Too much frothing on fermentation
One thing I thought might have caused the frothing of the last 3 batches was that I put 2 sachets of yeast into the brews. So over frothing of the air lock. Also , I seemed to get a lot of sediment. Maybe the next time I do a double can I'll test out a single sachet.
So, instead of using just dextrose I went to the Brew House and got some dry brew enhancer ($8.50/Kg x 2) when I went to pick up some PET bottles. I do not seem to have enough bottles, usually I have about half the amount of bottles so need to supplement with some more.
I suppose I'm developing a bit of a store of Stouts at the moment. I'm putting about 8 buy of each batch so that I can test them out at a later date.
Costs
1/ $13.50 for can of Real Ale , Brewblend $8.50 , carbonizing drops $5- Also 15 PET bottles $16.50 So about $27 + $33 for 2 lots of bottles = $5023 l is about 70 bottles of .33l
Heineken for 24 bottles = $40 (on special), 72 bottle = $120
So costs are good.
2/ For the Stouts its about $13-15 for 6 in the shops, so between $156 to $180 for 72 bottles
So for the double cans, with Coopers $13.50 x 2 + Brewblend $8.50 , carbonizing drops $5- Also 15 PET bottles $16.50 is about $64
One of them is 6.55% alc /vol (other is 5.76%)whereas a lot of the shop standard stouts are at 4.2-5%
3/ The 2nd batch was oatmeal and those tins were around $30 each, so that was a bit more expensive so that added up to about $96. alc/Vol 5.76%
On tasting batches 2 (Oatmeal)& 3 (Coopers Stout) I haven't seen a real difference so far, although I'm still drinking them before they are supposed to be drunk. A slight headache from both, maybe due to lots of yeast in the brews.
Setup equipment
On top of the basic measure for measure is equipment.The brewing starter kit was $110
The initial bottle press (that didn't work) was about $25-30
The bottle press that works $70
Bottle Caps $7 for about 150 - these seem to be lasting as I'm onl capping about 20 bottles at a time, the rest are PET
Sanitizer- $6 (on 2nd one- first came with kit)
So extra stuff - 110 + 30 + 70 + 7 + 6 = $223
Divided by 5 batches so far = 223/5 =44.60
Divided by 6 batches so far = 223/6 =37.17
Divided by 7 batches so far = 223/7 =31.85
So factoring this into costs
1/ 50 +45= $95 vs $120
2/ 64 + 45 = $109 vs $156-180
3/ 96+45 = $141 vs $156-180
So not that great until the setup equipment costs is distributed across a lot of brews.
Whats standing out?
From processes so far:- Paying for brew blends seem to add extra alcohol to the brew, and hopefully flavour too.
- Too much yeast may be causing over frothing and lots of sediment.
- I'm testing the cheaper extracts (Coopers) at the moment, they are half the price of the ones in the Brew House and even the extracts alone in the brew house are more expensive that the cooper beer kits. So I'll persevere with those.
- I Need to test 2 cans and only one sachet of yeast. It may take longer but less sediment (I think).
- All I can do at this point is brew a few batches and keep, then do a tasting of a few of them together. That way I can compare what is the best balance of value/flavour/alcohol content versus cost.
- Hard to do on a few batches, I need to collect and brew a few first. So, carry on brewing.
- I'm on a 10 day ish cycle at the moment. I'll maintain that at present and try and create a number of batches to try and get an overview of what works.
- Later I need to add Hops as extra dimension to the beers
Back to the Real Ale
My next objective is to brew a few lighter beers, I'll try single cans but boost flavour with the Brew Blends. I can't seem to find the Cooper Enhancers anywhere in Wellington for sale.If the Real Ale is Ok I may want to see if I can get the alc/Vol up to the 5% of all the standard beers, then I can always play with the hops for flavour.
I decided I wanted to try 1/ A lighter beer, and 2/ A weaker beer. I've been brewing some stronger ones but want some weaker ones (so I can drink more- for summer).
Brew 5. Real Ale 1
The OG of the Real Ale which was just one can, 1Kg of Ale Brew blend and a further 290g of Dextrose (just to push the alcohol up a little bit) was 1040. So a bit light.
I'll try this one out and as I have another can I'll do the same, maybe with a bit more dextrose for the 2nd batch.
It is far lighter than the stouts I've been brewing, in fact it looks quite watery. I've noted on some of the posts that they let it sit for a few days to get the beer to clear a bit. Its still a bit cloudy.
The OG was about 1.006 so about 4.45% Alc/vol
Not quite the 5% I was looking for. It settled at about day 7 so I bottled it early. It was a bit cloudy but hopefully it will settle in the bottles. I see there is another fermenter where you can take the yeast out of the bottom, but they are about$145 so I'll leave that for the moment.
It was a bit chill at times so I had to put heater on , sometimes for day and night. It did dip to 16 deg C but then it was back up in 20's.
Overall brewing process went well. I'll have to wait for tasting.
On getting bottles from Brew House (and enhancer for Lager) I went to Countdown and saw they had some brew kits there. The Coopers web site say use Brew Enhancer # 2 , which they sell for $10. The lager enhancer in Brew House was about $7.20.
I'll think about doing a single can stout with coopers and use Brew Enhancer # 2 from there. That is the first place I've found that has the Coopers Brew Enhancers in Wellington.
Countdowns cans are about $14.50 where they are about $13.50 in Pak'n'Save so I'll carry on using Pak'n'Save for Cans and other bits.
Brew 6. Lager Friday 13th Sept (sounds ominous!)
I thought I'd break from the Real Ale and do a straight lager. I went to Brew House and got some lager brewing enhancer. I also added in, with the one can of Coopers Lager, 300g of dextrose, just to get alcohol content up. So OG was 1.042 at start.Friday 20th FG at 1.008
Saturday 21st FG at 1.007
So this is about 4.58 alc/vol
Final check on Tuesday 24/9 OG at 1005
Which brings it up to 4.87 so around the ballpark for a general lager.
I went to Brew House to get some PET bottles and talked about issue of frothing over, his suggestion was more yeast OK. I'll try a double extract with only one yeast another time.
Anyway, on chatting, I talked about lager being a bit turbid and he suggested putting some Beer Finings in. As this is a lager I thought it would be worth doing.
So I bought a couple of sachets (each 1.90$), although you can get a litre of clear fluid to do the job and that is 13.50$ and you use 100ml per time, so get 10 uses out of a bottle, so that works out at 1.35/time. I'll try out first on the light beers and see how that goes.
The thing is, I now have to wait a couple of days for the beer finings do their work. I can't bottle until Monday.I'll set aside some time to do that.
I bottled on tuesday 24/9 and it was still a bit cloudy. The sediment was definitely more settled. I was impressed.
After a week I looked at the La ger and it is pretty clear, so the finings seemed to do the job. I also looked at the Real Ale that had no finiings and that was pretty clouded after the first week but after 2nd seems to be settling down
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