Recent content by Pataka

Over pitching is a possibility but I wouldn't have thought too likely, as the starter was less than 500 ml. I'll know if that's the cause with my next batch because I pitched straight from the dry yeast sachet. I left a few of the dark ales at my parents place (I brewed them before Christmas)...

Hi all It's been a while since I posted here. I've been plodding along solidly with the odd all-grain batch as and when I begin to run out. For the first time in a little while, I've been counting my bottles, because I've had so many batches in bottles at the same time. I've been noticing a...

A few weeks back I went for a weekend brew session at a commercial brew space, and while I was brewing, had a beer they had brewed which had an ABV of 2.5%. It tasted amazing, and to be frank, was good enough that I'd drink it even if I wasn't driving. It got me thinking I should try and make...

Count me in.

You know what I'm SOOOOOO tempted to do.... (and I think I might just go ahead and do it now I've thought of it) is to repeat the exact same recipe as my first SMaSH pale ale, but make it with LME. Most of my extract brewing experience was either using pre-hopped kits, or LME that was probably...

That's a good point about extract vs kits. I haven't made brewed a kitless extract batch since I started usin temp control, so perhaps it's not quite fair on the medium to say it's as bad as I was implying. There's a couple of things that sealed it for me, however. Up until my all grain batch...

I brewed it over winter with my heat belt and temp controller, so the ferment stage was pretty well done at least. The ABV ended up sub 4%, and was probably playing in Tuatara Iti territory, which had me really worried about the lack of body versus the hops, but I actually prefer mine over...

I have just tasted my very first bottle of my very first all-grain brew, and it tastes completely, utterly, and amazingly good. It was a SMaSH Pale Ale made with NZ Cascade hops, regular pale ale malt, and US-05. What puzzles me so much is that this brew was full of mistakes. I missed my...

That's true. Another thought I had after I posted that was that the acidity is likely to be too high if using nothing but concentrate. I think backsweetening is probably way to go as it gives more control over the end result. The only issue with backsweetening using concentrate is that you're...

I've been wondering about something for a while, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot on the web about it. I have a Loquat tree that has been a prolific fruiter for a few years now. in fact, it's the reason I got started in winemaking to begin with. I've picked a lot of fruit from it...

Looking at the 'spent' grains, there were a few kernels that didn't seem to be particularly open. They were all able to be opened by chewing, but you'd expect that to be the case after an hour soaking. I decided I'd do a second mash with the grain last night, and managed to get another 2L with...

I used up all the grain I had, so can only look at the spent grains. Probably not a great deal of use, but I'll still have a look tomorrow in decent light to see how whole some of the kernels appear to be. No. the pot holds about 16L in total. Water plus grain during the mash occupied about 75%...

After my first BIAB all-grain experience, I decided I would repeat the entire process with the exact same recipe second time around, to try and either improve on the errors I made last time, or figure out where I may have gone wrong. My first batch had two issues that I noted. First, my mash...

I've bottled too soon, for about the second or third time now. It's no biggie, since I use PET bottles for this very reason. I can check the pressure and release it when it gets too high. Yes, it's tedious doing bottle by bottle, but otherwise it's harmless. As you can tell, I didn't check...

Interesting. Most of mine have had it to some degree, but I've been able to reduce undesirable results through temperature control. I made a really nice Black Rock Waimea Pale Ale recently, with no twang whatsoever. Recently I had some leftover Coopers Dark Ale LME that I had stored in the...