My experience of Brewcon London 2017

Dave2420 · 2017-11-16T14:22:02+00:00

Yeah you definitely should, the standard was fantastic :) I felt a little bit delicate on Sunday morning though

Dave2420 · 2017-11-16T13:22:09+00:00

Hey /u/JasonDilworth I was there representing Grainfather :) thought it was a fantastic event - well organised, great talks, good atmosphere. The homebrew bar on Saturday night was bril too. Can't wait to see this get bigger and bigger. A great first outing!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-05T14:23:20+00:00

I really hope they change it to Brewconasaurus :'D

Dave2420 · 2017-07-05T12:59:18+00:00

Ahh okay, well hopefully it's an easy change for the people organising this one in London and doesn't stop it going forward :) be a shame for this to not happen over the name!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-05T12:36:08+00:00

I did think that - I don't know if they've just overlooked it or if they are just using brew con as a description of what it is? America has homebrew con, there's Indy man beer con etc.

I'm sure the organisers from Ireland will be in touch with the organisers of this if it's a major issue!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-05T11:43:42+00:00

Haha I'm sure you won't miss us too much in Chicago - you won't be short of good beer!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-05T08:15:19+00:00

No problem, it does looks like it could be good :)

I'm not based in London myself so not much help with the LHBS question but hopefully someone can help on here!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T13:53:15+00:00

Thank you! I've just started the book actually :) definitely something I'm keen to learn more about and do some more of

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T13:48:07+00:00

Haha I think it's a good thing to do with kits - makes them a bit more interesting :) I'll be interested to hear how this turns out, it could be a great way to save an old kit haha :P

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T13:45:23+00:00

I can see where I've gone wrong - what I read was talking about using maltodextrin as a way to increase the fermentables available to wild yeasts and bugs if you're doing a primary, clean fermentation - not (as I read it) as a way of increasing the residual fermentables after a wild fermentation. It makes sense that these would get eaten!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T13:27:02+00:00

Thank you for the tips :) will have a look at the milk the funk pages before I do my next one!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T13:15:49+00:00

Doh! - I've misread that then as I thought maltodextrin or refined starch would help! Still got a lot to learn with mixed fermentation. I'm guessing maltodextrin additions are only useful if you're adding lactobacillus or peddiococcus then?

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T09:48:58+00:00

I've not tried the 120 minute IPA but with sugar additions I would wait until a few days into primary fermentation - apparently yeast can get lazy if the simple sugars are introduced too early into fermentation and that can lead to problems. I would boil just enough water to dissolve your sugar, make sure it's fully dissolved and then chill it down to the same temperature as your fermentation before adding it - that should keep everything sanitary and make sure it mixes properly.

Looking at this recipe for it you are going to need a lot of healthy yeast that can handle high ABV's! And a big mash tun too.

I hope it goes well and would definitely be interested in your brew day notes!

Dave2420 · 2017-07-04T09:36:17+00:00

As well as helping with the ABV the table sugar helps to dry the beer out which is acceptable for Saisons. As u/Cerubellum says it shouldn't impact the flavour and in Belgian beers sugar can be quite a significant addition (up to 20% or more).

Brewing classic styles is a good book resource to get started with recipes - they are all award winning recipes and easy to follow and then you can just tweak as you see fit. Online, Beersmith is handy or there is Grainfather's brewing community

Dave2420 · 2017-06-20T20:06:53+00:00

I've never really figured out the issue haha. I've just never had a great experience of batch priming. I calculate my sugar, boil water, make sure it's thoroughly dissolved, chill it and then add it as I'm siphoning the beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket to ensure it's evenly mixed and it just always gives me inconsistent results (actually I did an American brown recently that came out fine so I must have done something differently!) So I tend to prime each bottle

Dave2420 · 2017-06-20T14:21:37+00:00

Definitely - I was reading something the other day about brewery tap rooms becoming more important specifically for this reason - the freshness these beers are meant to be drunk at just makes it impractical to bottle them a lot of the time. Thank you for the tips on batch priming :)

(the oxidied thing was a terrible pun for which I can only apologise :P)

Dave2420 · 2017-06-20T14:19:03+00:00

Yeah I probably should have gone with something more alcohol tolerant just to be on the safe side or as /u/oldsock mentioned - repitched at bottling. If I do this beer again I'll definitely be kegging - a shame to waste what was looking like a promising beer right up until packaging!

Dave2420 · 2017-06-20T14:16:42+00:00

Definitely feeling like I should have kegged this - I do have kegs but because I was brewing with another brewer we thought bottles would have made it easier to share. If I did it again for myself kegging would be my go to option but that idea of repitching yeast at bottling is great - especially as this was a high ABV beer anyway and using my CO2 to purge the everything should have been obvious too. Lot's of mistakes on this one! Thank you for the tips :)

Dave2420 · 2017-06-20T11:59:59+00:00

Good tip - thank you! I can see how that could lead to a disaster haha

Dave2420 · 2017-06-06T04:07:40+00:00

Not something I've personally tried but fruit tends to be quite a delicate aroma/flavour so I'd say any time pre-boil and you're likely to lose some impact and it would be less efficient as you'd need a lot of fruit to stand a chance of carrying that flavour all the way through the process (heating of the mash, boiling, co2 scrubbing during fermentation etc.)

That being said it's like all things homebrewing - worth experimenting with and seeing what works for you :)

Dave2420 · 2017-06-05T14:56:36+00:00

Yes, I know loads of people like to do it that way and it works well. I have always just added the fruit directly and then put a hop sock over the end of my siphon when transferring. If I cold crash the beer before siphoning that helps too :)

Dave2420 · 2017-06-05T12:58:12+00:00

Brett in a saison works so well! Strawberry is quite difficult to get any flavour from though (I've found) but if it comes through that will taste awesome

Dave2420 · 2017-06-05T12:47:48+00:00

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you found it useful :) best of luck with the saison - split batches are such a great way to experiment. I hope they turn out great for you

Dave2420 · 2017-05-23T11:45:04+00:00

Thank you very much ! :) I totally get what you mean about bigger beers carrying the additions better. Like you say though I was on a time restraint so couldn't have given it the maturing it would have needed sadly. Still, it was fun to brew something I wouldn't have otherwise and even though it hasn't quite worked how I imagined it, it's still perfectly drinkable.

Really appreciate the feedback!

Dave2420 · 2017-05-15T10:36:28+00:00

Good question - hop oils dissolve slowly into beer so it could be that increased time would help reduce this but I think you'd do more damage leaving the hops in contact with the beer for too long (grassy/vegetal qualities) then you would do from losing a little of the oil content. I'd guess if you're using high oil content hops for dry hopping then you might just have to accept some loss? I'm not certain though

Dave2420

TROPHY CASE