Fermentalist Blog

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.

Ok, Its been 2 days since I pitched in the second packet of dry yeast (pilsner kit yeast). Fermenter showed signs of pressure today but no real bubbling. With all that air now trapped  inside the fermenter it probably did expel CO2 but needed time to fill air gap again and build pressure. Took gravity reading and got quite a shock, 1012!! 😀 That is good news. Seems it has gone all the way in a lot faster than it should probably due to the high temperature (might pay for that in the form of off flavors…).

OG: 1050, FG: 1012 in 4 days. woha!

Roughly an abv of 5.5% (give or take a few temp variables etc). Sample from hydrometer tastes quite nice actually. Bit of a honey taste to it (not too much) but still tastes very young with lots of small bubbles in the sample. Gonna leave it to “age” a bit and clear up. It will cool down from the 23deg to about 16deg over the next few days. Will try and leave it for at least another week or so. Leaving it in the primary after fermentation stopped worked very well for the coopers ale.

Been 12 hours of no activity since bubling stopped at 48hrs. Sprinkled the pilsner kit yeast in and stirred gently. Fermenter stable at 24deg now.

Lets hope for some action.

36hrd after I pitched and the bubbling has completely stopped. Temp has dropped to 23deg nou but is stable. Gravity reading at 1030. Will raise temp a bit and see what happens. Probably due to sudden drop in temp from 28deg :/

Will take gravity reading again in 24hrs and compare.

🙁

The duvel seems to be going well and temp has come down to 24deg

After the first attempt at trying to brew up a lager kit failed quite miserably, I was very reluctant to try another beer kit and quite frankly very scared to try anything other than a kit. Somehow the guy at the LBS convinced me into a  fool proof Coopers Pale Ale kit (and some more gadgets of course 😉 ).

Having even very little experience in brewing helped a lot this time round. Got the temperature at exactly 22deg up to the 23 liter mark making sure to aerate the wort good for the yeast to kick off.

I used the Cooper’s yeast supplied with the kit despite what my LBS guy advised trying to do it by the book this time. I prepped the yeast starter by adding it to 22deg sterilized water and a teaspoon of dextrose and covering it up with foil. After an hour I could see the yeast starting to form some CO2 which was a good sign. Added it to the wort and off she went.

With a SG value of 1042 she cooked up a storm and started bubbling vigorously over the next 3 days. Bubbling became less and less and finally came to a complete stop after 5 days. With no means to check gravity reading (no tap installed on fermenting vessel) other than to open her up, I decided to wait a few more days. Apparently it also helps with the cleaning of the beer as I am not a big fan of adding beer finings. On day 10 it was go time! Took a gravity reading and the FG was at 1010. Perfect! Giving us a abv of 4.5%. Beer looks pretty clear in the test tube so will fenitely not be adding any finings to it.

All Bottled and of course sampled about a liter of it (you can never sample enough). Even the wife commented on the good taste. Quite bitter and still a bit young but all in all a very successful brew!

Next up will be the Duvel (Belgian strong ale) which will bring me one step closer to mashing and one step away from using kits.

– Regardt Kruger