National Homebrew Club Ireland

I dont know about the rest of you but i only get the chance to Brew on the weekends. This Sun i'll be trying my hand at my first  AG Octoberfest stlye lager. Anyone else brewing?

4Kg Pils Malt
1Kg Vienna
1kg Munich

25g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 60
25g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 30 (is this enough hops)

harp lager original german recipe 1962 @ kildare brewday

MCI lager malt
decoction / caramelisation
original recipe hallertaur hops fresh from the garden
original recipe saaz fresh from the garden

I think for me, its going to be a Centennial Rye IPA.

I am way low on base malt, so this one is going to use about
* 3Kg of LME
* 1Kg Munich
* 1 Kg Rye
* 300g Caramalt (40L)

Running low on Centennial leaf, so I might use some cascade in the late additions.

* 28g Centennial Leaf @ 60
* 14g Centennial Leaf @ 30
* 56g Combined Centennial Leaf & Cascade @ 10

Might need to substitute yeast as well. No US05 left, might use some of the english strains instead and see what happens.

Bren any chance you could take a few pic of the decoction mash method, sounds intresting but a lot of work to it. How do you find it and what does it add.

hi covey, its take a kilo or whatever of mash out after it mashed a while so its a bit sugary, cook it like F*CH and it goes carammelly adds something obvious to the finished beer. Ask alex lawes he gave us the run down in the last liffey meet so I tried on a california steam and its a cracker

heres some pics of the beetroot beer cooking this wednesday. Bacially its half mashed grains and well cooked beetroot ( from our garden) caramelising together, the other pot shows the  thick gooey sugary juice caramelising. Just keep tasting til u get a real toffee/ caramelly taste, theres no rule

I saw the decoction picture and thought why is that mash red? How's the beetroot beer shaping up so far?

Doing a smoked weizen tomorrow.

2kg home smoked pilsner malt
2.5 kg wheat malt
0.25kg munich
0.25kg carawheat

Mash with a gas boiler: 30 degrees for 30 mins, decoction at 63 for 30 mins, 42 degrees for 30, 70 degrees for 20 mins (this is supposed to promote clove / banana flavors)

15g each Saaz / Halletau MF at 60 mins

Danstar Munich yeast: pitch at 12 degrees and let rise to ambient.

No idea how this will work out, but here goes.

beetroot beer is motoring away, just finish primary.
Colour isnt purple anymore, more like an orange hint, flavour is spicy, earthy and hopefully the lovely malt will show its face when it matures and dries out after lagering. Ginger is just about aparent

Hopefully Coopers dark ale with some extra dark crystal(not sure what number that is)and a can of LME and 25gr cascade + 25gr herkules @30mins for a 30min boil.

What % of your mash did you decoct - it looks pretty small? I guess you weren't using the decoction to step up the temps, just to caramelize?

Quote from: Il Tubo on September 13, 2013, 11:12:26 PM
Brewing up an Oxford Fart

Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk 2

?
This Earle of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travell, 7 yeares. On his returne the Queen welcomed him home, and sayd, My Lord, I had forgott the Fart. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Vere,_17th_Earl_of_Oxford)

I'm going to Vince's brew day in the morning in the 'well. Then I'm going to try blag the rest of the day off to brew an oatmeal red ale. I've put the kids to bed for 3 nights in a row ffs?

Quote from: mr happy on September 13, 2013, 11:17:06 PM
What % of your mash did you decoct - it looks pretty small? I guess you weren't using the decoction to step up the temps, just to caramelize?

bout half a kg and half kg beetroot ( very large one)
as per pics cooked away till reduced and the juice from the mix strained to another pot to get the real sticky toffee effect...albeit purple :)

Have auto temp control was just to caramelise

I'd like to go up to Vince's thing as well but I'd say I'll have to do me business in the morning.

Are you doing something similar with the Harp lager?

absolutely, the Harp recipe logged decoction for the first couple of years of production 62,63, 64.
It was clear that Guinnesses had more than enough technology in them days to control temps in the brewery. the only other reason was prob to caramelise. as I said earlier Alex laws gave the idea at lucan few weeks ago.

So yes Ill be caramelising a kg or so of mash to help add the harp amber colour as well

IPA yesterday, using fag ends of hop bags in the freezer, mostly NZ.
1.063 OG, and planning on liberal dry hopping.

Just got a rye oatmeal stout on yesterday. Now passively chilling in the cube. Will know OG tonight.

Good chunk of roasted rye, choc rye, choc malt, crystal, munich, oats and some wheat for head.

2 tins of pale extract, plus about 3Kg of grain in the mash.

Lightly hopped, with 28g EKG @ 60 and 18g EKG/10g Challenger @ 30.

This evening I am all set up for a Rye/Wheat low gravity session pale.

On frig u just reminded me, about the tax return not the beer!


Sent from my divining rod v2.0

That time of year chaps.

Rye Pale ale in the mash ATM:

- 1200g Wheat
- 1000g Rye
- 1100 Maris Otter
- 1000g Munich

As a hop bill going for magnum for bitterness (20g) @ 60, 28g EKG @ 30, 14g EKG @ 20, 14g EKG @ 10.

In 2 minds for yeast. I am tempted to use T-58, but have S-04 and nottingham.

Went to the brew room (/office/bar/spare bedroom) yesterday to see what I had knocking about to get a brew on. First time in there in about 6 or 8 weeks. A mini keg I had in there had swelled up & burst. Haven't a clue when. Manky stout everywhere.  ???

So spent my brew day scrubbing the place before SWMBO copped it. And moved a fridge & shelf unit around to hide the swollen floor  >:(

On the plus side I found a few beer kits I forgot I had so result! I'll throw them on over the next couple of weeks!

wat ya like ::)
u only check ur beer every month r 2...its my daily task after my coffee in the mornin...check up on all my babies...all 14 of them at present..
the gud news is I use cornies...they have pressure release valves ;D and my bottles are stored in the shed so i just hose down if i break a bottle... tell u wat hope the udder half dosnt find out...she must have a crap sense of smell as well that she didnt cop before u did :) :D

Quote from: Hop Bomb on September 16, 2013, 03:44:16 PM
Got a sneaky mash on this morning (doing tax return)

I would never ever mention some of the above words together!

And I dont mean "got doing on this a morning"

FFS: The Amererican CIA web po-liss will be onto the heds in revnew.oldsod in a twinkle of a bit-stream

Quote from: Covey on September 13, 2013, 05:43:05 PM
I dont know about the rest of you but i only get the chance to Brew on the weekends. This Sun i'll be trying my hand at my first  AG Octoberfest stlye lager. Anyone else brewing?

4Kg Pils Malt
1Kg Vienna
1kg Munich

25g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 60
25g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 30 (is this enough hops)

Well i had to leave this mashing for 5hrs (dont ask). Finally got it cooled down today in the Family fridge SWMBO is not impressed, i reckon that after Di-acetyl rest i will keg it for the rest of the conditioning. How log does it take a Lager yeast to ferment out 20 litres og 1.060

Planning to do the following this Friday night.

Recipe: Shannas Oatmeal Stout
Brewer: Shanna
Asst Brewer:
Style: Oatmeal Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 31.04 l
Post Boil Volume: 27.04 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 23.00 l   
Bottling Volume: 23.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG
Estimated Color: 70.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 40.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.1 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                                           Type          #        %/IBU         
3.50 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC)                 Grain         1        59.8 %       
0.80 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC)   Grain         2        13.7 %       
0.50 kg               Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC)                      Grain         3        8.5 %         
0.50 kg               Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC)                               Grain         4        8.5 %         
0.30 kg               Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC)                       Grain         5        5.1 %         
0.25 kg               Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC)                       Grain         6        4.3 %         
23.00 g               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop           7        30.2 IBUs     
35.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min                   Hop           8        9.0 IBUs     
1.22 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)                   Fining        9        -             
15.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min                     Hop           10       1.4 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) [124.21 ml Yeast         11       -             

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 5.85 kg
----------------------------
Name                       Description                        Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash In                    Add 17.76 l of water at 74.7 C     68.9 C        75 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (4.87l, 16.77l) of 75.6 C water

Cal Common wlp 810 San Fran lager yeast v Mangrove Jacks m54 Californian lager yeast, interestingly the white labs ferments 16-18, the MJ 18-20 degrees.  (http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160429/986fc3fa690f21f5bcc75c23b3b51738.jpg)

Interested to see how that turns out. Pils and special roast is a very different cal common to what I'm used too doing.

Doing the NCB Russian Imperial Stout this weekend myself. First big beer on the new kit!

I'm going to use brown. It's really to test this MJ everybody is raving about, I'm still to be convinced about dried yeast.

Downgrade your efficiency from 85 to 75 to hit your numbers with 1150 I have to go as low as 70 on 13 kgs of grain

Set my efficiency to 64 to be safe. Can dilute if it's too strong. Also going to try batch sparging just to really cock it up :D

Really keen to see those mangrove yeasts in action. From what I've read their low cell count so you need to use 2 packs for 1.050 beers, which makes them not that cheap...

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Dilute, I'm sure others will miss their numbers.

That's like the bry97, I'm using 1 on 22l for a 1050 and looking at the instructions on the back I should be well inside the limit, I'll know 8 hours in

What happens if ya pitch lager yeast in the warm .  Say 18 and cool it to 12 within a couple of hours.   W-34/70

Quote from: Motorbikeman on April 30, 2016, 06:00:11 PM
What happens if ya pitch lager yeast in the warm .  Say 18 and cool it to 12 within a couple of hours.   W-34/70

As long as 18 is in the yeasts happy range it shud be fine, although as i said in brewcon, follow rehydration and pitching guidlines from the yeast produces is a good start. Many recomend rehydrating warm circa 30c e.g lallemand munich, brewferm lager and mauribrew so check instructions. Mangrove says rehydrate 30_35c and 20_25c for their lager yeast

Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

Thanks. Should be OK then.    Hydrated too early  and was worried about waiting to pitch at 12.   

Another silly question. 

Would it be ok to dump another batch of  lager wort onto the slurry/yeast cake of a larger leaving primary?   very lazy I know.   

There's a theory with liquid yeasts that you do hot starters to max the yield fast, never been a fan myself and lager is a a fussy little bugger and is cruel in punishing from the smallest error or yeast stress, you probably got away with it though.
Not advisable to pitch on top of lager trub for the reasons above. You could have a go at cleaning it.
Lager yeast is also really slow taking off so instead of 4-8 hours can be 12-24 hours before it takes off so don't panic.
So you see Heino and Carlsb. aren't that easy to brew!

I've never understood why the big dogs all brew lager given it's not the easiest or quickest style to brew. At what point did people start loving lagers so much that they dominate the market? When I started drinking, I only drank them because they were what's there, not because I particularly enjoy them.

I've gone for an experimental one this weekend. Attempting a rushed sour beer. Only 5 litres so if it goes tits up I'll live with it.

I did my mash and sparge Friday, so had the wort in the kettle. I then added 2 teaspoons of glenillen live yoghurt to purposely infect the brew. Left it until last night, the Monday, there was a lot of activity, very funky smells. boiled it all for an hour to kill off the bacteria and put in a small amount of hops. Transferred to fermenter through a sieve to get rid of any yoghurt solids and pitched a mangrove jacks Belgian Ale yeast.

Very interested to see how it goes...

Quote from: BrewDorg on May 03, 2016, 10:19:20 AM
I've never understood why the big dogs all brew lager given it's not the easiest or quickest style to brew. At what point did people start loving lagers so much that they dominate the market?

Lager was the craft beer of the late 19th century... and with good reason, a well made lager is a thing of beauty. Gambrinus Waltz is a pretty good book on this.

As for the big boys they've plenty of short cuts (e.g. beechwood chips) that allow them to get product out the door faster.

Brewed up a Black IPA for the GEBB competition, tried a couple of tips I picked up at BrewCon.
I've left it a little late so here's hoping its good in time for the comp!

I brewed a pretty standardish cascade pale ale today but I'm trying kolsch yeast with it to see how it works out.

Brewed a slightly lower abv version of BrewDogs Elvis Juice today.
Loads of grapefruit and orange peel in the boil with mosaic, Simcoe, Citra and cascade (no Amarillo)
Smells amazing . Can't wait to get this one on tap.

Elvis Juice is great, let us know how it ends up.

Quote from: BrewDorg on May 03, 2016, 10:19:20 AM
I've never understood why the big dogs all brew lager given it's not the easiest or quickest style to brew. At what point did people start loving lagers so much that they dominate the market? When I started drinking, I only drank them because they were what's there, not because I particularly enjoy them.

"Why did lager beer become so popular? At the time lager yeast was discovered, most ale fermentations contained some wild yeast and bacteria and the resulting beer had a very short shelf life. Lager beer could be fermented cool, which suppressed the growth of wild yeast and bacteria. (Modern lager brewers tend to have problems with Pediococcus because of the slower fermentation, but they likely have less problems than pre-modern ale brewers.) Lager beer therefore had a longer shelf life, which meant greater distribution area and increased sales. Breweries probably began to switch to lager brewing to increase their sales."

From BYO's last issue.

Wasn't lager yeast the first to be isolated and also at the same time Louis Pasteur started doing the round, working on sanitation in the brewery?  Those events combined meant repeatability and longer shelf life, now that "the disease of beer" had been cured.

Quote from: nigel_c on May 04, 2016, 06:19:23 PM
Brewed a slightly lower abv version of BrewDogs Elvis Juice today.
Loads of grapefruit and orange peel in the boil with mosaic, Simcoe, Citra and cascade (no Amarillo)
Smells amazing . Can't wait to get this one on tap.

I'm dry hopping an IPA I used grapefruit and blood orange zest in the boil with nugget, simcoe, mosaic, summit and Columbus  hops. Will be kegging the weekend

Very interesting, it makes a lot of sense with that context.

Keeping with the thread topic, I'm going to brew my Irish stout this weekend. I've gone off the idea of souring the mash and I might toss some cocoa powder in the boil @ 10mins for some extra complexity. Not too much, 20g or so I'm thinking.

Quote from: molc on May 04, 2016, 10:24:57 PM
Wasn't lager yeast the first to be isolated and also at the same time Louis Pasteur started doing the round,

The word on the street was that he was paid by Mr. Carlslberg and hence the strain name Saccromycese Carlsbegensis.

Now, for the really sad (count me in) have a read here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_pastorianus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_pastorianus)

Quote from: Johnnycheech on May 04, 2016, 10:01:52 PM

"Why did lager beer become so popular? At the time lager yeast was discovered, most ale fermentations contained some wild yeast and bacteria and the resulting beer had a very short shelf life. Lager beer could be fermented cool, which suppressed the growth of wild yeast and bacteria. (Modern lager brewers tend to have problems with Pediococcus because of the slower fermentation, but they likely have less problems than pre-modern ale brewers.) Lager beer therefore had a longer shelf life, which meant greater distribution area and increased sales. Breweries probably began to switch to lager brewing to increase their sales."

Hmmm this doesn't make sense to me though.  At a time when beer was casked and transported as such lager would've been treated the same as other beers.  Also wild yeasts (and certainly brett) and bacteria were considered part of the character of beer at the time.  Strong bottled beer will keep for years/decades as well, so I'm confused as to why they put it down to spoilage.

Hansen is supposed to have named S. Pastorianus as Carlsbergensis but as he worked in the brewery there's no surprise there.  FYI the Carslberg strain came from Spaten.

Quote from: cruiscinlan on May 05, 2016, 08:46:14 AM
Hmmm this doesn't make sense to me though.  At a time when beer was casked and transported as such lager would've been treated the same as other beers.  Also wild yeasts (and certainly brett) and bacteria were considered part of the character of beer at the time.  Strong bottled beer will keep for years/decades as well, so I'm confused as to why they put it down to spoilage.

It makes perfect sense to me that in a time when it wasn't possible to keep a high level of sanitation, a beer that was fermented at a lower temperature to ale, and then subsequently lagered at an even lower temperature for an extended period would keep longer than ale. Maybe they are referring to local beer that wasn't transported. If this was the case the beer could be kept at lagering temps or cellar temps indefinitely, thereby increasing potential shelf life.

Who wrote that piece from BYO? Some of its writers are  fond of unsourced historical speculation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry the article is actually from 2004, thought it was this years. Anyway it's from some chap called Chris White, apparently he knows a thing or two about yeast  ;)

http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/460-choose-the-right-yeast-for-your-beer