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NZLunchie said:
5 days then I'll taste and see how it is. I'm not to worried if it goes bad, I'll just make it into a sour beer :cross:

I'm not a huge fan of NS, but you had me Motueka. By far my favourite hop!! I'd throw more in it if I was you :drunk:
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I've heard that a 3:1 ratio gives something similar to riwaka which is why I went this route. There plenty of ibus without the 60 min addition. Looking forward to it
 
Hi Lunchie, not sure what just happened to my question, but it went somewhere! Anyway, I'm doing my first ever batch on Sunday (Epic Pale Ale ... your version next!) but am having sleepless nights wondering how to control the temperature of the fermenter. Do you have any cunning ideas (preferably cheap!).

Cheers,
Richard.
 
mac-the-brewer said:
Hi Lunchie, not sure what just happened to my question, but it went somewhere! Anyway, I'm doing my first ever batch on Sunday (Epic Pale Ale ... your version next!) but am having sleepless nights wondering how to control the temperature of the fermenter. Do you have any cunning ideas (preferably cheap!).

Cheers,
Richard.
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Awesome! Have fun brewin'

In all honesty, I've never worried about it. I just throw it in the hot water cupboard and leave it. We no longer have the water cylinder in there though so if I don't notice the bubbling air lock I'll put a blanket around the fermenter and leave it. I've never had fermentation issues with it in there and the beer comes out more than drinkable :tank:

If it gets to hot, I guess a swamp cooler could work, but you'd run the risk of it getting into lager temps.....
 
Thanks for that, Icecaster. I have just been on TradeMe and bought one. My first brew was meant to be last weekend, but I was forced to go fishing on a mate's flash boat. What's a man to do? :D
 
So I caved in and decided to hold my NZ Brown until after Christmas. With one more learning brew on my new setup. And the credit on my change goes to the inspirations how have with the orange cascade pale ale which is what I'll be doing this weekend an exact replica cos I have us cascade in my fridge. Followed closely by the same again with 2 changes. An additional 1kg of wheat malt and ill be using liquid yeast 3711 Saison which I think will go well with the flavours already present in this particular recipe. Then ill do my brown. Then it'll be brew shed building time..... Along with keg starting. Might have to start a blog like you mate
 
crusader1612 said:
So I caved in and decided to hold my NZ Brown until after Christmas. With one more learning brew on my new setup. And the credit on my change goes to the inspirations how have with the orange cascade pale ale which is what I'll be doing this weekend an exact replica cos I have us cascade in my fridge. Followed closely by the same again with 2 changes. An additional 1kg of wheat malt and ill be using liquid yeast 3711 Saison which I think will go well with the flavours already present in this particular recipe. Then ill do my brown. Then it'll be brew shed building time..... Along with keg starting. Might have to start a blog like you mate
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Yeah the Orange Cascade seems to be a good drop aye. I'll put some tasting notes up once I've had a taste around Christmas time.

I'm doing a Vienna/Centennial SMaSH on Saturday, figured National Crate Day I may as well brew :)

Yeah a blog is a good way to keep track of what you do :)
 
Nice Vienna Centennial SMaSH sounds good. I'll be participating in a kit beer for carte day, lol its been conditioning for about 6 weeks. bottled the blueberry part of my beer last night, as i bottled the boysenberry last week, and thegraf was bottled sunday afternoon.
 
Hey Lunchie, what sort of temps do you mash at? do you follow the recipes, as its BIAB, or do you heat your strike water and just chuck in the grains and mash, i guess for BIAB you can up the heat easier than Cooler Mashing. just interested to see
 
crusader1612 said:
Hey Lunchie, what sort of temps do you mash at? do you follow the recipes, as its BIAB, or do you heat your strike water and just chuck in the grains and mash, i guess for BIAB you can up the heat easier than Cooler Mashing. just interested to see
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Depends on the recipe. I basically follow whatever BrewMate tells me it should be. I heat the water, with the bag in, to 5 - 10 degrees higher than what it should be then throw the grains in, give it a real good stir then I should hit the mash temp bang on. I'll check it and give it a stir through the mash and if it needs heat, I'll jump chuck the little burner on.
 
CRATE DAY!!
ok cool, im just having a few issues hitting my mash temps tbh. using beersmith im hitting the strike water and then its not hitting those mash temps all that well. which is a pain, so i'm testing the scenario where i heat to 79 and mash at whatever happens. see how it works.
 
Yay crate day.

What are you guys drinking today?

I am Lion Red'ing it, I goet a Lion Red kit for the occasion. Staying homebrew, also on crate day :)
 
crusader1612 said:
CRATE DAY!!
ok cool, im just having a few issues hitting my mash temps tbh. using beersmith im hitting the strike water and then its not hitting those mash temps all that well. which is a pain, so i'm testing the scenario where i heat to 79 and mash at whatever happens. see how it works.
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How'd it go?
I've not really be to worried about not hitting the temp bang on. You tried warming your chilly bin up before mashing in?

I managed a 1.060 Vienna/Centennial SMaSH in between Speights. Had an impromptu home brew tasting as well. It was a brilliant day for it here in the mighty Manawatu!
 
NZLunchie said:
How'd it go?
I've not really be to worried about not hitting the temp bang on. You tried warming your chilly bin up before mashing in?

I managed a 1.060 Vienna/Centennial SMaSH in between Speights. Had an impromptu home brew tasting as well. It was a brilliant day for it here in the mighty Manawatu!
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I just used an extract recipe i used in the past. hit 4% ABV which drinking 12 of these got me a bit too happy, and i spent sunday on the couch.... i'm too old for this **** now lol. ended up playing league with some random guys, and now im covered in scratches and marks. lol:tank:

so i didnt mash in in the end.
 
crusader1612 said:
I just used an extract recipe i used in the past. hit 4% ABV which drinking 12 of these got me a bit too happy, and i spent sunday on the couch.... i'm too old for this **** now lol. ended up playing league with some random guys, and now im covered in scratches and marks. lol:tank:

so i didnt mash in in the end.
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Hahahaha yep, I feel ya pain there! I was about as useful as tits on a bull as well. Took me till about 7pm to get back into something normal :tank:
 
icecaster said:
Grab one of these: http://www.trademe.co.nz/home-living/food-beverage/other-beverages/auction-536578184.htm or
http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/other/auction-536232577.htm

All you need is a little plastic box and a 2m extension cord to wire it all up.
You can then attach the temp sensor with blue tack to the fermenter and control any heating source you like with it.
Preferably a heating pad (~$40)
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Got the Willhi 7016C and a Coppertun Heat pad, but stuffed if I can work out how to wire the bloody thing . Can you or anyone explain to me, in very plain language, how to wire this controller (240V, NZ wiring). Cheers!
 
crusader1612 said:
Macros, you get any scores from your beers entered?
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Not the best. Highest score was the Kumara Porter with 30/50. Lost points on flavour balance. Too smokey.


Ah yes crate day.. Bit hazy for me from funneling the last of my cascaded low carb. :)
 
mac-the-brewer said:
Got the Willhi 7016C and a Coppertun Heat pad, but stuffed if I can work out how to wire the bloody thing . Can you or anyone explain to me, in very plain language, how to wire this controller (240V, NZ wiring). Cheers!
Click to expand...

Did you get this osrted? if not I'll get pics at some point of mine
 
MacrosNZ said:
Not the best. Highest score was the Kumara Porter with 30/50. Lost points on flavour balance. Too smokey.


Ah yes crate day.. Bit hazy for me from funneling the last of my cascaded low carb. :)
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Not Bad scoring on that one though, from memory its like 1 point away from a bronze? or did it actually get a bronze?
 
MacrosNZ said:
no medals for me :(

But i planted some smoothcone the other day so onwards and upwards!
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Shame about the medals, pretty close though!
I got 27/50 for my Partial Mash Pale Ale, they said fresher hops would have won me a medal... nevermind theres always next year.

So Anyways, I'll be doing another Partial Mash on Monday, given the hot temperatures recently, its time for a Saison, 26deg c fermentation temp starting :). using Wyeast 3711, which is a beast.

recipe is as follows;
Mash 30 Mins at 67 deg c: 0.5kg Wheat Malt
0.5kg Rye Malt
0.5kg Caramalt
0.25kg Vienna
2.5kg Light DME
10g Nelson Sauvin @ 60
10g Nelson @10
15g @ 5
15g @ 1
Dryhop 20g for 1 week, i enjoy the taste of sauvin dryhopping the saison, gives more citrus flavour

Last one before Christmas/New Year, and pretty much most of January..... bloody EQC, I'll be remaking my 27/50 partial mash with a much much bigger hop bill and maybe add a little extra malt to make it an American IPA. and probably leaving it in my unpowered garage for the 3 weeks they are fixing our wall/ceilings.
 
crusader1612 said:
Shame about the medals, pretty close though!
I got 27/50 for my Partial Mash Pale Ale, they said fresher hops would have won me a medal... nevermind theres always next year.

So Anyways, I'll be doing another Partial Mash on Monday, given the hot temperatures recently, its time for a Saison, 26deg c fermentation temp starting :). using Wyeast 3711, which is a beast.

recipe is as follows;
Mash 30 Mins at 67 deg c: 0.5kg Wheat Malt
0.5kg Rye Malt
0.5kg Caramalt
0.25kg Vienna
2.5kg Light DME
10g Nelson Sauvin @ 60
10g Nelson @10
15g @ 5
15g @ 1
Dryhop 20g for 1 week, i enjoy the taste of sauvin dryhopping the saison, gives more citrus flavour

Last one before Christmas/New Year, and pretty much most of January..... bloody EQC, I'll be remaking my 27/50 partial mash with a much much bigger hop bill and maybe add a little extra malt to make it an American IPA. and probably leaving it in my unpowered garage for the 3 weeks they are fixing our wall/ceilings.
Click to expand...

I got this down Last night ,and its bubbling away at 25 right now. I will ramp up further tomorrow to 26, then again to 27 a couple of days later, I'll end up about 28-29 degrees, get some real esters in there for the 3711. mash the grains at 69 for 25 mins, moved the 1 min addition to FO. I'll be dumping a new beer after christmas onto the same cake, thinking a red/brown saison again. then it'll be time to build my brew shed. I'm getting a new chest freezers for the new round of beef we are getting from my folks farm. So I'll be able to use the upright freezer I currently have to ferment in, with a temp controller.

Oh and don't forget the Christmas presents of a Keg kit...

Exciting times ahead, although I'm still not allowed any hops plants... lol.
 
crusader1612 said:
Oh and don't forget the Christmas presents of a Keg kit...

Exciting times ahead, although I'm still not allowed any hops plants... lol.
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Jealous!!!

Yeah I wouldn't worry about hop plants chief, they take over everything.
Mine seem to be doing ok, but I think I'll move em round the front of the house next year, they'll get way more sun and get them into bigger pots!

IMG_20121214_174441.jpg


IMG_20121214_174446.jpg
 
NZLunchie said:
Jealous!!!

Yeah I wouldn't worry about hop plants chief, they take over everything.
Mine seem to be doing ok, but I think I'll move em round the front of the house next year, they'll get way more sun and get them into bigger pots!
Click to expand...

I'm pretty excited, it'll be good to ease the pain of bottling allllll of my beer.
Orange Ale bottled too, so it'll be interesting to see how that turns out.

Partial Mash Saison sitting at 27 Deg C, and will go off the heat on 27th, so my house doesn't burn down, and the Dry hops added.
 
NZLunchie said:
Brewing a beer tomorrow for the BIL's 40th with Rakau and Motueka. Anyone played with them in combo before?
Click to expand...

Hey lunchie tried my Graf its actually not bad needs a bit more age.
 
Well that was Xmas 2012!
The Orange Cascade Pale Ale and the Stout where a hit.
The Black Rock Cider kit has dried out ALOT in the bottle. Tastes more like a apple wine than anything. I think next time (if it happens) I will make it with apple juice not water. Hopefully gives it more body and flavour.

Anyone get any cool surprises from Santa???
 
Merry christmas Guys!!

And with the New year out of the way, and a mix pack of homebrew demolished at golden bay... its onto bigger and better.

Pack up time has begun for EQC repairs and then the Brewshed Build weill begin!

exciting times

I have been drinking my Fruit beers... they're a bit meh! but my Gunslingers Graf and the orange Cascade Pale ale are a hit. The graf needs another month to really start to shine.

the ornage Pale Ale, I can't really taste mush in the way of the Orange of coriander, althouigh i did drop the amount of the adjuncts.

Pictures to follow.
 
crusader1612 said:
the ornage Pale Ale, I can't really taste mush in the way of the Orange of coriander, althouigh i did drop the amount of the adjuncts.
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I had the same thing with my one. Not sure I'll brew it again. It came out a little sweet for me, either that or I'll up the hops ;)

Pics look good, whats your Stout recipe?

@MacrosNZ nice!! My hops are doing pretty well in the heat we've been having. I'll try and get a picture up later!
 
NZLunchie said:
I had the same thing with my one. Not sure I'll brew it again. It came out a little sweet for me, either that or I'll up the hops ;)

Pics look good, whats your Stout recipe?

@MacrosNZ nice!! My hops are doing pretty well in the heat we've been having. I'll try and get a picture up later!
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It's my dark Graf was a test with y gifted stout kit. Miners stout kit plus additional dark LME. 10litre of apple juice and willamette yet and cascade as additional hops and fermented for one month with tett dry hop of 28 g

Brew day today a black saison on the existing yeast cake. My own recipe kind of a brain fart really. Rye malt carapils wheat some light dime and pale choc. Oh and carafa 2 lol saaz and nelson
 
Hi all, my first attempt at brewing (AG, since you ask) Epic clone is not all it could be. I made many mistakes, and the final ignominy being the bottle priming failed to fire, leaving me with a flat, slightly sweet load of s**t. Oh well, I'm about to try another brew this weekend, so any pointers would be very helpful.
 
Sweet taste: Did you do the hydrometer check? Sounds like residual sugars.

My very first AG was very sweet, I only got it down to about 1035ish, target was 1016, so that was way off. Resulting in a very sweet beer with banana flavor (yeast esters) to boot, so in my case it was not fermented enough and in too high temp/too few yeasties at pitch.

Lack of fizz: do batch priming and leave it to condition for the entire duration.
 
mac-the-brewer said:
Hi all, my first attempt at brewing (AG, since you ask) Epic clone is not all it could be. I made many mistakes, and the final ignominy being the bottle priming failed to fire, leaving me with a flat, slightly sweet load of s**t. Oh well, I'm about to try another brew this weekend, so any pointers would be very helpful.
Click to expand...

I think the big thing is the FG this will determine the sweetness. i did brew inspired by the epic recipe, and it came out sweeter, but it was only 1.017-8ish. and it was good, very good sweet, yet the hops were nicely balanced.
bottle priming? did you add sugar direct to the bottles? or use tabs?

I recommend batch priming: 2 cups waterwith 120g of dextrose brewing sugar boiled for 10-15 mins, and poured in t bucket, then the beer racked on top by siphon, and if you want, you can mix to ensure even distribution. and then bottle. this has given me perfect result everytime.
Outline your process and maybe we can pinpoint where you went wrong.
 
crusader1612 said:
I think the big thing is the FG this will determine the sweetness. i did brew inspired by the epic recipe, and it came out sweeter, but it was only 1.017-8ish. and it was good, very good sweet, yet the hops were nicely balanced.
bottle priming? did you add sugar direct to the bottles? or use tabs?

I recommend batch priming: 2 cups waterwith 120g of dextrose brewing sugar boiled for 10-15 mins, and poured in t bucket, then the beer racked on top by siphon, and if you want, you can mix to ensure even distribution. and then bottle. this has given me perfect result everytime.
Outline your process and maybe we can pinpoint where you went wrong.
Click to expand...

I did batch prime, as you outlined and ended up with a FG about the same as yours. Prior to priming and bottling the FG was 1010, and now it is sweeter with a higher FG. It has been suggested that i leave it alone for another four to six weeks and taste test again.

I'm doing another Epic Pale Ale this Saturday, so fingers crossed.
 
mac-the-brewer said:
I did batch prime, as you outlined and ended up with a FG about the same as yours. Prior to priming and bottling the FG was 1010, and now it is sweeter with a higher FG. It has been suggested that i leave it alone for another four to six weeks and taste test again.

I'm doing another Epic Pale Ale this Saturday, so fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, so you are richard on realbeer?
I see the mountains of advice you got from the experienced guys. how much priming sugar did you use and whats your process??
 
Indeed I am Richard from RealBeer. I followed the method written by John Palmer. I made a MLT following his instructions, I have a Mashmaster thermometer attached. Foolishly I poured all the contents of the grain bags into the MLT before I suddenly realised they weren't the exact amounts (not thinking ... too hyped up probably). The yield from my first batch (after boiling) was 16L, and perhaps I should have added more water to the boil to keep the amount up. I chilled the wort down to 18 degrees and poured the entire lot into the fermenter. (Again, not thinking.) Pitched the yeast and waited. Fermented for two weeks, cold crashed (in the family fridge - very cooperative wife!) and bottled. I primed using an water/sugar solute, based on Palmer's and another net source's guidelines and bottled. Two weeks later I got the result as outlined above.

I'm annoyed and more than a little embarrassed that I made so many stupid mistakes, especially after reading and re-reading Palmer's instructions and a lot of info from this and RealBeer's posts. WhileI wasn't expecting an Epic clone after all my errors I was disappointed by the outcome ... so far. I really appreciate all the comments and encouragement from everyone. So, batch #2 this Saturday, then it's pizzas in the tandoor oven I have built.
 

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