Well the Kolsch is fermenting away, and when i say fermenting i mean fermenting!!! Its at 15c and the krausen is almost busting out of the glad wrap on my bunnings fermenter. I was worried about a slow fermentation because of the low temp, but this is crazy!

I can only put it down to two reasons:

1- Higher OG, I don't think I have had such a high OG in a brew yet.
2- When I was transferring from the cube to fermenter, I pitched the yeast after about 3 liters of wort had been transfered. I transfer the wort so it drops about 1.5 meters into the fermenter to aid in adding oxygen to the wort. Would this have mixed the yeast into the wort better aiding fermentation?

Ok who wants to try some beer?! I have convinved myself that I have some sort of infection that is causing an off flavour. It seems to be present in all my AG beers, not sure if it is diacetyl or not.... So PM your address and ill send you a PET bottle of beer, on the pretense that you get back to me with some feedback.

I can describe the flavour as sort of round sweet flavour almost reminds me of an orange, the two last ales I brewed seemed to have too much mouthfeel... have they not attenuated enough maybe?

I just went and did a side by side tasting of my last two brews and its both beers and am pretty sure its diacetyl, but its not what I would call butterscotch (yes I know that sounds weird but I cannot put it down to anything else.

Where are you based?

Recipes please? Might help deduct the off flavor cause.

Two If By Sea wrote:Recipes please? Might help deduct the off flavor cause.

Sorry about that, I suppose that would help wouldn't it!

This is one of the recipes, the others are on my lap top and will upload later on tonight.


Bright Ale

Grain
4kg JW Pilsner
1.2kg JW Vienna
.3kg Weyerman Carapils
.3kg JW Wheat

Hops (No Chill)
15g Cascade (7.5%AA) @ 25min
15g Amarillo (8.5%AA) @ 25min
15g Cascade (7.5%AA) @ Into Cube
10g Amarillo (8.5%AA) @ Into Cube
20g Cascade (8.5%AA) Hop Tea Into Primary
20g Amarillo (8.5%AA) Hop Tea Into Primary

1/2x Wirfloc Tab @ 15min
2x Packets Kit Yeast @ 15min


38litres @ 1.036 Pre Boil SG.

EoinMag wrote:Where are you based?

Perth Western Australia, a bit far from you unfortunately!

Definitely orange? The Amarillo will give you huge grapefruit/citrus flavor. I don't no chill or hop tea but late additions of Amarillo for chill brews will give you that. My buddy even makes a beer that tastes like grapefruit juice due to Amarillo. The flavor is often described as fruity and sometimes metallic.

PistolPatch wrote:Hi there OB,

I would take the beer around to Nev who lives close by. Also, on your next brews, don't use the Coopers kit yeast. Use S-05 next time for that recipe. Cheers.

G'day Mate

Yeah I'm planning on taking one around to Nev next time I get something off him, which hopefully will be next week. I don't know how the packet yeast got on there maybe from when I copied the original recipe, I use us05 on all my ales.

Two If By Sea wrote:Definitely orange? The Amarillo will give you huge grapefruit/citrus flavor. I don't no chill or hop tea but late additions of Amarillo for chill brews will give you that. My buddy even makes a beer that tastes like grapefruit juice due to Amarillo. The flavor is often described as fruity and sometimes metallic.

I am thinking now it may be the amarillo and that I don't actually like amarillo...

Ok so I had someone who knows about beer taste one of my beers, and it has diacytel. So I will ramp up the temp a tad post fermentation to hopefully overcome this!

Beachbum wrote:Yes I can imagine that diacetyl would be an off flavour in a more hop driven American Pale Ale. Personally I like D but only in a malty UK style bitter and sometimes try to force it deliberately by rushing through the fermentation with Ringwood yeast. If you are keen to track it down further maybe do a brew but use hops such as German Magnum for bittering followed by Styrian Goldings - will give you less citrus character than US West Coast hops and if you do get D it should blend in better with the flavours.

You have explained how I came to my conclusion it was diacetyl! After I was told that diacetyl can contribute to a light oily mouthfeel I thought "wait a minute... this is the mouthfeel and taste that I associate with some of the English Bitters I have tried!" That flavour obviously goes well with those types of beers, so maybe I need to have some diacetyl in my entry to the Iron Brew comp at the Sail and Anchor.

I usually rack to secondary, but I am thinking with the brew I pitched the yeast to on Thursday, there will be no secondary, I will let it ferment out to FG, raise the Temp to 20 degrees for a few days then dry hop for 4 days then crash chill. I have 2 Full kegs at the moment so it will have extra time to condition in the keg while the others are being drained.

I was a bit dissapointed to find out I had a flaw in my process, but quickly cheered up about it as I have a solution to a problem and my beers are going to be better! I have found most people in the brewing fraternity to be more than welcome to help others improve which is great and has bolstered my interest!

The mash is almost finished for my Iron Brew comp entry. It's my first time using roasted malts, the give such a nice aroma to the mash!

Has anyone used wyeast London ESB yeast? I have heard that it flocculates a little too well...

I've used the London and it does tend to drop out and leave a sweeter, lower attenuated beer. It is suggested to do a diaceytl rest and I did so I couldn't tell you how necessary it is.

The Wyeast 1968 took the 1.070 Beer to 1.017 in three days, It attenuated a it more than I thought (thought I was going to end up with 1.020 as I mased at 69degrees c). A sample from the fermenter tastes great. I've upped the temp for the diacetyl rest and swirled the beer around to get some yeast suspended again to eat up the diacetyl. Planning on bottling 6 or so long necks and then filling the keg, and leaving in the keg for a month before i start to drink it. I have a few mates with Dads from England who miss their English ales so I thought id try and get some feedback from them.

I am hopefully going to brew a Belgian White on the weekend!


Is anyone here a chef? I was looking for a recipe to piece together blue swimmer crabs (being that the crab season in Perth is starting to kick off) and one of my beers. I was thinking something along the lines of beer battered blue swimmer crab balls using an IPA in the batter. If anyone has any suggestions they would be appreciated...

That could be an idea Yeasty!

Ended up sitting down with a mate had a few pints of bottled Pale Ale, some fresh bread, vinegar, mayo. Made for a top notch dinner.

The bottled Pale Ale made me think of the off flavour that I have en picking up in my kegged Ales. The ale out of the bottle (in the bottle for around 3 months) is my best beer that I've drunk. I think I may be having issues with my cleaning and rinsing routine with my kegs. I have been using Home Brand Nappisan and it make have some sort of scent to it. I will try and find something unscented and rinse with hot water after cleanining to see if this helps.

I decided to make a stir plate.

I used
- Case from dicksmith
- Rare earth magnets
- Fan speed controller and fan from a computer store
- 12v adaptor
- Magnetic stir bar


Was pretty easy to put together and am happy with the results.

4.50 for the case
5.00 for magnets
20.00 for the power adapter (if I had of looked around the house a bit longer I would have found a suitable one but I was lazy)
5.00 for the case fan
5.00 for the stir bar
8.00 for the fan speed control

Approx 50 dollars, I had stuff like solder, soldering iron, glue, etc.. lying around. I could have kept the costs down as I found an old computer at my parents yesterday with a case fan and some magnets. So really taking out the adaptor, magnets and case fan you could do it for around 20 bucks.

I just checked Mr Malty's website and it should be a lot easier to build up my starters now! I will go from test tube to 500ml to 1.5l starter on the stir plate, where I have been going 500ml, 1000ml, 2000ml.