Homebrewists of STW, brewing 'owt at the moment?

@davros - i've brewed that Physic beer a couple of times. Very nice it is, too.

It's currently winter here (of sorts) so i'm onto my second keg of an old favourite Whitbread 1811 Porter from the Shut up about Barclay Perkins blog. Massive quantities of brown malt are fun. This year I dialled back the hops a bit and it's worked nicely (I suspect the original recipe would have been aged forever and most of the hop bitterness receded so this seems more realistic). First keg i did with the old British hops and this one i've done with US-style hops for a tinker. It's come out well.

Everything gets fermented in a freezer with a thermostat wired in here to keep temps optimal.

Tripel should be ok at ~27c if you were using a Belgian yeast strain

Thanks yourguitarhero, we used White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale Yeast and pitched as a starter so hopefully you're right.

OH put a cherry wine* made with local cherries that are just there, trees growing in plain sight and all laden with gorgeous, plump fruit. The wine's really nice, I'm not usually one for country wines but I think he got this one bang on. It's kind of a rosé sort of affair and is good chilled.

* See also: Cherry pie, cherry crumble, etc... 😁

We missed the cherries this year (birds had them), but my OH managed to grab an absolute tonne (ok, carrier bag) of plums. There are still more there, so may attempt a plum wine.

On the beer front, I made a raw NEIPA last week. Well, using the NEIPA recipe I had, but having to miss the boil because I ran out of time. Got it to 95C for a bit to sterilise the chiller and add some bittering hops, then went to 75 for a 15 minute hop stand. Citra and Mandarina Bavaria for the stand and the first dry hop, Mandarina Bavaria and something else for the second. Because I ran out of Citra. Possibly Amarillo, possibly Nelson Sauvin.

How'd the NEIPA turn out?

Seem to have got involved in an informal homebrew competition, just working on the recipe but I'm planning an Imperial Stout with an addition of spiced rum soaked oak chips to give it a barrel-aged character. Been working on it for a while now so this is a good excuse to give it a go.
Just need to finalise the IBUs and bittering hops, will probably keep it simple with some Magnum at 40ish IBU.

@madhouse Well, it fermented ok. Went down to 1.017 which was about according to plan and took a couple of dry hoppings.

Bottling was a freaking nightmare. The yeast cake had not really compacted much and a lot of hop matter had come out of the bags, so the first part of the move to the bottling bucket was a plug of sludge. I also managed to spill about a half litre on the kitchen floor...

Anyway, it's cloudy as hell, pale as a ghost and has a very fruity orange/citrus aroma. The taste I had is resinous, but with a firm mouthfeel, so not painfully bitter. The weekend should be ok for the mid-carbonation test.

We currently have a lot of apples in the village. I'm trying to organise a cider pressing.

Haven't brewed for months, but did just acquire 10 CO2 extinguishers from work so am pretty sorted there!

I've got an azacca single hop kveik pale in the keg carbonating. Early signs are good. Shame my cellar is a bit warmer at the moment. I'll have to bottle some for the fridge.

Got a few on the go here. Getting to the end of a batch of West coast IPA that didn't last long thanks to a small gathering last weekend where it went down particularly well, a Sarachi ale ready to bottle, a NEIPA I've just kegged, and a lager that seems to have been going for ages...last time I do a lager, what a faff. Cant even be bothered to drink it now its been such a PITA to make while at the same time trying to maintain my usual drum beat of other beers, might just give it away, I'm not even that much of a fan of lagers really.

Doing a batch of IPA with Verdant yeast for work collegues this weekend. 2nd batch of this brew, first one was amazing, definitely one of my best brews yet.

Also got a new plate chiller and Hop Missile to play with. Hopefully can take a good 40 mins or so out of a brewery with the plate chiller.

To be honest, that was the main reason I did the NEIPA raw. Took so much time out of the day. The only thing I worry about is the bittering and hop utilisation, something I think works better for NEIPA because it is not hugely bitter and is more about the lower temperature hop usage.

Next time I need to remember to sparge a bit more. 8L in bottles is just not enough if the beer is good.

@wobbliscott Kolsch... Like lager but not at the silly fermentation temp. Also, beer is beer. Lager has a place, so is worth keeping it around.

Yeah, just went into it without properly researching and not realising the effort and time it requires. I'm not a particularly patient brewer...I like a quick turn around of small batches of beers and lagers just seem to take forever in comparison, but seems like you need to have one in your repertoire. Might try a Kveik 'lager style' next time and if its close enough to a proper lager then that might be the way forward.

I'm going to be brewing an English Barley Wine for Xmas this weekend.

@bakey Hell yeah! Should have some nice maturity by then.

You can do a decent lager fermentation in *less* time.

Caveat - using liquid yeast or a pre-propogated starter from dry yeast

4 days at 12c (primary)
1.5 days at 18c (diacetyl rest)
14 days at 4c or less (secondary) - having a conical fermenter helps here.

That will do it.

Big commercial breweries are fermenting with bottom (lager) strains at 16 or 17c these days then cold crashing and getting good results.

I can report that the raw NEIPA is cloudy, pine-y and fruity as hell. Needs more carbonation, but it's a cracking beer.

Heather and honey beer just kegged yesterday. Will let it sit to mature for a bit then probably bottle with a sugar top up to bottle condition it.

Once fermenter cleaned out I have made a NEIPA. Realized I was low on pale Maris otter malt and have improvised with extra Munich but I don't think it will do too much harm!

The weekend's brew went ok, I should've checked what malt I had left so there were a couple of 'adjustments' and with the amount of grain I did an extended (2hr) mash so it was a long one.
But, I hit my SG of 1110 so am happy. It's bubbling away nicely in the brew-fridge now.

Also just got one of those iSpindel thingies off eBay because I'm a geek and I like the idea of seeing how my fermentation's going.

Will give the Impy Stout two or three weeks and then I'm gonna give a fake Pilsner / Kolsch a go. Oh and I need to do some Malt shopping.

I'e got an iSpindel. Brilliant things, feel blind fermenting without one now. Even if you ignore the gravity readings and just use it to track the progress of the brew they're extremely useful...and prevent the needless waste of beer continually taking samples.

I love my iSpindel - just watch the gravity go down until it levels out then it's done. Which is still 2 weeks after starting to ferment, but at least I know for sure now!

I'm forever just leaving it a couple of weeks and then kegging without remembering to take an FG reading, so hopefully this'll not only tell me when it's done but also give me a record of my numbers.

Do you guys use ubidots or something else to connect it to?

I use Brewfather, it links in and provides a readout with a data point every 15 minutes.

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Brewfather looks good, is the connected devices thing a premium feature though? Seems to suggest it is on the app store and that's £20/yr.
Yes, I know that's not loads of money but I've already got an app for all my brewing, so I'd be paying that just to see my iSpindel data.

Not sure. I have paid so maybe it is. Its very useful though.

I did originally set up with Ubidots, but the integration with Brewfather is seamless so if you're using that already and a paid up member then its a no-brainer.

Brewer's Friend has recently stopped working so well on my iPad, so I'm waiting for their new version to come out to see if that will be any good. At some point I will probably go and buy a subscription to the website too, just to make things easier. I still use a notebook to record recipes and the brew day because it does not have an annoying screen timeout like my iPad does...

I use Ubidots because I'm cheap

Have a bucket of cider on now. 11 litres(-ish) of Ikea Kallmust, half a capfull of yeast nutrient and a packet of Mangrove Jacks French Saison yeast. It started off at 1.047, so I _should_ get about a 5% cider out of it.

The yeast will make it quite dry, but not as dry as taking it all the way down to 1.000 and I am hoping that a 25C ferment gives it a bit more of a farmhouse feel than a straight fermentation with a cleaner yeast.

Saison yeast used because the shop was out of cider yeast and I have used this in the past and it works really well. I do need to get another beer on the go though, probably a normal hoppy west coast IPA.

That cider sounds like it'll turn out nicely, I like the idea of using a Saison yeast to give it a bit more depth.

Just checked on my impy stout. Three weeks in and it's still bubbling albeit slowly, but as the yeast's still working on it I'll leave it be other than upping the temp to 20 to help it finish up.

I don’t have the time or space to brew from grain unfortunately. I did a stint as at brew pub which produced some fine ales BITD. None of it was very scientific, some simple monitoring tools and being on top of the cleaning.

My wife bought me a home brew starter kit 12 years ago. If been “brewing” from kits ever since. I’ve settled on the Festival range of kits for the last few years. Always gives good drinkable results.

I found another online store during lockdown, Get Er Brewed in Northern Ireland, and their range of Experimental Brews. I’ve done the Citra last year, I’ve now got the Vic Secret Pale Ale in a pressure barrel conditioning. Early tasting is so far superb.

Was cruising the local second hand marketplace the other day and this popped up:

https://www.blocket.se/annons/flera%20platser/walholl_brygghus_ol_bryggeri_till_salu/97094181

Got me thinking about whether I should leave behind my misspent youth and embark upon a career as a brewer.

Also, my girlfriend is away this weekend. I could get a pale in on the go if I am organised on Sunday...

On the back of this thread I bought one of those Ispindels linked to Ubidots. It was pretty interesting seeing the fermentation in real time. For £35 I'm very impressed.

Just bottled the first batch of a Stout kit with it last night - Used the "Simply" kit and Made with a half tin of treacle and bottled with a wee dod of maple syrup for secondary.

Ended up using too much water at the start so ended up at just over 3% abv but still as dark as I wanted.

Hopefully the postie will be bringing the next Kit in the next couple of days - a Christmas beer; Woodfordes Twinke Toes.

Weekend brewing happened, but the pale ale ended up being a porter. Not too unhappy with that as I did get to hang out with a friend.

BUT... First fermentation bucket was leaking (maybe the seal around the tap) and I only noticed when I had it in the fridge. I had to quickly sanitise another bucket and transfer to then new bucket and now there is no fermentation going on, even after 24 hours. Temp is in the specs for the yeast, it was oxygenated, the only thing that I can think of is that the yeast was going BBE in december. Still overpitched, so that should not matter.

If there is nothing going on by the evening, it's getting another packet of yeast.

back brewing with a vengeance now after about 5 years off! We moved last year so have a lot more space, but the main driver was we now have a garden for the first time so planted some hops which did very well - so I [I]had[/I] to make a green hop beer! 😃

I'd always planned a kegerator build as despised bottling although never gotten around to it ... but with the green hop sitting in the FV ready to go I pulled the trigger on a Mangrove Jacks 3-tap unit. A fair investment but not IMO crazy money versus commercial-grade equipment which seems to be the only other non-DIY option (was vaguely considering something like a Lindr before but obviously they are £££ and for a home bar probably not actually as good!)
Anyway, really pleased with it, great build quality, takes all the faff of bottling away plus you can force carbonate so the beer is ready to drink that day which is a massive bonus! Not to mention the novelty factor of being able to pour your own beer from a proper tap.

So currently pouring the green hop beer, got a Verdant DIPA clone fermenting, and just ordered the ingredients for a mid-6% Chrimbo brew which I'll do next!

On the back of this thread I bought one of those Ispindels linked to Ubidots. It was pretty interesting seeing the fermentation in real time. For £35 I’m very impressed.

I already have a fermentation fridge (actually a small chest-freezer which is the exact size of one of my FVs inside!) controlled by an STC-1000 which I built years ago. Will be looking at replacing that controller with something a bit more sophisticated now - probably BrewPiLess as the iSpindel integrates well with it, and I can use the iSpindels built-in thermometer rather than a separate probe taped to the side of the FV which I have at the moment.

Just had a check on the porter. After the original yeast did not take off, I added half a packet of Kviek and that, well, did it. I then forgot about it in the fridge for two days and only checked on it today.

It would appear that the temp probe fell off at some point and the beer just free rose up to about 25C-ish, causing a bit of a blow off and leaving the airlock open. Luckily no porter in the fridge, so the airlock is just topped up for now and I'll replace it with a clean one this weekend.

This really does appear to be a cursed beer.

It would appear that the temp probe fell off at some point and the beer just free rose up to about 25C-ish, causing a bit of a blow off and leaving the airlock open.

A better solution than pre-used tape would be a plan as well!

Well, the cider looks to be about done and the 'cursed porter' is about the same... Got to love kviek for that. This weekend may end up being a bottling weekend, with a Sunday spent getting the mead started.

I may need another ale before the end of the month though, just an ale, something hoppy and light. People seem to like those.

So probably a silly question, but I am looking at an iSpindel. Does it directly link up to your phone via WiFi? If so, what is the range? I have an outhouse about 10-15 metres from the house where my ferm fridge sits.

I need to get a Christmas brew on. I am thinking a Black Forest gateaux stout. So Kirsch cherries, some vanilla and nibs. Only in the planning stages.

@mrwhyte you connect directly to an AP on the iSpindel to configure it, afterwards no you can't connect directly to your phone - it connects to your WiFi (although it spends most of it's time asleep so you might not actually see it listed on your network!) and sends the data to wherever you've specified. They suggest a cloud service called Ubidots (which is then viewable on your phone) however I've recently started using an app called Brewfather (seems really good, there's a subscription for certain "pro" features but it's very reasonable) and the iSpindel can send data to their server which allows you to track the progress of the fermentation via their app on your phone/tablet/PC etc.

There's actually loads of options now (I upgraded to the very latest firmware) for sending data out including MQTT and generic HTTP so you can configure whatever custom service you want for receiving the data! If you have something like a Raspberry Pi or other always-on computer you can use that for local data logging.

The range is probably not great as it only has a tiny aerial however it works from inside my fermentation fridge (I do have a separate wireless AP in the garage where the fridge is though!) As the iSpindel is basically a DIY project though, I have seen a version with a beefier aerial - there's also a separate project called Nautilis iSpindel relay which is a second device that acts as a booster and gives you a little readout screen etc.

I've been getting a lot of inconsistent readings from mine at the moment - but I think that's because it's an 8.5% beer, there's a lot of Krausen which is probably sticking to the iSpindel so it can't balance correctly. I guess it's more accurate right at the start and at the end of fermentation, and possibly not might not be such an issue with a weaker beer!

Cider is done. Finished off at 1.006 and has a really quite nice taste to it already (thanks to the saison yeast). Also has a really pleasant apple taste and is not too dry. The cursed porter needs another week, so that will go into bottles next weekend.

Hopefully the yeast i saved from the cider will work in the mead I have planned.

Hi MrWhyte
If you've never tried Vocation Brewery Imperial Kirsch Stout then I'd suggest trying it as inspiration for your planned black forest gateaux stout.

My other half made an Eglish Ale with Bavaria Mandarina hops and we tried it last night, really impressed with it but as usual he's super critical of his brews.

Happy brewing all 🙂

Just put a mead together. 2kg of set local honey in about 4-ish litres of water infused with ginger. I had to change fermenter because the volume got too big for the demijohn and it is still around 1.130 OG.

Yeast was tricky. I am putting a starter of a harvested saison yeast from a cider that should be good, but needs a day to really get started. Otherwise it will be a trip to the shop for a normal mead yeast on Monday.

Then, we wait. The yeast will tolerate 14% alcohol apparently. I expect it to get to that.

It appears I have brewed a lot recently... Just bottled 11L of "Cursed" porter in my lunch break. It's the one that failed to kick off with the first yeast and then got chewed into by the Voss kviek.

Anyway, it finished early in the week and has been waiting for bottling. Today, that is done. Finished at 1.013 and gave me a 5% porter. FG was higher than I had planned, but the kviek still attenuated it down 72%. And at least it is a beer.

The small sample I had gives it a mild roastiness and soft mouthfeel. Some carbonation will be good for it.

And now, back to waiting to see if the mead actually starts fermenting. I thought the starter was good to go, so added it to the main fermenter yesterday. Thought I saw activity, but I now think it might just have been expansion activity. Still, it's in the fridge at 21C, so if there is a lag phase, that should be kind to the yeast.

It appears I have brewed a lot recently

Did a batch recently for the office team which I dished at at a recent away day. Was meant to be a 6% ish IPA but didn’t quite hit my numbers (mash efficiency seems to have taken a hit recently for some reason, not doing anything different and last 4 brews have been consistently 6 to 10 points down - bit of a mystery), was considering not sharing but ‘rebranded’ as a Pale Ale and made my excuses but everyone has come back with good feedback.

Need to catch up on brewing schedule though. Got about 6 batches of ingredients in so need to get cracking.

It looks like the mead has not kicked off like I had hoped. It's had a week now and there's no krausen and the airlock activity seems to be temperature related. I took a sample this lunchtime and the OG is still 1.110 or something so if any fermentation has happened, there's been no huge change.

So... Will be off to the shop this afternoon to pick up some proper yeast for the job and to hope that there is still enough dissolved oxygen in the wort(?) for it to work properly. And that there's no infection.

New yeast has been added. Prepped a min-starter of nutrient, diluted must and the yeast and let it rehydrate for a couple of hours. It started ripping, so it is now in the main fermenter and I am hoping tomorrow will start seeing some airlock activity.

Slightly worrying is the small amount of white foam on the top of the must. It may just be the tiny traces of fermentation from the weak old yeast, or its the start of an infection. Time will tell.

Just checked. Finally going off. Thank you Mangrove Jack's mead yeast!

I haven't brewed for ages, so back in the saddle today with a SMASH golden ale. Plenty of late addition goldings.

Mead is still going. I ended up moving it back into the house because it is now cold enough in the workshop that the temperature was dropping below the heat pad's abilities. Now it is sitting at a relatively steady 20/21C in tthe bathroom and slowly finishing off. Another week and I think it might be done.

Next up is a hoppy pale ale. I need something to backstop the cheaters cider and the porter I have in the cellar.

Ah, now, this is a timely thread bump. My last couple of brews, the first in our new house, have been a bit off - not dreadful, but not great. They've been really quite bitter.

I brew from extract, so method is pretty much steep some malt in about 5l of water, dissolve extract into it, bring to boil, add hops, boil for 60 mins, add hops towards end of boil, cool, into fermenter, add water to 21l, ferment.

A typical recipe is:

250g Crystal
2.5kg light DME
50g each of Fuggles and EKG at start of boil
25g Cascade with 10mins to go

Now, cos of the house move, the hops had been frozen for quite a while (probs 6 months+) and, to further possibly complicate matters, the water in our new place goes through a softener.

From what I've read, softened water doesn't really work for all-grain brewing, but should be fine with extract brewing, so is it more likely that I've just got hops that are past their best?

I'm back in the saddle again.
Haven't brewed for about 6 months or more due to moving house and filling my brewery up with so many boxes, bikes and tools you couldn't use it.

Got a new bag of pale malt, found some hops in the freezer and packets of yeast in the cupboard so chucked together a simple English pale ale with Centennial bittering hops and Endeavour aroma hops with a wee 80c hop stand. Nottingham Ale yeast went off like the clappers and attenuated further than I expected.

Also moved over to Brewfather software over Beersmith. It's a lot better, far easier to use.
Need to finish off the iSpindels to link to it and may even look at changing the controllers on my grainfather fermenters to tie in with the system and get fully reactive/automated control over fermenting. Have connected the brewery to the house wifi now*.

Also bought a wee smart plug, so can fill the grainfather with strike water the night before then have it up to temp for when I get up and can mash in before breakfast. Fancy!

*mostly to run a plex media server, but am also thinking of setting up a heater/ethereum mining rig out there

I'm at the end of a keg of kveik amber which turned out nicely. And I've a session kveik IPA in the pressure fermenter dry hopping. Both somewhat experimental with Nelson sauvin and ekuanot hops.

At least the cellar is now at a perfect ale temperature!

I'll be brewing a pseudo-lager with Lutra this weekend for my sons when they come back from university.

Cutting it a bit fine for Xmas tho'...

I haven’t brewed for ages, so back in the saddle today with a SMASH golden ale. Plenty of late addition goldings.

This turned out very well indeed. My previous couple of brews were so-so, hence back to basics with 4 kg Golden Promise malt and 80g of EKG. Yeast was Gervin ale, which lacks character but clears nicely and finished at 1.008.

Bittering added as FWH, aroma hops split equally between flameout and directly into the cube: I no-chill and had had problems with excess bitterness - moving the second aroma addition into the cube meant it went in at about 85 degrees, and the beer does seem to be smoother.

From what I’ve read, softened water doesn’t really work for all-grain brewing, but should be fine with extract brewing, so is it more likely that I’ve just got hops that are past their best?

Both beers I made at our new place with just regular tapwater were ok, but had that unmistakable "home-brew" off-flavour twang. Best thing you can do is get a water analysis, not expensive and will massively improve beer quality as they'll tell you what to add to the water for specific beer styles. Alternatively you can just use mineral water, I used to get the ASDA cheapy stuff in 5L bottles as they used to publish the mineral composition so again you knew what needed to be added.

Also moved over to Brewfather software over Beersmith

Also bought a wee smart plug, so can fill the grainfather with strike water the night before then have it up to temp for when I get up and can mash in before breakfast. Fancy!

I'm deliberately avoiding looking at special deals on brewing stuff. I know a Grainfather would make a lot more sense, but I have kit that does the same thing and makes good beer, so I MUST NOT SHOP A GRAINFATHER.

Best thing you can do is get a water analysis, not expensive and will massively improve beer quality as they’ll tell you what to add to the water for specific beer styles.

Any recommendations?

@IHN Murphy & Son. They don't deal directly with home-brewers any more though so you have to book it through https://www.brewuk.co.uk/water-analysis.html
Fiver off at the moment by the looks of it! (genuine discount as I did pay the higher price earlier this year!!)

Smashing, ta

they’ll tell you what to add to the water for specific beer styles.

Out of interest. what kind of thing might they be telling me to add?

Brewing salts.
Gypsum
Epsom salt
Calcium carbonate
Calcium chloride
Lactic acid
Baking powder
Precipitated chalk

Going off my Yorkshire water info, which is probably not very helpful, I always use those top 5. But I could probably do with a proper water report and some micro scales to do it properly.

what kind of thing might they be telling me to add?

If you're interested there's stacks of technical articles on the Murphy & Son site that go into water chemistry (and other technical aspects of brewing) in great detail!!
I was always crap at chemistry at school but now understand & have learned far more about it since I took up brewing 🤣
https://www.murphyandson.co.uk/resources/technical-articles/

Finally got round to checking the progress of the mead. It's now at 0.997, so I guess it is done!

The plan was for this to finish sweet, but with some character from the initial use of Saison yeast. When the slurry from the cider failed, I used mead yeast and nutrient and I think this is what caused the drying out; the saison woke up and started to out-compete the MJ Mead yeast.

I'm not 100% sure of the OG, certainly it was something like 1.120-ish, so the ABV on this is somewhere around 15/16%. There is still a note of honey on the nose, but it's strong stuff and there is a strong farmhouse taste to it. It's a lot like the cider I made with the same yeast, but with less apple (obvs).

I found myself getting a little jaded with porter, so I took the chance this afternoon to get a pale ale ina fermenter.

No planning, just used up the last of some old pale malt, topped up with some pilsner and a quarter of a kilo each of flaked rye and flaked oats. 3kg total grain bill.

Hope was simple… 10g of Magnum at the start of the 30 min boil, with 15g Melon at 15 mins and 25g of Melon at flame out. Yeast was the half packet of MJ Kveik I had in the fridge. It is already bubbling. I love kveik.

The heater for my beer fridge failed so I ended up looking at replacements for the Inkbird controller (it wasn't the controller, it was was the heater itself). I only knew about the problem as my iSpindel showed the temperature dropping.

If I was doing it again, I'd get 2 IFTT compatible plugs and an iSpindel. It would allow me to control the temperature without walking to the garage and more importantly be able to set temperature profiles i.e. hold 22c for 6 hours as yeast becomes established, drop to 19c until specific gravity below 1005 then raise to 22c until stable for more than a day and cold crash to 5c.

But then I wouldn't get any exercise!

Dear gods, it smells delicious! The kveik is really doing a number on it, but the airlock is making some really nice fruity bubbles.

This is all making me want to brew again! Things have been a little crazy of late so haven't made anything for a couple of months. Flip side of that is the mother-in-law has offered me her shed to turn into a brewery and having jumped at the chance I'm now in the process of turning a blank canvas into a beer den.
Currently waiting on parts for a HERMS vessel but when that's sorted I'll be using a 3 vessel system rather than an all-in-one which will be something else to learn and totally overkill for what I do but it all adds to the fun of it. Have sourced a second hand cooker hood so need to install that, give everything a clean and then we should be pretty much good to start brewing again. In my head not having to get everything out and then put it away again should make for a slightly quicker brew day, but we'll see.

I've just got around to ordering a water test kit, so it'll be interesting to see what that comes back with.

On a side note, if anyone wants any bottles for, er, bottling, I've got far more than I'm ever going to use at one time. If you're Peak/Stockport/Macclesfield kinda area, and want to come and get some, let me know.

Yeah, I'm not allowed more bottles. My GF keeps mentioning I have too many and doesn't seem to accept that I need different sorts for Belgian styles, half litre/weissbeer and "normal" beer.

Well, I've had my water report back. It says:

pH - 7.3
Nitrate - 3
Tot. Hardness (CaCO3) - 1
Calcium - 1
Magnesium - 0
Chloride - 22
Sulphate - 7
Alkalinity - 258

Obviously, I've got no idea what any of this means 🙂

It says that for a 25l batch of Ale/Bitter/IPA I need to add 30ml of AMS into the water, which is fine, I'll get some.

It also says to add 6g of calcium Chloride flake and 13g calcium sulphate into the mash. Now, I brew from extract, so I don't need those two, right? As the mashing has all been done already in the extract?

@IHN as I understand it, the reason for adding salts to the grist is that some don’t dissolve readily in water - so it’s better to have them suspended there rather than just sink to the bottom! (Willing to be corrected on this though!) And although one purpose is to adjust the pH and otherwise promote enzyme activity, it’s not the only purpose, as this article suggests: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/water-for-extract-brewing/water-chemistry-adjustment-for-extract-brewing
So you might want to add them to your boil anyway. Or, get a bag, and start brewing properly 😉

Genus did (I think) a good stream on water chemistry, might be worth looking that up on YouTube, but at least you know where you are now and you can buy the various salts and start making the chemistry suit the beer you make.

pH is best adjusted with lactic acid during the early part of the mash. I use (most of the time) pH strips that let me know roughly if I am at about 5.3 - 5.5. The mash works better in that range (so the internet says).

BIAB really is easy to do. If you have a large enough grytta, something that will hold 20l, then a 10l BIAB batch is really straightforward. Call it 2.5-ish kg of grain for a 4.5% beer, the 60 minute mash and the 60 minute or less boil will add time to your brew day, but will let you do more in the way of making different beers.

Tried the new beer last night and am not super happy with it. I was hoping for something more bitter and with more hop character, but I ended up with a noticeably malt forward ale, with way less bitterness and none of the tropical hops that I was looking for.

It’s still drinkable, but I wanted more. I think the main problem was getting the alpha acid percentage wrong for the main hops and under adding in the early boil. I’m also going to dry hop next time.

Dry-hopping's a great way of getting super hoppy beers, don't be afraid to go big either - I do a DDH WC IPA that is about 18g/L of hops in total. Key with it is to keep your dry hop relatively short, 2 or 3 days.

I need more practice with dry hopping. I think I tend to under-hop, but leave it in for too long. Thinking about the last NEIPA I made, the 10L batch had 100g total hops in, but I left the first bag in for the whole time it was in the fermenter.

But, moving on from that, has anyone used smoked or peated malts in a stout or porter? I was thinking this might be something to try, but do not want something acrid.

Last NEIPA I made was a kind-of clone of Verdant's Even Sharks Need Water (different hops) but that was 222g in total for a 10L batch, 150g of that was a dry hop but only for 3 days.

As for smoked malt, I've only used it in a Blonde Stout so far and that was 60g out of a 2210g malt bill - but that must've been back when I was making 5L batches on the stove as there's no other way that'd end up as a 5.4% beer. Turned out nice, even if it did mess with your head - looked like a pale, tasted like a stout!
As for any advice, I'd say to not use too much of it, it may be that you don't perfect the recipe until after a couple of batches but I can't find any downsides in that 🙂

Dry hop in secondary for a few days is supposed to be the go.

I’m currently drinking a Belgian Ale infused with Davidson Plum juice (a homegrown Australian native plum that is off the charts in sourness). I’ve managed to get just the right amount (750ml in a 19 litre keg). It’s a shame the plums are only ripe every few years.

Did the first brew in the shed with my upgraded 3 vessel system at the weekend, all went pretty well apart from forgetting to close off a ball-valve at the start. The beer's a pretty simple Scotch Ale so hopefully it'll turn out decent enough while also being the test beer for my new processes.
The mash was much easier in a shallower & wider tun with a false bottom as opposed to the boiler/basket combo previously, not sure if it was that or the water treatment, but my efficiency is up too.
Have also used my iSpindel for the first time and having that extra info is pretty interesting, although one of us is a bit out as the measured OG vs iSpindel OG is 0.011 different. That said it's looking like it's fermented out already (2 days with S-33!) although the iSpindel is saying it's at 1.027 which (if it is over-reading) is really 1.016 which is pretty close to the 1.012 I'd predicted. If it's not over-reading I've a stalled fermentation to deal with - time to get the hydrometer out.

yeah my iSpindel is pretty hopeless accuracy-wise, I'd guess the krausen on the beer affects the float as it seemed pretty good during calibration/testing. Pretty good for showing when fermentation has stopped without me having to go out to the garage though! There's another device called a Plaato which I might look into as an alternative, quite expensive though.

all went pretty well apart from forgetting to close off a ball-valve at the start.

I need more practice with dry hopping. I think I tend to under-hop, but leave it in for too long.

My first attempt at a NEIPA turned out great (tasting) but not really the colour or crazy hoppiness I was going for... having done a bit more research sounds like preventing oxidisation is the key (as well as a better yeast!) so just about to pull the trigger on a kit for doing closed-transfers from FV to keg, and will give it another go!