Homebrewists of STW, brewing 'owt at the moment?

I recently did a Bell's Two Hearted IPA clone - came out great!

Just bottled my Bounty Stout.

Had a bit of a worry when I decided to bottle last week as it appeared to be doing a bit of fermenting, despite having had a couple of weeks. Gravity from the initial sample was a couple of points above the plan, so I gave it four more days to finish off. Cut to Monday... Same gravity (1.018) as before, so decided to bottle and not hate the delay too much.

Really subtle, but noticeable coconut aroma, but not as much chocolate as the previous sample. I will have to see what develops there after a couple of weeks in bottles. Really quite a nice stout though, not too heavy and about 5.9% ABV if my calcs are right.

Next up: Some kind of wheat beer. I planned a half and half pale malt and malted wheat with a bunch of hops, but I might change that to a more conventional NEIPA recipe because I like NEIPA.

Oh yeah, I bought a new fermenter... The small SS Brewtech bucket. It's awesome. Only used it for bottling, but really like it already.

I recently did a Bell’s Two Hearted IPA clone – came out great!

Brewing one of these this weekend. Any tips? I've got the Malt Miller all grain recipe kit.

OH's doing a generic medium beer kit but using dandelion leaves instead of hops and when the hawthorn flowers are out we're going to do another hawthorn beer. We did a small one (5L) last year and it was lush.

Intereting! How does the bitterness/taste come out compared to hops on the dandelion? Also, does the hawthorn beer self-innoculate, or do you use a separate yeast?

No real tips on the Two Hearted IPA, a relatively simple beer TBH.

Interesting! How does the bitterness/taste come out compared to hops on the dandelion? Also, does the hawthorn beer self-innoculate, or do you use a separate yeast?

There is a slight bitterness but it's nowhere near hops. He made a full-on dandelion beer a few years ago using the flowers and leaves and a bit of yeast but it was waaaaay too flowery, still drinkable but a bit too much.

I don't know what 'self-innoculate' means but we use a separate yeast, yes. It's nothing fancy, just a bucket of hawthorn leaves and flowers made into an infusion on the hob in a couple of litres of water that's then added to the wort (?) and the whole lot's fermented. It's nice, if you've ever tried hawthorn flowers or leaves straight off the tree you get that lovely fragrant aftertaste which is passed on to the beer in the infusion plus it's local (just over the road from us), seasonal and free!

You know, I might have to try that. We have maybe a couple of weeks before spring really starts here, so there might still be time to get those.

I also just remembered I said I would make something with spruce tips this year. Soon time to harvest those.

Russian Imperial stout bottled after a couple of months in a keg, have a nice stout on tap which had a lot of brown malt in the mix which I hadn't used before.

Also have a new zealand pale on, this appears to have ended up like a replica of thornbridge green mountain.

Got a Bells Two Hearted clone in the keg. Might give it a go this weekend and see if its ready. Brewing a Thornbridge Chiron clone this weekend. Currently enjoying a batch of Dry Hopped Stout bottled. Second batch of this recipe and a big improvement over the last, which was pretty good. Not quite sure what I did differently this time round to make the difference. Only difference is a different fermentor.

Got a few lined up for the next few weeks - a Belgian Tripel, a Red Brick Rye and a Saison. Going to be busy.

Is the red brick rye a copy of the one from the brick brewery - that's a really nice pint, what recipe are you using?

Difference in the stout could be fermentation temperature

You've done well to clone green mountain. Lovely beer. I'm soldiering through one of my worst. It's not so bad to go down the drain, but it's one of my worst. And I'm probably not half way through the keg 😐

Got a nice wee selection of yeasts in the post:

Also did a big spring clean and re-organising of the brewery yesterday. Got rid of all the spiderwebs!

Going to start with some wheat beer and chuck some juices in.

Is the red brick rye a copy of the one from the brick brewery – that’s a really nice pint, what recipe are you using?

Not sure, it's a John Finch recipe. My mate got a John Finch recipe book when he bought a starter kit and its from that. Done a few out of that book - a House American Pale Ale, the Hopped Stout and an NEIPA. Done couple of batches of each and all been great. The Hopped Stout has been outstanding. The Malt Miller does All Grain recipe kits too, though did two batches of the house Pale Ale from separate ingredients and one batch from the Malt Miller recipe kit and the batches from the separate ingredients were better.

Difference in the stout could be fermentation temperature

Could be. Went from a plastic bucket in a home made fermentation chamber cobbled together from a knackered fridge, to a nice shiny Grainfather conical fermentor. Hopefully you're right and dropping all that cash was worth it! That's what I'll tell the wife anyway.

I have the grainfather fermenters and glycol system. Expensive, but excellent control.
I see the new fermenter controllers are remotely accessible via the app. I have to send my GF out the shed to press the buttons!

Would be good if you could make some conditions link to a wifi hydromter (if SG < 1.015 then temp = 18c etc)

The wifi control is nice. I've got an iSpindel and it always reads a about 4 points low compared to hydrometer. Reads bang on in sugar water, but in beer reads low. I assume its off due to the weight of the yeast collecting on the top. thinking a Tilt might work better as its smaller with out handy yeast collecting features like the ridged lid and protruding lip. Though thinking about it weight on the lid would flatten it and it would read high not low. Not sure what's going on.

Wonder how easy it is to take out the Grainfather controller and use a Raspberry Pi to control via the tilt hydrometer, but after dropping all that cash you wouldn't want to start modifying it.

I rate the Mangrove Jacks yeasts, use them for a lot of my beers. They seem to work well, finish quickly and be tolerant of the temperature in my spare room. I have a soft spot for the Lallemand Voss though.

Next purchase is a sack of pilsner from the local malt people. 25 kg should last me a while and I can be a bit more flexible with the remains of the pale malt I have left and the assorted other grains. Next beer is looking like either a wheat beer or another NEIPA. If the nettles come up, I might try and make a nettle IPA

Still no sign of nettles at the house, but now planning a weekend of brewing... Plan is either a weisse beer or a saison to use up some pilsner and wheat malt I have and maybe the remaining pale ale.

I'm also going to be moving my brewing kit to the house for summer, so will be looking at using an Ikea Tillreda portable hob for outside brewing, then running hose to the chiller for the cooling. I've also be looking at how to store malt at the house and have found some storage bins that might work.

Now all I have to do is move most of my crap, in stages, to the house. Which is great. Then all the bottles.

And I need to make a red ale/IPA for August.

Tried kveik yeast for the first time recently and produced probably the best results I've had so far. A session strength pale with sabro. It was thoroughly drinkable in 7 days! But even better a week later. Totally crushable, as they say in the world of YouTube brewers. I'll continue to cheat by using this yeast to hide my lack of fermentation temperature control.

Not done a brew for years but tempted to gather some ingredients and get one going this weekend! Got some hops planted a couple of months ago, they're coming along nicely, hopefully will have a harvest this year with enough for a green hop beer!

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Dammit! So much growth. I have six plants out (since last year) and have only started getting shoots appearing. Mind you, it has only just stopped snowing and getting frosts, so I have hope they will go up quickly.

Which varietie are they?

This is our first place with a garden, so we have no experience growing anything, must be good soil though as almost everything we've planted is going great! Also we're SE and it's been really sunny, and pretty hot, already this year. They're Prima Donna and Golden Tassels which were the only 2 dwarf varieties I could find (did a bit of Googling and people said you COULD train normal hops to grow horizontally but you'd literally have to do it every day, and I am too lazy for that 🤣)

Bottled a batch of my go-to IPA a week and a bit ago, that's tasting very nice indeed.

In the fermenter at the mo is my marmalade beer which I decided to ferment with Belgian yeast because I've had it in the fridge for a while and, well, why not? Seems to have finished really quick but will still wait a few more days and keg it at the weekend. Interested to see what difference it makes to the beer.

Not sure what to make next, want to make a BA Imperial Stout and while it feels weird to be making it before the summer it'll give it a few months in the keg/bottle to chill out.

Also fancy making a Kolsch for the summer but need to find a decent recipe.

I returned from skydiving all fired up to brew, so put a 50:50 pale ale/wheat malt heffeweissen together and into a fermenter on Saturday. Brew day took a while longer than normal because I was brewing outside and the Ikea Tilreda was slow as hell to warm up. I ended up boiling indoors.

Anyway, 11L in the fermenter and the yeast has been ripping through it over the weekend. I need to collect my bottling equipment, but that's a problem for next week.

This week, it is all about creating a warming chamber so that I can ferment a saison at 25C. The warming pad and Inkbird controller is on order... I may also be scouring the local second hand lists for a suitable fridge.

Freezers are better for temp controlled chambers of using an inkbird etc. More powerful chillers and a lot more insulation.

Have just got a oat / milk stout going in the fermenter yesterday.

Currently have a New England IPA and a stout on tap.  Imperial stout maturing in bottles but needs another few months.

My fermentation chamber is an old fridge with inkbird and a greenhouse heater. A freezer would probably be better but the old fridge was free as it came with the house.

Freezers are better for temp controlled chambers of using an inkbird etc. More powerful chillers and a lot more insulation.

Problem with freezers I found is that the interior dimensions aren't big enough to get a standard fermentation bucket in (probably because of the extra insulation). This was looking at standard sized under-counter units.

Anyhoo, after not doing anything for ages becuase of a house move, I bottled a boggo session bitter at the weekend that had been sitting in my brewfridge for a couple of weeks.

250g crystal malt, steeped for half an hour or so in 5l water
Add 2.25kg Light DME, then hour boil with:
- 50g each of Fuggles and EKG @ 60mins
- 25g Cascade @ 10 mins

Top up to 21l, pitch with Notts yeast

Came out at about 3.8%, tastes alright, quite light in colour. I'm going to have a bit of an experiment next time to darken it a bit, maybe more/darker crystal, or add some darker DME.

Yeah, chest freezers work best

I have a chest freezer, but my GF would kill me (and likely store me in it) if I put it on an inkbird. Fridge is doable in my shed, but I might need to keep it off during winter to stop it burning out and/or freezing.

A fridge would just be more capable than a ply box with insulation _just_ to warm stuff.

Just kegged a Raspberry Berlinner Wiesse. Hoping the weather warms up soon...

Problem with freezers I found is that the interior dimensions aren’t big enough to get a standard fermentation bucket in (probably because of the extra insulation).

Yeah, it is what everyone says.

Went for an STC-308 WiFi because it was cheap and in stock and those are two really good reasons. The initial plan was an STC-1000, but the 308 just gives me a bit mor flexibility for when I move up to a fridge.

Anyone do wine....

I've a load of rubarb and I fancy making some rubarb wine but I'm an idiot and I haven't a clue where to start.

Just bought a fridge from a man in town. It's stuck in the car because I can't lift it on my own.

Rhubarb win. Mmmmmm!

We've got a Grandfather conical fermenter and instead of considering the astronomical prices of the Glycol chiller unit just going to get a 2nd hand small chest freezer, put a bucket of Glycol in it and plumb in the Grainfather cooling pump kit which costs about £70. Take up a bit more space but should do the job just as well.

Down to the last bottle of a hopped stout (more of a black IPA really), second batch and one of the nicest beers we've ever brewed. The two hearted was also delicious but too strong really. Want to drink more of it but after a couple or three you're starting to get a bit slurrey. Might try the same recipe but with more water volume and reduce ABV and up the batch volume a bit. Hopefully it wont dilute the flavour too much.

Got an Amber Ale with Rye ready to bottle at the weekend, and loads of recipes to brew over the coming weeks!

Yeah, plan is to brew this coming weekend, then do something else, maybe a sour, soon after. I do need to plan a red ale for August, but that should be far enough out for me to do properly.

A neighbour just dropped off some crates so I can actually store things without leaving bottles all over the place. I might have to get them in the cellar.

I tried the bucket of glycol in a freezer thing. Didn't work that well - not enough grunt (BTUs) for it and you ended up just equalising temps.

Supposedly using an air conditioner unit in the bucket of glycol works best

Anyone do wine….

I’ve a load of rubarb and I fancy making some rubarb wine but I’m an idiot and I haven’t a clue where to start.

Yes. I followed the rhubarb wine recipe in here:

https://uk.bookshop.org/books/booze-river-cottage-handbook-no-12/9781408817933?aid=5859

Anyway, back to beer. I've not brewed for ages - lockdown has meant that I'm not getting through my beers very quickly as there's been no-one to share them with. I plan to get back in the saddle with a golden ale in the style of Summer Lightning, but really push the late addition EKG. I have some harvested 1968 Wyeast which I will make a starter for this evening, hopefully brewing tomorrow and pitching on Friday. Otherwise it's an emergency trip to Wilko's for some Gervin.

In terms of temperature control, I manage just fine with a trug of water and an aquarium heater. I don't brew in the middle of summer (when the cupboard where the FV sits would be above 20) so I don't need cooling. Unless I'm using Kveik or Saison yeast.

Nothing at the minute, we're still waiting for the hawthorn flowers to open up (damn the cold weather!) but OH is currently on a nice dandelion IPA thing he made a few weeks ago. It basically a couple of litres of dandelion leaf infusion added to an IPA kit that's made up a couple of litres short and the dandelion leaf adds a different sort of bitterness which is really nice 🍺

Managed to get the fridge into the shed on my own last night and gave it a good clean. Hooked up the heating pad and the Inkbird and moved the Weissen over to it to finish off for a few days. Both the heating pad and the fridge seem to work, but the heating pad is slooooow.

If I can get my bottles, I'll see about getting the weissen in bottles son, otherwise I'll put another shelf in the fridge and get the saison done this weekend.

the heating pad is slooooow.

I use a small greenhouse heater in the bottom of the fridge, works a treat, has more ooomph than a heat pad. This kinda thing

https://www.toolstation.com/dimplex-thermostatic-tubular-heater-ipx4/p17033?store=KN&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkZiFBhD9ARIsAGxFX8Af4980L5Q2yVAbj41YSvsBNAfs7Pd6VjjtILbu1JqV_ZVEpjMsWnUaAq3-EALw_wcB

Gah, wish I had seen that before I had bought the Mangrove Jacks one. But... It does still seem to be working. Currently up to 22C and holding nicely, so I guess it works. Might not be super-good for a 27C Saison though.

It'll depend on ambient temp - your heater will be able to add x centigrade. How much you open the fridge and the insulation will affect how much above ambient temp you've lost and how much time it will take the heater to return to target temp.

Remember that fermentations are exothermic. Especially higher temp ones. A commercial whisky fermentation will go from 27c to 35c all by itself.
So your saison might add a few degrees itself.

Last year I made a lovely rhubarb wheat beer from a glut I had in the garden. Turned out really well.

Kayla what sort of flavour does the leaf give? I suppose could do the same with the petals?

Remember that fermentations are exothermic.

Remember that fermentations are exothermic. Especially higher temp ones.

Yup. That's why I sit mine in a trug of water, with an aquarium heater in the water. I get a nice even temperature.

The pad does say that it should not be used for the fist 24 hours of fermentation, but the MJ M20 was nearly done with the wort in the last brew, so I might have to ignore that bit of advice. I think they are just worried about shorting if you get a blow-off at high kreusen.

they are just worried about shorting if you get a blow-off at high kreusen.

As yesterday was a day of rain, high winds and the usual pre-Midsommar cold, I got my brew on.

I now have a light rye saison in my new* brew fridge fermenting quietly. I have, however, removed the weissen ready for bottling and cranked the temperature of the fridge up to 27C, so it should start getting all those nice esters and spicy notes that I am looking for.

The grain bill was really simple, 80% pale malt, 15% wheat malt and 5% flaked rye (or, if you have left the flaked rye in town, rye flour) and I used European noble hops for flavour and aroma; 15g of Saab and Mittelfruh at 15 and 0 minutes. Magnum (5g at the start of the boil) did the bittering and it should work out at about 30 IBUs.

All in all, a nice brew day. I do get annoyed at the small mistakes I keep making (make sure hoses are pointing inside the brew kettle before you turn on recirculating kids) and the house has a really small kitchen to work in, so I need to be more efficient. Just have to get my bottling kit for the weissen and then wait a couple of weeks for the saison to finish.

Weissebeer is bottled. FG was suspiciously high, even after two weeks in the fermenter at over 20C, which makes me think hat I mashed too hot, or that something else in my process is just wrong. This is the second time I have had issues with a high percentage wheat malt beer.

Ah well, it will still be a 4% beer, I just hope it doesn’t explode in the cellar.

Just brewed another kveik session pale, this time with Amarillo. A nice 4%er to enjoy while watching the Euros this month. If it lasts that long. I think I'll dry hop on day two of fermentation if it's as rapid as the last one. Hopefully I'll be enjoying it this time next week!

Kayla what sort of flavour does the leaf give? I suppose could do the same with the petals?

Sorry, I just saw this now. The leaves are quite astringent and add a bitterness/tannin sort of flavour.

We got a brew on last Friday, we used around half a carrier bag of 50/50 leaves and blossom (picked from a few bushes) in 2 litres of water, boiled on the hob to get a strong infusion then strained the hot infusion into the fermenter to help dissolve the malt.

Ours is drinkable now and it's really good- we had a bottle of it tonight after an awesome ride out 😎

I do need to try that. For some reasons dandelions are everywhere right now and it would be good to feel like I was using their taking over against them by making beer with them.

BUT... I have the weissen in bottles now. Finished slightly high on FG (5 points) after two weeks at 25C-ish, so a 4% beer. Got a great taste though, really wheaty and phenolic. Should be good to try in a week, then get drinking on a week after.

It's weird though, the finishing gravity always happens with high wheat % beers. I wonder if I was mashing too hot.

Enjoying a Thornbridge Chiron clone. First brew I've got on my home made kegarator so been messing about with that. Still not got carbonation right or foaming, but getting there.. Got a Rye IPA bottled last weekend, so will give that a good month or more to condition, and a Grapefruit IPA in the fermentor. That was a request from the wife for a get together with her mates but they're to going to drink the full batch so will get a good chunk of that. Plenty of recipes to go at though. Wanted to get another brew on this weekend but the wife has me slaving away in the garden.

For some reasons dandelions are everywhere right now and it would be good to feel like I was using their taking over against them by making beer with them.

They're not taking over, they're thriving 😉 and you can use the leaves and petals in salads along with, you guessed it... hawthorn leaves and flowers! Free stuff!

edit- Top tip- boiled Hawthorn leaves and flowers are jolly, er, [i]effective[/i] 💩🤣

Wobbliscot, what psi do you have regulator set to?

Generally you would chill the keg to serving temp (temp affects CO2 absorption - more gas at lower temp), then set to 12psi for 2.3 vols of CO2 - normal alre carbonation. Lager is about 3 vols and wheat beers up at 4 or so).
Note, if you're using a carb stone it has a wetting pressure of 4 psi - that's the extra pressure required to push gas through the stone.

Carbonation should be complete in 24-36 hours.

Release the pressure on the keg and dial the regulator down. Slowly increase pressure while pouring from tap - dispense pressure depends on pipework lengths/diameters etc. Do this til you like what you see/taste!
5 psi normally works ok.

Saison is now in bottles. It finished really dry (1.004) and the uncarbonated sample I tasted is pretty much exactly that earthy/musty saison tase I was looking for, so actually quite happy. Colour is a little darker, but still a lovely light yellow.

The cellar at the house now has beer in. Lots of beer to be honest, but I feel the need for a hoppy IPA of some sort and the fermentation fridge has not yet been used as a fridge. I should probably inventory the hops and yeast I have and then work back from there.

Suggestions for colourful (red if possible), hoppy and drinkable ales welcome.

Have a look at an Irish Red Ale.
There's a good Brewdog 5am Saint recipe they released.

I brewed the 5am Saint recipe and it turned out decent. I also brewed its predecessor which is called the physics which I think I preferred. That one is also a 5% amber but only uses two hops so a simpler recipe. But I couldn't resist dry hopping it.

DIY Dog? I think I have that on my reading list.

Cheers YGH!

Just put a sour beer in the fermenting fridge. Not as sour as I wanted, maybe another 24 hours would have made it more sour. Who knows. The sample also tasted a bit like washing up liquid, so I hope it is not contaminated. It might have just been the thing I used to get the sample out of the brew kettle at the end.

Anyway, will see if fermentation is going tomorrow, then throw 500g of Mango at it and see what happens. Maybe it will beer, maybe not.

Got a lager a week into fermentation but not sure why I bothered as the lagering will take weeks. Think I'll transfer into another fermentation bucket and lager in that if I can get hold of another fridge in quick order to free up the decent fermentor as I've got a stack of recipes stacking up ready to go.

Got a Belgian Tripel going in my mates fermentor, though think that one is ruined as the temp ran away during the first few days of fermentation and he has no way to cool. Its calmed down now but I suspect the damage has been done.

The Red Brick Rye has another couple of weeks bottle conditioning before I can crack them open.

Just polished off part of a batch of Timothy Taylors Clone. We bottled about eight bottles before realising we hadn't put any sugar in so we set them aside and left them for a couple of months. couple of weeks ago I finally got around to dealing with them so I carefully poured into a mini keg via a bottling wand and funnel to avoid splashing, purged with CO2 and carbonated. It was delicious. The additional few weeks conditioning in the bottle over the ones we did drink seemed to do it well. I think we're too impatient and tuck into the beer before it's at its best.

We stuck another 23L bucket of hawthorn on last week seeing as how there was so much of it all at once and it's a good job we did cos it's all gone over now. The bottled stuff is nearly gone but has been splendid 🍺 OH's currently obsessing over the elderflowers now and wants to get a wine on soon.

@kayla1 I know what you mean. My girlfriend is a big fan of elderflower lemonade and is nearly out, so getting flowers for that is a priority. I’m going to try and wait for the berries though as the wine we made from them last year turned out pretty good.

I also had an amazing sour ale with elderberries in and fancy making some of that this year too. If I can find sloes, I’ll get a bottle of sloe gin on the go for next year.

Been a few weeks since I last brewed a batch as both fermenters are occupied with long lead time beers - a lager and a Belgian triple that still has a week to go. I've transferred the lager into another vessel as I got hold of another fridge to continue its lagering so freed up a fermenter and want to do a quick turn around beer. I've got a Two Hearted clone kit which I've brewed before and thinking about substituting the yeast for Kveik to get it done and dusted in 3 or 4 days or so. Not used Kveik before so just wondering if I need to adjust the recipe or brew process in any way or just substitute and crack on?

Was thinking about a Hornindal Kveik (well bought it now so will be Hornindal) as the Two Hearted uses Centennial and that is apparently a good match for Centennial. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

I've got bottling to do this weekend, a brew that's been sitting in the fermenter for over a month as its been too nice each weekend to spend hours inside bottling it. Luckily(!) this weekend looks pretty rubbish. I'm getting a bit bored of everything being pale and mouth-strippingly hoppy, so it's a simple bitter, easy on the hops, with some muscavodo sugar in for a bit of colour.

@wobbiscott I wouldn't bother adjusting the recipe. Just go for it. I've just brewed my third kveik pale and was really happy with the first two. Third is getting kegged this weekend. I fermented that one at 30+ with lallemand Voss and it was rapid. Dry hops went in after 24 hours.

That's great Davros thanks, I'll crack on then. Any idea what the best temp and pressure to ferment at or just follow the recommendations on the packet. I was thinking 10psi and about 30 degrees, though I think the particular one I've got is good for upto 35 degrees.

I’m getting a bit bored of everything being pale and mouth-strippingly hoppy, so it’s a simple bitter, easy on the hops, with some muscavodo sugar in for a bit of colour.

OH went the other way with the latest one he did, after a couple of full-ish, dark-ish hawthorn beers he wanted a pale ale with hops, more hops and some extra hops with a side of hops, hold the malt please.

My pressure control is a bit erratic as the spunding valve isn't great. But I tried to keep it around 10 psi. But I'm not sure how much difference it would make given it should be a clean flavour profile regardless of pressure. Yeah, I'd just follow the packet. For mine it said the higher range (up to 40!) was optimal so I just chilled to 35 and pitched.

This video might help you decide on pressure.

Flora does some good work when it comes to learning stuff, even if it is not always 100% successful, like the natural fermentation she did for a beer in a cool place by a river.

I should do another kveik beer. Maybe after the sour has been bottled, but I do need to plan a Gotlandsdryck for early next month.

thanks for that. I do follow Flora but hadn't seen that video/

And the Mango Sour is bottled! Fermented down to 1.008 and, with a bit of subtle squeezing, got some nice broken down mango in the bottling bucket too! Two weeks to condition and I think it will be a good summer beer.

Also just seen a message from sister-in-law with a picture showing her boyfriend sitting on the floor next to a Grainfather reading the instruction book. I knew he was keen on brewing and kind of suspected he would go electric all in one.will be good to get him round for a joint brewing session.

Cracked open one of my red brick rye ales that have been in the bottle for about 32 days now. Was a bit muddy looking on bottling day but seems to have cleared up nicely and a really delicious beer. Gone from expecting a disaster to being up there amongst the best I've brewed. Also a Grapefruit IPA I brewed with a mate for a party his wife was throwing is similarly delicious.

Will make up for a Belgian Tripel that I think is screwed as the temperature in the initial days of fermentation went bonkers as we brewed it over that really warm spell we had a few weeks ago and my made doesn't have any chilling capability with his fermentor. The temperature soared to 26.5 degrees C before dropping down to more sensible temperatures. Hoping the homebrew gods are smiling down on us and it somehow escaped any adverse effects, but in truth I think it's screwed.

It might not be as bad as you think… Belgian beers can sometimes get away with a bit of ester/phenol in them and you might still have a really nice beer.

I’m thinking back to when I made a weissen last year in summer because the coolest place I had was 22C. Cut forward to this year and I had my fermentation fridge cranked to 27.5C for the Saison! Had a glass of that last night, still really good, but it’s not a session beer.