Home Brew Questions

[Addy]

Mine eventually cleared on its own after I left it in the cold shed for 2 weeks.

Let me know what you think of it when you taste a sample..... I loved it.

 

[Dovydaitis]

this is getting rid of the fat deposits! I forgot your handy hint so got bits of fat floating on the top. Yeah will clear a treat once I've got rid of that.

The sundew is coming along nicely and the black cherry port I bottled last night is delicious

 

[Dovydaitis]

I appear to be converting other people to the joys of home crafted ales

 

[Addy]

its all good if you have the time to answere thier questions

 

[Dovydaitis]

oh I am! Although so far I can only really answer on kits and a very simple xmas pud wine

 

[butcher]

This week have stuck on 2 gallons of purple grape WOW, and a Honey Wheat beer (2.5kg watery honey plus a brewmaster Tarweiber kit), the St Peters Ruby Red and Festival Strong Suffolk will be tapped at the weekend

 

[badseed]

a Honey Wheat beer (2.5kg watery honey plus a brewmaster Tarweiber kit)

I am thinking about a Honey Wheat, what is watery honey and when do you put it in?
I was thinking about 500g of pure Honey in the secondary so that it keeps the taste rather than fermenting out completely.

I just kegged an American Style IPA. Due to my poor drinking skills I ended up with lager on one tap and pilsner on the other. I usually like to have one lager/pilsner and one something else.

I just put another Heffe down in the fermetner.

 

[existentialist]

I've just discovered that an event for which I am brewing 80 pints of bitter is now going to take place on licensed premises, so we won't be able to use it! O noez!

 

[butcher]

I am thinking about a Honey Wheat, what is watery honey and when do you put it in?
I was thinking about 500g of pure Honey in the secondary so that it keeps the taste rather than fermenting out completely.

I just kegged an American Style IPA. Due to my poor drinking skills I ended up with lager on one tap and pilsner on the other. I usually like to have one lager/pilsner and one something else.

I just put another Heffe down in the fermetner.

A customer keeps bees and had 5 x 1lb jars of honey which had very runny (ie high water content honey) so I used the lot instead of sugar in a single brewferm tarwebier.

The SG was 1054 and if it ferments out OK I should get a 5.5-6% beer As I had loads I just whacked it in at the start

The initial taste of the 'wort' was good, so fingers crossed.

 

[butcher]

Update: if you do this boil the honey first, I didn't and there is a very strange whiff coming off the brew

I'll report after it has fermed out.

 

[Dovydaitis]

got nothing on the go at the min

 

[Dovydaitis]

oh bollocks! Just realised the dj of sundew I have (ran out of bottles) will be no good as I only put kitchen roll over it to keep the floating bits out. It will have oxidised now wont it?

 

[badseed]

Update: if you do this boil the honey first, I didn't and there is a very strange whiff coming off the brew

Wild yeast or do you think it's infected?
What is the smell like?

I have made beer with honey before but I have always boiled it and put it in the primary. You don't have any honey taste at the end. Boiling destroys most of the flavour and the primary fermentation takes care of the rest.
Some people pasteurise their honey before using it, I am going to risk 500g straight out of a jar into a wheat beer wort just after the primary has finished. Honey wheat beer, the more honey taste the better.

I just chucked 30g of dry Saaz pellets into my heffe for the second week. I still have pilsner and lager on tap with an IPA on stand by.

 

[butcher]

There was a sulphurous whiff but that died away quickly, since then it has smelled ok.

I am bottling on Sunday so will leave off judgement until the gravity sample has been tasted

 

[badseed]

Some of the lager and pilsner yeast that I use give off a massive sulphur smell. It's just a characteristic of the yeast.
Hopefully nothing to worry about.

 

[existentialist]

Some of the lager and pilsner yeast that I use give off a massive sulphur smell. It's just a characteristic of the yeast.
Hopefully nothing to worry about.

This, definitely. I'm banned from fermenting lagers in the kitchen because of this

 

[badseed]

This, definitely. I'm banned from fermenting lagers in the kitchen because of this

The first time I made a lager I though there was something wrong with it.

 

[butcher]

A customer keeps bees and had 5 x 1lb jars of honey which had very runny (ie high water content honey) so I used the lot instead of sugar in a single brewferm tarwebier.

The SG was 1054 and if it ferments out OK I should get a 5.5-6% beer As I had loads I just whacked it in at the start

The initial taste of the 'wort' was good, so fingers crossed.

The FG was 998, giving a 7+% beer! It tastes pretty good on bottling so I might have a nice one in a month

 

[Dovydaitis]

wilkos have the deal of kits have free sugar on again. Picked up a forest fruits cider kit today

 

[badseed]

My Heffe is ready for kegging, the lager is going down well.
Next up is a triple choc & Coffee stout.
I was thinking of a double chocolate stout and then adding 200g cold pressed espresso & some chocolate extract to the secondary.
Chocolate, coffee & beer in 1 glass.

 

[Dovydaitis]

well have cracked open one of my sample bottles of sundew. It is bloody lovely!

 

[og ogilby]

Glad to hear that because I've got two sundew kits waiting to be brewed.

 

[Addy]

I sank my Sundew in record time ...

But the latest brew is an Apollo tripple....
Boil, steep, dry

Apollo hops .... O fecking M.... bloodclart Geee

Single hopped pale ale with Apollo.... give it a go ... its amazing!

 

[butcher]

Got a Maple syrup Stout on, (coopers orig stout plus 1 kg enhancer plus 900g maple flavour syrup).

3 more WoW Grape n Prunes, and planning a Cascade Dry Hopped Better Brew IPA, plus 1kg malt & souped up with some extra dextrose.

Oh, and the honey wheat beer is feckin awesome !

 

[Dovydaitis]

I've got a forest fruits cider kit to go in and want to make some more black cherry port as it seems to be evaporating

Will have to wait though as got too much uni work on at the mo

 

[Frances Lengel]

Got a barrel each of wilkos lager and wilkos pilsner which are still clearing, a fermenting bin full of wilkos newky brown and about half a barrel of wilkos bitter left. It's all about the wilkos kits for me. A tenner. And the best thing is, by the time it's ready, it's weeks after you spent the tenner so it feels like you're drinking for nothing.

 

[Dovydaitis]

I quite like the wilkos kit. Does what it says on the tin and not a bad drop

 

[badseed]

I just kegged my triple chocolate & coffee stout.
Obviously, purely for quality control, I had to try a couple of glasses and it's up with the best beers I have ever made.

I used a double chocolate stout kit (chocolate barley and chocolate wheat) which I brewed with a Safale English Ale yeast.
After a week I added 100g cold pressed ground espresso which had been soaking for 24 hours and 100g cocoa powder which was pre-mixed with water before pitching.

A great brew, I was worried it might be too bitter because of the cocoa and coffee additions but it's perfect.
All the flavours are there but nicely balanced, none of them seem dominant. Chocolate malt, chocolate and coffee. Just what I wanted.

A great after dinner beer. Imagine a choclate dessert, a coffee, a dessert wine and a marlborough red in 1 glass. Perfect.
I need to stop drinking it now so I can make my next brew (Pilsner)

 

[og ogilby]

Sundew is a tenner now at Dunhelm.

http://www.dunelm-mill.com/search/?query=homebrew

 

[badseed]

If you ever make a a stout or porter with coffee be aware that, although it tastes fantastic, it will keep you awake.
FACT