What are you drinking ?

[jt]

Ok, so What Are You Brewing was a hotty, as topics go.

Now I'm 15 pints into a keg I only filled on Tuesday and wondering if anyone else has a favourite at the moment ?

It's my second brown with US-Oh05 and it's better than the forst, maybe Ikept the temps down a bit during the scorcher we had in januray

[jt]

No action yet Mr C, need to get into town & buy some beer !
What size is the starter, will you step it up ?

[MrC]

My starter is still in one of the coopers bottles, the total volume is approx 300ml but the slurry layer at the bottom is still very small (approx 2mm layer). HowToBrew suggests that you tip the wort and pitch the slurry, if that's the case then I need to add more fresh wort and keep the process going for a bit longer.

I'm thinking about tipping everyting except the slurry, adding fresh wort and giving it a good shake. Might do that tonight.

I don't know how much slurry to pitch for a good fermentation.
Any thoughts?

[Dan]

I would use at least a 1 litre starter in a ale, 2 for lager, -25% if using a stir plate, although I have used a small starter before it seems to take longer to ferment and will probably stress the yeast.
As for the amount of slurry im not sure, something around a quarter to half a cup seems to be what I get with a 1.5 litre starter.
If your only using a 300ml vessel you can tip out and add fresh wort till the cows come home and you will still have the same amount of yeast but lots of trub.
I,d just pitch the lot being a small starter, if its still active, healthy yeast will be in suspension, if its fermented out fully i,d tip the fermented wort and pitch just the yeast, generally i,d make a starter for 24-48 hours and pitch the lot.
Find a 2 litre glass flagon or bottle and step it up to 1.5L you will have better success. Good luck.

[jt]

Well it's getting further back in the list of things to do really.
I have a lager conditioning and a light weight AAA fermenting for the freshly announced SOBA HB Comp.
This week is Blonde #4 and the week after is a brown (style or lack of yet to be determined) both for the comp.

The Aussie Ale will have to wait ...

[MrC]

Been sampling my first all-grain batch over the past two weeks. It's a robust porter and it seems to be improving every week. Tastes great to me and fortunately MrsC hates it :)

I tried to brew it to style, but it's hard to taste according to style when you don't have that much experience with it. Example: to me it seems a bit flat even though I aimed to carbonate to the upper end of the style.

I gues I'll just keep on brewing and keep on tasting.

[jt]

B rew to your own taste Mr C .. it's you that drinks it

[Dan]

Try it again in 2 months! save the rest.

[MrC]

2 MONTHS!!! Cripes!!!

I'm running out of beer, I might have to whip out & buy some Tui. Yeah right.

But seriously, if I was going to wait 2 months, should I put it outside in a dark place for some cold'ish contining or just leave it in the garage at around 12-18c?

[Dan]

I store mine in a dark room under 10oC, lately I keep a few litres of every batch, and try to resist the temptation to sample, got 13 batches worth of bottles stored, I ususally get a marked improvement after storing, except for some of the hoppy ales which seem to lose that big hoppy fresh flavour after a few months but round off nicely.

[Dan]

The 13 batches worth of bottles stored has diminished to 5 batches in the last week due to having no beer, damn! if I knew the soba nhc was upon us I would have saved them!

[Tony]

I have just tried a Renaissance Pale Ale for the first time. Very nice. It is very English as it says, I find. I am getting some nice toffee tastes and the great bitter hopiness coming through. Is Andy Deuchars part of this site, I would love to hear his take on his beer? Well done!

I had a Emerson's Taieri Gorge the other day. I wasn't overly impressed. I think the beer itself was fine, it just wasn't my type of beer. I found it rather lacking in body. The spiciness was there, but it just didn't grab me like most Emerson brews

[jt]

Blonde #3 has had a couple of days gas. had 100g caramunich as well as the 100g carahel and it's beefed the flavour a bit. probably not so Blonde by style but tasty. Also the lowest hopped one to date, BU:OG of 50% which is low for me but I may yet come to appreciate it