All Grain Recipes - World of Craft Beer

All grain #110

Brew day: 17th December , 2017 Sunday

Name: Donkey Fever

Style: Specialty Beer

4kg Pilsner
500g Cara Wheat
350g Black
300g Roasted
300g Chocolate

US-05

@60 EKG 21g
@30 EKG 21g
@10 Galaxy & Amarillo 65g

OG=1.0

FG=1.0

Note: Donkey Fever is a black, roasty IPA. All the love of a Stout-ish beer but with the hoppiness of an IPA. Donkey Fever is a combination of malts that I didn't measure. I just whacked stuff in and eye-balled it. (Only the Pilsner and Cara Wheat were exact measures)

All grain #109

Brew day: 19th November , 2017 Sunday

Name: 

Style: Specialty Beer

The Maris Otter Challenge: 

Sam, Paul, Jeff, Kyle and I need to brew with Maris Otter, 4kg worth. No other malts allowed, nor adding dextrose. Nothing else, that's it. 

You can use whatever hops you wish with any other ingredients (e.g. orange peel, herbs, spices, etc) with any yeast you desire. 

I mulled over this quite a bit. So many directions to choose. In the end, I decided to use the US-05 in the fridge (rather than buy yet more yeast). For the 'other' ingredients, I tossed up a few ideas, but I chose to try something I hadn't done in a while. 

A few years back I brewed a chilli beer (kit can and small red peppers), and I then tried it again - this time it got better (Chipotle) . The last iteration of it was an IPA. I'll do that again today as best as I can (considering I can only use MO malt). 

So, I went to the local spice shop in the CBD of Sydney and got my hands on some Chipotle, Habanero and another oddly named chilli. Not sure which way I'll go on this but the inspiration was from a couple of the beers I had in the US in my 2015 trip, of which you can read the reviews here.  More importantly, this here (#171) was very, very hot chilli beer!

So, glory or insanity awaits.....I've chosen the Habanero. It's a dried Habanero, so I've cut it in half and put it in a pot to boil (get rid of any bacteria, put it in tin foil and in the fridge ready to put in fermenter later tonight). I've also added a Chilli Pasilla, of which I cut this also in half and added to water for it to boil.

Note: Two things to mention today: first, it was a 55 minute boil and second was that was due to dumbass (i.e. me) was getting cocky and decided not to weigh the hops prior to putting them in the boil. No, rather than do it sensibly I just unscrewed the lid and dumped in my hops - with almost all of the resulting hops going in (approx 70g of my 100). This was @10 minutes. So, I cut the time and stopped with 55 minutes gone (effectively a 5 minute boil of 70g Simcoe). You don't need a long neck to be a goose! :-O


4kg Maris Otter

Mash temp: 62.7C

US-05


ideas....
@60 Perle 10g
@5 Simcoe 70g

OG=

FG=

All grain #108

Brew day: 29th October , 2017 Sunday

Name: Cooler Than McQueen

Style: APA

4kg Pilsner
500g Wheat
500g Victory

US-05

@60 Magnum 14g
@10 cascade 28g

OG=1.048

FG=1.010

5.1% abv

All grain #107

Brew day: 5th October, 2017 Sunday

Name: 100 Wheat

Style: Hefeweizen

4kg Wheat

WLP380 (plus 1/2 packet of US-05, just to test it out)

@60 Saaz (4.2% AA) 14g

OG=1.034
FG=

ABV: 3%

All grain #106

Brew day: 24th September, 2017 Sunday

Name: Prettier Than Pink

Style: Saison

4kg Pilsner
500g Wheat

Wyeast 3711 (Saison yeast) -

@60 Saaz (4.2% AA) 14g
@10 Perle 14g

OG=1.056 

FG=1.014  

All grain #105

Brew day: 17th September, 2017 Sunday

Name:The D&B Fünfzig Fünfzig

Style: Hefeweizen

4kg Wheat
2kg Pilsner
(some dextrose to bump it up a bit)

Wyeast 3068

@60 Halltertau 21g

OG=1.058
FG=1.0

All grain #104

Brew day: 10th September, 2017 Saturday

Name: Queen Vanilla

Style: Dunkelweizen (just with a vanilla bean in it)

3kg Dark Wheat
2kg PIlsner
300g CaraWheat
300g Wheat
120g Chocolate Wheat


Wyeast 3638

OG=1.050
FG=1.012

All grain #103

Brew day: 19th August, 2017 Saturday

Name: Mr. T's Mohawk

Style: Chocolate Stout (well, a variation of it)

4kg Maris Otter
1kg Wheat
500g CaraWheat
400g Roasted Barley

300g Pale Chocolate

US-05

OG=1.056
FG=1.012



Dann's notes: It was tasting so fucking good I had to brew it again before brewing something else. As we approach the end of the Sydney "winter" it was a good idea to whack in one more.

Update: 10th September - Just kegged it last night and added 2 vanilla beans in a hop sack.

Note: I sliced fresh vanilla beans (x2) length-ways to open them up, then got a knife and scrapped the contents out and put it in a glass. Then I chopped the beans themselves and put that into the same glass. I then added vodka (about two inches/5cm deep - and the glass was 375ml by the way) just to cover all the vanilla beans. That was done on the Monday, and the Saturday I kegged. Just dumped the resulting liquid (i.e. vodka) in the keg, and then the debris of the vanilla beans in a hop bag - then put into keg - then just kegged as normal. Simple stuff. 

All grain #102

Brew day: 30th July, 2017, Sunday

Name: Mr. T's Mohawk

Style: Chocolate Stout (well, a variation of it)

4kg Maris Otter
1kg Wheat
500g CaraWheat
400g Roasted Barley

300g Pale Chocolate

Mash: 62.3C (for just over an hour)

xUS-05

OG=1.056
FG=1.012

ABV 5.9%

Add caption

All grain #101

Brew day: 16th July, 2017, Sunday

Name: Bigger Than Obama (v4?)

Style: American Stout

4kg Maris Otter
500g Wheat
500g Biscuit
250g Chocolate
200g Roasted Barley

Mash: 62.3C (for just over an hour)

US-05 used the following day. Fermenting now at 21.7C

@60 Centennial 14g
@10 EKG 33g (only because I decided to use all of the EKG to get rid of it all)

OG=1.058
FG=TBD






CONGRATULATIONS! 100 all grain brews!

Photos of this day will be made available shortly. Stay tuned!

All grain #100

Brew day: 1st July, 2017, Saturday

Name: 

Style: American Amber

8kg Maris Otter
1kg Victory
1kg CaraAmber
1kg Dextrose

Mash: 62-63C (for just over an hour)

No Chill method.

US-05 used the following day. Fermenting now at 20.7C

@60 EKG 42g
@10 Centennial 84g

OG=1.078
FG=1.012


8.8% abv


Stay tuned for some photos.







All grain #99

Brew day: 12th June, 2017, Monday

Name:  Charlie Brown Ale

Style: American Brown Ale

4kg Maris Otter
1kg Wheat
500g Victory
500g CaraPils
100g Black

Mash: 62.6C (for just over an hour)

US-05

@60 Centennial 21g
@5 Centennial 21g, Simcoe 28g, EKG 21g
@flameout Simcoe 32g, Galaxy 28g, Amarillo 28g

OG=1.084
FG=1.016

9.1% abv

9.1% Brown Ale

Note: Updated 16th July - After trying this last night, the colour just seems a little lighter than I had hoped for but apart from that, it's not too shabby.



All grain #98

Brew day: 10th June, 2017, Saturday

Name:  Bigger Than Obama

Style: American Stout

4kg Maris Otter
500g CaraHell
250g Chocolate
150 Roasted Barley

Mash: 61.5C (for just over an hour)

US-05

@60 minutes - Centennial 21g
@5 Cascade & EKG 28g, Galaxy 20g (all I had left, otherwise it would be an ounce)

OG=1.048
FG=1.010

5.1% abv

Bigger Than Obama: 5.1% (Awesomeness)

Update: 24/6/17 - A beautiful dark stout, very light-bodied and slightly roasty. Very well balanced indeed. I can get that hop-front on this beer, and it somewhat counteracts with the roast of the barley that is prominent. To style? Certainly, and it's a bloody beauty of a beer. Definitely brew this again.







Happy New year 2017


Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2017, and hopefully a better run of brewing for all you home brewers out there.

Let's see if I can do better this year in terms of brewing. Not many brews, but onward and upwards we go.

May you all have a great 2017 and I look forward to producing some beauties.

Cheers and home brewed beers to you all.


dannbrew@gmail.com





All Grain #97

Brew day: 18th December, 2016, Sunday

Name:  Trump: Grab Life By The Pussy

Style: ...who cares?

4kg Munich
3kg Pilsner
2kg Wheat
1kg Victory
--------------
1kg Dextrose
--------------

Mash: 63.4c (for just over an hour)

x2 US-05


@60 minutes - 42g Magnum (12.1% AA)
@10 minutes - 50g EKG (6.5% AA) (it was actually 8 minutes, was too busy on Google!)
@5 minutes -  50g Galaxy (13.8% AA), Simcoe (11.1% AA)
@5 minutes - 25g El Derado (12% AA)



DRY HOPPED: TBA

Fermenter #1: 20L
Fermenter #2: 20L


OG=1.046
FG=1.010

4.8% abv

Left: 4.8% GLBTP, Right: Trump Card 11.5%

Note: Beer on the right is a beer I brewed for a mate. I formulated the recipe, helped him brew it and this was the result: a Triple IPA at 11.5% named Trump Card.

The recipe is available elsewhere so you can email me if you would like to have it.


Brew day notes:
Not#2: It was a pretty shitty extraction rate, but that's what you get when you buy your grains elsewhere and don't mill your own. (Note to self: start using your mill again!)




All Grain #96

Brew day: 15th October, 2016, Saturday

Name:  Oktoberfest Funday Sunday #2

Style: Oktoberfest Specialty Ales

5kg Wheat
4kg Pilsner
1kg Victory
1kg Cara Amber
2kg Dextrose

Mash: 66.5C (for just over an hour)


proposed.....
@60 Hallertau 42g (bought from a couple of years ago at 6.5%)
@10 Bitter Orange peel 8g
@5 Saaz 36g AA 4.2% (bought at Dave's Home Brew, North Sydney)
@5 Summer 20g AA 5.3% (via grain and grape)

OG=1.060
FG=1.014

Notes of end of brewing day: Such a lovely fucking day it was. Temp possibly read about 28C at one point, and with that brew day was fairly smooth. Maybe a touch underdone on the sparge water (2L) but in truth, who the hell cares?

Two fermenters:

Dougal's Batch: WLP380 - Sitting at 21.9C at the moment - A Guptoberfest special.
Dann's Batch: Wyeast 3068 - Sitting in the lounge on the tiled floor. It's hot, who cares as it's mine. (Plus I have beers in the other fridge which need to cool lol).

I know I put about 3g of Bitter Orange peel in my 15L batch the other day, and that was actually perfect. I kinda figured that doing a double batch deserved 8g (so about 18L-19L each fermenter).

Granted, my batch in the fermenter is probably sitting at about 17L so it's not perfect but close enough. I am guessing the 8g of Bitter Orange peel is about right on this double batch?

I think so. I'd rather err on the side of caution first up so let's see how this goes! :-D


ABV: 6.1%




All Grain #95

Brew day: 8th October, 2016, Saturday

Name: Toby Shaw V2

This is the same beer as #83. Brewed on special request by Ger via Dougal

Style: Irish Dry Stout

4kg Maris Otter
1.5kg Rolled Barley (as apposed to #83: Flaked Barley)
500g Roasted Barley
300g Wheat 
1kg Dextrose

63.3C (for just over an hour)

@60 Fuggles 40g

WLP004 - Irish Ale yeast (as apposed to #83: Wyeast 1084)


OG=1.058
FG=1.014

ABV: 5.9%

Note: This batch got an infection during fermentation. Sadly, the drain got all of this beer.




All Grain #94

Brew day:....some time after 4th September, and shortly after #93.

Name: What the....?!

Style: Specialty Ale for Summer

2.5kg Wheat
1.5kg Pilsner
1kg Munich
500g Victory

Mash: 63.6C

@60 Centennial
@5 Galaxy 21g
@5 Simcoe 21g


Fermenter: US-05: currently in the lounge room at Spring temps (19+ for sure)



OG=1.032
FG=1.010

2.9% abv


Notes: Very deliberate in brewing an easy low alcohol session beer as the up-coming Spring weather warms up. A very nice sipping beer when there's not much to do.








All Grain #93

Brew day: 4th September, Sunday 2016

Name:  Oktoberfest Funday Sunday


Style: Oktoberfest Specialty Ales

Updated - on the day, 4th Sep - Happy Father's Day. To my Dad, a fantastic Dad and an awesome person who's done everything for me. He's gone celebrated with my sister and her family, plus Mum of course.

The gas burner went bust - so no double-batch brew day, rather a single-batch brew day.

Here was the resulting recipe:


2.5kg Wheat
1.5kg Pilsner
500g Victory
500g Cara Amber
1kg Dextrose

Mash: 66.5C

@60 Hallertau 21g (bought from a couple of years ago at 6.5%)
@10 Bitter Orange peel 3g
@5 Saaz 18g AA 4.2% (bought at Dave's Home Brew, North Sydney)
@5 Summer 10g AA 5.3%


Fermenter: WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast, currently at 20.7C


OG=1.058
FG=1.014

ABV: 5.9%

Sample from fermenter just before kegging

.....and we have the final product, which was all 'sold out' at the Social Club. Fantastic response.

Oktoberfest Ale 5.9%

All Grain #92


Brew day: 26th June (At Humper's Lodge) 2016

Name:  I Luv Brown Beaver

Style: Specialty Beer - Hoppy Brown Ale


4kg Munich
1kg Victory
500g Wheat
400g Chocolate
175g Roasted Barley
x1 Dextrose

Mash: 66C

@60 Centennial 14g
@5 Centennial 28g

x2 US-05


DRY HOP: 
to be announced...


OG = 1.076
FG = TBA

Picture of beer COMING SOON!

Until then, you're stuck with my ugly mug! :-P









Nope, this beer was found to be very unattenuated. It was decided to throw it out. 

Boo, hiss - but it had to be done. 


EXTRACT BREW DAY (well, brew night)

Brew day: 24th May, Tuesday 2016

Started at about 8:45pm, cleaned all the gear, etc and sat down again at 11:30pm. I basically took my time doing this.

We had a challenge at work that meant we all had to use one can of Coopers Cerveza as the prime ingredient. That meant brewing a beer with this extract can. Apart from that, the world was your oyster.

There are a million and one ways to approach such a challenge. I just chose something half interesting and to see what would happen.

I took the opportunity to mash some Cara Amber at about 65C. I didn't take an accurate reading, so that could have changed. It was more for colour than anything else.

Name:  Uncanny Amber

Style: Extract - Coopers Can: Cerveza

x1 Coopers Cerveza (extract can)
1kg Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1kg Dextrose
500g Cara Amber (mashed for about 30 minutes at about 65C)

Note: I just used my 20L pot and closed the lid on it. No real science behind it, just hit mid-60's C then dumped in the grains in a grain bag and 'mashed'. I merely used this for colour, really - nothing more. Whatever I get from it is fine by me.

@5 EKG 40g 5%AA
@5 Motueka 60g 7.5%AA
@5 Pacific Gem 60g 14% AA

US-05 satchel - brand new

20L in the fermenter - yay me.


OG = 1.060
FG = TBA


It's been a while since I did an extract, so here goes..... :-/

Notes: Got about 4L of cold water, a washed and clean hop/grain bag (medium) and dumped that in my 20L pot. Brought to a boil - bag and all. Let it cool down to about 65C, took the grain/hop bag out and then filled the bag up with 500g Cara Amber, tied it up then dumped it in the pot again. Temperature taken was exact (couldn't be really bothered) but I saw it it about 65C or maybe a touch higher. Left it like this for about 30 minutes. 

When the 30 minutes was up, took the grain/hop bag out and then slowly put in the 1kg of Dry Malt Extract Wheat while stirring vigorously. I did see clumps in it, but then I put in the Coopers Cerveza can on top of it. Same deal, poured in slowly while stirring vigorously. This seemed to have got rid of the clumps the DME Wheat produced. Great news. I then put in the 1kg of Dextrose. I wanted to bump this up - to whatever it was, I didn't really care. Same deal, poured slowly, stirred vigorously. 

I then brought this mixture to a boil. Once boiled, I made sure there was no overflow, etc and let it boil for about 5-10 minutes. 

I then put in all the hops: Motueka, Pacific Gem and EKG, but only boiled for a further 5 minutes to simulate the last 5 minutes of the boil (late hop addition). 

I then proceeded to empty the whole contents into a fermenter - then filled it to the top with cold water to about the 20L mark. 

It's a bit warm at the time of writing, but I put this in the fridge with the temp controller on about 3C, so it should cool down later tonight. I already put the yeast in so hopefully they have survived LOL. 

Let's see how this (extract) baby turns out, eh? :-D























All Grain #91

Brew day: 19th May, Thursday 2016

Name:  I Luv Brown Beaver Fever

Style: Specialty Beer - Hoppy Brown Ale

8kg Pilsner 70.484%
1kg Victory 8.810%
1kg Wheat 8.810%
1kg Cara Wheat 8.810%
350g Chocolate 3.084%

Mash: 62.7C - 63C

@60 EKG 42g 5%AA
@30 EKG 21g
@5 Amarillo 78g
@5 Galaxy 78g

Fermenter #1: Slurry from BTO batch #90
Fermenter #2: Slurry from BTO batch #90


OG = 1.054
FG = TBA

Picture of beer COMING SOON!

Until then, you're stuck with my ugly mug! :-P








Unfortunately, the Hoppy Brown Ale is no more. In a case of pure bad luck and timing, it appears that branches and leaves from my tree (that dangle ever so close to my kettle) dropped in during the boil. This contaminated the beer. 

I tasted the beer just before kegging, and it tasted somewhat funny, thin and quite, quite bitter. I was somewhat dumbfounded as I didn't really think I did a bad job on the bittering! 

It wasn't until I kegged that I noticed some leaves and a branch in one of the fermenters that it all began to make sense. I don't usually hang around during the boil on brew days, so it would have been at this time stuff fell into the kettle without my knowledge. 

I don't think it's a good idea to even keg this, let along share it. I threw the whole lot away, and next time I'll put a covering on the kettle that will still allow all the stuff to float away but to not allow debris to fall in. 

Oh well, onto the next. 


All Grain #90

Brew day: Sunday, April 17th 2016.

Name: Bigger Than Obama (Experimental Stout: V2 - this is different to the original!)

Style: Specialty Beer

This brew day had some history. On 28th March, while trying to brew batch #89 the attempt was to brew 'Bigger Than Obama'. I had all the grains piled up and milled (using my drill). Problem was, the mill must of been playing up, so I decided to shorten the space between the two rollers in the mill and run the grains through again. 

Now, that isn't normally a problem. What I didn't anticipate was the mill on its little wooden 'bench' wasn't probably secured on my fermenter. As I pulled the trigger on the drill, the mill and its grain catcher decided to go in the direction of the drill movement, forcing most of my grains onto the floor. I couldn't tell what was what (Pilsner? Victory? Percentages? Oh crap!) and found that a touch of the other specialty malts (Chocolate, Roasted Barley, Cara Amber) had also dropped on the floor. All up, I'd say about 500g of malt was tossed into the bin. (My apartment floor isn't the cleanest of things....and yes, you just heard me scream swear words)

I tried again to mill. I tried with success - but only for a short period. As I was filling up my grain into the mill, it must have slipped perilously close to the edge of the fermenter. When I had my finger on the drill again, guess what happened - again? Malt goes flying across the room and I dropped yet more grain. It was at this point I got pissed off. This is why I chose to do an IPA - of which only requires two malts, and even if I did drop some of that (which, would you believe, I did again) it wouldn't matter all that much. 

What I did with the remainder of my Bigger Than Obama 'recipe' for that day was put it in a bag and brew it as a specialty beer some time down the track - at least that way I don't have to worry about what was in it, as such.

So, today's brew day consisted of the approximate grain bill of the intended Bigger Than Obama (that I was to brew on 28th March) and another set of grains I specifically bought and had milled by the brew shop. Both sets of grains weren't milled to my liking.....but who really cares for this batch.

The combination of these grains, plus a bit more I decided to whack in on the day means you have this beer recipe. At the end of the day it still will be a tasty beer, just not once I wanted to brew.

Confused? You should be. Trying to write this out even confused me. #justsayin

So, the 'recipe' as I had it on brew day and shown as is from my Notes app on my Apple iPhone. 


Dropped grain bill (original list, and who knows what was on the floor - twice)

5kg Pilsner
500g Victory
175g Chocolate
175g Roasted Barley
175g Cara Amber

Now, this is the malt bill I got from the home brew shop in which they milled for me.

4kg Pilsner
600g Victory
175g Chocolate
175g Roasted Barley
200g Cara Amber (yes, I decided to put the whole lot it)

What I also did was add a bit more to the malt bill, as I decided to do a double-batch:

500g Chocolate
600g Wheat

So, if I were to kind of give a rough estimate of what's what, here it is (total of everything): 

9kg Pilsner
1.1kg Vicgtory
850g Chocolate
600g Wheat
375g Cara Amber
350g Roasted Barley

Again, goodness knows what on earth I actually had - apart from the certain grain bill from the home brew shop. Apart from that, take a guess.

62.3C for about 1 hour and 15 minutes (this is what happens when you cook lunch at the same time!)

@60 Centennial 42g
@5 Centennial 115g (Yep, I know it's a crap load of hops - but this is an experiment, right?)

OG=1.056
FG=1.010

6.1% abv

Bigger Than Obama v2

Updated: 5th May, Thursday: Thanks to our work social club, Bigger Than Obama at 6.1% abv was very much enjoyed by everyone who tried it. For the aficionados, I got the 'thumbs-up' on a very tasty Stout. 

Interestingly, although not surprisingly, there was no mention from the people that tasted it of any Centennial notes. For me, this was a great, great beer. I loved it. 

For the people that don't like Stout beers, they stayed clear. I can appreciate and understand that. For everyone else that had a go they really enjoyed it. I was a bit worried what feedback I'd get from this, considering this is a real black-looking beer. I needn't have worried. The crowd that tasted it really liked it and went back for more. That's all I can ask for :-)

The one thing that I did hear was it was 'different' to that of batch #86 (first beer of 2016). 



All Grain #89

Brew day: Monday, March 28th 2016.

Name: The Guv-o-nator

Style: IPA (sessionable IPA)

6kg PIlsner
350g Munich 

15L batch in total

62.6C mash


@60 Centennial 14g
@30 Centennial 14g
@5 Centennial 21g
@5 Galaxy 21g
@5 Amerillo 21g

Directly put this wort into Batch #88, which was Stronger Than Putin V2. I kegged this first, then put wort into the same fermenter it was in - hops and all.

Pretty bad extraction, but after the really, REALLY bad start to the day and lots of mishaps and mayhem, I'll take it.

OG=1.046
FG=1.010

4.8% abv

Sessionable IPA - 4.8%

All Grain #88

Brew day: Sunday, March 6th March 2016.

Name: Stronger Than Putin V2 (the unoriginal)

Style: Imperial IPA

9.7kg PIlsner (97%)
300g Munich (3%)
x2kg Dextrose

15L batch in total

61.3C mash


@90 Centennial 21g
@30 Centennial 14g
@5 Centennial 28g
@5 Galaxy 28g

x2 US-05

OG=1.090
FG=1.016

9.9% abv

WOW!

Fermentation temp: 19C-20C

x2 US-05

Note: I only used the first runnings from this batch. That meant (since I was doing only a 15L small batch in my 20L aluminium kettle) I put in just on 36L in the mash tun. Include the absorbtion from the grain, I got a good 19L into the my pot, and I had a bout 5-7L spare (which I ended up throwing away). 

STP 9.9%. Wow. WOW!

Updated notes: 10th May, 2016 Tuesday - I haven't had this beer in about two-three weeks so am unsure of what it's like. This is still in the keg, and most likely I will bottle whatever is left. For me, slightly too viscous for my liking. Needs to be light-medium. This probably sits at medium. Still, easy to fix; get rid of the Munich. Regardless, a whopper of a beer!


All Grain #87

Brew day: Tuesday, 1st March 2016.

Name: Stronger Than Putin (the unoriginal)

Style: Imperial IPA

7.9kg Pilsner
400g Munich

x1kg Dextrose
62.1C mash

@90 CTZ 21g
@30 Centennial 14g
@5 Centennial 28g
@5 Galaxy 28g

x2 US-05

OG=1.076
FG=1.016

8% abv

DRY HOP: 9 days

60g Galaxy
60g Simcoe
60g Centennial
22g Mosaic (only because I ran out. Double d'oh!)

Fermentation temp: 19C-20C

Stronger Than Putin 8%

All Grain #86

First brew for 2016! 

Brew day: Sunday, 31st January 2016.

Name: Bigger Than Obama (Version #1)

Style: American Stout

7.6kg Pilsner
1kg Victory
500g Chocolate
500g Roasted Barley
500g CaraWheat
(1kg  Dextrose in one of the fermenters)

62.7C mash (it was around 62.5/8C)

@60 CTZ 28g
@5 Centennial 28g

x2 US-05

Fermenter #1:
OG=1.070
FG=1.012

7.7% abv


Fermenter #2:
OG=1.054
FG=1.010

5.9% abv

Nut Stout

Note: This was double-batch brew day. The day was interesting as several wasps decided to make 'home' underneath my mash tun table (read, four milk crates). Added to that, when chilling the wort my hose connection broke which meant I had no way of chilling down the wort. It was still very warm-hot. I decided to put the wort into both fermenters, put airlock on them and just put them in my spare fridges (one fermenter in each fridge). Both fridges were put on coldest temp and left in their for approx 6 hours, until such time as they were cool enough to pitch the yeast).







12/02/2016 & 13/02/2016

Preface: Thanks to Richard over at BentSpoke for giving me the recipe for his 'Big Nut' beer. This beer is a direct result of that recipe. I merely used the ingredients at hand here at danntastic brewing. The percentages, however, are about the same. I recall Richard using lots three different Crystal malts, but as I only have CaraWheat on-hand I simply used this.

Tasting notes: I'm really loving this beer. Lots of roastiness in the aroma, little of the Centennial that I put in late in the boil. Still, the balance is actually nice. I do get the Centennial on the tongue and the after-taste is consistent with hops and roasty goodness. The beer itself is actually 'light' but has a very good mouthfeel. Nothing 'heavy' to it at all. Mouthfeel-wise, quite perfect. Do I get any of that nutty flavour from the Victory? Tough call at the moment. I'd probably say there is something there in the background, consdering the Irish Dry Stout that I brewed a while ago - this beer does contain characteristics that you'd associate with maybe a subtle nuttiness. I'll admit it's a tad difficult to tell considering the decent amount of Roasted Barley and Chocoloate in this recipe. I get the feeling that both those malt 'overwhelm' the Victory in this, but the nuttiness does slip through a touch. There is a touch more body to this beer without a doubt, and I'd like to think this was due to the inclustion of CaraWheat. I'll write more tasting notes as the days go by and hopefully have more comments to add.

How does one 'improve' a beer like this? Tough call right now. I'd be keen to test out adding Centennial at 30 minutes, add a little more late in the boil and up the Victory percentage. Conversely, decrease the Chocolate and Roasted Barley but still have the flavour addition of Centennial and extra late hop of Centennial.

Will continue to drink the beer and think of more notes to write, At the moment, it's simply pouring great off tap and tasting fantastic.








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End of 2015...


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All Grain #85

Brew day: Monday 23rd November, 2015

Name: Humper Five-0

Style: Specialty Beer

5kg Pilsner
3.5kg Wheat
500g Victory
500g Biscuit
500g Munich

67.8C mash for 1hr 10mins. 

@60 Centennial 56g
@5 Centennial 23g 
@0 Centennial 60g 

OG=1.050
FG=1.012

ABV:  5.1%

Double batch: 

Fermenter #1: US-05
Fermenter #2: US-04

Fermenter #1: US-05
DRY HOP: 
50g Cascade
70g Sorachi (12.6%AA)

Fermenter#2: US-04
undecided, will keg 8th or 9th Dec. (undecided on hops)


Brew day notes: I had unintentionally put 500g Biscuit into the mix, and with that ruined my proposed beer (a nutty IPA).

So, I added a whole bunch of Wheat to the mix and made it a double batch. About 35L in total, of which 20L went into fermenter #1 and 15L went into #2 (of which #2 is my beer, Humper's got #1).

Due to the initial cock-up, this was an experimental beer in a way. I'd be interested to see the results. Estimated final gravity should be about 5% or so.


All Grain #84

Brew day: Sunday 22nd November, 2015

Name: Stronger Than Putin

Style: Imperial IPA

Due to international regulations, this recipe has been with withheld.

OG=1.088
FG=1.016

ABV: 9.6% 

DRY HOP:
60g Galaxy
60g Cascade
60g Simcoe

That I will tell you, and that is all! :-P

Brew day notes: Estimated final gravity is about 1.016 or so, and at a fermentation temperature of about 19C to 21C for two weeks means this should hit about 9.6% abv all going well.




All Grain #83

Brew day: 1st November, 2015, Sunday

Name: Toby Shaw

Style: Irish Dry Stout

4kg Maris Otter
1.5kg Flaked Barley
500g Roasted Barley
300g Wheat 

63C (for just over an hour)

@60 Fuggles 42g

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale yeast

OG=1.044
FG=1.012

ABV: 4.3%

Note: An indoor brew, and what a day it was. I had a pigeon shit on my head earlier in the day and so I wondered how would the day get better? Anyway, pre-boil volume was about 18L in my 20L indoor pot.

Added note: I have realised a few days later that my flaked barley that I bought was actually 1.5kg, and not 1kg as I had presumed. So when I put in the flaked barley to mash - I put the bloody lot it....LOL....oopsies!

Note: I'll grab a taste out of the fermenter on the weekend and update the blog.




All Grain #82

Brew day: 18th October, 2015, Sunday

Name: (tba)

Style: Hefeweizen

5.5kg Wheat
1kg Pilsner
338g Munich

63C (for just over an hour)

@60 Hallertau


OG=1.036
FG=1.012

ABV - 3.2%



All Grain #81

Brew day: 5th October, 2015, Sunday

Name: #Sonnen Spelt

Style: Specialty Beer

4kg Munich
1kg Torrified Wheat
500g Victory 

64.5C mash temp (for just over an hour)

@60 Summer 14g
@10 Sweet Orange Peel 7-10g (My scales didn't weigh it properly)
@5 Summer 21g

US-05

In temperature controlled fridge between: 19.5C to 21.5C

OG=1.044
FG=


Notes: I guess this is step one in a few steps to try an different brewing tact. I'm focusing on some experiments that will allow me to brew my beer with more malt focus and have fruit aromas. No doubt there are a multitude of ways to approach this. I just used ingredients on-hand, rather than purchase more stuff I don't really want or need (and fill up again my cupboards).


All Grain #80

Brew day: 27th Sep, 2015, Sunday

Note: After a 9 week hiatus in the USA, I'm back brewing! A double batch is on the way. Yeeha!

Name: D & B
Name:Coogee Gold

Style: German Hefeweizen

Style: Specialty Beer

5kg Wheat
4kg Pilsner
1kg Munich 

67.6C mash temp

@60 Hallertau 42g

Split batch:

Fermenter #1: Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan
Fermenter #2: Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire

OG=1050
FG=F1 - 1014
FG=F2 - 1012

Fermenter #2 had 21g of Summer hops dry hopped.




All Grain #79

Brew day: 21st June, 2015, Sunday

Name: LikiWeaks

Style: American Pale Ale

3.5kg Pilsner
500g Wheat
500g Munich
306g Biscuit (just so happened I had the last bits of this malt)
250g Victory


62C mash temp

@60 CTZ 14g
@30 Centennial 14g
@5 Centennial 28g

US-05 + yeast slurry from previous batch

OG=1.080
FG= 1.018 (taken on 28th June. Will let it go a couple more days and keg on Wed night)

Means as at 28th June, it is 8.3%


DRY HOP: 
Amarillo 28g
Cascade 28g 




All Grain #78

Brew day: 24th May, 2015, Sunday

Name: Dougal's Doodlefest

Style: American Pale Ale

3.5kg Pilsner
500g Wheat
500g Munich
500g Victory

63C mash temp

@60 Centennial 21g
@5 Amarillo 21g 

DRY HOP:Cascade 21g (each keg)
OG=1052
FG=1012

 All Grain #77

Brew day: 19th April, 2015, Sunday

Name: The man from D.U.N.K.E.L (Weizen)

Style: Dunkelweizen

4kg Wheat
2kg Munich 
200g CaraWheat
50g Carafa Special III
1kg Dextrose

64.8C mash temp

@60 Hallertau 21g 

WLP300

OG=1.070
FG=

Brewing notes: Stove top all grain (indoors). I was under the assumption I had two vials of WLP300 (both past their use-by date), but this was not the case. I only had one vial of WLP300 - and it indeed was past its use-by date. So, a new strategy was required on brew day. Some careful thought (although it wasn't all too careful) meant I mashed lower than normal. I decided to mash at 64.8C. I also had to "up the ante" on this brew as requested, which saw me add 1kg of Dextrose in the last 12 minutes of the boil. This will definitely make hairs grow on your chest (if you don't have any already). I'm mindful of the attenuation of WLP300 in normal circumstances so I will keep an eye out for this in the next few days. Worse case scenario I had another yeast strain into it (US-04, is what I'm thinking). Updates (hopefully) to follow.




All Grain #76

Brew day: 12th April, 2015 - Sunday (indoors)

Name:Bolasie Hat-Trick Coffee Grinder

Dedicated to Yannick Bolasie for this hat-trick (and Palace's first ever in the Premier League) against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Style: Specialty beer (Coffee)

 

3.540kg Munich
1.163kg Torrified Wheat
500g Rolled Oats (El-Cheapo brand: Black & Gold)
200g Biscuit
150g Demurso Coffee beans (coarsely ground)
140g Carafa Special III
75g Chocolate Rye

66.8C mash (for about 1hr, 30mins)

@60 East Kent Goldings 18g 

M44 - Mangrove Jack's yeast (never used it, good time now to do so)

OG= (not taken, t'was a long, long day - but I'd hazard a guess at 1.050)
FG=

Brew day notes: This was another indoor brew day on the stove top, so the mash tun was taken inside along with everything else. Here's what brew day gave me indoors. As for the odd numbers of grain? Well, I can explain that the Torrified Wheat was chosen simply because I had that bag already open and had some used in a previous batch, so I wanted to get "rid of it" rather than still keep it and have the bag. I was only going to use 300g-400g but decided there and then to "whack the whole lot in" for fun. The 3.54kg of Munich was random, I wanted 3.5k so added a few grams more which doesn't really matter for this test batch.

What I had planned to do was put the ground coffee in a grain bag and place it on top of the mash once I got my mash temp right. Unfortunately, I didn't prepare the grain bag (sanitise, etc) and so already late with brew day decided to place the 150g of coarsely ground coffee beans simply on top of the gain bed in the mash tun without the grain bag.

When it came to sparging, this time I specifically wanted not to put boiling water on top - so I hit a target of 77C-78C, which was pretty much on the money for me. I did not want to extract any astringent flavours - it's been a long, long time since I've brewed with coffee beans!

As I knew I was going to brew a smalli-sh batch, the strike water and mash was for about one hour, or just over - but I forgot to heat up the sparge water - so I did that which added another 30 minutes or so to the total time. As I had plenty of room in the mash tun I simply added the 77C-78C water in the mash tun, then vorlaufed from that - then got my 17L/18L or so (in my 20L stove pot).

Once i transferred it to the 20L pot, it was on the stove where once it started boiling just added 18g of EKG at 60 minutes. Once the 60 min boil was over, I covered it with foil, put the lid on it and brought it to the sink with cold water in it. I changed the water in the sink about 4 or 5 times over a 2-3 hour period until I could touch the palm of my hand on the pot without noticing much heat.

I then transferred the wort to the fermenter, put it in the fridge and used the temp controller to drop the temp down so I could knock the temp down yet again (as I read the temp gauge on the fermenter was 32C). I then left it like that for, say, about 2 hours - enough to chill it down so I could introduce the yeast.

Note that I've used this method before a few brews ago (re: first ever indoor brew day, which I think was the bastardised version of a Saison, and it worked fine. It is a much, much longer brew day - but suited me on the day (as I did other things).

The up-shot of all this: a great indoor brew day and a great experiment with Coffee beans. The aroma around the place was, as you can imagine, awesome. Such a pity I don't drink coffee to appreciate it, but it doesn't stop me from drinking coffee beer :)



All Grain #75

Up-coming brew day: 3rd April, 2015 - Friday 

Name: Burgundy of Belgium (Paying homage to Michael Jackson; Beer Hunter)

Style: Belgian Specialty Beer

Notes: First time brewing a Belgian Specialty Ale, and really the first time I'm brewing a proper Belgian Ale. Granted, I've brewed Belgian Wit beers before but that was my limit.

5kg Pilsner
300g Aromatic
150g Special B
1kg Amber Candi Syrup

66.5 mash temp (held for one hour, from 1:42pm)

@60 Hallertau 28g (5.3%AA)
@30 Styrian Goldings 28g (2.2%AA) - had I of actually read the AAs on this, I would not have bought it.
@5 Styrian Goldings 12g + Perle 7g (7.6%AA)

Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Abbey

Fermenting between 22C and 24C had it on 20C for 24hrs, then ramped it up a touch). 

OG= 1.052
FG=

Notes: Fairly poor extraction, me thinks at 1.052. It was a rushed brew day, though. Anyway, looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

 

All Grain #74

Brew date: 22nd March, 2015 - Sunday 

Name: Sea Eagles APA (Fermenter #1)

Name: Mountain Top APA (Fermenter #2)

Style: American Pale Ale

10kg Pilsner
400g Wheat
350g Munich
250g Victory

61.7C (mash for just over an hour)

@60 CTZ 28g
@30 Centennial 14g
@5 Amarillo 56g

20L (5.28 gallons) per fermenter

Fermenter #1: Wyeast 1217 West Coast IPA
Fermenter #2: US-05+WLP007 (Slurry from Stronger than Putin)

Fermenter #1: Wyeast 1217 West Coast IPA
OG=1.050
FG=1.012

5.1% abv

Fermenter #2: US-05+WLP007 (Slurry from Stronger than Putin)
OG=1.050
FG=1.014

4.8% abv

(Reason being it slightly under-attenuated was the fact I "broke" my control temp, so it was really sitting in the fridge without any real temp control, so it was basically room temperature - hitting 23-24C most days (I left the door ajar). I would have liked to have had it at 19C, as I am sure it would've finished at 1.012. Anyway, no need to worry this is for the record anyway).

DRY HOP:
Fermenter #1 -> Keg #1: 28g Cascade
Fermenter #2 -> Keg #2: 28g Ella


Note: 22nd March - Can you believe it?! One of my fermentation control temperature gauges smashed to the ground - and it doesn't appear to be working. I wonder if I can fix it?  In the interim, I've just put the fermenter with the US-05 slurry in the fridge and left it ajar. Let's hope that kind of works. Only time will tell, I guess. :-/




Vic on the Park - Home Brew Competition 2015


All Grain #73

Date: 15th February, 2015 - Sunday

Name: Stronger than Putin

Style: Imperial IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: Due to strict federal and international regulations, this recipe has been classified as TOP SECRET. 

8.5% - SOLD OUT at 4:20pm 7th March, some 40 minutes prior to closing time.

All Grain #72

Date: 8th February, 2015 - Sunday

Name: Square Root

Style: Beetroot IPA (Specialty Beer) 

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: Due to strict federal and international regulations, this recipe has been classified as TOP SECRET. 

6.5% - Still quite a bit left. Wasn't really a winner, which I didn't mind considering it was just in for shits 'n' giggles.


All Grain #71

Dates: 1st February, 2015 - Sunday

Name: Wild Coyote

Style: American Wheat

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: Due to strict federal and international regulations, this recipe has been classified as TOP SECRET. 

5% - This one almost sold out, so it was well liked. It was probably selling quite well from 3pm onward, I'd say. As the the day wore on, the crowd wanted a 5% beer.

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All Grain #70

Dates: 18th January, 2015 - Sunday

Name: Two Hoots

Style: American Wheat (well, kind of.....)

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: Another indoor brew day. It was a deliberate small batch, about 15L in the fermenter. Was playing around with the idea of Torrified Wheat and decided to give it a go.



2kg Wheat
2kg Pilsner
1kg Torrified Wheat

@60 Centennial 14g
@5 Simcoe 21g

US-05
Mash 65C for 1hr. (Although for some odd reason I this temp was playing havoc in the mash tun. I couldn't quite get an accurate reading, so I pushed on regardless - which explains the low gravity points in the OG). 

In the fermenter was just under 15L

OG=1.030
FG=1.010

2.7% abv

(This is a killer of a beer! Love it. Light, refreshing - maybe a touch too hoppy for such a light beer but it goes down easy)



All Grain #70

Dates: 11th January, 2015 - Sunday

Name: Coup de grâce

Style: Imperial IPA

(an experimental brew!)

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Preface: I aptly named this beer due to the nature of the brew day. You know that feeling when you wake up in the morning and you say to yourself: 'it's going to be one of those days'? Well, despite my enthusiasm things just didn't click today. I really needed to be put out of my misery. Truly. Still, despite my fluff-ups and general lack of attention I took the opportunity to turn it into a positive and experimented with a couple of ideas.

In no particular order.....

My hop schedule for an Imperial IPA changed, and I hadn't used Sorachi. Ever. I don't often use Simcoe (although when I have brewed with it or tried it in a beer, I'm a huge fan), but as I have a bag full of it may as well put it to good use. I was a little bit coy using Sorachi, so I went soft on that one. My point is that using Sorachi was an 'off the cuff' decision and so there is no reason why I used it other than for the fact it was sitting in my freezer and not used. I'll Google this now. Funnily enough, I bought it cause it was "new". Well, new in the sense that I hadn't used it, brewed with it or cannot recall a beer I have had with that hop in it (here I go checking my records, though).

The 45 minute addition was removed, deliberately. At least something went right for me today. I knew that from the start, so no worries there.I usually use Warrior (a Surly Brewing, Furious IPA addition) in both my famous Imperial IPAs and IPAs. Not today, though.

I mashed low. Really low. I actually undershot in a big way. This is the first time I've done it pretty badly. This was soley due to the fact that I had 14kg of grain in my 70L mash tun and while trying to hit a temp of 63C (by adding cold water, as I overshoot) I put too much colder water in to compensate. Sometimes I am an idiot, really. I simply rushed it. Stupid me. Still, I managed to 'save' the situation by adding more strike water - but my mash tun by this stage almost overflowed. (Yes, I did get a huge amount of first runnings - which is always a good thing)

Why 13.274kg? Fuck knows. I milled 10kg, but I will admit there was probably a reason at the time of milling (which has escaped me now). Oh well.

I guess all this culminated over a period of two weeks where I was going to brew, then it got postponed. It was back on again, then not. Milled most of the grain one night, milled some a week later. You know, all that crap.

I can officially blame the Christmas/New Year break on this brew day balls-up. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :-)

Regardless, onward and upward.


13.274kg Pilsner
600g Munich
200g Aromatic

@60 CTZ 56g
@30 Centennial 28g
@5 Simcoe 56g
@5 Sorachi 28g
@5 Centennial 28g

DRY HOPPED (kegged after 10 days in Primary)

56g CTZ
56g Centennial
56g Simcoe
x2 US-05

Mash 61C for 1hr, 10 mins.

In the fermenter is about 22L, so that's okay I guess.

OG=1.074
FG=1.016

7.7% abv



All Grain #69

Dates: 21st December, 2014 - Sunday

Name: Memory Loss 

Style: Munich Ale

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: I wasn't paying attention this brew day. A rarity. My attention was focused on some USA treats and making video clips for my mates in the USA. So instead of me brewing a double-batch, I ended up using less strike and sparge water during the process and only ended up with 23L of wort. Still, I guess it's better than a kick in the pants - but it does remind me and everyone else that it is important to pay attention. Heck, I even got my hop amounts wrong. Yep, I got it WRONG. I'll let the wort ferment out and give it a taste, then I'll see if I will dry hop it or not. Details to follow.

Ingredients:
9kg Munich
1kg Wheat

65.3C (mash was for 1 hr, 10 mins)

@60 Centennial 42g

Note: 42g is way too much for what I had intended, considering both strike and sparge water was way off. I obviously didn't even bother spotting this post boil, and putting the wort into the fermenter was when I realised my mistake. I knew then I had screwed up. Oops. Oh well. Onward and upward.

x1 US-05 + Wyeast 1010 American Wheat (Why? Dunno. Just felt like doing something different)

OG=1066
FG=1010

Update 5/1/2015: I've had a few schooners of this beer already.....and boy, it's just awesome. It's been a real long time since I brewed with pretty much all Munich malt. I wasn't disappointed. I may have overdone the hops, but it's turned out to be a damn beauty of a beer. At 7.5% alcohol by volume, I'd suggest drinking this sitting down :-D

I brewed this beer for a mate, so I got the 'slim pickings' of this batch. Still, the 6 or so litres I have are being put to good use. 

Kegged @ 7.5% abv


Extract: #2 for 2014

100% Gluten Free

Dates: 10th December, 2014 - Wednesday

Name: Amarillo 100

Style: Gluten Free!

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Note: We have another beer named by Trish Awesome: Amarillo 100. Sounds deadly, yeah? Cool! It is a pretty simple recipe:

x2 1.5kg Sorghum extract
@60 Centennial 14g

Yeast: US-05

DRY HOP:
Amarillo 28g (post fermentation, and when I keg)

OG=1040
FG=1.010

4% abv

Man, what this good! So light it was unbelievable. Keg was empty way too soon.


All Grain #68

Dates: 7th December, 2014 - Sunday

Name: Humper's Imperial IPA

Style: Imperial IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: (to be filled in during the week)

Ingredients:
10.5kg Pilsner
500g Munich
1kg Dextrose (last 10 mins of boil)

63.4C (mash was for 1 hr, 15 mins)

@90 CTZ 56g
@45 Warrior 28g
@30 Centennial 28g
 @15 Centennial 28g
@5 Amarillo 28g
@flameout Amarillo 28g/Centennial 28g

x2 US-05

OG=1080
FG=1.016

8.5% abv

This went down like a treat. Great stuff, but I didn't drink much of it...Humper did!




All Grain #67

Dates: 9th November, 2014 - Sunday

Name: Bloody Evil Saison

Style: Saisaon (well, a bastardised version of it anyway)

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: My very first indoor all grain brew day! Awesome, huh? I started this brew day pretty late, at about 2pm and thought it'd be a good idea to stay indoors since it was pretty warm outside (and I wasn't 100% with it). So, using my 20L stock pot, lit up the gas stove, got some water going, milled some grain and did the rest as normal. Cooling down the wort was my only issue. I wanted this to be a lazy-day brew day, so once the boil was over I covered it with Aluminum foil then placed the lid on it. Using the cold water in my "laundry", I put the stock pot in (with covered lid) and poured cold water in the sink. I swapped this about 4 times over a period 2-3 hours. It hit about 32C by the end of it, so that is my only concern but next time will start an earlier brew day and let it rest in cold water longer and change it more often. Apart from that, all good. 

This brew day consisted of an experiment with as much wheat grain as I could, while still mashing normally in my 70L esky/mash tun. Additionally, I wanted to have some backbone of malt in which I chose Munich - all of 1.5kg of it. I really wanted to use the sweet orange peel and the late addition of Centennial as a weird-assed experiment for a Saison. Not to style, rather let's see how I go. 

I believe next week will cover a Belgian Wit, which will be another experiemental beer. This will be for the hopeful addition before I attempt a coconut amber ale for later in the Summer. 

Ingredients:
5.1kg Wheat
1.5kg Munich

66.2C (mash was for about an hour or so, a little over)

@60 Hallertau 28g
@10 Sweet Orange Peel 10g
@5 Centennial 28g

Wyeast 3711 French Saison + yeast slurry of Saison (21st Sep, 2013 Batch #40)

OG=1040
FG=1006

4.5% abv (taking into consideration of temperature during fermentation for a 'Saison')

Bloody Evil Saison 4.5%

Update: 27/11/2014 - Well, the wild experiment that was my "Saison" has fermented and is now in a keg. To follow up, the FG was 1.006. That makes it a 4.5% abv beer. Quite nice for a Summer-soothing ale, I reckon. I gave it a try last night and thought I'd share my original thoughts here to help anyone who is interested in this type of thing. I was correct in saying the WLP565 would be the dominant yeast, but who knows what impact (if any) Wyeast 3711 played? But that is for another day. This beer certainly does like to tease. The late addition of ground sweet orange peel and a mix of that lemon-like aroma (provided by the yeast) gave me the strangest of sensations. To my surprise, imagine smelling a potent mix of oranges and lemons in a bucket, with the oranges quite a bit more dominant. You have then got an idea of what this beer's aroma is like. My next surprise was its flavour profile. I honestly didn't think the Munich malt would come through so strongly. Granted, I did expect maltiness but probably not that much. It is a beautiful combination though and it matches very well with the major Wheat addition. The lemon-orange flavours come out quite well and the softness of the wheat really does make the flavours stand out. Overall, a soft and low ABV beer that is great for sipping on a hot day. The experiment was very much worthwhile. It goes to show that even weird brewing experiments allow us to learn and understand each ingredient. It helps us become better brewers, and isn't that what it's all about? Next up: brewing one of my infamous Imperial IPA's. Details to follow next week




All Grain #66

Dates: 18th October, 2014 - Saturday

Name: Pumpkin Munchkin

Style: Specialty Beer

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

 

Ingredients:
3kg Munich
2kg Wheat

65.4C mash (one hour) 

@60 - 21g Hallertau

Yeast slurry of US-05 from previous two batches. 

OG & FG - do not exist. I broke my hydrometer. :-(

So, our brew club came up with an idea to brew a Pumpkin Ale in time for Halloween. This conversation could have turned ordinary but not for the fact we have the brewers try different ways of introducing the pumpkin into the beer. So, with that I wanted to do a "dry pumpkin" (as in dry hop) version.

As you can see, the recipe above is fermenting - and on Tuesday 21st October I decided to buy some Butternut pumpkin and give this a whirl.

Everyone talks about roasting the pumpkin and putting in the mash. I wanted to do something different, so here is a picture process of what I did.

On your right, you can see that I hollowed out the pulp/seeds. That took no time at all and was quite easy. The next few steps were a little time consuming, but well worth it.

Below, you can see that I've skinned the damn pumpkins and roughly diced them. They are large pieces, but that was the first stage.

This stage involved skinning, and this was the most tricky bit. I first cut the pumpkins in something like quarters, then with each quarter I used a small knife to skin it, taking time to remove as much of the 'meat' and to remove as little of a skin as possible. This was the result (see left).

On your right, I've completed all the work. All up you have almost 1.5kg of pumpkin, ready to be roasted. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

And so it begins. Dicing the suckers was easy. What I did, though, was to add some Orange Blossom Honey over the pumpkins while they were in the foiled tray. As you can see below, they were diced nicely and although you cannot see the honey it was pretty well covered. So I am hoping that a portion of the honey comes across in the beer, but I am not fussed either way.

I've heard various times and temperatures for roasting pumpkin, so what I did was just do what the hell I wanted anyway. I "roasted" these for 1 hour and 11 minutes, at 200C. Once "roasted", I put them into a large sanaitsed grain bag and dumped into directly into the fermenter (which was already fermenting for three days).

Let's see how this goes, shall we?

Excited? I am too!

Prost!

Update: This got an infection, and was tossed down the drain. Totally devastated.

:-(


All Grain #65

Dates: 28th September 2014 - Sunday

Batch #1 Name: The D&B Fünfzig Fünfzig
Batch #2 Name:  The Great Escape: Cooler King American Wheat

Style: American Wheat (#1 German Wheat, #2 American Wheat)

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Ingredients:
5kg Pilsner
5kg Wheat
500g Munich
225g dextrose (last 10 mins of boil) Note that this is all I had left!

66C mash (an hour and ten mins)

@60 - 42g Hallertau

Note: This was a double batch in which I split into two POST BOIL.

Fermenter #1: x2 WLP300 (German Wheat Beer)
Fermenter #2: x1 US-05 + x1 US-05 yeast slurry (American Wheat)

#1: This has gone straight into the fermentation fridge and is fermenting between 17C and 19C.

#2: It is basically sitting in my lounge room on the floor. Not bothered about this one, since it is for me (as the German beer is for Dougal).

I actually need the other fridge to keg the Ale Qaeda beer. It's ready to keg now (1st Oct, 2014). So my American Wheat will just sit in the corner in my lounge (which is tiled) and we'll just see how that ferments out. This beer is for my personal use to hopefully with an extra dose of yeast slurry should level out to be about right in this warmer-than-normal Sydney weather this Spring.

I intend to dry hop the American Wheat when I keg it, so I still have time to choose the type of hop I want. I have; Amarillo, Centennial, Cascade, Simcoe, Sorachi or Mosaic (plus a few others I cannot remember). I might go for Mosaic.


OG=1042
FG=1.010

4.3% abv




All Grain #64

Dates: 21st September 2014 - Sunday

Name: Ale-Qaeda

Style: IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

 

9kg Munich
1kg Wheat
500g Mignight Wheat
600g dextrose (last 10 mins of boil)

64.2C mash (just over an hour)

@5 - 281g Amarillo (8.7% AAU)
@5 - 157g Centennial (10.2% AAU)
@5 - 220g Apollo (18% AAU)

659g total hops, all at 5 minutes left in the boil. No 60 minute additions!

Note: A fellow work colleague and mate, David Krkach, has come up with a beer name in light of recent terrorism suspect raids here Sydney, but in particular here at Guildford.

x3 US=05

35L total in 60L fermenter

(A little less than I expected, but of course with the amount of wort lost to the absorption of the hops was quite a lot. But anyways...)

OG=1058
FG=1012

Some pictures from brew day

Midnight Wheat

Midnight Wheat. I had the opportunity to chew on this as you see it in the picture. Quite roasty indeed! It has a lovely flavour, though. First time using it and wanted to give it a good run on its first outing in a beer.

Whether it was the right amount wasn't too much of a concern. I stated off "big" with 500g in a 10k batch (about 5% of grist) so that gives me a rough estimate of 250g for a single batch.

Munich and Mignight Wheat

After the Munich malt and Midnight Wheat malt being crushed, here it is in my 25L container. I've got my crusher set up to do a fairly fine crush, and it does a really good job. I don't really worry about efficiencies per say, but needless to say that I like my grains crushed finely.

Note to self: crush the grain a day before. This was done (crushing 9kg Munich, as I had already crushed the Wheat a week before) on the morning of brew day. Talk about feeling tired before it all began!

Vorlauf. Perfect!

Perfect colour from the vorlauf. Nice and dark, just the way I wanted it. Nothing really unexpected from this and for about 5% of the total grist that is about right, considering my Munich is pretty darker than usual. Still, a perfect colour.

It'll be interested to taste the final product when it is ready.

659g of hops!

I essentially got the idea to hop burst from Basic Brewing Radio. Click here for the specific episode. The episode saw a listener (Kim Odland) simply dumping 1kg of hops (Nelson Sauvin) in the last 5 minutes of the boil and see what the results were. Crazy stuff! So crazy, in fact, that I decided to my version of it. So......

So......I wanted to do something different during brew day and had some hops kicking their heels doing nothing. One thing led to another and I managed to get my hands on Amarillo, Centennial and Apollo hops  - the remainder of whatever was in each being made available for this brew experiment. Crazy!

659g of hops, last 5 minutes

 I didn't feel comfortable simply dumping over 650g of hops in the kettle and then having to dump the wort in the fermenter - full of all those hop pellets. So, I tied it up in a huge hop bag I have and then dumped the whole lot in with 5 minutes remaining in the boil.

There were no 60 minute additions!

It kind of got cramped in there, as you can see. Wort chiller plus a big bag of hops makes for an interesting brew day. The aroma was phenomenal. Was the length of time enough? Well, I'll dry hop this as well - so no worries there. You can always fix up a malty beer via dry hopping in a keg :-)


To finish up, it's fermenting between 18C-20C and I'm really looking forward to kegging this beauty.


More to follow once fermentation completes and the beer is in the keg



Extract: #1 for 2014

 

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

100% Gluten Free

Dates: 7th September, 2014 - Sunday

Name: Amarillo Sunshine Ale

Style: Gluten Free!

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Note: It has been almost three years since I have brewed an extract beer. Concentrating on all grain brewing has been a wonderful experience. This time 'round I decided to not only go back to my roots, but to also brew a Gluten Free beer. Why? Well, my inspiration comes a gem of a person named Trish. She has coeliac disease, and what better way to create a beer in which I am sure she would be proud of.

As luck would have it, opening a naming contest on Facebook allowed all my friends to have a shot at being able to pick a name for this beer. Trish won! Amarillo Sunshine Ale was great name.

There isn't much to extract brewing, really. So what a breath of fresh air it was to only have a 90 minute brew day (as apposed to my 5-6 hour all grain brew day). Fresh wort, lots of hops and some lovin' made this baby very drinkable.

It had an original gravity of 1042 and finished at 1010, which makes a very cool 4.3% abv. Here is the finished product.

Only difference I did was to use @5 minutes 14g of Amarillo and @0 minutes 28g of Amarillo. I hopped it like most would for an IPA. I can assure you this is a damn fine beer for Gluten Free! I will certainly be brewing this again.



All Grain #62 & 63

Dates: 23rd and 24th August 2014 -Saturday and Sunday

Name: Tassie Pepper Devil

Style: Mild Ale

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Note: The recipe and notes for this beer will be made available in October after Sydney Craft Beer Week. Cannot divulge too much, but what I can say is that the beer that I brewed will be made available on tap during Sydney Craft Beer Week in October.

Further details will be made available post Sydney Craft Beer Week. 

Of course, this is on the assumption that my first very attempt at 'no chill' brewing was actually successful. Let's hope it was.

However, what I can show you at the moment are some pictures of my brew weekend. I can give some details in that I was asked to brew "100 litres of wort" for a Sydney Craft Beer Week event. Granted, I only hit 80L (enough to fill up two 50L kegs to 80%) of wort that allowed me to fill four 20L HDPE cubes. 

So I guess briefly discussing my brew day at this stage is a safe option. I was advised that a "no chill" brew day was required. This was in order to ferment the resulting wort at a brewery. It is illegal to ferment beer at home and sell it at a premises.

I'd never attempted 'no chill' before so that was new to me. Granted, I knew all about it in the sense that it existed but I never knew how to approach it, what to do or anything like that. I'd never needed to do it, considering my water rates are the same each quarter regardless if I use 10L or 1,000L, so the wort chiller is an important fixture at my home "brewery".

This picture on your left was taken about 7:30pm. The wort has boiled, I've switched off the heat and I just put the lid on it just in case any debris from above dropped in while the heat was off. As you can see, I'm transferring the 100C wort into the HDPE 20L cube.

To your right, this was Saturday night after I transferred all the wort into the 20L cubes. You can see (well, I hope you can see) that I've filled it right to the top. I filled the cube to the point of it spilling over, then sealing the lid.

Although I had two spare fridges to put a cube each in, I went for the "let's fill the bath full of cold tap water and whack them in their so they cool off overnight" idea.

I came back in the morning and they were room temperature. Great news, I reckon.

Sunday followed, and with that another brew day of 40L of wort. I've done many a double-batch brew day, but not one in which I had to replicate the previous brew day. I have no need to replicate things back-to-back. I experiment to understand and I tweak things to find out what little changes do in recipes.

As it was, replication was the key. Did I pass the test? I did my best, considering the fact there were/are a lot of manual procedures I do in my brew day. Still, I learned quite a lot.

On your left, here you have my grain bucket filled with 11kg of malt with my 70L mash tun at the ready. A lovely sunny day was upon me, so it was good to get outside and smell the fresh air (and impending aroma of the mash tun while mashing!)

On the right here, my 70L boil kettle. It's pretty much reached its limit (as you can see), which is about 55L-60L.

A slow boil ensued, and I do mean slow. Still, the afternoon was bright and what better way to enjoy a sunny day (at the ass end of an Australian Winter) than to be outside - brewing. Can you think of anything better? Well, I guess a six-foot gorgeous blonde with cleavage you could ski down and making love to you is an upgrade to brewing - but beggars can't be choosers. :-/

On the left now, the wort is boiled and I've (again) put the lid on POST BOIL (don't worry, I boil with the lid off, folks) so as not to have any debris from above carry into the kettle as a precautionary measure.

Yep, one 20L cub already filled (as you can see) and one being done.

...and this is the one being done, as you can see on your right. Transferring the boiled wort straight into a 20L HDPE cube and then putting both these suckers into the same bath tub you saw earlier.

Well, the latter 20L cubes weren't "cooled" at all before yours truly whisked them away in a car (thanks Steve) and delivered them to my contact in readiness for them to be taken to brewery (which I will not name just yet) for fermentation. They will ferment there and then processed accordingly until such time they are put into kegs and sent back to my contact for them to sell at Sydney Craft Beer Week event.

Will my beer be any good? Well, all I will say is that it's been deliberately brewed as a "malt forward" beer that showcases a certain item in the brew. Whether than certain item is prevalent or not is up for debate, which I am sure will be discussed at the appropriate time when craft beer lovers and patrons alike get to wrap their lips on it and provide feedback.

More details to follow once Sydney Craft Beer Week ends.

Cheers.



All Grain #61

Date: 18th August 2014 - Monday

Name: Ultravox On Demand

Style: Vienna Ale (granted, Vienna is a lager but I used an Ale yeast!)

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing 

Note: Almost a SMASH beer (Single Malt And Single Hop), apart from the 500g wheat, which will not impart any significant taste variable - but simply provide a bit more head retention to the beer.

My first real use of Vienna malt. I may have used it in a previous batch, but most likely it was of little quantity - and that doesn't even count. So, here we are with my first ever Vienna - and just about a SMASH. I wanted to use a noble hop. I didn't have Saaz readily available, and the Perle hops I have are in my sights for another beer, so with a shed load of Hallertau at my disposal (usually used for my Wheat beers) I thought I'd be a good opportunity to use them in this beer. A safe, low AA hop that I know and trust. I thought the touch of a late hop addition would add allure to the beer. Let's hope I am correct.

Still, not having brewed with Vienna malt (Joe White) it was, dare I even say, quite nervy going into this brew day. Apart from recovering from a major dose of the flu, brewing outside was nice and refreshing - and much better than being stuck inside an office with dodgy air and a reoccurring cough, sneeze sequence that hit me badly last week.

Vienna is supposed to be darker than Pale malt yet not as dark as Munich malt. Additionally, it is supposed to impart a different flavour characteristic than Munich. I grabbed a handful of Vienna from my bag and chewed on it and ate it. Not that I've tasted a Brazil nut for a while, but certainly, what I can only call, a "nutty" characteristic - but a it was a bland taste. I assume this is similar to a Brazil nut of sorts.

Post brew day I took a sip of the wort once it settled in the fermenter (and post introduction of yeast) and it did have a pronounced malt flavour, greater to that of my experience with Munich. It also had that taste of the Brazil nut-like characteristic when I chewed and ate some before mashing the grain.

Interesting combination. Granted, I have read on Vienna malt - and so brewing a beer solely with Vienna malt and experiencing it, describing it and trying to articulate my notes on what it is like - well, that is a challenge. I may even update this portion of the page post brew day to give you a better idea of what Vienna malt is all about.

Still, I tried to focus on the malt by using a a neutral yeast, a low AA and noble hop with the intention of showcasing the malt.

Let's hope I have done that. 

5kg Vienna
500g Wheat
@60 Hallertau 21g
@5 Hallertau 14g

x2 US-05

OG=1064
FG=TBD

I will consider dry hopping this, but will wait upon trying it when it's ready to keg.


All Grain #60

Date: 3rd, August 2014 - Sunday

Name: Trisha's Aboriginal Imperial IPA

Style: Imperial IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing 

Note: What's the best gem in the world? It's Trish! Our very own Trish Awesome has given this Aussie a cool name for his brew. Cool bananas, huh? I tell you what, this Aussie will get pissed as a fart drinking this beer when it's ready!

10kg Pilsner
600g dextrose (last 10 mins of boil)
320g Aromatic
320g Munich

@60 - 56g CTZ (12.2% AAU)
@45 - 28g Warrior (15.7% AAU)
@30 - 28g Centennial (10.2% AAU)
@5 - 28g Amarillo (8.7% AAU)
@0 - 56g Amarillo (8.7% AAU)
@0 - 56g Centennial (10.2% AAU)
@0 - 60g Apollo (18% AAU)

IBU =130 (?!....WTF? lol)

x2 - WLP007
x1 - US-05

OG=1076
FG=10##
(Estimate 7.7%abv)

3-5 days DRY HOP (TBA):




All Grain #59

Date: 26th July, 2014 - Saturday

Name: Bear Claws Smoked Chocolate Imperial IPA

Style: Imperial IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

 

8kg Pilsner
2kg Smoked (Beechwood)
400g dextrose (last 10 mins of boil - within 7 minutes actually)
320g Aromatic
320g Munich
250g Choc Wheat (last 10 minutes of mash)
(Just dumpted all this with 10 mins to go. Gave it a good, dark colour)
90g Dark Crystal (94L)

63.6C mash (1 hour 15 mins)

100g Choc
(This was placed in post strike water, and when I put in the 2nd sparge water.  In for 10 minutes)

Hop Schedule: 
@90 - 56g CTZ 12.2%
@45 - 28g Warrior 15.7%
@0 - 106g Cascade
@0 - 56g Amarillo
@0 - 50g Apollo


(late hop additions were placed in at flameout and kept like that for 10 minutes, then wort chiller was turned on).

212g total

x2 US-05 (new packet yeasts)

Update: 27/07/2014 - Okay, I was hitting for a Black Imperial IPA but when I found out I had no Black malt I was pretty annoyed, but using Chocolate Wheat was a good replacement. However, I ran out of Chocolate Wheat (only 250g available). So, I turned to normal Chocolate malt, of which I put in 100g extra and in the second sparge. Granted, maybe mashing the Chocolate Wheat all of the hour would have been better, but I didn't do that. The extra 100g was placed in when I was doing a vorlauf and while it was going into my vessel it wasn't quite dark enough - so the decision to put 100g more for a little while was made. Final result was a dark brown beer. That's fine. It'll still work.

For the hops, there was no 30 minute addition. This was very deliberate. I wanted the same/similar hop profile to what I normally do - but without that addition. I figured since I didn't get my colour (as I didn't have Black malt - and I used the darker malts differently anyway), why not leave out the 30 minute addition. So, it'll be interesting to taste the malt profile particularly with the heavy late additions on this brew.

As for the Smoked malt? Well, I felt approximately 20% would give it a good, solid subtle taste. My previous (and first) time using Smoked malt I used about 14.28% of the grain bill. I upped the ante and given the fact that I used a lot more darker malts than anticipated, the 2kg works out to be just over 18% of the grain bill. So, I guess we'll see how works out - but expect a nice, subtle flavour for this. Again, a deliberate play considering this is an Imperial IPA and the focus is on the hops, etc. So just a background note of Smoked malt is what I am after. Hopefully I've hit the %age right on the money.

Original gravity is perfect. Let's hope it attenuates correctly.


OG=1080






All Grain #58

Date: 19th July, 2014

Name: Humper's Revenge

Style: Imperial IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

 

Ingredients:
10KG Pilsner
390g Dextrose (last 10 minutes of the boil. that was the last I had in 1KG packet!)
320g Aromatic
320g Munich


63.4C (mash for 1 hour 12 minutes)

Hop Schedule:

@60 - 56g CTZ
@45 - 28g Warrior
@30 - 28g Centennial
@0 - 56g Amarillo
@0 - 56g Cascade
@0 - 79g Centennial (that was the last of whatever I had in that packet)

x2 - WLP007 (Dry English Ale yeast)

Note: I intend to dry hop this in the keg (using a hop bag, of course) with the following:

3-5 days:

56g of each: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial

OG=1075
FG=10##


(potential for about 8.8%)

Brew notes (excuse the rush writing. this is 'as is'):

Filled about 60L of water into kettle to heat. Put in 30L + 3L or so then another 2-3L of cold water to hit mash temp.

1 hour 12 mins mash, then vorlauf.

Got about 18L out in fermenter. Boiled sparge water, transferred to mash tun then got another 18L in fermenter. Could have got more but left "as is".

Total in kettle was about 36L .

Total wort 20L in fermenter. With hop bag capturing most of the hops as i aerated the wort into the fermenter.

All Grain #57

Date: 15th June, 2014


Name: 666



Style: American Dark Wheat  version #3

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Note: This brew is really a bastardisation of an American Dark Wheat and an IPA, and not to any BJCP guidelines. Strictly speaking, it's basically a made up version I concocted for the Riverside Brewing Home Brew competition. I wanted to blend the taste of a Dunkelweizen (but without the banana/clove aroma) with an IPA. So to combine two of my favourite beers into one, using a neutral yeast: US-05, was my aim here.

I wanted it to be hoppy. I wanted it to be malty. I wanted the body of a dark wheat, with all the goodness of an IPA: aroma, texture and taste. Tough job, I know. How have I done? Well, I've had various reviews from four different people on V1 of the 666. V2 and V3 are yet to be tasted, so I will update accordingly when the time comes.

Additional notes: 16/06/2014 - I've come to like this beer, so regardless of the outcome of the brew comp this will be a well-brewed house beer. I can swap and change easily with hops to see what they do, and it allows me to have an enjoyable beer yet still prepare me for brew day when it comes to an IPA, which I like. Also, the colour is perfect for a dark wheat beer. I know in previous comments on previous recipes that the colours for those respective beers has been great. So, too, has this beer been a great colour for a dark wheat - even if you change it about for a Dunkelweizen (using any of the WLP or Wyeast German yeasts). Colour is pretty much spot-on. Photos to follow once it has been kegged and poured into a glass.

UPDATED: 01/07/2014 - Chill haze? Murky? Dunno. Quirky, yeah? Never have I had chill haze in my beer, nor has it been murky. Weird. Still, let's move on. This, as it stands, isn't too shabby. I'll certainly brew this again for yours truly (and friends). Will it win the Riverside Brewing comp? I very much doubt it. To me (and for the record), the appearance will cock things up for me. I have absolutely no idea how they'll mark/rank/rate the beers but surely appearance will be one?

I will admit this beer seems a little medium-heavy in viscosity. Not something I was aiming for but at 6.4%abv, a dark wheat-type replica - yeah, I'll kinda take that. Personally, Dave Padden should be applauded for taking the challenge out to the home brewers. What a competition he is running. Regardless of who wins Paddo and his team should be very proud of their efforts. Long may it continue.

For me, this is a tough one! Comparing version #2 and #3 is tricky. I prefer #3 but it, too, needs to be lessened in ingredients. How? Dunno. Maybe biscuit malt needs to be 150g? What will that 50g less do? Dunno. Maybe sweet f%$k all. It just has a touch too much (no AC/DC pun there) "maltiness" for my liking. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah - boo bloody hoo.

This is what I got. Suck it up!

Ingredients:
2.5KG Wheat
2.5KG Pilsner
700g Munich
200g Biscuit
100g Chocolate

67.2C (mash for 1 hour)

Hop Schedule:

@60 - 14g Centennial 9.6%
@30 - 14g Centennial 9.6%
@0 - 56g Cascade 6.2%
@0 - 56g Amarillo 8.2%

OG=1060
FG=10##


All Grain #56

Date: 14th June, 2014


Name: World Cup Wheat #GoSocceroos

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Style: Wheat  

3.5KG Wheat
2.5KG Pilsner
400g Vienna
300g Munich

67.5C (mash for 1 hour)

Hop Schedule:

@60 - 21g Hallertau

OG=1066
FG=10##

All Grain #55

Date: 9th June, 2014


Name: Polar Vortex IPA

Style: American IPA 

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

5KG Pilsner
400g Wheat
200g Aromatic
100g Crystal
80g Munich


63.6C (mash for 1 hour)

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60- 28g CTZ 12.2%
@30 - 14g Centennial 9.6%
@0 -  56g Apollo 18%
@0 - 56g Cascade 6.2%

US - 05

OG=1044
FG=1010 (taken 15/06/2014)

4.5% abv

I mashed in at a temp well above what I consider normal. The proceeding 40 minutes to get it to 'mash temp' is the probable cause of why I got 1044 as a starting gravity. Proof is in the pudding with batches #56 and #57 (see above) with similar grain bills but much higher gravity readings. I took too long to get it to mashing temp, which essentially is my problem. All good, though. Another thing I have learned: hit your temps accurately, and you don't have a problem or use cold water quickly, rather than just letting nature cool the mash temp. It takes too long that way.

It is also a touch too dark? Well, it appeared so anyway. Maybe it was the light (bad lighting at my place due to weather and what not) so I'll make comment once it's in the keg, carbonated up and ready to drink.


All Grain #54

Name: 666

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Updated 3/6/2014 - This is a slightly more darker version that V1, which is deliberate. I wanted just up up the ante a little bit with this one. I backed off on the hops (removed @30 min and @0 min Cascade addition) and added extra Munich malt (400g), plus a touch more Chocolate (20g). The overall impression I got is that it will be slightly darker, to which I feel meets the 666 name.

I guess time will tell whether this will be a winner or not. Regardless, what a fun project to do for Riverside Brewing's home brew comp. It is now time to concentrate recipes in readiness for the NSW State Amateur Brewcing Competition. Bring it on!.


Style: Dark American Wheat (version 2)

2.5KG Wheat
2.5KG Pilsner
700g Munich
150g Biscuit
80g Chocolate
(+20g Chocolate during sparging)

67C (mash for 50 minutes)

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 14g Centennial 9.6%
@0 - 56g Centennial 9.6%
@0 - 56g Amarillo 8.2%


US-05

OG=1050
FG=




All Grain #53


Name: 666

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Notes: A special brew for a special reason, and I'd rather not say just yet. What I can say is that it is the first attempt of my newly founded 666 series. The idea come from my love of American hops and German Dark Wheat beers. The name inspired by a good brewery I know, and the increased font size of the six in the middle? Well, that was my idea.

The idea of blending two styles intrigued me. A hoppy American IPA mixed with a Dark Wheat beer. I still wanted the maltiness of a dark wheat and the characteristics of a dark wheat, but I also wanted to have that hoppy goodness from an IPA. Mix the two ideas and you have something like the recipe you see below.


--

Ed: It is carbonating as we speak and available for tasting on Thursday 29th May. The resulting taste test will decided whether a further (and final) brew of this is required or whether this is enough to "do the job" (of which I cannot say). Either way it is my little creation that will improve over time and I'm sure this will be a house favourite. 
 
Style: Dark American Wheat

3KG Wheat
2KG Pilsner
300g Munich
150g Biscuit
80g Chocolate

67.2C (mash for one hour)

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 14g Centennial 9.6%
@30 - 14g Centennial 9.6%
@0 - 56g Centennial 9.6%
@0 - 56g Amarillo 8.2%
@0 - 56g Cascade 6.2%

US-05 (slurry from previous batch)

OG=1052
FG=1010

666 American Dark Wheat

5.6% abv (kegged 27th May, 2014)

Updated 3/6/2014 - This keg is gone! No more. Sorry! I gave this beer to a few people and had varying feedback from "I love this beer and the hops were perfect" to "I'd rate this a 6/10" to "A little too hoppy, but I liked it." How do I proceed from here, you think? I actually liked this beer quite a lot, however, for the competition at Riverside Brewing? I backed off on the hops and added more 'maltiness' to it. See recipe #54 (above). Regardless, this will certainly be a winner at danntastic brewing and will become a house favourite.

All Grain #52

Saturday, 3rd May 2014
  
F #1 Name: (Burp!) Pretty Girl 
F #2 Name: Elk's Cats

Style: Dunkelweizen (Dark Wheat)

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

6KG Dark Wheat
3KG Bohemian Pilsner
400g Dark Munich
150g CaraMunich I
150g CaraWheat
80g ChocWheat

Slurry - WLP300
Slurry - Wyeast 3333

67.6C mash for one hour

@60 Hallertau 42g 5.13%AA

#1 Fermenter: WLP300 - In temp control fridge @16.5-18.5C
#2 Fermenter: Wyeast 3333 - Sitting on the floor in lounge. Currently 17C, but will
fluctuate (obviously) during the week. It is almost winter! Yay!

Notes: I've pretty much hit the colour I wanted, so that was a bonus. The picture below shows the vorlauf. The final post boil product is a touch lighter, but I'm very happy with the result. I know for a fact that a touch more chocolate wheat will darken this beast, so that is a clue for next time. Either way, a great colour and a very good base to work from for a double batch. This should be a beauty!

Updated: 3/6/2014 - Should have been a beauty, but my stupid yeast slurry from the previous batches of a wheat beer did not perform to expectations, with the resulting beer not attenuating correctly ( despite temp control on one of the beers.)

Both finished at a final gravity of 1026, so my guess is that both sets of yeasts had pretty much done their stuff the first time round. I'm all for harvesting yeast and I continue to do it, but this time it really did annoy me considerably. I didn't do anything different from other times, but for some reason the yeast just died on me. Very frustrating. Still, a beer was produced and if nothing else this was a little too dark for my liking (final product, and hindsight available).

Updated: 16/6/2014 -  This beer ended up 'sweet' (see above post). Speaking to my fellow brewer and friend Kyle, he suggested I grab some hops, put them in a pot of boiling water and time 45 minutes. Strain hops, put them in your keg, mix it around for a couple of minutes then put back in fridge to drink the next day. Great advice. It worked. This concept works. I put in 18g of Hallertau, boiled for 45 minutes then dumped the whole lot in the keg. Easy. OK, I got hop debris in the keg and it got stuck, but I cleared out the out post a few times and now is fine. The beer is much better than previous. I didn't do any calcs, just whacked some hops in. If you were to do this seriously, work out the IBU required - then boil the hops. Regardless, this works a treat. Great advice, Kyle! Lastly, the colour is actually perfect. Looking at this beer again on the weekend past (14th-15th June, World Cup weekend) the colour is fine. Perfect for a dark wheat. No worries there. 

 

OG=1054
FG= 1026

3.7% abv (kegged)

All Grain #51

Sunday, 6th April 2014
  
Name: #cpfc4ever

Style: Munich Ale

5KG Munich
500g Wheat

US-05

66C mash for one hour

@60 Hallertau 21g 5.13%AA
@5 EKG 28g 6.5%AA

Note to self: The last two brews I think I have found the "butter zone" for my grain mill. Perfect.

(Fermenting in Fridge #1 @ between 18C to 20C)

OG=1060
FG=1014

6.1% abv (kegged 23/04/2014)


All Grain #50

Congratulations! 50 all grain brews! Yeeha!

Notice the Crystal Palace colours to celebrate? 24 years this month I've followed
the mighty Crystal Palace Football Club. 

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

#cpfc4ever
#cpfc Celebrated with Dougal and Bjorn.

Saturday, 5th April 2014
  
Name: The D&B Fünfzig Fünfzig

Style: German Wheat Beer

Dougal and Bjorn managed to pop over during brew day. Great stuff! Bjorn, our German representative, was on hand to see the brewing process and so too was Dougal, our English friend who managed to text KP saying that he wishes him back into the England Test team. I reminded Dougal that "5-0" was appropriate for an Ashes series and I was able to make Bjorn happy about my wheat beer by following the 1516 German Purity Law: Reinheitsgebot.

At a starting gravity of 1060, I think this is one wheat beer the Germans may want to ban. :-)

5KG Pilsner
5KG Wheat
700g Munich
500g Vienna

Mash @ 66.7C for one hour

WLP300 & Wyeast 3333

45g Hallertau @60

Fermenter #1: WLP300 (@ between 17.5C and 19.5C)
Fermenter #2: Wyeast 3333 (just fermenting on the tiles on lounge room floor)

OG=1060
FG=1016

5.9% abv Wheat Beer

All Grain #49

Saturday, 16th March 2014

Name: 32nd State (version 3)

Style: Imperial  IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

10KG Pilsner
500g Dextrose (added last 5 mins of boil)
400g Aromatic
200g Dark Crystal (93L)
150g Munich

Note: I played around a little with the malt bill again. Not too dissimilar to #48, but I dropped a bit of the Crystal and added Munich malt. A touch more dextrose than my 2014 addition for the Imperial IPA but I did that just in case.

Mash: 63.5C for an hour and five minutes. 

Note: 43L in mash tun, which turned out to be about 23L when I did the vorlauf.
Note: 2nd sparge led to 15L of wort in fermenter, total: 38L in kettle. 

Hop Schedule as follows:

@90 - 56g CTZ 12.2%
@45 - 28g Warrior 15.7%
@30 - 28g Centennial 9.6%
@15 - 28g Centennial 9.6%
@0 - 70g Galaxy 14.5%
@0 - 90g Amarillo 8.2%
@0 - 70g Cascade 6.2%

Note: At this point, I turned off the heat when the 90 minutes was up, dumped in the @0 minute hops, placed the lid on the kettle (to cover as much as I could - even with the chiller in it) and let it sit for 10 minutes. This was on a timer. I then put in a large hop sack in the fermenter (boiled to sterilise) and collected about 20L)

Madness, surely?

Yeast: US-05

OG=1086
FG= 1016

9.3% abv Imperial IPA

Out of the keg, this has to be one of my favourites. Malty, hoppy and in your face. I must do a normal IPA for this. Same recipe, just half everything. Definite winner in my books.



All Grain #48

Saturday, 15th February2014

Name: Hopinionated (Ode to Surly Brewing Company)

Style: American IPA

Brewery: Danntastic Brewing

Note: Trying to brew an Imperial IPA, but with a starting gravity of 1062 I knew I was off by a long way. Obviously I should not play around with my base malt total grist! Anyway, no harm done. Still, this is beer is in honour of Surly Brewing.

6KG Pilsner
150 Aromatic
150 Melanoidin
150g Crystal (93L)

Mash: 63C for about an hour

Hop Schedule as follows:

@90 - 56g CTZ 12.2%
@45 - 28g Warrior 16.5%
@30 - 28g Centennial 9.6%
@15 - 28g Centennial 9.6%
@5 - 56g Centennial 9.6%
@5 - 56g Amarillo 8.2%

Yeast: US-05 (fermenter #1, and the main brew)
Fermentation temp: 18.3C to 20.3C

OG=1062
FG=1010

6.9%abv (kegged on 25/2/2014)

Note: This was dry hopped with 20g Centennial and 20g Amarillo 
(in little hop bag attached to inside of dip tube)


All Grain #47

Saturday, 8th February2014

Name: Oh Fifi!

Style: English IPA

Note: Brewed a little bit extra, so that mean a little bit more strike water and sparge water. Total volume exceeded requirements so the extra portion of wort post boil went into a fermenter for a little
experiment using German Ale yeast.

Updated: 13th Feb, 2014: I took a whiff of fermenter #2 with the 1007......oh boy. Aroma and taste
was not very palatable. Still, I'll bottle this and keep it aside for testing purposes.

6KG Pilsner
1KG Vienna
250g Crystal (55L)

Mash: 64C for about an hour

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 26g Northern Brewer 10.5%
@30 - 20g Fuggles 4.5%
@15 - 14g EKG 6.5%
@5 - 100g EKG 6.5%

Yeast: US-05 (fermenter #1, and the main brew)
Yeast#2: German Ale yeast Wyeast 1007 (extra 15L of wort!)

OG=1042
FG=1010

4.3%abv (kegged on 23/2/2014)


All Grain #46

Saturday, 1st February2014

Name: 32nd State v2.0

Style: American IPA

Note: My first brew for 2014, and what a calamity it was. Nothing seemed to go right for me. I will not bore you with the details but suffice to say I was not a happy person by brew day's end. Still, I completed the IPA and it's fermenting quite well. Why so well? I finally managed to buy myself a temperature controller from eBay. So, it means I am using my fridge as a fermentation unit with my temperature controller plugged into it. Of course, I have a heating mat connected to the temp controller as well, in which the heating mat sits inside the fridge.

I've set the unit at about 20C, so the fridge is fluctuating between 19C and 21C. I figure this is quite suitable and I am (at the moment) happy  Proof will be in the pudding once fermentation is complete and I take a sample for a FG.

This American IPA is a slight variation from previous attempts (not that I have done many to begin with). I will not dry hop it on this occasion as I want to see what it does with all those late additions I did. Still, this should turn out to be a fairly good start as it will go someway to be similar to my brew for the NSW State Amateur Brewing competition later in the year.

6KG Pilsner
150g Crystal (55L)

Mash: 63.5C for (one and a half hours. it was during this I had lots of issues).

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 28g CTZ
@45 - 14g Warrior
@30 - 14g Centennial
@15 - 14g Centennial
@3 - 28g Amarillo and Centennial

Yeast: US-05


OG=1050
FG=1010

5.3% abv (kegged 23/2/2014, but not in fridge and carb'd 'til 25/2/2014)


All Grain #45

Saturday, 21st December 2013

Name: Inter Galactic Peacetime for the Sexiness betterment of the Human Race via Guildford-Sounds.

Style: American Dark Wheat (in which I just made up. You heard it here FIRST!)

Note: Last week (say about 10th, 11th or 12th Dec) I went and roasted my own grains. Thanks to the book "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher, and thanks to Basic Brewing's James Spencer and Steve Wilkes, I simply decided that I needed to do a special brew for Christmas 2013 in the hope it would became a repeatable beer over the course of time.

So, I got 3kg of malted wheat and placed it, one kilogram at a time, on a rectangle pan which was then placed in a preheated oven at 180 Celsius for 21 minutes. I did this three times, for the total of 3kg. I can assure you that the aroma that encased my apartment was phenomenal. It really smelled liked baked cookies. It was simply danntastic!

The colour was just brilliant. I wonder what the taste will be like? Hopefully it will be great Christmas/Holiday beer for any occasion.

5KG Pilsner
3KG Wheat (@180c/21 minutes)
2KG Wheat
1KG CaraHell

Mash: 65.4C for 50 minutes.

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 40g Hallertau - 5.13%
@3 - 28g Amarillo - 8.8%
@3 - 28g Centennial - 9.6%

Fermenter #1: US-05
Fermenter #2: US-05 + WLP300 (experiment, which was designed so yeast can be reused this way)


OG=1054
FG=1020



All Grain #44

Saturday, 7th December 2013

(In memory of my best mate Steve Dubczyk, born on this day. Happy birthday buddy, you are still very sorely missed).

Name: Triple Wicket Maiden Dark Munich Ale 

(Thanks to Mitchell Johnson for ripping apart England's first innings at the Adelaide Oval in one monstrous over).

Style: Munich/Pilsner (?). No real style, really. 

Note: I experimented, again. I guess the 'behind the scenes' with this brew was my recent smokey beer, which was batch #42. Several people enjoyed that (including myself) but I wanted to just back off a little on the hops by using a more noble hop. Hallertau fit that bill perfectly. My hop schedule is pretty much spot on with regards to an IPA or Imperial IPA (where it is a 90 minute boil) so fiddling around with the hops in this way gives me an idea of what they're like. I'd never hopped like this with Hallertau (but use it extensively in other brews with fairly late and bittering additions) so it's a good exercise regardless of outcome.

Given the fact that I was tempted to leave out the Chocolate Rye, it was decided to throw it in and see what happens. What I got was a lush dark colour, and I finished it off with a touch of EKG at the end. It'd be interesting to see how both the WLP001 and WLP029 perform. I know WLP001 is basically a US-05 in some respects so no worries there. The WLP029, on the other hand, is something I haven't used so it is with interest to see how this one performs against the Cali.

5KG Pilsner
5KG Munich
250g Choc Rye

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 14g Hallertau - 5.13%
@45 - 14g Hallertau - 5.13%
@30 - 14g Hallertau - 5.13%
@15 - 14g Hallertau - 5.13%
@5 - 28g East Kent Goldings - 6.5%

60 minute boil

Yeast:
Fermenter #1: WLP001 California Ale Yeast
Fermenter #2: WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch Yeast

OG=1052
FG=1020

Note that this was for both beers, so at this temperature (run naturally across the house) that both WLP001 and WLP029 performed the same. The taste test will begin shortly.


All Grain #43

Sunday, 3rd November 2013

Name: Wheat meet Again (...don't know where, don't know when)

Style: Wheat Beer

Note: This was a double batch (11KG). One batch was going to a mate who requested a german style wheat beer, while the other was for yours truly. I played around with the grain bill from what I do normally, and since I've had a great response from the all Munich beer I decided to do a 50/50 Munich/Wheat (with a touch of CaraHell). So, as I didn't want the "same beer" I just used a different yeast in the other fermenter to split the batch. Easy. I've actually never used the 1007 German Ale yeast so it'd be interesting to see what kind of characteristics I get from my brew compared to that of the 3333. Although technically I haven't used this yeast, I have used the various other Wyeast German Wheat yeasts and White Labs yeasts equivalents.

5KG Wheat
5KG Munich
1KG CaraHell

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 40g Hallertau - 5.13%
@5 - 60g  Hallertau - 5.13%

60 minute boil

Yeast:
Fermenter #1: 3333 German Wheat (18L post boil)
Fermenter #2: 1007 German Ale (18L post boil)

OG=1050
FG=1026 (WTF?!)

3.2% abv

(Both fermenters finished at 1026. The first few days when they were fermenting was quite hot, so I am pretty sure the yeast was panicking to some degree. A week later, all was somewhat cooler and so I was disappointed that both yeasts didn't handle the heat very well. Still, I think that is about 3.2% abv for a Summer session beer. Can't complain. 

All Grain #42

Sunday, 13th October 2013

Name: Stoke me a clipper, I'll be back for Christmas

Style: Smoked Beer (Rauchbier) / IPA (kind of a mix, don't you think?)

Note: I have never used Smoke malt before in a brew. Sure, I've actually had a few smoked beers over my time. Some fantastic, some quite ordinary. Our Western Sydney Brewers meet up in August gave us the opportunity to take up a challenge: use Smoke malt and brew whatever you want. We get to taste our brews at the November meetup. So, here is my version. Will it work? Dunno, but what I do know is when I opened the bag of smoke malt - it was liking taking a huge whiff of bacon. Amazing. Even during the mash I could smell that smoke malt, and it was only 1KG too. Wow.

I was tossing up between a Porter and an IPA. My good mate, fellow work colleague and brewer, Kyle, suggested I do a Porter. What a great idea! But somehow I got this idea to play around with both smoke malt and some hops. I had a shed load of EKG in my freezer, which were kicking their heels doing absolutely nothing. So..........one thing lead to another and I ended up doing some weird as hell beer with a malt I never used before, didn't know how much to put in and then hop the crap out of it. 

Madness? Insanity? Both I'd say. Still, let's see how this monstrosity turns out huh?
---

5KG Pilsner
1KG Rye
1KG Smoke
300g Victory
250g Choc Rye

Hop Schedule as follows:

@90 - 28g East Kent Goldings - 6.5%
@45 - 14g East Kent Goldings - 6.5%
@30 - 14g East Kent Goldings - 6.5%
@15 - 14g East Kent Goldings - 6.5%
@5 - 14g East Kent Goldings - 6.5%
@2 - 28g Mosaic - 11%

90 minute boil

Yeast:  US-05 (Slurry taken from the IPA Chipotle batch)

OG=1056
FG=1020

Man, I'm in love with this beer. I had something fairly similar not long ago? Was it something from Feral Brewing recently? That same goddamn smokiness it's awesome. It is what I call "subtle". Granted, to others there may not be bugger all there but you can definitely taste the smokiness in this beer, but it isn't overpowering. Combine that with other malts......my goodness. On tap it is phenomenal. An experimental beer that turned out great. OK, so others may find this not to their liking but I certainly find it to be an 'out there' beer. Will certainly brew this again.

Interestingly, the EGK hops on this is superb (in my honest opinion). I also have that 'mosaic' hop in there as well. I really do like it. I'd probably make sure next time that a new satchel of US-05 is used and run it down to 1010, but apart from that I like it a lot. 

Smokey Bandit 4.8%

All Grain #41

Monday, 30th September 2013

Name: Dunkelweizen - You're my little dunkelweizen

Style: Dark Wheat

4KG Wheat
1KG Pilsner
250g CaraMunich II
150g Special B
40g Carafa Special II

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 20g Hallertau 5.3%

90 minute boil

Yeast:  WLP380

OG=1036
FG=1010

3.5% abv

Another lovely low alcohol session beer, this time a dark wheat. One of my all time favourite beers that I like to brew. It's Spring, almost turning into Summer so a nice session beer to sooth the soul during hot days is the way to go.

All Grain #40

Sunday, 21st September 2013

Name: 'Tis the Saison

Style: Belgian Saison

5KG Pilsner
500g Wheat

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 17g Hallertau 5.3%
@15 - 12g Hallertau 5.3%
@2 - 28g Perle 8.8%

90 minute boil

Yeast:  WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast

OG=1040
FG=1002

5.1% abv

I am drinking this now via my keg. Oh. My. Goodness. For a first attempt at a Saison, dannyboy done good! A lemony citrus aroma, with a gentle malt profile to that of citrus/lemon, a dry aftertaste which leaves you wanting more.

Saison 5.1% abv

All Grain #39

Sunday, 15th September 2013

Name: Red Wheat

Style: Wheat (using Red Wheat. It's not "red", rather sewed at a different time during the year to that of normal wheat. This wheat is 'hard' wheat I believe.)

3KG Red Wheat
1KG CaraHell
1KG Rye

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 18g Hallertau 5.3%

90 minute boil

Yeast:  WLP300

OG=1030
FG=1010

2.7% abv

A lovely low alcohol session beer, great for Spring or Summer. This went down very nicely, thank you very much.

Wheat 2.7% abv

All Grain #38

Saturday, 14th September 2013

Name: Munich Oktoberfest

Style: Munich Oktoberfest (It is not a lager, but an experimental Ale Oktoberfest)

5KG Munich

Hop Schedule as follows:

@60 - 46g Saaz 3.6%
IBU - 23 (approx)

90 minute boil

Yeast:  US-05

OG=1048
FG=1010

5.1% abv

What a fantastic beer this was. It was my first attempt at using an all grist Munich malt. I wanted to use a noble hop of sorts, so Saaz was in the freezer - and it got the nod. I didn't regret it. I slightly over-hopped it, but Saaz is such a mellow (and low alpha acid) hop that you'd really have to go crazy to ruin a beer. I wasn't sure what to expect from this beer - but I wasn't disappointed. A nice malty (not sweet) taste directly from the Munich malt. I was very well balanced with the Saaz. First sip was good, but from there on in the beer grew on you immensely. Yet another fantastic Spring or Summer beer.

PS: Did you notice I used the words "fantastic beer this was"? Just on one month since I brewed this and it's already been brewed, fermented, kegged and drank. Yep, a phenomenal beer.

Munich 5.1% abv

All Grain #37

Sunday, 8th September 2013

Name: Chipotle IPA

Style: IPA with Chipotle

Note: A chipotle is just a smoke dried Jalapeno. Simple, huh?


6KG Pilsner
200g Melanoidin

Hop Schedule as follows:

@90 - 28g Columbus
@45 - 14g Warrior
@30 - 14g Centennial
@15 - 14g Centennial
@5 - 14g Amarillo & Centennial

I didn't dry hop this. This was intentional. Wanted to test this out without dry hopping.

90 minute boil

Yeast:  US-05

OG=1046
FG=1006

5.3% abv

This has turned out to be a fabulous beer. The IPA hoppiness, with lots of citrus overtones with a wave of smokiness then a touch of heat, both from the Chipotle. Sensational.

IPA Chipotle 5.3% abv

All Grain #36

Sunday, 4th August 2013

Name: Mother Humper's Imperial IPA

Style: Imperial IPA

Note: This was superb. Everyone that tried this loved it. Definitely one of the best every attempts at an Imperial IPA. I have cracked the recipe for this, no doubt.

Interesting, had I of entered this Imperial IPA in the NSW State Amateur Brewing Comp - it would have won, hands down. It was that good. 

Out of the four kegs I had ready, this was the first one that was empty. Amazing.



10.5KG Pilsner
315g Simpsons Imperial Malt
400g Dextrose (last 10 minutes of the boil)

Hop Schedule as follows:

@90 - 56g Columbus
@45 - 28g Warrior
@30 - 28g Centennial
@15 - 28g Centennial
@5 - 28g Amarillo
@Flame Out 28g Amarillo and Centennial

I didn't dry hop this. This was intentional. Wanted to test this out without dry hopping.

90 minute boil

Yeast: x2 US-05

OG=1070
FG=1010

8% abv

The picture below was taken when the Imperial IPA had just about finished fermentation. I was trying it out to see what it tasted like. Sweet Zombie Jesus. I knew I had struck gold when I tasted it, but it was even more surprising to hear everyone rave on about it when it was gassed and kegged. Yes, folks this beer was that good. Such a pity I don't have an 'actual' picture of the beer when in the keg. I guess I was that busy drinking it, along with everyone else, that I was too rattled to take a photo. Lesson learned. 

Imperial IPA 8% abv

All Grain #35

Saturday, 3rd August 2013

Name: Oktoberfest Amber Wheat

Style: Amber Wheat


3KG Dark Wheat
2KG Pilsner
500g Dark Munich
600g CaraRed
300g CaraMunich II
200g CaraWheat

23g Hallertau 5.3% (@60)

90 minute boil

Yeast: WLP300

OG=1036
FG=1010

3.5% abv

All Grain #34

Saturday, 27th July 2013

Name: Sinn Fein's Party Ale

Style: Irish Red Ale


2.5KG Pilsner
1KG Maris Otter
500g Golden Promise
600g CaraRed
250g CaraMunich II
170g CaraAroma
20g Roasted Barley

30g East Kent Goldings 6.4% (@60)
14g East Kent Goldings 6.4% (@20)

90 minute boil

US-05

OG=1046
FG=1010

4.8% abv   


All Grain #33

Date Unknown - The first time I have forgotten the date in my brewing life. Bad Dan!

Name: Brown Porter

Style: Brown Porter


4KG Golden Promise
400g Brown Malt
350g Crystal 55L
280g Choc

25g Fuggles 4.5% (@60)

90 minute boil

US-05

5.1% abv

Unsure of OG or FG but I am guessing 1050 OG. Notes lost, sadly.


All Grain #32

Sunday,  30th June 2013

Name: Dark Wheat - turned completely BALLSED UP!

Style: Dark Wheat into Lager into beer failure.

This was a screw up if I've ever had one. I had issues with my neck and shoulder, which (as I later found out) was a pinched nerve in my neck. Long story short, I screwed up the grain bill big time. I had not been concentrating, obviously. Some of these portions below makes you wonder if I was on drugs or something. Don't worry, I was not. I don't do that crap. I am silly enough on fresh air, let alone a few beers under me. Anyway, after my "measurements" of grain that went AWOL, I decided then to do a Lager. I had some Czech Pilz lager yeast surprisingly, so I sat it in the fridge in the garage. Three weeks later I checked it - and it didn't budge an inch with regards to original gravity.

I placed it outside the fridge, put a yeast slurry in it to rejuvenate and kick-start the yeast again. Seemed to have worked when a few days later I check on it again. I take a gravity reading and what do you know? It dropped to about 1050 (from 1056)! WOO! I was high-fiving myself without a soul in sight, only to realised a few seconds later that for some extraordinary reason the fridge temperature had fractured the fermenter lid leaving it with a huge gash in it. Now, I'm only guessing this was caused when I put the fermenter outside the fridge? Still, any kind of nasties could have entered the beer, and I hadn't been sure how long that hole in the lid was there for. So it was with some sadness I had to dump the whole 20L or so of beer DOWN THE DRAIN. Lucky drain, I say.

Having said all that, no problems. I just brew again :)

The recipe is below.

4.5KG Wheat
380g Dark Wheat
1.5KG Pilsner
180g Munich
350g Choc
100g CaraWheat
280g CaraHell

23g Hallertau (@60)

90 minute boil

2278 Czech Pils

OG=1056
FG= who the hell knows, as it got tossed down the drain.


All Grain #31

Saturday,  29th June 2013

Name: 32nd State (Dedicated to the USA's 32nd State, Minnesota)

Style: Imperial IPA

My very first attempt at this style of beer.

Placed 5th out of 40 brewers in the NSW State Amateur Brewing Competition, 2013.

5KG Golden Promise
2KG Pilsner
230g Victory
230g Dextrose (placed in during the boil @10 minutes)

Hop Schedule:

@90mins 28g Warrior (16%)
@45mins 28g Warrior (16%)
@30mins 28g Cenntennial 9.6%)
@Flame Out 28g of Amarillo (8.2%) and Simcoe (13.1%)

DRY HOPPED (in Primary, but after fermentation):

28g Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe

Yeast: x2 US-05

OG-1074
FG=1014

8.5% abv



All Grain #30

Sunday, 21st June 2013

Name: Porter, Twitter Bitter

3KG Maris Otter
1KG Bohemian Pilsner
500g Victory
500g Wheat
300g Choc
100g CaraMunich I
75g Carafa Special II
50g Black


Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               9.6%     15g         Centennial (@60mins)

Yeast: US-05

OG=1046
FG=1008

5.1% abc


All Grain #30

Sunday, 21st June 2013

Name: Porter, Twitter Bitter

3KG Maris Otter
1KG Bohemian Pilsner
500g Victory
500g Wheat
300g Choc
100g CaraMunich I
75g Carafa Special II
50g Black


Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               8.6%     15g         Centennial (@60mins)

Yeast: US-05

OG=1046
FG=1008

5.1% abv


All Grain #29

Sunday, 9th June 2013

Name: Hefeweizen

4.5KG Wheat
1.5KG Pilsner
500g Munich

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               5.3%     23g         Hallertau (@60mins)

Yeast: WLP300

OG=144
FG=1016

3.7% abv

All Grain #28

Tuesday, 14th May 2013

Name: Cocoa Wheat Porter

This brew day was in the memory and honor of a brother, a best mate who was killed on 14th May, 2005. RIP my good friend.

Split batch:

6KG Wheat
4KG Pilsner
1KG Choc Wheat
500g Carafa Special II

40g Centennial @9.6% AA (@60 minutes)

90 minute boil time

180g Cocoa Power @flame out.

Batch #1: US-05
Batch #2: : (yeast unknown). I had a bunch of yeast slurry from previous batches, but stupid here didn't label them. Oops. So, who the hell knows which yeast I used. I'm guessing though it is a recent yeast that I used in, say, the last few batches since my arrival from the US. So it does narrow it done a little.

Experimental Batch #3: (yeast unknown). As explained above. However, this wort was placed in a 4.5L demijohn. It also had a 'Guajillo' chilli placed inside. Yes, during fermentation probably isn't a good idea but I thought to myself 'what the heck', so I just did it.

From my 70L kettle, it was almost full and was about 8cm to 8.5cm to the brim. I managed to obtain about 17-18L of wort in both fermenters, with about 3.5L in my small demijohn. Good enough for me.

PS: The aroma was simply amazing from both the Choc Wheat and the Cocoa power. Amazing.

OG=1052

All Grain #27

Saturday, 11th May 2013

Name: Dead Bee Porter

Split batch: 

Batch #1: Chocolate Vanilla Cinnamon Porter

Batch #2: Chilli Porter

4KG Maris Otter
4KG Pilsner
1.5KG Wheat
1KG Victory
530g Chocolate
275g CaraMunich III
150g Carafa Special II

Boil time    AAU        Weight    Type
60              4.7%%      40g         Fuggles (@60mins)

@5 minutes, 90g Cocoa powder (Van Houten, bought at Market City here in Sydney)

Split batch, both using US-05

OG=1052

Now, this brew was a bit different. I had the Maris Otter, Pilsner, Wheat and Victory in the MASH IN. 66C it was for an hour.

Then, once I vorlaufed and the first runnings was in kettle I put in the Chocolate, CaraMunich and Carafa Special in the mash tun. I waited just over 10 minutes then done a MASH OUT.

Thanks to Basic Brewing's James Spencer for interviewing Gordon Strong. I got that tip listening to the podcast.

Colour probably turned out more like a dark brown Porter, but who really cares.I would have used more Chocolate but that's all I had in the cupboard! Otherwise, I would have aimed for about 800g.

Note: After fermentation, both these batches will have the following additions in secondary:

Batch#1: 

x1 Cinnamon stick
x1 Vanilla Bean

Batch#2:

x? Chilli (still deciding on either; Guajillo Chipotle, Ancho or Habanero Chilli)

All Grain #26

Sunday, 13th April 2013

Name: Pretty Fly (for a Wit guy)

It was an interesting brew day, and a long one. Some seven and three quarter hours with a little bit of a twist. It will be different format (not like I really have one on this page, anyway) so bare with me on the chopping and changing of information.

So, in the mash tun went:

6KG Pilsner

4KG Torrified Wheat

250g Rolled Oats (regular rolled oats)

I tasted the Torrified Wheat and found it to be like dried, unsalted popcorn with a similar crunchy texture. Interesting stuff.

Hit 65C for mash temp and it sat for 20 minutes, and as I wanted to use the WHOLE FIRST RUNNINGS as one batch of beer, I added 5L of 76C water to the mash at 20 minutes, which may (or may not) of increased the temperature. Then left if for another 40 minutes for a 60 minute mash. (The water level almost reached the top of my 70L mash tun!)

Vorlaufed/Lautered as normal. I got 25L of wort from it, which went straight into a fermenter in readiness to boil.

By this stage I had already got my second strike water ready: in the meantime I put in the mash tun more grains:

500g CaraAmber

500g CaraPils

1KG CaraHell

Now, the second strike water (extra this time since my mate Dougal wanted a 6L keg taster) went into that with the new grains while the 25L first runs were into the kettle and started to boil:

First runs boil addtions

18g Saaz 3.6% @60 minutes

8g Saaz 3.6% @15 minutes

Last five minutes of the boil:

7g Dried Curacao Bitter Orange Peel

10g Dried Curacao Sweet Orange Peel

4-5g Grains of Paradise (Now, this was tricky since the little grains didn’t register on my scale so I eye-balled half and put it in).

Cooled to 25C, put Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit and it is sitting in the garage at 22C.

By this stage the second runs mash was already ‘mashing’ for some two hours. I sucked all into the kettle and boiled that for 60 mins:

18g Perle 8.8% @60

5g Perle 8.8% @15

Pitched at 25C - Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat

Total wort in this fermenter: 7L

Pitched US-05 in the other fermenter with about 17L or thereabouts.

Garage is 22C

Belgian Wit – OG=1068

Belgian Wheat – OG=1040 (with both 3942 and US-05)

Note: All three fermenters in the garage are hitting about 19C right now, as the weather is getting just that little bit cooler.

The 3944 Belgian Wit yeast is a very slow starter and finisher. Taking a gravity reading on 23rd April saw it at 1038. I never have seen that before, but a quick Google search suggests that this is quite normal. So, I'll leave this to ferment for a total of three weeks.

Name: Golden Duck Wheat
OG=1040 (US-05)
FG=1012

3.7% abv (kegged)

Golden Wheat 3.7% abv

--

Name: Strong Belgian Wit - Pretty Fly (for a Wit guy)
WLP3944
OG=1068
FG=1004
8.7% abv (kegged, and legless)

Pretty Fly, Belgian Strong Wit

--

Name: Belgian Wheat - Dougal's Revenge
WLP3942
OG=1040
FG=1012
3.7% abv (kegged, 6L keggle)

**Picture to arrive shortly.





All Grain #25

Sunday, 31st March 2013

Name: Blind Bat Dunkelweizen


6KG Dark Wheat
3KG Bohemian Pilsner
500g CaraAmber
500g Dark Munich
150g CaraWheat
80g ChocWheat

Note: I probably should have put in 1KG of CaraAmber, rather than 500g Dark Munich but I guess I just wasn't thinking at the time. I saw Dark Munich first and put that in, then I saw the 1KG of CaraAmber. D'oh.

Anyway, nothing bad about it just a pity I didn't use the CaraAmber. I would have used the Dark Munich in another batch. Still, it'll be a whopper of a good beer.


Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               5.3%     40g         Hallertau (@60mins)

Split batch:
x2 Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan

Batch #1
OG=1050
FG=1022

3.7% abc (kegged)

3.7% with Cascade hops

Batch #2

OG=1050
FG=1012

5.16% abv (kegged)

5.1%. Nice and malty

All Grain #24

Sunday, 3rd March 2013

Name: American Wheat & Dexter Morgan's Blood Beer

Note: Sadly, the yeast I had died or were very fragile.It fermented quickly but died at 1022. I would have put more yeast in this had I of spotted this very early. Unfortunately, I took a gravity reading at about the 15 day mark. It was still 1022. I decided to keg, rather than put more yeast in at that late stage.

5KG Wheat  
5KG Pilsner


Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               8.8%     35g         Perle (@60mins)

Split batch:
US-05, however, one batch will be beetroot Beer.

* Washed two beetroots
* Got the grater out and grated both beetroots
* Put grated beetroot in a pot of water (about 2L).
* Put the pot on heat until boiling. Boil now for 10 minutes.
* After 10 minutes, switch off heat and strain juice into a container.
* Put this container in cold water to cool as rapidly as possible.
* I then put this beetroot liquid into keg, then siphoned beer on top.
* Keg as normal.


OG=1040
FG=1022

2.4% abv

All Grain #23

Saturday, 23rd February 2013

Name: The Hoff (Hefeweizen) & The Hoff Wit (Belgian Wit)

Note: What on Earth was I doing? I really got distracted when weighing the grains, so it's ending up that I've weighed some weird amount of Pilsner. My original concoction was to do; 7K Wheat, 3K Pilsner but as I got distracted, "lost" my notes I then decided to put in 1K Munich just in case. Needless to say that halfway through brew day I found my original notes and found I used the amount of Pilsner you see here. Dork. Anyway, this was a split batch. Just want to see what noticeable difference there is with WLP410 alone, without any Wit-style late additions (orange peel, corriander seeds, etc) to the boil.

7KG Wheat  
3.7
45KG Pilsner
1KG Munich 
(300g Rice Hulls, as an insurance for no stuck sparge!)
Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               5.3%     41g         Hallertau (@60mins)

Mash Temp    Duration
67.4C              1 hour

Split batch as this was 36L post boil:
3068 Wyeast                             Fermenter #2 <New Yeast, smack pack>
WLP410 Belgian Wit II           Fermenter #1 <New Yeast, smack pack>

OG=1048
FG=<still in fermenter>

All Grain #22

Sunday, 17th February 2013

Name: Eva Braun's Last Drink

Style type: South German-Style Bernsteinfarbenes Weizen

(Well, I attempted the style. Just a little too dark for my liking. I'm guessing too much CaraMunich, but in all honesty I like learning and so am not too fussed on that. Still, good to know though.)

6KG Wheat  
2KG Pilsner
1KG Dark Munich 
500g CaraMunich 2  
300g CaraWheat 

(300g Rice Hulls, as an insurance for no stuck sparge!)


Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               5.3%     41g         Hallertau

Mash Temp    Duration
66.9C              1 hour


24.5cm (17L*) first runnings
35.5cm (25L*) second runnings

60cm (60L*) PRE BOIL

44.5cm (44.5L*) POST BOIL

Split batch as this was 37L post boil:
3068 Wyeast            Fermenter #2 <Slurry from previous batch>
3638 Wyeast            Fermenter #1 <New Yeast, smack pack>


OG=1050
FG=<still in fermenter>

Note: Yes, I know what you're thinking. How in God's name can you get different amounts of runnings when the vorlauf happens? Well, I just added more water to my kettle, heated it up and didn't really measure the amount. My guess is I had more than 30L in there for the second runnings. That means greater wort coming out. What can you expect from my first brew back after a hiatus? I'll pay more attention next time, maybe :-)

I'm not fussed. It still is beer. 
 
== 10 week US trip! ==

All Grain #21

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Name: Western Sydney Wanderers Chocolate Wheat

Style type: Wheat beer

4.5KG Pilsner  
4KG Wheat  
500g Choc Wheat  
500g Pale Choc  
200g Carafa Special 2  

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
90               4.7%     40           Fuggles

Mash Temp    Duration
68C                1hr 23mins
(67C)              dropped 1C after mash

Split batch as this was 37L post boil:
US-05            Fermenter #2 <Slurry from previous batch>
US-04            Fermenter #1


OG=1054
FG= 1010

Wanderers Choc Wheat

All Grain #20

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Name: Butt Naked Bullocks Chocolate Wheat

Style type: Wheat beer

3KG Wheat   
2KG Pilsner   
500g Pale Choc (BeerBelly)   
66g Carafa Special 2   

Mash Temp    Duration
67.7C             60 mins

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60    4.3%    33g    Fuggles

OG=1052
FG= 1010

All Grain #19

Saturday, 13 October 2012

Name: Sunk Das Boot

Style type: Dunkelweizen

2.5KG Dark Wheat   
2KG Pilsner   
350g Cara Wheat   
100g Choc Wheat   
50g Cara Special 2   

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60               5.3%     24g         Hallertau

Mash Temp    Duration
67.6C             60 mins

WLP300-Hefeweizen Ale Yeast


OG=1044
FG= <still in fermenter as at 23/10/2012>


All Grain #18

Sunday, 7 October 2012

Name: Open Tap Hefeweizen

Style type: Hefeweizen

3KG Wheat   
1KG Pilsner   
1KG Munich   

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         5.3%     21g         Hallertau

Mash Temp    Duration
67.3C             60mins

Boil time: 90 minutes

Wyeast 3068 Weinhenstephan

OG=1032
FG=1008

Kegged: 3.27*% abv

Note: Refer to 'trials and tribulations on beer brewing' article that shows what happens when you accidentally leave your tap open on the fermenter. I wasn't paying attention and instead of the wort filling my fermenter it went all over the courtyard and into the garden. Lucky garden! I had to sparge three times, which meant a lower original gravity of 1032 (with the second and third runnings used to boil with).

Hefeweizen

 








All Grain #17

Monday, 1 October 2012

Name: Little Choc of Horrors

Style type: Stout

2.2KG Pale Malt   
1.3KG Pilsner Malt
1 KG Wheat
400g Choc
170g Flaked Barley
100g Carafa Special II
50g Roasted Barley

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         4.3%     20g        Fuggles

US-05 (Slurry taken from previous batch)

Mash Temp    Duration
67.2C              1 hour

OG=1050
FG=1010


All Grain #16

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Name: Oktoberfest Dunkelweizen

Style type: Dunkkelweizen (well, it turned out an amber colour)

2.5KG Dark Wheat   
1.5KG Pilsner   
500g Dark Munich   
250g CaraMunich II   
150g CaraWheat   

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         5.3%     20g         Hallertau
           
Wyeast 3068 -Weinstephan

Mash Temp    Duration
66.6C    50-55min

Boil time: 90 minutes


OG=1048
FG=1010

Kegged: 5.16% abv

Oktoberfest Dunkelweizen

All Grain #15

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Name: Vertical Horizon Amber IPA

Style type: IPA

3KG BB Pilsner (from BeerBelly)   
1KG CaraAmber 70EBC/27L   
1KG Wheat   

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min        12.0%    14g        Horizon
40min        12.0%    14g        Horizon
20min        8.2%      10g        Amarillo
0min          18.0%    28g        Apollo

Slurry from previous batch US-05

Mash Temp    Duration
66.8C             60 mins

OG=1050
FG=1008
 
Kegged: 5.71% abv

Amber IPA

 










All Grain #14

Saturday, 8 September 2012

Name: Steve's USA Choc Brown Ale

Style type: Brown Ale

4KG Joe White Pale   
500g Wheat   
350g Chocolate   
100g Flaked Barley   
75g Carafa Special II   
           
Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         4.3%     20g         Fuggles

Mash Temp    Duration
68.9C             70 mins

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale

OG=1052
FG=1016
 
Kegged: 4.89% abv

Choc Brown

 











All Grain #13

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Name: Al Capone Choc Wheat

Style type:  Wheat (with balls)


3KG Pale Wheat (Weyermann)   
1KG Pilsner   
500g Cara Bohemian   
500g Cara Wheat   
115g Choc Wheat   
300g Rice Hulls (no idea why, but paranoia maybe)

Mash temperature: 67.7C
Mash duration: 60 minutes

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         5.3%     24           Hallertau

WB06 (Slurry from previous batch)

OG=1046
FG=1010

Bottled: 5.39% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation) 

Notes: Only used Cara Bohemian simply for the fact that I had it available.  

Choc Wheat

All Grain #12

Saturday, 28 July 2012

Name: All Aboard Wheat 

Style type: Hefeweizen

5KG        Pale Wheat (Weyermann)   
1KG        Rice Hulls (paranoia set in, buddy!)   

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         5.3%     24           Hallertau
 
Hefeweizen Ale Yeast – WLP300
 
Mash temperature: 66.5C
Mash duration: 60 minutes
OG=1032
FG=1010

Kegged: 3.2% abv

All Grain #11

Saturday, 14 July 2012

Name: Little Bo Pils Sheep 

Style type: Pilsner

5KG Pilsner

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         3.6%    28g          Saaz

Mash temperature: 68.1C
Mash duration: 30 minutes

Boil time: 90 minutes

US-05


OG=1060
FG=1014

Notes: Did not lager. This was an experimental beer with neutral yeast at normal temps. 

Bottled: 6.75% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation)  

All Grain #10

Saturday, 7 July 2012
   
Name: Choc-a-Block Stout

Style type: Stout

3KG Pale   
500g Victory   
350g Brown   
200g Roasted Barley   
350g Choc Wheat   
250g Carafa Special II   
100g Choc   
115g Wheat   
88g Lindt Chill Dark Chocolate

Boil time    AAU    Weight    Type
60min         4.3%    18g          Fuggles

Mash temperature: 67C
Mash duration: 65 minutes

British Ale Yeast – WLP005

OG=1042
FG= 1016

Kegged: 3.53% abv

All Grain #9

Date: 25/06/2012, Sunday

Name: Back-to-Back Amber IPA

Style type: IPA

4kg ( lb) – PIlsner
500g (1.102 lb) – Munich
250g (0.551 lb) – CaraWheat
150g (0.3306 lb) – Crystal (145EBC/55L)
100g (0.2204 lb) – CaraMunich II
Mash temperature: 66.8C (152.24F)
Mash duration: 55 minutes

Hops:
10g ( 0.353oz) Centennial (60 minute addition) 9.6%AA
21g ( 741oz) Cascade (20 minute addition) 6.4%AA

DRY HOPPED:
31g (1.093oz) Cascade 6.4%AA
34g (1.199oz) Galaxy 14.6%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: Not taken. Was too lazy today.
Grain temperature: Not taken. Was too lazy today.
Strike Water Temp: 82C (179.6F)
PRE BOIL = 23.5L ( 6.208 gallons)
POST BOIL = 15.5 ( 4.094 gallons)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 24C (75.2F)
10g US-04

OG=1052
FG=1012

Bottled: 5.93% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation)

Amber IPA

All Grain #8

Date: 24/06/2012, Sunday

Name: Darkness of Germany Hefeweizen

Style type: Dunkelweizen

1.6kg (3.527lb) – Dark Wheat
1.5kg (3.306 lb) – Wheat
1.746kg (3.849 lb) Bohemian PIlsner
500g (1.102 lb) – CaraHell
400g (0.881 lb) – Rice Hulls (to aid filtering)
Mash temperature: 66.6C (151.88F)
Mash duration: 55 minutes

Hops:
20g (0.705 oz) Hallertau (60 minute addition) 5.3%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: Not taken. Was too lazy today.
Grain temperature: Not taken. Was too lazy today.
Strike Water Temp: 82C (179.6F)
PRE BOIL = 25L (6.604 gallons)
POST BOIL = 16.5 (4.358 gallons)

PS: The reason for the extra loss of wort during the boil is that technically I boiled this baby for about 70 minutes today. The ‘hot break’ was quite volatile and went on longer than expected. That took about 5 minutes. Hop addition was added after that, but then the the wort chiller was added at 50 minutes into the boil, rather than 45 minutes. I added another 5 minutes to the boil to make it the recommended 15 minutes for the wort chiller to be in the boil. That means the hops were boiling for 65 minutes.

Pitched Yeast:
@ 24C (75.2F)
10g WB-06 Wheat Yeast

Fermenting in my apartment. Haven’t taken a temperature reading today. I cannot be bothered, but I am guessing it is about 18C in the house right now. It was a very warm and beautiful day here in Sydney. What a lovely way to spend it: brewing a batch of beer.

OG=1056
GG=1012

Bottled: 6.48% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation)

All Grain #7

Date: 10/06/2012, Sunday (Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend)

Name: Rain Man Porter

Style type: Brown Porter

3kg (6.613 lb) – Maris Otter
1kg (2.204 lb) – Pale
325g (0.7165 lb) – Light Crystal
200g (0.4409 lb) – Brown malt
150g (0.3306 lb) – Chocolate
125g (0.2755 lb) – Cara Munich II
125g (0.2755 lb) – Flaked Barley

My first every attempt at brewing a Porter.

Hops:
18g (0.635 oz) Fuggles (60 minute addition) 4.3%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 17.6C (63.68F)
Grain temperature: 16.9C (62.42F)
Strike Water Temp: 82C (179.6F)
Mash temperature: 66.6C (151.88F)
Mash duration: 50 minutes
PRE BOIL = 25L (6.604 gallons)
POST BOIL = 17.5 (4.623 gallons)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 24C (75.2F)
White Labs Irish Ale Yeast-WLP004

Fermenting in my apartment @ 24C (75.2F)
I got out the heating mat that I bought three years ago. Haven’t used it for two and a half years, but it’s winter, I’m doing all grain and both the garage and unit are getting colder. You can even see the temps in my recipes to gauge what temps we’ve been having to see how it’s getting cooler by the day.
I think the heating mat is about 24C, but am not too sure. It’s been a while since I used them and I have no idea what tempt they’re on. Regardless, the fermenter is happily bubbling away as I can hear it.

OG=1050
FG=1014

Bottled: 5.39% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation)

All Grain #6

Date: 02/06/2012, Saturday

Name: Mild Cool Drool

Style: English Mild (well, not really...but who cares, right?)

3kg (6.613 lb) – Maris Otter
500g (1.102 lb) – Weyermann CaraAmber
500g (1.102 lb) – Dingemans-Belgium Rye

Mash temperature: 68.6C (155.48F)
Mash duration: 60 minutes

Hops:
10g (0.353 oz) Northern Brewer (60 minute addition) 10.6%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 18.1C (64.68F)
Grain temperature: 18.3C (64.94F)
Strike Water Temp: 84C (183.2F)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 24C (75.2F)
White Labs California V Ale Yeast

Fermenting in my apartment @ 18.5C (65.3F)
I am going to leave this one in the house. It is slightly a higher temperature than the garage, so the mild will do just a little better if I keep it up here.

OG=1032
FG=1012

Bottled: 3% <approx> abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation) 

All Grain #5

Date: 26/05/2012, Saturday

Name: Devil’s Dunkelweizen

Style: Dark Wheat Beer.

3.2kg (7.054 lb) – Weyermann Dark Wheat
1.25kg (2.755 lb) – Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner
420g (0.9259 lb) – CaraWheat
80g (0.1763 lb) – Choc
500g Rice Hulls (to aid filtering)

Mash temperature: 66.6C (151.88F)
Mash duration: 60 minutes

Hops:
21g (0.741 oz) Hallertau (60 minute addition) 5.3%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 18.5C (65.3F)
Grain temperature: 18C (64.4F)
Strike Water Temp: 82C (179.6F)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 23C (75.2F)
10g WB-06 Wheat Yeast

Fermenting in my apartment @ 18.5C (65.3F)
(First all grain that is fermenting in my house, but it will not be the last)

Final notes:
PRE BOIL VOLUME: 30.2L (7.978 gallons)
Volume in fermenter: 22L (5.811 gallons)

OG=1042
FG=1012

Bottled: 4.58% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation) 

Additional notes:
Smooth day again here at danntastic brewing. Apart from the fact I used Choc instead of Choc Wheat as part of the grain bill, brew day went fine. I hit 66.6C in the mash temp. So “666″ was my beer, and I called it The Devil’s work. I name this beer: Devil’s Dunkelweizen.

All Grain #4

Date: 19/05/2012, Saturday (Viv’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Viv!!)

Name: 47/19th Wheat

Style: Wheat Beer.

Important Note: It is my sister’s birthday today, and she turned 47. This beer is named on her age today and is in celebration of her birthday; 19th May.
Sister Wheat:

2.375kg (5.235 lb) – Joe White Pale grain
2.375kg (5.235 lb) – Pale Wheat Weyermann
250g (0.551 lb) – CaraHell
400g Rice Hulls (to aid filtering, but not really needed. I was being over protective of a stuck sparge)
Mash temperature: 66.5C (151.7F)
Mash duration: 50 minutes

Hops:
15g (0.529 oz) Hallertau (60 minute addition) 5.3%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 16.9C (44.42F)
Grain temperature: 19C (66.2F)
Strike Water Temp: 85C (185F) – Oops (Must’ve been on Facebook!)
Water in Mash Tun Temp: 77.6C (171.68F)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 24C (75.2F)
10g WB-06 Wheat Yeast

Fermenting in garage @ 19C (66.2F)

Final notes:
PRE BOIL VOLUME: 24L (6.340 gallons)
Volume in fermenter: 19L (5.019 gallons)

OG=1044
FG=1010

Bottled: 5.12% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation) 

All Grain #3

Date: 13/05/2012, Saturday (Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day!)

Name: Merky Maris Pale Ale

Style type: Pale Ale

4kg (8.8184 lb) – Joe White Pale grain
1kg (2.204 lb) – Maris Otter

Mash temperature: 68.3C (154.94F)
Mash duration: 30 minutes
(Yep, only 30 minutes!)

Hops:
14g (0.494 oz) Northern (60 minute addition) 10.6%%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 20.6C (69.08F)
Grain temperature: 20C (68F)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 22C (73.4F)
US05 Yeast
Fermenting in garage @ 20C (68F)

Final notes:
Volume in fermenter: 17L (4.490 gallons)

OG=1048
FG=1012

Bottled: 5.39% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation)

All Grain #2

Date: 28/04/2012, Saturday

Name: UFO (Unidentified Fermentable Object) Ale

Style type: Pale Ale

4kg (8.8184 lb) – Joe White Pale grain
500g (1.1023 lb) – Wheat grain
500g (1.1023 lb) – Weyermann CaraRed
Mash temperature: 68.3C (154.94F)
Mash duration: 50 minutes

Hops:
28.34g (1 oz) Citra hops (20 minute addition) 14.1%AA
28.34g (1 oz) Citra hops (Dry Hopped addition) 14.1%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 19C (66.2F)
Grain temperature: 23C (73.4F)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 22C (71.6F)
US05 Yeast

Fermenting in garage @ 20C (68F)

Final notes:
Volume in fermenter: 19L (5.019 gallons)
Pitched at 22C (72.5F)

OG=1042
FG=1010

Bottled: 4.85% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation) 

All Grain #1

Date: 25/04/2012, Wednesday

Anzac Day Pale Ale

SMASH – Pale Ale (Single Malt And Single Hop)

5kg (11.023 lb) – Joe White Pale grain
Mash temperature: 66.2C (151.16F)
Mash duration: 45 minutes

Hops:
20g Mt. Hood hops (60 minute addition) 3.5%AA

General notes:
Ambient water temp: 21.6C (70.88F)
Grain temperature: 22.6 (72.68F)

Pitched Yeast:
@ 19C (66.2F)
US04 Yeast

Final notes:
Volume in fermenter: 18L (4.755 gallons)

OG=1044
FG=1010

Bottled: 5.12% abv (includes 0.5% for bottle carbonation)