Boiling Hops Whilst Sterilising DME

[J_P]

Hi All

Yesterday I took the plunge and got myself a second fermenter, by way of an experiment I thought I would make up a Geordie lager kit with malt, ale yeast and some hops.

My question is this I am planning to make up the malt and boil it to sterilise it, is there anything in the rules that says I can't put in a bag of aroma hops for the duration of the 10 minute boil? I am planning on using the East Kent Goldings I have been dry hopping with.

Are there any advantages to adding the hops to the boil opposed to simply lobbing a bag into the fermenter and leaving for a week?

Cheers in advance

JP

PS It's a double brew day today at Château JP so I'll be a busy boy this afternoon

[J_P]

That's certainly food for thought. I think I may try boiling the hops in this one - cheers.

Oh well the weather isn't up to much here so bang goes my plan of spending the afternoon in the allotment. I guess that can only mean one thing - brew time



Right I'm off to scrub the kitchen before I begin!

Edit:: Damn must go and drop the hydrometer into that solution!

[Garth]

Have a good 'un JP,

[J_P]

It's generally how I justify taking over the kitchen to my good lady friend

I haven't actually started cleaning or brewing yet, I was waylaid by sunny weather and tomato plants and am now going to make the most of the sunshine and put up some rustic shelves in my "beer cave", I'll need the storage space if I ever get round to brewing anything!

[J_P]

I've finally got one of the kits sorted out and this time I've taken some pictures. It's the coopers IPA everyone is raves about. I know it's only a kit but everyone loves pictures!



Starting out - all cleaned and ready to go



Sanitising the DME



I boiled up half of the Geordie yeast to act as yeast vit, it did the trick with my highland heavy so I decided to try it again!



Aeration of the wort - tiring but I'll reap the rewards in the long run.



This is my little starter bubbling away nicely



Pitching the Starter



Brew number 1 - Done!

I think I may crack open a tester bottle of my fixby gold before i try the lager kit - purely in the interests of science you understand

[mysterio]

Looking good JP, you won't be dissapointed with the Coopers IPA. I'm thinking of adding one to my next order...

[J_P]

The last five have been alright there - I've turned the tap around just to be sure no one can inadvertently step on it.

I have also made up a Geordie lager kit with Safale S04. I have decided to dry hop it rather than boil the hops as I was a bit pushed for time. Should be an interesting experiment.

[J_P]

Quick Update - The coopers yeast has started to do it's thing



This is about ten hours after pitching. The Safale S04 in the other bucket is a bit slower but that one doesn't have heater in it.

[J_P]

Is it just me or does Safale S04 produce some weird looking heads? The Lager kit I made up with it now looks like this.



This comes hot on the heels of the last Safale head that looked like this

[Horden Hillbilly]

Looking good J_P, I noticed the demijohns as well, you have been busy!

[J_P]

Two of the demijohns are wine my good lady friend has made, she clocked the white one at 13% She's planning on giving it an airing at a BBQ this summer, if it tastes foul we could always light the barbie with it!

There are two others there too, one turbo cider made with muscavado (sp?) sugar and a mix of red and white grape juice and glucose in the other that has turned the yeast purple.

I have just had to wipe some of the head off the floor it must be 3 to 4 inches thick on both the fermenters!

How is your vat of red wine coming along?

[Horden Hillbilly]

How is your vat of red wine coming along?

Just racked it off the sediment this afternoon, I intend to run it through a filter in a week's time.

[J_P]

Wine filter you say we did get one of those thrown in with the 10 demijohns we picked up for a fiver, I must read the instructions. I thought the sodium met and finings would knock the yeast out of it?

[Horden Hillbilly]

I thought the sodium met and finings would knock the yeast out of it?

The sod met is more of a preservative, potassium sorbate (stabiliser) starves the yeast of its nutrients, therefore stopping it from fermenting.

The finings do drag everything to the bottom of the wine fermenter, if you rack it 2-3 times you probably will get rid of all the sediment. A filter will catch any small amounts of sediment remaining in the wine. I use a Harris Vinbrite filter myself, what make is yours?

[J_P]

It's a rather agricultural looking one with a clamp made by CWE I think it has some suspicious looking white powder in the box along with a cork with three holes in.

Come to think of it I may try the repeated racking method rather than chancing any of the brew to this medieval looking implement!