Recent content by Tubba

As it heats up from fridge temperature, the plum aroma becomes more notable and pleasant.

Yeah, froze the plums before adding. OK, after about a month in the secondary (15/8 - 13/9, I think) I bottled it. Now, 10 days later, I've had my first bottle. Notes: Head retention is excellent, colour is a deep orange with a blue-red tint. The pilsner malt is dominant in the nose, and...

It's a kettle element, so yeah, it's pretty dense. I was probably stressing the bag to the max. I had about 15lbs of grain in it, for one. Maybe there was a weak seam or something that burst? But either case, I'll just build a small wire cage of some sort around the element then. Thanks.

Hmm, my garden plum trees don't look too happy. Luckily, the local supermarket had a sale on good tasting plums. I've now moved to the secondary, with plums added. I'll give it about a month, I reckon.

I've got a 2200w element in my "boiling bucket". I'm going to put another one in. I brew with BIAB, and during the test run, the element weakened the bag to the point of rupturing, spilling a small amount of grain which burned into the element. I've got to prevent this somehow, like, by...

Whoa, it looks like rye malt can convert itself! That would make a partial mash of your bill very easy. 1.5kg pale malt extract 300gr brown sugar Mash@what?: 1kg rye malt 300g crystal wheat

Had a second sample today. Diacetyl is no longer noticeable. Fermentation seems to have stopped, with only the bubbling that seems to be from remnant CO2. I've been rousing it a bit to get rid of that. My hydrometer is broke, as I said, but I tried to make some measurements using my quite...

I've been thinking - I need to do some more tinkering with my mashing equipment, so maybe I could make this a partial mash? My biggest pot is 3 gallons, and the next one is about 2. Is that enough for a 5gal partial mash batch?

Ooh, I see that the Swedish alcohol monopoly currently carries a Danish rye stout. I've got to track down a monopoly store with them and pick it up. You can get them to import stuff for you, but it's usually obscenely expensive. It's also possible to order alcohol from the European Union - but...

I'm a HUGE fan of rye beer. Sierra Nevada's Ruthless Rye is one of my favourite beers. I like just about every beer style there is, but I was thinking I'd make a rye ale of some kind my next all-grain project. Rye IPA:s are good, I know that. Rye ESB? Could be good. Rye stout? No idea, any...

Yeah, this was much of a test run. I'm not sure why I did something with 15lbs of grain for a test run, but there you go. I think I'm going to make an ESB next. A nice 5% thing.

Okay, the wort having warmed up, it's bubbling a bit more calmly now than initially, 1-2 plops per minute. I couldn't keep good track of it downstairs, so it might not be a big change. It's been going for 6 days now, so I'm expecting primary to be truly finished in a few days (though given the...

Okay, I might just cut them in half and freeze then. It's going to be a pretty long secondary anyway. Thanks.

All right, once they are ready from the garden, I'm going to rack my beer on top of some plums. Not sure exactly how much yet. Now, the question is, how to treat them? When I made plum wine, I just diced them up, removed the kernels, and that worked well. I'll probably have to freeze them...

Hmm, had a look at the plum trees. Doesn't look like they will give as much this year (as is often the case). I'll pick the first tree (it matures faster), crush and freeze them, pick the second, and see how much I get. If it's not enough I'll get some at the supermarket.