Be Excellent To Each Other

Turns out my maths was wrong and this was a bit stronger than my maths suggested. By 15%

I find that unlikely, the yeast will have died off unless you used wine yeast in your lager.

I thought it was 4%. It was 4.6%. A 15% increase.

Aw, I was looking forward to 21% cider.

Me too!

Cider is at 4.7%, people.

How does it taste?

Very dry. Here is some straight from the FV. It is drinkable but dry and sharp.

Hmm. How can you go about changing that? Pasteurise to kill the yeast and then add more sugar? That or artificial sweeteners, I guess.

Internet suggests artificial sweetness.

mix with ginger wine.

That would be awesome.

Your blending destroys my art.

Indeed. I might try more tonight as I am a few bottles short.

30 bottles of camping beer bought to get the bottles. 30 bottles of camping beer to drink to get the bottles. Tough life.

Now, that does sound good. That, or bramble wine. I've only tasted bramble wine once but zomigosh, I had it at a picnic with a girlfriend, we stung our bums on stoning nettles and I nearly fell in the canal.

Tastes like over-sweet Ribena, with the power of super-alcohol.

Turbo Ribena is possible. Very possible. That'd be proper tramp juice.

Lol! Everyone loves Apple and ginger. Can't believe my phone capitalised Apple.

Put some elderflowers in and you will have the best drink ever

Just bought 6lbs Crystal Malt so might try to get another brew on tonight after bottling. I will double hop again.

Was 1054. Now 1012. Doesn't taste sweet. Might bottle tomorrow. 5.65%

Borgo Brewing Presents "-10" a strong pale ale. Very limited edition artisan beer.

Brew on!

Lesson learned: Measure out your stuff before hand. I heated water to 70 degrees for the mash, added 200g Crstal malt and then went to add in the kilo of pale malt I had left over. I only had 700g. So I added another 50g crystal. So there is 26% crystal malt in there and a supplier I no longer trust.

It is currently mashing.

On the boil! This should be a bit hopper than the -10 but I will try to make it not as strong ( i diluted it down to 1044)

Incidentally, the kit beer I made for the cottage is good enough for me to gave drunk 2 litres of it today.

Cider is still bubbling away. Cider is at 5.7% and now dry but not sharp. Mellowed since last time and is pretty drinkable

I want sample bottles of all of these!

I done you one already.

Fermentation is go on the new brew after a worrying 24 hours. This should be about 4.4% if it goes as far as the other one.

7.5 litres Turbo Cider @ 5.75%.

Someone has to get you a label maker for Christmas.

That would be ideal.

Borgo Brewing declares "The Big Z" artisanal cider is drinkable.

"Artisanal cider (from concentrate)" is the best label.

And should you have failures in future, remember it can at least be used to cook pigs in, rather than simply being poured away.

Good call!

Here's what is being bottled now, a 4.7% caramel tasting beer.5l batches have a downside though...

Anyways, Borgo Brewing presents "+10". An artisanal caramel beer.

they only last a weekend?

Oh, but to have the time to sit down and enjoy a beer. I think I have about 65 pints of booze in the garage right now in bottkes and about another 8 in a keg.

I'm not sure you've quite got the homebrew balance right yet.

Better than the other way round!

That beer looks nice.

Nice one, Mali, You're really getting the hang of this!

More luck than design. It is surprisingly easy, it is just slightly equipment and time intensive for me at the moment. It takes 3.5 hours for me to do 5 litre brews or 5.5 to do 10litres. The main time difference is boiling 12 to 13 litres of wort up and cooling it again. I think the immersion cooler I will make can cut chunks of time off (copper tube coiled up with cold water in it to heat exchange) as might boiling 2x 6 litres of wort. So I think I need a second 15l pot and a massive seive.

Our mate hooks his wort cooler pipe up to the garden tap.

Even tougher when your caps do not fit the bottles!

Toffee apple! The beer tastes a bit like a toffee apple with a beer taste. That is the best way to describe it.

Sounds too sweet.

I will bring some in 14 sleeps.

It is the 26% crstal malt that is pulling that sweetness and flavour through. I have been trying to think of a beer to compare it to. I might try at 18% and see where it comes out at. I have loads of it that needs using you see, so I might get a 10l brew on which should use up another 3/4 lb.

Had a try last night. It is drinkable. Which is a relief.

Cider described as "dry" and "tastes of concentrated apple juice, with booze in it".

Going for a single hopped amber ale tonight. Will aim for 4% (again) in a 10l brew.

Boil is on!

400g crYstal malt.
1700g pale malt

Mash in 6l water at 67 (after 1 hour dropped to 65), sparge 8l 80 degrees for 10. Bring to boil. Add c 30g chinook hops.

Will add another 15g in 10 mins. Then another 15 in 35 mins.

Check og, then chill and pitch yeast.

Edit: this is turning into a heavily hopped high OG amber right now. I might let arrest this and try and pull it into 4.5% range.

Edit 2: should run out at 5.1% if it ferments like the others. I have about 2 gallons worth in the FV.

I think I have been too light on hops on the past 2 ag brews. This is why the sweetness taste is there. I added loads more hops to this and the sample was massivly bitter.

So kids, chuck the hops in.

Glad you've seen the light.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10103&p=838623&hilit=over+hopped#p838623

I still stand by that. I don't have accurate enough scales to measure hops out so "this much" is about as good as I can get. "This much" was not enough, but I think I have gone to "too much".