What are you brewing?

[billybushcook]

Welcome to the site Elec,

I have the same problem with ordering liquid yeast via the post.
So I mainly stick with S-04 in summer & S-23 in winter, occasionly pick a wyeast when I in the vacinity of the HB shop but only about 1-2 times per year.

I have just finished making a magnetic stir plate, taken delivery of a 500ml Conical flask (finally, after a visit from the Drug Squad) & now waiting for my stir bars to turn up, should be Cultivating liquid yeasts like a man possesed some time soon.

Mick.

[elec]

Thanks mate, my local liquid yeast outlet is about 2500 k's away. I've had a 50% strike rate on orders so far, ( no fault of the seller ), so dry it is, until I head south one time and bring it back myself.

Regards

[RUM57L]

Yesterday i put down a Coopers English Bitter:

500gm Dextrose
250gm Light Malt
250gm Maltodextrin

23L Brew with kit yeast pitched at 18C and O.G at 1035

[RUM57L]

Saturday I ended up putting the following down:

Cascade Golden Harvest
Brewcraft #20 Malt + Booster 1kg
Used filtered water.
First time using Saflager yeast, pitched it 19 degrees.

Brew is around 22.5L and o.g was 1032

[bullfrog]

Got a DrS Golden Ale and an English Bitter both in primary at the moment. Was absolutely stoked at the efficiency I got from both brews, definitely an advocate of sparging in a BIAB system.

Just to take the conversation back a fortnight, Elec and Mick, do you guys have the option from your respective suppliers to have ice gel pack jobbies sent with your yeast orders? If not, then try buying them from Craftbrewer (no affiliation) who do have them and see if you get better results.

[Sonny]

Yesterday i put down a Coopers English Bitter:

500gm Dextrose
250gm Light Malt
250gm Maltodextrin

23L Brew with kit yeast pitched at 18C and O.G at 1035

Bottled this last night;

3rd Brew - 11 Sep10
English Bitter as recommended. /25lt
Dissolve 500g Light dry Malt in 4lt hot water, the kit and 250g dextrose.
Into the fermenter, @ 28deg sprinkled on YEAST extract on top of foam. Moved to rear of garage.
OG 1075??? - FG1010, Racked 19Sep 2010, bottled 26SEP 2010.

Smells yummy, I feel something went wrong with the SG but.

[billybushcook]

Just to take the conversation back a fortnight, Elec and Mick, do you guys have the option from your respective suppliers to have ice gel pack jobbies sent with your yeast orders? If not, then try buying them from Craftbrewer (no affiliation) who do have them and see if you get better results.

Yeh I know about them,...but.
My local HBS where I buy my grain (Newcastle) take about a week to deliver (sometimes two), If his claims are correct, my orders leave on the Monday & I don't see them until the Friday at the earliest???
Ordering from Craftbrewer is about the same, which I can understand due to the distance, (no fualt of Ross & the crew).
Plus I'm not keen on having my yeast packed in with subzero gelpacks any way.

I have pursuaded my local Bottle Shop, who stock a small amount of Can Kits & stuff, to keep a few pkts of Safale or Saflager in the fridge for me, I just have to stay a couple of weeks in advance with telling him to re-order which ever one I want.
This way I know my yeast is fresh & I just build up a starter with it when I mill my grain a day or two prior to brew day.

His supplier is the Brewcraft line & he doesn't have a clue about HBing, but I should ask about Wyeast packs, they are just not listed in the catologue he orders from??

Back on Topic,
I have all three fermenters (one in Cold Cond,) choco block with the last of my Lagers for the season, the days are getting warm enough to make it dificult to keep two brews together at 12 deg, even with the Tempmate when it is high twenties out side the brew box.
So I have a week or two without brewing while I clear out the brew box & dial it back up to 18 again for the first of my Ales.

No suprises as to the recipe:-
4Kg Pale Malt
0.5Kg wheat malt
0.5Kg flaked maize
(may be add a little Carra or pale Chrystal)

Mash @ 64deg for 90 Min

18g galaxy flowers @ 60 Min
15g Amarillo @ 5 Min

Currently building up a starter with S-04.

cheers, Mick.

[Bum]

I'm sure there's brewers from the Hunter on AHB - anyone remember who? See if they can get some info for Mick?

[billybushcook]

I'm sure there's brewers from the Hunter on AHB - anyone remember who? See if they can get some info for Mick?

Yeh there is Kieth from Hunter brewery so he would be getting his stuff through work, he lives only a couple of K's from me. All the others I have seen on there come from Newcastle.

If there are any in the upper/mid Hunter (Branxton/Singleton) I would like to know what they are doing!
The HBS in Singleton has said I should order them myself & get them delivered to his shop??????????????Huh?

Mick.

[speedie]

Billy do you prefer the toffee like ester production that this old English ale yeast produces as opposed too Winsor

I personally prefer Winsor ale for its cleaner presentation of the malt characteristics
Even dr smarto mentions it as a strain he likes for ale production
They are both really good dehydrated examples of pure brewing yeast
It is a shame that you seem to be isolated from good suppliers

[RUM57L]

Bottled this last night;

3rd Brew - 11 Sep10
English Bitter as recommended. /25lt
Dissolve 500g Light dry Malt in 4lt hot water, the kit and 250g dextrose.
Into the fermenter, @ 28deg sprinkled on YEAST extract on top of foam. Moved to rear of garage.
OG 1075??? - FG1010, Racked 19Sep 2010, bottled 26SEP 2010.

Smells yummy, I feel something went wrong with the SG but.

G'day Sonny,

Warra gave me a tip when taking the hydro readings, which was to flush some of your brew through the tap before taking the reading as there may be some extract inside the tap which will give a higher reading.

Be sure to let us know how your English bitter turns out, i think i'll be bottling mine this afternoon or tomorrow.

[Sonny]

Be sure to let us know how your English bitter turns out,

ya know I'm going to have to try a 300ml sampler come Friday arvo.

[RUM57L]

RUM57L wrote:
Yesterday i put down a Coopers English Bitter:

500gm Dextrose
250gm Light Malt
250gm Maltodextrin

23L Brew with kit yeast pitched at 18C and O.G at 1035

So I checked the gravity yesterday afternoon and its at 1015..
I was expecting this to be lower, i'll check again this afternoon .. i gave it a slight swirl.. does anyone else think it should be lower? temps have been around 18 - 19

[earle]

18-19 could be the low end for the kit yeast. Another week wouldn't hurt at those temps. I leave my ales for 3 weeks before bottling, gives the yeast time to drop as well resulting in a clearer beer.

[RUM57L]

Thanks Earle,

I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days, say mid next week if it hasnt dropped would it be worth pitching more yeast or bottling?

[earle]

For my all malt brews with a lower attenuating yeast such as windsor a FG of 1015 is quite common. Your mix looks like a BE1 or BE2 which I have not really used much. While it only has a small amount of malt to push up the FG it also has the maltodextrin which is mostly non-fermentable. It will also push up you FG.

Have you done other brews with this mix with the kit yeast and what was their FG? Maybe a comarison will help.

[RUM57L]

For my all malt brews with a lower attenuating yeast such as windsor a FG of 1015 is quite common. Your mix looks like a BE1 or BE2 which I have not really used much. While it only has a small amount of malt to push up the FG it also has the maltodextrin which is mostly non-fermentable. It will also push up you FG.

Have you done other brews with this mix with the kit yeast and what was their FG? Maybe a comarison will help.

Hi Earle,

I haven't used that mix before, although i have used be2 in a cerveza mix.. but that had extra fermentables in it also.. best to give it a few more days like you suggested i suppose

[Bum]

Finished work early today so I managed to cube a sneaky Old Rasputin clone.

81% Trad Ale
6% Pale Crystal
4% Pale Choc
4% Amber
2.5% Black Patent
2.5% Roast Barley
3.5g/L Cluster and 1.2/L Hallertauer Mittelfrueh @ 60 (can't remember but I'm pretty sure the hal.mit. is only there to make up the IBU shortfall on the Cluster, ran the recipe a few weeks back)
1.5g/L each Centennial and Northern Brewer (US) @ 15
1.5g/L Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 0 (used in place of Liberty which I couldn't get at the time)

OG 1079
IBU 79
Bitterness Ratio 0.972

Ended up being a bit of a nightmare mash. Never brewed a beer this big on this new system - the previous biggest had a grist 2kg lighter but there was plenty of room to spare so I thought I would be golden...wrong! Couldn't get my calculated strike water in the tun (but not that far off so I wasn't too upset...until I saw I wasn't at my desired mash temp and the tun was full. Urgh. Drained a few litres and chucked in some hotter stuff but still only got it up to medium body. Pretty happy that I only missed my target OG by 2 points though.

[squirt in the turns]

Drained a few litres and chucked in some hotter stuff but still only got it up to medium body. Pretty happy that I only missed my target OG by 2 points though.

Any reason you didn't use the stove to heat the liquid you drained and add it back in? More important to get the temp up quickly, I guess?

[RUM57L]

For my all malt brews with a lower attenuating yeast such as windsor a FG of 1015 is quite common. Your mix looks like a BE1 or BE2 which I have not really used much. While it only has a small amount of malt to push up the FG it also has the maltodextrin which is mostly non-fermentable. It will also push up you FG.

Have you done other brews with this mix with the kit yeast and what was their FG? Maybe a comarison will help.

Hi Earle,

I haven't used that mix before, although i have used be2 in a cerveza mix.. but that had extra fermentables in it also.. best to give it a few more days like you suggested i suppose

FYI,

Checked yesterday afternoon and looks to have dropped to 1012.. so the wait continues