Beer thread
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@nzzp said in Beer thread:
@roninwc looks hazy as fark, good stuff
Thanks @nzzp and you might appreciated this given your own background with home brewing...
After brewing the above FWK, I've now moved into "All Grain" brewing. What an adventure this has been and I have to say, I love it. I've now completed 2 All Grain brew days using the Brew in a Bag (BIAB), no sparge and no chill method.
That is, using a 19l stock pot, a large paint strainer from Bunnings for the bag and a hot wort cube, I've so far completed a NEIPA and Hazy IPA. I am using tried and tested recipes sourced from YouTubers (BrewTubers as they call themselves) and adjusting for the size of the Droid being 10l.
BrewFather has helped immensely in this regard, not just for scaling and adjusting a recipe but for things like getting the right water profile using brewing salts and pH levels.
The pictures below are from my first all grain brew day. Brewing a NEIPA using almost all New Zealand sourced ingredients. All NZ hops, Motueka, Rakau and Rawaka and a 3.6 kg total Grain Bill almost all of which were NZ grains from Gladfield:
1.3 kg Gladfield American Ale Malt
1.3 kg Thomas Fawcett Golden Promise Pale Malt
0.3 kg Gladfield Big-O Malted Oats
0.3 kg Gladfield Wheat Malt
0.2 kg Gladfield Gladiator Malt (carapils)The only non-NZ ingredients are the Golden Promise Pale Malt from Thomas Fawcett in the UK, the yeast is from Canada, Lallemand LalBrew Voss Kveik Yeast and the water is from Aus.
Because of the Voss Kveik yeast, this finished fermenting in 4 days, followed by a 2 day dry hop and 2 day cold crash. Was in a keg 8 days from pitching the yeast which is excellent. Has now been in a keg in the kegerator since Tuesday. Should be well carbonated now and will have my first taste tomorrow.
Also, for those interested, Starting Gravity (SG) was 1.082 and Final Gravity (FG) was 1.021 = 8.01% ABV which is technically a Double NEIPA
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@roninwc nice work! I've been playing around with BIAB on the stovetop -it's just so easy and you can clean most things by sticking in teh dishwasher.
I pointed some mates this way too; half size batches, but plenty for one person. And very low on tools/gear.
I've got a spare food grade bucket, so have been dropping teh grain in there on an inclined sieve - just lets it drain easily. I found the bag I had wanted to slump too much; yours looks much more compact. Don't be afraid to squeeze (and beware the hot wort obviously).
Are you mashing in the oven? How are you finding the hot wort cube? I just bunged mine in the sink with cold water, and got it cool enough to transfer to my freezer quickly.
Good fun
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One of the better paddles
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@nzzp said in Beer thread:
@roninwc nice work! I've been playing around with BIAB on the stovetop -it's just so easy and you can clean most things by sticking in teh dishwasher.
I pointed some mates this way too; half size batches, but plenty for one person. And very low on tools/gear.
I've got a spare food grade bucket, so have been dropping teh grain in there on an inclined sieve - just lets it drain easily. I found the bag I had wanted to slump too much; yours looks much more compact. Don't be afraid to squeeze (and beware the hot wort obviously).
Are you mashing in the oven? How are you finding the hot wort cube? I just bunged mine in the sink with cold water, and got it cool enough to transfer to my freezer quickly.
Good fun
Yes, I give the bag a good squeeze but not enough for this first go so I ended up a little short on my wort so had to top it up with more RO water going into the cube.
Your method to use a good sized food grade bucket to capture the wort draining from the bag sounds like a great idea. I squeeze as much as I can sitting over the stock pot whilst I bring it to a boil then put it over a smaller pot to capture as much as I can of that sweet sweet wort and all it's sugar goodness
I'm not mashing in the oven but on the gas stove top which works really well for me. I do wrap the pot in 6-7 towels to keep the desired temp during the mash and that does the trick.
For my 2nd all grain BIAB, which was just this past Sunday, I did a step mash for the first time, that was due to the % of adjuncts used, namely the oats and wheat, being more than 25% of the grain bill.
So the mash was at 67°C for one hour, then raised the temp to 77°C for another 10-15 minutes.
Are you whirlpooling for your hop additions?
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@roninwc said in Beer thread:
Are you whirlpooling for your hop additions?
I do in my big pot (114L) with a pump - but not on my stovetop. Honestly, not sure it makes a huge difference to taste; the nice thing is that it collects trub and junk in a cone at the bottom of the pot, so it doesn't go to the fermenter. But even that's a 'nice to have' not making a big difference either!
Brewing is pretty tolerant
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As promised, it's only 3 days in the keg post fermentation but...
I present to you my very first All Grain in the Droid, a Double NEIPA (@8.1% ABV)
From grain to glass, this was all mine and couldn't be happier with how its turned out for my very first All Grain brew with my now deceased Droid (it completely died this morning mid fermenting my 2nd all grain, this time a Hazy IPA).
The colour, haze and mouth feel are absolutely spot on for a NEIPA.
The taste is there, just a bit green as I said, it's only been 3 days in the keg out of the Droid but another week or two, and this should be perfect.
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@roninwc said in Beer thread:
As promised, it's only 3 days in the keg post fermentation but...
I present to you my very first All Grain in the Droid, a Double NEIPA (@8.1% ABV)
From grain to glass, this was all mine and couldn't be happier with how its turned out for my very first All Grain brew with my now deceased Droid (it completely died this morning mid fermenting my 2nd all grain, this time a Hazy IPA).
The colour, haze and mouth feel are absolutely spot on for a NEIPA.
The taste is there, just a bit green as I said, it's only been 3 days in the keg out of the Droid but another week or two, and this should be perfect.
Amazing colour difference in those shots. Both look awesome.
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@voodoo said in Beer thread:
@roninwc said in Beer thread:
As promised, it's only 3 days in the keg post fermentation but...
I present to you my very first All Grain in the Droid, a Double NEIPA (@8.1% ABV)
From grain to glass, this was all mine and couldn't be happier with how its turned out for my very first All Grain brew with my now deceased Droid (it completely died this morning mid fermenting my 2nd all grain, this time a Hazy IPA).
The colour, haze and mouth feel are absolutely spot on for a NEIPA.
The taste is there, just a bit green as I said, it's only been 3 days in the keg out of the Droid but another week or two, and this should be perfect.
Amazing colour difference in those shots. Both look awesome.
Yeah, it is litterally the same Beer, the first pic outside and the second inside but I had a few sips ,(okay, to be honest I drank half of it then topped it up) and the second pic is inside.
The only difference is the lighting but crazy how it looks different depending on the direction and diffusion of the light source.
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Continuing on my Hazy deep dive.
Parrotdog Yellowhammer Hazy Pale Ale - I much prefer their Birdseye
Garage Project Ghost Light Hazy IPA
Bach Brewing Hazy AF Pale Ale
Urbanaut Hazy Mixed Six Pack - contains some interesting beers (Hazy NZ Pale Ale 4.6%, Hazy Red IPA 5.4%, Hokey Pokey Hazy IPA 5.8%, Belgian Hazy IPA 6.0%, Nectarine Brut Hazy IPA 6.6%, Mosaic Hazy Double IPA 7.2%) -
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Nice effort @Bovidae, those are some damn good beers there. Haven't tried them all but looking forward to getting into my NZ beers in August during my next trip back home.
In terms of my own recent brewing efforts, had my best mate from Melbourne visit at the end of last Month. So went mad brewing my own beers in preparation and got 3 done for his arrival on Tuesday 29 March on top of my first All Grain NEIPA as pictured above.
Annoyingly, my BeerDroid died half way thru the first of the 3 new beers I had planned. So I let that one finish fermenting at room temperature in the deceased Droid and tested regularly with my hydrometer as to when to Dry Hop and then when it was done, i.e. a stable unchanged gravity for 2/3 days.
In the meantime, I had been in contact with BrewArt (Coopers) to see what to do next. Their advice was to return it to them, reply paid, but unfortunately, due to supply issues from China, there wasn't a spare Droid for me until the end of April. After a number of expletives, I had to come up with work around and in the end, I purchased a Kegland FermZilla Conical (Gen. 2.1) which had just come down in price as the new FermZilla Gen 3 was just released so for less than $100 delivered, I got a whole new fermentation vessel. Also picked up the jacket for it as well as an Integrated Gauge BlowTie Kit for fermenting under pressure.
So ended up getting all 3 new beers done in time for my mate's arrival on Tuesday 29 March.
To welcome him, I had 4 All Grain beers all lined up in the kegerator:
5l of All Grain No 1. Double NEIPA 8.1% ABV (pictured above)
8l of All Grain No 2. 3M Hazy IPA 7.1% (3M for the use of Mosaic, Motueka and Moutere hops)
10l of All Grain No 3. DH2.0 NEIPA 8.0% (DH for David Health, a legend in the Home Brewing community on FB and YT and this was his recipe but modified for my tastes, this used Amarillo, Galaxy and Idaho 7 hops)
10l of All Grain No 4. Dan's Hazy IPA @ 7.88% (Dan, the name of my best mate from Melbourne and this was a single hop Hazy IPA using only Nelson Sauvin hops)I should note that the last beer, Dan's Hazy IPA was a fast and I mean very fast brew, from Grain to Glass in 5 days, the 5th day being Dan's arrival.
I was able to do it in 5 days, which includes 2 days in the keg to get cold and carbonated, because I used a Kveik yeast from Lellamand, Voss Kveik and fermented at 10 psi. Kveik yeasts are famous for their quick fermentation times so from pitching to hitting the expected Final Gravity was 3 days, which is just nuts.
This is it at 5 days and it drank bloody amazing...
And here are the 3 beers side by side, from left to right, 3M Hazy, DH2.0 NEIPA and Dan's Hazy.
Everyone of them bloody awesome but my mates favourite was AG No. 1 the Double NEIPA followed by No. 4, Dan's Hazy IPA. He couldn't decide between 2 and 3 and called it evens.
For me, my favourite was also Dan's Hazy followed closely by No.'s 2 and 3 and couldn't decide between them as it would change every tasting session so again called it evens. To be honest, my first All Grain, the Double NEIPA, was to my tastes, no where near as good as the other 3.
As you would imagine, there was a lot of tasting sessions in the 4 days he was here with me and another great mate joined in on the first night. During his visit, we finished the 5l of the Double NEIPA, finished the 8l of the 3M Hazy and left about 2l each of the DH2.0 NEIPA and Dan's Hazy. I guess that happens when you wake up at about 9 am each morning and have a breakfast beer or 3 starting at 10 am.
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i'm not old, but i'm old enough to remember a time where, if you presented your mates with a beer that looked like fluffy mango juice, you ran the very real risk of a punch in the face, or at the very least an enormous amount of heckle (probably a gay joke).
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@mariner4life you're old
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@nzzp said in Beer thread:
@mariner4life you're old
fuck off!
and take your tropical fruit punch with you nancy!(i fucking love hazys)
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@RoninWC my first ever home brew (circa 1992) was ahead of its time, as it looked so much like those in your pictures...I can honestly say mine would not have tasted as good as yours, but ours got us so drunk we were using the sediment to wash our hair in the pissing rain while camping!
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My local has some of the new season Fresh Hops so I have been forced to try a couple.
Pick for me has been hop Federations Green Limousine. Nice long finish. Stone fruits with a hint of Citrus
Next Garage Projects Mecha Hop Centennial Singularity Quite complex and a contrast in flavour to the other two which is probably why it stood out from
Epics haze Fever. Apparently these Riwaka were in the tank in Auckland less than eight hours after being picked. Not as hazy as the GP.
I wouldn't go out of my way for a green experience but a tasting sess once a year was very pleasant. I'd definitely drink more of the Green Limo. Landlord has one tucked away that he's going to keep for a while. Be interested to try that again.
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@dogmeat said in Beer thread:
My local has some of the new season Fresh Hops so I have been forced to try a couple.
Pick for me has been hop Federations Green Limousine. Nice long finish. Stone fruits with a hint of Citrus
Next Garage Projects Mecha Hop Centennial Singularity Quite complex and a contrast in flavour to the other two which is probably why it stood out from
Epics haze Fever. Apparently these Riwaka were in the tank in Auckland less than eight hours after being picked. Not as hazy as the GP.
I wouldn't go out of my way for a green experience but a tasting sess once a year was very pleasant. I'd definitely drink more of the Green Limo. Landlord has one tucked away that he's going to keep for a while. Be interested to try that again.
@dogmeat , it certainly is fresh hop season at the moment. Seeing plenty of posts in the FB brewing groups I belong to.
I'd be keen to give it a go one day but boy, the amount of fresh hop needed is nuts and you need very large brewery vessel. Certainly wouldn't work in
Speaking of which, over the Easter Long weekend, I picked up a second hand electric brewery system, a Nano 36l Brew in a Basket by Cheeky Peak Brewing.
Will use it for the first time this weekend doing a West Coast IIPA, can't wait to try it. Funnily enough, I'll be able to brew larger volumes with this but the WCIIPA will only be 11 litres to go into my new replacement droid. I thought it best to start with something smaller.
After the WCIIPA I have two big Hazies/NEIPAs ready to go, one with a 7.1 kg grain bill which will fill up the Grain Basket and really test the system.
