Brew Seven - Amber Ale

I'm going to be drowning in beer at this rate because I now have approximately 70 bottles in storage (750ml bottles at that).  Brew Six had been in the fermenter for nearly three weeks now and the gravity is reading around 1015 so it was time to bottle it and since it's more efficient to be bottles and making more beer at the same time I decided to make an Amber Ale based upon the Brewing Classic Styles "West Coast Blaster" but again there were compromises in the ingredients:

Extract: 
3.0 kg Blackrock Light LME (2 x 1.5kg cans)
0.5 kg Briess Munich LME

The recipe asks for 3.97 kg of English Pale Ale LME and only 318 g of the Munich LME.

Steeping Grains:
0.5 kg Pale Crystal
250g Dark Crystal
250g Abbey Malt
85g Pale Chocolate

The Abbey replaced the Victory that the recipe asks for. The 'Dark' Crystal matches up 120°L Crystal whereas the 40°L Crystal is the Pale Crystal.

Hops:
Quite a few recipes in the Brewing Classic Styles book asks for Horizon hops which Brewers Coop and Hauraki don't stock.  This recipe asks for it so I substituted for Northern Brewer.

30g Northern Brewer (@ 60 minutes)
30g Northern Brewer (@ 10 minutes)
30g Centennial (@ 10 minutes)
30g Cascade (@ 0 minutes)
30g Centennial (@ 0 minutes)

The recipe asked for Cascade at 10 minutes but I had to get a minimum of 50g of Northern Brewer and I didn't have any Cascade so I figured I might as well swap out the Cascade for the Northern Brewer assuming it was better to use the Cascade at flame out.

Boil Volume: 10 Litres

Yeast:
US05

Notes:
1. Original gravity approximately 1050.

2. The whole process including bottling Brew Six, cleaning and sterilising and making Brew Seven took 2 3/4 hours.

Brew Six - American IPA

Having considered my options I opted to proceed with an American IPA for the sixth brew since the feedback about Brew 4 has been overwhelmingly positive.  I used the Brewing Classic Styles 'Hoppiness is an IPA' recipe as a guide again but made some minor changes to the malt and hops.

3.8 kg Blackrock Light LME (2x 1.5 kg cans plus half a can left over from last time)

0.5kg Briess Munich LME

0.6kg New Zealand Pale Malt

30g Nugget (@ 60 minutes)

15g Centennial (@ 20 minutes)

15g Centennial (@ 15 minutes)
30g Simcoe (@ 7 minutes)

15g Cascade (@ 5 minutes)
15g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

Boil volume: 9 Litres.

Yeast: US05.

Notes:

1.  I didn't have time to get down to Brewers Coop so I dropped by Hauraki for my ingredients.  When I got home I suddenly realised that I didn't know whether the NZ Pale Malt was the same as the Pale Crystal I had used previously from Brewer Coop.  Lesson learned: just ask if you don't know.

2.  I split the Centennial and Cascade hop additions in half in the hop it will improve the hop profile in both taste and aroma.

3.  The overall process was quicker this time - it took approximately 2.5 hours from start to finish as opposed to the 3 hours previously.

Brew Five - American Brown Ale

Once again, I used the Brewing Classic Styles book as a guide for this beer choosing the Janet's Brown Ale recipe to work from.

 Recipe:

3.8kg Blackrock  Light LME

0.5kg Wheat DME

0.56kg Carapils Dextrin Malt

0.56kg Pale Crystal

0.225kg Chocolate Malt

50g Northern Brewer (@ 60 minutes)

35g Northern Brewer (@ 15 minutes)

30g Cascade (@ 10 minutes)

55g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

30g Centennial (Dry Hop at Day 7)

US05 Yeast.

Boil volume - 10 litres.

Photo above - OG - 1056 (adjusted)

Photo below - lovely dark brown beer with yeast added.

Comments:

1. I opted for the DME as opposed to having to buy 1.5kg of the Wheat and storing it.  It seemed to work fine and I used it to get the BG to 1040 so we didn't have any problems with it clumping up.

2.  The Northern Brewer had a higher AA rating (9.8) to that in the recipe (6.5) so according to the Kit and Extract sheet it would have come out a lot higher IBU.  We decided to trim back the bittering addition at 60 minutes from 57g to 50g but in hindsight could have reduced it further - only time will tell as to if this has an impact on the final product.

3.  I still haven't got a large sieve and I think I need two further plastic stirring spoons for the brewing process.  Different coloured spoons for different activities would be a good idea.

4.  We decided to stir the first two cans of LME into the pot with around 5 minutes to go - this was a mistake for two reasons: 1.  the temperature of the wort dropped and the boil stopped and 2. the pot was now full to the brim making it very difficult to pour into the fermenter.

5.  It took approximately 25 minutes for the wort to reduce below 40 degrees.  When I added the wort to the cold water in the fermenter the digital thermometer was showing 24 degrees so once again there was no further delay on pitching the yeast. 

6.  The main cost in this brewing is the LME - it costs $14.95 per can.  I can either take a tub along to get filled which may save me a few dollars per litre or look to moving onto BIAB (Boil in a Bag) options.  I think I'll wait and see how the IPA and this beer turn out before deciding whether to progress to BIAB.  I haven't tallied the cost up but excluding bottles I would guess we are looking at $60-$70 for the brew which is still pretty cheap.

7.  Bottling during the brewing process went off without a hitch - obviously having two sets of hands helped out greatly.

Brew Four - American IPA

Having considered my options I opted to proceed with an American IPA for the fourth brew.  I used the Brewing Classic Styles 'Hoppiness is an IPA' recipe as a guide.

I decided to dial back on the LME as the recipe asked for more than 4kg of it and the outcome would have been a 7% ABV beer which I thought was a bit of overkill.  In doing so, I also saved myself another $15 which may not seem much but by my calculations I had already spent about $60 on this brew (excluding the grain bag, 2/3s of the Briess LME and half the hops since I purchased 60g of each).

I ended up using:

3 kg Blackrock Light LME (2x 1.5 kg cans)

0.5kg Briess Munich LME

0.6kg Pale Crystal

30g Nugget (@ 60 minutes)

30g Centennial (@ 20 minutes)

30g Simcoe (@ 5 minutes)

30g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

Boil volume: 9 Litres.

1. Steep Pale Crystal for 30 minutes in hot water (65 deg).

2. Added 0.8kg of LME 

3. Top up with water to 9L.

4. Bring to boil - wait for hot break.

5. Start 60 minute timer 

a)  Add 30g Nugget.

b)  Add Centennial after 40 minutes.

c)  Add Simcoe after 55 minutes

d)  Add Cascade after 60 minutes when you turn off heat.

6. Stir in remaining LME immediately after Simcoe addition.

7. Cool in ice bath to <30 degrees.

8.  Mix into fermenter to make 21L of beer.

9.  Take OG reading: 1050.  Stir and wait.  Repeat.  OG reading again 1050.

10.  Pitch yeast.

Notes:

1. Briess LME only came in a 1.5kg container so the remaining 1kg is stored in the fridge.

2. Pale Crystal used in lieu of  Crystal 15L and 40L as defined in recipe.

Comments:

1.  I can see why people go for a full boil - I don't fully understand the calculations used to ensure your partial boil gravity is the same as the boil gravity but the recipe spreadsheet from the Aussie Home Brewer forum instructed me to add 818g of LME to achieve the same so that's what I did.  If you do a full boil you don't have to worry about the calculations which is appealing.

2. The steeping process was a lot easier than I imagined so it'll give me confidence for the next brew.

3. The whole process (excluding initial prep the night before including sterlising equipment) took 3 hours which is about as efficient as I can make it.

4.  I need a larger sieve which can sit over the top of the fermenter to collect the hops etc when pouring boil into fermenter.

5.  The ice bath dropped the temperature of the boil quite quickly (approx 20 min) and once I poured it into the fermenter which already had approximately 10L of cold water the digital thermometer on the side was reading 24 degrees so I pitched the yeast in straight away.

6.  Contemplating dry hopping the rest of the Cascade hops (another 30g) into the fermenter once the primary has been completed in about a week.  If I'm going to have a hoppy IPA then I might as well go the whole hog.

7.  If I've spent $60 to make this beer, the per litre cost is $2.85.  The per 750ml bottle cost is $2.15.

Brew Three - Amber Ale

Since the second brew I've been doing a lot of reading about home brewing.  Firstly John Palmer's How to Brew finally arrived from Fishpond so I took a read through it - it's easy to follow and clearly explains the process so I understand why people recommend it so highly.  I've also joined the Aussie Home Brewer forum which has a wealth of information and helpful Aussie (and Kiwi) home brewers who are happy to impart their knowledge about all things to do with brewing.  One very useful tool they have on the forum is a spreadsheet which allows you to input your ingredients which then spits out various readings which align with the style of beer you are trying to recreate (e.g. O.G, FG, IBU and EBC).

Armed with all this new knowledge I've been somewhat paralysed by indecision... what beer to I make next? Do I drop the kits altogether or do I keep going until I manage to produce a decent beer? In the end I drove down to Penrose to the Brewers Coup shop with a couple of ideas in mind but no firm plan.  I ended up asking for advice about an Amber Ale recipe which I had taken from the Coopers website and after a really good conversation about the pros and cons of the various kits available I purchased the following:


Ingredients:

1.  Black Rock NZ Draught Kit 1.5kg
2.  Muntons LME 1.8kg
3.  US-05 Yeast
4.  60g US Centennial Hops
5.  60g US Cascade Hops.

I also picked up a fluid thermometer and some more cleaner/steriliser.

The Brewing process:
1.  Sterilise fermenter, stirring spoon and airlock using the remaining sodium met solution.
2.  Add approximately 400ml of the LME to 10L of water.  Dissolve and then bring to boil.
3.  The maximum amount of time you need to boil the hops for is 60 minutes.  Therefore using this as a guide the minute the water is at a rolling boil you make your first hop addition and then start the countdown for 60 minutes.  I used the following plan:
At 60 minutes: Add 20g Centennial.
At 25 minutes: Add 20g Centennial and 30g Cascade
At 10 minutes: Add 20g Centennial and 30g Cascade

Centennial is a high alpha acid hop therefore it will impart quite a lot of bitterness to the beer.  Adding hops in the middle stage of the boil will impart flavours and at the end, aroma.  The Cascade is a lower alpha acid hop which will impart more flavour and aroma to the brew hence only two additions.
5.  Warm the Black Rock kit in some hot water.
6.  Cool the boil as quickly as you can.  I waited for a few minutes then put the stock pot in the sink and fill it with cold tap water which seemed to be quite effective.
7.  Add the kit to the fermenter with some hot water.  Mix.  Add the remaining LME to the fermenter at the same time.
8.  Add the boiled water to the fermenter.  Mix again and top up with cold water to 23 litres.  Check temp and hope it's not too hot to pitch the yeast.
9.  Pitch yeast.  Seal fermenter.



Notes:
1. There are a lot of references to boiling 10-12 litres of water then cooling it overnight so that you have clean cool water to add to the warm mix in the fermenter.  I didn't have anywhere to store the post boiled water so I purchased a 10L container of water at the Warehouse ($6.50) and fridged it overnight.
2. I'm not sure what I expected but when you add the hop pellets to the boil they disintegrate and form a slurry on the top of the water.  When the timer hit zero and I took the pot off the heat I used a sieve to scoop the hop slurry out into a second pot:

Pouring the kit into the fermenter - nice and oxygenated.

Cooling the hop boil in the sink with cold water.

The Original Gravity reading:

The reading is approximate 1042.

Final note:  Having gone through the brewing process I then decided to plug all the details into the spreadsheet from the forum (as referenced earlier) and it says that the beer would be quite highly bitter and that the OG is too low.  I guess I should have done this before hand but then again sometimes ignorance is bliss.  The fermenter is now in the garage and the temperature is reading 18-20 degrees which is perfect for fermenting.

Brew One - Mangrove Jack's Munich Lager

Here we go....

After doing a bit of reading I decided to take action... as the title of the blog says how hard can it be?  I guess the proof will be in the taste of the beer but for now I'll summarise the start of the process:

Cleaning and Sterilisation:

It appears to me that the cleaning step is actually more sterilising than the sterilising step since it helps remove any bacteria from previous brews.  It's comforting to know that since this is a brand new kit there isn't a lot that can go wrong with this part of the process.

I filled the Fermenter with 6 litres of water and six teaspoons of the cleaner, put the lid on and swirled it around to ensure all surfaces were covered.  I then rinsed the other utensils and refilled the fermenter again with the same amount of water, this time with 6 teaspoons of the steriliser powder.  With the lid on, you leave the Fermenter for 15 minutes to allow the gas to build up inside to aid the sterilisation process.  Once complete, again rinse the utensils and drain but do not rinse the fermenter.

While I was waiting for the steriliser to work it magic I removed the lid of the Malt to get the yeast and placed can in some hot water.  The malt has a similar viscosity to golden syrup so warming it up helps with pouring it into the fermenter.

Brew Making:

Here is a slightly blurry photo of the Mangrove Jack's Munich Lager kit being poured into the Fermenter:

Once I poured the majority of the content out I used some warm water to wash around the tin to get the remainder into the fermenter.   I added more cold water (approx 6 L) to it before pouring in the Brew Enhancer and gave it a good stir.  

Once well mixed I topped the fermenter up to the 23 litre mark and this is what is looked like:

Before adding the yeast I took a couple of measurements with the Hydrometer - not sure what it was supposed to read other than both readings should be the same to show that the brew is well mixed.  I need to do some more reading to understand some of the science behind the hydrometer readings. 

The final step in the process was to add the yeast and put the airlock on the lid before closing her up.  

Job done.