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Homemade Secondary
Yay!
The carboys arrived and they are perfect! Only thing is that we can’t find a 50mm bung as the bottle necks are huge!
So I did a little DIY to get the airlock into the fermenter using the original cap 🙂
Cascadian Dark Ale
As I have said before, I love dark beer, and I have been fascinated by an American style beer called a Cascadian Dark Ale.
Many of the ingredients are almost impossible to source in South Africa, so when I found an example of the style, being brewed with Coopers Kits, I had to try it. This beer finished at 1056. Yeast was pitched at 21 deg Celsius.
The recipe requires:
- Coopers Dark Ale Kit x 2
- Coopers Light Dry Malt x 1
- Cascade Hops
- Summit Hops
- Safale US-05 Yeast
The method requires the following:
1. Two days before brew day create a yeast starter using the Safale US-05. I prepared a 1.2 litre starter as it would end as a high gravity beer.
2. On brew day, add both cans of Coopers dark ale to warm water.
3. Sterilise all equipment properly.
4. Add the DME to a large pot, and add 2 litres of water, and bring to the boil.
5. Add the two cans to the fermenter.
6. Add 30g each of the Cascade hops and summit, and boil for 5 minutes.
7. Strain the boiled DME / Hops into the fermenter, and rinse with clean water.
8. Top up the fermenter to the 23 Litre mark.
9. Pitch both the yeast starter and both the packets of yeast.
10. Fit the airlock and seal the fermenter.
Below are some pictures from brew day.
SA on Tap
We spent the day at SA on Tap at Brightwater Commons. We had a chance to sample some excellent South African craft beers.
Some of the best beers, which stood out for us were, The Copperlake Ale, the Copperlake dark Lager and the winner of the day, the Cockpit Brewhouse Spitfire English Pale Ale.
Overall the day was great, the atmosphere was relaxed and very enjoyable, and we may have been a tad too fermented to drive by the time we left.
Brewing a Bock – Part 3
Just a quick update, it has been almost 2 weeks since I brewed the Bock.
The fermentation has slowed down to almost nothing, so I have taken another reading and we are at 1012.
Colour is looking great, and then taste is a little surprising, but I am not judging it yet, as it is very young.
Brewing a Bock – Part 2
Just a quick update on the Bock. The temparature holds at between 12-14 deg Celsius. This seems to be ideal.
Fermentation looks stable, and the Krausen ring has collapsed. A huge amount of sediment is starting to form at the bottom of the fermentation vessel.
Brewing a Bock – Part 1
I have always enjoyed darker beers, mainly stouts. After completing my previous lager brew, I decided that the next try should be a dark beer.
I bought a Black Rock Bock kit from Brewcraft SA and decided to use the Dark Malt Extract instead of DME.
Two days prior to brew day, I started preparing my yeast starter. The starter is prepared by using 1 liter of RO water and bringing is up to the boil. Â Once the water boiled, I added DME to the mix at a rate of 10g / 100ml of water. I boiled the solution for a couple of minutes, taking care not to boil over.
The mixture was then moved to an ice bath where I cooled it all the way down to 12 deg Celsius. As soon as the temperature was right, I added the yeast solution. The solution was left over night and topped up with another 200 ml of prepared DME solution. I could see that the yeast was very active and the packet was indeed viable, so the next phase was to prepare the brew!
Preparing this kit is very simple. You warm both cans in some hot water for 10 minutes to soften the contents.
Add 4 litres of boiling water to your fermenter, and empty the contents of the kit into the boiling water.
Add the malt extract and fill up to 23 litre mark. Wait for the temperature to cool to 15 deg Celsius, and pitch the 1.2 litre yeast starter.
The OG reading was 1042. The kit expects 1050.
The fermenter is currently in my wife’s cupboard as it has the ideal temperature for the SAFLager W34/70 yeast.
Ingredients:
