Your current / planned brews

beans

So - I've cleaned up my exploded bucket, but now I've a problem. No matter what I do, the foam just keeps on coming. New lid on, new bigger blow-off tube, same result:



Anyone got any suggestions as to how to deal with this? I should have split the batch over 2 buckets... bit late to do this now though? Or is it?

synesthesia

put a batch of Ginger beer to brew yesterday - with a Christmas Batch : brown sugar spices - the smell is to die for already

Khannie

beans wrote: »

Anyone got any suggestions as to how to deal with this? I should have split the batch over 2 buckets... bit late to do this now though? Or is it?

You could probably get away with a siphon off to a sanitised brew bucket. Depends how much more mess you expect v's how much effort the siphon will be.

beans

That's how I dealt with it in the end. Pushing the headspace envelope to tearing point

I thought, naively, that all the Krausen would shoot out the blow-off cleanly, without drying and getting stuck, all neatly contained in my 2L jug Next purchase, 33L screw-top fermenter vessel.

lang

Currently enjoying my John Bull London Porter. Bottled it about a month or so ago and it's getting better and better. Very drinkable and worth doing. Will notch this up as another kit I can return to. Also, bottled my Coopers Original Real Ale on 04/10/2012. I haven't tried it yet, but may do over the weekend. Will keep you informed.

Richie71

I'm planning on making a Hop Gobbler and a Golden Pale Ale at the weekend. Only my second attempt at a partial extract.

My brewing pot only holds around 10 litres of water but most partial extract recipies I've seen call for a 20 litre boil. Will this make a difference?

slayerking

Richie71 wrote: »

I'm planning on making a Hop Gobbler and a Golden Pale Ale at the weekend.

Does the Coopers website actually say to boil the chocolate malt!!

Don't do that!

Richie71

slayerking wrote: »

Does the Coopers website actually say to boil the chocolate malt!!

Don't do that!

It does but I won't. I presume around 65 degrees is the correct temperature.

slayerking

Richie71 wrote: »

It does but I won't. I presume around 65 degrees is the correct temperature.

Yep, that's correct.

Ratsathome

Got nothing planed for now, but have an Amber Ale, IPA and Stout in secondary and a Nut Brown Ale keged and waiting for the carbonation.

Khannie

Did an apple and honey turbo cider a while back which has turned out lovely. Just the right amount of honey in it to complement the apple.

redser7

Apple and honey, drool.
Wonder would it be useful to have a sticky thread where people can place a recipe and method and results of stuff like this?

Khannie

Good idea. Not sure about the stickying of it. There's a 3 sticky rule. I have tried and continue to try various recipes for ciders though. With other people posting in it it would probably stay on the front page anyway.

redser7

Cool, will try add one myself

stuchyg

Turbo cider made yesterday w 12ltr of cloudy apple, 250g sugar diluted with 500 mls of boiling water. 4 teabag mug of brew and 2 ltrs of cold water. S/g of 140.

Will be bottling my raspberry beer later, bottling day how I hate you so.

Khannie

Did a heap of bottling yesterday from a good few experiments I've started but never got around to bottling.

Cherry wine. Yep. Got the juice in Lidl an age ago. Tastes quite nice. Definitely drinkable. Better than a cheap red anyway.

Elderflower champagne. This has been in primary for about 3 months at this stage. Smelled delicious coming out. I have high hopes for it.

Apple and Pear cider. This was from two kits I bought about 6 months ago. It wouldn't all fit in a 33L brew bucket so I ended up having some in a 5L water container. It's been sitting there ever since.

Apple turbo cider. This one's from concentrate. Was just an experiment so I'd know how they turn out generally since the concentrate stuff is regularly on offer. I threw a piece of a stick of cinnamon in with one of the bottles to see how it turns out.

I also kicked off a brewbuddy pear cider kit. Smells gorgeous - like pear drops.

Lastly, kicked off 36L of cloudy apple juice cider. Will spice some of this with cinnamon and nutmeg for Christmas goodness.

stuchyg

Khannie I think you might be a cideraholic

Sky King

What's the longest cider would last in a bottle.

I have a few I bottled in march left - should I exercise caution??

Khannie

stuchyg wrote: »

Khannie I think you might be a cideraholic

I'm in love, but its a healthy relationship. :pac:


SK: Bottled cider should last ages. stuff bottled in March is probably peaking around now. Lucky divil!

Sky King

Grandeo, thanks for the reply, I crack open a couple at the weekend and I will let you know if I end up hugging the jacks

banjopaul

Picked up a John Bull IPA kit recently. Planning on using 1kg of enhancer ( http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-kit-enhancer-1kg-p-184.html ) and probably some light DME i have left over from a previous brew.

Anyone know if it'd be worth picking up some extra hops? It's my first kit, so not sure to what extent I can mess around with it. Was thinking of adding 30g of Cascade pellets. Would this go straight in to the primary fermentor?

mayto

banjopaul wrote: »

Picked up a John Bull IPA kit recently. Planning on using 1kg of enhancer ( http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-kit-enhancer-1kg-p-184.html ) and probably some light DME i have left over from a previous brew.

Anyone know if it'd be worth picking up some extra hops? It's my first kit, so not sure to what extent I can mess around with it. Was thinking of adding 30g of Cascade pellets. Would this go straight in to the primary fermentor?

Cascade is a great for dry hopping. It may not be ideal for a John Bull kit but will turn out great. I would either wait about a week to ten days before adding the hops. If you add the hops too early the co2 from fermentation will drive off alot of the cascade aroma. If you add the hops when fermentation is about done and less co2 is being expelled, you will keep more hop aroma. You could add to the primary or add to second fermenter if doing a secondary ferment.

BeerNut

30g of Cascade pellets is a little on the high side, but might work. Though I prefer leaf hops for dry-hopping: they're easier to manage when it comes to bottling.

You should let primary fermentation subside before adding them, so maybe a week in or so.

Dub13

Looking for suggestions for my next brew,I started off with the standard Canadian Blond,then did a Wheat Beet and have the St Pete's Red Ale in bottles a week or so now.

lang

Kit: Black Rock Miner's Stout
Extract: Coopers Dark LME and 200g of Light DME
Hop Tea: 15g EKG (Leaf) @25 mins Boil
8g Fuggles (Pellets) @10 mins steep
(used the DME in this)

Yeast: 11g Nottingham hydrated then pitched at 22C
Total Liquid: 23L
O.G.: 1.056
I don't really have a guestimate of F.G.

All into the fermenter and stirred the b-jaysus out of it. Probably gonna dry hop it too with some Fuggles I thinks.

oblivious

Currently brewing somthing along the line of orval

Put on 5l of Degsy's Ginger Beer this evening. Never made it before so looking forward to tasting that and the mead I made back in May come Christmas

stuchyg

DIY mild ale beer kit this afternoon, will sit i primary for 3 weeks, not going to secondary or add anything to this one. Ordered a Safale US ale yeast to make one last batch before xmas that will be hopped with Cascade and some other hop i have that I cant remember the name of

DeadSkin

Have the Milestone Crusader blonde ale tipping away in the fermenter this weekend. Looking to dry hop it with some cascade leaf hops, but homebrewwest out of stock at the moment.

I bottled my coopers irish stout/dark ale combo today. I put oak chips soaked in jameson in the fermenter last sunday as an experiment. I'm quite happy with the results The oakiness is subtle and theres a nice sweetness from the jameson followed by a nice chocolatey aftertaste. I'm going to leave it until christmas before I sample anymore.
I'm going to do another coopers IPA this weekend, the last one turned out very well and theres not much left