple others I can't remember? Visitors rarely leave without a bottle or two! I'm pleased to say that it has all been very positive though I am finding the limits of my current setup in terms of size and controlability far more often than I'd like. The Gathering beer gift list appears to be huge (who'd have thought people like free beer, eh?). There are two 'request' brews being done- one an Anglo-American IPA and one Weiss I've just done the dry hop addition on the IPA and won't be doing the Weiss until nearer the time as they tend to be nicer fairly young. I've dug this up as I'm getting really interested in the idea of playing with wild yeasts and have bought some Agar today to make some discs in the bottom of jam jars I'll place about for a couple hours to hopefully culture something cool to use in a secondary fermentation to make a sour beer. Don't suppose anyone else is daft enough to have tried it?
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Last Edit: Jun 19, 2013 19:45:54 GMT by ben711200
...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:18:57 GMT
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Don't suppose anyone else is daft enough to have tried it? Guess not then I made a low gravity wort by boiling about 5g liquid malt extract in 100ml water, then set it using agar, put a pot outside for an hour or so, brought it back in and covered it up. The idea of this is that I can isolate the different stuff that I catch, and discard the mank and mould. If I just put liquid wort out, then I'd not know what lucky dip I'd got. This is the result. My phone camera is rubbish, so you can't really make out the difference, but a couple of those are very much green. They're mould and not what I'm after. Some of them though, are very creamy and white, and these are what I'm hoping will be wild yeast. I'll not be risking a whole batch. I'll make a couple starters with the white blobs, if they smell cool, I'll pitch them as a secondary fermentation in a gallon something else with a bit of residual sweetness for it to work on.
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2013 18:24:53 GMT by ben711200
...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:38:07 GMT
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I'm not at all sure I'm even remotely qualified to comment in this thread because I know nothing (like, absolutely NOTHINHG) about the beer making process. One thing I can say, with confidence, is that Ben does make some damn fine beer. He will often arrive at Area 52 and thrust one of his latest creations from one of his latest batches into my hand. He'll normally give me a brief explanation of what it is, how it was brewed and what it's background is. I, however, just take great delight in drinking it. Each and every one that I've ever had, all of them different, have been fantastic. Totally enjoyable. eminently drinkable. The only downside is that there is always the end of the bottle. The sudden realisation that another one of Ben's finest has come to an end. Until the next briliant one and the whole process starts again.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:58:08 GMT
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Scratch that.. That one is getting very green very quickly. I've read before that collecting at too high a temperature means you'll pick up the wrong stuff. That was put out mid afternoon with temps in low 20s. Too high. The second one, placed out the same day in the evening, however has gone very cloudy and has the most peculiar-yet-appetising fermenty-aniseed sort of smell. Weird as hell, but definitely a keeper. I'll grow it into a proper starter over the next couple days and give it another sniff. Bruce, it's like welding- a black art until you have a bash You're converting the starch in your malted grain into fermentable sugars, balancing the sweetness of the sugars with the bitterness of the hops and turning it into alcohol with yeast. Quite frankly, what I don't understand is that wine and cider are ever so much simpler to do, but mine all end up tasting horrible! EDIT: How rude of me. Thank you for the kind compliments. Cheque and free beer in the post
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Last Edit: Jun 24, 2013 20:00:59 GMT by ben711200
...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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cianha
Part of things
aka VDubbin
Posts: 923
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Jun 28, 2013 14:52:11 GMT
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Another batch of cider due to be started this weekend, aiming to have it at RRG, unless Customs interfere! Collecting champagne yeast from the courier depot on the way home, as recommended by Mr. 711200.
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Last Edit: Jun 28, 2013 14:53:56 GMT by cianha
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Jun 29, 2013 18:29:50 GMT
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I believe it was a collaberative hijack started by J69, but glad you got some proper stuff sorted rather than resorting to bread yeast
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...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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cianha
Part of things
aka VDubbin
Posts: 923
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My assitant, Mikey, proving any idiot can brew… Sugar fell straight to the bottom, no amount of shaking seemed to dissolve it. Prior to adding the yeast. It has gone cloudy since, and convection seems to have lifted the sugar off the bottom. I was worried that is was too cold, (room temp is about 21º) I couldn't see any bubbling, it's rather slow at the moment.
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Last Edit: Jul 2, 2013 15:00:18 GMT by cianha
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cianha
Part of things
aka VDubbin
Posts: 923
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Quite warm here at the moment, 27ºC in the utility room, but fermentation has slowed right down, and it's starting to drop out. I didn't think it would progess so quickly. Should I wait another couple of weekends before I start bottling?
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Once it's dropped clear, get it in the bottle. 7 days or so at such high temps is probably about right. Prime the bottles at half-1tsp sugar/pint depending on how fizzy you like it.
I'm having a complete 'mare with the weiss I'm making at the moment. Everything went to plan with it other than the rather high fermentation temperatures but my yeast has crapped out at a specific gravity of 1.023. I was never quite happy with how it took off and dropped so quickly and wonder if it has been stored badly previously. I'm cheating a bit and making a starter up of US-05, which is a very neutral, high attenuating American ale yeast (most famously used for Sierra Nevada's brews, hence often being called 'Chico' after the town it comes from). Not true to style for a Weiss, but most American wheats are brewed using it or liquid versions of it (Whitelab WLP001 and Wyeast 1056). I'm hoping that I'll retain enough German character with the Danstar Munich that it won't matter too much that it's a weird dual strain.
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...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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