Shed!

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drjim
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Shed!

Post by drjim » Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:14 pm

We are planning a summer party which given I have a reputation as a brewer will require many gallons of beer. Having done a Nanny state clone yesterday, I set about 60ish Litres of Shed lager today. It's a basic Stella clone which goes down very well.

https://share.brewfather.app/Te8GxXOLZitijw

I've moved my wood fired boiler into what counts as a shed, in that it has a roof. So this is the perfect brew. The wood fired beast makes heating the water relatively easy (and free) but I need to have a better system for moving the water between things. I've been using a HERMS thing made with a 20L buffalo boiler, copper coil, plumbing valves etc and some 25L buckets to make the tun itself, but I'm probably going to get rid and just use a big blue plastic drum with false bottom and stop all this HERMS messing. I do conveniently have various height changes in teh back garden so can set up an HLT/Tun above the boiler, boiler being at right height for dropping into fermenter via the counterflow cooler.

I'll have to post some pics so it makes sense!

Anyway the beer came out at 1048 and I decided to go with Voss Kveik as I have it, and the stuff exiting the chiller is still 30ish degrees if I leave the tap wide open!

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MashBag
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Re: Shed!

Post by MashBag » Fri Jun 09, 2023 8:35 am

Sounds good. I do like your wood fired idea, I have a hottub, with an underwater wood burner. Very nice.

Voss Kveik. Hmm. Is this your first time?
I think the best advice I found was "run it warmer that the feel good about, and it will show its true character."

Looking forward to your feedback and pictures.

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:43 am

I use a copper coil in the boiler if I need to heat the hot tub, but the solar circuit (hosepipe on shed roof with a pump) gets it to 32 degrees anyway.

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Wed Jul 26, 2023 9:53 pm

So the beer is lovely and clear, fg 1.006 for abv 4.9%. It has a slightly odd yeasty sour aftertaste, it's clear the voss doesn't work in this style. If there was a big load of malty taste it would go.

It's very well hidden by a dash of lime though, if only the sun would come out!

Experimentation and not to be repeated. Another batch in the shed at the moment using Crossmyloof Kolsch yeast and the near perfect Mancunian summer temperatures should be more normal. Have a couple of kegs of this stuff to get through first though!

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MashBag
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Re: Shed!

Post by MashBag » Fri Jul 28, 2023 8:52 am

I'm sorry to hear that, but not totally surprised.
Pretty much what I got from kveik.

My experiment was for hot summers. After my kveik fail, I built a simple & cheap chiller instead and now we seem to have October in the middle of the year 😜

I hope you get some sunshine for the party. 🙏

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Fri Jul 28, 2023 9:54 am

My last Kveik experiment was a last minute Christmas dark beer with ginger/spice and loads of choc/dark crystal malt that was really nice. I would say "unlike" this one!

Party is off, my Dad took ill and died in June and dealing with the contents of his house and all the financial stuff is taking all my time. I think it'll be a Christmas party if at all!

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MashBag
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Re: Shed!

Post by MashBag » Sat Jul 29, 2023 10:24 am

Sorry to hear that. That is a big job, pestered my father to get his will done. Makes a difference.

Good luck chap.

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Tue Nov 07, 2023 8:22 pm

An update...

I found a keg of this in the shed, been sat there all summer. I had banged some CO2 in before abandoning it. Chilled down and on tap and it's actually not bad, slight yeasty taste but it is recognsable as lager. If only I had got it chilled down for the last few months instead of just now. It was fairly madly carbed up when I went to the keg, well over 50 psi so I suspect the Kveik kept going for a while after I thought it had finished.

The second batch made with Kolsch yeast is perfectly nice, although also got neglected after my Dad died, in a 50L keg and I just chucked some sugar in to carb it. Has a rough edge to it, which wasn't there out of the fermenter. Again if only I'd chilled it back then.

Lastly I had a keg of my VB clone, which was similarly dumped in keg and abandoned, that tastes of apples and although not awful I think I'll bin it.

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Sat Nov 11, 2023 12:35 am

After a few days at low temp in my bar fridge this stuff is actually all perfectly palatable. Just comparing the kveik and kolsch versions. The kveik version is slightly darker and has more body, the kolsch is just a lager thing. A dose of late or dry hops would have changed them, but so would chilling from an earlier stage.

Tomorrow I'll see what has happened with the apple flavoured VB and either bin it or drink it!

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MashBag
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Re: Shed!

Post by MashBag » Sat Nov 11, 2023 8:39 am

I have a corny with a wherry kit in it. Been lurking about for years. 🤔🤔🤔

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Mon Jan 29, 2024 7:10 pm

I've just poured a pint of this, no idea how much is left in the keg, it's been sat abandoned in the fridge at the back of the bar shed. I cleaned the lines through around Christmas but the weather being standard UK, not been out to the shed for a beverage since.

This beer is showing as 230 days old in brewfather. I started it fermenting on 2nd June 2023, just before my Dad died so it was left in the shed fermenting for ages and hurriedly stuck in keg....

Today 5520 hours later, It's perfectly nice with a slight yeasty taste to it but completely different to when I tasted it previously. If I bought this in a pub I would be perfectly happy with it!

Time and cold weather has probably done the job.

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MashBag
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Re: Shed!

Post by MashBag » Tue Jan 30, 2024 1:01 pm

Oh gawd. I better try mine... Yikes

drjim
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Re: Shed!

Post by drjim » Tue Jan 30, 2024 8:02 pm

I suppose I've actually lagered it! Have to see what the other two equally aged lagers taste like.

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MashBag
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Re: Shed!

Post by MashBag » Wed Jan 31, 2024 9:35 am

I dread to think how old mine is, 10 years at a guess.

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