What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[MrC]

Kiwifruit anyone?

[Patrick]

A rebrew of my best beer to date (IPA)

5kg MO
.5kg Munich
.2kg Light crystal
.2kg Torrified Wheat

100g Nelson Sauvin
100g NZ Cascade
US-05

Hoping for 21L at ~1060

[Patrick]

Hit 19L at 1060 - finished at 1010 so I make it ~6.5% ABV. Just bottled it - enjoying a pint straight out of secondary - it was the dregs of the bottling bucket, lots of hop particles floating around but really tasty! Looking forward to trying it when it is carbed and conditioned.

[MrC]

Brewed a non-alcoholic ginger beer with the kids tonight:

2L batch
177g Table Sugar
1 Lemon's juice
1Tbsp Ginger
0.75 Tbsp Cream of Tartar
0.25 tsp bakers yeast

Looking forward to a fizzy taste on the weekend, maybe even a spider with some Gone Fishing.

[jt]

Kids juice for the weekend too - maybe a Sunday afternoon refresher (or tonic as the forecast southerly whips by)
1.5L
3/4 cup table sugar
2 lemons, zest & juice
2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp bread yeast

More or less a repeat of last weekends attempt but cut the sugar back.
Also strained the steeped lemon and ginger through muslin, much less sediment in the bottle and hopefully a cleaner one this time round.

[Ryan D]

Hi jt, how did the ginger beer turn out? i am wanting to make a non alc ginger beer, previously i had made the briglow ginger beer, but im wanting to try one without the kits.

[jt]

It's great !
We're onto our third batch - just a bottle a week for the weekend.
It is very sweet though and we're cutting back the sugar, at about 3/4 cup.

Chris had a plan to carbonate a bottle with co2, fitting a valve to a PET bottle cap.
Now I think about it, I'm wondering about doing a keg ... juice and zest of 24 lemons .. that'll keep me occupied for a bit.

[Chris Banks]

Did a batch yesterday and forced carbed with diy carbo cap
3.5L batch
120g root ginger boiled 20min
1tsp Tartaric acid
1.5 lemons - juice and zest
350gms sugar
Carbed ice cold whilst shaking for 30 secs at 40psi
Drinking one now - good ginger bite and not to sweet could be a little fizzier but not bad at all!
Rapped with the carbo caps I can see lots of potential there!
Might try some real lemonade next.

[jt]

Innovation Chris, good news - was the cap easy to put together ?
So you chill with an ordinary cap on, then swap caps, carb it up and drink ?

The thought of a keg full of GB did cross my mind, but this maybe good too (don't want to lose a beer keg in the fridge !)

[MrC]

Tell us more about the dig carbo cap chris.

[Chris Banks]

Easy as just get some valve stems from the tyre shop - eg firestone
Drill 13mm (or hole that suits the valve you have)hole in cap and jam the rubber stem through the hardest bit was rigging a valve chuck to a co2 line.
I brought an tyre inflator from ripco and put a push in hose fitting to suit 5mm id line where the compressed air line normally goes
most importantly i reckon the valve chuck needs to lock on to the stem otherwise you have to hold it on while your shacking!!
Heres the site that first sparked my interest
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47610

I made 6 caps up so Its easy to just leave them on the bottle to chill carb and store without changing caps all the time

[MrC]

I also added a pinch of gelatin to mine in the hope that the sediment will stick to the bottom of the bottle a little more. We'll see.