brewing 2ne1

Elderflower Champagne recipe10 large elderflower heads 6 litres water 750g caster sugar 3 lemons,...

Thu, 28 May 2020 16:50:51 -0400

Elderflower Champagne recipe

10 large elderflower heads

6 litres water

750g caster sugar

3 lemons, juice and peel

Heat 2 litres of the water

Dissolve in the sugar

Add the rest of the water

Let cool to ~20 degrees C

Add caster sugar and peel

Leave to ferment…

SG 1030 on 28/5/2020

9/3/2019 - Kicked off an Everyday IPA brew from Brooklyn Brew...

Sun, 17 Mar 2019 14:48:26 -0400

9/3/2019 - Kicked off an Everyday IPA brew from Brooklyn Brew Shop. Got the timings of the hop drops mostly right ;) Fermenting at around between 18-20 °C.

Four fingers mosaic congress up a citrus treat! Dylski

Sun, 20 Nov 2016 13:19:40 -0500

Four fingers mosaic congress up a citrus treat! Dylski

Bulldog Four Finger Jack American Pale Ale Kit. Fermented for...

Sun, 16 Oct 2016 18:50:26 -0400

Bulldog Four Finger Jack American Pale Ale Kit. Fermented for fourteen days, dry hopped the last two with supplied Centennial and Zeus, and the last one with 30g Mosaic. Kegged with 150g of sugar. Dylski

Bottled cloudy and overly hop-steeped Muntons American Pale Ale....

Sun, 16 Oct 2016 18:41:46 -0400

Bottled cloudy and overly hop-steeped Muntons American Pale Ale. Bottles sanitised in dishwasher at 79°C. Let’s see if it works! Dylski

New World Saison. Brew started. O.G. 1055. Kicked off at 30°....

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 02:48:49 -0400

New World Saison. Brew started. O.G. 1055. Kicked off at 30°. Settling down to 24 this morning. Dylski

Young’s American IPA. Pack comes with plenty of hops. Left...

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 14:43:54 -0400

Young’s American IPA. Pack comes with plenty of hops. Left for longer ferment. ~6%

St Peter’s brewery IPA, added 250g might spray malt. Original...

Sat, 25 Apr 2015 08:32:33 -0400

St Peter’s brewery IPA, added 250g might spray malt. Original S.G. 1044 25/04/2015. Keeping in kitchen ~18-20°C.

Now in pressure barrel 7 days later with 75g Cascade hops and 250g light spray malt. S.G. 1014.

Rest of the brew with no name bottled (with black caps) with two...

Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:23:28 -0400

Rest of the brew with no name bottled (with black caps) with two round teaspoons of sugar per six bottles.

More grapes. Different method. Mashed and removed stalks. Placed...

Sun, 28 Sep 2014 17:33:25 -0400

More grapes. Different method. Mashed and removed stalks. Placed in cupboard at 20°C. Going to leave the rest to nature. We’ll see. Here’s to natural wine!

Homegrown grapes, mashed. One Campden tablet. Will add yeast...

Sat, 06 Sep 2014 15:42:07 -0400

Homegrown grapes, mashed. One Campden tablet. Will add yeast tomorrow. 1060 S.G. dylski

Jam jar experiment to reproduce the yeast harvested from a...

Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:30:46 -0400

Jam jar experiment to reproduce the yeast harvested from a bottle of The Kernel India Pale Ale (Simcoe)

Mount Banarse Brewing Company’s first official brew. Name...

Sun, 22 Jun 2014 18:30:41 -0400

Mount Banarse Brewing Company’s first official brew. Name to follow. S.G. when bottled 1016. Added 95g breweries sugar to the 36 pints.

Pimped 32 pint kit of Woodforde’s Admiral’s Reserve...

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:55:55 -0400

Pimped 32 pint kit of Woodforde’s Admiral’s Reserve with 12g Saaz/Cascade hop pellets, 12g Challenger hop pellets and 500g Young’s spraymalt light. S.G. 1062 @ 30.5°C.

Ginger beer. Almost three weeks brewing! Now fairly dry. Not...

Sun, 13 Apr 2014 15:37:06 -0400

Ginger beer. Almost three weeks brewing! Now fairly dry. Not enough ginger; more like lemonade. Bottled with 1tsp sugar for 750ml bottle.

Fumble In The Dark - A Black American-style IPA So-named because...

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:52:00 -0500

Fumble In The Dark - A Black American-style IPA

So-named because fumbling around in the dark pretty much surmises my method in developing this brew. Highly opportunistic (making use of two birthday gifts of Geordie Mild and Coopers Dark Malt) and experimental (pushing up the alcohol content with dry hopping to follow) approach to developing a hopped A-IPA style dark ale for Christmas.

Ingredients

1.5 kg Geordie Mild Kit
1.1 kg Thomas Coopers Malt Extract (Dark)
500 g Dark spray malt
~350 g Brewing sugar
Youngs generic brewing yeast
100g Chinook hops (yet to be added - see later posts)

Chucked tinned malts into bucket with 5 pints boiling water. Stirred. Dissolved in spray malt. Added cold water to 23 litres (5 gallons). Stirred in brewing sugar to push SG to 1050 (maybe a bit higher) giving a potential alcohol level of 6.1%.

Will siphon into pressure barrel in about a week, add Chinook hops (the whole 100g I’ve ordered?) in a bag, a little more sugar, and then leave for a few weeks.

Chosen Chinook hops as I want a single hop to dominate as my first experiment (on the assumption that the ones in the Geordie Mild will be pretty bland) and Chinook gets favourable reports and appears to good for bittering, spiciness, aroma and even smokiness. Sounds good for a winter dark ale. Here’s a reasonable guide to hop characteristics but other places I’ve read list other characteristics.

No idea if it’s going to work!

UPDATE:

38 hours later after a vigourous fermentation start the SG has dropped to 1020.

UPDATE 26/11/13:

1 week later and the SG has dropped to 1016.

UPDATE 3/12/13:

Yet another week passes in the hope of a further drop in SG but I reckon it is still around 1016. Siphoned in to pressure barrel, added 80g of dextrose and a fine mesh bag of 100g Chinook hops. The beer was malty, slightly bitter, a hit of sour (hope that’s not a bad sign) but fairly bland on the hoppy flavour front, which I would expect from the Geordie Mild kit! The hops smelt fantastic; let’s see what Fumbling In The Dark delivers for Christmas.

dylski

Broomesbury White I have not had much success in the past with...

Sat, 19 Oct 2013 16:20:46 -0400

Broomesbury White

I have not had much success in the past with white wine.
But when I found that our grape vine managed to produce some sweet and fairly plump grapes, I was encouraged to give it another go. And johnson’s red turned out rather well

Managed to get about 14lbs of grapes. Quickly soaked the to get rid of the ladybirds!
I then got my twins to help me pick the grapes off of the stalks and crush them within the fermentation bucket. A time consuming task so wise to get little hands to help.
We were using a potato masher to crush the grapes, which was not the best way to crush them. We need to find a better method next year.
Even though the majority of grapes where sweet. I did not want to take any chances, so I added 1lb sugar dissolved in a pan.
Did not bother to add extra water.
Whole sachet of Bordeaux white yeast! Just to make sure it started brewing.

Why broomesbury?
That is the name of our house! Well it will be as soon as I get the plaque put up!

Elderflower champagne 2013 Brewed for 7 days in bucket, Then 7...

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 15:56:10 -0400

Elderflower champagne 2013
Brewed for 7 days in bucket, Then 7 days in the bottles.
The brew turned out cloudy white and glupy, it is a bit dry and bitter. I think this is due to it being too long in the fermentation bucket. The brew was also a lot warmer then previous years.
Also I peeled the rind of the lemons and limes rather than grating it, which I think caused the cloudy bitterness.

Elderflower beer.
This was in the Tupperware for 7 days and in the bottle for 5 days. I added 1 tbs of sugar to the bottle. This tastes much better. And I think is much less alcoholic.

Elderflower champagne and Beer Following last years recipe for...

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 16:04:34 -0400

Elderflower champagne and Beer

Following last years recipe for elderflower Champagne
However, just like Mike I have decided to experiment with the Ginger Beer plant that he kindly gave to me last year.
The Recipes are as follows.
For the Champagne.
450g Flowers (about a carrier bag full.
1kg Sugar
4 Lemons and 5 limes
¼ cup white wine Vinegar.
2 Litres of Hot water
8 litres of cold.
Ale Yeast

In a large fermenting bucket add the shaked and Trimmed flowers to remove all the bugs and the thicker stalks.
Grate the zest off the lemons and limes and add to the flowers.
Then squeeze the Lemons and limes and add the juice to the flowers. To get all the juice add the discarded halves to some water and juice them again.
Add the 8 litres of cold water to the bucket.
Add the White Wine Vinegar

Add the sugar and a litre of water to a pan and dissolve the sugar over a hob.
Then add another litre of cold water to cool it down before adding it to the fermentation bucket.
Stir contents
Then add the yeast

The Elderflower Ale recipe is pretty much the same but I did ¼ quantity.
125g Flowers
250 g Sugar
1 Lemon zest and juice
1.5 Limes zest and juice
1 Tbsp of White Wine Vinegar
½ litre of Hot
2 litres of cold.
1 tbsp of Ginger Beer Plant.

I popped the brew into a large tupperware box.

Lets see how it turns out

Marcus

Elderflower Beer? One way or another, this is going to be...

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:18:00 -0400

Elderflower Beer?

One way or another, this is going to be interesting. I am trying a variation on the Elderflower Champagne recipe by adding the secret weapon in the picture above - a small bag of Ginger Beer Plant (GBP).

The hope is that the GBP will work alongside natural yeasts and produce something with a little more flavour. They’ll probably have a bit of a fight at the start, but let’s face it, the GBP has bacteria on it’s side! I’ve also been training the GBP with some extra sugar on the side over the last week to getting him chomping at the bit!

Previous years attempts have either resulted in LOTS of yeast sediment or a rather strange gloopy champagne that looks like it’s had a dalliance with a hag fish (http://youtu.be/t5PGZRxhAyU). Will this years brew avoid those issues? Time will tell!

Recipe as follows:-

500ml water (non chlorinated)
12ish heads of elderflowers - stalk removed
500g Sugar
100g Golden caster sugar
3 Lemons (unwaxed) - zest and juice
1 lime - juice only (it was waxed)
2 tbps - white wine vinegar
1 tbsp Ginger Beer Plant - in muslin bag
1 spider - leave out if you want
Assortment of bugs - to taste

It’s now sitting in a warm spot to see what happens!

- Mike