Brewers Choice IPA - Pics

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Chris The Fish

Brewers Choice IPA - Pics

Post by Chris The Fish » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:16 pm

Ive finally bottled my Wheat beer, leaving the way clear for my next brew, a most looked forward to Brewers Choice IPA. As its a bit different from the normal kits i decided to get the camera out and share my brew night with all!

First of all, the stars of the show.
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from left to right - 2x Bags of Grains (Roasted and Crystal i believe) and 3x bags of hop pellets, then the mother of all bags of Spraymalt, Yeast Vit, Safale 04 finally choice 3 - 1.6kg of LME.

Then to rehydrate the yeast, i dont do the starters thing, i just rehydrate as i find this is adequate prep for dried yeast.
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Sterilisation, ive already sterilised some bits prior to this stage (jar for the yeast, sieve etc)
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Warming the LME to aid pouring
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Then the first of 3x 20min steepings of the teabags, i feel like a right proper AG brewer! (well, sort of :lol: )
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Adding the juice!
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The bags after the steep stages, they puff up quite full.
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Then add the half tonne of spray malt - there was absolutly no clumping! :^o - id normally add spraymalt to a pan of hot water and raise the temp, however the instructions tell you to stick it in the Fv straight so i did, it is quite dry afterall and if any nasties survive a dessicated environment then fair play to them!
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Then the LME
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(my missus tried to get arty on this shot!)

give it a whirl to mix
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Then add water to make it up to 20l (it says 23l but im leaving a space for the yeasty growth)
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Amazingly, for the first time ever, the SG is spot on!
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then pitch the yeast, sit back, light your pipe, and admire your handywork!
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This is the first time ive done a BC kit so i found it quite entertaining, id recommend it to anyone.

I did the IPA, and it smelt lovely in the pot as the grains sweated away with the fragrant hops - needless to say, i cant wait to get my laughing tackle round this!

Orkney_Rob

Post by Orkney_Rob » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:45 pm

Fantasic - I have been fancying giving one of these a try for a while! I shall add one to the next order, after the current brupack goes in to ferment!

But I have to drink a fair bit of beer before that - need to empty one of the kegs first!!!

Chris The Fish

Post by Chris The Fish » Mon Aug 13, 2007 10:48 pm

Orkney_Rob wrote: But I have to drink a fair bit of beer before that!!!
Damn Shame :lol:

One of the drawbacks of our bless'ed hobby.

Get drinking!

prodigal2

Post by prodigal2 » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:00 pm

DaaB wrote:Quality shots...there's been some great photo documentations of the brewing process recently. The bar is well and truly raised :D

Great work CtF 8)
Quite so DaaB
nice one Chris Image

Vossy1

Post by Vossy1 » Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:10 am

Excellent CTF 8)

PGSteamer

Post by PGSteamer » Tue Aug 14, 2007 2:36 am

Very nice pics.

Any thought's of doing a J_P and brewing outside under the gazebo in the future?

itmustbemagic

Post by itmustbemagic » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:07 am

Great pics really helpfull for those going to give that brand of kit a try. Nice one!

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CrownCap
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Post by CrownCap » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:18 am

Great pics there Mr Fish :D

I did a Brewers Choice Old Ale recently and was also surprised how easily that huge amount of spray malt actually mixed in without clumping. And all those lovely hop and grain bags are great. Definitely the king of kits. :flip:
Next Up : Something for the summer
Primary : Nothing
Secondary / Conditioning : Nothing
Drinking : Mosaic IPA

Sheepy

Post by Sheepy » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:07 pm

Its not fair, I want a cooker so I can make beer again :cry:

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CrownCap
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Post by CrownCap » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:15 pm

Why do you need a cooker Sheepy? You can make up a kit such as this with just a kettle to supply the hot water. No boiling is required.
Next Up : Something for the summer
Primary : Nothing
Secondary / Conditioning : Nothing
Drinking : Mosaic IPA

Sheepy

Post by Sheepy » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:20 pm

I like to warm through my spray malt to help it disolve, also the next brew is going to be a wheat beer with goldings and saaz hops and orange peel which i want to give a boil before chucking in the fv. Its a good job i have lots of beer kicking around or Currys would be a pile of smoking rubble by now :D

delboy

Post by delboy » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:36 pm

Looking at the ingredients of these kits, steeping grains, hops, DME, good yeast im pretty sure they must produce awesome beer, be sure and let us know what you think of it compared to the typical woodfordes/muntons.

Russ

Post by Russ » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:24 pm

I've done a few of these type of kits now, they have all been the Best Bitter variety(cheapest in the range) I must say they have been great, better than any of my two can kits to date 8) . I've just ordered the Premium Bitter, just to see how good that's gonna be.
I've only made mine up using 1kg of Spraymalt (as Clive at Brupacks reccomendation for the best result) not LME.

Think I'll be doing more of these in the future....... until I get onto extract brewing........

Cheers

Russ

Post by Russ » Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:43 pm

BTW while were talking these kits.... :idea:

Any reason why you couldn't boil 6 litres of water in a big pan, chuck in the bags and allow it to steep for 1 hour instead of doing it in 3 x 20 min lots as per instructions?

It would be simpler imo to do it this way. (not that there hard to do anyway)

Cheers

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CrownCap
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Post by CrownCap » Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:36 pm

Russ wrote:Any reason why you couldn't boil 6 litres of water in a big pan, chuck in the bags and allow it to steep for 1 hour instead of doing it in 3 x 20 min lots as per instructions?
I guess they assume you haven't got a suitable 6L+ pot. Plus you're adding fresh boiling water every 20mins their way so that might increase the degree of extraction. Just a guess mind you :unsure:
Next Up : Something for the summer
Primary : Nothing
Secondary / Conditioning : Nothing
Drinking : Mosaic IPA

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