Mmm... orval... I guess I could just wait till it is fully attenuated, drink a sixpack and pour in the dregs.
Unsure of the quality myself; however if the label says something along the lines of "produced under licence in regency park, south australia" then that's Coopers.
I like the simplicity of drawing up a recipe from anything I can think of and sending it through to BB or BA. I love the convenience of click and order recipes on BA for when time is short. I can see the attraction of having grain on hand to brew whenever! So many new faces and names I didn't pick you out from the crowd on the night. It was good to finally get out (i have another thing on Wednesdays) and awesome to get some extra tastebuds checking my brew. I love complex fruity esters in Belgians, (pear, apricot, plum) but I'm not a fan of the phenolics for the most part. Unfortunately they are a package deal, but something I'll experiment with reducing if possible. I'm super keen see how I can keep this element of beers I love like Sparkling Ale, trappist brews etc with an increase in floral (e.g. EKG) or fruity/tropical (e.g. cascade, galaxy) hop flavours we love in apas and ipas. Most people talk of Belgian beers not being hoppy, but there is plenty of historic evidence of trappist breweries in good hop growing regions growing hops on the grounds, so to me that says at some point lots of hops have made their way into their kettles... I also feel that in SA our beer heritage mirrors Belgians a bit, Cooper's gives us pale malty beers with simple grist, with moderate bitterness, subtle noble hop addition and a yeast ester profile that features more than hop flavour. Makes for an interesting playground to build on in terms of what my friends and family are used to drinking and what they are willing to try and might like. Although my approach to brewing had nothing to do with recipes, styles and historical precedent and more about putting together ingredients and flavour characters *I* like. This is another reason my brews are not particularly malty at the moment, I'm loving the dry finish from a saison yeast with a single infusion mash at 62. Super thin body, good head, easy drinking. Acidulated malt is also something I'm thinking of playing with because I think it will work with this theme. I'm not surprised there weren't many sour fans at the meeting, but thought there might be a bit more love for the Belgian persuasion. I'm totally stoked to have plenty of feedback that the flavour profile was clean with none of the faults (things you read about but might never learn to detect) were present. I'm planning to be at most future meetings as long as I find them interesting/fun/useful/inspiring/informative/etc.
I've been having trouble with my order of coopers stuff lately. Got told they are revamping their website soon also. Free postage is brilliant though. Few tins of malt and a couple of boxes of ldme for me
I missed out on the Chubby Cherub kit so I went and ordered my own bits and pieces. Put it down today, didn't get my temp down anywhere near 18 degrees so it's been in the fridge waiting. I hydrated the yeast already so hopefully it'll be okay. It's sitting in a glass with a small pinch of sugar covered in plastic.
USe the extra time to make a starter - eg a 1L bottle with 1.040sg worth of water and DME that has been boiled briefly to sterilise it and then cooled. Pitch the yeast in there, aerate well and let the yeasties multiply overnight. You'll get a more vigorous fermentation in your main fermenter with less nasties.
Interested to know about that, normally I just use US05, and it's just a dry sprinkle on top. Used BRY-97 this time and the packet recommended hydrating prior to pitching, I think it says add satchel into 30-35 degree water, stir to moisten and leave for 10 minutes. I pitched at 20 as it was taking hours to chill down to 18. No sign of anything yet, but from what I've read about Bry97 is that it's a pretty slow starter but hooks in pretty fast once it gets going.
Hi, is there a cheaper way of buying Morgans kits in bulk? Ive done search and most online shops are about the same price and dont discount per box.
That's what I thought too. The cell counts are supposedly high enough already. That said I've made starters with dry yeasts so I could make extra to put in my bank. It's handy not having to buy the same strain twice.
Boiled briefly = 15 mins minimum. One tip, 1:10 DME(g) to Water(mL) ratio comes out at around (close enough) to 1040 SG. 100g DME in 1000mL water will get you near enough to 1040 SG. Don't forget to vent the bottle if you do that. Best idea is to grab a borosilicate flask which can be boiled in, and then chilled in water in the sink directly. It's not; because the yeast is supposedly dehydrated when it's at maximum nutrient capacity. You could pitch warmer than 20, it's safer to pitch slightly warm (I've pitched up at 30 for an Ale before in Summer, it was in the fridge and cooling down) than leave the wort unpitched, especially if it's no-boil and made with the directions on a Coopers can. Lag time means that there won't be too many esters generated in the first few hours of the ferment, and that the yeast will readily out compete any wild yeast or bacteria that may get in. Personally when I brew extract (rare!) I boil the entire wort volume for 15 minutes at least, and use my plate chiller to cool it (of course not everyone will have a plate chiller!). I'll also then aerate and pitch an active starter of liquid yeast
I did a 5L boil for this kit, from Memory it was 5L of water with 500g of DME. Boiled for 25 minutes, 25g of Chinook at 25, 25g of Nelson at 15, 25g of Cascade at 5. Another 25g of chinook goes in dry. While it was still warm I dropped in my goop. Normally I drop in 15L of cold water from a height to get a lot of air into it. I need a bigger pot and a gas burner. May as well grab a chiller while I'm at it.
Reminds me of why I went straight to AG. That just sounds confusing to me I just boil the entire lot to sanitise it with all extract and additions. Be careful not to burn the extract!
Yeah there's no real need to hydrate them prior to pitching, more a case of if you wish to keep a yeast bank really. I've got a maibock fermenting away currently, should be nearly ready to keg in a day or two then on to the next one.
Does anyone know if I have a problem on my hands? Brewing a Belgium ale with malt (not from scratch) and it bubbled for about 1 and half days (it was incredibly hot that day) and then stopped. I've taken readings and it's levelled out at 1020. Worth bottling? This is my third brew so I'm still learning. Thanks!
What did it start at & did you have an expected FG? Ignore the bubbler in general as it's not a reliable indication. How many days has it been at 1020?
It's not uncommon for primary fermentation to reach final gravity in just a couple of days, but it doesn't mean fermentation itself is done. Yeast will reabsorb compounds such as diacetyl as part of their cleanup in the few days after primary fermentation is completed. 1020 does sound a little high though IMO, a belgian will often get a bit lower than that - but it does depend on a number of factors - specifically how much speciality malt was added for example as they leave behind unfermentable long chain sugars (dextrins). To find out, you could try doing a forced fermentation test, which is where you fill a glass about half full with beer from the fermenter, cover it with glad wrap, and give it a shake a few times a day. Leave it in a warm spot for about 3 days. It will taste pretty bad when it's done but the gravity is what you're interested in. The gladwrap is important to prevent wild yeast getting in as they will ferment sugars that brewers yeast can't. If the gravity of the sample drops significantly compared to the main batch, then the main batch still has fermentable sugars remaining and the yeast should be roused to try and kick it into action again.
