Brewers Choice IPA - Pics

Want to experiment with additions and tweaks to beer kits? This is the place to post.
Chris The Fish

Post by Chris The Fish » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:41 pm

Russ wrote: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


Hmmm. i must admit, i was clock watching for the hour it takes to steep the bags so im not sure what would happen to the bags if you did the whole lot in one go.

Im no scientist but something about a dense fluid mixing into a less dense fluid is nagging at the back of my mind - cant for the life of me remember what the word for it is - long day at work and all that... im sure sheepy (fully signed up white coat wearing lab monkey) will be able to spread the knowledge.

and just to keep you info'd on the beer, it's currently 1030, blowing a hooley in the Fv and daddy is happy.
:D

ade1865

Post by ade1865 » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:44 pm

Got Brewers Choice Best going with 1Kg spraymalt. Its gone from 1040 to 1015 and appears to have stopped. Is this going to be alright as a final gravity?

Chris The Fish

Post by Chris The Fish » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:50 pm

mine has finished quite high also (dare i say too high?) at 1020, a taster out of the sample jar and there is no discernable sweetness and actually tastes quite good.

Ive given it a stir to get it going again, and i may even hit it with the packaged yeast just to make sure that all the fermentables have been eaten. Im not too fussed if i bottle at 1020 as it tastes ok.

if you want to get it lower then try giving it a stir to make sure youve used up all the sugars.

ade1865

Post by ade1865 » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:14 pm

Racked my Brewers Choice Best Bitter tonight. Quite surprised at how pale it was. also a little taken aback by the sample i had.Quite insipid. so I'm hoping it hasn't gone tats uup somewhere along the line. FG of 1015 from 1040, so i'm not expecting a ball breaker, but i am hoping it develops a bit of a bite during conditioning.

Chris The Fish

Post by Chris The Fish » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:09 pm

fingers crossed, a beer changes so much over the first few days in the bottle.

ade1865

Post by ade1865 » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:25 pm

wellthe Brewers Choice Best seems to be improving nicely. So far absolutely none of the 'homebrew tang' that may be a by product of using LME. So i'm thinking this is the way I'd like to go for a while, i.e. dry kits.

Now, In order to get a darker colour, would I use a darker spraymalt?

To get more bittereness I take it I could boil hops and add the water, and then the flavour and aroma hopping as desired?

What about the grain t-bag that comes with the kit. How do I improve/replace this? Just add some grains from a HB, or do they need to be treated 1st?

Basically I know I'm on the way to AG, but at the moment funds will not stretch to more brewing equipment. so I'm thinking of using dry kits as a way of experimenting before I can make the final step.

Do you think this is a reasonable way to go? Sort of extract brewing but without the wort boiling?

Is there anyhting wrong with my reasoning? (as opposed to my typing)

ade1865

Post by ade1865 » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:51 pm

would that cut out the need for spraymalt altogether? Would I still need to buy a Brewers choice kit and add the crystal malt and hops to it?

If I unserstand you correctly the whole process would consist of:

Steep crystal malt as per mini mash diections, in oven.

Drain off liquid and boil hops in it for 40mins?

Add further hops for 10 mins for flavour. Steep further for aroma.

Drain off liquid to get rid of hops. Resultant liquid into fermenter.

Add water to quantity reqd, (23L ish).

Now would I need to add sraymalt here. I'm thinking otherwise it would be a bit 'thin', or low OG.

Aerate and add yeast.



Or have I totally got hold of the wrong end of the fence post?

ade1865

Post by ade1865 » Tue Sep 11, 2007 5:00 pm

nice one, cheers Daab. think i shall pursue this line of thought :D

Russ

Post by Russ » Tue Sep 11, 2007 6:05 pm

Hi DaaB

I've done a few Brewers Choice kits (these have given me the best results to date)

From memory they already have some grain(?)- possibly crystal supplied in one of the tea bags as well as pelleted hops.

Will adding more grains as you suggest add more flavour? Reason I ask is the best one of these kits I made was the first -and I burst the Grain 'Tea Bag' :oops: when making the kit on the final steeping. I carried on regardless. The resulting beer was fantastic!! 8) lovley and fresh tasting but took an age to clear which I put down to my burst bag. I made a mental note not to bust the bag next time. The next two brews I've made (similar kits) have not been as good (but pretty good) as the first, in that they didn't have as much of that fresh grainy taste. This makes me think bursting that bag on the first may have released extra flavour from the grains -or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I understand adding more hops/ darker grains will change the flavour and colour. But I'm after a pale malty taste idealy like I got with my first effort so adding more crystal could be the way to go.

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CrownCap
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Post by CrownCap » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:12 pm

Bursting the bag probably resulted in more sugars being extracted from the grains - so yes, adding more of your own will probably add more flavour and body.

The hop tea bags supposedly contain pre-isomerised hops, that is hops that have had the alpha acids chemically changed to make the bitter flavour we want in our beer to balance the sweetness from the grains (this is achieved by a long boil in an AG brew).

If you want to add some of your own hops you will need to boil them (40mins +) to get a bittering effect (will drive off most of the flavour and aroma though), boil for perhaps 20mins to get the flavour (won't be long enough to get much bittering but will drive off the aroma) or steep for a while to get the aroma (no bittering, little flavour).

So a combination of grains and hops boiled and steeped gives you an almost endless scope to alter the basic kit characteristics :)
Next Up : Something for the summer
Primary : Nothing
Secondary / Conditioning : Nothing
Drinking : Mosaic IPA

Russ

Post by Russ » Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:13 pm

Thanks DaaB

Feel a grain purchase coming on......... trouble is I think it will lead to the purchase of a Boiler, building a CFC etc etc :wink:

booldawg

Post by booldawg » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:10 pm

Great pics! Good for someone like me who's first brew day is coming up at the end of this month. There's a fair few homebrew videos appearing on YouTube, amazing to see how many techniques there are out there!

ade1865

Post by ade1865 » Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:48 pm

20g of a quality aroma hop boiled for 10 mins will add a nice flavour to the beer. You can add a small handful once the boil is over and allow them to steep to get more aroma.
Will Goldings do the trick? Got some in the freezer. tho they were just in the cupboard for a few months :?

leigh1919

Post by leigh1919 » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:37 pm

nice post - really helpful as i am going to move from pure kits to this style of brewing this summer. nice work mate! :=P

scottish69

Post by scottish69 » Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:47 am

Im also doing this brew kit and wondered if you could give me advice on which priming sugar to use when im bottling at the weekend? It seems to suggest normal home sugar (sucrose?) but ive heard that glucose could be better.... any advice chaps?

I started it fermenting yesterday.

MY FIRST HOME BREW! AARRGGHH! PANIC!

:)

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