Will have to get pictures in here, when my dad and I start all the Summer Brewing that normally happens. And I am planning on making some mead soon So will put up pictures of that.
Recommendations on what to use our three fermentation buckets for? Main problem is that I left the pressure vesse/barrel at home, and we only have enough bottles to hold 20l or so.
OK, I've come up with a few ideas for my summer brew. It will be an American style pale ale, so very clean and hop-forward with hardly any malt profile, and it will be between 5 & 6% ABV. The grain bill will be 100% maris otter (although I may add a tiny amount of wheat malt as it's good for head retention and lacing) mashed at 67C. Hops will be Chinook (bittering to about 40 IBUs and flavour), cascade (flavour & aroma) and Amarillo (flavour and aroma) and possibly nelson sauvin. All hop additions will be quite large and very late in the boil for maximum flavour and I'll be dry hopping in the fermenter too. I'll use a fairly neutral, clean fermenting yeast like Safale US05. I'll run it through my brew software later and post the exact recipe and hop schedule for your perusal. I love planning brews almost as much as drinking them.
Never done a brew like your doing Yadda for beer always used kits, Cider on the other hand have made from the start right from picking the apples to the pressing and all. Am quite looking forward to trying my hand at making mead for the first time tomorrow as my dad has never done it either so for once I can't ask him for advice, hopefully i can get it right and get a good batch, so later this year when i help him harvest the honey from his hives I can make a good portion into honey
Yay, my thread lives! I've said this before on here (I believe) but sloe gin is absolutely amazing and I'm a little suprised it has been picked up by business savvy bars/alcohol maufacturers to sell/promote.
Whats sloe Gin like compared to normal as I have seen alot of people making and raving about it but I have never been a huge gin fan
There's nothing wrong with beer kits. Done properly (with DME replacing most of the sugar) they can make decent beer. You can also pimp a kit by dry hopping with some tasty hops in the fermenter too, or steeping grains to add to the wort. Mmmm, beeeer. I've never made mead nor do I know much about it but have heard that it takes quite a while to condition. I'm sure it's worth the wait though!
I think if my dad and i did it now we would do it differently as our store of kit is much better, Next time we try make a beer I think will have to do it differenly. This year I hope we can make more than we did last year which was 120L of cider
I'm not really a fan of gin either (at all) but its like sloes are made perfectly for it. I can't remember/describe the taste of it though, it's just both delicious and inoffensive - I'm not a fan of sickly fruity things and this just hits the spot.
the cider is in Lincolnshire not Manchester unfortunately as its my dads orchard that bares the fruit for our cider. Hopefully this year we can make more champagne cider as we didn't last year and it was so nice great taste if slightly on the dry side with such a nice fine bubble went down so well. sounds like i might need to try it or make some
Yes, I can imagine. Despite not being a great fan of cider most of the time, like most drinks it has a time & a place. Sometimes there's nothing nicer than sinking a few nice ciders outside on a hot day. Mmmm, cider. I made some sloe gin and blackberry whisky at Christmas time. The sloe gin went down very well but no-one else got to try the blackberry whisky because it was too nice.
Well least weekend when i got the honey we were sat on the patio looking over the farm and just enjoying the last bottles of cider from a couple of years ago, they were lovely
Here is my summer beer recipe as mentioned earlier. A fairly strong pale ale with medium bitterness and prominent fruit & citrus hops. It should be tasty and very easy drinking. The hop schedule might need tweaking slightly to account for alpha-acid variances but is more-or-less correct. The beer name is WIP. Limping Pig American Pale Ale Recipe Specs ---------------- Batch Size (L): 23.0 Total Grain (kg): 5.550 Total Hops (g): 265.00 Original Gravity (OG): 1.056 (°P): 13.8 Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6 Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.50 % Colour (SRM): 6.1 (EBC): 12.1 Bitterness (IBU): 39.1 (Average) Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 73 Boil Time (Minutes): 60 Grain Bill ---------------- 5.300 kg Maris Otter Malt (95.5%) 0.250 kg Wheat Malt (4.5%) Hop Bill ---------------- 40.0 g Chinook Leaf (11.4% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (1.7 g/L) 25.0 g Amarillo Leaf (8.6% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Cascade Leaf (7.8% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Nelson Sauvin Leaf (11.5% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Amarillo Leaf (8.6% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Cascade Leaf (7.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Nelson Sauvin Leaf (11.5% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Aroma) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Amarillo Leaf (8.6% Alpha) @ 4 Days (Dry Hop) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Cascade Leaf (7.8% Alpha) @ 4 Days (Dry Hop) (1.1 g/L) 25.0 g Nelson Sauvin Leaf (11.5% Alpha) @ 4 Days (Dry Hop) (1.1 g/L) Misc Bill ---------------- Single step Infusion at 67°C for 90 Minutes. Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05 Recipe Generated with BrewMate
How scientific! Mine normally go something along the lines of... Experimental booze! something fruit or berry based that I can collect for free. Recipe Specs ---------------- Batch Size (L): Based on total fruit but somewhere between 4.5l & 30l Total Fruit (kg): Whatever I can muster. Original Gravity (OG): Whatever's in the fruit + 1kg sugar per 4.5l Final Gravity (FG): Pretty damn low Alcohol by Volume (ABV): Pretty damn high Colour (SRM): 6.1 (EBC): Anything from piss yellow, to deep burgundy Bitterness (IBU): Fair to middlein' Brewhouse Efficiency (%): ? Materials Bill ---------------- Elderflower, or elderberry, or gooseberrys, or apples, or plumbs, or rowan berry (this year for sure, I've found a spot...), rhubarb. In fact, anything you can scrounge up that won't poison you! I think I'll give lovage a go this year too, and I've got loads of mint... High alcohol yeast, make a starter for the first batch of the year, use half and refrigerate half, gently feed and split it like a ginger beer plant, and make one packet last a whole season. Yeast nutrient, one tea spoon per 4.5l. Campden tablets, one per 4.5l 24h prior to adding yeast. 1Kg sugar per 4.5l, whatever's cheapest is best.
