Home Brew Questions

[Dovydaitis]

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

sounds like a superb 'morning after' session drink

 

[Dovydaitis]

and I'm back in the saddle! Got forest fruits cider in the FV, mixed fruits alcoshot in the DJ and 5 bottles of skittles spirits. I know the skittles one isn't proper brewing but is all for the same thing
Got a coopers cervaza waiting to go in next and a bottle of tequila syrup to bung in after fermentation to make desperados (hopefully)
The woman at dorset homebrew must rub her hands together when she seems me coming

 

[Addy]

and I'm back in the saddle! Got forest fruits cider in the FV, mixed fruits alcoshot in the DJ and 5 bottles of skittles spirits. I know the skittles one isn't proper brewing but is all for the same thing
Got a coopers cervaza waiting to go in next and a bottle of tequila syrup to bung in after fermentation to make desperados (hopefully)
The woman at dorset homebrew must rub her hands together when she seems me coming

add some ginger wine and lime juice when you bottle the Desperado

 

[Frances Lengel]

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

And it'd presumably send you loopy in a similar manner to buckfast

 

[Addy]

I made a coffee wine once.

2 Tbsp of coffee
1 bag of sugar
squirt of lemon juice
yeast
4.5l water

Every time the wine got down to 1.000 on the hydrometer, feed it another 100g of sugar
Repeat until it stops fermenting and sweetens up.
You end up with an 18% abv Tia Maria type of liqure / wine.
Great for Black Russians

 

[Dovydaitis]

add some ginger wine and lime juice when you bottle the Desperado

ooooo might have to give this a go! The tequila syrup I've got is from the homebrew shop to flavour liquor

 

[Dovydaitis]

stocks may be seriously depleted tonight

 

[butcher]

The Betterbrew IPA dry hopped with 30g Cascade hops is now undergoing it's secondary ferm, initial tasting leads me to think this will be a terrific APA type beer in a month or so

 

[existentialist]

A friend of mine helped me extract a sheared-off bolt in the engine block of my Celica. It took 3 hours and all the garage facilities at his disposal, but we eventually sorted it. He wouldn't accept any money, but readily accepted my suggestion that I brewed him a batch of beer by way of thanks. It will be a light ale, with a couple of fresh chillis steeped in it.

Here's the branding (the image, incidentally, is the Exact Bolt that was extracted from the engine, complete with lumpy buildup of MIG-welded spatter to make it stick out far enough that we could weld another bolt head onto it to unscrew it).

 

[Addy]

2 tins of pale LME
100g malted wheat grains mashed @ 67c for 30 mins
300g crystal malt grains mashed @ 67c for 30 mins
10g Apollo 60 min boil
25g Apollo 20 min steep
Dry hop 65g Apollo day 5-12
21l brewlength & a coopers APA yeast



Still a bit young and cloudy, but boy what a great pint.
Slightly sweet, great citrussy flavours and grapefruit aroma and a nice bittering to offset the initial sweet taste.

1 of my best brews yet.

 

[friedaweed]

Just about to do a special BBQ beer

 

[Dovydaitis]

was at a local brewery last weekend, really want to have a go at a full mash brew now

 

[butcher]

A friend of mine helped me extract a sheared-off bolt in the engine block of my Celica. It took 3 hours and all the garage facilities at his disposal, but we eventually sorted it. He wouldn't accept any money, but readily accepted my suggestion that I brewed him a batch of beer by way of thanks. It will be a light ale, with a couple of fresh chillis steeped in it.

Here's the branding (the image, incidentally, is the Exact Bolt that was extracted from the engine, complete with lumpy buildup of MIG-welded spatter to make it stick out far enough that we could weld another bolt head onto it to unscrew it).
View attachment 31358

1075 OG

 

[existentialist]

1075 OG

Oh, you can ignore that - it's a hangover from the label template for the previous brew (a Christmas ale I brew every year)

 

[Dovydaitis]

bollocks! Just racked my desperados into a PB and the knacking thing leaks!

 

[two sheds]

What's to stop you just putting all the beer ingredients into the barrel and brewing it for a few days then pouring it from the tap with the sediment settling below the tap so you don't get any of the sediment?

/innocent question

 

[Addy]

What's to stop you just putting all the beer ingredients into the barrel and brewing it for a few days then pouring it from the tap with the sediment settling below the tap so you don't get any of the sediment?

/innocent question

You could do it, but its not advisable.
The amount of sediment and floating crud could be too much unless you used a high flocculent yeast strain such as Muntons Gold as that sets the sediment like jelly.

You would also have to leave the lid off otherwise your keg would turn into a beer bomb with all the co2 produced with the fermentation.


For the cost of a brewing bucket and a length of tube to siphon, and the clarity of racking off the finished beer I wouldn't recomend it.

 

[two sheds]

You would also have to leave the lid off otherwise your keg would turn into a beer bomb with all the co2 produced with the fermentation.

/hurries off to unscrew the lid to let some of the pressure off

 

[Addy]

/hurries off to unscrew the lid to let some of the pressure off

Cover the top of your keg with a folded piece of cling film & an elastic bag, then prick a couple of pin holes in it to let the co2 escape.

 

[two sheds]

Ta though - I've been doing it for the last year but just wanted to check why I shouldn't be doing it.

I've not had a problem with the sediment - I'm using EDME's kits. It's just really easy this way - I do two barrels at a time and it just takes half an hour to throw all the ingredients in and then let them sit for a week feeding them with hot water bottles.

I usually leave the top slightly unscrewed trusting that the CO2 will give a bit of a positive pressure so no nasties get in. I have got the barrels in industrial strength plastic sacks though.

 

[two sheds]

Cover the top of your keg with a folded piece of cling film & an elastic bag, then prick a couple of pin holes in it to let the co2 escape.

oooooh ta will do

Looks at addy with hushed awe.

 

[Dovydaitis]

bollocks! Just racked my desperados into a PB and the knacking thing leaks!

OK, I'm an idiot! The tap was loose so it's back in and sitting there quite happily

 

[friedaweed]

OK I did it. I finally went out and got a posh red

I got the 30 bottle version for 30 sovs of me pal down at the homebrew super macado

 

[badseed]

Cover the top of your keg with a folded piece of cling film & an elastic bag, then prick a couple of pin holes in it to let the co2 escape.

I don't even put holes in mine. I use the rubber seal from the original fermenter around the cling wrap. The CO2 will get out without any problems, the molecules are much smaller than air.

I just added 500g of honey to a wheat beer which has been fermenting for 7 days, hopefully the late addition will mean that the honey taste doesn't disappear totally. I will chill it down in another week.
Planning my next brew already. Probably another super hoppy IPA, maybe Galaxy hops.

 

[Addy]

As usual, my stout is trying to escape its current home...

 

[Dovydaitis]

it's official, I cannot make cider. Tried my forest fruits on Friday after 4 weeks in the barrel and it tastes a bit grim. Has a very chemically after taste and no real fruit hit. Everything else I have made has been fine but cider just will not play ball

 

[Addy]

For cider I just use cheap apple juice from Lidl.
Fill the demijohn with 4l of apple juice, add some tannin (if you have none add a cup of strong stewwed black tea)
add some cider yeast and leave it for 3-4 days.
When the krausen subsides top up with more juice and leave until clear.

 

[johnnymarrsbars]

I tried home brew once. Bought loads of kit from Wilko's, then of course made home made cider from cheap Lidl apple juice.

Needless to say, I did it when I was a student, it tasted like shit but got us completely rat arsed.

Not sure if I'll give it another go though...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dovydaitis]

For cider I just use cheap apple juice from Lidl.
Fill the demijohn with 4l of apple juice, add some tannin (if you have none add a cup of strong stewwed black tea)
add some cider yeast and leave it for 3-4 days.
When the krausen subsides top up with more juice and leave until clear.

the cider I made from scratch seems to be ok, but kit cider I just cannot get right

 

[Addy]

Kit cider is best avoided ... I have never brewed 1, but reports tell me I shouldnt either.

Turbo cider delivers if you like a nice crisp dry cider.