We are quite organised this year and have 8 demijohns of wine fermented out and clearing ready to be bottled. Kit wine's that we have made are:
Beaverdale Peisporter
Beaverdale Pinot Grigio
Beaverdale Barolo
Beaverdale Rioja Red
Beaverdale Chablis Blush
California Connoisseur Riesling
We have also had a bash at a wine which I have heard good things about, Wurzels Orange Wine, we have made 2 demijohns using the following method:
1Ltr 100% Pure Orange Juice (smooth)
1Ltr Pressed White Grape Juice
1.5Lbs Granulated Sugar
1tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2tsp Tannin
1tsp Pectic Enzyme
1tsp Glycerine
Water to 1 Gallon
1pck White Wine Yeast
Add Orange Juice, Grape Juice, Yeast Nutrient, Tannin, Pectin Enzyme & Glycerine to the demijohn along with a pint and a half of cold water and shake to mix well
Dissolve sugar in a pint of boiling water
Add Sugar water to demijohn
Top up to 4ltr with cold water and mix, and add yeast.
Ferment under airlock until the initial vigorous fermentation is over then top up to 4.5ltrs and continue to ferment until done.
When fermented rack to a sanitised demijohn with 1 crushed campden tablet and a tsp of potassium sorbate. De-gas for 24 hrs by shaking a few times. Then add wine finings. Bottle when clear.
Ours is at the de-gassing stage at the moment, the wine smells lovely, looking forward to trying it! It works out at around 40p a bottle!
Sunday 11 October 2009
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Time flies....
Wow! - it's been such a long time since last posting anything here, time has been taken up with other projects and also spending (probably) too much of my time on the forum!
The Keggerator which I last posted about is un and running and working well, I have it set to serve my beer at 13c and i've been pleased with it's performance. It uses an ATC800 to control a 60w tubular heater and the freezer itself, switching between the two where it needs to call for heat or cold. Mostly through the summer I have been dispensing via my beer engine which is a HiGene 1/4 pint jobby, I use a cask breather connected to the corni and an inline check valve also - it works pretty well.
I've not managed to brew as much as i'd like to have done lately, I did manage to fit in a brewday to get a beer ready for halloween though recently. Witches Wort was kegged last night and turned out at around 5%. It's mt first time using Nelson Sauvin hops i'm impressed was with the smell from the FV and also the small sample I had when kegging it. Fingers crossed it'll do the job come the 31st!
Here is the recipe
Witches Wort
Pale Malt (98%)
Crystal Malt (2%)
Bobek 90 mins (33 ibu)
Nelson Sauvin 15 mins (12 ibu)
Nelson Sauvin Steeped at 80c for 15 mins
Due to the mash tun dying on me when I added the mash liquor I had to mash in a smaller tun, so the brewlength was reduced from the intended 60L to 36L just right for 2 cornies. One fermenter was pitched with s04 the other was pitched with Nottingham.
The introduction of a pump and a therminator plate chiller has made life easier at the Fledgling Brewery, no more lifting dangerous amounts of hot wort!
The next imminent brewery upgrade is the addition of an 80L stainless steel thermobox tun. This is currently awaiting conversion. I'll put a post on about how I do it, all the bits and bobs are here, all I need now is time, peace and quiet!
The Keggerator which I last posted about is un and running and working well, I have it set to serve my beer at 13c and i've been pleased with it's performance. It uses an ATC800 to control a 60w tubular heater and the freezer itself, switching between the two where it needs to call for heat or cold. Mostly through the summer I have been dispensing via my beer engine which is a HiGene 1/4 pint jobby, I use a cask breather connected to the corni and an inline check valve also - it works pretty well.I've not managed to brew as much as i'd like to have done lately, I did manage to fit in a brewday to get a beer ready for halloween though recently. Witches Wort was kegged last night and turned out at around 5%. It's mt first time using Nelson Sauvin hops i'm impressed was with the smell from the FV and also the small sample I had when kegging it. Fingers crossed it'll do the job come the 31st!
Here is the recipe
Witches Wort
Pale Malt (98%)
Crystal Malt (2%)
Bobek 90 mins (33 ibu)
Nelson Sauvin 15 mins (12 ibu)
Nelson Sauvin Steeped at 80c for 15 mins
Due to the mash tun dying on me when I added the mash liquor I had to mash in a smaller tun, so the brewlength was reduced from the intended 60L to 36L just right for 2 cornies. One fermenter was pitched with s04 the other was pitched with Nottingham.
The introduction of a pump and a therminator plate chiller has made life easier at the Fledgling Brewery, no more lifting dangerous amounts of hot wort!
The next imminent brewery upgrade is the addition of an 80L stainless steel thermobox tun. This is currently awaiting conversion. I'll put a post on about how I do it, all the bits and bobs are here, all I need now is time, peace and quiet!
Tuesday 24 March 2009
Wezzerator - Work Begins!
Work started tonight on the Wezzerator. The chest freezer that I am using is not deep enough to hold a cornie keg so this collar effectively means that i'll have a cut & shut cooler. It's just the framework at the moment - I will be picking up the insulation for it tomorrow and fitting that.I tried it out on the freezer and it fits like a glove.
Monday 23 March 2009
XL Bitter - Kegged
The XL Bitter that I brewed on 12 March has been sat at a steady 1.008 for 3 days now so at 4.2% abv it's found it's home in 3 cornies.
I had a cheeky taster - I think it could be a nice beer, I got the complex malt taste that I was after and it's not too over powering, the bitterness level seems about what I wanted too (27IBU), certainly less bitter than some of the beers I normally brew. My only concern is that after the initial complex malt taste there wasn't much left, no lingering flavour to speak of....?
It's nice to have a sensible strength malty low IBU beer brewed anyway - looking forward to tapping this one.
Time to think about the next brew - It was to be Wezerection I think.
I had a cheeky taster - I think it could be a nice beer, I got the complex malt taste that I was after and it's not too over powering, the bitterness level seems about what I wanted too (27IBU), certainly less bitter than some of the beers I normally brew. My only concern is that after the initial complex malt taste there wasn't much left, no lingering flavour to speak of....?
It's nice to have a sensible strength malty low IBU beer brewed anyway - looking forward to tapping this one.
Time to think about the next brew - It was to be Wezerection I think.
Warm Weather - Cool Beer
Well...spot on 13c beer hopefully :)
When the Mrs suggested that we could do with a larger Chest Freezer as the current one isn't enough I eagerly agreed as this means that I can now conver the older chest freezer into a KEGGERATOR - so over the next few weeks I'll be converting a Chest Freezer which can hold upto 4 cornies using an ATC800 temperature controller, a 60w Tubular Heater into a device to serve beer at the perfect temperature all year round.
The only problem is that the chest freezer isn't tall enough to hold a cornie - i'll solve this problem by adding a 20cm insulated colar around the top of the freezer and fixing the lid back on to this.
I'll take some pics along the way.
Should be a fun and productive project.
When the Mrs suggested that we could do with a larger Chest Freezer as the current one isn't enough I eagerly agreed as this means that I can now conver the older chest freezer into a KEGGERATOR - so over the next few weeks I'll be converting a Chest Freezer which can hold upto 4 cornies using an ATC800 temperature controller, a 60w Tubular Heater into a device to serve beer at the perfect temperature all year round.
The only problem is that the chest freezer isn't tall enough to hold a cornie - i'll solve this problem by adding a 20cm insulated colar around the top of the freezer and fixing the lid back on to this.
I'll take some pics along the way.
Should be a fun and productive project.
Wednesday 18 March 2009
SUGAR Points..the way?
On the last few brews that I've done I have been experimenting with 'Sugar Points', Phil a member on www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk got me interested in doing this, it is in basic terms a method of ensuring that you collect the right amount of sugar from your mash to ensure that you hit the gravity that you want.
It calls for a bit of math, so as I sit here typing this with Hoegaarden in hand I'll try my best to explain how I understand it.
The start point that you need is to know three things
a) What your desired OG is
b) What your desired volume into fermenters is
c) How much you loose after the boil to your boiler, hops etc
To aid explanation we will assume that our three figures are:
a) 1.050
b) 25 litres
c) 8 litres
The amount of sugar points needed for 33L at 1.050 (33L is 25L + losses of 8L) is 33 x 50 = 1650
So what you do is calculate your grist as you normally would, based on your own known brewhouse efficiency but when you sparge measure what you have collected both in volume and specific gravity and stop sparging when you have collected your required sugar points (1650 for this example) (A refractometer is very useful for this).
You do this by multiplying what you have collected by the gravity of what you have collected. Your own efficiencies will dictate at what volume you reach your required Sugar Points, for the sake of this example lets say we collected 25L of 1.066 wort ... 25 x 66 = 1650.
This 25L is then diluted down to your pre-boil volume (you will have to work that out based on your equipment), boil happily away down to your post boil volume knowing that it will be at the OG you want.
It sounds complicated but it easy really.
I'll be lowering my efficiency to 65% from 85% next time to try to improve the quality of extract.
It calls for a bit of math, so as I sit here typing this with Hoegaarden in hand I'll try my best to explain how I understand it.
The start point that you need is to know three things
a) What your desired OG is
b) What your desired volume into fermenters is
c) How much you loose after the boil to your boiler, hops etc
To aid explanation we will assume that our three figures are:
a) 1.050
b) 25 litres
c) 8 litres
The amount of sugar points needed for 33L at 1.050 (33L is 25L + losses of 8L) is 33 x 50 = 1650
So what you do is calculate your grist as you normally would, based on your own known brewhouse efficiency but when you sparge measure what you have collected both in volume and specific gravity and stop sparging when you have collected your required sugar points (1650 for this example) (A refractometer is very useful for this).
You do this by multiplying what you have collected by the gravity of what you have collected. Your own efficiencies will dictate at what volume you reach your required Sugar Points, for the sake of this example lets say we collected 25L of 1.066 wort ... 25 x 66 = 1650.
This 25L is then diluted down to your pre-boil volume (you will have to work that out based on your equipment), boil happily away down to your post boil volume knowing that it will be at the OG you want.
It sounds complicated but it easy really.
I'll be lowering my efficiency to 65% from 85% next time to try to improve the quality of extract.
Wednesday 11 March 2009
XL Bitter
Not posted a blog for a while – I’ve been busy with work and the home brew forum that we have set up.
I’m planning a brew this week, hoping for a nice session beer with lots of malt character and a fairly low IBU.
XL Bitter
60L Batch
Target OG 1.040
Target IBU 27
Pale 90%
Dark Crystal 3%
Amber Malt 3%
Wheat Malt 3%
Chocolate Malt 1%
20 IBU from Challenger 90 Min Boil
7 IBU from EKG’s 15 Min Boil
30g EKG Steeped at 80c for 15 mins
Fermenting using S04
I’m planning a brew this week, hoping for a nice session beer with lots of malt character and a fairly low IBU.
XL Bitter
60L Batch
Target OG 1.040
Target IBU 27
Pale 90%
Dark Crystal 3%
Amber Malt 3%
Wheat Malt 3%
Chocolate Malt 1%
20 IBU from Challenger 90 Min Boil
7 IBU from EKG’s 15 Min Boil
30g EKG Steeped at 80c for 15 mins
Fermenting using S04
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