A simple tip to deal with aggressive fermentation Sometimes when brewing higher gravity beers, or if the wort temperature is too high at the start of the fermentation, the yeast can "go wild" and a very aggressive fermentation occurs. You will know that it happens when you see this kind of behavior a few hours after sealing the fermenter: What happens here is … [Read more...]
If you can’t make beer – drink beer!
This weekend I wasn't due to be home, but I was ill all week, and decided to stay home. As a back up plan I ordered more beer ingredients, hoping to make more beer, but sadly the delivery haven't arrived, so I had no ingredients to make any, and so no brew day report. The plan was to try for the first time BIAB (Beer In A Bag) - a one pot process of making beer from grains … [Read more...]
Tasting notes – improved Black Ale and Coffee Porter
The beers have been cooling and aging for a little time now, and it is time to try! On the plan today are the Black Ale (improved process) and the Coffee Porter I brewed 4-5 weeks ago. Down to business: Black Ale: This beer is proving to be a constant success - very dark, almost black, with a good light brown head, almost mocha in colour. The stayed for a while, and not … [Read more...]
Bottling, hopping and the lack of space
This weekend was just some of the less exciting sides of beer making - I've added dry hops (Goldings, 4.6%) to the Black Ale split batch from last week, 15g to each fermenter. The beers have been through some fermentation, with the lower gravity one seemed to have finished the fermentation (1012) and the higher gravity one still going (1019), we will see how it will be at the … [Read more...]
Cranberry Ale brew day and botteling the latest split batch
Yesterday was a busy day in our tiny kitchen - my Thanksgiving preparation has started with a Cranberry Amber Ale and bottling the Black Ale/Coffee Porter split batch. Bottling first: First to mention in regards to the split batch is that almost a week ago (October 7th) I sent both beers to a secondary fermentation. The Black ale got 20g of Fuggles hops and 10g of dextrose … [Read more...]