Intermediate Brewing

1. secondary or no secondary

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   First post by jrodie, 15 years ago

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   I am planning on brewing a dry irish stout this weekend. Normally I have transferred into a secondary fermenter, most recently I did not b/c I was advised not to for the Heffe recipe I was making and it turned out fine. The question is would you use a secondary fermenter for a stout?

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   Unfortunately no, I was just flying by the seat of my pants, but it seemed like a logical idea :lol: - basically it's what the UK real ale breweries often do to generate some new CO2 in the casks to keep them fresh.
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   Last post by Beachbum
   15 years ago
2. English Bitter Success.

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   First post by EoinMag, 15 years ago

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   Maris Otter 10KG
   Crystal Malt 500g
   Chocolate Malt 280g
   
   Challenger Hops 100g @ 90 mins
   Challenger Hops 40g @30 mins.
   IBU was somewhere a little North of 30, but the hops were out of date so not too sure about that, but the wort tasted fine and had a good bittering to it.
   
   3 Packs of rehydrated Danstar Nottingham.
   
   90 Minute mash at 63c, wanted to go a little lower to thin the body a bit rather than add any foreign sugars.
   
   All went well, I ended up with about 55l of 1.046 wort.
   
   I just made...

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   My answer on the other thread as is my understanding:
   
   Higher than pH 3 is no longer considered to be effective. Cloudiness can be a problem,but I've tested the pH when it's cloudy and once it's acidic enough I use it. That said the cloudiness is due to hard water, if it happens after the initial mixing I'd not let it concern me. It's all pH dependent, once the pH is within the right range it will kill bacteria and nasties. The cloudiness is generally a sign of adverse reaction of the acid...
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   Last post by EoinMag
   15 years ago
3. Is anybody else doing 60 minute mashes and 60 minute boils?

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   First post by dazed, 15 years ago

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   Well I have about 5 Brews with my bag, and I have used the traditionally 60 minute Mash and 60 minute Boils and have just realized the your instructions on your site say to do 90 & 90.
   Whats the reasoning for not doing 60? Are you malts less modified in the land down under?
   I am doing just a single infusion in my 26 gallon pot with usually 20-25 pounds of grain with about 70-75% effeciency....of course I make flour out of my malt.... :lol: Maybe 90 is for chill haze or cloudy beer?

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   Bumping thread.
   I normally do a 90 minute mash - using passive lagging it's no skin off my nose to just walk away for 90 instead of 60. However the other day I hosted a BIAB demo brew day for a local brew club who all do either 3 vessel or extract brewing and in order to impress the pants off them I just did a 60 min mash. It was a full malt mash with no adjuncts so I figured it wouldn't harm to cut back to 60.
   
   Well it achieved its ends and we doughed in a 11.45 and had the cube full at 3.45...
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   Last post by Beachbum
   15 years ago
4. Two Brews, Two Problems!!

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   First post by redlegger, 15 years ago

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   OK, Im not a happy camper (brewer) at the moment
   My last two brews have problems.
   Any help or comments would be much appreciated :thumbs:
   
   Problem #1
   Batch # 9 - Golden Ale
   Weyermann Pils 56%
   Weyermann pale Wheat 18%
   Weyermann Munich 18%
   Weyermann Caramunich 6%
   Amarillo - 20g @60
   Amarillo - 15g @15
   Amarillo - 15g @5
   No-Chill
   Yeast US 05
   Ferment @ 18 for 10days
   OG 1050
   FG 1012
   Force Carb'd
   
   OK, i make this one all the time and it has come out nice everytime, and according to my notes i did...

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   Man hope I don't have a problem :? Just done my second brew a nice red ale, anyway, morning of brewing emptied my cube with some old starsan in it :headhit: , saw it had a few fussy bits in it :shock: (freaked) so rinsed scrubed the best I could, bleached for an hr, fresh starsan for 40 mins rinsed and then steamed for over an hr :shoot: geeze I hope I got it :pray: or there is no for Xmas beers :idiot:
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   Last post by Mex
   15 years ago
5. Using Egg Shells as Finings

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   First post by hashie, 15 years ago

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   I was reading through an old recipe book today and found some recipes for hop beer and Malt beer .
   In one of the hop beer recipes it says;
   
   ...30g of tartaric acid and 30g of brewers isinglass should be soaking in 1 litre of cold water. If brewer's isinglass is unobtainable, save up eggshells for a day or two and add with the acid at the end of 24 hours - this clears the beer.
   
   I've never used isinglass before and I don't usually use finings at all, but this got me thinking because I have...

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   Nice idea PP, lunch on the run :)
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   Last post by hashie
   15 years ago
6. How do I use Rice?

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   First post by Hippy, 15 years ago

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   Does anyone out there have any advise on using rice as an adjunct, as I am thinking of brewing a pilsener using something along the lines of 85% pilsener malt, 5% wheat malt ,5% Munich malt and about 5% Rice just to lighten it a bit for those hot summer days.
   As I've never used rice before I'm not really sure how to go about it and would appreciate any advise.
   Cheers

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   Sounds interesting Beachbum. I'll definately give that a try next time. First rice brew is still in the fermenter fridge at a cosy 12 degrees so the jury's still out on how it turned out.
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   Last post by Hippy
   15 years ago
7. removing clorine and clorimine

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   First post by jmbingham, 15 years ago

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   morning or evening what ever it maybe where your at
   
   got a question bout water , my city water uses chlorine and chloramine . I know i can let the water sit over night to remove the chlorine and use campden tablets to remove the chloramine. Question is how fast does the campden tablets work? kind of an impulsive brewer if i have a four to five hour window i want to brew without having to wait for the water to clear or go buy 9 gallons of water
   Thanks jimmy

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   What compounds / ions are left in the water once the Sulphur Dioxide in the tablet has done its job?
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   Last post by Beachbum
   15 years ago
8. Low gravity reading

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   First post by jmbingham, 15 years ago

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   First off hello to everyone been awhile since I've posted
   Brewed a stout yesterday overshot my water by about two gallons.so my original gravity readings were low .I was looking for 1.059-1.060 and got 1.041. I would have just did a longer boil but had to leave (took the wife to a concert ) so I went ahead and threw it into the cube to cool and was going to go with it as is but, got to thinking. Can I add a little more LME and do a second boil say half an hour to one hour to bring the OG up or...

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   Happy days then, jb! :drink: Glad it worked out well, you probably learned a thing or two so there's been a real bonus! :champ:
   
   Glad to hear the club brewers are BIAB- curious, I'm so pleased when I hear extract or kit brewers really keen to try AG and BIAB helping them to do this sooner than they otherwise would. :thumbs:
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   Last post by Ralph
   15 years ago
9. Best Effort Yet

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   First post by reidLinden, 15 years ago

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   Howdy,
   
   I just wanted to report that on my latest brew, I could finally claim success with this method. I'm not positive what my errors were in the past, so I'm not sure if I can be sure that I'm not going to 'backslide', but, for the first time with this method, I've finally gotten over 65% efficiency.
   
   79.7%, yay me!
   
   I'm attributing the biggest gains to the fact that this time, I did /not/ forget to raise the temp to mashout with the grains /in/
   
   Thanks for the great resources!

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   Yeah, I've considered that, but, I keep good notes, usually. I've gone back and re-run the numbers, and they are right on with my recollection.
   
   My worst ever was an abysmal 42% ! I had to buffer with a load of DME to make the difference. It turned out fine, but, was NOT what I was hoping to accomplish!
   
   As far as my water chemistry, I think its probably about as bad as it could be. I use a very very low mineral bottled water. This was the first time I'd ever added salts to bring up the...
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   Last post by reidLinden
   15 years ago
10. Clarifiers for dark beers

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    First post by hashie, 15 years ago

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    I don't use clarifiers for any of my beers, sorry Siggi.

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    sigurdur,
    
    Why would you use clarifiers for dark beer? If you have a black beer it should be murky like the bottom of a swamp (Just not taste like it!) I use Super Irish Moss as a coagulant because I normally No Chill my beers overnight and siphon them off the next day. These coagulators quickly reduce haze so that they clear in 24 hours. If you let a beer clear on it's own (without help) the beer will clear just fine, but more slowly. Since I siphon the next day I need all the help I can...
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    Last post by BobBrews
    15 years ago
11. First Step Mash BIAB and Rice.

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    First post by aussiechucka, 16 years ago

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    Well just finished my third BIAB. This time with adjuctants. Rice. And my first step mash. Wow what a day. It was a learning experience and getting the idea of the correct temps for the steps. I used Zwickel's step mash that he posted on the cream ale or somewhere here. Also I cooked my rice before using 10% of my grain weight to add to the rice. I boiled the rice and grain then made sure the lid was sealed and turned it off and wrapped it all up in towels and left on the stove top till the...

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    Having said I did that all within a month I will have to say I only was bottle conditioning for a month from when I bottle the beer. I was mainly looking at the top of the bottle, which was dated 3/9. Start drinking that three weeks after bottling. Three weeks at room temp then crash chilled to 0 degrees for a few days. I cracked a few and was pretty happy with the taste, no off flavours. My mate had a good few the other day and he was impressed. I think it probably could do with a bit more...
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    Last post by aussiechucka
    15 years ago
12. Caledonian Porter AG #2.

    6 Replies 8117 Views

    First post by EoinMag, 16 years ago

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    I knocked up a Caledonian porter this weekend, I varied it slightly from Wheelers(BYOBRA) recipe in that I added some home made candi sugar to make up for using the Windsor which will attenuate less by all accounts.
    I'm looking forward to this one, as I wasn't happy with my first all grain as I had added too much sugar to it in the end by adding 2kg of invert sugar.
    
    I ran the 90 minute boil on two elements with a fan blowing over the top to prevent a boilover, reason for this is that I'm not...

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    This has turned out very nice, It's a porter so the hop is not the central piece, rather the nice roasted malts. Very tasty beer, I'm happy with this.
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    Last post by EoinMag
    15 years ago
13. On hops and aroma and taste and stuff

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    First post by widdley, 16 years ago

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    Apologies for another long diatribe - better get used to it :lol:
    
    Whacked out another brew using this recipe and decided to no chill it... This time, just to be zany I followed the instructions and things went off without a hitch, so thumbs up to the guide scribes :D
    
    Because of the no chill, I decided to throw the 20min hop additions in about a minute before shutting off the heat, and leave the aroma additions for later.
    
    So the question I was going to ask was should I add the aroma hops to...

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    You can get a good essentials brand coffee plunger / french press from Woolworths (Australia) for about $12 and just keep it in the brewery as a bit of kit. I don't drink coffee so mine is for hopping only.
    
    The trouble with tasting wort and hydrometer samples is that they just taste so bloody wonderful. I have made Corona Cerveza style beers for the family that are only hopped to 15 IBU with a few pathetically lonely Chinook or Galena pellets and the wort has tasted like a hop farm holding its...
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    Last post by Beachbum
    16 years ago
14. Recent problems with cloudy wort

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    First post by mike, 16 years ago

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    I've done about ten batches using BIAB and love it, but the last three batches I've had a problem. I'm getting a huge amount of particulate in my wort. Its not cold break or hop material but I think its very fine malt(like flour). I am using the same setting on my barley crusher that I have always used and I just replaced my piece of swiss voille that I use for my bag. I don't know what changed, but I was brewing good beer and the last three batches have had this extremely cloudy wort and the...

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    Hi ya mike. I wouldn't rely on your hydrometer too much. If you are stirring and doing say a 90 minute mash (at correct temp) and a 90 minute boil of decent vigour and still get problems, you really need to look at your water.
    
    Many guys don't do any of the above and never have any problems so water is a likely culprit.
    
    Cheers,
    PP
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    Last post by PistolPatch
    16 years ago
15. First AG brew.

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    First post by EoinMag, 16 years ago

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    Hi All, I did my first all grain brew this weekend, although I have brewed partial mashes before while topping up with extract, this was the first all grain brew so far.
    
    recipe was:
    7.5kg Maris Otter
    0.5KG Lyles golden syrup
    1.5KG Invert sugar, cooked out to golden
    80g Goldings @90 min
    100g Goldings @30 min
    Nottingham starter from a previous yeast cake. (4L starter, drained and dregs pitched.)
    
    I thought I had more Golden syrup before I started this, so ended up having to make my own invert...

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    I think I'd back off on the sugar with this one the next time, maybe drop it down to a kilo instead of two, I drank a good few of them with a mate at the weekend, and granted it's quite green still, but I had a pretty big headache from it. I'm putting that down to the sugars at this point. Taste is very good though.
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    Last post by EoinMag
    16 years ago
16. Before and after boil OG

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    First post by joeleicester, 16 years ago

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    I`m sure its on here somewhere but I`m not sure how to work it out. I hope to get my first biab on the go this weekend, I`ve scaled a recipe down as I`ve only got a 15 litre pot. If I start with a 12 litre preboil volume and gravity og of say, 1035 and boil for an hour with my hops, if I was to end up with a volume of around 9.5 litres how do I estimate what sort of gravity I will end up with.
    I`m not bothered about such a low volume I end up with for a first go in case its ends up tasting a...

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    Sounds like a positive outcome Joe.
    
    Your beer will clear, just give the yeast some time to do it's job.
    
    Patience Grasshopper
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    Last post by hashie
    16 years ago
17. Annoying things in brewing and their solutions.

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    First post by PistolPatch, 16 years ago

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    [I wrote a post here a few weeks back which hashie thought should have its own thread. Until now though I couldn't work out how to title and word it. I hope I have got it somewhat right hashie. Here you go :)...]
    
    I often think there is not enough talk on the annoying, complex or time-consuming aspects of brewing. We often concentrate on unimportant things such as increasing efficiency by 1% instead of looking at the things that really cost us like poor equipment or the labour-intensive...

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    Starsan and Evaporation.
    
    I use Starsan and am very happy with it. I don't Fear the Foam but I do rotate it with other (One step) type sanitizers. I can see bugs growing resistant to sanitizers. I had a cube go bad on me recently and I can't say if it was my sloppy sanitizing or a weak solution. I would blame (ME) first. I am going to brew a Black IPA today and I don't want a repeat of a wasted brew day. I may get wasted but not my beer!
    
    As to evaporation I maintain a very vigorous boil. As...
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    Last post by EoinMag
    16 years ago
18. 45L batch in 60L pot

    11 Replies 15429 Views

    First post by themiller, 16 years ago

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    I am hoping to do a 45L batch in a 60L pot - based on the setup volumes spreadsheet the required volume is 65.72 L - Can I plan to hold back 10L (or so..) when mashing and then add it back prior to boiling?
    
    If I do, I should I just add the water in as is, or should I do a sparge with it?
    
    thx.

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    When I posted I started writing in gallons, then I realized that most people here talk in litres (which quite frankly as a Canadian I am more comfortable with), but obviously didn't change the title completely.
    
    In the end I did not end up doing it this way - I did two batch back to back, made for a long day, but allowed me to better streamline my process as they were only batch 3 & 4.
    
    They are both sitting in my primary now, bubbling away - blew my airlocks unfortunatly and had to put a blow...
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    Last post by themiller
    16 years ago
19. Hot break. Skim it on not?

    7 Replies 11480 Views

    First post by wizard78, 16 years ago

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    Just been pondering my brewing process and one of the questions I have is when the wort comes to the boil and you get a foam up ( I am assuming this is hot break :? ) what does everybody do? Do you skim it? If so is it important to get it all? Or do you just let it go?
    Cheers guys. ;)

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    I think Bob has again hit the nail on the head, when folks line up for your beer then you know you're doing at least some things right! :P
    
    I used to skim religiously, but having sacrilegiously tried a few without, it seemed to make no discernible difference. I still skim the odd one now and then, but only opportunistically.
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    Last post by Ralph
    16 years ago
20. Efficiency?????

    12 Replies 17750 Views

    First post by wizard78, 16 years ago

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    Hi everyone,
    I put down my 2nd brew this weekend, an Aussie pale ale.
    Grain Bill was 2.2 kg of Traditional Ale and 0.12 kg of Wheat malt. Bittered to about 24 with POR (including the small yeild from my own hop bine :D ).
    The thing I'm a little baffled about is my efficiency. My pre boil estimate with the biabrewer spreadsheet and beersmith was 1.031 and I got 1.034, which I thought was good efficiency, I think about 85%, however my post boil gravity was 1.046 with a target of 1.050.
    I know...

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    Sorry about the slow reply hashie - kept getting side-tracked :) and I didn't know what to write!
    
    I have never had dough balls!
    
    I'd like to hear more from people who had but that will probably jinx me - lol. The only advice I can offer is again to not worry about the figures on a single brew. I wrote a post a minute ago about how us brewers often start to rely/depend on our eyes instead of our mouths. I think I am only just starting to get out of that trap.
    
    Are you in it now?
    
    LOL,
    Patch
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    Last post by PistolPatch
    16 years ago
21. Hop bags, boil time..

    5 Replies 9460 Views

    First post by themiller, 16 years ago

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    Hi,
    
    I'm still trying to figure out my evaporation rate, so my thought is to boil my wort until I get to the right volume (should be somewhere between 60 and 90 min)... the only problem I have is with the hop schedule... and on this I am wondering about using hop bags... If I put hops in a bag @ 90 min, and take out at 30 min, is that the same as a 60 minute addition?

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    Thanks guys - you all confirmed pretty much what I figured but couldn't find anything to support on Google..
    
    Cheers..
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    Last post by themiller
    16 years ago
22. Can someone explain this recipe to me in BIAB terms :)

    6 Replies 9971 Views

    First post by redlegger, 16 years ago

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    Hey everyone,
    Thinking of brewing this wheat style beer in the next couple of weeks, however im a bit confused at the brew process
    
    The brew notes are as follows
    As copied from Protz and Wheelers' 'Brew Classic European beers at home'. Great beer, very similar to Schneider Weisse. Won best Wheat beer at Bitter & Twisted Festival 2007, even though still undercarb'd, with 40 points each from two BJCP-skilled judges. 50°C mash-in, but only for 20 min. 60 minute rest at 63°C. 120 min boil....

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    No worries Brad! :)
    
    Nb. Probably best young that one, it is a Weißbier after all. I'm quite interested by that recipe (also by the totally different style) and I'm usually a die- hard ESB fancier! Schneider make a very decent Weißbier, IMO, well worth replicating or approximating. It will most certainly benefit from a protein rest, hope it goes well!
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    Last post by Ralph
    16 years ago
23. I finally did my first Biab - Yay!

    22 Replies 27153 Views

    First post by wizard78, 16 years ago

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    Well, after a couple of months of collecting equipment, ingredients, and finally getting some spare time(which ended up being cut short :evil: ) I finally put down my first Biab :D
    I brewed NRB's all Amarillo APA and I used the mini biab stovetop method with my 19L big-dub pot.
    It went fairly well, I'd like to say it went great but there were some issues starting from when I scaled the recipe and scaled it wrong. I did this before the Biabrewer calculator was available.
    I ended up juggling...

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    Sounds like you got it sussed goldy! Check out THIS CALC Usually does taste a little bitter at first. What was your recipe?
    Lloydie
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    Last post by LloydieP
    16 years ago
24. First BIAB - think i stuffed it up somehow

    27 Replies 31591 Views

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    First post by redlegger, 16 years ago

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    Hey guys, Here is run down of my first brew day yesterday, please analyze and give constructive criticism :)
    
    OK, recipe i used was Smurto's Ale from the AHB website
    
    Weyermann Pilsner 2.4KG
    Weyermann Pale Wheay 0.8KG
    Weyermann Munich 1 0.8KG
    Weyermann Caramunich 0.25 KG
    
    Amarillo Hops
    20G @ 60Mins
    15G @ 10Mins
    15G @ 5Mins
    
    OK, so this is what i did.
    
    Added water to kettle (33.25 Litres, hopefully to finish with 19L for the keg, figures done using the spreadsheet on biabrewer.info), bought up...

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    That's the spirit, this research is thirsty work, eh?!
    
    Probably is CCing that's helping to clear it up, not that I'm a kegger though. Any chill haze though?
    
    Good luck with the amber! :)
    27 Replies
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    Last post by Ralph
    16 years ago