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Friday 29 December 2017

Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #5

I am now drinking this. Its a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Very noticeable home brew twang, and not much from the hops in the way of hop aroma / flavour. However, they have added bitterness, making it a touch too bitter.

My good lady and I will be doing Dry January, so some of it will get left another 4 weeks, and perhaps it will improve. If it does, I'll blog about it, otherwise, I'll leave this one here.

I suspect that my (dire) brewing notes from before I took a break from brewing don't include the many little things that I had tried and found improved a brew, but I did as a matter of routine. I won't go into them here now, but when I start using them again.

Still, 40 pints of (just about) drinkable beer is better than none at all. :)


Brewfridge build

The idea of a brew fridge is fairly simple. You take an old, but working fridge, and a electronic control of some kind, and then have an insulated cupboard that your FV can sit in at whatever constant temperature suits the style you are brewing. Very useful for brewing ales in winter or lager in the summer, cold crashing, etc.
What had always put me off a bit was the amount of mains voltage wiring required. Nothing complicated, but you were working with 240v. Then, I learnt about the inkbird 308. This is a pre-built controller that allows you to set a few temperature conditions, and had a mains plug, a hot socket and a cold socket. You plug your heating device into the hot socket, cooling device into the cold socket and off you go. No messing with wires, perhaps maybe putting a plug on.
Happily, and without any hints being dropped by me whatsoever, I received an inkbird and a tube heater from my partner and the kids for my birthday. We had a spare under counter Beko fridge after switching to an integrated type in the new kitchen, so a brew fridge was made. Construction (what there is of it) involved enlarging the drain hole with a drill to allow the heater power cable to pass through, and screwing in the self tapping screws for the heater mount. The Inkbird temperature probe has a fairly thin wire so it just fits through the door seal. Then you plug it all in and go.

First brew in will be a Rose Wine Kit - more on that later.

Oh, and my better half would probably like me to point out that the dead spider in the photo of the rear of the fridge isn't an indication of our general household cleanliness, but due to the fridge sitting unused in the (presently) unused conservatory!








Saturday 9 December 2017

Brewfridge and other updates.

My better half and the kids gave me an inkbird and a tube heater for my Birthday, so soon, hopefully tomorrow, I'll be building a brew fridge from a redundant under counter one that we have surplus to requirements as the new house has integrate appliances.  This might happen tomorrow; watch this space.

The Bobeck / Cooper's brew is conditioning slowly.

I'm planning doing a mini mash to modify my next kit; I've never done this before, I've steeped grains and boiled hops in the wort but never a proper 'mash'. This should follow the creation of the brew fridge. That and some DIY / tidying jobs should mean I will be ready to start brewing in one of our outbuildings, which will please the family as apparently my brews smell of wet dogs, lol.

Keeps reading for updates.

Saturday 25 November 2017

Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #4

After a week or so in a 20 degree water bath to carb up, the barrel was moved into its final position in my cold garage to condition. Something great has happened, as a quick test revealed it now does have some hop taste, is a great colour and, amazingly, doesn't feel thin. I've just got to leave it for 3 weeks or so now, and see how much it can improve with conditioning.

Thursday 16 November 2017

Scottish minimum pricing

Many people, much more articulate and knowledgeable have commented on the authoritarian stupidity and general unpleasantness of this legislation, so I shall just say this.

Today, I popped into ASDA to get some tea for the family, and also picked up four bottles of real ale, one of which was a King Goblin.

These were sold to me as a 4 for £6 offer.

My understanding is that, had this been Scotland in a few months, ASDA and I would be CRIMINALS.

Does that sound like a great and fair country?

Wednesday 15 November 2017

Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #3

Ok, so I made a bit of a mistake with my dry hopping. The plan was to dry hop at fermenting temps for 72 hours then remove and crash at garage temps. However, I didn't leave any way of getting the hop bag out easily, so after the 72 hours I just turned the heaters off and left to crash for a few days. The hops were in these for a total of 6 days, which is longer than I planned but I looked to have avoided any 'grassy' flavours that I have read you can get if you leave them in there too long.

It's now packaged in a king keg, primed with 90g of sugar dissolved in boiling water, and is back in the water bath at 20 degrees for a few days, then it will be left to condition for at least 3 weeks before I try it properly. I had a sneaky taste while barrelling, and it wasn't very hoppy really, and perhaps a bit thin? Time will tell.....

Thursday 9 November 2017

Bobeck / Canadian Blonde brew update #2

I measured the gravity of my Bobek / Canadian Blonde today after fermenting 12 days @ approx 20 degrees, and it was still at 1012, so looks like its finished at 4.73% alcohol and an attenuation of 74%, which is bang on for the CML yeast. It tasted quite nice, malty but with a nice level of bitterness and some hop flavour, although this wasn't pronounced. However, there wasn't any noticeable hop aroma, so I decided to dry hop to see if I could improve on both fronts with a dry hop of another 25g of Bobek.

Plan is to leave these in for 72 hours, then I'll remove the hops and cold crash by simply turning the fish tank heaters off and draining the water bath; it will then be left at garage temperatures (about 7 degrees this time of year) for a few days before transferring to a king keg.

Sunday 29 October 2017

Brew update

Bit of a cold snap here, down to 6 Deg at 10pm so popped out to the garage to check on the brew. It's sat in a water bath made from a 40l builders trug with two 25w fish tank immersion heaters to keep the temperature stable. Together, they are set to keep the brew at 20 degrees Celsius, and they seem to be coping with the colder weather with no issues; the brew is happily bubbling away.


*A quick update  - checked today after 2 days of cold weather and wind, and the temp had dropped to 18, so I've turned the heaters up a notch.*

Saturday 28 October 2017

First Brew after house move

I've recently purchased and moved into my own place; the whole process took ages, as it developed into having to re-model the whole house. So, despite having been in my new place over 4 months, this was my first opportunity to get a brew on.

I thought I would do a Canadian Blonde, slightly modified, to ease me back into the swing of things. I also wanted an opportunity to give the yeasts I got from Crossmyloof brewery a try; Their Real Ale, Pale Ale and Californian Common. I used the real ale on this brew. So, here are the details.

Type: Modified Kit Brew
Sugars: 1 Coopers Canadian Blonde, 1 Kg Richies Brew Enhancer, 500g Medium DME
Yeast: CML Real Ale Yeast, re-hydrated as per packet instructions.
Hops: 25b Bobek 15 mins, 25g  5 mins  boiled in the Medium DMD + 5l water
Additions: Water de-chlorinated with 1/2 Campden tablet.
O.G. 1048

The sample tased nice, and the medium DME gave the sample a sort of IPA colour rather than a true pale ale, so we'll have to see how it all turns out. Obviously, all of my equipment hadn't been ued in a while, so I sanitised thoroughly, but am still worried that I might get an infection. I'll just have to see. I plan to Keg this one, then immediately brew something dark for bottling.
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