Andi Popp 🇺🇦🎗️
Let's prepare for today's #brewday. Here is the grain.
Grain is crushed. Water is ready. Due to limitations with our setup we're doing 20+12l instead of 15+17.
The recipe says this will be a short mash. Let's see what the iodine tells us.
While the wort is draining, we have lunch and prepare the hops. Preboil gravity is 1.046.
Cooking is done. Whirlpool hop is in and we're chilling the wort.
So, the #beer is in the fermentation fridge. We endend up with 21l with a gravity of 1.048 - overall a little bit below the amount and gravity we were shooting for, but within the range of what we consider a success. If we get proper fermentation this time (🤞) we should end up with something nice. It should at least be hoppy (see picture).
@trekkie3k and I will finish our beers, clean up and that will be a wrap for this #brewday.
Fermentation ist starting off strong, but not as rapid fire as the last time we (unsuccessfully) made IPA. I'll take it as a good sign.
Fermentation is still going, albeit slower. I think staying on the lower end of the temperature was a good tip by @brudibrau (and the recipe). Most people said S-04 takes 48h to 72h, so we decided to put in the dry hops now (after ~52h).
So it's past 72h and the fermentation is still going. Current gravity is 1.027. We pitched on the lower end (54g/hl) of the pitching range recommended by the manufacturer (50 – 80g/hl). But I do trust that slow fermentation more than the fast one, so I'm good with it. The sample already has a nice color.
It's #BottlingDay. The gravity of the beer hasn't changed until Friday. The #beer has been cold crashing for 36 hours. Bottles are washed and currently draining. Later we'll give them a few minutes in the convection oven at 80°C.
Our yield was exactly two boxes plus three shots of green #beer samples. We're at 4.7 ABV + 0.3 from secondary fermentation. We lost .5 ABV compared to the recipe. The green beer does taste dry, alright. Nothing else there, yet. Time to lager the bottles. Malzknecht had a well rounded taste after 7 weeks.
We finally opened a test bottle after 66 days of lagering. The bottom of the bottle was quite yeasty, but the beer poured smoothly and formed a stable head. It tastes dry and hoppy, with a hint of fruit, just as intended. I like it. I think we nailed that one, @trekkie3k
In the end, the beer became a donation for a fund raiser. It's still great and @trekkie3k and some friends donated for the first ten bottles 😅
