This is an all extract brew for a classic light (lite) American lager. Not technically challenging, I just fancied brewing something that was light and drinkable.

Start date: 07 Feb 2021

Equipment

1. 19 litre stainless steel stockpot w/ lid
2. Induction cooktop
3. Fermentasaurus ("Fermus") w/ pressure kit
4. Sanitiser in spray bottle
5. Long handle spoon
6. Funnel w/ strainer attached
7. Digital thermometer
8. Small grain sock
9. 2 x 5kg Ice

Ingredients

• 1.9kg light dry malt extract
• 600g rice malt syrup
• 24g Hallertau Mittelfruh hop pellets (3% AA)
• 3 x White Labs WLP840 American Lager Yeast

Cleaning/Sanitising

Soak the Fermus in Sodium Percarbonate for a few hours (or days). Empty and rinse with cold tap water, and allow to drip dry before spraying with Iodophor (iodine) to sanitise. Rinse with cooled boiled water after min 5 mins.

Also sanitise an "old school" HDPE fermenting bin this time as we're going to need two fermenters, and the funnel and filter.

Brew Day

There are no grains to steep for this recipe, so it's a case of bringing the water required to boiling point as quickly as possible. This is a partial boil, so we need 11.5 litres in the stock pot to start with.

• Boiled kettle and added filtered water repeatedly until I had 11.5 litres of hot water in the brew pot
• Placed the stock pot on induction cooktop (set to 'Fry') and started to heat
• Added half (~1kg) light DME and half the rice syrup to the stock pot, stirring continuously
• Continued to heat the wort to boiling point (NO BOIL OVERS!)
• In the meantime, added ~11 litres of cold filtered water to fermenting bin and placed in freezer to chill
• Once the wort is boiling, intended to add the Hallertau hop pellets in the grain sock (I'm trying this for the first time to see if I can reduce the solids that end up in the fermenter)...but I totally forgot the grain sock and just added the hops straight to the boiling wort - bugger! (17:17)

• I tied a knot in one end of the grain bag and tried to place it in the stock pot like a hops fishing net. Not sure if this will be effective, but it might trap some.
• 10 minutes before end of the boil I added ~1tsp Irish moss - this is a light lager and I want it to be crystal clear
• After 60 minutes, turned cooktop off
• Added remaining (0.9kg) DME and 300ml rice syrup, stirring continuously
• I let stand long enough to pasteurise - in my case, that was 15 minutes whilst I dashed to the servo to get two bags of ice
• Emptied the bags of ice into a laundry sink (deep) and filled to half way with cold water
• The plug hadn't sealed fully so I could hear water running away. When I tried to reseat the plug it came out completely and the plug hole got filled with ice. A frantic few minutes ensued where I had to call for help to finally clear the plug hole and get the plug back in.
• One I'd got the plug back in, I placed the stock pot in the ice bath to cool
• I stirred the wort counter-clockwise to reduce the temp more quickly, taking care not to contaminate the wort with the ice water and to not splash the wort whilst hot
• At the same time, I swirled the ice water clockwise on the outside (as much possible before my hands froze each time)
• Once the wort got down to <40C (it felt like that, but I didn't want to put the thermometer in), I removed the fermenting bin with pre-chilled water and pout the wort in through the sanitised funnel and strainer
• The strainer (once again) proved difficult as the hops blocked the filter and prevented the wort from flowing into the fermenter - need to look for a less fine mesh
• Ended up just pouring the remaining wort directly into the fermenter without a strainer (which just makes it more like I'll have to rack across to a new fermenter in a couple of days)
• The total volume was bang-on 23 litres so I didn't need to add more water
• Placed the wort and yeast packs in the fridge set to 7C (because I forgot to take the OG)
• OG reading 1.042 (spot on!)

• Once the temp stabilised in the 7C range and the wort settled, there were a lot of solids in the wort (cold break and hop bits, which they are likely to be as this wasn't properly filtered) - this meant I need to rack to a second fermenter (Snubby Fermus)
• Before racking, I sanitised and rinsed the Snubby Fermus, drained, and the put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to bring the temp down closer to the 7C target
• I created a gravity transfer from the fermenting bin, making sure the wort splashed around to aerate during the transfer
• Once all the wort was transferred (except the trub at the bottom), I pitched the 3 packs of yeast (no prep or starter required for liquid yeast) and set the temp controller to raise the temp to 10C over the next 36 hours (~0.3C every 4 hours x 10 intervals)

Primary Fermentation

• I attached the PRV/spunding valve to ensure the Fermus doesn't explode
• I checked pressure regularly to make sure the PRV is set correctly (~10PSI)
• As this is a lager, fermentation was expected to take longer than normal, and after a couple of days I could see a very white krausen forming on the top of the beer
• ...but no gas
• The PRV was not registering any pressure increase in the Fermus, and that's the way it stayed for nearly two weeks

On Feb 19th (12 days after starting) I started to raise the temp in 0.3C increments every ~2 hours. This was mostly because I've heard this yeast can benefit from a diacetyl rest, but also to see if I could generate any more yeast activity.

I've heard that this yeast (White Labs WLP840 American Lager) can work very quickly, but I really wasn't expecting things to happen in 3 days, and at 10C. The beer is still quite cloudy, too, which I wasn't expecting. Maybe the lagering will clear that up?

Coming next...

• Continue to raise temp to ~15C
• Then keg and lager

Kegging

• Chill a sanitised keg to 3C
• Pressurise to 8PSI
• Perform closed transfer of beer from Fermus to keg
• Lager (store) for minimum 2 weeks at ~3C
• Attach CO2 to keg at 49PSI for 36 hours to carbonate
• Drink

Improvements for next time

• Check for CO2 leaks

Following a successful extract/steep brew I'm trying a new recipe that is based on John Palmer's Australian Sparkling Ale. However, I ordered the wrong malt, so, instead of steeping, I'm going to need to mash the grains, which is a first for me. This is also the first time I'll use liquid yeast.

Start date: 23 Jan 2021

Equipment

1. 19 litre ("large") stainless steel stockpot w/ lid
2. 15 litre ("medium") stainless steel stockpot
3. 7 litre ("small") stainless steel stockpot w/ lid and straining basket
4. Induction cooktop
5. Snub-nose Fermentasaurus w/ pressure kit
6. Digital thermometer
7. Sanitiser in spray bottle
8. Long handle spoon
9. Funnel w/ strainer attached
10. 2 x 5kg Ice

Ingredients

• 2kg light dry malt extract
• 1kg Joe White Vienna malt
• 25g Pride of Ringwood (9% AA) hop pellets
• 20g New Zealand Wakatu (6.5%) hop pellets
• 100g dextrose powder
• White Labs English Ale Yeast (liquid)

Cleaning/Sanitising

The Fermus had been soaking in Sodium Percarbonate for a few days, so I started by emptying and rinsing this wish tap water, then I stood this out in the sunshine to dry.

I sanitised everything that would come into contact with the wort whilst the wort was chilling. I sprayed the inside of the Fermus, the pressure lid, the outside of the thermo-well, the funnel and the funnel strainer with Iodophor. Then waited ~5 minutes and rinsed with pre-boiled, cool water.

Anything that was used pre-boil, or during the boil, was well cleaned, but not fully sanitised.

Brew Day

Mashing

• Started at 11:25
• Brought 5L of water to 60C in the small stock pot with pasta strainer/basket
• This was supposed to be 4L, but there was too much gap between the basket bottom and the bottom of the pot, so I added water to ensure the water fully covered the grain
• Added the grain to the water, which reduced the temperature by a few degrees (11:40)
• Aimed to maintain temp at 56C for 30 mins (protein rest)
• Varied between ~54 and ~59
• I needed to add boiling water, but I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough room, so I removed the pasta strainer
• There was still not enough room so I transferred the whole lot to the large stock pot - this meant a bit of rethinking
• So, after a bit more than 30 mins, I added the 1.5L of boiling water (12:15) - this brought the temp up to 66C, which was perfect
• Attempted to hold the temperature at between 65C and 68C for 30 mins
• During this time, I started to add boiling water to the small stockpot - the goal here was to have 6.5L of water around 76C for sparging in 40-50mins
• Stirred the wort occasionally
• Continued to add boiling water to small stock pot (3 x 1.5L added in total)
• After 30 mins raised the temp of wort to 70C for 10-20 mins (12:45)
• Finally, I gave the wort one last blast to raise the temp. This was supposed to be to 75C, but I'd kind of given up trying to be this accurate. I think the wort got to ~73C. (13:05)
• Removed the wort from the heat

Sparging

• Added second strainer on top of pasta basket and poured the wort through both strainers, plus the funnel and strainer, into medium stock pot
• The fine strainer in funnel was probably too fine for this job and it took a long time to get everything to drain through. I ended up having to stir and 'swish' the wort to remove the solids from the strainer. This might be why I ended up with so much solids in the final wort. This part of the process definitely needs improvement!
• Once finished draining, I poured the wort from the medium to large stock pot then sparged the grains into the medium stock pot again using the "first runnings" wort
• Transfered the wort back to the large stock pot
• Sparge the grains again with the hot water from the small stock pot - this should have been around 76C, but I think mine had lost a bit of heat due to the time it took getting the other bits going
• Pour "second runnings" into large stock pot - aimed for ~11.4L total, but I think I ended up closer to 13 or 14 litres

Boil

• I added 1.5kg of DME and ended with an OG of 1.048 @67C. This is equivalent to 1.068 at 20C (using this calculator), which is a bit high, so I reduced the planned DME in the second add from 1.5kg to 0.5kg.
• Placed the large stock pot with wort back on induction cooktop and start to heat to boiling (NO BOIL OVERS!)
• I removed the liquid yeast from the fridge to raise temp to 21C - this was placed in brew fridge set to 21C
• Once boiling, I added the 25g Pride of Ringwood hop pellets (14:10)
• After 45 mins, I added the 20g New Zealand Wakatu hop pellets (14:55)
• After further 15 mins, I turned off the cooktop (15:10)
• Added 0.5kg DME + 100g dextrose powder + 5g Irish moss, stirring continuously (DME should have been more like 0.7 - 0.8kg to hit target OG)
• I covered the stock pot with the lid and allowed to stand for 15 minutes
• In the meantime, I did a mad dash to the servo to get two bags of ice

Cool

• I added the two bags of ice to a laundry sink (deep) and filled to half way with cold water
• I placed the stock pot in the ice bath to cool
• I stirred the wort to reduce the temp more quickly, taking care not to contaminate the wort with the ice water and to not splash the wort whilst hot
• I moved the ice water around the pot in the opposite direction to the way I was stirring - I'm not sure how effective this was, but it seemed to help

Aeration

• The wort dropped to ~35C in about 10 minutes
• I poured into the Fermus through the funnel and strainer taking care to ensure the strainer is locked in place beforehand (although it still dislodged)
• Final wort volume was 10.5 litres
• I shook the wort in the Fermus to aerate
• Added cold filtered (not boiled) water to just over the 24 litre mark, aiming for a final temp of around ~23C and not less than 22C
• I went for 24 litres because of the amount of solids I could see collecting in the bottom of the Fermus. This was around 1.5 - 2 L and I want to be sure I get my 19L at the end!
• Whole wort was aerated again before being placed in the brew fridge set to 21C
• I used a thermometer in the thermowell to check the 'true' wort temp and this stayed high (>24C) until I went to bed. I left overnight for the temp to stabilise and before I attempted to measure original gravity.

Measuring Original Gravity (OG)

In previous brews I've not measured OG, either because I've forgotten or not bothered. And because this is one thing that the Fermus really doesn't make it easy to do with a hydrometer.

I tend to be left with a heap of solids in the wort - hop pellets or protein. So using the butterfly valve on my first Fermus meant that I pulled whatever was at the bottom of the wort out to measure. The only time I tried the OG came in at 1.070, which I know was wrong, but the hydrometer was practically sitting on the solids in the bottom of the measuring tube I used.

This brew, I'm using the snub-nose, so I don't even have the butterfly valve as an option. I thought about maybe lowering the tube into the wort from the top opening, then measuring with a hydrometer, but the more I thought about this, the more I figured it would be just as easy, and probably more sanitary, to drop a properly sanitised glass hydrometer into the wort and measure from that. The challenge then became how to remove the hydrometer.

Then I remembered the weird claws that I've seen people use to remove pickles from jars. And so I bought this Super Extension Claw from Jaycar for $9.95. They had another model, this Magnetic Pickup Tool with Claw and LED ($14.95), but I was worried that it's grip strength would be too strong for glas hydrometer and maybe crack it - don't want glass chards in my wort, thank you.

Anyway...it worked. OG came in at 1.042, slightly down on target (1.045), but I'm happy I got that close given that most of the sugars came from the dry malt extract and I was guessing when I added the 0.5kg at the end of the boil. Next time I'll add a bit more (need to work out how much).

With my OG reading done I had to chase the hydrometer around the wort for a minute to get it back, but I managed to snag it with the tool and extract far enough to grab it with my fingers. Nothing but the sanitised hydrometer hit the wort, so I was happy enough. I will do this again.

Yeast Pitching

I'm using a single White Labs English Ale Yeast (liquid) this team, which means no starter required for this volume and OG. Just open the pack with sanitised scissors, of course, and squeeze the yeast in.

Primary Fermentation

• I placed the Inkbird digital thermometer external probe into the thermowell (one improvement of this Fermus over the previous one)
• Attached the PRV/spunding valve to ensure the Fermus doesn't explode

It took a couple of days for things to start happening. The yeast appeared to floculate on the surface after 24 hours, but I could see from the PRV that little to no CO2 was being produced. It wasn't until +3 days that a Krausen appeared and I could see that the PRV gauge had wrapped itself. Adjusted the PRV to release some pressure.

• I checked the pressure regularly and adjusted the PRV to ~30PSI
• I was planning on letting this sit for about 10 days, but I put another brew on and so this ended up being in the fermenter for about 2 weeks before I cranked the temp up to 25C as a diacetyl rest - not sure it's going to help
• Left for 4 more days before starting to crash cool - stepping down temp in 0.3C intervals ever 2 hours over a couple of says
• It then sat for another 3-4 days at 3C before I measured the gravity and transfered to a keg - in the Fermus for a total of 4 weeks

Coming next...

Kegging

• Place a cleaned and sanitised keg into the keezer for 24 hours to chill to ~4C
• Pressurise to 8PSI
• Perform closed transfer of beer from Fermus to keg
• Attach CO2 to keg at 49PSI for 36 hours to carbonate
• Allow to sit for at least a week
• Drink

Improvements for next time

• Use more dry malt extract (or do a better job of mashing)
• Try a different mash technique - this was very complex and very difficult to achieve using the induction cooktop. Maybe gas would be better, but I think use the Esky jug and a simplified, one-step mash process. This should be okay for Vienna malt, which contains some enzymes already.
• First filter should be coarser, but need a way to remove the solids from the wort - final wort had 1.5-2L of solids in the bottom of the Fermus - I compensated by adding water to the 24L mark

Now I'm a bit more practiced, I'm going to give John Palmer's Cincinnati Pale Ale steep/extract recipe another go.

Start date: 31st December 2020

Equipment

1. 19 litre stainless steel stockpot w/ lid
2. Induction cooktop
3. Fermentasaurus ("Fermus") w/ pressure kit
4. Grain sock
5. Digital thermometer
6. Sanitiser in spray bottle
7. 2 litre glass chemistry flask
8. Long handle spoon
9. Funnel w/ strainer attached
10. 2 x 5kg Ice

Ingredients

• 2 x 1.5kg extra pale liquid malt extract
• 250g Crystal (~80L) crushed malt
• 20g Chinook 11.8% bittering hops
• 35g Cascade 6.2% finishing hops
• 20g Centennial 8.8% aroma hops
• 100g Dextrose powder
• 2 x 11.5g US-05 Safale yeast (ideal fermentation temp. 15-22C)

Cleaning/Sanitising

I think my latest brew might (again) by tinged with clove-like off-flavours. I read some more on this and it's most likely caused by residual iodine from sanitisation. I think maybe I'm a bit liberal with the iodine spray and I'm not allowing the liquid to dry, particularly when attaching the collection bottle.

This time, I've soaked the main Fermus in Sodium Percarbonate for a few days. I've rinsed this with cold tap water, which I'm going to allow to drip dry before spraying with Iodophor (iodine) to sanitise. This will also be allowed this to dry, then I'll rinse with cooled boiled water before I start the brewing. I'll do the same with the glass flask (used for yeast prep), spoon, and funnel.

Brew Day

• Placed 1x tin of LME into hot water to soften
• Boiled kettle
• Added ~7 litres filtered water to stock pot, plus 1.5 litres of boiling water
• Boiled a second 1.5 litres of boiling water
• Placed 500mL of boiled water into sanitised glass flask and covered (see Yeast Preparation and Pitching)
• Emptied the softened LME into the stock pot, stirring continuously and used the remaining boiled water to rinse the tin
• Placed the stock pot on induction cooktop and started to heat - starting temp was ~47C @ 14:05
• Filled the grain sock with the grain and added to stock pot
• Temp reached 49C at ~14:12

• In order to ensure the steeping temp did not exceed 77C, I had to turn the induction cooktop off for a few minutes towards the end of the 30 minutes steeping - starting with a couple of kettles of boiling water has made the process much quicker
• The grain sock was removed  at 14:45 and allowed to drain (no squeezing)
• Continued to heat the wort to boiling point (no boil-overs - YAY!)
• Once boiling, added the Chinook hop pellets (15:15)
• After 45 mins, added the Cascade hop pellets (16:00)
• Submerged the second tin of LME in hot water to soften at this time
• After further 15 mins, turned off cooktop (16:15)
• Added the Centennial hop pellets
• Added second tin of LME, stirring continuously
• Added dextrose powder
• Allowed to stand for 15 minutes
• Whilst this was standing, I added the two bags of ice to a laundry sink (deep) and filled to half way with cold water
• I placed the stock pot in the ice bath to cool at 16:30
• Stirred the wort to reduce the temp more quickly, taking care not to contaminate the wort with the ice water and to not splash the wort whilst hot
• Once the wort was <40C, I poured into the Fermus through the funnel and strainer. The strainer became dislodged, so more chunks/protein made it into the Fermus than intended, but this shouldn't be a problem.
• Final wort volume was 10 litres
• Shook the wort in the Fermus to aerate
• Added cold filtered (not boiled) water to 23 litre mark, aiming for a final temp. I was concerned that I was going to over-chill, so I added 500mL of boiling water, but this turned out not to be necessary and the final temp was ~28C.

Yeast Preparation and Pitching

• Once the boiled water in the flask had cooled to <26C, I sprinkled both packs of yeast onto the surface
• This was allowed to hydrate for about an hour whilst the wort temperature dropped, with occasional gentle stirring/swirling to ensure all the yeast was getting onto the water's surface
• After about 30 minutes, I placed the flask in the fridge (set to 23C) to ensure the temp didn't drop too low
• I had to wait for an hour for the wort to hit <25C, at which point I gave the flask one last gentl swirl to suspend the yeast, then poured into the Fermus

Primary Fermentation

• Fermus with yeast was placed into the temp controlled fridge set to 23C
• PRV attached to ensure it doesn't explode

• Checked pressure regularly to make sure the PRV is set correctly (~10PSI)
• Let the wort sit for a week
• Attach collection bottle (this was just to collect a few drips)
• Note that I did not use the collection bottle to collect the trub

Racking

• Transfered the beer to a snub-nosed Fermus
• Began cooling by 0.3C every 2 hours

• Transferred to keg when the temperature reached <4C

Kegging

• Filled a keg with cleaning fluid (sodium percarbonate)
• Left to stand for a few hours with occasional shaking to get into the crevasses
• Rinsed with tap water
• Allowed to dry for ~2 hours
• Sprayed with sanitiser (Iodophor)
• Left for ~5 mins, then rinsed with cooled boiled water
• Pressurised to 8PSI and purged trapped air
• Place in keezer to chill for 3 hours
• Performed closed transfer of beer from Fermus to keg
• Attach CO2 to keg at 49PSI for 36 hours to carbonate

Had a taste of the leftovers at this point. No hint of cloves (YAAAAAY!!!). Tastes like a "best" bitter from England, albeit a bit lighter in colour. Looking forward to trying again in a week.

Coming next...

• Allow to sit for at least a week
• Drink

Improvements for next time

• Continue adding 2 x 1.5 litres of boiled water to the stockpot as this reduced boil time by about 40 minutes
• Ensure the funnel strainer is secure
• Continue with this cleaning/sanitising process as it seems to work
• The Gen 3 Snub-nose Fermus was easier to use than the regular Fermus I use (pressure lid seal is incorporated so the rubber ring doesn't drop into the wort; no leaking from butterfly valve; less cleaning; smaller; etc.) - maybe I should convert to using two of these as primary/secondary fermentor?

• Morgan's Pacific Pale Ale kit (1.7kg)
• 1.5kg Morgan's Master Malt Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract
• 250g Dextrose
• Fermentis Safale US-05 (11.5g)
• ~30g Amarillo hop pellets
• ~40g Citra hop pellets
• ~15g Centennial hop pellets

Method

Brew day (Wednesday evening)

• Filled basin with hot water and stood the two liquid malt extracts in to soften
• Boiled ~300mL (less than previously) of cold filtered water and added to glass flask for yeast rehydration (see below)
• Filled Ferm'us with cold filtered water to 4L mark (also less than before)
• Boiled 1.7L of filtered water (that's the max my kettle can take) and added to Ferm'us
• Boiled another 1L of water
• Emptied the wort and liquid malt extract tins into the Ferm'us
• Used the boiling water to rinse the tins
• Lifted the Ferm'us and gave everything a good shake to mix the wort and LME and give a bit of oxygenation
• Added 250g Dextrose (maybe a little bit more than that)
• Gave another good shake
• Topped up with more cold filtered water to 23L - I didn't need any additional boiling water and hit a final temp around ~27C, which is just about perfect
• At this point I noticed a tiny slither of paper that I think must have come off the malt tin

OG: Not measured

Yeast prep & pitching

• Allowed the temperature of the 300mL pre-boiled water (in the flask - see above) to chill to ~26C
• Pitched the yeast to rehydrate for ~30 mins
• Gently (no splashing) swirled the flask to suspend the yeast in the liquid
• Poured the yeast mixture into the Ferm'us
• Attached pressure release valve (PRV) to the pressure kit
• Placed the Ferm'us into a temp controlled fridge at 20C (lower than normal to align with yeast recommendations)
• Monitored every few hours and adjust the PRV to ensure the Ferm'us doesn't become over-pressurised

Primary Fermentation

• Increased temp to 21C after ~18hrs as didn't seem to be much activity going on
• Left alone for 4 days to ferment
• PRV had to be adjusted over a few days to reduce big pressure build up
• Seemed to be slower to ramp up fermentation this time - maybe because of slightly cooler temp
• After 4 days (Sunday evening), there still seemed to be some good activity happening, so I didn't attach the collection bottle for trub collection

Trub Collection

• When the primary fermentation appeared done (Monday), I attach a sanitised, empty collection bottle to start collecting the trub
• Removed the collection bottle and dumped the trub after ~48 hours - until now, there still seemed to be some activity (nice Krausen still apparent)
• Cleaned and sanitised the collection bottle ready for dry hopping

Dry Hopping

• Add ~20g of Amarillo hop pellets (9.2% AA), ~40g of Citra hop pellets (13.9% AA), ~20g of Centennial hop pellets (8.8% AA), and ~20g of Cascade hop pellets (6.2% AA) via a sanitised collection bottle
• The Ferm'us is still pressurised to ~10PSI, so need to open the valve slowly
• Once open fully, you can see the hops pellets start to soak and expand and travel through the butterfly valve
• There was quite a lot of dust from the pellets as I'd finished off four bags, so the Krausen took on a distinct green tinge
• Before starting the crash cool I raised the temp on the controller to 22C - I'm going to leave it like this for 24 hours

Crash Cool

• Using the temperature controller and brew fridge, start a slow crash cool (-0.3C every 2 hours for ~6 days) 24 hours after dry hopping
• Still having problems getting most of the hops up into the beer
• (Thurs 24th Dec) The beer is now in the 3.5-4C range, but before kegging I wanted to be sure I'd got some of those hop flavours. I released the gas from the Ferm'us, detached the collection bottle and poured the hops into the top. This might be a terrible move, but I don't want another keg of hopless beer.
• I left this for ~48 hours, then reattached the collection bottle to pull the trub/hops from the bottom before kegging

Keg & Carbonate

• Sanitised a keg and placed in keezer to chill
• Pressurised to ~8PSI
• Close-transfered the beer from Ferm'us to keg

• Placed the keg in the keezer
• Attached CO2 at 39PSI to force carbonate for ~24 hrs
• Allowed to stand for ~1 week to condition

Improvements

• Clear the top of the malt tins to ensure no paper shreds ends up in the wort
• Dry hop from the top, not the collection bottle -or- rack to another FV with the hops added (I'm thinking maybe a snub-nose Ferm'us this time)
• Detected the dreaded "clove" tastes when I tested what was left in the Fermus after transfer. Need to ensure there are no traces of Iodine left in the Fermus before starting a brew.

• Morgan's Pacific Pale Ale kit (1.7kg)
• 1.5kg Morgan's Master Malt Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract
• 250g Dextrose
• Morgan's American Ale Yeast (15g)
• ~30g Amarillo hop pellets
• ~40g Citra hop pellets
• ~15g Centennial hop pellets

Method

Brew day

• Filled basin with hot water and stood the two liquid malt extracts in to soften
• Boiled ~300mL (less than previously) of cold filtered water and added to glass flask for yeast rehydration (see below)
• Filled Ferm'us with cold filtered water to 4L mark (also less than before)
• Boiled 1.7L of filtered water (that's the max my kettle can take) and added to Ferm'us
• Boiled another 1L of water
• Emptied the wort and liquid malt extract tins into the Ferm'us
• Used the boiling water to rinse the tins
• Lifted the Ferm'us and gave everything a good shake to mix the wort and LME and give a bit of oxygenation
• Topped up with more cold filtered water to 23L - I didn't need any additional boiling water and hit a final temp around ~27C, which is just about perfect

OG: Not measured, but the extra dextrose should increase the final ABV by about 1% (I'm told)

Yeast prep & pitching

• Allowed the temperature of the 300mL pre-boiled water (in the flask - see above) to chill to ~26C
• Pitched the yeast to rehydrate for ~30 mins
• Gently (no splashing) swirled the flask to suspend the yeast in the liquid
• Poured the yeast mixture into the Ferm'us
• Attached pressure release valve (PRV) to the pressure kit
• Placed the Ferm'us into a temp controlled fridge at 23C
• Monitored every few hours and adjust the PRV to ensure the Ferm'us doesn't become over-pressurised

Primary Fermentation

• Left alone for 4 days to ferment
• Checked/adjusted the PRV to ensure no big pressure build up

Trub Collection

• After 4 days, when the primary fermentation appeared done, I should have attached a sanitised, empty collection bottle to start collecting the trub. However, I forgot this bit and jumped straight to...

Dry Hopping

• Add ~30g of Amarillo hop pellets (9.2% AA), ~40g of Citra hop pellets (13.9% AA), and ~15g of Centennial hop pellets (8.8% AA) via a sanitised collection bottle - this is slightly more than the suggested amounts, but it worked a treat last time

As you can see above, the trub was resting at the bottom of the Ferm'us before opening the butterfly valve. Then it drops into the collection bottle once the valve is open.

I'm not sure how effective this is going to be in infusing the hop flavours into the beer.

I've tried pumping the bottle a few times over the last few days, but the lack of gasket (d'oh!) means it's not completely sealed. Bit of a disaster. Nevertheless...

Crash Cool

• Start a slow crash cool straight after dry hopping to hit the target 3C after 7 days
• Use a temperature controller to reduce the temperature by 0.3C every two hours to hit 3C after ~6 days

Keg & Carbonate

• Sanitise a keg and place in keezer to chill
• Pressurise to ~8PSI
• Close-transfer the beer from Ferm'us to keg
• Place the keg in the keezer
• Attach CO2 at 39PSI to force carbonate for ~24 hrs

First impressions are that the beer is missing the hop flavour. Emptying the collection bottle, I could smell all the delicious flavours that should have been in the beer that got trapped.

However, on the second attempt (mouthfuls each, no more) it did taste okay. Certainly drinkable, and hopefully more so after a few days in the keg.

Coming Next...

• Allow to stand for ~1 week to condition

Improvements

• Easier brew ever, so nothing to mention so far
• Remember...collect the trub BEFORE dry hopping!!!
• Also, remember to add the gasket to the collection bottle before attaching to the Ferm'us (or the seal doesn't cope with pressure)

• Morgan's Pacific Pale Ale kit (1.7kg)
• 1.5kg Morgan's Master Malt Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract
• Morgan's American Ale Yeast (15g)
• ~30g Amarillo hop pellets
• ~40g Citra hop pellets
• ~15g Centennial hop pellets

Method

Brew day

• Filled basin with hot water and stood the two liquid malt extracts in to soften
• Boiled ~500mL of cold filtered water and added to glass flask for yeast rehydration (see below)
• Filled Ferm'us with cold filtered water to 5L mark
• Boiled another 1.7L water (that's the max my kettle can take)
• Poured ~1L of the boiling water into the Ferm'us
• Emptied the wort and liquid malt extract tins into the Ferm'us
• Used the rest of the boiling water to rinse the tins
• Lifted the Ferm'us and gave everything a good shake to mix the wort and LME and give a bit of oxygenation (much easier with only ~8L in the Ferm'us instead of 20L like I did before)
• When I removed the pressure lid the seal dropped into the wort!!! It was sanitised, so it shouldn't cause too much harm, but I had to squeeze my arm into the Ferm'us to be able to reach far enough in to grab it when I finally managed to pull it out of the wort
• Topped up with more cold filtered water to 23L - I didn't need any additional boiling water and hit a final temp around ~27C, which is just about perfect
• Placed the Ferm'us into a temp controlled fridge at 22C

OG: 1.066 (I think this was wrong and due to the higher density wort at the bottom of the Ferm'us)

Yeast prep & pitching

• Allowed the temperature of the 500mL pre-boiled water (in the flask - see above) to chill to ~28C
• Placed the flask in the temp controlled fridge (22C) and allow to rehydrate for 15-30 minutes
• I didn't add any wort to the yeast this time
• Gently (no splashing) swirled the flask to suspend the yeast in the liquid
• Poured the yeast mixture into the Ferm'us
• Attached pressure release valve (PRV) to the pressure kit
• Monitored every few hours and adjust the PRV to ensure the Ferm'us doesn't become over-pressurised

Primary Fermentation

• After pitching the yeast the temp rose to around 27C
• I attached the fridge to the temp controller (wasn't attached as I wasn't expecting it to be that high!) and set the temp to 26.5C
• I reduced steadily over 4 days to 24C - by this stage the heater was kicking in to maintain the temp, but I figured it was better to drop slowly than bring it down too quickly and annoy the yeast
• Left for 4 days

Trub Collection

• On day 4 primary fermentation appeared done (didn't measure SG), so I attached a sanitised, empty collection bottle to start collecting the trub
• After 24 hours, detached and emptied the trub from the collection bottle
• Rinsed and sanitised the collection bottle for dry hopping

Dry Hopping

• Added ~30g of Amarillo hop pellets (9.2% AA), ~40g of Citra hop pellets (13.9% AA), and ~15g of Centennial hop pellets (8.8% AA) via a sanitised collection bottle - this was slightly more than the suggested 24g, 40g, and 12g, but I like it hoppy

Crash Cool

• Because the temp was still up around 24C, I started the crash cool straight after dry hopping to hit the target 3C after 7 days
• Temperature controller was used to reduce the temperature by 0.3C every two hours, which means we'll hit 3C after ~6 days

Keg & Carbonate

• Sanitised a keg and placed in the keezer to chill
• Pressurised to ~6PSI
• Transferred the beer from Ferm'us to keg under pressure
• Placed the keg in the keezer
• Attached CO2 at 39PSI to force carbonate for ~24 hrs
• Allowed to stand for ~1 week to condition

Improvements

• Take photos (again)!!
• Don't drop the pressure lid seal into the wort

• Morgan's Royal Oak Amber Ale
• 1.5kg Morgan's Caramalt
• 500g Light Dry Malt Extract
• 300mL Liquid Rice Extract
• Safale US-05 yeast
• 50g Mosaic hops

Method

Brew day

• Fill basin with hot water and stand two liquid malt extracts in to soften
• Boil 500mL and add to glass flask for yeast rehydration (see below)
• Start filling Ferm'us with combination of cold filtered water and boiling water (Ferm'us can't take boiling water straight)
• At ~15L mark, pour both liquid malt extracts into Ferm'us
• Decide not to add Rice Malt Extract at this time
• Tried to stir the wort to mix the extract, but a lot was stuck to the bottom so I had to pick up the Ferm'us and manually mix - this was heavy (~20kg) and I was concernced the whole this was going to break and pour 18 litres of sticky wort all over the kitchen floor
• Once all the LME was mixed in (no evidence of stuck LME at the bottom of the Ferm'us), top up with hot or cold water to 23L, trying to get hit a temp of ~30C (we need to do the yeast prep before pitching, so we want the temp a bit warmer as it will cool)
• Place the Ferm'us into a temp controlled fridge at 22C

Yeast prep & pitching

• Once the 500mL of boiled water in the flask (see above) has chilled to ~25C, pitch the yeast
• Place the flask in the temp controlled fridge (22C) and allow to rehydrate for 15-30 minutes
• When the temp of the wort and yeast has stabilised (22C) add 500mL - 1000mL of the wort
• Allow to stand for 2-4 hours
• Gently (no splashing) swirl the flask to suspend the yeast in the liquid
• Pour the yeast mixture into the Ferm'us
• Replace the pressure kit with a pressure release valve (PRV)
• Monitor every few hours and adjust the PRV to ensure the Ferm'us doesn't become over-pressurised

Fermenting

• Allowed to ferment for 6 days

Dry Hopping

• After 6 days, I added 50g of Mosaic hops (12.5% AA) via the collection bottle
• NOTE: Unlike the first time, I forgot to dump the trub before dry-hopping :(
• Allow to stand for 4 days

Diacetyl Rest

• Okay, I know this isn't necessary, but I raised the temp 0.5C to 22.5 two days after the dry hopping
• I'll leave it now for another 2-3 days

Crash Cool

• Reduced the temperature by 0.3C every two hours using the temperature controller until it reached ~4C

Keg & Carbonate

• Sanitised and pre-chilled keg
• Pressurised keg to ~8PSI
• Closed transfer of beer from Ferm'us to keg
• Placed keg in the keezer
• Attached CO2 at 39PSI to force carbonate for ~24 hrs

Coming Next

• Conditioning

Improvements

• Take photos!!
• Put less water in the Ferm'us before adding LME and make sure it's warmer - easier to mix
• Make sure I dump the trub before dry hopping

• 2x Morgan's Master Malt Extra Pale Ale malt extract 1.5kg (each)
• 400mL liquid rice malt syrup
• 375g Munich malt
• 35g Tettnanger hops (3.7% AA) (Boil)
• 15g Hersbrucker hops (3.5% AA) (Aroma)
• 5g Irish moss powder
• 3x SafLager W-34/70 dry yeast (11.5g)

Targets

OG: 1.050 - 1.054
FG: 1.014 - 1.018
ABV:  4.2 - 5.25%

Method

Brew day

• Fill basin/bowl with hot tap water and add one tin of the LME to soften (turn occasionally)
• Fill stockpot w/ 12L cold filtered water and start to heat
• Boil 1.5L water in kettle
• Empty one of the Extra Pale Ale LME tins into the pot and rinse tin with boiling water (try to limit the extra water, if possible)
• Stir so LME doesn't stick to bottom of pot
• Tie one end of the grain sock closed, fill with grain, then knot the bag closed, allowing as much room as possible for the grain to move
• Tie the grain sock to the stockpot handle
• Fully immerse the grain bag in the wort to steep
• Continue to raise temp of wort until within the 49-77C range and steep the grains for 30 mins at this temp (hit 49C at 11:38)
• Remove the grain bag, giving it a light squeeze, but do not fully drain the bag (removed at 12:08 - temp 75C - turned the heat down slightly at the end to assure it didn't exceed 77C within the 30 minutes)
• Cover the stockpot and bring to the boil
• After 10mins at boiling temp, add first hops (Tettnanger)
• Boil for 50mins (watch for boil over) - the new stockpot has enough head room to make this unlikely if I leave a 1cm gap in the lid
• I brushed the hop "tide mark" on the sides of the pot back into the wort a couple of times
• Add 1/2 - 1 tsp Irish moss to boil for last 10 mins
• Add second tin of LME to hot water to soften
• Turn off heat (I'm using induction cooktop, so I just 'turn off')
• Add final hops (Hersbrucker)
• Add liquid rice malt extract and second tin of LME, stirring continuously
• Aroma hops, rice extract and LME are allowed to sit for 15 mins to pasteurise, but do not boil
• In the meantime, put ~5-10l of cold water in a sink (sealed with plug) and add two bags of ice
• Whilst the second ME addition is standing, add 10L cold filtered water to sanitised FV (aiming for a total volume of ~22L as some of the wort water would have boiled off)
• Place stockpot in ice bath in sink
• Stir gently, no splashing, ensure no water drips in wort especially water from the ice
• Once wort and FV water temperature equilibrium is ~25C, pour wort into FV using sanitised funnel and filter mesh (I noticed using the funnel and mesh filter gives really good oxygenation - lots of bubbles in the wort)
• I had to add a further 1L of cold filtered water to reach 22L total wort
• OG reading with hydrometer was 1.045 @ 24C (~1.047 with temp adjustment)
• Aerated wort in FV by sloshing around, then place in the fridge

Yeast prep and pitching

• Boil 500mL of water, pour into sanitised container (jar), and cover (Glad Wrap)
• When boiled water temp cools to < 25C, sprinkle dried yeast on top - do not stir - cover
• After 15 mins, gently stir without splashing and place in the warm fridge for min 15mins
• Once wort and yeast temp have equalised (ambient temp), add 500 - 1000mL oxygenated wort to the yeast using the butterfly valve attached to a sanitised spout and length of vinyl tube
• Cover yeast starter and place back in fridge

Fermenting

• Reduce temperature of the fridge with wort and yeast starter to ~12C (0.8C per 90 minutes x 12)
• Oxygenate the wort (slosh around some more)
• Swirl the yeast to suspend the pitch in the liquid, then pour into wort
• Close the fermenter, making sure the dip tube ends up hanging under the float so you can get the beer out
• Leave it alone

Diacetyl rest

• Starting on day 5 (Thurs 13/8), raise the temp by 3C per day (0.5C/4hrs) until it reaches 19C
• Leave (from Sat 15/8) for 4-7 days

Lagering

• Reduce temp by 3-4C per day for ~5 days to a temp of 3C (0.3C/2hrs x 12 x 5 days) - started 6pm, Weds 19th Aug (started a bit early as I need to drink on 30th)
• Note: removed the collection bottle, emptied, and re-fitted (butterfly valve closed) at the same time I started temp reduction
• Took a hydrometer reading - 1.012 @ ~5-8C (1.010 with tenp adjustment)
• ABV = 5%

Coming next...

• After a week at this temp, transfer to keg, carbonate, and drink

Improvements for next time

• Two grain bags will mean the grain can circulate a bit better
• Finer mesh on funnel filter - still lots of solids making it through to the Ferm'us
• ATTACH A PRV!!!
  After a few days, I attached a PRV and didn't think anything was happening until I realised the needle had flipped round the dial. I don't know what the pressure was, but I was releasing with the spunding valve (slowly) for at least 30 seconds, so I reckon it was > 35PSI, which is the max rating for the Ferm'us.
  Next time - attach a PRV at the start if using the pressure kit.

I bought a second-hand chest freezer from Gumtree. It's an old-school model with stainless steel lining the inside - it weighs a ton! There is space for 5 (possibly 6) 19L kegs, plus a shelf (above the compressor) for a few extras.

I added a 185mm wooden collar using DAR treated pine (19mm thickness) lined with 30mm polyfoam. This should protect the wood from any damp also improve the thermal insulation. However, I have absolutely zero experience in any of this, so who knows?!

I removed the lid from the base freezer and attached to collar, then sealed the collar to top of freezer unit using a "3-in-1" type silicone adhesive/sealant.

I drilled holes through the collar for the temperature probe (attached to the temperature controller), 4x beer taps on the front, and 2x ball lock gas posts on the side.

The gas post holes had to be double-drilled as they're not long enough to fit through the 19mm wood. The gas posts will be attached to a converter to a barb.

The plan is to use one gas post to feed a 4-way manifold connected to the beers at 10-12PSI. This will mean that everything's at the same pressure, but that's fine for now. The second post will be used at high (39-40PSI) pressure for carbonation.

Temperature controller is used to keep the temp to ~4C.

Primed and painted the collar with blackboard paint so I have somewhere to write what's on each tap.

Finishing touches

The finishing touches include adding taps to the front (I currently have 2) and making the whole bloody thing work!

I mounted the gas posts on the side, but couldn't get a good enough seal, even at ~10PSI, so I've had to remove them for now and trail a pipe in over the lid of the collar (very annoying). I think this means I'll trialling a different gas distribution method - probably something like the Duotight T-pieces and joiners connected to individual inline pressure regulators (as recommended by the kind fellows at Mars Brewing Supplies originally).

Anyway, despite the setback, I did manage to pour my first cold homebrew, which made things much better. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good, nonetheless.

What's left to do

• Fix gas distribution
• Add a drip tray
• Paint a coat of arms on the front
• Add kegs/taps as required
• Add something to hold the CO2 bottle on the side
• Attach the temp controller somewhere

• 2x Morgan's Master Malt Extra Pale Ale malt extract
• 250g Crystal 80L malt grain (milled)
• 16g Chinook hops (11.8% AA)
• 18g Cascade (6.2% AA)
• 17g Amarillo (9.2% AA)
• 1x Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast

Method

• Fill stockpot w/ 12L cold filtered water and start to heat
• Boil 1.5L water in kettle
• Empty one of the Extra Pale Ale LME into pot and rinse tin with boiling water
• Tie one end of the grain bag, fill with grain, then knot the bag closed, and tie the end to the stockpot handle
• Fully immerse the grain bag in the wort to steep
• Continue to raise temp of wort until within the 49-77C range and steep the grains for 30 mins at this temp - because of the time it took to heat the wort, the grains were steeped for a total of ~45mins, approx. 30mins of which was within this temp range
• Remove the grain bag, giving it a light squeeze, but do not fully drain the bag
• Cover the stockpot and bring to the boil

• After 10mins at boiling temp, add first hops (Chinook)
• Boil for 45mins (watch for boil over) - the new stockpot has enough head room to make this unlikely if I leave a 1cm gap in the lid
• During this time, boil 500mL of water, pour into sanitised container (jar), and cover - this will be used for the yeast hydration later, but needs time to cool
• Add second hops (Cascade)
• Boil for 15 mins
• Remove from heat
• Add final hops
• Add second tin of LME, stirring continuously
• Hops and LME are allowed to sit for 15 mins to pasteurise, but not boiled
• In the meantime, add ice to sink

• Whilst the second ME addition is standing, add 12L cold filtered water to sanitised FV (this should give a total volume of ~22L as some of the wort water would have boiled off)
• Place stockpot in ice bath in sink
• Once wort and FV water temperature equil is <30C, pour hot wort into FV using sanitised funnel (no need to add filter)
• Aerate wort in FV by sloshing around - make sure the dip tube hanging under the float
• Add dried yeast to pre-boiled water at <30C (24C) and allow to rehydrate for 10 mins
• When wort temp is <=24C, take SG reading with hydrometer
• Gently stir yeast and allow to sit for further 10-20mins
• Give the wort another slosh and check temp
• If temp of wort is +/- 1C of yeast, pitch yeast
• Seal FV with sanitised pressure lid
• Move to warm fridge at 22C

Coming next...

• Allow to ferment for 8-14 days
• Attach sanitised collection bottle filled with CO2
• Move FV to keezer to crash cool
• After 2-3 days, remove collection bottle and discard contents
• Clean and sanitise collection bottle and add to the FV again
• Take a sample and measure FG
• Transfer beer to cold, pressurised keg
• Tweak carbonation
• Drink

Improvements for next time

1. I used 80L Crystal malt grain for steeping so the beer is quite dark, even with the extra pale LME - use lighter malt next time (CaraPils, CaraMunich?)
2. There is quite a lot of trub in the bottom of the FV, probably because of the use of hop pellets, so might be worth filtering wort on the way into the FV
3. FV is dripping from butterfly valve (closed) - double check o-ring and other seals (I've added the collection bottle to catch the drips)

I've been away, so I haven't written for over a week - but what a week! I picked up an awesome second hand chest freezer that will soon be converted to a keg freezer ("keezer") and I've already been drinking the homemade Pale Ale from an ice cold keg. Happy days!

I've acquired three kegs (so far), and there's space for 5, so I'm keen to get brewing again, but before I can do that, I need to empty the Fermentasaurus ("Fermus" from now on), which means my first closed transfer from Fermus to keg. Exciting times.

So, how does this work? The Fermus has the pressure kit attached. That means I can push gas in to increase the pressure to force the liquid out through the silicon tip tube that's attached to the beer post of the lid. The beer post is attached to the keg.

So long as the pressure in the keg is less than the pressure in the Fermus, the beer will flow from Fermus to keg.

Before I start, there's a couple of things to watch out for. Firstly, I don't want the pressure differential to be too great. This would cause the beer to move too quickly and foam up in the keg. This can lead to the foam pushing out through the gas post (and possibly into the pressure gauge/release valve), which is not a good thing.

So, before starting the transfer, I pump the pressure up in both to around 10PSI (~69KPa). The CO2 tank is connected to the Fermus and the regulator is closed at this time. The spunding valve is connected to the gas ("In") post of the keg.

Connecting the beer line from Fermus to keg equalises the small pressure differential. Now, I open the regulator on the CO2 tank and set it to 10PSI.

I slowly dial the spunding valve down, which reduces the pressure in the keg and the beer starts to flow. I set this to 8PSI (~56KPa) to start things off.

After about 30 seconds, something is wrong. The dip tube is pushing gas as well as beer and I realise the the end is not hanging under the float as it should be, but is trapped between the float and the wall of the Fermus.

I tried giving the side of the Fermus a bash to see if it would right itself, but no. I'm going to need to open everything up and stick a long spoon handle in to sort it out. So...after all this time working in a closed vessel, it turns out I'm going in anyway. Very annoying. But it works and the dip tube is now hanging where it should be.

I re-pressurise everything and the transfer is quickly back on track.

I started with around 22L and the keg can hold 19L, so I stop just short of 3L to prevent overfill.

And that's it...first Fermus to keg transfer complete.

But there's still 3 litres of beer left behind. What to do? I don't want to resort to bottom bottling, with all the trub that's still there. And the Fermus is still under pressure. I have a univeral-ball-post-to-barb thing that I use for cleaning that I could attach to the beer line I've just disconnected from the keg, but I don't want the beer just dropping out of that into the bottles (too much potential for oxygenation).

So instead, I use the bottle-filler pipe. This isn't a tight fit, so I thought it would be much messier, but it actually turned out to be less messy than the filler normally is. I didn't use the filler valve, but instead just popped the post-to-barb off the beer line as soon as the bottles were full.

I also put two of the sugar tablets I've used previously into each bottle for carbonation. I'm a little concerned that's too much as the beer has been under small pressure for a couple of weeks and probably has a bit of carbonation already. You could be looking at my first bottle bomb!

Anyway, the whole process was surprisingly painless - much less so than filling 30+ bottles, even with the problems I had. The total transfer took around 40 mins.

That's it! Another keg successfully filled. This has gone into the Keezer. Over the next couple of days I'll be adding a collar to the Keezer. This will allow me to pass a CO2 line from outside into the Keezer so I can start carbonating this beer.

Then I'll be adding a 4-port gas manifold and a tap (or two) so I can pour beer straight from the tap. Can't wait!!!

It's been seven weeks since I bottled this Black Rock Pale Ale and I'm loving it. This was a "by the book" kit/extract brew without so much as a hop pellet added and it's delicious.

There's a slight haze to the beer, but minimal sediment in the bottles (racking and finings were used).

In the time since I made this I've invested heavily in equipment and learning, and I'm starting to think that's all a waste. If I can continue to make beer like this, I'll be a happy man. The only thing I'd like to add is maybe some dry hops for some taste variation. I'm sure a 20-30g of Galaxy a few days before bottling wouldn't hurt.

Judgey, much

In the meantime, I'm going to try and judge this beer using the 20-point scale from Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. Given that I'll be comparing it to other beers I'm going to make, I figure there's no need to be overly impartial as the whole purpose is to make beer I like drinking.

So, scoring will be based on:

• Appearance (0-3pts)
• Aroma (0-4pts)
• Taste (0-10pts)
  Hop/malt balance (4)
  Aftertaste (3)
  Mouthfeel (3)
• Overall Impression (1-3pts)

The scoring guide suggests 12-14pts is "Good"; 15-17pts is "Very Good"; and 18-20pts is "Excellent", so let's see.

Appearance

Okay, so the bottle I've chosen to judge isn't the best of the bunch. It didn't have any head to speak of when I poured it. There's not much apparent carbonation (although it appears in the mouth).

The colour is good, somewhere between "Pale Amber" and "Medium Amber" (~10 SRM) according to the scale on the inside front cover of the book "How to Brew" by John J. Palmer.

There is a little bit of haze.

Score: 1.5/3

Aroma

The beer's aroma is not particularly strong. I can pick up some of the malty sweetness, but otherwise, it just smells like beer. I need to work on my nose, clearly.

Having said that, there are absolutely no hint of anything nasty. It smells fresh and drinkable, if nothing else.

Score: 2/4

Taste

Hop/malt balance

I think this beer is well balanced. You can taste the malt and hops, but they're both quite subtle, which I think means they're balanced - neither one is overpowering the other.

Score: 3/4

Aftertaste

The aftertaste is pretty clean. This particular bottle has a very slight yeasty aftertaste, but I think that's because I poured up the sediment (didn't want to waste any).

There's certainly no linger nastiness, and as Charlie Papazian says, it does "encourage you to have another". I've had a couple of litres of this in one sitting and never thought I wouldn't drink it again.

Score: 2/3

Mouthfeel

This is on the lighter side, but that suits my taste. The carbonation feels good to me. I prefer a bit of fizz in my beers, and, despite the lack of head, this does have hidden bubbles. A little bit of a shake can show that.

You can see that the faux-head is pretty creamy (small bubbles), too - I'm sure that's significant, but I don't know why, yet.

But any head is short lived, and the remaining beer definitely tastes much flatter - I wont do that again!

Score: 1.5/3

Overall Impression

I like drinking this beer. It's very easy to drink, tastes good, virtually no aftertaste, has a balanced flavour, and a bit of fizz. The bubbles might be considered "short-lived", but as my beers don't tend to stick around too long, it's not a major problem for me.

I don't want to over-score this, because I know there are better beers out there, and I aspire to brew some myself. But, I do like drinking this beer, so I'm gonna score this...

Score: 2/3

Total score: 12/20, "Good"

That probably means it's time to celebrate...with another :)

I just wanted to add a little side-note to record that this evening I finished the incubator. I reattached a power cord to the compressor on my home-made beer incubator and attached it to the temperature controller to create a fully controlled environment.

However, the reason for doing this is so that I can use this as a beer fridge (for now) and free up space in the current, much larger beer fridge as that's big enough to put whole fermenting vessels in to cold crash with a keg or two in there, too.

The alternative is to create a Keezer (keg freezer)...I'm on the case.

In preparation for the not-bottling of brew 4's homemade Pale Ale I removed the brew 3 Miner's Stout from the conditioning fridge and packed it away into boxes for a while to mature...except one bottle, which was put into the cold fridge to chill.

I know it's early - I've been told this will get better for the next few months, at least - but I think it's good to test the beer at different stages to make sure I'm not setting myself up for disappointment in the future.

This was bottled on 14th June, so it's about three weeks old. It was the first time I'd racked to/bottled from the Fermentasaurus.

Clearly, it doesn't have a Guinness-like foamy head, but, for an immature beer, this tasted pretty good.

The carbonation was actually pretty good. There was a bit of fizz to it, but only what you'd expect from a stout. The lack of head is in part due to my very careful pouring - there was quite a bit of sediment in the bottom of the bottle.

Anyway, a very enjoyable drink and I'm looking forward to tasting how this improves over time. I will be putting another bottle in the fridge for next week.

However, towards the end of the bottle, I started to notice a clove-like taste. It wasn't unpleasant or over-powering, but it made me concerned because that is exactly what I tasted in the homemade pale ale. The two beers have nothing in common - different wort, different process, different hops, different yeast. There is literally no reason why this stout should taste anything like the pale ale (the clue is in their names!). So what's going on?

A quick Google search confirmed that the source of the clove flavour is certainly yeast, but it could be stress on the pitched yeast, or an unintended wild yeast infection.

The yeast I'd used for the homemade Pale Ale was Safale US-05, and this seemed to come up a few times in my searches. But the Miner's Stout used the kit yeast. Also, the flavour in the Stout is (from memory) much less than the PA.

Stressing the pitched yeast can cause these effects, and I'm a novice brewer, so this could be the cause. Other possible causes could be my water source; or residues left by the detergent I'm using to wash the fermenters after each use (Earth Choice Ultra Concentrate Green Tea & Lime Dishwashing Liquid). Or is it a wild yeast infection?

The two brews used different fermenting vessels, including for racking and bottling. The clove flavour is much more intense in the homemade pale ale than in the stout. The stout preceded the PA, so could it be I've accidentally cultivated a wild yeast that's now rampant in the brewery?!?

According to this source, wild yeasts can generate "Phenolic compounds", but...

...most of these are not the commonly accepted clove or spicy aromas and flavors, but a strong medicinal band-aid-like flavor which is not pleasant at all.

I wouldn't say the clove flavour is unpleasant, but it's potentially hiding the Columbus hop and other flavours that are supposed to be there.

I've concluded that, whatever it is, I need to be extra vigilant with my cleaning and sanitising.

But...just to be sure, I had a sneaky taste of the brew 5 Amber Ale to check if there were any hints of clove. This is my first homebrew to use the Fermentasaurus. It's been there for a few weeks, and I used the Safale US-05, so it should be showing clove-ness by now if it's infected. The stout was actually racked to and bottled from this vessel, which could have been a source of contamination, too, if something nasty was lurking. This would test my cleaning and sanitising skills.

And...nothing. It tasted exactly as I would expect room temperature, flat amber ale to taste. No hint of clove - just all beer.

So, I can confidently say that my investigations are inconclusive. The stout is very drinkable and will either improve with time (if the good yeast clean up the Phenols) or deteriorate (if a wild yeast strain creates more). The amber ale shows no signs of clove flavours, and I hope it stays that way. This will be transferred direct to a (heavily) sanitised keg under pressure via tubes, so that will be a good test of whether the yeast is in the brew already.

Also...shows how important it is to taste regularly :)

Brew 5 is made from Morgan's Royal Oak Amber Ale with their Caramalt liquid malt extract. It's been in the Fermentasaurus for about two weeks so far.

A few days ago I released the butterfly valve to start collecting the trub. The collection bottle is as full as I think it's going to get, and I'm keen to get the finishing hops in, so it's time to empty the collection bottle.

As you can see from above, this is a pretty straightforward process of shutting the valve and unscrewing the bottle. I was expecting a bit of a dribble, so I put a plate underneath. Nothing is under any pressure this time, though, so I wasn't expecting too much mess.

Notice also that not all off the trub is removed. There is still a small amount just about the valve connector, but I'm not worried about that, and I'm hoping at least some of that will drop when I add the hops.

If I wanted to, I could cap the bottle and put the yeast away in the fridge to use as a starter for next time. But I'm not going to do that this time. Instead, I just empty the bottle, rinse, and sanitise ready for my hops.

For the final week in the Fermentasaurus, I'm adding 50g of Mosaic hop pellets.

These are pretty high in AA (12.5%) and I was advised to add 40g. But I like a nice hoppy beer, and I think Amber Ale style is strong enough to cope with a bit extra, so I'm adding the full 50g bag.

I'm going to pour the hops into the collection bottle, attach it to the Fermentasaurus, then open the butterfly valve. But I don't want to send a bubble of air up through the beer when I open the valve, so I'm going to flush the bottle with CO2 before attaching.

With the bottle attached, I'm ready to open the butterfly valve.

Initially, the hops looked like they were stuck, but I could see that they were moving, and some were making their way to the surface of the beer.

And that was it - dry hopping without opening the fermenter!

Two days later

After two days, most of the hops had settled back in the collection bottle.

There's more trub in the fermenter now than before, but I realised the collection bottle is literally full of hops, so there's nowhere for it to go (should have stuck to 40g, maybe?).

Also, with the pressure lid in place, I'll be kegging this beer from the top, under pressure, so I should be able to avoid picking up any of that trub. If it gets any worse, I'll empty the collection bottle and refill before kegging.

Altogether, I'm very happy with this brew and process. With the addition of the pressure kit and CO2, I really feel like I can be a lot more controlled, and I'm less likely to have the spigot catastrophes of brew 4. I'd love to give it a taste, but I'm trying to be patient until I can properly flush and sanitise my beer lines (which now have disconnects or picnic taps on each end).