First ever, all grain, with a very, very mini 1L mash

[Mumathomebrew]

Real newb at this. So be kind if I'm doing anything truly daft.

Final choice for an all grain attempt is a really simple recipe, cream of three crops, to begin with so it doesn't use up tons of grain whilst I learn.

The only bit of apparatus I own that can keep water under consistent temperature control is an ultrasonic cleaner. So I tested the bath with just water to make sure it worked. It only holds a litre so these are going to be tiny, tiny experiments. I can always do a mini mash more than once if it works well enough.

I've sewn a mini sparge bag for the basket and have scaled down the recipe to 1 litre. It's in and soaking, the temp on the display says 63*c which will actually be 66*c if the prior water test measurement was anything to go by. I'm now waiting to see what happens in 90 minutes time.

(I'd read about ultrasound helping alpha amylase production so I couldn't help but turn the US on for a second using half the grain. I left the other half of the grain unsplatted in case I'd killed amylases instead of helping them).

It's small and cute... but we'll see if it works or not. I just want to experiment with lots of different beer making recipes rather than make a ton of beer. It might just be far too small.

Cream of three crops
Scaled down figure for 1 L, ± quarter of a gallon (Original recipe for 10 gallons)

4.8 oz Maris otter pale (12lb Pale malt 2 row US)
1.6 oz flaked Maize (4lb corn, flaked)
0.4 oz flaked rice (1lb minute rice)

Original recipe says
OG 1.040 to FG 1.005
Simple infusion mash for 90 mins @152*f (66.66*c)
Boil 90 mins
Hops
1oz Williamette @60
1oz Crystal @60

It'll be interesting to see how much gets lost on a tiny boil. Maybe all.

Noting that the temp is struggling to be even, as the water outside the grist bag is turning the thermostat off too fast. It's mashing at nearer 55 so needs more attention to keep the temp up. Interesting.

 

[mongoose33]

I admire your grit and willingness to experiment....

A few observations and thoughts for future endeavors:

1. Did you do anything to the water?

2. The smaller the batch, the more precise you must be with measurements, as measurement error becomes a larger proportion of the total.

3. For future experiments you might just try brewing a SMASH, a Single Malt And Single Hop beer. That will simplify things and move you away from recipe-influencing outcomes.

4. SMASH: I do one with Maris Otter malt and Styrian Celeia hops. I suspect you can get Maris Otter.....and just add your favorite hop if you have one. With my SMASH, after about a month of conditioning, if I told you it was a lager you probably would be fooled by that....

5. How did you crush the malt? One of the biggest factors in efficiency of the mash is the fineness of the crush. If you don't think you've gotten very good efficiency, try crushing finer.

6. A small waterproof cooler could also work for you for small batches. I've found for me the trick is to preheat it with very hot water (I'd put a gallon of boiling water in my 50-liter plastic cooler, let it sit for 15 minutes closed, then dump), and then wrap it up with a blanket or quilt or sleeping bag or some such. It'll hold temps very close to your initial temp target; I typically might lose 2 or 3 degrees in an hour, and if your malt is finely crushed, almost all conversion will be done within 20-30 minutes anyway.

6a. The first time with a cooler or similar mash tun, there's a bit of a learning curve as you figure out what the temp of the strike water must be to get your mash to the target temp. As a place to start, based on my setup: I heated 4 gallons/15 liters of strike water to 168f/75.5c, using about 11 pounds/5 kg of grain, preheated the mash tun, and the resulting temperature would be about 153f/63c. The colder the grain, the more grain, the more it drops the temp of the water.

7. I always found that my efficiency went up if I stirred the mash at 15- and 30-minutes or so. I wonder if the ultrasonic effect is analogous to stirring.

8. If you don't have a refractometer or hydrometer to check gravity, you might just taste the wort to see how you're doing. Should taste mildly sweet, and perhaps you can judge how well you're doing by how much flavor and sweetness you're able to detect.

9. You can do a small 1-liter fermenter if you can get a clean 2-liter soda pop bottle or similar. Put wort and yeast in bottle, poke a pinhole in a small latex balloon and stretch it over the mouth of the bottle, keep in a warm/dark place, and voila! Cheap fermenter.

I've done this, and shockingly, it works. If you can get several bottles, you could do a number of experiments and tests in the same day, and use the different bottles for the different experimental variables.

When I did this, I used clean plastic Diet Coke bottles to bottle the wort; I dropped a fizz drop/sugar tablet in each, added the wort, screwed on the cap, then kept in a warm place for a couple weeks while it carbonated.

It all works, which shocked me to no end (kudos to my son who originally put me onto this). A pic to show what I mean:

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Wow. Thank you for that.

1) Not done anything to the water this time. I've got a thread on water and ours is mega hard. Maybe a stout style for the next beer to have a pole opposite just to see what the water here does in both styles. I have got campden powder though for the chlorines/ides.

2) Good plan. I shall covert to grams instead.

3/4) Will definitely do an all grain SMASH. I did an extract one. Got Maris otter grains, ordered Nottingham yeast and some hops

5) I bought the malt crushed but I do have an old Spong coffee grinder.

6) Was wondering if an electric pet blanket keeps a good temp. Fellow brewer researching proper probes right now.

6a) This started at 55*c and went up to 68*c so I expect it will be lots of beta amylase at work and not so much alpha. Probably ok for this ale but I'll deffo do it again higher in another experiments time to see what the difference tastes like.

7) Been reading about ultrasound breaking up the grains internally and might have to do a side by side beer comparison later on that one. Fascinating reading about it.

8) 1.044 so higher than expected. Wonder if the US blatting did that.

9) Decided to do another 1L batch and put it in a 2L water bottle in case it's too nice for just two beers worth of effort.

Soo exciting to be brewing after so much reading and plotting. Especially when the wort smells like real beer already.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Point 2 about nano recipes having to be more accurate just proved for you.

The second, supposedly identical, nano brew has just come out of the mini mash with an SG of 1.054.

(yes, I did splat it with US too, so will definitely have to do a side by side with more accurate measurements to see if the US splatting makes more sugar come out.)

 

[Miraculix]

Point 2 about nano recipes having to be more accurate just proved for you.

The second, supposedly identical, nano brew has just come out of the mini mash with an SG of 1.054.

(yes, I did splat it with US too, so will definitely have to do a side by side with more accurate measurements to see if the US splatting makes more sugar come out.)

View attachment 646511

If you got a big pot for cooking, throw the water inside, heat it to temperature, add the grains in a bag and don't worry if the temperature drops a few degrees during the mash. Afterwards, remove the bag with the grains, squeeze it and proceed as normal. It's my usual brewing routine.

 

[@RoyalGallon]

I hope we get to try this technique out at the brewery. It looks a great way to try lots of different ingredients against each other.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Being such a beer newb after winemaking for ten years is fascinating. After the hours boil, over half the liquid was lost and I'd even done an extra sparge of the grains using fresh hot water to offset boil loss.

The hydrometer was making a bid for the ceiling.

So I diluted with three quarters of a litre of water slowly to try and reduce the SG to the 1040. I didn't manage to get it down without splitting the 2L bottle so left it here.

So if it gets to 1.005 then the beer will be 6.17%, so a bit too high really. Never mind, we'll see what happens. Popped some campden in and pitched the S-05 yeast.

Mongrel hops No. 4 is tucked up for bed. (The lid is loose)

Thanks for the help peeps.

 

[Miraculix]

Being such a beer newb after winemaking for ten years is fascinating. After the hours boil, over half the liquid was lost and I'd even done an extra sparge of the grains using fresh hot water to offset boil loss.

The hydrometer was making a bid for the ceiling.
View attachment 646548

So I diluted with three quarters of a litre of water slowly to try and reduce the SG to the 1040. I didn't manage to get it down without splitting the bottle so left it here.
View attachment 646549

So if it gets to 1.005 then the beer will be 6.17%, so a bit too high really. Never mind, we'll see what happens. Popped some campden in and pitched the S-05 yeast.

Mongrel hops No. 4 is tucked up for bed.
View attachment 646550

Thanks for the help peeps.

Hopefully you brought the extra sparge to a boil as well, otherwise you probably caught an infection.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Hopefully you brought the extra sparge to a boil as well, otherwise you probably caught an infection.

Aha...... not exactly, but it was boiling water from the kettle poured over the grains. Newb lesson learned.

And the extra cold water was just from the tap too. Oops. Hopefully the campden will protect.

 

[LittleRiver]

Being such a beer newb after winemaking for ten years is fascinating...

This is really neat experiment. I'm looking forward to hearing about how this tastes. It's probably going to be a good beer.

...Popped some campden in and pitched the S-05 yeast.

Depending on the source of the water used, in beer brewing it's pretty standard to add campden when heating the mash water to take care of any chlorine/chloramine that may be in the water. It's not normally added (or needed) after that.

 

[Miraculix]

Aha...... not exactly, but it was boiling water from the kettle poured over the grains. Newb lesson learned.

And the extra cold water was just from the tap too. Oops. Hopefully the campden will protect.

Campden?

This is not used in beer brewing, except for chloramine removal, in small doses. Tap water pre boil is also a problem and boiling sparge water extracts unwanted tannins from the grains, which is also a problem. Looks like your learned a lot from this batch!

But don't throw it away, might be still beer at the end.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

But don't throw it away, might be still beer at the end.

It'll be 'something' at the end.... it's the right colour and it's bubbling. I'll learn proper beer tending sooner or later.

Does campden taste in beer? In winemaking it is used at nearly every transference procedure. I would have thought the lower abv of beer would make it more susceptible to both oxidisation and infection than wine is.

I'm also still burning to know whether ultrasound actually gets more sugars out. I've got a much more sensitive weighing machine, so I'll do some experiments and measure out an exact dose of barley malt, an exact dose of water and do an exact temp control with exact timing, but splat them with US differently, with a non splatted control, then measure the sugars.... (nerd alert)!

 

[Miraculix]

It'll be 'something' at the end.... it's the right colour and it's bubbling. I'll learn proper beer tending sooner or later.

Does campden taste in beer? In winemaking it is used at nearly every transference procedure. I would have thought the lower abv of beer would make it more susceptible to both oxidisation and infection than wine is.

I'm also still burning to know whether ultrasound actually gets more sugars out. I've got a much more sensitive weighing machine, so I'll do some experiments and measure out an exact dose of barley malt, an exact dose of water and do an exact temp control with exact timing, but splat them with US differently, with a non splatted control, then measure the sugars.... (nerd alert)!

We just had kind of a campden discussion in another thread and the outcome was, it is not super healthy and should be avoided, if possible. It is absolutely uncommon in beer but some people tried experimenting with it in cunjuction with those super hop bombs called neipa (new england ipa, north east ipa), which tend to oxidise only when you just look at it from the wrong angle.

Contamination is usually not an issue if a good sanitation protocol is being followed (it still happens on the occasional batch, some people experience this "pleasure" more often then others) and oxidisation is also not a huge issue, as beer is usually being drunk fairly quickly, compared to wine or mead. There are also meassures against oxygen ingress, if bottle conditioned the yeast absorbs all available oxygen quickly, for example. Or transfer via CO2, CO2 purged bottles or kegs.... endless possibilities which I all kindly ignore, except the bottle conditioning.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Thank you. Appreciated and heed all tips.

Ultrasound experiment begun. This will take a while and probably over a few evenings. It will be as scientific an experiment as an ordinary kitchen allows, and slightly tongue in cheek but I do want to know the answer. (The odd grain figure is because that is what is needed in the mash for the next micro trial of a stout).

Batch 1 - normal mash, no ultrasound
35fl oz Filtered water (1L weighed) Microwaved in the jug to 73*c
Poured onto 272g Maris Otter pale malt (weighed to 3 decimal points on an Iweigh)
1 hr timer set and temp set to 65* on machine bath
Stirred in at first until temp shows constant

Result: 800ml @ wort SG 1.070

To be continued....

 

[LittleRiver]

...Does campden taste in beer? In winemaking it is used at nearly every transference procedure. I would have thought the lower abv of beer would make it more susceptible to both oxidisation and infection than wine is....

In beer brewing the wort gets boiled before going into the fermenter, which kills unwanted bugs. Hops have antibacterial properties, which naturally protect the wort/beer. No need for campden.

Fermentation will effectively consume oxygen in the wort, and the gases produced will effectively purge the headspace of the fermenter. Post fermentation, closed transfers into C02 purged kegs avoids oxidation issues. No need for campden.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Luckily for the farmers, and not so for the home brewers on a budget. There appears on first more measured test to be less sugar, not more. Interesting.

Batch 2 - mash with 10 mins ultrasound in 10 x 1 minute bursts spaced by three mins
35fl oz Filtered water (1L weighed) Microwaved in the jug to 73*c
Poured onto 272g Maris Otter pale malt (weighed to 3 decimal points on an Iweigh)
1 hr timer set and temp set to 65* on machine bath
Stirred in at first until temp shows constant
Ultrasound 40w at 58', 54', 50', 46', 42', 38', 34', 30', 26' and 22'.

Result: 750ml @ wort SG 1.066
(small beer sparge water run gave an SG 1.020 and third to see what was left in was SG 1.008)

Four batches of 1L needed for a gallon demijohn of stout anyway, so two more variations to do.
Just curious. Next one will be less blatting to check I didn't nuke it. If that produces equal results too, then a longer mash time for the fourth and forget the blatting.

and

Batch 3 - mash with ultrasound for just 1 minute at the beginning
35fl oz Filtered water (1L weighed) Microwaved in the jug to 73*c
Poured onto 272g Maris Otter pale malt (weighed to 3 decimal points on an Iweigh)
1 hr timer set and temp set to 65* on machine bath
Stirred in at first until temp shows constant
Ultrasound 40w at 58'

Result: 750ml @ wort SG 1.066
(small beer sparge water run gave an SG 1.020 and third to see what was left in was SG 1.008)

Last batch 4 - I think we'll just forget the US and just do a 90 min mini mash.

Verdict = red herring

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Batch 4 - mash with much less MO, chocolate malt and barley, 90 mins, no US blatting
35fl oz Filtered water (1L weighed) Microwaved in the jug to 73*c
poured onto 160g Maris Otter pale malt
23g chocolate malt
46g ordinary pot barley ground up to very course flour
1.30 hr timer set and temp set to 75*c on machine bath (hotter and longer than all previous)

Result: 750ml @ wort SG 1.060

The stout recipes say use roasted barley for a typical stout character. I didn't have any, so the ground ordinary pot barley I used made it a bit slimy - will roast it next time or get the proper stuff.

Living and learning by making a big fat mess. This beer malarky is messier than wine IMHO.

Cream of three crops fermenting nicely.

 

[RM-MN]

Living and learning by making a big fat mess. This beer malarky is messier than wine IMHO.

Yes it can be messy but there are so many possibilities for different recipes. I think it has way more than wine.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Yes it can be messy but there are so many possibilities for different recipes. I think it has way more than wine.

It has way more fans than wines too. Plus family approval... never seen the men in my family so interested in my hobbies before...

 

[mongoose33]

Campden?

This is not used in beer brewing, except for chloramine removal, in small doses. Tap water pre boil is also a problem and boiling sparge water extracts unwanted tannins from the grains, which is also a problem. Looks like your learned a lot from this batch!

But don't throw it away, might be still beer at the end.

Actually, and this is not an attempt to move us away from the thread topic, but I use campden tablets in the strike water to not only get any residual chlorine that might be there, but as an oxygen scavenger during the mash. This only matters if one is trying to do LODO techniques, not a normal brew. I'm trying to keep O2 away from my mash, but I can't do that perfectly, so the tablets (crushed) are there to scavenge the O2 I can't keep from entering the mash. For chlorine, a half tablet crushed is enough for chlorine removal.

 

[Miraculix]

Actually, and this is not an attempt to move us away from the thread topic, but I use campden tablets in the strike water to not only get any residual chlorine that might be there, but as an oxygen scavenger during the mash. This only matters if one is trying to do LODO techniques, not a normal brew. I'm trying to keep O2 away from my mash, but I can't do that perfectly, so the tablets (crushed) are there to scavenge the O2 I can't keep from entering the mash. For chlorine, a half tablet crushed is enough for chlorine removal.

Yes I know, but I think it is more helpful for a newcomer not to get confused with lodo stuff. There is a forum for this stuff, let's try to keep it there.

 

[mongoose33]

Yes I know, but I think it is more helpful for a newcomer not to get confused with lodo stuff. There is a forum for this stuff, let's try to keep it there.

Well, then, perhaps a better statement would be to use the qualifier "generally" or to note that for basic beer brewing it's only used for dealing with chlorine or chloramines. Or say something like "for your purposes, you'd only use it for chlorine." Or something like that.

 

[Miraculix]

Well, then, perhaps a better statement would be to use the qualifier "generally" or to note that for basic beer brewing it's only used for dealing with chlorine or chloramines. Or say something like "for your purposes, you'd only use it for chlorine." Or something like that.

Oh, come on mate. Don't do this now.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Had to look it up of course and it's very, very interesting. Coming into beer from the winemakers angle, then wort oxygenation is an area of great interest/concern. Through just a few forays, I'm already finding beermaking a significantly different procedure to winemaking on many levels.

About to bottle our second attempt today so we'll see. Proof, pudding and all that.

 

[mongoose33]

Well, then, perhaps a better statement would be to use the qualifier "generally" or to note that for basic beer brewing it's only used for dealing with chlorine or chloramines. Or say something like "for your purposes, you'd only use it for chlorine." Or something like that.

Oh, come on mate. Don't do this now.

It's my pleasure to help out. Feel free to use any of that the next time you are tempted to make blanket statements that are incorrect.

Sometimes we forget that others will read these threads later, including new brewers. The trick is to be accurate while not being overly pedantic; that's a fine line all of us walk. And I'm sure you'd agree that we wouldn't want to mislead new brewers into thinking that Campden tablets have no other use than chlorine/chloramines removal, especially as they move to more advanced forms of brewing and then have to resolve what they "know" with what others are doing.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Stout experiment:- This has great potential for disaster but doing it anyway.

We wanted a whole gallon so did these experiments in these five 1L mini mashes. Then they got left overnight before the boiling process.

One of the first sparges had already begun fermenting on its own and smelled of rotten eggs. That was fast, but we now know our kitchen is 20.6*c warm. (Thanks to a brand new Inkbird ITC-308 probe bought on a fellow brewers recommendation. Thank you to 'A'). I hope the subsequent boiling killed any other germs. We didn't put any stinkies in, nor the sludges that formed upon standing.

Stout recipe cobbled together from various recipes (plus maths mistakes).
For approx 1 UK gallon/4.55L of beer (using filtered water not straight tap)

1088g Maris otter
23g Chocolate malt
46g Ordinary pot barley (ground in the spong, didn't have any roasted barley)
46g Flaked rice
92g Brown demarera sugar @15'
23g Cocoa powder @15'
92g Molasses @15'

0.75g Mongrel hops @60'
2.8g Mongrel hops @40'
2.8g Mongrel hops @20'
2.8g Mongrel hops @5'

Safale -04 yeast

SG was 1.070 and made 2 x 2L liquid
Transferred to demijohn after one day. Had a funny waxy grey-ish rim. Must be the barley or chocolate powder fats. It seems to be fermenting OK today. I can hear crackles.

Can't bear wasting stuff, so.... mad Mildred Mildew heads back to the kitchen...

Small beer experiment
Used the sugary third sparge waters @1.010ish and the left over sugary sludges of the above to boil up an unmeasured 'thing'.
Threw in a small handful of Mongrel hops and a small pot of raspberries from the garden, both @60', with a large squirt of golden syrup to up the ante @0'. Same Safale -04 yeast.
We'll see...

Dog biscuit experiment
Dried all the spent grist and ground it in the spong coffee grinder. Sieved the hulls out. Bunged this grist flour in with ordinary flour and the remains of the Sunday roast gravy with 2 eggs. Made a horrendous sticky mess, so used some left over salad dressing olive oil to shape into 16 'bonios'. Baked in a slow oven till hard.
Dog loved them and begged for five in a row with huge love eyes. Result!

 

[RPh_Guy]

If you want to do 1 gal batches, it's obviously a lot easier to do one mash. Bring the water to strike temp. Add the grain. You don't need to do anything fancy to hold temperature, just wrap the pot in a blanket. Keep covered but stir occasionally.
You'll generally need around 1kg of malt at this batch size.

Beware of "over-sparging". Hot water + high pH + low gravity will pull some pretty harsh compounds out of the grain.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

If you want to do 1 gal batches, it's obviously a lot easier to do one mash. Bring the water to strike temp. Add the grain. You don't need to do anything fancy to hold temperature, just wrap the pot in a blanket. Keep covered but stir occasionally.
You'll generally need around 1kg of malt at this batch size.

Beware of "over-sparging". Hot water + high pH + low gravity will pull some pretty harsh compounds out of the grain.

Thanking you. I'm going out today to look for some proper beer gear. I've bought a probe and a longer thermometer. Just smashed my lovely long hydrometer glass sample jar though. Stupid enough to leave it standing upright with no support. So don't know any of the true FG readings of these finished beers. Not that it exactly matters this time. Drinkable will do for a beginner.

 

[mongoose33]

Thanking you. I'm going out today to look for some proper beer gear. I've bought a probe and a longer thermometer. Just smashed my lovely long hydrometer glass sample jar though. Stupid enough to leave it standing upright with no support. So don't know any of the true FG readings of these finished beers. Not that it exactly matters this time. Drinkable will do for a beginner.

Just a note on getting proper beer gear.....I've upgraded and replaced my setup in multiple ways, multiple times.

[Immersion chiller -> better immersion chiller -> stainless counterflow chiller.]

I wish I had made a more aggressive set of choices at some point, or really thought about where I'd end up with this.

[8-gallon megapot -> 10-gallon Spike kettle -> 20 gallon kettles]

Well....I won't keep going, but what I'm going to suggest is to think hard about where you believe this might end up. It may be that you're thinking about moving up in equipment a bit, because it'll be better than what you have now. That's great of course.

[Original propane burner -> Hellfire -> Electric brewing]

Do you think you might end up at 19-liter batches (the standard in home brewing)? Or....? At what final capacity do you think you might top out?

As I've replaced equipment I've sold some of it--at a 40-50 percent loss. I still have the Hydra immersion chiller and Hellfire burner....need to figure out if I can get enough money out of them to make it worth selling them....

I wish, though it's a forlorn wish, that I had made my choices more effectively at the outset. Oh, it's tough--I don't think any home brewer can really do that--because we don't know if we will continue, like the product, want to commit the resources and time to it. But a lot of money was "wasted" in upgrades and no ability to get all my money back out of the original gear.

So as you seek out better equipment, I suggest you try to do some serious analysis of where you might end up. Good stewardship of your resources can and will save you money in the long run.

*******

There are at least two other sides to this coin. One is that it's fun to progress. I don't regret, at some level, the joy of discovery and learning and figuring out what I want/need/lust after.

In fact, I think I am likely a better brewer because of that progression. The learning was truly rich in its outcomes, and the joy of doing so equally rich.

The other side of this three-headed coin is resources and space. Do you have space to go bigger? Do you have enough resources to move beyond current needs? Some live in small spaces, don't have a place where they could use a propane burner, are at a point in their lives where it's tough to divert resources from family or education to...well brewing.

So, context matters, and that's part of the equation as well.

*****

So, my suggestion is to think hard about going incrementally larger when a more significant step forward might make more sense in the long run.

Anyway, you certainly seem to be captured by this brewing thing (join the club--oh, you have :. Just some thoughts as you move forward, and never forget that if you're not enjoying this, you're not doing it right.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Interest will probably lie in recipe perfection chasing rather than massive bulk making. All hobbies are, and have always been, based around blending and mixing something or other. Beer is a very suitable learning pursuit that can still be done in the kitchen whilst caring for the crumblies.

Equipment wise so far - a very nice new temperature probe with heater/cooler plug sockets (have an old electric underblanket but not sure yet what to use for the cooler), a superbly accurate iweigh machine up to 100g and a kitchen one for heavier weights, some largish ordinary kitchen saucepans and this ultrasound 1L mini bath. Some scientific distillation glassware is in the loft but need to look at it again to remember what's in it. Plus oodles of demijohns, carboys, buckets etc from winemaking.

Our local hardware store was a bit limited in stock, but came away with a very nice glass wine thief, a hydrometer vessel in plastic so can't smash it. Youngs ale yeast (only beer yeast they had, so no idea what strain it is), cider yeast, dextrose and med spraymalt. Then a lucky find in a charity shop: a superb suction device for sucking air out of bags. Very useful for packaging hops. Nearly bought a slow cooker croc pot (from same charity shop) but resisted until I've borrowed one to see if it works well/at all first.

I doubt our beer equipment is going to get very sophisticated. You need spare ackers for that and we've got bods at uni. The bulk wedding beer could be made in a large feed bucket. I'm sure the ancient Egyptians would approve.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Cream of three crops beer took a while to clear. I ended up cold crashing it in the fridge but it still wasn't totally clear. However after priming it in bottle it seemed to clear with a sediment. One bottle seems to be fizzing but the others are still. Maybe it's not sealed properly as I had a job getting the tops on because the slimmer cerveza bottles have a different shallow top to the fursty ferret deeper ones. The capper puts the top on then pulls it up again. I may have to get a hammer down simple capper for these sorts.

The stout isn't clear at all but it still smells ok. I'll have to look up how long stouts take.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Well I was trying to save two of these for a beer meeting, but as there were only five, the third and fourth one just slid down nicely last night with supper. The third got added to our original Coopers first ever semi-kit + jaggery beer, which had gone a little dry and strong to my taste after keeping. That mixture really made a lovely beer, so shall be looking to combine these two beers in a single recipe in the near future. Just got to find out what sort of grain bill and hops might be in the ale Coopers kit.

This cream of three crops makes for a very nice, slightly sweeter, creamy, full mouthfeel, easy drinker light beer. A bit too sweet to be refreshing on a warm day, but still nice. Would be the sort of easy pleaser beer we might make for a party. We shall definitely make this again but aim for slightly dryer. We just learned about temp control so shall apply the learning and taste the difference if we can bear to keep the last one. Will definitely make a gallon next time.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

Bottled the ultrasound stout last night. It still wasn't clear and appeared to still be lightly bubbling so it might have been a bit too early. We used one cup of expresso left to cool plus 20g of light brown sugar in 200 mms of cooled boiled water to prime with. It was 25ml of coffee/sugar solution per 500ml bottle.

The strength of this was like beery chocolate rocket fuel. The FG was 1.014 down from SG of 1.070 so an online beer calculator puts it at 7.35%. Quite tasty but unpleasantly overpowering and a little harsh as yet. Maybe a month+ in the bottle will calm it down. One thing it didn't seem to be is infected (fingers crossed). Which considering the random production in four small batches is quite surprising but there's time yet for that to happen. We'll see.

 

[Miraculix]

Bottled the stout last night. It still wasn't clear and appeared to still be lightly bubbling so it might have been a bit too early. We used one cup of expresso left to cool plus 20g of light brown sugar in 200 mms of cooled boiled water to prime with. It was 25ml of coffee/sugar solution per 500ml bottle.

The strength of this was like beery chocolate rocket fuel. The FG was 1.014 down from SG of 1.070 so an online beer calculator puts it at 7.35%. Quite tasty but unpleasantly overpowering and a little harsh as yet. Maybe a month+ in the bottle will calm it down. One thing it didn't seem to be is infected (fingers crossed). Which considering the random production in four small batches is quite surprising but there's time yet for that to happen. We'll see.

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The higher the abv, the more the beer benefits from aging (except ipas etc), especially dark beers mellow with time and are usually best after a few months or longer.

I got a dark mild which is now on the peak of it's goodness, which took about two months from brewing, but it has less than 3%abv.

Your stout will need at least 2 months to be ok but will be probably best after much longer.

You could start drinking a bottle each month after waiting for two or three months, then you can see the development for yourself. The last bottle will probably make you wish that you'd have aged all of the bottles that long.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I don't think I would make this with cocoa powder again. The trub was really sludgy and I think possibly why it won't clear. I think I'd use cocoa nibs or something more subtle. Nor would I make it so strong, but my brother will like it.

 

[Miraculix]

I don't think I would make this with cocoa powder again. The trub was really sludgy and I think possibly why it won't clear. I think I'd use cocoa nibs or something more subtle.

I think all this stuff, cocoa, coffee etc., doesn't have a place in a beer, but that's just me.

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I certainly don't think they do in such a blast. Maybe as a subtle hint perhaps. Learning though.

This came from TUCKs recipe on here. Thank you Tuck.

 

[Miraculix]

I certainly don't think they do in such a blast. Maybe as a subtle hint perhaps. Learning though.

If you haven't brewed many stouts, I would start with something really really simple, to get a good idea about what each ingredient does. 90%pale, 10% roast barley and you're good!

The next time, add 10% darker crystal and see what that does to the flavour. That way you learn what each ingredient is doing to the beer.
After that, maybe change the yeast?

 

[Mumathomebrew]

I've just bought some new ingredients so will heed that advice and go back to simple.

The cream of three crops was a lovely start to all grain and a lovely finished beer. I've been leaving pans of 75 degree water with lids on, all round strategic places in the kitchen to see where a constant temp of 66 will be best. Next I shall sew a proper pan sparge bag.

I've just bought Nottingham yeast and Windsor. I've got S04, S05 and Youngs ale. Total grain larder is now Maris otter, Cara red, Crystal, Chocolate, flaked maize and flaked wheat, mostly in 500g bags but 1 kilo of the MO. We made a Fursty Ferret alike at the weekend and its already clearing.

I want to try the first cooper brew I made crossed with the cream of three recipe. I've posted the recipe idea on here.

 

[Miraculix]

I've just bought some new ingredients so will heed that advice and go back to simple.

The cream of three crops was a lovely start to all grain and a lovely finished beer. I've been leaving pans of 75 degree water with lids on, all round strategic places in the kitchen to see where a constant temp of 66 will be best. Next I shall sew a proper pan sparge bag.

I've just bought Nottingham yeast and Windsor. I've got S04, S05 and Youngs ale. Total grain larder is now Maris otter, Cara red, Crystal, Chocolate, flaked maize and flaked wheat, mostly in 500g bags but 1 kilo of the MO. We made a Fursty Ferret alike at the weekend and its already clearing.

I want to try the first cooper brew I made crossed with the cream of three recipe. I've posted the recipe idea on here.

I really like your sender for experimentation. I am quite like minded. However, at the beginning it is really good to start with the simplest things, like the stout I suggested.

You are doing smaller batches, so you can do more different ones which speeds up the learning curve, I did the same.

You could start with three 100% Maris otter pale ales, 1.045 og and ferment it with Windsor, another one with 04 and another one with 05. Use the same hopping schedule for all and you will learn a great deal about the differences of yeasts.