Fermentalist Blog

— take 2 🙁

After a glorious failed attempt at brewing the Nut Brown Recipe I took a stroll through the world of mash temperatures and the debates around it. On my first attempt my mash temperatures were running from 70-72 deg C and caused a lot of un-fermentable sugars ending with a FG of 1032. Down the drain she went.

Armed with two thermometers for the second attempt started the mash at a very constant 64-66 deg for 90mins. The oats where roasted in the oven for a few minutes in a hope to acheive a roasty malty flavour to the beer without overwhelming the taste.

Got a very good and efficient boil. 2 Minutes from flame out I got a little creative (thanks to the all amarillo ale from a few months back) and decided to spice it up with some Cinamon. Added 3 heaped teaspoons of cinamon powder into a small cup of boiling water and added to the boil. The smell was awesome and would hopefully sustain throughout the fermentation.

Into the fermentor and fermented away vigorously boiling after only a few hours thanks to the 2l starter I prepared with the US S04 yeast.

Ended with a FG of 1015 giving me an estimate alc vol of 5.7%.

With all equipment sourced and tested we took on the task of the first biab.

The recipe was planned something like this on beersmith:

4KG Pale Malt

500g Caraaroma

60g East Kent Goldings Hops @ 60min

30g East Kent Goldings Hops @ 1 min

We decided to do a 90 min boil and 90 min mash instead. Strike temp was 66 deg c and mash temp was maintained at 65 deg c for the full 90min.

We started with 28l of water and at the end of the mash sparged with 2l of boiled water. After the mash the bag was raised and we started the “to squeeze or not to squeeze” debate. We saw by gently squeezing the bag a huge amount of wort came out (almost concentrated) and decided to get everything out.

Pre boil gravity was 1048.

When we started the boil we noticed that the urn self regulates at boil temp so the temp fluctuated a bit with the boil 🙁

Added the hops to the biol as per recipe. After the boil we used the self made chiller with iced water and got the wort chilled fro boiling temp to pitch temp in +- 20mins (very chuffed with this!! )

Post boil gravity was 1055.

We strained the cooled wort to the fermenter through a strainer and cloth to try and catch the hops and grain parts. Turned out to be quite a battle as the hops clog up the strainer very quickly risking contamination with the repeated rinsing of the strainer etc. Will definitely rather make a hop bag next time.

Ended with roughly 22l of wort.

Pitched the 1l starter of US-05 at 24deg and off she went. Only the next day we realized we got the recipe wrong and added 1kg of caraaroma instead of the prescribed 500g. No wonder the gravity readings were so high!

Started a coopers fruit salad.

1x australian pale ale kit
1kg dme
50g fruity hops (cascade)

Steeped the hops for 30mins. Mixed it all up and pitched the 1 day old yeast starter (muntons yeast)

Going to transfer to secondary in a few days and dry hop another 50g cascade hops and leave for a week or two.

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.

Been a week since bottling the duvel. Open one up at room temp and it has produced a lot of c02!! Cleared up icely with a lot of sediment. Tasting a lot better now. Malty with a strong hop flavour and aroma with a nice hint of honey to finish off. Definitely going to do another soon!

Duvel finished. Spend almost 2 weeks in primary. SG 1050 FG 1010.

Been 12 hours and on a steady 21 deg! Looking good!

Had a sample of a commercial wheat beer and must say it is quite nice. Completely different taste than an ale or lager and it does seem to have the potential to play around experimenting with different additions for a curious taste 😉

Having sampled some of the Mangrove Jack’s lager brewed by fermentalist n01 I was very impressed (with skill and product alike 😉 ) Seems ageing is thekey to a good tasting beer.

I got hold of a Mangrove Jacks Wheat beer kit and started to mix em all up. The kit called for 1KG of Copper Tun brew enchancer and I decided to add a little extra dry malt to the mix (300g).

SG meassured at 1050!

Having lots of ice and 2 thermometers on standby I made sure to pitch at 22deg or less this time. I used the Mangrove Jacks kit yeast supplied, sprinkled on the wort and stirred.

Set the heater to ensure a steady temperature of +- 21deg and off she went!

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.