South Dublin Brewers - Next Meet - Thur 30th July

[Brewtus]

Many handy tips here re good brewing procedures. Just for the record I do temperature control my yeast starter (at 22°C as recommended by White & Zainasheff) mainly because otherwise heat from the stirrer motor sends it too high.

Now to get back on topic re the next meet. This will be my last so I'll put some money behind the bar for a tab.

1. Brewtus - APA, US IPA and maybe bottled barrel.

Note also that we are having a more family orientated going away event this Sunday afternoon from 3:00 pm to which you are all most welcome including partners and kids. Address is 3 Myrtle Avenue (south end of Royal Terrace), Dun Laoghaire. Above beers will be on tap and chance to check out my brewing set-up.

[Bubbles]

This will be my last so I'll put some money behind the bar for a tab.

Now that's how you guarantee a good crowd! 

Bruce, I don't think you should be putting your hand in your pocket! I'm sure there'll be a few pints coming your way to thank you for the great contribution you've made over the last couple of years.

For those NHC members who don't know Bruce, he won national medals in 2014 and 2015 and also had the enviable/unenviable task of judging sours and Belgians in the 2015 Nationals. A terrific bloke and a fine brewer whose vast brewing knowledge and quality beers will be sorely missed at the monthly meets in the Dark Horse.

Cheers to you Bruce, looking forward to your NHC send-off. Please keep in touch with us on the forum, and give us a shout for a pint when you come back to visit Ireland.

[Leann ull]

+1

[Bubbles]

One question how do you clean your bottles and do you clean them in one go.

Soz! Don't know how I missed this..

Very simple, I fill each bottle with hot water and then use a funnel to put a few granules of oxi into each one. Leave to bubble for 5 mins or so, then I use a bottle washer to give the bottles a little scrub. Rinse each bottle twice with hot water and drain. Then sanitise with StarSan.

I'm pretty fastidious about rinsing my bottles straight after they're drained though, so I rarely get much crud build-up in them. Though I do find that Belgian and English yeasts tend to leave a thin coating of residue in the bottles even if they're well rinsed.

[molc]

Interesting. I usually rince once I use a bottle, then filled the sink every weekend with oxi and hot water to leave them soak for 30 minutes. Follow that with a good shake and then 3 princes in hot water and store covered in a crate until I need to use them. On bottling day a quick blast of starsan on each bottle and off I go.

[Bubbles]

Do you keep a probe in your starter while it is growing on the stir plate? Do you temperature control your stir plate environment.

Nope, to both questions. My setup is pretty low-tech, and that's the way I like it. I just let the starter do it's thing, fermenting in the kitchen, keeping an eye out for kreusen, yeast dropping etc. I take the finishing gravity of the starter and monitor temperature if I have concerns about the viability of the yeast or the progress of the starter fermentation.

For priming, I microwave sugar in a small amount of kettle boiled water for 2 mins, then add while siphoning the beer into a bottling bucket. I'm working under the assumption that microwaves kill most bugs and the liquid is boiling by the end. Is this a bad idea and also I wonder could it be extended to making starters.

Not sure if it's a bad idea. I prefer to boil starters for the prescribed 10 mins - if the starter is going to be on a stir plate where the idea is to whip air into the wort, I want the wort to be completely bug free. 2 mins is good, but 10 mins is better..

[Bubbles]

Interesting. I usually rince once I use a bottle, then filled the sink every weekend with oxi and hot water to leave them soak for 30 minutes. Follow that with a good shake and then 3 princes in hot water and store covered in a crate until I need to use them. On bottling day a quick blast of starsan on each bottle and off I go.

If that's what works for you, cool. I'm more cautious, in that I only do the oxi deep cleaning and sanitisation directly before bottling. I do a lot of beers for aging, beers that I want to stand up in 1 or two years time, so I'm probably more cautious than most.

[molc]

Cheers. Food for thought.

Since this is meant to be the meetup post, just going to put it back on track

1. Bubbles  - Saison, Cider
2. Shanna - American IPA & Munich "Schlecht" lager
3. Molc - Sweet Porter, Cider
4. Brewtus - APA, US IPA and maybe bottled barrel.

[John_C]

1. Bubbles  - Saison, Cider
2. Shanna - American IPA & Munich "Schlecht" lager
3. Molc - Sweet Porter, Cider
4. Brewtus - APA, US IPA and maybe bottled barrel.
5. JohnC - Ordinary Bitter

I used the free Goldings from last month in the bitter and I reckon there's a stale taste off them. Has anyone else used them?
Yee can let me know what yee think on Thursday andyway but I'm tempted to dump them.

[CC]

1. Bubbles  - Saison, Cider
2. Shanna - American IPA & Munich "Schlecht" lager
3. Molc - Sweet Porter, Cider
4. Brewtus - APA, US IPA and maybe bottled barrel.
5. JohnC - Ordinary Bitter
6.CC- Pale Ale

New to the area and my first meet so looking forward to meeting you all.

[Bubbles]

Hi CC, you're very welcome.

[David]

1. Bubbles  - Saison, Cider
2. Shanna - American IPA & Munich "Schlecht" lager
3. Molc - Sweet Porter, Cider
4. Brewtus - APA, US IPA and maybe bottled barrel.
5. JohnC - Ordinary Bitter
6.CC- Pale Ale
7.David-Irish Red

[Shanna]

Hi CC, you're very welcome.

Ditto CC we are going to be toasting a departing member so it's timely that somebody new joins us.

Shanna

[molc]

Bubbles, can you bring along my perlick and bits that Lurch gave you last month? Cheers man.

[Bubbles]

What perlick..?