# Home brew



## thekeeperza (17/1/16)

First home brew done today. Mangrove Jack Traditional Brown Ale kit with DME and a Willamette hops addition.
@johan thank you again. You will recognise the handy fermenting vessel . Hopefully there will be some half decent beer soon.

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## johan (17/1/16)

thekeeperza said:


> First home brew done today. Mangrove Jack Traditional Brown Ale kit with DME and a Willamette hops addition.
> @johan thank you again. You will recognise the handy fermenting vessel . Hopefully there will be some half decent beer soon.
> 
> View attachment 43433



Looks good, I will hopefully do a taste end of Feb - I love a hoppy brown ale .


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## thekeeperza (17/1/16)

johan said:


> Looks good, I will hopefully do a taste end of Feb - I love a hoppy brown ale .


I will definitely keep a few for you - if they are any good at least.

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## gertvanjoe (17/1/16)

ooo just us beer here

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## thekeeperza (31/1/16)

First brew done and bottled. 







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## johan (31/1/16)

thekeeperza said:


> First brew done and bottled.
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Congratulations! Now is the ultimate TEST OF PATIENCE, but only for 2-weeks +


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## thekeeperza (11/2/16)

Ran out of patience and had to test a pint. Definitely have beer here. Just needs to age some more. 





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## Andre (11/2/16)

thekeeperza said:


> Ran out of patience and had to test a pint. Definitely have beer here. Just needs to age some more.
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Looks great. Let it steep!

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## johan (11/2/16)

thekeeperza said:


> Ran out of patience and had to test a pint. Definitely have beer here. Just needs to age some more.
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Looks excellent, next brew ad +/-250gm maltodextrin (available at all brew stores) to up the head (and mouth feel).


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## gertvanjoe (29/3/16)

@thekeeperza Did you drink all of it ?  How was it ?

edit: Wrong user called


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## thekeeperza (30/3/16)

gertvanjoe said:


> @thekeeperza Did you drink all of it ?  How was it ?
> 
> edit: Wrong user called


It wasn't too bad for a first go. A bit light but still better than the commercial stuff. I have a 6 or so left that I am going to keep for a while to see if it improves.
I have upgraded to making all grain beer since then and started with an Irish Red Ale.

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## johan (30/3/16)

thekeeperza said:


> It wasn't too bad for a first go. A bit light but still better than the commercial stuff. I have a 6 or so left that I am going to keep for a while to see if it improves.
> I have upgraded to making all grain beer since then and started with an Irish Red Ale.
> View attachment 49600



Now you getting serious - I like!


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## thekeeperza (2/4/16)

Raging Red Irish Ale all grain home brew. Been in the bottle for 2 weeks and tasting very good. Nice body and much better mouthfeel. 





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## Warlock (13/7/16)

The Irish ale looks good @thekeeperza  congrads. I had a bash about two years ago to brew some but had a small mishap with a bottle popping in the fridge. So no more bear brewing. I do however ferment Mead. Atm I have about 20l racked almost ready for bottling. Are there any other Mead makers in the Vaping community?


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## johan (14/7/16)

@Warlock I did brew Mead once (+/- 8 years ago), but suffered a huge oxidation during transfer and hence off tastes - had to bin and never tried it again. For the past few years I stick to various IPA's, Calafornia common's and session Ales.


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## Warlock (16/7/16)

I,m going to try to post a few pics. The bees, the spinner, racked mead(note the dates), half used product. Just crappy snaps with a Kodak.

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## thekeeperza (17/7/16)

The weekends brews.
A Blonde ale



And a Rye IPA.

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## Warlock (17/7/16)

I love the look of the "head" on your brew, it looks so healthy. What is a IPA? In an earlier post you spoke of "TEST OF PATIENCE".
How is this for the ultimate TEST OF PATIENCE. Mead ferments for three weeks, then becomes "best after one year" So I get to wait for a year. I,m like thisfor a year befor I get to be like his


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## johan (19/7/16)

Warlock said:


> I love the look of the "head" on your brew, it looks so healthy. What is a IPA? In an earlier post you spoke of "TEST OF PATIENCE".
> How is this for the ultimate TEST OF PATIENCE. Mead ferments for three weeks, then becomes "best after one year" So I get to wait for a year. I,m like thisfor a year befor I get to be like his



IPA stands for India Pale Ale, normally a low gravity hoppy beer - history etc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_pale_ale


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## thekeeperza (3/9/16)

The blonde Ale from a few weeks back. Tastes awesome but is lacking carbonation after 5 weeks in the bottle. 
Could have something to do with the cold crash before bottling. 






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## Warlock (4/9/16)

My Mead’s progress:
One month to ferment, seven months racked in the demijohns, now bottled.
Four months of steeping left to go...then finally get to drink some.

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## Clouds4Days (4/9/16)

Warlock said:


> My Mead’s progress:
> One month to ferment, seven months racked in the demijohns, now bottled.
> Four months of steeping left to go...then finally get to drink some.
> View attachment 66158



Wow that's some real patience you have bud.
Im sure it feels like watching a live feed on how fast a willow tree grows.

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## johan (5/9/16)

thekeeperza said:


> The blonde Ale from a few weeks back. Tastes awesome but is lacking carbonation after 5 weeks in the bottle.
> Could have something to do with the cold crash before bottling.
> 
> 
> ...



Cold crashing should only affect your carbonation if you used too much "fining agents" i.e gelatin prior to cold crashing - if you are sanitary sane, you can open up the bottles and drop in some dextrose if at all necessary plus *bottle conditioning yeast* (brewmart in Pta used to stock this type of yeast). Cap again and leave it at room temp for +/- 2 weeks. Had to do a couple of times eons back when fooling around with lagers.

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## Stosta (6/9/16)

You guys have some great kit!

I brewed some about 2 months back, and about every third bottle has a sour note to it, so I'm assuming those particular bottles weren't 100% clean?


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## johan (6/9/16)

Stosta said:


> You guys have some great kit!
> 
> I brewed some about 2 months back, and about every third bottle has a sour note to it, so I'm assuming those particular bottles weren't 100% clean?



If your beer doesn't have jelly like strings in it (aceto bacteria), and it's palatable, you are safe to drink it, irrespective of sour notes. Cleanliness and sanitation rules in any form of alcohol brewing/distilling. Get yourself some Star San before you do your next brew to prevent any wild yeast ruining your brew.

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## Clouds4Days (6/9/16)

Been reading through these post. You gentlemen have alot of patience i must say 

Im sure it must be really rewarding drinking a home made brew.
But im such a lazy ass f@%k i will rather just pop in my local tops and grab the sh%$ im used to 

To me it tastes like heaven cause i havent tried your peeps home brew, i think i rather leave it that way so i dont get disapointed every time i open a cold one.


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## thekeeperza (6/9/16)

johan said:


> Cold crashing should only affect your carbonation if you used too much "fining agents" i.e gelatin prior to cold crashing - if you are sanitary sane, you can open up the bottles and drop in some dextrose if at all necessary plus *bottle conditioning yeast* (brewmart in Pta used to stock this type of yeast). Cap again and leave it at room temp for +/- 2 weeks. Had to do a couple of times eons back when fooling around with lagers.


Thanks @johan I will take a few bottles out to leave for a few more weeks. The rest I am going to open and add dextrose and yeast and see what happens.
I only used 1tsp irish moss in the last 10min of the boil and nothing extra prior to the cold crash.


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## thekeeperza (6/9/16)

Ok scratch all that. Figured out the problem. The first beers were kept in the fridge and hence cold. Just tried another that was left at room temp and the carbonation is spot on. 







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## Blu_Marlin (6/9/16)

thekeeperza said:


> Ok scratch all that. Figured out the problem. The first beers were kept in the fridge and hence cold. Just tried another that *was left at room temp* and the carbonation is spot on.
> 
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Ahaha so these were meant for English style pub drinking.
JJ. I would love to brew my own ales one day


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## johan (7/9/16)

thekeeperza said:


> Ok scratch all that. Figured out the problem. The first beers were kept in the fridge and hence cold. Just tried another that was left at room temp and the carbonation is spot on.
> 
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> ...



Yip - the leftover yeast had no chance to eat the dextrose at fridge temperatures - glad the whole batch didn't go straight into the fridge - now you can chuck them all in the fridge, seeing that bottle conditioning is now done.


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## thekeeperza (7/9/16)

johan said:


> Yip - the leftover yeast had no chance to eat the dextrose at fridge temperature - glad the whole batch didn't go straight into the fridge.


I can't even tell you why I put those in the fridge to start with. 

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## johan (7/9/16)

Blu_Marlin said:


> Ahaha so these were meant for English style pub drinking.
> JJ. I would love to brew my own ales one day



It's the easiest thing to do - close to you is a brew shop, can't remember the name, just google and watch a youtube video or two.

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## johan (7/9/16)

thekeeperza said:


> I can't even tell you why I put those in the fridge to start with.
> 
> Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk



We all get mentally constipated from time to time .

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## thekeeperza (8/9/16)

johan said:


> We all get mentally constipated from time to time .


I do believe that beer had something to do with the mental constipation

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## johan (8/9/16)

thekeeperza said:


> I do believe that beer had something to do with the mental constipation



Now that you mentioned it, my original intention was to ask if any alcohol were involved, but then .... I'm a gentleman .


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## thekeeperza (10/9/16)

Alcohol is always involved is mental constipation @johan.

Beer looking much better now. 






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## thekeeperza (11/9/16)

A batch of Rye IPA bottled today. No alcohol was consumed while bottling. 






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## Andre (11/9/16)

thekeeperza said:


> A batch of Rye IPA bottled today. No alcohol was consumed while bottling.
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And before bottling?

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## thekeeperza (11/9/16)

Andre said:


> And before bottling?


After the last session where my beer didn't carb I decided to wait till after everything was finished this time - much safer option. 

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## johan (12/9/16)

@thekeeperza you may call yourself BREWMASTER now, but I suggest you obtain the following sign  first:

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## Stosta (26/2/17)

Hey guys, hoping someone can help me out here...

@johan @Warlock @thekeeperza 

Last Sunday was brew day for a stout, and clearly I was having a bad day because it was a flop. I added the yeast when my brew was sitting at 30 degrees, I'm worried that might have been too high?

On top of that I forgot to add my sugar, and decided to add it an hour late then not at all, so I added it in (less then I would have liked) after my yeast and stirred it in. Normally I leave the yeast sitting on top so I'm also worried about the effect stirring will have.

There isn't the giant lump of foam on top that I'm used to, and on top of that, my gravity readings are all over the place, and now I have no idea when to bottle.

Its still tasting decent and seems to be fermenting, but I'm unsure as to what my next step should be.


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## johan (26/2/17)

Stosta said:


> Hey guys, hoping someone can help me out here...
> 
> @johan @Warlock @thekeeperza
> 
> ...



I assume you did a "kit-n-kilo" kit and not all grain from the added sugar you mentioned. I will try and answer your questions & concerns as follows:

(1) 30C is not too high a pitching temperature for most ordinary ale yeast. However it is important that you don't ferment a kit brew at higher than 23C (ideally between 18 and 19C for most ales). Higher fermentation temperatures and your beer will be overpowered by fruity ester profiles. (In some Belgian beer styles its desired though).

(2) No problem if you added the sugar late and after pitching the yeast. Not enough sugar and you will produce a sessionable low AVB % beer, but still drinkable. In future I suggest you use Dextrose (aka corn sugar) or DME (dry malt extract). Table sugar tends to give beer a kind of typical kit brew twang taste, it also makes your beer drier and might not suit the intended style.

(3) The stirring after pitching the yeast is not of any concern. Many home brewers will put a fresh brew on a previous fermenting yeast cake and stir the living daylights out of it.

(4) The lump of foam or rather called Krauzen, is not an accurate indication and might be low due to lower fermentable sugars in your brew.

(5) Gravity readings is one of the most important measurements you will use in brewing. If the gravity reading on your hydrometer (or refractometer) doesn't change over 3 days, then only you are ready to Keg or bottle. If you bottle before the time, you will end up with bottle bombs and a lot of clean up. I don't know which recipe you followed, but most ales (stout is a type of ale), will end up with a final gravity reading of less than 1.020.

(6) Next step is make sure your gravity readings are stable (over 3 days). Get a bottling bucket and siphon on top of priming sugar solution (use dextrose) without introducing oxygen into the beer.

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## Stosta (26/2/17)

You rock @johan , thank you! My experience is limited. My previous attempts have been the can kits so I'm battling to transfer my knowledge to a more "authentic" process.

My friend had made a bunch of wort and called me to get some so I could brew it. He said I should aim at about 20 litres and when I got to that point my temp was sitting at 30 and I didnt want to add any more liquid. Next time I will be better prepared to cool it faster.

I did use dextrose, as a matter of interest could I have left it out completely? I was frantically trying to find the answer, and eventually just decided to throw it in, in case I was running out of time. 

Im glad to hear that adding it and stirring after the yeast hasnt wrecked it though!

I took a reading today, and it hasn't changed from my OG, but I'm hoping that it was because I took it from a hot sample and have heard that temp can affect the reading.

Worse case I will check it next weekend and make sure it isnt infected or just funny water and then bottle.


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## thekeeperza (26/2/17)

@johan has answered everything. At the end of the day if you have beer that tastes OK and is drinkable, then you didn't stuff it up

https://www.brewtoad.com/tools/hydrometer-temperature-correction
Here is a link to convert hydrometer readings taken at higher temps.
If you measured at 30°C it won't be a huge difference, probably in the region of 0.003.

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## johan (26/2/17)

Stosta said:


> You rock @johan , thank you! My experience is limited. My previous attempts have been the can kits so I'm battling to transfer my knowledge to a more "authentic" process.
> 
> My friend had made a bunch of wort and called me to get some so I could brew it. He said I should aim at about 20 litres and when I got to that point my temp was sitting at 30 and I didnt want to add any more liquid. Next time I will be better prepared to cool it faster.
> 
> ...



@thekeeperza has answered your gravity question. If your gravity is the same, then I suggest you leave it for at least another 5 days.

If the recipe calls for dextrose to be added, don't leave it out - its there for a reason. I suggest you download beersmith (http://beersmith.com/) and adjust the ingredients, it will give you a clear picture what happens by including, excluding and changing ingredients - app works with all grain- as well as with "kit-n-kilo" brews.

No need to cool down fast. The Aussies proved that the no-chill method works just as good as conventional fast chilling (google no chill brewing).

PS. Seems that your friend did an all grain brew, and you needed to boil down the wort to 20 L. Why would dextrose be required?


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## Stosta (27/2/17)

thekeeperza said:


> @johan has answered everything. At the end of the day if you have beer that tastes OK and is drinkable, then you didn't stuff it up
> 
> https://www.brewtoad.com/tools/hydrometer-temperature-correction
> Here is a link to convert hydrometer readings taken at higher temps.
> If you measured at 30°C it won't be a huge difference, probably in the region of 0.003.



Thanks! Yeah that is a pretty insignificant difference at the point of the game I'm in, so it seems there is smoke but no fire, thanks for the re-assurance!



johan said:


> @thekeeperza has answered your gravity question. If your gravity is the same, then I suggest you leave it for at least another 5 days.
> 
> If the recipe calls for dextrose to be added, don't leave it out - its there for a reason. I suggest you download beersmith (http://beersmith.com/) and adjust the ingredients, it will give you a clear picture what happens by including, excluding and changing ingredients - app works with all grain- as well as with "kit-n-kilo" brews.
> 
> ...



I will do just that thanks Johan! This app looks great, it kinda consolidates a lot of the info that floats around in a way in which you can refer to quite easily and quickly, this sort of tool makes it a lot easier to dig into an all grain brew.

It's quite possible that the dextrose was not required at all. Due to my inexperience I just assumed that it was a necessity, and as my google-fu wasn't fast enough that's when I just lobbed it in there.

One nice thing about stuffing up like this is that I now understand a lot more of the process. At this point I'm tempted to actually toss it out and start again because of the extra knowledge I got over the past week. I'm totally not going to waste beer like that, but the temptation is still there!


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## thekeeperza (27/2/17)

Stosta said:


> One nice thing about stuffing up like this is that I now understand a lot more of the process. At this point I'm tempted to actually toss it out and start again because of the extra knowledge I got over the past week. I'm totally not going to waste beer like that, but the temptation is still there!


Don't toss it until you have bottled and let it carbonate. Decide after that.



johan said:


> No need to cool down fast. The Aussies proved that the no-chill method works just as good as conventional fast chilling (google no chill brewing).


This is the only way I brew. Get a few of these - dump the wort in after the boil, squeeze out as much air as possible and seal. The wort will last quite long as long as no oxygen can get in.

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## johan (27/2/17)

Stosta said:


> Thanks! Yeah that is a pretty insignificant difference at the point of the game I'm in, so it seems there is smoke but no fire, thanks for the re-assurance!
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One good thing is that none of us will learn if we don't "stuff up"

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## johan (27/2/17)

thekeeperza said:


> Don't toss it until you have bottled and let it carbonate. Decide after that.
> 
> 
> This is the only way I brew. Get a few of these - dump the wort in after the boil, squeeze out as much air as possible and seal. The wort will last quite long as long as no oxygen can get in.



Exactly what this mad hatter is doing (actually enjoy his channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoAhRuxJb1K-d4BBSLNX1RQ


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## johan (17/3/17)

Beer History regarding St Patrick's Day (by Ryan / _Beer By The Numbers_)

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## thekeeperza (28/5/17)

Latest brew. A blonde ale using SA hops. Brewed with African Queen and Southern Aroma and dry hopped for 7 days with Southern Aroma. 






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