#18 - Ronk Torpedo [All Grain]

As I mentioned in brew #17, I got a lot of brewing presents for Christmas and this enabled me to buy the necessary equipment to transition to all grain brewing. My previous brew kettle was too small for full boils so I got a new boiler, mash tun and wort chiller. 

New All Grain Equipment and Ingredients

Another of my favourite beers is the Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. It has a relatively high alcohol content so can only really be drank sparingly. I only ever buy it as a treat or as the last beer of the night for 'dessert'. I found a clone for this recipe on one of the American brewing forums but I think that recipe is originally from BYO.

Mashing the grain

I first started by heating my strike water in the boiler and got all my grains ready. I poured 3 litres of boiling water from the kettle into the mash-tun to preheat it so that there wasn't too much of a temperature loss. 

Once my strike water was ready I emptied the mash tun and poured in the water. I then started adding the grain slowly while stirring frequently to ensure there weren't any dough balls or clumping of the grain. Once it was all added I gave it a good stir from the bottom to the top and into the corners to ensure an even temperature distribution. 

I then checked the temperature in each of the 4 corners and in the middle and the temperature was approximately 68 Degrees C (~153 degrees F).  I poured boiling water on the inside of the mash-tun lid which had cooled down in the mean time and closed the box. I put a folded heavy blanked over the box to ensure better insulation, this proved to be a useful addition as quite a lot of heat could be felt when putting my hand in between the blanked and the lid. 

Checking Mash Temperature

After a half an hour I checked the temperature of the mash and again after an hour. It didn't lose any more than 1 degree C/F over the mashing period. I was quite happy with this result as I would often read about brewers losing several degrees over the duration of their mash. 

I first got a jug, opened the tap slightly and began vorlaufing the first runnings. BeerSmith indicated that an initial sparge of 1 litre would be necessary using this liquid. Impressively it was quite accurate, as soon as I had accumulated 800ml of water, the wort had cleared sufficiently. I then gently (so not to disturb the grain bed) added this liquid back into the mash as it was quite cloudy and contained lumps of grain. 

I then opened the tap again to drain the first runnings into my old brew pot. I couldn't drain it into my boiler as it was in the process of heating the sparge water. Once the they were drained I closed the tap and emptied the sparge water into the mash-tun as I was doing a batch sparge as opposed to fly sparging. I have the mash a good stir from top to bottom to ensure all the grain got well mixed to wash out any residual sugars. 

First Runnings in the Boiler

The photo opposite shows the boiler containing the first runnings from the mash-tun. I left the sparge water to sit in the mash-tun for another 20minutes before collecting the rest of the wort and adding it to the boiler. 

The final boiling volume was just over 26 litres with about 3 litres being lost to evaporation and 4 lost to break material left in the end of the boiler. After finding the pre-boil gravity I found my mash efficiency to be about 61% which I was relatively happy with given that it was my first attempt at all grain. I will probably add an extra 500g of grain in future to counteract this inefficiency.  

This was my third brew in 3 days and yesterday I made an extract brew. The difference in the smell of the wort from grain compared to malt extract is unbelievable. The smell was fantastic and seemed very fresh. The whole process of mashing and boiling seemed physically cleaner overall as there was no messing around with grain bags for steeping or malt extract spilling all over the place. Usually the kitchen was a sticky mess after an extract brew but not after the all grain brew. All this was contained within the mash tun which was the only messy additional item to clean. Cleaning it in the bath seemed the easiest thing to do as I could use the shower head to wash down the sides etc.....

Ginger Beer, Ronk Island IPA and Ronk Torpedo IPA

The post boil gravity of the wort was 1071 so I would expect an alcohol content of at least 8% if the beer attenuates down to 1010 as it should with the WLP001 liquid yeast. The adjacent image shows the 3 brews from the last 3 days. I added a blow-off tube to the last brew as all grain batches are apparently known for their vigorous fermentations and the fermentation bucket is also quite small.

This recipe can be seen below:

Recipe: Ronk Torpedo IPA TYPE: All Grain
Style: American IPA
---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 19.0 EBC SRM RANGE: 11.8-29.6 EBC
IBU: 64.2 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 40.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.068 SG OG RANGE: 1.056-1.075 SG
FG: 1.014 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.018 SG
BU:GU: 0.946 Calories: 427.1 kcal/l Est ABV: 7.1 %
EE%: 62.00 % Batch: 19.00 l      Boil: 26.21 l BT: 60 Mins
Total Grain Weight: 6.80 kg Total Hops: 148.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
6.00 kg               Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (5.9 EBC)          Grain         1        88.2 %        
0.50 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         2        7.4 %         
0.15 kg               Munich Malt (17.7 EBC)                   Grain         3        2.2 %         
0.15 kg               Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         4        2.2 %         
Name              Description                  Step Temperature  Step Time       
Mash In           Add 20.23 l of water at 72.5 66.7 C            60 min          
---SPARGE PROCESS---
>>>>>>>>>>-RECYCLE FIRST RUNNINGS & VERIFY GRAIN/MLT TEMPS: 22.2 C/60.0 C
Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.93l, 14.35l) of 75.6 C water
---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.057 SG Est OG: 1.068 SG
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
35.00 g               Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           5        53.5 IBUs     
0.25 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              Fining        6        -             
28.00 g               Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           7        2.1 IBUs      
28.00 g               Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           8        8.5 IBUs      
---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 01/01/2012 - 4.00 Days at 19.4 C
Secondary Start: 05/01/2012 - 10.00 Days at 19.4 C
Style Carb Range: 2.20-2.70 Vols
---NOTES------------------------------------
Mash at 67 C,Ferment at 20 C,Dry hop for 10 days to 2 weeks

#17 - Ronk Island IPA [Extract]

My favourite type of beer at the moment is the IPA (India Pale Ale). I like it because it is relatively light in terms of malt flavour and heavy in terms of hop bittering and aroma. One brand of commercial IPA which has got my attention again and again is Goose Island IPA. I decided to make a clone of this beer using a modified extract recipe from one of the American brewing websites. It was modified due to availability of hops and grain in my main home brew supplier.  

Ingredients for Kit, Extract and All Grain Brews

Over Christmas I got plenty of brewing equipment and vouchers so I decided to finally make the transition to All Grain brewing.

This brew would probably be my last extract brew before I exclusively transition to all grain. The adjacent photo shows the ingredients for 3 brews (1016, 1017 and 1018) and pretty much represents my progress in learning brewing over the last 8 months.

Yeast Starter, Irish Moss and Hops

I made a yeast starter for this brew using Danstar Nottingham yeast. I made this with a small amount of malt extract and hops. The dust from the pellet hops can actually be seen on the krausen on top of the starter. 

I boiled the brew with my new boiler which is just a fermenter bucket with a 2kW (240V) kettle element and a hop strainer. The 2kW element is sufficient to achieve a good rolling boil but it takes quite a while to reach this point. A great improvement would be the addition of a second element to speed up the boiling process and then turn it off once a rolling boil starts. This addition would save nearly an hour on brew-day! The hop strainer consists of a copper pipe covered in holes which is then connected to a tap in the side of the boiler. This strainer simply does not work if pellet hops are used, I tried to use it and not even a drop came out it was blocked too badly. It works perfectly when only leaf hops are used. 

Steeping Grains

 The recipe calls for 3 different types of grain, 2 of which need to be mashed (Wheat and Munich Malt) and 1 which only needs to be steeped (Crystal). The recipe doesn't say that they need to be mashed so they are really only contributing some flavour. I decided to try and get a bit of conversion going and left all the grain steeping for an hour at approximately 67 degrees C (152 degrees F). 

As can be seen from the photo, the colour is beginning to change due to the contribution from the crystal grains. I found that the other grains were making the beer cloudy more than anything else which was probably mainly starch as there was not enough base grain for a good conversion to take place.  

Once the grains were steeped for an hour I brought the wort back up to boiling and started the timer for the hop additions. The hops were added as per schedule along with the Irish moss. I think I added too much Irish moss as there was a huge amount of break material generated while the wort was cooling. As stated earlier, the hop strainer was instantly blocked from the volume of material which must have taken up between 4 and 5 litres at the bottom of the boiler. I siphoned out the wort into the fermenter and it eventually got blocked once the wort drained to the same level as the break material. I got 18 litres instead of the anticipated 19 litres so I have updated the boiler losses in BeerSmith to take this into account.

The recipe for this brew can be found below:
Recipe: Ronk Island IPA TYPE: Extract    Style: American IPA

---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------
SRM: 21.6 EBC SRM RANGE: 11.8-29.6 EBC
IBU: 66.0 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 40.0-70.0 IBUs
OG: 1.060 SG OG RANGE: 1.056-1.075 SG
FG: 1.014 SG FG RANGE: 1.010-1.018 SG
BU:GU: 1.093 Calories: 427.1 kcal/l Est ABV: 6.1 %
EE%: 70.00 % Batch: 19.00 l      Boil: 26.21 l BT: 60 Mins
Total Grain Weight: 4.20 kg Total Hops: 105.00 g oz.
---MASH/STEEP PROCESS------MASH PH:5.40 ------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
0.50 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)    Grain         1        11.9 %        
0.35 kg               Munich Malt (17.7 EBC)                   Grain         2        8.3 %         
0.35 kg               Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)                Grain         3        8.3 %         
---SPARGE PROCESS---
Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------
Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.050 SG Est OG: 1.060 SG
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
3.00 kg               Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC)             Dry Extract   4        71.4 %        
37.00 g               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min     Hop           5        42.7 IBUs     
38.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           6        15.2 IBUs     
1.00 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 20.0 mins)              Fining        7        -             
22.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           8        5.7 IBUs      
8.00 g                Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           9        2.5 IBUs      
---FERM PROCESS-----------------------------
Primary Start: 01/01/2012 - 4.00 Days at 19.4 C
Secondary Start: 05/01/2012 - 10.00 Days at 19.4 C
Style Carb Range: 2.20-2.70 Vols

#15 - Ronk Christmas Bock [Extract]

Since its getting close to the festive season I went searching for a Christmas beer that sounded tasty. Seeing as I was still quite new to extract brewing and I had just started using BeerSmith (#14), I went looking on their website for a recipe. I went through the various recipies and came across "Happy Holidays Ale" which attracted my attention due to the simplicity of the ingredients and the addition of a speciality grain called 'Special B Malt'. It was great to see something that wasn't the same old iteration involving crystal grains.

Steeping grains

As was the case in the previous brew (#14), some of the ingredients were not available in the home brew store. I had to substitute the grains with something so I literally guessed that Carafa Special I Roasted Caramalt would do the trick. 

The resulting taste of this brew has been very good. Fairly good head retention which I reckon could be improved a lot with the addition of some flaked Oates. As it was a Christmas beer I would have liked a bit more of the cloves and cinnamon to come through. They were very much in the background and I couldn't detect them. The next time I think I would double their addition size to increase their potency. The hops come through very well in aroma and taste. They are not overpowering but are still upfront enough to be enjoyable. Overall a recommended recipe. :) 

Recipe: Ronk Christmas Bock TYPE: Extract

Style: Fruit Beer/Bock

---RECIPE SPECIFICATIONS-----------------------------------------------

SRM: 31.3 SRM SRM RANGE: 5.0-50.0 SRM

IBU: 21.4 IBUs Tinseth IBU RANGE: 5.0-70.0 IBUs

OG: 1.059 SG OG RANGE: 1.030-1.110 SG

FG: 1.013 SG FG RANGE: 1.006-1.024 SG

BU:GU: 0.365 Calories: 169.1 kCal/12 oz Est ABV: 6.0 %

EE%: 72.00 % Batch: 5.02 gal      Boil: 3.69 gal BT: 60 Mins

---WATER CHEMISTRY ADDITIONS----------------

Taste of Christmas! 

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

3.96 gal              Dublin, Ireland                       Water         1           -             

Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort

---BOIL PROCESS-----------------------------

Est Pre_Boil Gravity: 1.088 SG Est OG: 1.059 SG

Amt                   Name                                                 Type           #        %/IBU         

6 lbs 9.8 oz          Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM)                  Dry Extract   3        85.7 %        

2.00 oz               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 45.0 min           Hop           4        19.3 IBUs     

0.45 kg               Honey (Boil 45.0 mins)                         Other         5        -             

1.00 tsp              Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins)                    Fining        6        -             

4.00 Items           Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 mins)      Spice         7        -             

2.00 tsp              Vanilla (Boil 10.0 mins)                         Spice         8        -             

0.25 tsp              Cloves (Ground) (Boil 10.0 mins)           Spice         10       -             

0.25 tsp              Cinnamon (Powdered) (Boil 10.0 mins)   Spice         9        -             

1.00 oz               Cascade [4.30 %] - Boil 5.0 min            Hop           11       2.1 IBUs      

#14 - 60 Minute IPA (Continually Hopped) [Extract]

Ingredients for first extract recipe

After brewing with kits and experiments I finally moved up the ladder to extract brewing. I purchased a small 4 gallon stock pot and finally got round to using BeerSmith to its potential! My first brew was initially meant to be a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA clone based on this recipe but none of the Irish home brew stores had all the hops so I had to substitute. I think most hops were substituted quite well other than the Amarillo Hops which seem to be quite unique. I also had to get a slightly different type of grain (Crystal 60L) for the same reason as the hops. I'm thinking that with the amount of substitutions it is no longer a clone. :)

Steeping the grains, Crystal 

Initially I brought the water up to 65 degrees and put 

in the grains to steep for around 20 minutes. As my stove is so slow to heat the water, I was able to turn it down to the lowest output and that kept the temperature relatively constant. The colour change from a couple of minutes of steeping the grains can be seen in the adjacent image. 

After steeping, I removed the grains and didn't sparge them although I have read in several places that you should, so I might do that the next time. I then brought the water to a boil which took AGES due to the poor cooker. The length of time that it takes to bring it to a rolling boil really made me understand while all the yanks are using propane burners or huge elements in their kettles. It really is a time saver to have a decent source of heat.  

Once boiling, the endurance test began. The recipe calls for the wort to be continuously hopped for the full 60 minutes. I had two timers going, one for the total 60 minutes and the other which went off every minute to signal a hop addition. The idea behind this is to add a few pellets/cones every minute so that you end up spreading out the whole lot over 60 minutes. I was extremely paranoid about a boil-over so I had 2 tea towels ready to grab the handles and take it off the head at the first signs of boiling over. Thankfully the boil-over never really happened, probably due to the length of time it takes for the cooker to bring the wort to the boil.  

Once the 60 minutes had elapsed, I took the pot off the head and lowered the pot into a sink of cold water. I then ran down to my local store and got 2 bags of ice which I then dumped into the pot. The ice is surprisingly effective at getting the wort down to pitching temperatures. I have seen arguments about putting ice about whether it is a good idea or not but it is safe to assume that the ice is completely sterile as otherwise people would be getting sick when consuming it with their drinks.

High Krausen!

It took about 5 minutes for the wort to cool once the ice was added so I then transferred it to a freshly sanitised fermenter through a couple of sieves. There was a lot of debris in the wort due to the large amount of pellet and whole hops so the sieves got clogged repeatedly. I topped up the fermenter to the 19L mark with cold tap water and pitched the yeast. I had previously made a 1L starter with a sachet of Safale US-05 and some malt extract. Due to my experience of using kits I wasn't familiar with the necessity of using a blow-off tube.....It was necessary this time.....for several days in fact! Part of the problem was due to the fact that the capacity of the fermenter was only 23L (as opposed to the normal 30L) so the head-space was quickly filled with Krausen. It is due to reactions like this that I have added this  brewing t shirt  to my Christmas list. :)

#12 - Brewers Choice Traditional IPA [Extract]

Since my original coopers IPA in brew #3 had completely run out I decided it was time for another IPA. I so impressed with the process of making the Weissbier in brew #11 that I went with another Brewers Choice kit. When making kits you never have any experience of steeping grains (at least not initially) but this IPA had several types of grains to be steeped and a couple of types of hops. They were all contained in their own tea bag things but you could smell that "IPA smell" from one of the grain bags and I was really impressed with that. I didn't realise that certain types of grain could have such an affect on the taste.

Please excuse the apparent filth of the cooker but it was rusting before I moved in here. :P  I have the grains and hops steeping in a pot of boiled water which is sitting on a wooden board to keep in some of the heat. This steeping is done 3 times. The coopers malt extract is also heating up in the back along with a Alexander's Pale Kicker which I later dumped as it was old and smelt disgusting.

When bottling the brew I used dextrose for the fist time without a bottling bucket. If there is one method that makes the misery of bottling worse then this has to be it. It was an awful mess, when adding the dextrose to the beer, it foamed out of the bottles. When adding the dextrose first it then foamed meaning it took twice as long as it required waiting till the foam died down. I was also conservative with the amount I put in with slightly less than 1 teaspoon. I opened a bottle earlier in the week and it wasn't carbonated yet which has quelled my previous worry that the whole batch would start exploding. : /

I will update this as the picture changes.


Stats:
Started - 28.8.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 08.09.11
Bottled - 08.09.11
Code - 1012
Yeast Brand - B.C Yeast
Yeast Code -  DZB 6G
Y-Temp -  22.0
Beer/Product Type -   Brewers Choice Traditional IPA
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.5kG Coopers LME Amber
Volume -  23.0 L
OG - 1058 
FG -  1017
Proof  - 6.00 (Including 0.5% Priming)

#11 - Brewers Choice Bavarian Weissbier [Extract]

This brew was my 2nd attempt at making a beer that had that sweet distinctive Weissbier taste that I had hoped to emulate in brew #2. The key ingredient that was missing in that brew to create that taste was the correct type of yeast. This was not a problem with this kit. The Brewers Choice kits are also a bit more 'involved' than the traditional kit type as they have separate hops, grains, DME and an additional malt extract which you buy separately. 

I chose to buy an LME(wheat) for this brew as it was recommended as a means of getting the highest quality possible out of the kit. I also made my first yeast starter which I'm sure wasn't made correctly as I just used a bit of sugar and water to make it. I left it for 4 or 5 hours and it had grown quite a bit but I have no idea whether it was too much, too little and I wasn't bothered checking that website that tells you the correct amount of yeast to pitch into wort. Either way it was fine and it really does reinforce what I read on a forum recently, "its quite hard to screw up a batch of beer". I would tend to agree with this when kits are concerned. My tract record of venturing outside kit territory has been fraught with failure so far! :) 

The end result was very positive, it had 'the' taste that I was looking for and the first taste induces that "mmmm German beer" mental comment when you drink it.


Stats:
Started - 28.7.11
Racked -  28.8.11
Finished - 2.8.11
Bottled - 14.8.11
Code - 1011
Yeast Brand - Muntons Yeast
Yeast Code - NA
Y-Temp - 21.0
Beer/Product Type -   Brewers Choice Bavarian Weissbier 
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.5kG Coopers Wheat
Volume -  24.0 L
OG - 1055
FG -  1018
Proof  - 5.46 (Including 0.5% Priming)

#10 - Basic Mead [Extract]

While the other Mead #7 was brewing I was eager to get another Mead in the pipeline given that a Mead pipeline can be measured in years rather than months for beer. I had been reading around and felt that the previous brew had been unnecessarily complicated. I reduced the amount of ingredients and made my own guide to brewing the must so that it would be clearer in future. 

Simple Mead Recipe

•  1.2kg     pure raw honey                  (for sweet, stronger Mead)

• 5              Litres spring water            (Bottled, not tap unless chlorine free)

• 1              tsp. yeast nutrient            (Citrix Additive)

• 1              tsp. Nutmeg                       (main flavour)

• 5              tsp Mellon balls                (stuff for yeast to eat)

• 3              slices lime                           (stuff for yeast to eat)

• 1/4          tsp. Irish moss                   (to clarify Mead)

• 1/2          packet yeast                      (ale yeast)

Bring 1.5L of water to the boil. Take off the heat, add the honey and stir in until dissolved. Add the nutmeg, yeast nutrient and put back on the heat. Skim off the protein scum as it forms and boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to prevent boil overs if necessary. Add Irish moss and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. More scum, protein and clumps will form due to the Irish moss. Skim all of this off. Take off the heat and add all of the fruit. Allow the liquid to cool for 60 minutes.  

Add 0.5L of cool water to a sanitised demijohn; this prevents thermal shock when hot liquid added. Using a funnel and sieve, pour the mixture into the demi john and top up the liquid to the 1 gallon mark leaving enough head space for the krausen to form. Fill a sink with water and ice and gently lower the demijohn into it. This will cool the mixture to a temperature which is suitable for pitching the yeast. Add the yeast once the temperature has dropped below 25oC. 18-20 oC is preferable if you have patience. Bung the demijohn and shake the mixture to mix the yeast and aerate the mixture. Insert air lock and store in a cool, dark location for a month before racking to secondary. 

OG should be in the 1090 – 1100 range, FG should be 1000 or less

I racked the yeast after one month and took a small sample for tasting. If you compare this sample to that from brew #7, it can be seen that this one is a lot cloudier. This is to be expected as it was only fermenting for 1 month and hasn't had the same amount of time to settle. The taste from this recipe was delicious and was completely unexpected this early on! I figure the sweetness was due to an unfinished fermentation and the fact that I used ale yeast this time instead of the nasty champaign yeast. In theory the ale yeast shouldn't be able to ferment to the same level and should begin to die at 8 or 9% volume?  I don't have full faith in that assumption as it didn't work to well with the cider in brew #4. 

I am considering stabilising the fermentation to maintain the flavour as I feel it tastes great now and doesn't need any more. I will leave it go for another month and rack it again and taste it again to see what it is like. If it is still ok I will stabilise and perhaps add some bentonite to clear it further before bottling. 

Stats:
Started - 11.7.11
Racked -  28.8.11
Finished - NA
Bottled - NA
Code - 1010
Yeast Brand - Coopers Ale Yeast
Yeast Code - 19310 IPA
Y-Temp - 25.0
Beer/Product Type -   Basic Mead
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.2kG honey + limited Flavours
Volume -  5L
OG - 1091
FG - NA
Proof  - NA

#9 - St. Peters Ruby Red Ale [Kit]

I was informed about this kit after seeing a couple of videos making the kit and later tasting it. I was impressed by the little bit of extra hops that they supplied and it fed my urges to have more control over my batches. The kit also came highly recommended from several sources so I decided to give it a shot after seeing it stocked in my local home-brew store. 

This brew is quite slow to ferment and it really needs to be left in the primary fermenter for a full 2 weeks as it took nearly a week for the beer to get from a FG of 1018 down to 1016. I had a similar experience to that in the tasting video as I opened a bottle after 2 weeks and was very underwhelmed. I had high expectations yet the head retention was quite poor but the taste was still quite nice. 

This image is after opening a brew almost 2 months after bottling, I think I got a bad leaky bottle as there was very little hiss when I opened the bottle (Coopers Plastic bottles). The head disappeared relatively soon but the taste was quite nice. The colour is pretty much as you would expect. I'm hoping that by the time I have the next beer tasting it will have "sorted itself out". :) Overall a nice brew and I would recommend it. 

Stats:
Started - 10.7.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 20.7.11
Bottled - 21.7.11
Code - 1009
Yeast Brand - St. Peters Premium
Yeast Code - XHZB6G
Y-Temp - 26.0 
Beer/Product Type -  St Peters Ruby Red Ale
Malt/Sugar Type - Rye Malt Extract, Barley Malt Extract, Hops
Volume -  23.0L
OG - 1044
FG - 1016
Proof  - 4.25% (Including 0.5% for priming)

#8 - Red Wine* [Juice]

At this point I decided I was confident enough to attempt a small red wine batch. I started looking for grape juice in my local supermarket but the closest I could find at the time was a juice which was 70% red grape with the rest a mix of raspberry and cherry. I also bought some blackberries for a late addition. 

Wine Recipe

Wine Recipe & Guidelines

• 1 tsp of allspice

• 550g Caster Sugar

• 4L Red Grape And Raspberry Cherry (Not From Concentrate)

• 500ml Bottled water

• 300g Blackberries  

Add the allspice granules to 500ml of water and allow it to boil for 10 minutes.Then add the sugar in portions while stirring.This will cause the sugar to dissolve into the solution.Leave this solution to boil for 5 minutes.  

Crush, juice or grind all of the blackberries into a pulp. Take the solution off the hot plate and add the pulp to the hot water and stir in gently. Put the solution back on the hot plate and bring to the boil then turn off the heat and take it off. 

Thankfully I didn't go to bed early the night I made this brew. It was the first time I have ever had to use a blow off tube. I was minding my own business, reading home-brew forums probably and I glanced over towards the freshly made brew (2 or 3 hours I would say). Sure enough grape and cherry trub as spewing out though the airlock! Normally I would have started having a heart attack at this point but thankfully my months of reading forums and watching YouTube videos finally paid off. The solution was to simply use a blow off tube and bottle of water which did the trick.

I recently tried the wine after letting it age in bottles for 2 months. It was bloody disgusting! That was what I get for using the last of the champaign yeast for this batch. I now officially HATE champaign yeast and will not buy it again and I really don't know why it is recommended for recipes above a normal wine yeast! The wine itself was very very slightly carbonated but it tasted like champaign which I don't really like at the best of times. Basically it was rocket fuel which homeless men one the street wouldn't even drink. Another batch down the drain unfortunately but valuable lessons learned.

Stats:

Started - 6.6.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 15.6.11
Bottled - 7.7.11
Code - 1008
Yeast Brand - Young's Champagne
Yeast Code - 28032013
Y-Temp - 24.0 
Beer/Product Type -  Red Wine
Malt/Sugar Type - Grape, Raspberry, Cherry & Blackberry Juice with 550g of sugar
Volume -  4.8L
OG - 1094
FG - 998
Proof  - 12.87%

#7 - Viking Mead [Extract]

Years ago, when I went to Wacken in Germany I was introduced to mead for the first time. It was absolutely delicious! From what I can remember it was definitely a sweet mead, which had a slightly red colour to it but I cant remember tasting any spices. I would speculate that it had low alcohol content (5% at a guess) as I drank a lot of it over several days and never really got drunk from it. My guess would be that it was racked to secondary with a load of cherries to give it the red colour.

I spent a lot of time searching around for a nice Mead recipe. There aren't that many sources of 'Viking' recipes and inevitably I came across a good recipe on one of the less well known mead websites. This recipe is for a 19L batch but I didn't want to brew something that large while having now idea how it would turn out. I instead attempted to scale back the recipe to suit a 5L batch.

The Ingredients for a 5L Batch of Mead

Mead Recipe

• 1.2kg pure raw honey (for sweet, stronger Mead)

• 5 Litres spring water (Bottled, not tap unless chlorine free)

• 1 tsp. yeast nutrient (Citrix Additive)

• 1 tsp. acid blend (combination malic/citric acid)

• 2 oz. sliced ginger root (1 finger's length)

• 1-2 whole cloves (optional, as desired)

• <1 vanilla beans (optional, as desired)

• <1 cinnamon (optional, as desired)

• 1 Allspice (optional, as desired)

• <1 crushed fruit (peaches, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, apple & others)

• 1/4 tsp. Irish moss (to clarify Mead)

• 1/2 packet yeast (Ale yeast )

The process of preparing the mead can be seen in the instructions on the original recipe but my main advice is don't try to make this in a 2L pot!  I ended up making the mead using 2 pots, I spilt bits of it everywhere and the entire kitchen and living room table was sticky for several days despite cleaning!

This is the stages of the mead over several months, it has a slightly red hue which goes away while the yeast is active during the initial fermentation and then is visible again once it beings to clear. In the 3rd image I was racking it for a 2nd time after 2 months ageing. It was at this point that I took my first sample.

It looks a a lot clearer in the glass than when it is in the demijohn but after the first taste I immediately regretted using the champaign yeast. It was extremely dry and I forgot to take a SG reading but I would guess it was at or below 1000 giving an alcohol content of over 12%. I don't think any amount of ageing is going to make this mead taste better. I am considering stabilising the fermentation and adding some dextrose to back sweeten but that mightn't be enough to save it. The spices mainly contributed to the aroma but it has definitely faded over time. I read somewhere that its sometimes recommended to make a 'spice tea' later and add it to the brew which I may consider the next time. Either way it is still ageing in the demijohn while I decide what to do with it.

Stats:

Started - 4.6.11
Racked - 7.7.11
Finished - NA
Bottled - NA
Code - 1007
Yeast Brand - Young's Champagne
Yeast Code - 28032013
Y-Temp - 26.0 
Beer/Product Type -  Viking Mead
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.2kg Honey + multiple flavours
Volume -  5L
OG - 1092
FG - NA
Proof  - NA

#6 - Coopers European Lager [Kit]

I tried this brew as I was looking to make some kind of light beer that didn't need the lime slice like brew#1 and wasn't as heavy as brews #3 or #5. I didn't like how mainstream it looked (I'm the type that judges a book by its cover) but I was willing to give it a chance. I made the brew at one of my beer tasting sessions with a load of friends. They were all curious to see the process so it made sense.

There was nothing out of the ordinary to report during the fermentation process of this beer.Although there was plenty to talk about from the bottling stage. I had previously primed all my bottles with 1 carbonation drop each while being aware that 1 drop is actually suited to 330ml bottles. For this batch I chopped a load of drops in half and put 1.5 drops into each bottle thinking it would be fine. It was fine.....kinda.... The beer was definitely over carbonated in the end which I didn't expect. I genuinely thought I was putting the perfect amount of sugar in and I had read in several places of others doing the same with positive results.

Instead I noticed that there had been "seepage" on some of the Grolsch bottles that I had stored the beer in. The pressure had obviously built up to such a degree that it had vented out through the swing top. I found this worrying and interesting at the same time. I did some searching around and found that it was indeed rare for Grolsch bottles to explode and this 'self venting' feature commonly noticed. I enjoy the 'POP' when opening a normal Grolsch bottle but opening the ones containing the lager was unbelievable. It was shocking how loud it was, it makes a room full of people go quiet!  :)  

I did let it age for much longer than I normally had done for previous beers.This was partly due to fear that a bottle would explode in my face if I disturbed it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the taste which was very refreshing and a little sweet which was a good thing. I don't know if I would bother brewing another Lager as I don't have any space or equipment to store it in cool temperatures for several weeks. I would probably make a pale ale instead. 

Stats:

Started - 4.6.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 11.6.11
Bottled - 12.6.11
Code - 1006
Yeast Brand - Coopers Lagar 
Yeast Code - 1011
Y-Temp - 20
Beer/Product Type -  Coopers European Lager
Malt/Sugar Type - 1.5kgCoopers Extract Light
Volume -  23L
OG - 1045
FG - 1013
Proof  - 4.8% (Including 0.5% for priming)

#5 - Muntons Premium Gold [Kit]

This was the most expensive kit that I had purchased to date but unlike any of the coopers kits, this one contains everything that you need in one box. There are two blank cans of hopped (LME) liquid malt extract in the box and a sachet of yeast. Its hard to tell if one of them is plain LME or not but the final flavour is so strong that it would lead me to believe that both are hopped. 

The recipe calls for more boiling water (3.5L) than I had normally being using (2L) for each kit. This increased the amount of time it took to cool the wort down to a point at which it was safe to pitch the yeast. I just put the fermenter into the sink with some ice water for an hour and that did the job, albeit slowly. 

I don't have any images of this brew after 1 week but it followed the same pattern as the IPA in brew #3. It tasted quite nice after 2 weeks and tasted fantastic after a month. I was very impressed with the kit although I did have higher expectations given the price. The flavour was much stronger than that of the IPA#3 which I wasn't expecting but was a welcome surprise all the same. 

Stats:

Started - 17.5.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 20.5.11
Bottled - 21.5.11
Code - 1005
Yeast Brand - Premium
Yeast Code - 15310W
Y-Temp - 24.5
Beer/Product Type -  Muntons Premium Gold 
Malt/Sugar Type - Dual Beer Can kit
Volume -  23L
OG - 1058
FG - 1020
Proof  - 5.6% (Including 0.5% for priming) 

#4 - Pomegranate Honey Cider [Juice]

I can't remember where I got this recipe for this brew but it was really an experiment and my first time to make a smaller batch in a 5Litre Demijohn. I felt a bit guilty that I was making all this beer and SWMBO only really drinks very specific brands of cider. So this was my attempt to make a drink that she would like and I got her to make most of it too. :)

Everything that I used for the recipe can be seen above. I made sure to get pure pressed juice that didn't have any preservatives as this doesn't agree with the yeast too well apparently. It wasn't that much expensive than the concentrate so all was fine there.

Unfortunately after this point everything went to complete shit. I forgot to boil the sugar and honey to pasteurise them and I just dumped the two of them in on top of the juice like an animal! This didn't seem to matter in the long term as no noticeable infection occurred as a result. I gave everything a big shake, checked the temperature, took the gravity reading and then WTF 1081 !!!!! All my gravity readings up until this point had been in the 1040 - 1050 region and this one completely blew it out of the water. I had been expecting it to be on the high side but not that high,  I read around on the internet and deluded myself into thinking it would be fine and the yeast would simply die in the high alcohol content.

It didn't die.

It kept fermenting all the way down to 1004 giving a final alcohol content of nearly 11%!!! I bottled it and thought it would be fine after 3 or 4 weeks 'aging' in the bottles. It wasn't fine. When I opened the first bottle I poured it out into a glass, I didn't even have to sniff the glass I could smell it from a distance. It smelt vile. The taste was out of this world in terms of disgusting things I had consumed! I gave some to SWMBO and I thought she was going to start crying the taste was that bad!

If I was ever to attempt this recipe in the future I would take gravity readings on the 3rd or 4th day of fermentation and see what the gravity was. When it got to a value that would give a 5% alcohol content I would then stop the fermentation by killing the yeast. Unfortunately I don't know how I would carbonate the bottles if I did this.

Stats:

Started - 15.5.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 28.5.11
Bottled - 30.5.11
Code - 1004
Yeast Brand - Coopers Standard Ale Yeast
Yeast Code - 15310W
Y-Temp - 22.5
Beer/Product Type -  4L Apple Juice, 07L Pomegranate Juice
Malt/Sugar Type - 300g Honey, 300g Sugar
Volume -  5L
OG - 1081
FG - 1004
Proof  - 10.8% (Including 0.5% for priming) 

#3 - Coopers IPA [Kit]

While getting into brewing I was simultaneously getting into craft beer. In fact it was during a few drinks in one of  my favourite pubs, Mulligans, where I decided to start brewing. Previous to this my only real taste of anything out of the ordinary was an occasional Erdinger, Paulaner or Hoegaarden.  I enjoyed these beers immensely of course but regarded them as a treat rather than something I would drink frequently. I was hoping to achieve an Erdinger-type taste with brew #2 and it was fine flavour-wise...Yet by the time it came to drinking it I had already been frequently drinking a massive range of hoppy beers while it was conditioning. I felt it tasted very bland (which I now unfortunately think of Erdinger now too) after experiencing the roller-coaster of flavour from the craft beers.

Getting to the point.... this was why I decided to brew an IPA which at the time and still is now, my favourite type of beer. Given that I was getting a bit snobby with my tastes I didn't want to settle for the "standard" coopers ale yeast and went for an apparently fancier 'Safale US-05'. I chose to use 1kg of dry malt extract which wasn't a bad decision but I feel that a future brew using 1.5kg of liquid malt extract would make a better brew with a higher alcohol content.

This is an image of the beer after 2 weeks in bottles. I was blown away by the taste and head retention after such a short period of time. This brew was one of the best kits of I made and one of the few I would make again repeatedly for a delicious session beer. I found that the hop flavour definitely faded over time. The last remaining bottles after a period of about 4/5 months seemed very lightly hopped when compared to the original taste I remember from the first month.

Stats:

Started - 13.5.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 16.5.11
Bottled - 16.5.11
Code - 1003
Yeast Brand - Safale US-05
Yeast Code - 022013IWB
Y-Temp - 24.5
Beer/Product Type -  Coopers Selection IPA
Malt/Sugar Type - Spraymalt Light 1kg
Volume -  24.0
OG - 1042
FG - 1016
Proof  - 4% (Including 0.5% for priming) 

#2 - Coopers Wheat Beer [Kit]

When I started with brewing I was extremely eager so I bought my 2nd brewing ingredients at the same time as buying the coopers kit. I got a couple of the lads over to give me a hand with this one as they were curious to see the process in action.

I was advised against using tap water by the local home brew store where I bought all the equipment as apparently the yeast doesn't like chlorine. I just buy 1 gallon containers of water in the local supermarket and it usually costs up to €5 for enough water to make up the 23L. 

After all the leaking (and straddling) issues with the previous batch I decided to pour boiling water on the seal around the lid. This softened up the rubber allowing it to be attached much tighter first time round. This took care of the problem for this brew but in subsequent brews it started leaking again despite this technique. I'm sure if I found some food safe lubricant it would do the trick but I have never seen it in any shops or home brew stores. 

This is an image of the brew after 1 week in the bottles, it is still very cloudy, has poor carbonation and non existent head as would be expected in this time frame. The only reason I opened it as I read good advice to drink your brew every week after it has been bottled to see how it is coming along and learn how it improves over time. This advice has proved very valuable so far. Its amazing how much difference a week can make!

Stats:

Started - 9.5.11
Racked - NA
Finished - 11.5.11
Bottled - 12.5.11
Code - 1002
Yeast Brand - Safebrew S-33
Yeast Code - 042011UVBE
Y-Temp - 23.5
Beer/Product Type -  Brewmaster Wheat Beer
Malt/Sugar Type - Malt Extract Wheat
Volume -  23.0
OG - 1057
FG - 1021
Proof  - 5.33 (Including 0.5% for priming) 

#1 - Coopers Mexican Cerveza [Kit]

This brew was my first foray into home brewing. It came with the older type of Coopers Beer Kit which has since been replaced with the newer, more simple design. I chose to go with this kit as it reduced the chances of forgetting something when starting your first brew and the instruction videos, both from Coopers and from Craig were a great start.

Coopers Home Brew Kit & Brew #2

Naturally being a complete beginner I simply followed the instructions and applied a lot of the tips from Craig's videos which document the process from start to finish very well. The only issue I had with the process was the difficulty of getting a good seal with the lid of the kit. For the first couple of days there was no bubbling from the airlock as the CO2 was being vented through the threads in the lid. With the help of SWMBO, who basically had to straddle the fermenter for grip,  I was able to tighten the lid! :)

Out of all my brews to date (13 at time of writing), this one was the only one to produce the Rhino Fart. I came home after work to find the apartment stinking of sulphur and rotten eggs. Being inexperienced, I immediately panicked thinking I had an infection! A quick search online revealed this to be a common occurrence and hence the name. This smell thankfully dissipated after a few days.

This is the image of the brew after 1 week of bottling. The lack of head, carbonation and clarity was expected but it didn't smell great. It still kinda smelt like sulphur and a bit like cider at the same time. It tasted a bit like cider too but these tastes and smells faded over time and it ended up being a great brew. I think the addition of light malt extract instead of the brew enhancer would improve this brew significantly.

I have an excel document which I use to keep track of all the brews so at the end of every post I will include this information about each brew. The names are all purposely small to save as much space as possible in the document.

Stats:

Started - 2.5.11

Racked - NA

Finished - 8.5.11

Bottled - 9.5.11 

Code - 1001

Yeast Brand - Coopers Standard 

Yeast Code - 21610W

Y-Temp - 26.0Deg

Beer/Product Type - International Mexican Cerveza 

Malt/Sugar Type - Brew Enhancer 2

Volume  - 25.0L

OG - 1040 

FG - 1012

Proof  - 4.25 (Including 0.5% Priming)