Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Dry Lager Double Up


Today I kegged a double batch of a dry lager. The recipe comes from the Country Brewer and is as follows:
2x Wal's Dry Lager
2kg Brew Booster (I'll need to check the contents for actual amounts of Sugars and Malt)
24g Cluster Hops Infused
n.b. These are double amounts as it was a double batch.
The final gravity ended up at about 1.008, but I didn't do a starting gravity test, but I am guessing that the alcohol content will be around 4.7%-5.0%. Hopefully I will be able to do a few taste tester tomorrow afternoon to give a bit of feedback on the recipe and I am sure the people who duck around for a few quiet ones (or really loud ones), will be able to give me some feedback on it.
The previous single keg that I did last week but didn't post about was my first kegging attempt, and I was extremely pleased with the results. It was a copy of a Tooheys Old, which was also from the Country Brewer, which I had planned to bottle some months ago, but couldn't find the motivation....until David got me on the kegging bandwagon. I had a number of mates around to celebrate the occasion of the first keg, and I was most impressed with the fine ale that was now on tap.......in fact it was that fine that I was sound asleep by 11pm that evening only to awake nursing a pretty heavy hangover!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

DEAD YEAST

Started brewing of the Second Red Box brew after a successful Wheat Beer, of course there was to be problems.
The room temperature is at a steady 22-24C, yeast paradise - the yeast was that which comes when you buy the can and I suppose there is always the risk that this could of been too hot, cold, old or just dodgy.
I have replaced the yeast with some more and will see how this goes, the other big thing is with Ginger beer it does not ever seem to take off or react as much as the other brews. This is one thing to keep a close eye on as bottling early can lead to explosions and losses as well as sticky mess to clean up.
Jealous of the Fox keg set up and think in the next house there must be enough room to establish a set up to rival it. Loving the summer weather and definately looking forward to more ales in the sun