B_D's next brew - suggestions please!

PieOPah · Post by **PieOPah** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 2:57 pm

If you still have the bottles, one thing I have started to do is bottle up 4 pints of EVERY brew. I have put a code on each cap which tells me what the beer is and when it was bottled. This info is put into a spreadsheet with info on the brew.

The idea is to get a collection of different beers which will all have had time to mature. When I have enough I am going to invite a bunch of mates round and have a beer night. It may take a year or so, but hey it will be fun drinking them

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 12:15 pm

Brewing today

The homebrew shop neglected to send some irish moss. Can I do without, or do I need to go to my local rip off merchant, I mean homebrew shop, and get some?

PieOPah · Post by **PieOPah** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:01 pm

Irish Moss isn't necessary, only useful. You could do without but if it isn't too expensive from your LHBS then you may as well get some

eskimobob · Post by **eskimobob** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:06 pm

bitter_dave wrote:Can I do without

I've forgotten to put it in on occaisions and not noticed a huge difference.

BitterTed · Post by **BitterTed** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:41 pm

Agreed, irish moss isn't necessary. All that will happen is it'll take a tad longer to clarify, maybe a day or 2 more, if at all.

RabMaxwell · Post by **RabMaxwell** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:29 pm

Stopped using Irish Moss years ago & my beers clear well one less thing to worry about.I have just spent hours vacuum packing 10 kg of new hops.Only just managed to cram them all in to my freezer.Their's no room left for food don't tell the wife. Cheers

DRB · Post by **DRB** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:02 pm

BitterTed · Post by **BitterTed** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 8:18 pm

RabMaxwell wrote:Stopped using Irish Moss years ago & my beers clear well one less thing to worry about.I have just spent hours vacuum packing 10 kg of new hops.Only just managed to cram them all in to my freezer.Their's no room left for food don't tell the wife. Cheers

Just remind her that beer is food!!

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:54 am

I've just barreled me american style ale

It had been in secondary for 11 days, but was really murky - is this normal? I'm probably used to using safale 04 and Harvey's yeast, from which i've had clear beer out of the primary fermentation. (I used US 56 this time). I therefore added gelatine finings to the barrel, ala Jim's method, to hopefully clear it up a bit.

I dry hopped with 20g of Cascades (just chucked in the barrel).

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:06 pm

Yeah US-56 takes a good 2 or 3 weeks to flocculate out of suspension after fermentation. In return you get a well attenuated brew.

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:02 am

This apa style beer is mighty fine - I'm drinking it now and it has a great hop flavour

I've just got back from the pub, so my tastebuds are not on top form, but I still think I can spot a good beer when I have one

Thanks for the input on the recipe guys, and hOppy new year

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:41 pm

I'm rather disapointed with this beer; Early tastes out of the barrel revealed a really nice hop flavour (see above), but this has lessened over time - the first time this happened to me. It's quite drinkable, but the hop flavour is just very marginal. What could have caused this lessening of hop flavour? Could it be...
.. the fact that it has been kept in the outhouse - could the cold have killed the hop flavour? Unlikely, as another beer didn't seem affected?
... I added gelatine to the barrel ala Jim - which I've never done before - added the beer then dry hopped. Any clues?
... anything else?

To recap the recipe was as follows

5 kg Marris Otter
0.3 kg Crystal
0.25 kg Carapils

48 g Perle (90 mins; 31 IBUs)
28 g Cascade (20 mins; 2.7 IBUs)
56 g Cascade (0 mins; 0 IBUs)
20 g Cascade (dry hop; 0 IBUS)

OG 1045 IBUs 33.4

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:59 pm

DaaB wrote:Perhaps you ought to start drinking heavily incase the flavour dissappears further

I'm doing my best

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:30 pm

Were the Cascades fresh

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:01 pm

mysterio wrote:Were the Cascades fresh

They seemed pretty fresh - a new, unopened vacuum pack from Hop and Grape; I remember they had a strong aroma when the pack was opened as well

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B_D's next brew - suggestions please!