DOH! Brewing in a hurry and f**cked.. or did I?

[floydmeddler]

Hi folks,

I was weighing out my grains in a hurry this mo for a 4% malt forward Brambling Cross hopped session beer for an upcoming lads get together. I planned for 5% Crystal 150 and realised that i'd added dark crystal instead. Have any of you brewed with 5% dark crystal before? If so, how was the resulting beer? Cloying in any way? I've only ever used 1.5% so not much experience. Worried as this needs to be a session beer...

Recipe has ended up as:

93.7% M.O
5% dark crystal
1.3% choc malt
SO5

Thanks in advance,

Floyd

[guypettigrew]

The dark crystal combined with the chocolate malt will give the finished beer a rich taste. My guess is it'll take a couple of weeks longer to get to an easy drinking beer than if you'd used light crystal.

I'm drinking a beer of near these proportions at the moment. A bit more of both the dark crystal and the chocolate malts, though. It was a good couple of weeks in the keg before it began to slip down easy.

What's your time scale for this?

Guy

[floydmeddler]

Damn. Plan is to be drinking it in 2 weeks time. Fingers crossed!

[guypettigrew]

It'll be fine, just not quite the brew you were hoping for.

Guy

[SMASH3R]

If it's a bit too cloying or harsh on the night, get in some cheap e.g. Aldi pale ales and pre mix in big jugs e.g. 2:1 to temper it a bit?

I used to brew kit homebrew cider, which I always found battery acid sharp/dry. 20% apple juice per pint sorted that out to be a delicious drink.

Likewise with an engine oil mother of all leftover dark grains stout I did. Half and half with tins of John Smith's smoothflow and it was perfectly amazing as a session guzzler. Good luck.

[MashBag]

Absolutely what he said.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers folks! Will let you know how it turns out.

[An Ankoù]

Would love to know how it turns out. It depends on whose dark crystal you were using: Crisp's dark is around 400 ebc, while Simpsons is much lighter- around 260 ebc. The latter shouldn't present too much of a problem- you might even prefer it. I think you're pushing it a bit in planning to have it ready in 2 weeks. Keep it warm over the next 7 days would be my advice. US-05 can be a slow starter, but when it gets a hold, it's pretty quick. It can sometimes be a bit slow to settle out, though.

[MashBag]

2 Weeks is possible. Longer does of course improve it.

I overnight mash IPA and then overnight chill, before pitching saf04 in the kettle. The BM20 is then reconfigured for fermentation @20c.
Bottle day 7 & keep the crates @ 20c.
Clear and drinking in 14 days. Saf04 sticks to the bottom like glue.

Marvellous, repeatable & quafable Cascade house IPA @4% in 2 weeks.

[An Ankoù]

That's pretty good going, Mashbag, I can barely get mine to carbonate within 7 days in the bottle, but you've given me a thought: If you're bottling on day 7, then, even though it's clear, much less of the yeast will have fallen out than my beer, which I bottle at day 14-20 so that would speed up the carbonation. It's a good hypothesis so I'm going to try it out.

[MashBag]

Yup well spotted... That's part of the plan, here's the rest...
I also rack @20c from the BM into bottles from a preheated fermentation bag also at 20c. So there is no temp shock.

Be nice to your yeasties and they will be nice to you.

[guypettigrew]

Marvellous, repeatable & quafable Cascade house IPA @4% in 2 weeks.

What takes you so long?!!

I mash on a Saturday, pitching the yeast the same day.

Primary fermentation usually finished in 4 days or less--Wednesday. Cool to 12°C for 24 hours. Cool to 5°C for 24 hours. Into a King keg on Friday with auxiliary and isinglass finings and put the keg into the beer cupboard at 12°C.

24-48 hours later the beer is clear and has condition. 7-8 days grain to glass. Sometimes less, sometimes more.

Guy

[floydmeddler]

Would love to know how it turns out. It depends on whose dark crystal you were using: Crisp's dark is around 400 ebc, while Simpsons is much lighter- around 260 ebc. The latter shouldn't present too much of a problem- you might even prefer it. I think you're pushing it a bit in planning to have it ready in 2 weeks. Keep it warm over the next 7 days would be my advice. US-05 can be a slow starter, but when it gets a hold, it's pretty quick. It can sometimes be a bit slow to settle out, though.

It's Crisp I'm afraid. I used a massive SO5 starter; collected it from my Fermzilla. It took off in no time. Yep - planning on keeping it nice and warm from Tue onwards. Should be fermented out by then. WIll cold crash then transfer to a polypin. Pressure fermenting @ 12 PSI too so no need to worry about extra carbing time.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[floydmeddler]

Guy, any chance you could give me a quick run down on your finings process? I have Magicol 250 from the MAltmiller but never really got a process down. Usually just keep it hazy as have kinda given up. Have very little luck with gelatin too. CHeers!

Marvellous, repeatable & quafable Cascade house IPA @4% in 2 weeks.

What takes you so long?!!

I mash on a Saturday, pitching the yeast the same day.

Primary fermentation usually finished in 4 days or less--Wednesday. Cool to 12°C for 24 hours. Cool to 5°C for 24 hours. Into a King keg on Friday with auxiliary and isinglass finings and put the keg into the beer cupboard at 12°C.

24-48 hours later the beer is clear and has condition. 7-8 days grain to glass. Sometimes less, sometimes more.

Guy

[guypettigrew]

The important thing with the Magicol (I believe) is getting it fully dissolved. Not as easy as you might hope!

I use 1.8g of the Magicol in 300ml reverse osmosis water. Tap water is fine but, as I have RO around, I choose to use it.

To dissolve it I use the blender attachment on my Kenwood Chef. A stick blender would work, but I don't have one. It needs this kind of vicious mixing or it won't dissolve. I've tried it with an electric whisk--doesn't work. Blend it for 5 minutes or so, then tip it into a jug and rest it in the 'fridge for a while. You don't want it warming up. If it gets warm it denatures and becomes useless.

Then blend it again for 5 minutes. Then store it in the 'fridge in a bottle or whatever. I use 70ml/23L batch so making up this amount is enough for four brews.

It's best if used with auxiliary finings. 50ml/23L batch. I drop the cooled beer from the FV to the keg, add the auxiliary finings and swirl well. After about five minutes add the isinglass and swirl well. Job done. 24-48 hours later you should have clear beer, apart from the first 1/2 pint, which has yeast in it which has settled in the tap!

Guy