Brews

41. Kilkenny clone

Brewed on:5/5/07

2.3kg LDME
250g JW light crystal
70g JW roast barley
200g CSR Dark Brown Sugar
34g EKG for 70 mins
Safale S-04

40. Dad’s light

Brewed on: 25/4/07

As per Rob's light recipe, except I stuffed up the hops/corriander additions. Also did 100g carapils and 40g maltodextrin.

Ended up with: 10g corriander & 15g hersbrucker @ 45
10g corriander & 10g perle & 15g Hersbrucker @ 15
10g Hallertau @ flameout

39. Munich Dunkel

Brewd on 25/4/07

See recipe.

Rehydrated Saflager W34/70, pitched @ 22 degrees, then into the brew fridge, set to 12 degrees with the probe bluetaced to the outside of the fermenter.

38. Wassa’s Honey Porter

Same as usual, but with: 250g white clover honey instead of yellow box 10g cascade @10 mins 2g northern brewer @10 mins 5g perle at 5 mins

37. Non-alcoholic GB

Coopers kit, made up to 20L, primed with 230g of LDME.

36. Honey Porter (B&F)

Brewed on: 28/3/07 Same as previous, 12.5g cascade for 5 mins or so this time, in some of the DDME.

35. Hoegaarden clone (B&F)

Brewed on: 21/3/07

Made to Pixelboy's Wheat recipe.

Cooled with teatowel/fan method as has become my norm.

34. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale AE (B&F)

Brewed on: 21/3/07

Brewed as per AE recipe, but with only half the LLME during the boil. 5L of water or so added to boil. Cooled wort in pot with wet teatowels and a fan, added to fermenter with cold water already in it, topped up.

Used last 1056 starter out of the fridge, which had been fermented out once with a starter of 100g LDME/1L water. Then made a second starter with the slurry from the first, and pitched that after activity began after a few hours.

Total volume: 24L because I forgot to allow for the 1L starter.

Using a wet towel to keep the fermenter a few degrees below ambient, which is currently around 26°C.

33. Coopers Bitter

brewed on: 11/3/07 Coopers Bitter
1kg BE2
400g LDME
10g Goldings @ 5
10g Goldings @ flameout
kit yeast

32. Random Dark Ale brewed

Brewed on: 7/3/07

1 tin Coopers Pale Ale
450g LDME
250g WDME
500g DDME
150g Crystal, steeped
50g Choc, steeped
25g Goldings @ 20
10g Goldings @ flameout
1 sachet safale S-04

4.5L boil, can added at flameout
Cooled boil with wet teatowels and fan for a few hours, then topped up with cold to 23L.

31. Mountain Goat Hightail clone

Brewed on: 23/2/07
Kegged on: 6/3/07

30. English Special Bitter AG

brewed on: 11/2/07
racked on: 22/2/07

3.8kg JW ale malt
0.26kg JW light crystal (60)
2 sachets safale s-04
20g Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes
15g EK Goldings @ 30 minutes
15g EK Goldings @ 15 minutes
Rest1: 67 degrees for 1 hour

29. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale all extract

Brewed on: 4/2/07
Racked on: 11/2/07
Kegged on: 22/2/07

This is not one of my best brews technically, as I forgot the 450g of LDME and had to boil it up separately. Did about an eight litre boil, which hop schedule as specified. Cooled the wort using wet tea towels and a fan. Pitching temp around 26°C, pitched my second last starter of WYeast 1056, just the slurry with the starter liquid removed. Have it sitting in a bath of idophor solution with several small pet bottles of ice to keep the temp a bit lower. Topped to 23.5 to make up a bit for the hop debris and trub.

28. Wassa’s Honey Porter

Brewed on: 14/1/07
Racked on: 18/1/07
Kegged on: 24/1/07

White skin present again. Will thoroughly disinfect this fermenter before use again. This time, the infection affected the body, making it more transparent than ususal, also more bitter, due to the loss of malt-sweetness and body. Good thing I had the LAN so that I could get rid of the lot :). Fermenter has been completely sterilised by soaking in bleach solution for a week, with all rubber seals removed and soaked also.

Cascade Chocolate Mahoganny Porter
1kg DDME
500g White Clover Honey
17g Cascade @ about 2 mins

This one copped a bit of a heat-wave... 26-28°C throughout primary (hence the short primary). Secondary should be a little lower.

27. Rob’s Mild

Brewed on: 13/1/07
Bottled/kegged on: 18/1/07, to 19L corny.

1 1.5kg tin coopers light liquid malt
500g dry wheat malt
150g crystal
50g choc
5g POR (10.5%) @ 60
25g Saaz (3.4%) @ 30
15g Saaz (3.4%) @ 10
Recultured Coopers yeast

26. Some kinda lager thing

Brewed on: 7/1/07
Kegged on: 18/1/07, to 12L SS keg.

Coopers Lager
Coopers BE1
15g Hersbrucker @ 10
300g LDME
Coopers kit yeast

Boiled up the LDME in 2L water, added hops for 10 mins. Added the BE1 and kit can, returned to boil, added to aerated water in fermenter, topped to 23L, pitched yeast.

25. Ris’ Coopers Pale ale

Brewed on: 24/12/06
Racked on: 30/12/06
Bottled on: 7/1/07. White skin formed on secondary, possible infection. 160g dex.

Coopers Pale Ale
1kg LDME
150g Crystal
100g Carapils
12g Goldings @15

24. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale all extract

Brewed on: 23/12/06
Racked on: 30/12/06
Bottled on: 7/1/07. Half into 12L keg for force carbonation. Half into longnecks.

Same as 8. Stuffed up the boil times a bit; generally a bit too long. Added irish moss too late. Also used WYeast 1056.

Force carbed at 24°C, 200kpa, then added to fridge immediately. Serving pressure: 100kpa.

23. Rob’s light 2

Brewed on: 2/12/06
Bottled on: 18/12/06

Ingredients:

  • 1.5kg tin light liquid malt extract
  • 100g Carapils, cracked, steeped
  • 250 g Crystal Malt, cracked, steeped
  • 15g Golden Cluster hop pellets @ 45 minutes
  • 15g Hersbrucker hop pellets plus 10g cracked corriander seeds @ 15 minutes
  • 15g Hersbrucker hop pellets plus 10g cracked corriander seeds @ flameout
  • Saflager S-23 yeast (some clone actually, 15g sachet)
Method:
To 2L water, added the crystal, kept at 70° for 15 minutes, strained, squeezed, sparged. Brought to light boil, added hops and corriander as directed. Added tin of malt extract. Added to fermenter that had 15L cold water in it, topped up to 23L. Pitched yeast, put in kettle half filled with water, and draped a teatowel over it so that it will constantly suck up more water and cool the fermenter by evaporation. Then went on hike for 8 days, so I don't know what temp it fermented at. I think I'll leave it in primary for a few more days, then bottle, say next weekend.

This one is supposed to be for Christmas. I'm running out of time, hence the extended primary ferment in the hope of speeding the conditioning. I think all the grain will mean that it'll still be a bit shoddy that young. I'll probably take the remainder of brew number 9, along with this one, and hope that we don't get all the way through the number 9.

22. Apple Cider

1 blackrock cider kit
6L apple juice
2L pear juice
700g dextrose

Heated the juice, dextrose and kit to 100 degrees. Then added to some cold water in the fermenter, topped to 23L. Still way too hot so cooled overnight in sink of water with ice, and wrapped in wet teatowels. Pitched at 24 degrees.

Brewed on: 30/11/06
Bottled on: 23/12/06, 160g sucrose bulk primed

21. Rob’s pilsener

Brewed on: 20/11/06
Racked on: 2/12/06, 25g Saaz dry hopped
Bottled on: 22/12/06, 160g sucrose bulk primed

1 can coopers lager
1kg BE1
250g LDME
250g Dry Wheat Malt
20g Saaz @ 15 mins
20g Saaz @ 5 mins
Coopers liquid yeast slurry

22/11/06 Bah! Bloody hot days; I haven't been able to get this one below 24 degrees, so I reckon it's going to be shite! Anyway, I'll rack it and chuck in t nother 25g Saaz dry into secondary. Then we'll see if the heat wave wrecked my poor beer :(

20. Hoegaarden clone

Same as the previous one, except this time I let the wort boil over and burn all over the cooktop. The malt also managed to burn on the bottom of the pot. Guess that's what I get for fixing the big element on the stove... I'm too used to using the little ones. ;)

Brewed on: 8/11/06
Racked on: 12/11/06
Bottled on: 31/11/06

19. Sierra Nevada all grain

Brewed on: 5/11/06
Racked on: 12/11/06
Bottled on: 18/11/06

See recipe section for recipe. Used POR for bittering. Otherwise as per recipe, adjusted for the AA% in my hops vs the recipe.

18. Coopers Vintage

Brewed on: 5/11/06
Racked on: 12/11/06
Bottled on: 2/12/06

See recipe section for recipe.

Used 20g of Goldings. Maybe use Saaz next time?

17. Wassa’s Honey Porter

Same as number 4. This time I boiled everything up for a few minutes, then added to fermenter which was half full of cold. Once topped up, was 30 degrees, so I put in sink with ice to bring down a bit. Ended up pitching at like 28 anyway. Also this time I tried rehydrating the yeast instead of dry pitching.

Fermentation seems to be proceeding at 22, so a little high. Just have to see how it works out.

Racked 29/10/06, 20g cascade dry hopped, SG: 1.018

Bottled 5/11/06, SG: 1.012

16. Little Creatures Pale Ale All Grain

Based on this recipe.

OG @ 11.5 L: 1.058, then diluted to 15L, so it should be 1.044

Didn't have any Magnum, so used POR instead, adjusted for the lower AA. Also used slightly more Perle and Cascade because my AAs were down on those too.

Something like:
12g POR
11g Perle
20g Cascade
40g Cascade

Racked 29/10/06. SG: 1.009

Bottled 5/11/06. SG: 1.008

15. Mountain Goat Hightail

Brewed on: 8/10/06
  • 1.7kg Coopers Real Ale tin
  • 1kg Light dry malt extract
  • 100g Crystal malt (steeped for 20 minutes)
  • 75g sucrose and 25g maltodextrin
  • 17g Fuggles steeped for 10 mins with the LME and syrup from the crystal.
  • Yeast from a coopers lager (coopers ale yeast)
Bottled on: 22/10/06, SG: 1.010

14. Coopers Bitter

Same as number 7, this one might be for beer and freddos.

Brewed on: 4/10/06
Bottled on: 21/10/06, SG: 1.012

13. Hoegaarden Clone

Based on Pixelboy's wheat.

Brewed on: 24/9/06

SG 30/9/06: 1.020

Bottled on: 6/10/06, SG: 1.018

12. Coopers Sparkling Clone

Brewed on: 10/9/06 (yeast pitched on the 11th despite no action in the starter. No problem, the Coopers yeasts are voracious!)
Racked on: 17/9/06
Bottled on: 23/9/06

This is my first partial mash, derived from this recipe. The boil was only 45 minutes (because I had to pick up Clarissa from the airport and the mash took longer than expected) so I jacked up the bittering hops to 15g and added the liquid malt at the end to increase the AA utilisation during the boil. Also managed to pour a fair bit of the hot wort on the floor when transferring to the fermenter. Nice and sticky.

The mash was done in my 15L stock pot wrapped in towels. 2.25kg of grain with about 8 L of water at 66°C for 45 mins. Took me a while to get up to 66°C because my first water additions were at 66° when added to the grain, but the grain cooled the water considerably. So I had to top up with about 2L of boiling water from the kettle to get it back up. Then strained into _all_ of my other pots and pans... sparged with a couple of batches of hot water out of the kettle. 2L a pop, so I ended up with about 12 or 13L of wort.

Took a while to get it up to the boil, maybe 15 mins. Had to shorten the boil time because of picking up Ris from the airport, so added the LLME at the end. Otherwise the boil was conducted as per the recipe.

I don't have a wort chiller, so I added 5L of cold water to the fermenter, then added the hot wort on top, and topped it up to about 20L, and left overnight. That leaves space for the yeast starter, which I created using the dregs of 3 longnecks of Coopers Sparkling and a tbsp of LDME in 1 L water. Not much action in the airlock when I pitched it. I created the starter when I did the boil. Decided to pitch it anyway because the wort was warmer than the starter. No problem. Within 24 hours, there was some slow action in the airlock.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg Coopers light liquid malt extract
  • 2 kg Australian two-row ale malt
  • 250 gm. crystal malt (60° Lovibond)
  • 500 gm Belgian candi sugar (deep red)
  • 15 gm Pride of Ringwood pellet hops 45 minutes
  • 15 gm Pride of Ringwood pellet hops 15 minutes
  • 15 gm Pride of Ringwood pellet hops 2 minutes
  • 1/2 tablet Irish moss
  • Topped up to 23L

Numbers:
OG: 1.050 (yay, good yeild from my first mash!)
SG 17/9 (racking): 1.016

11. Wassa’s Honey Porter

Brewed on: 8/9/06
Racked on: 17/9/06
Bottled on: 24/9/06
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.012
See previous brew. Dry hopped with 20g Cascade into secondary instead of steeping in primary.

10. Simple Stout

Brewed on: 2/9/06
Racked on: 8/9/06
Bottled on: 10/9/06 (to make way for the Coopers Sparkling)

1 can Coopers Stout
1 can Coopers Dark Ale
250g Crystal Malt
200g Rolled Oats
10g Fuggles
90g dex and 30g of LDME for bulk priming

Steeped the malt and oats. Added the two tins to the fermenter, rinsed them out with some hot water. Steeped the (non-instant) rolled oats and crystal at 70°C for about 20 minutes, removed grain, brought to boil, added 10g Fuggles, boiled for a couple of minutes, added to fermenter, topped up to 23L with cold, pitched yeast at 25°C. Note for next time: the stout can is like tar. Dissolve in the boiling water before putting in the cold, because it's a bitch to dissolve it once it's all in the fermenter. Maybe add it to the boil, actually.

SG 8/9: 1.019

9. Rob’s Light

Brewed on: 27/8/06
Bottled on: 3/8/06

Ingredients:

  • 1.1 kg light dried malt extract
  • 150g maltodextrin
  • 250 g Crystal Malt, cracked, steeped
  • 10g Golden Cluster hop pellets @ 45 minutes
  • 15g Hersbrucker hop pellets plus 10g cracked corriander seeds @ 15 minutes
  • 15g Hersbrucker hop pellets plus 10g cracked corriander seeds @ flameout
  • Saflager S-23 yeast
Method:
To 2L water, added the crystal, keept at 70° for 15 minutes, strained, squeezed, sparged, added to malt, maltodextrin which had been dissolved in 3L water. Brought to light boil, added hops and corriander as directed. Added to fermenter that had 15L cold water in it, topped up to 23L, was 22°C or so. Pitched yeast, put in cupboard which is currently at 16°C so the temp should tend to this.

Numbers:
Original Gravity: 1.032
Specific Gravity 29/8/06: 1.014

8. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Brewed on: 18/8/06
Racked on: 25/8/06
Bottled on: 2/9/06

  • 3 kgs Coopers Light Malt Extract
  • 380 g Light Dry Malt Extract
  • 250 g 60°L (160°EBC) Crystal Malt
  • 115 g Carapils Malt
  • 1 tablet Irish Moss
  • 28 g Perle Pellet Hops (20 min)
  • 12 g Perle Pellet Hops (15 min)
  • 28 g Cascade Pellet Hops (2 min)
  • 28 g Cascade Pellet Hops (steeped)
  • Safale US-56 yeast

Method:

  1. Steeped Crystal and Crapils malts in 70°C brewing water (around 10L of water) for 15-20 minutes. Then removed.
  2. Mixed in Coopers Light Malt Extract, Light DME and 28g Perle hops. Brought to very light boil.
  3. Added 2nd addition of Perle hops and Irish Moss with 15 minutes remaining in boil. Added 1st addition of Cascade hops with 2 minutes remaining in boil. Added last addition of Cascades at end of boil.
  4. Cooled wort in the pot by adding ice, and draping wet teatowels over it for several hours. Transfered into fermenter. Topped up to 23 litres with cold, but the temp was still around 28°C, and Safale has a recommended range of 15-25°. So I left it for 9 more hours, then pitched the yeast at about 20°C

Numbers:
Starting Specific Gravity: 1.054
Specific gravity 25/8/06: 1.016
Specific gravity 29/8/06: 1.016
Specific gravity 2/9/06: 1.015

7. Coopers Bitter

Bog standard coopers bitter.

Brewed on: 11/8/06
Racked on: 16/8/06
Bottled on: 22/8/06

Ingredients:

  • Coopers Bitter kit
  • Coopers Brew Enhancer 2
  • Cascade hop pellets, 17g at 3 mins

Boiled 2 L water, added BE2, boiled for 5 mins, added cascade hop pellets, boiled for 3 mins, added lid. Cleaned fermenter, added the wort. Added Coopers Bitter kit can. Filled to 23L.

Numbers:
Starting Specific Gravity 11/8/06: 1.046
Racked 16/8/06, Specific Gravity: 1.015
Specific Gravity 19/8/06: 1.012
Specific Gravity 22/8/06: 1.012 (bottled)

6. Dogger’s Honey Maple

I've always wanted to do this one, but after Cat's party where everyone looooved it soooo much, it got moved up in the schedule. It doesn't even use one of the million kits that I stocked up on when they were $8 at the supermarket. And hey, after the failure of my Raspberry Lemonade, I need something to get my confidence back.

Date of brewing: 25/7/06
Date of bottling: 11/8/06

Ingredients:

  • 1 Coopers Canadian Blonde kit
  • 1kg light dry malt extract (instead of the liquid pale asked for in the recipe)
  • 250g Crystal Malt
  • 500g Clover Honey (from the market; thanks Cat)
  • 250g Maple Syrup. Expensive stuff this at like $7.50
  • 20g Cascade, 20 mins
  • 28g Saaz, 1 min

Method:

OK, I pretty much followed Dogger Dan's recipe and method, but I'll expand on my own mistakes here. I only have a small pot so the boil size was much smaller. Added the LDME to 2 or 3 L of water, boiled while I put the Crystal into a coffee plunger. It's a 1L coffee plunger and the 250g of Crystal fills it up 2/3 of the way. Added boiled water to the the Crystal, mixed, plunged, and added the resulting amber liquid to the boil. Repeated 4 or 5 times. Added the honey. After an hour of the boil (after which time enough water had evaporated for me to fit more stuff in the pot), I added the Cascade, and boiled for 20 minutes while I watched Miss Universe which Frosty had on on the TV and drank a couple of bottles of homebrew with him (numbers 2 and 3... 2 is still crap while I'm liking 3 more and more). After 20 mins, added the Saaz and maple syrup, boiled for 1 more minute, then took off the heat.

Tried to filter the wort into the fermenter through my square of cloth inside a sieve, but after 10 minutes of it slowly trickling through I removed the cloth and just used the sieve. It still caught most of the hops anyway. Added the cold water using my usual technique of pouring it out of a jug from a great height, through my sieve into the fermenter (to aerate it). Meanwhile in Miss Universe, the crowd favorite (and Frosty's and my Favorite), Japan was beaten for the title of miss universe by... Paraguay I think it was. The names that we had made up for her earlier in the competition were: "Freakshow" "Skeletor" and "Mars Attacks". Now we know that Miss Universe technically covers the whole universe, but come on, Japan was so cool and her samaurai national outfit was just soooo sexy. It's just wrong. I'm sad that Frosty was right in that they only ever give the title to "White or Olive people". It's not even like she'd be a bad ambassador, being able to speak French and English as well as Japanese. Fuck you, Donald Trump.

Anyway, I just got so caught up in the whole travesty of the affair. So I pitch the yeast fit the airlock (before putting the lid on so I don't lose the grommet in the wort again), and get ready to put the fermenter onto the footwarmer... and I have one of those "oh shit" moments. If you've been paying attention here, you might be able to work out what I neglected to add to the brew... yup the kit. So hehe I add the kit... brings it up to a bit less than 24L, no biggie. Stir the hell out of it using my food grade paddle, and that's it!

Numbers:
Specific gravity 25/7: 1.049 @ 18°C
Racked on 30/7. Specific gravity: 1.012 @ 18°C
Bottled on 11/8. Specific gravity: 1.007

5. Alcoholic Raspberry Lemonade

Well, in the hope that Clarissa might enjoy it, it's time for an alcoholic lemonade. This one's going to be dumped in the fermenter, then I'm going to go skiing for a week, so I hope it'll look after itself ;)

Date of brewing: 13/7/06
Date of bottling: 13/8/06

Ingredients:

  • 3kg lemons
  • 700g frozen raspberries, thawed
  • 2kg sucrose (because we don't have to worry about the fruity aftertaste!)
  • 1kg lactose
  • 5g yeast nutrient
  • Yeast sachet, taken from my Cascade Heritage Lager kit. Apparently it's a blend of lager and ale yeasts. Code: 011-06 PS.
  • 180g dextrose, for bulk prime
Method:

Make yeast starter out of some sucrose, the yeast nutrient and the yeast, using well aerated water.

Wash and juice lemons, grate rind off half skins, the other half of the skins chop up. Add lemon juice, skins and raspberries (mashed) to 2L water. Boil for 20 minutes. Strain into fermenter, add sugars, make up to 20L. Temp was 17 degrees C, so put it straight on the heat pad while the starter gets going. Once the starter kicks off, I'll pitch it.

This is a lot more work than a beer, primarily because of the preparation that the lemons need, with the grating of the rind and the juicing.

3kg lemons = 20 lemons = 1.2L juice.

Raspberries are RED!

Numbers:
Specific gravity at 13/7/06: 1.043
Specific gravity at 20/7/06: 1.050
Specific gravity at 24/7/06: 1.050
Specific gravity at 30/7/06: 1.030
Specific gravity at 13/7/06: 1.010

Comments:
Pitched kit yeast on 13/7/06. Not fermentation. Pitched a Coopers Bitter yeast a week or so later. No fermentation. Pitched a starter made from mixture of yeast slurry from a saflager S-23 brew and a Cascade ale brew. No fermentation. Pitched sparkling wine yeast EC-1118 10g on 24/7/06, which finally is fermenting :) Bulk primed with 180g dex and bottled into a mixture of softdrink bottles and lognecks with Frosty's help. He learned about not twisting twist top bottles clockwise to get them out of the capper! :)

4. Wassa’s Honey Porter

I just finished putting down brew number four, so I thought that while I watch some of the Tour, I'd give you all a rundown of this baby. Tell you what, it smells damn good. It might even be ready by the homebrew party, which will mean I'll have four different beers for you all to "enjoy". ;)

Date of brewing: 4/7/2006
Date of bottling: 15/7/2006

  • 1 can Cascade Chocolate Mahogany Porter
  • Cascade Bohemian Yeast 4299 from under the lid, whatever that is
  • 1kg Dark dry malt extract
  • 500gm of Yellowbox honey
  • 12.5gm Cascade hops (steeped in 4 tablespoons light malt)

Method:
Drank 1 pot of Coopers Red. Boiled the 4tbsp of light malt, then removed from heat and added the 12.5g Cascade hops, allowed to steep for 10 minutes, then strained into the fermenter. Softened and added the Cascade Chocolate Mahogony Porter can and the 1kg DDME along with 2L boiling water. Drank another pot of Coopers Red. Softened and added 500g of Yellow box honey. Drank another pot of Coopers Red. Filled the fermenter to 23L with cold water through a sieve (to aerate the cold water). Pitched yeast (at 19°C). Put lid on fermenter, tried to add airlock through the rubber grommet in the lid. Pushed the rubber grommet into the wort. Tried to find it with a seive, which helped to dissolve the yeast anyway. Didn't find it. Ran upstairs, removed shirt, washed arm vigorously under cold shower, splashing copious amounts of water onto jeans in the process. Stuck arm into wort and retrieved rubber grommet. Sealed up the fermenter. Poured last pot of Coopers Red. Sat down to write this up.

Numbers:
Specific Gravity 4/7/2006: 1.073 at 19.5°C (wtf?)
Specific Gravity 9/7/06: 1.019 at 18.5°C
Specific Gravity 12/7/06: 1.012 at ~19°C
Specific Gravity 13/7/06: 1.012 at ~18°C
Specific Gravity 15/7/06: 1.012 at ~18°C

Comments:
Can't wait for this one... Wassa's a gun! :D

27/7/06 I tried a bottle of the Honey porter the other day, and it definitely shows promise. A bit sweet, but after only a week in the bottle that's to be expected. I can already tell it's going to be one of those beers you drink slowly to appreciate the taste and mouthfeel. Oh, and it's a most glorious colour; when you hold it up to the light, it transitions all the way from the lightest yellow, through orange to deep brown. Gorgeous!

3. Cascade Heritage Lager with additional hops

I just started my third brew, a lager, in my brand-spanking new 30L fermenter.

Date of brewing: 15/6/2006

Date of bottling: 26/6/2006

Ingredients:

  • 1 1.7kg can Coopers Heritage Lager
  • 1 1.5kg can Coopers light malt
  • 1 25g sachet of Cluster Hop Pellets (AA 6.5%)
  • 1/2 25g sachet of Hersbrucker Hop Pellets (AA 3.1%)
  • 1 11.5g sachet Saflager S-23 lager/pilsner yeast (instead of the one that came with the kit)
  • 7 tablespoons dried light malt
  • Coopers/Brewcraft carbonation drops

Method:

Made up the yeast starter by boiling 500mL water with 4 tablespoons of dried malt. Allowed to cool to 25 degrees, pitched yeast, airlocked.

Boiled 2L of water with 3 tablespoons of malt. Added bittering hops (Cluster), boiled for 50 minutes. Added aroma hops (Hersbrucker), boiled for 10 minutes. Strained and re-boiled the hops mixture.

Added the coopers cans to 2L boiling water in the fermenter, added hops mixture, mixed it up. made up to 22.5L with cold. Put into cupboard where the temperature should be around 15 degrees for the lager fermentation. Watched family guy and American Dad.

Tomorrow, I'll add the yeast starter to the fermenter so long as the temperatures have stabilised properly.

Numbers:

  • Original Gravity: 1.042 at 25°C
  • Gravity at 21/6: 1.019 at 15°C
  • Gravity at 23/6: 1.012 at 15°C
  • Gravity at 24/6: 1.010 at 16°C
  • Gravity at 26/6: 1.011 at 17°C (bottled)
  • Temperature of Fermentation: ~15°C
  • IBU Estimate: Whatever the can was (probably ~21) + ~24 = ~45(!)
  • Alcohol By Volume Estimate: 4.3%
  • Wort Volume: 23L

Tasting:
9/7/06: Good head retention, good body, maybe a tad hoppy, but I reckon this one is going to be a real pearler once it's been aged and cold conditioned :)

2. Cascade Pale Ale

This is a bog standard Cascade Pale Ale.

Started: 9/6/2006
Bottled: 24/6/2006

Ingredients:

  • 1 Cascade Pale Ale
  • 1kg Coopers brewing sugar
  • Coopers carbonation drops

Method: Bog standard Kit and Kilo.

Numbers:
Wort Volume: 20L
Specific Gravity on 21/6: 1010@18°C
Specific Gravity on 22/6: 1010@18°C
Specific Gravity on 23/6: 1008@18°C
Specific Gravity on 23/6: 1007@17°C

Tasting notes:
6/7/06: Bah! This thing is strong on the homebrew flavours, low on the hops, and really is... well, basically, shit. Makes you feel a little sick to boot. I reckon this one's going into "age it as long as you can and hope it comes good" mode.

1. Cooper’s Pale Ale

This is a bog standard Coopers Pale Ale. My first brew!

Started: 3/6/2006
Bottled: 9/6/2006

Ingredients:

  • 1 Coopers Pale Ale
  • 1kg dextrose
  • Coopers carbonation drops

Method: Bog standard Kit and Kilo

Numbers: Wort Volume: 21L, some of which bubbled out the airlock.

Tasting:

It has a slightly green cast when you poor it into a glass, perfect for St. Patrick's day! :) It also certainly lives up to its name of "Coopers Green"... Slightly strange aftertaste which I'm guessing is because of the slightly high fermentation temperature, but you don't really notice after the first glass. Also slightly watery, probably due to the use of dextrose rather than malt.

Actually, it turns out that the green cast was there because of the green neon in Hayden's garage.

  
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