Fermenting #3: Coopers Gir Kesar (Mango Lager)

The Mango Lager has finished its work fermenting the mango pulp that was added on Wednesday, 3 May 2017, it took only a couple of days to get back down to a FG of  1.010. Then since then it's been cold crashing for the last 10 days.

Was going to bottle it all up this afternoon, but there seems to be quite a bit of mango pulp floating around in the fermenter above the tap.

I gave it a "slosh" around to maybe help the layer start to settle but it's just stuck there refusing to budge.

I have some Leaf Gelatine that I was going to experiment with, as many home brewers use gelatine to get their beers to clear. So I thought that since I have nothing to loose I decided to add some to this batch to hopefully get that layer to the bottom so I can bottle this batch up.
 

So what I have done in soaked two Gelatine Leaves in 300ml of cold tap water for 5 minutes, then microwaved the liquid in short blasts until the temperature reached 70'c. Then added this directly into the primary (hot). I'll let it sit at a cold temp (6-8'c) for a few more days and see what happens.

Fermenting #2: Coopers Gir Kesar (Mango Lager)

The Final SG of the coopers lager has now been at 1.010 for the last few days so today I added BOTH tins of mango. 1.7kg of mango pulp in total and gave it a good stir up.

The beer before adding the mango tastes fine, not like a Lager mind you, more Ale like. So at least I now know that my yeast bank is working okay.

So that's about 340g of extra fermentables added to the mix. It's gone a great colour, not sure how long to leave this fermenting now, but at least a week I expect.

Rechecked the current SG AFTER adding the mango pulp and the SG has gone up by 10 to 1.020 but i don't expect that will all be fermentable sugar. I'm guessing the final ABV to be around the 4.5% mark

Beer starting Original Gravity 1.038 + Mango Pulp at 0.010 = Combined Original Gravity: 1.048 giving a ABV of 4.99% less the unfermentable sugars.

Fermenting : Coopers Gir Kesar (Mango Lager)

The Coopers Gir Kesar (Mango Lager) is brewing after a 4 days in the No-Chill Cube.

I made up a new 1 litre starter with some wort saved from the brewday, from the yeast bank of Safale US-05 as I decanted some into a new vial so I had some better quality yeast banked.

The second vial of yeast looks a lot better than the first on the left. I'm still getting my processes sorted for the Yeast Store and learning as I go.

Still this beer is being fermented using one of the March US-05 vials, just to see if it works.

Ended up with 20 litres into the fermenter at 1.038 SG and after 12 hours or so, we have fermentation taking place, the beer should be around 3.5% approx before adding in the Mango Pulp. Adding a full 850g can of pulp will add about 170g of fermentable sugar so that will not increase the final ABV all that much, which is what I am after, a light fruity summer beer, still not sure if I'll add one or both tins of Mango yet. The current plan is to let the yeast ferment the wort into beer, taste, add one tin of mango, re-taste, leave to ferment out, taste again, then maybe add the other tin.

BrewDay : Coopers Gir Kesar (No-Chill)

 Coopers Gir Kesar (Mango Lager)

Well what a brew day today turned out to be, what was going to be a simple Partial Mash brew took most of the day. Ah well, got it all sorted in the end.

The first issue was that I hadn't checked the Coopers Lager kit that was to be used in this brew, it had a best before date of 2011, so it's 5 years past it's prime. Decided to use it anyway. Got it warming in very hot water on the stove while I did the Mash for the rest of the beer.

 

I am replacing the brewing sugar normally used to make up these kits with 1.5kg of pale malt, and doing a full volume mash, hopefully this with prevent that standard homebrew kit taste. Also no extra hops are being added to the boil, so the hop profile (if any) will just come from the Lager kit.

So everything was going great, Mash temps where fine using 16 litres of water for only 1.5kg of grain. Did a "Mash Out" with another 11 litres. All good so far. Then I forgot to add 5 litres top-up water!! I just missed it out for some reason. No real issue as I can add that to the fermenter bucket later if I need to.

Transferred the sweet wort to the Boiler and started the boil going, just as it was getting to the boil the power light went out, nothing, no heat. Checked the plug fuse, nope not that.

So then had to drain the hot, but not boiled sweet wort into one of my No-Chill containers that I had StarSan'ed. 

Stripped the boiler down and found that the Thermo Fuse, that I had upgraded a few years ago to 117'c had blown. Couldn't find my spare ones so ended up bypassing the unit.

 

Built the boiler back up and put the wort back into the dam thing, the boil then continued like a charm. 

At flame out added the contents of the Coopers Lager tin to the boiled wort, filled the tin up with boiling wort to get the last little bits out, and whilst pouring that wort back into the boiler, the tin lid then dropped into the boiler.

 
 At least the wort was just under boiling point, so any nastys that might have been on the lid when it fell in would hopefully been killed off.

Transferred the now bitter wort into my trusty No-Chill cube and also kept 1 litre of wort back to make a yeast starter (Safale US-05 starter with re-animated stored yeast) while the wort cools overnight.

So now tomorrow it will hopefully in the fermenter bucket along with the Yeast Starter making Beer, once the fermentation has almost stopped, I'll then add the Mango Pulp directly into the beer and let that ferment out, not sure if I'll add one or both tins of Mango Pulp yet. (probably both)

Quick Stats:

Starting SG Pre-Kit   : 1.007
Starting SG Post-Kit : 1.038

Recipe

Coopers Gir Kesar

Fruit Beer (18 1)

Type: Partial Mash
Batch Size: 23.00 l
Boil Size: 29.52 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 25.52 l
Final Bottling Vol: 23.50 l
Fermentation: Ale, Three Stage Temp Drop (Cabin Brewery)

Date: 19 Apr 2017
Equipment: The Cabin Brewery + Chiller #2
Efficiency: 63.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 67.1 %

 

Ingredients

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
32.02 l	Taunton, England	Water	1	-
1.00 Items	Campden Tablets (Mash 45.0 mins)	Water Agent	2	-
1.00 Items	Campden Tablets (Mash 0.0 mins)	Water Agent	3	-
1.50 kg	Muntons Pale Malt - PROPINO (5.9 EBC)	Grain	4	30.6 %
1.00 Items	Protofloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)	Fining	5	-
1.0 pkg	Cooper Ale (Coopers #-) [23.66 ml]	Yeast	6	-
1.70 kg	Fruit - Laila Kesar Mango Pulp (0.0 EBC)	Adjunct	7	34.7 %
1.70 kg	Lager Extract (Coopers) Adjusted (90.0 EBC)	Extract	8	34.7 %
40.00 Items	Bottle Caps (Bottling 1.0 mins)	Other	9	-

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.036 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.5 %
Bitterness: 23.2 IBUs
Est Color: 28.9 EBC

Measured Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.008 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.9 %
Calories: 348.8 kcal/l

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Cabin Brewery Single Infusion, Light Body
Sparge Water: 5.00 l

Total Grain Weight: 4.90 kg
Grain Temperature: 8.4 C
Tun Temperature: 9.8 C
Target Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps

Name	Description	Step Temperature	Step Time
Mash In	Add 16.00 l of water at 68.6 C	64.4 C	75 min
Mash Out	Add 11.02 l of water at 93.3 C	75.6 C	10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 5.00 l water at 75.0 C   (#### Forgot this bit ####)

Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Bottle
Pressure/Weight: 138.23 g
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 21.1 C
Fermentation: Ale, Three Stage Temp Drop (Cabin Brewery)

Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Carbonation Used: Bottle with 138.23 g Corn Sugar
Age for: 30.00 days
Storage Temperature: 7.0 C

Notes

Added Coopers Lager Can at flame out Pre-Kit SG 1.017 and after adding the kit SG was 1.038

Boiler thermo-fuse blew, had to drain boiler into my no-chill cube, bypass the fuse and then boil.

Due to no added hops, this beer is No-Chilled in a cube.

1 Liter wort from the boiler used to make a Safale US-05 starter with re-animated stored yeast slurry.

Allotment : The Hop Poles are up!!!

Managed to get down to the allotment to get the hop poles up today, one string per hop again this year. The Target,Challenger and Fuggles are all doing well, but the Goldings has only just broken the ground.

 

The Broad Beans are doing okay, so they got a watering, and the greenhouse got a weed and a tidy up ready for the chillies to go into them when the frosty nights have left us.

Didn't have a lot of time to do much more, but things are looking better down there now.

Easter Monday BBQ - Smoked Lamb (Leg)

Easter BBQ

Bank Holiday Monday, so time to smoke some meat. As it is Easter Lamb is our meat of choice, 2 legs of lamb about 2kg each. 

RUB:

• 2 tbsp Dried Rosemary
• 1 tbsp Dried Thyme
• 2 tbsp Course Sea Salt 
• 1 tbsp Ground Black Pepper 
• 2 tbsp Garlic Granules
• 6 peeled Garlic Cloves

Combine all the dried herbs and spices in a bowl and mix well.
Stab each leg of lamb 3 times and push a peeled garlic clove into each hole.
Place in a food bag and add the dried herb/spice mix.
Leave in the fridge overnight.

The Smoke 

8am:

Take the Lamb out of the fridge to warm to room temperature while pre-heating the Smoker to 140'C.
Fill water tray with water to help keep the meat moist and temperatures in the smoker even.

9am:

Once the smoker is ready place the prepared Lamb on the grates in the centre of the Smoker and smoke for 2 hours.

11am:

Once 2 hours is up, turn the Lamb and spritz with Apple Juice.
Add some wood to the coals for flavour (I used --------- )
Smoke for another 1 hour or until the internal temp reaches 70'C
When the internal temp reaches 70'C, place a fresh sprig of mint on some Tin Foil place the Lamb onto the Foil, add a cup of Apple Juice and wrap up the lamb tightly.

12am:

Place back on the Grill and continue to cook for another hour.

1pm:

 Remove from the smoker and rest for 1/2 hour, pull apart in the juices in the tin-foil and serve removing the sprigs of mint.

I was very happy with the outcome of this smoked Lamb, and will be doing this again sometime. It had a great smoke ring to the meat, it was super tender even though it was cooked "Well Done" and the flavours of the Rub where just perfect.

Yeast : Starter from stored Isotonic sodium chloride solution. #2

Stepped up the starter today from 100ml to 1000ml by making up a wort with 90g Light DME and 900ml of water. Boiled on the stove for 10mins, cooled and added the yeast and wort from the 100ml starter that has been sitting spinning on the stir-plate.

The 100ml starter, smelt like is was doing what it is meant to be doing, it smelt yeasty. Fingers crossed. I'll leave this to do it's work for a few days and see what results I get. I have a beer in the planning stages, so if this works the starter can get pitched into that beer.

Bottled : Half Nelson NZ-IPA

Bottled the Half Nelson NZ-IPA today, got a full 40 pints, so happy days.

Each bottle got a 1/2 heaped teaspoon of brewing sugar, I really must look into a better way of adding sugar to the bottles, maybe a bottling bucket, or maybe a sugar syrup.

It's now in the fermentation fridge for a few days at 20'c to condition.

Half Nelson

New Zealand IPA (13 1)

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23.00 l
Boil Size: 29.52 l
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 25.52 l
Final Bottling Vol: 22.50 l
Fermentation: Cabin Brewery-Dry Hop+Crash Cool

 

Date: 22 Mar 2017
 
Equipment: The Cabin Brewery + Chiller #2
Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.7 %

Ingredients

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
37.00 l	Taunton, England	Water	1	-
1.00 Items	Campden Tablets (Mash)	Water Agent	2	-
1.00 Items	Campden Tablets (Sparge)	Water Agent	3	-
5.70 kg	Muntons Pale Malt - PROPINO (5.9 EBC)	Grain	4	87.6 %
0.29 kg	Crystal Dark - 77L (Crisp) (147.8 EBC)	Grain	5	4.5 %
0.27 kg	Carapils (Weyermann) (4.0 EBC)	Grain	6	4.1 %
0.25 kg	Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (3.0 EBC)	Grain	7	3.8 %
35.00 g	Magnum [12.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min	Hop	8	44.5 IBUs
1.00 Items	Protofloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)	Fining	9	-
10.00 g	Nelson Sauvin [11.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	10	5.4 IBUs
27.00 g	Nelson Sauvin [11.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min	Hop	11	0.0 IBUs
17.00 g	Rakau (Alpharoma) [10.40 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 min	Hop	12	0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg	Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]	Yeast	13	-
48.00 g	Rakau (Alpharoma) [10.40 %] - Dry Hop 6.0 Days	Hop	14	0.0 IBUs
40.00 Items	Bottle Caps (Bottling 1.0 mins)	Other	15	-

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.4 %
Bitterness: 49.9 IBUs
Est Color: 17.6 EBC

Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.004 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.3 %
Calories: 476.7 kcal/l

Mash Profile

Mash Name: 01 (The Cabin) Single Infusion, 65'c
Sparge Water: 14.08 l
Sparge Temperature: 0.0 C
Est Mash PH: 5.66
Measured Mash PH: 5.20

Total Grain Weight: 6.51 kg
Grain Temperature: 8.0 C
Tun Temperature: 8.0 C
Target Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps

Name	Description	Step Temperature	Step Time
Mash In	Add 17.96 l of water at 72.8 C	65.0 C	90 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 14.08 l water at 76.0 C

Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Bottle
Carbonation Used: Bottle with 1/2 tsp (heaped) Brewing Sugar
Age for: 14.00 days
Storage Temperature: 20.0 C

Notes

old yeast slurry used Safale US-05 (approx 100ml firm yeast cake) washed and stored for a few weeks. (Slurry stored from Hellzapoppin IPA 10th March)

Dry Hop 4.0 Days

Created with BeerSmith

Yeast : Starter from stored Isotonic sodium chloride solution.

I have started banking Yeast in a  Isotonic sodium chloride solution, mainly as a hobby within a hobby. I will be making up another beer shortly so decided to try and use my first test yeasts to make a starter. Safale US-05 harvested from my Hellazpopping NZ IPA I made (Harvest Date : 10/03/17).

100ml starter made up to 1.040 (10°P) using some light DME, 10g in 120ml tap water.

Boiled for 10 mins on the stove, dropped in a StarSan'ed stir-bar once the boil was complete and then cooled in cold water in the sink with a foil cover.

Took the 50ml yeast vial from the fridge and warmed it back up to room temperature, decanted off most of the NaCl 0.9% Sodium Chloride. Shook the vial to dislodge the compacted Yeast.

Added the yeast to the cooled wort and put it on the stir-plate.

I'm not sure how much yeast was in the vial, there should have been about 10ml, but I'm not 100% sure it wasn't mostly Trub. I'm guessing that I could have anywhere between 1 and 7 billion viable yeast cells. I'll step this up to 1000ml in a few days if all goes to plan.