For the bare-bones FLAWHB log, click here.
Brew #1 – Basic Kit Pilsner Extract
Brew #2 – Mild ale Modified Extract
Brew #3 – Sweet semi-wheat ale Partial-Mash
Brew #4 – Pseudo Pilsner Partial-Mash
Brew #5 – German Pilsner Partial-Mash
Brew #6 – Pseudo Pilsner Partial-Mash
Brew #7 – Brown Ale All Grain
Brew #8 – American Pale Ale All Grain
Brew #9 – Strong Pseudo Pilsner All Grain
Brew #1 – Basic Kit Pilsner Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes – Into fermenter 13/01/07 – Bottled 17/01/07 (4 days)
Just followed the can! First go, brewed in a Brewers’ World Starter Kit fermenter (recommended by the way: site)
Tasting Notes – Early March
Better than I imagined! Has that yeasty homebrew taste but an excellent every-day drop (especially at the price!) Some put to lager, some stored – will update if I ever compare the two. UPDATE: No noticeable difference due to lagering at this level of brewing (and to my beginners judging ability)
Brew #2 – Mild ale Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter 3/03/07 (8 days)
- Into Secondary 11/03/07 (7 days)
- Bottled 18/03/07 (15 days total)
Prepared as kit, with hops and grain boiled and added to the wort. Gorgeous hoppy aroma coming through the airlock. Slow cooling, due to only having a sink available.
Tasting Notes – 21/3/07
All documented in a blog post here.
And I have some notes from someone who actually knows what they’re on about here (5/4/07)
Brew #3 – Sweet semi-wheat ale Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter – 16/04/07 – OG 1.054
- Kegged – 29/4/07 – FG 1.018 (14 days)
Slightly high sparge temperature (>80c). Batch sparged using a grain bag (and some helpful friends!).
Much too large a trub after first transferring to fermenter – it blocked the tap. Will sieve out some hop matter next time. On Kegging day, I had to syphon most of the wort to the keg and leave the rest to settle. I put the remainder into two 2 Litre riggers later (so it got 5-6 days extra fermentation).
Have been experimenting with carbonation, keg now sitting at 10psi comfortably.
Tasting Notes – 29/4/07
My first kegged brew! See details of the setup here.
Here are my highly amateur notes:
It has a head! A large, pristine white head which lasted reasonably well and left foamy residue at the end of the glass – much more satisfying than the kit beers! Very clear in the glass, with a light amber colour.
The aroma is mildly citrusy, but reasonably subtle.
FAR less yeast bite than the last batch, which is great. I’m sold on leaving the beer in the fermenter for two weeks and not bothering with secondary. A lot more wheat character than I expected, would call it more of a wheat beer than an APA.
Quite a fruity taste, with a mild bitterness. Would probably call it a (very) easily drinkable session ale (we’ll see what it actually is when Stu has a taste!)
Still not at hoppy as I had planned, might have to throw caution to the wind and hop like crazy next brew! Really like the character given by the cascade hops tho.
With the business of uni, I have started calling it my 19L of refrigerated counseling
People keep telling me there are flaws in the idea of having a “study beer”… Don’t know what they’re on about. *hic*
Real tasting notes: Courtesy of Stu again. Tasted from Rigger rather than tap (less carbonation, so higher perceived sweetness. Also noticed less wheat character)
“Cloudy gold, tending amber. Malty sweet, slightly caramelly, lightly estery with medium fruit hop flavour. Low bitterness.”
Brew #4 – Pseudo Pilsner Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter – 26/05/07 – OG 1.044
- Kegged – 18/6/07 -FG 1.016
A slightly high mash temperature, but better temp control in general than the last batch. A longer 60 minute mash this time, with a 60 minute boil.
I added 3L mineral water at the end (I have a small kettle, so it was originally 16L in the fermenter). The original gravity (@ 1.044) came a bit under the recipe target of 1.050 with the added water.
Filtered out a whole lotta hop matter on the way to the fermenter with some sanitised cheesecloth. I’m hoping there wasn’t a chance for an infection to get in. It had a great result, less than a cm of trub.
Brew #5 – German Pilsner Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter – 21/07/07 – OG 1.040
- Kegged – 1.008
Excellent temp control thanks to an urn that Tim brought over. Mash temp was spot on (70C for 45 mins) and the sparge water temp was also great. Another advantage was a new way we filtered the runoff from the kettle, leaving a very well aerated wort.
I’m a bit lost with what happened with the OG and the volume. It came massively under volume at about 14L (from a full 24L!!) and the gravity is just 1.040… I’ll be giving Stu a call soon!
I ended up adding 1.5 litres of mineral water. It’s now sitting in my basement, which should stay at 11-14C at the moment – hopefully perfect for the lager yeast I’m using this time.
Some things went really well for this brew, but some thigns are very ominous… we will see. Unfortunately we won’t see for about 4 weeks! Yes, that’s right, I’m looking at another beer drought…
Brew #6 – Pseudo Pilsner Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter – 12/08/07 – OG 1.040
- Kegged – 27/8/07 – FG 1.010 (ABV 4.1%)
Well as usual- fix one problem, come up with another!
I talked to a few people from SOBA and discovered that the problem I’ve had since the start was with my sparging technique – too little and too short, meaning not enough sugars were extracted. As for volume, that was just starting too low – it was suggested I shoot for 23-24L to the fermenter, and add more water before the boil.
So Tim and I fixed both these problems, using a batch sparging technique from the net. And I adjusted the recipe to end up with 24L.
The only problem is… I ended up using the wrong recipe sheet (the one scaled to 19L). So it’s a 24L recipe of malt with just 19L of hops, meaning it’s about 20% under. Bugger.
Well the last batch was quite bitter, so hopefully this will be ok. The good news: We hit 22L! I’m going to have a full keg for once! And even with the significant under-hopping, the starting gravity still came to 1.040 – showing the improved sparging made a big difference (if we had hopped properly, we would have hit the gravity nicely).
In the same brewing session we kegged batch #5, which tastes great from the fermenter. Looks like my first lager-yeast batch is a success. It’s going to be consumed in two weeks, at Tim’s 21st. Because there’s nothing else in the keg fridge, it’s also a change to lager the beer (storing it at a very low temperature, which smooths and clarifies the flavour). Another new experience!
Brew #7 – Brown Ale Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter – 24/08/07 – OG 1.048
- Kegged – 7/9/07 – FG 1.012
Brew #8 – American Pale Ale Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter – 1/11/07 OG ??
- Kegged – 15/11/07 FG 1.010
Brew #9 – Strong Pseudo Pilsner Top
Ingredients
Brewing Notes
- Into Fermenter- 1/11/07 OG ??
- Kegged – 15/11/07 FG 1.008
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