Brews on hold.

Been a while since i put one down.

18.4 is good at moment.

consumed the very last of the last 16.2's last night, was mighty tasty brew, must put one of them down again...

3.1 a while back was a bit bread yeasty.

still have a few of last year's brews i need to get through.

no idea what my next one down will be...

OVER FIZZ

now all my lachouffes are way overly fizzy. dunno how it has happened, in that they were fine earlier, but the longer in the bottle, the more fizzy they've become. annoying, cos they dredge the yeast from the bottom spoiling the beer. barely manage to get half a bottle drinkable from them.



that said, i had an 8.4 last night that was beautiful. many of them have been overly fizzy too, so something must have been done right

Peculierly bottled... 20.9

Saturday night, 20.9.08, mostly 500ml bottles, i think there was about 2 or 3 x 750's and maybe 5 stubbies...


also, attempted to sample the most recent Lachouffe, lost the bottle to champagne overflow. either still a bit young, or thats how its gonna be, damnit all. i guess its the risk you run with the heavily sugar'd high alcohol content brews. in future i will prime with less sugar and hope the residuals in the pre-bottled beer will be enough. either that, or i pulled the plug on the brewing process too soon? but considering it sat for over 2 weeks and well and truly appeared to be done..? i dont know.

Theakston's a bit Peculier

Bought the makings of a Theakstons Old Peculier clone... put it down this night.

1.8kg Munton's Scottish Heavy Ale
882g soft brown sugar
500g dark unhopped spraymalt (dry)
412g Dextrose
18g fuggles hops
Safale yeast

calculates out to a 7 percenter...

for priming bottles, will use blackstrap molasses, 100g with water to 300ml. then leave for a good while before sampling...

bottled, finally. 28.8

last night, usual couple hours, only had 32 caps left, so had to do all the 750s i could, and did 3 Grolsche poptops, and the 2 330s were Fischer d'Alsace botts.

22 x 500ml
12 x 750ml
2 x 330ml
1 x 640ml

la chouffe!

pretty much forgotten about this, but i think it'll be about ready to bottle... must do it either tonight or tomorrow night, or have to leave til sunday or monday...

was a slow one to get going, hope its gonna be okay...

Lachouffe, strike 2

trying this one again. put down on Saturday night in record time, less than it took Sonic Youth's Sister LP to play.

Munton's Premium Pilsner,
blackrock light malt
light unhopped dried malt, 500g
900g dextrose
8g Saaz hops pellets (all i had left...)
Saflager yeast.

weirdly tho, it hasnt started bubbling yet. either that or the seal on the top of the barrel isnt up to it. same recipe as last time, except that i used a light dried malt and a tin of light, instead of two tins, and less hops cos this was the last.

tasty...

Lachouffe is still really good.
John came over and had a tasting a couple fridays back. he liked that best too. the rest are all a bit so so.

oh, and the stout is pretty good now.

must get another Lachouffe down soon.

Lachouffe, first taste...

one word. De-fucking-licious.

i'm SO gonna make another batch of this one. its turned out like one of the better LaTrappe's, maybe the Blonde or the Tripel even. its got a really good mouth feel, taste, effervescence, body. and its only just 4 weeks old... wicked...

fastest stout in the east... 15.6

well! put down tuesday, and by saturday it'd stopped bubbling. very fast to start tho, plus double the yeast, and not a huge amount of sugars, so.. anyway, bottled last night, 15/6 into all 500ml bottles (including all my nice Renaissance bottles), except for 6 x 330ml and 3 x 640ml bottles...

Swtchbrewskr's Oatmeal Stout

Put down last night...

1.7kg Coopers Stout Kit
300g Chocolate Malt
150g Black Malt
250g Rolled Oats
1kg Dextrose
15g Saaz Hops pellets
Muntons Premium Yeast
Coopers kit yeast...

First time trying with mixed yeast strains, wonder how it'll turn out. first time i've not followed anyone elses recipe...
bubbling away nicely already at 22 degrees... bottling...?
and according to the Brewcraft Calculator, this will only be about a 5.7% beer... i shoulda gotten a light malt extract to boost it... too late now i guess.

oatmeal

its winter, its time for stout. should made some a month or two ago, in order that it be ready to drink now, but i didnt, so not much i can do about it.

its experiment time. been reading Oatmeal stout recipes, and they all require a stout kit, some roasted barley, chocolate and black malts, some hops, and ale yeasts. i've got a whole bunch of yeasts left over from previous kits, at least one of which is a good munton's one. all i'm gonna need to get is a stout kit and maybe some light malt... this week i think it'll be.


And, i scored bottles galore... emailed Renaissance Brewery, Blenhiem, and said i liked their bottles, and where could i get some, and they emailed back saying, send us 11 bucks and we'll send ya a couple of cases. as it happened a friend was up there for a weekend, so he dropped in and they gave them to him! so, thats 12 litres of my next brew capacity in Renaissance Elemental Porter bottles... nice! like the Brakspear bottles, they have a good lip in the neck that retains sediment very nicely in the pour.

Lachouffe again. 29.5

Bottled, last night, 29th May. usual two hours or so. followed a piece of advice i'd noticed on the Bodensatz site, whereby once the bottles were filled, i just placed the lids on them on the bench, and then continued filling the rest of the bottles. at the end, once all were filled, then i got to work with the capper. the reason being, the active live beer is producing CO2 and allowing it to sit for a period of time before sealing allows the CO2 to displace some of the air in the space at the top of the bottle. doubt there'll be much difference, but it actually made the bottling process smoother, in that i was focussed on sanitising, rinsing, sugaring, filling about 8 to 10 bottles at a time, and not having the capping process in the middle. perhaps a thing to do in future will be to move the barrel a few hours before bottling, up onto the bench and that way save all that wandering back and forth. will update this post later with numbers of bottles... lots more stubbies than i'd estimated.

Lachouffe pt 2

went to bottle last night, but timed the (seemingly very slow) bubbles, and they were still coming in at less than a minute between each, so. i guess i'll be bottling it all up tonight. sorted out the bottles, 8 x 750ml, roughly 7 or 8 x 330ml and the rest 500ml...

the similarities between the Maudite and Lachouffe are not lost on me... it will be interesting to see how the notes of the bitter vs the pilsner, plus the two different yeasts, behave.

the Maudite is drinking quite nicely now.
the Dunkel seems to have a similar issue to the original Bock, that being it is over carbonated, and champagnes upon opening. you have to be very quick to tilt the bottle to minimise yeast disruption. not a huge issue it being a wheat beer, but still preferable to leave (most of) the yeast behind...

Lachouffe

Strong Belgian Ale

Munton's Premium Pilsner,
2x blackrock light malt
800g dextrose
20g Saaz hops pellets
Saflager yeast.

bubbling away at present, should be bottling in a few days time. expecting around 8%.

Dunkel sampled, maudite bottled. 18.4

so, i did bottle the maudite last friday night. went smoothly, about 20 x 750ml, only a few 500's and a few stubbies. John came over and watched.

Sampled a stubby of the Dunkel too. still a little young, at (peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot...) 9 days old but the potential is definitely there, its gonna be a tasty brew.

having a look in my 'cellar' now, i've got a heap of beer, but majority only maudite and dunkel. there's probably only 3 or 4 bottles of brown left, still a few bock, hardly any dopplebock or hoegaardens left...

i want a recipe for a Leffe Radieuse. any brewers out there able to post a clone?
also, have lots of whole grain oats to use, so an oatmeal stout is up and coming. also, would like a lighter brew, so a Koelsch is maybe on the cards. or another witte/hoegaarden style.

Maudite ready for bottling

Had stopped bubbling this morning, so i'll bottle up tonight...

Maudite next...

Next one will be a Maudite... purchased yesterday, putting down tonight.

Muntons Premium Bitter (1.5kg),
Black Rock Light Malt (1.5kg)
1kg Dextrose
400g Crystal
Saaz pellets
Safale yeast...

should be 7.9%?

Dunkel weizen bottled... 8.4

Finally she'd stopped bubbling, so bottled late last night... went down pretty well, clean 2 hours. so. sampling in a few weeks time. ended up doing only 6 x 750ml. plus 11 stubbies, 2x 640ml, and 24x 500ml botts... total, 21.41 litres

dunkel bubbler...

STILL the dunkel bubbles, albeit VERY slowly...

its 9(!) days now. might pull the plug on it and bottle tonight...

And will go for a Maudite - Strong Belgian Ale, next...


Did a bit of a stock take. Getting pretty low on brews. All the empties i'm holding at the mo is indicative of that too...
Only about 3 or 4 Hoegaardens left. one or two of the Brown. still a few of the Bock, but its a pain in the ass so the sooner they're gone the better... and ONE stout...
still quite a few Dopplebocks.

dunkel beginnings...

put down, and bubbling nicely now, a dunkel on friday night.

Muntons Dark 1.8kg
Black Rock Whispering Wheat, 1.5
340g Crystal,
114g Black
114g Chocolate
hallertau bag
safale/wheat yeast.

ground the grains by hand, and added to cold water on stove, then brought to boil, then did usual sitting extract malts in hot water, pouring into barrel, along with the wort from the grains, then cold water. temp said 28 (but is inaccurate) and has come down to 24. bubbling nicely and smelling gooooood...
will post post bottling.

Also, Hoegaarden is drinking beautifully at the mo.
last weekend i had my second to last stout, only one left!
Bock still a champagne-in-the-ass, going OFF when you open it...
Dopplebock just gets better and better...

tasted dopplebock.

divine. sampled a stubby last night.

a little flat, but the flavour is rich and smooth and mellow and delicious. i'm gonna enjoy imbibing this one.
alcohol content? STRONG

Bottled Dopplebock

Saturday, got all the Dopplebock into bottles...
now to wait for sampling.



on another note, the Brown is drinking quite nicely at the mo.

Uncle Igor's Dopplebock.

Put down this one on tuesday night...

Black Rock Lager kit
Black Rock light malt
2 x 500g Light unhopped spray malt
200g each of chocolate and crystal malt grains
50g black porter malt grains
hallertau hops,
saflager yeast...

expected alc content, up round 8... looking forward to it.

she's already bubbling away happily...

hoegaarden...

at a month old, its yummy. crisp, fresh, tasty. eminently drinkable.

still 2 bottles of stout left.
quite a few of the brown still around. john said one i left him was extremely flat, but the 750's are proving to be quite good
the bock is still tasty as, but still way too fizzy...

next brew is in the shop waiting... will be making the purchase soon.

first taste

one week old, and sampled a stubby of the hoegaarden...

disappointed at first cos it appeared a bit flat, but proved to have enough mouth bubble feel.

tasted crisp and very nice. still a little yeasty, but that will improve with age. minimal cloudiness. and not a huge hint of the coriander or orangepeel, tho, it was subtly there...

Brews So Far...

After probably a 10 year hiatus from brewing, i decided to get back into it, so with a little research found that homebrew needn't taste like yeasty cidery stuff you only drink to get drunk on... so, back into it, i started out with a stout:

• Bottled 21st July 2007. Coopers Stout kit, Muntons Dark Malt. quite a dark, burnt flavour. at nearly 6 months, only 3 bottles left, and its SO delicious.
  
• Bottled 30th August 2007. Brewtec Brown Ale, Amber Malt. weird brew. never really bubbled, lid wasnt on tightenough i think, thought it'd failed. something weird about it tho i might have put too little dextrose in each bottle, cos this whole brew has proved to be quite flat. tho as its aged its pretty tasty. still quite a number left.
  
• Bottled 11 October (or was it 10th Nov?) 2007. Muntons Bock, Muntons Light Malt, Saflager yeast. This brew has proved to be very very very fizzy. it champagnes upon opening each bottle, so much care must be taken when opening and pouring. its a tasty drop thats for sure, tho still not quite what i want in a bock.
  
• Bottled 3rd Jan (yesterday) 2008. Hoegaarden style- Black Rock Whispering Wheat, dry Light malt, dextrose, orange and lemon peel, coriander, Safwheat yeast. Bottled it last night, smelled good in the barrel. very cloudy wheat / hefewiessen style.

So. Bottles, I've got about 30 or so Grolsche Pop-top bottles (473ml), and then a whole bunch of 500ml bottles of various shapes from numerous brands of beer (erdinger dunkel, emersons (courtesy John), wigram, harringtons, brewmoon, old peculiar, etc etc). i also use crate bottles (750ml) and the occasional stubby (330ml). i like the 500ml size cos they pour perfectly into a glass, whereas the 750's are good for sharing and also good cos you need less of them and the bottling takes less time, but when drinking you need to pour them into a pitcher or two glasses. Stubbies are just a bit small but are useful for just grabbing those last quantities of beer out of the bottom of the barrel. in the past i used 1.25 or 2 litre plastic (coke etc) bottles. these were good for bulk, but there's something about glass...

It seems to take me about an hour to put down a brew to start with. then around 2 hours for the bottling. i do 23litres at a time, tho the stout i think i only did 20litres. they usually bubble away for over a week. the saflager yeast required lower temperatures, prefering 11 to 15 degrees C, i think it went at about 16 to 18. whereas all the ale and wheat yeast were run at 22-25 or so. makes sense tho, you brew your lagers for the summer in the winter, and you brew your ales and stouts for winter in the summer...
i currently just use Sodium Metabisulphate for sterilising...