Brew 18- Just when you thought it was saf(ale)

Just when you thought it was saf(ale)

(ALE) AUS-Golden Ale- American Pale Ale
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 47.0
Total Grain (kg): 9.631
Total Hops (g): 118.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.048 (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.72 %
Colour (SRM): 7.0 (EBC): 13.8
Bitterness (IBU): 27.8 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
----------------
5.990 kg Pilsner (62.19%)
3.020 kg Wheat Malt (31.36%)
0.454 kg Munich II (4.71%)
0.091 kg Crystal Medium (0.94%)
0.076 kg Chocolate (0.79%)

Hop Bill
----------------
18.0 g Galaxy Pellet (14.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 12 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
40.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 15°C with Safale S-04

Recipe Generated with BrewMate
Beauty Duane
http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/pages/Toukley.html

Brew 17- You take the high road and...

Irish Red Ale

Total Grain (kg): 4.180
Total Hops: 4.180g + see below
Original Specific Gravity : 1.041
Final Gravity: tba
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): tba (expecting 4.03%)
Boil Time mins: 60

Grain Bill
3.670 kg Pale Ale Malt (Bairds) 87.8%
0.170 kg Crystal Medium (Bairds) 4.07%
0.170 kg Crystal Pale (Bairds) 4.07%
0.170 kg Roasted Barley 4.07%

Hop Bill
40.00g East Kent Golding Pellet 4.7% @ 60mins (Boil) (1.7 g/l
Single step Infusion at 66C for 60 minutes
Yeast: 10 gms Safale S-04 English Ale
Fermented at 18C*

Recipe generated with BrewMate
Thanks Duane

http://www.ambernectar.com.au
http://www.centralcoasthomebrew.com/
http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2011/08/24/irish-red-ale-recipes/

Spirit 3- Drip, Drip, Drip...

By the light of the silvery moonshine still!
Two batches completed. You MUST have plenty of time available to make shine! Lucky there was beer!! We have RECYCLED old beer, wine and thrown it all in the 'WASH'!
More soon ...

Brew 16- TEN Degrees of Fermentation... Stella

(LAGER) BELGIUM-Stella Artois- Belgian Blond

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 71.0
Total Grain (kg): 15.435
Total Hops (g): 93.22
Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.013 (°P): 3.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.91 %
Colour (SRM): 3.3 (EBC): 6.4
Bitterness (IBU): 20.6 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes): 60
Grain Bill
----------------
15.435 kg Pilsner (100%)
Hop Bill
----------------
50.0 g Pride of Ringwood Pellet (9.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
43.2 g Saaz Pellet (3.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 65°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 10°C with Saflager S-23

Dry Hopped (Day 4)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (coffee plunger)

Recipe Generated with BrewMate
Beauty Duane
http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/pages/Toukley.html

Brew 15- Kegging Day is the day we like the best!

WOW the aroma is FANTASTIC. *see earlier post on Brew 15 for details of Dry Hopping.Kegged up the brew, charged with CO2, released and charged again to evacuate air/O2 from kegs.
The whole process is free of grunts, perspiration and angry/sad faces. IT CAN'T BE THIS EASY?

* Final specific gravity (FG) 1.010

Irrigation to Filtration

Bunnings, it's not just for BBQ sausage sandwichs ... this inline garden irrigation filter was converted to distiller spirit filter! The internal cage holds the active carbon and the distiller spirit is passed through the filter several times (*although once would be OK). We now have two filter systems that WORK! The rest is ... history!

Triple Filtered! Spirit 1

Invention/Creativity? We emptied our Spirit 1 into an empty keg and then used CO2 to force the spirit through an 'under sink' water filter, 1 micron sediment filter cartridge and a ½ micron carbon block filter cartridge. We adapted the tubing to attach to a 'corney' ball-lock and with a bit of tinkering all worked fine. Ready to savour the flavour! Stay tuned for our:

* Captain Ahab Dark Rum

* Bombay Fail Whale

and

* Southern Right Comfort Whale?

It's Easter and we're HOPPING MAD!

Brewing is a science and we are mad scientists! More on Brew 15- The BIG hop, dry hopped on the 3rd day of rising/fermentation with 60gms of Citra hops- yeah that's 60( six O) grams. our goal is to dramatically increase the aroma of our final product without increasing the bitterness. Hoppy Easter!

*Update- Spirit 2 (Twilight meets Ghost Busters)

The WASH is happy and bubbling ... just right! Great smell, even though it is just sugar, water, nutrient and yeast. Purchased a great 'flip top' flagon AND

• Bombay Sapphire Gin 'flavoration' *I was looking at a homemade recipe for Bombay but will try this first.
• Jamaican (Dark) Rum 'flavoration'

and

• Southern Comfort 'flavoration'

Brew 15 Not JUST another Golden Ale

But wait there's more...

(ALE) AUS-Golden Ale- American Pale Ale
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           47.0
Total Grain (kg):         9.631
Total Hops (g):           118.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.048  (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG):       1.012  (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.72 %
Colour (SRM):             7.0   (EBC): 13.8
Bitterness (IBU):         27.8   (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes):      60
Grain Bill
----------------
5.990 kg Pilsner (62.19%)
3.020 kg Wheat Malt (31.36%)
0.454 kg Munich II (4.71%)
0.091 kg Crystal Medium (0.94%)
0.076 kg Chocolate (0.79%)

Hop Bill
----------------
18.0 g Galaxy Pellet (14.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 12 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
40.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05

Recipe Generated with BrewMate
Beauty Duane
http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/pages/Toukley.html

Spirit 2 (Twilight meets Ghost Busters)

As 'Rock Lobster' says... Down Down Down! Another spirit is Busted and bubbling up a storm. This yeast and nutrient mix/powder is POWERFUL stuff, within 5 minutes the spirit was up and bubbling!!
How can it be this easy?

It's not complicated at all?

Still Crazy after all these years!

By the light of the silvery moonshine.

Humpback enjoyed the time (longer than expected) for distillation by enjoying some of our great Humpback Brewed Beers from the keg and also from the 'vault'!
The result was crystal clear alcohol, ready to be passed over active charcol to remove any lingering taste, smell and colour.
*see Spirit 1 for details of the brew.

Cornelius Kegging Bits and Pieces

Each Cornelious keg has two ports/posts.
The "liquid-out" port or 'post' has a long tube which reaches to the bottom of the keg. The end of the tube sits in a small circular well that ensures that every drop is available.
When pressurised gas (Carbon Dioxide) is forced into the "gas-in" port/post, it pushes the liquid from the bottom of the keg, out of the "liquid-out" port/post.
Although we do not have a programmed schedule of cleaning or maintenance of the 'posts' we had some time while kegging our recent brews so we checked and cleaned the posts and tube.

Clean and Keg!

Decisions... made easy!

Great Weather for brewing Pilsner

The cool change (we LOST an ENTIRE Summer this year) ensured that our APA & Pilsner (larger) had a consistent, slow fermentation. The POPPING is stopping! Time to larger and a final 'dry hop'!

Spirit 1 START your Engines!

Alcohol

POT stills enable you to produce a product that will have some of the charateristics (flavours) of the mash eg. Schnapps and Whisky etc.

REFLUX or FRACTIONATING stills are what we BORROW to make neutral tasteless alcohol that we flavour later.

What we did...
Cleansed our 25l fermenter
Added 8kg of the cheapest sugar we could buy
Dissolved the sugar by adding boiling water until fully dissolved
Added tap water to make up a total of 20l
The adding of the yeast/nutrient is not as critical as beer/wine brewing/making BUT we did ensure that the 'wash' temp. was below 30C
The initial specific gravity (SG) was around 1.06 - 1.07
Ferment the wash at +25oC -30oC until airlock stops bubbling- gotta love the bubble both for sound and smell.
Let settle for a day, then syphon carefully into the still
We plugged in the still and started heating...
Start the cooling water- we use the rainwater water tank water and pumped it back into the tank. Gotta love our council for subsidising our still!
The heated water will be cooled by the condensor once the temp. gets to about 50-60oC, then once it has started distilling; discard the first 50 mL's, this may contain some methanol, we would LOVE to try this in the car!

Collect the distillate
Kept any left overs (wash) & distillate which smells (yucky) to be added to the next wash. Never waste a drop, it can be cleaned up then.

The 'neutral spirit' is diluted  down to 30-50 % purity.
Filter through activated charcol/carbon to help clean up any flavours or colours still present.
Dilute it down to drinking strength (20-40%) It's WAY too strong even after just one distillation.
Then the spirit is aged and flavoured using either commercial essences, oak chips, fruits, botanicals etc..

Brew 14 Noth'n like a GREAT Belgium Blond

(LAGER) BELGIUM-Stella Artois- Belgian Blond Ale

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           71.0
Total Grain (kg):         15.435
Total Hops (g):           93.22
Original Gravity (OG):    1.050  (°P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG):       1.013  (°P): 3.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.91 %
Colour (SRM):             3.3   (EBC): 6.4
Bitterness (IBU):         20.6   (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes):      60

Grain Bill
----------------
15.435 kg Pilsner (100%)
Hop Bill
----------------
50.0 g Pride of Ringwood Pellet (9.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
43.2 g Saaz Pellet (3.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 65°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 10°C with Saflager S-23
Recipe Generated with BrewMate
Beauty Duane
http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/pages/Toukley.html

Brew 13 Golden Ale- the APA Way!

(ALE) AUS-Golden Ale- American Pale Ale
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           47.0
Total Grain (kg):         9.631
Total Hops (g):           125.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.048  (°P): 11.9
Final Gravity (FG):       1.012  (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.72 %
Colour (SRM):             7.0   (EBC): 13.8
Bitterness (IBU):         34.0   (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 75
Boil Time (Minutes):      60
Grain Bill
----------------
5.990 kg Pilsner (62.19%)
3.020 kg Wheat Malt (31.36%)
0.454 kg Munich II (4.71%)
0.091 kg Crystal Medium (0.94%)
0.076 kg Chocolate (0.79%)

Hop Bill
----------------
25.0 g Galaxy Pellet (14.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 12 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
40.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
30.0 g Amarillo Pellet (9.3% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)
Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05

Recipe Generated with BrewMate
Beauty Duane
http://www.countrybrewer.com.au/pages/Toukley.html