Rombot

← Thanks Chris, Delay was only over night about 18 hours or so. I had started the process expecting a nice night in when the calls came through demanding that I go to the pub and help friends through the awful task of consuming vast quantities of beer. The brew seems to be coming along nicely now, its bubbling away in the garage and I will bottle at about 3 weeks as temps are still below 20 degrees Celsius. For the next brew I am wanting do something like a Japanese beer (Asahi super dry ect). Light bodied and very crisp, any ideas? Rom

Hey All Posted a little premature, I fixed the tap with a new rubber washer and it stopped leaking. I have done the mash and have the wart is ready for the boil. I have to go out so I am going to leave it for a while and do the boil latter, Chris will this cause any problems? Regards Rom

Hey all Could be a little delay with the Saison. I steralised my picnic cooler today to find out that the tap on the bottom is leaking and I feel that it may be worth getting a new one before doing the mash. To be honest it was a cooler that has been idle for a long time and is at least 10 years of age, actually I would say closer to 15 years. Till the I will let you know Chris that my homebrew shop didn’t have all the exact ingredients but I took their advise in regards to substitutes. I am using Moris Otter as the primary grain, torrified wheat, flaked Barley instead of the oats, I found the rye in a health food shop and am using fuggles instead of goldings. All the other ingredients are the same. Hopefully it will turn out fine they seem to think so. Rom

The Red Ale is perfect but after trying the pale ale, at a few months of age, I will try and not to drink much more of it. I have set aside Saturday afternoon for the Saison and will do a 4 gallon batch. After the Saison I think I may do another experimental batch as I have various amounts of malts left over from each of the brews. Would it be too much of a brain explosion to throw them together and just see what happens? Oh talking about experimental batches, I bottled the Pilsenerish beer type thing and on tasting it I dont think it will be that bad. I will report further when I try my first bottle. Regards rom

Hi all I have done my shop so my ingrediants will be arriving in the next day or so. I also tried a bottle of the first batch and it has improved remarkably. I was initially very happy with it but after a few months rest it has got even better, it has cleared up and the flavours have settled down and intergrated really well. I only wish I hadnt drunk 90% of it when it was young. Regards Rom

Hey all Opened a few of the Red ales last night and all where really good, it has taken a month but the carbonation levels are all perfect even better than the first batch . Patience really is a virtue. Still haven’t got round to the final brew but I will hopefully sooner rather than later. regards Rom

Well tempatures here are about 15 degrees celsius although it has been a bit cooler recently. I must say that my beer is been kept in the gargage so it is not the warmest part of the house.

What temperature are they sitting at? It is winter time down there for you, so the temp may be low enough that the yeast have gone dormant. Warm them up to at least 20C, and agitate the bottles to re-suspend the yeast. If you're impatient to try them, and have any of the first batch around, you might try blending some of flat batch 2 into fizzy batch 1 and get an idea of what it will be like.. . Hey all Well they seem to be getting a bit fizzier, I tried one tonight and it seems be coming along. I think it is the temperature that is causing the problem and making them go slow. I am in no huge rush, so I will let them be for the next few weeks and see how they are then. Haven’t got round to the next batch yet but I am planning to do it soon, I will keep ya all updated. For those of you who like gadgets, these things look kinda cool. http://www.mashmaster.com.au Anyhow have a good one, Rom

Hey All Well, I have tried the red ale and it seems that all my beers are flat. I have tried about 3 different bottles and none of them have any fizz that last more that 30 seconds or so. I am not to sure what I have done wrong, but will leave them all for another few weeks and try them, hopefully with more luck. My experimental batch seems to be going ok I think I will bottle it in a week or so and then get started on the next brew. As it happens I have an old cooler in the yard that has a spiggot and although it needs a really good scrub, it will do the job perfectly. I have looked at my big mesh bag and it seems that it wont be big enough to fit the cooler . I am thinking of either putting the grains in and tying it closed and using it like a tea bag, or getting some moscitto netting and just making one. Anyhow, not a very exciting update but I hope all is going well for you all Rom

Hey Chris Most definitely Ill keep you informed. As long as it is not to sweet it might be ok if chilled icy cold for a 100-degree summer’s day and if its really bad I will just give it to people I don’t like. Rom

"Load" i mean "loud"

Hey all Oh well a sweet light beer I will have , I really should of done a bit more reading before jumping in the deep end, or asked on a forum but it was a spur of the moment thing and I got a bit carried away with it all. I cant say that I am totally disappointed it was a good day of listening to load music and playing around with beer stuff. I figure the more I play with things the more likely I will learn and if I have stuffed this one up well so be it. Oh damn I have to go to work tomorrow and I cant call in twice in a row. I recommend a "sick" day to you all as it does wonders for the soul. anyhow have a great day Rom

Hey all Well today I woke up and decided that I would call in sick to work. After making the phone call and getting over my flu very quickly I was at a loss as to what to do with my day. Brew I thought and brew I did. I decided to go out on a limb and try something new and so went and bought some Haaz hops, lager yeast and some pilsener grain. On further reading I found out that pilseners are slightly harder to make as you have to ferment them slowly and at a low temperature. As it is in the middle of winter here I suppose it is the right time but still it rarely gets below 60. my recipe is very sketchy as I have just taken the general idea from others I saw on the internet. I am making about a 4 gallon batch with 1.3kg (2.9 pounds) of light malt, 800 grams (1.7 pounds) German pilsener grain, 200 gr (.45 pounds) of another light grain used in the last recipe, saaz hops at 60, 10 and aroma and a lager yeast. Using these ingredients, I just followed the steps as per the red ale. Well that is all, a bit of a risk but good fun experimenting and if it turns out well I will be very pleased with myself. Chris any hints and/or comments would be welcome even if you think I have probably made a batch of rubbish. Anyhow Happy brewing Rom

Hi all Well I have successfully bottled my next batch (the red ale) and I think it is all ok . I didn’t get any bad smells at all and it tasted fine. One thing I did notice is that there was allot of sediment floating in the beer compared to last time. Chris, I have noticed a few recipes calling for the use of Irish Moss, what is this and what is it used for? that’s all folks, good luck with all your brews Rom

Hi all Well I have successfully bottled my next batch (the red ale) and I think it is all ok . I didn’t get any bad smells at all and it tasted fine. One thing I did notice is that there was allot of sediment floating in the beer compared to last time. Chris, I have noticed a few recipes calling for the use of Irish Moss, what is this and what is it used for? that’s all folks, good luck with all your brews Rom

Oh Msk, welcome !!! I going now...... Bye

Hello again Chris, I was wondering how long will cracked grain retain its freshness? I could only buy it in 1kg bags and had the shop crack it for me. So now I still have the majority of it sealed up with tape sitting in my cupboard, should I move it to a fridge/freezer, use it asap or will it be fine? Oh msk, not that I am the expert you wanted to hear from, but 3 1/2 hours is about how long it takes me. Thanks rom

hi All Uni is over and it is now time to brew . I did the second recipe on the weekend and all is looking good. The beer is fermenting away and I hope I don’t have any problems. Sad to see your bad luck foodman , better luck next time. On the equipment from, I have had one of those Coopers beer kits in my garage for ages , so I have been using a sealed plastic tub with the airlock thing all along. The good news is that I have also been given more brewing equipment from someone who bought it and never used it. So now I have two brewing tubs, a bench top bottle capper and loads of bottles . So multiple brews I can do, which is good news as I can catch up easily when the next lesson comes along. One question. How do we tell the alcohol content of our beers? Regards Rom

hey Chris I havnt run away..... Unfortunatly this is a really busy time at uni. Ihave all the ingrediants ready but not I have no time to brew . My last piece of work for the semester is due in on Friday so expect to see a report early next week...... Then I am on 7 weeks of Holidays All the best Rom

Got home a day early and success!!!!!! I went straight to the beer put one in the freezer and 20 minutes later popped it open. I was lovely, full bodied with a touch of creaminess, better than expected. I may just be use to over carbonated Australian lagers but my only complaint could be it was a little less carbonated than I would of liked, but then again there could be bottle variation. Will post picture soon Rom

Hi All Glad to hear that everyone has had good luck. I am away for a few days but I will post results as soon as i get home and try a bottle. I was almost tempted to try a bottle before I left but thought better of it, as it would of been two days short of two weeks. I thought I would mention that for the next three weeks I will be lying a little low and may have to postpone my next batch. I am doing my Masters and I have a number of things due, but a few hours brewing could be a nice way to relax . So If I am not about Chris, I haven’t run away, I’m just preoccupied. Well will post results soon. seeya Rom

Hi all Well I have bottled and had a little taste and it seems to be really good. I like the idea of the bread Matty, I washed away all my yeast before seeing your post so I may try that next time but let us know how it is. I might post a picture later on but all my brew is in dark bottles and so you cant really see much but it was about the same amber color as everyone else. Taking a few days of work and uni and going fishing and camping this weekend but on my return I will be off to the brew shop to get the ingredients for the next brew. I am very much looking forward to the Red Ale Regards Rom

Thanks for that, I was worried for a little while. My wart/beer is also smelling rather nice and if it is indicitive of the of the final product it should great and well worth the effort. I have just realised that the football world cup starts in 5 weeks and by that time the beer should be ready . Also the next batch may be ready as well, the timing could not be better. Gonna save it all for the comp and drink all but a few bottles (for tasting at 6 months or so) over the two weeks. Well thanks again and yay for beer and football. Rom

Hi all I may have a slight concern . It is only 1 week and 3 days since I pitched my yeast and all activity has seemed to have ground to a halt. after 48 hours I had a nice layer of foam and now everything looks flat and very inactive. Is this a situation where i should just leave it alone and let it look after itself or do i have a problem. hopefully I wont have to go back to step one but if need be well it is only more practice. Rom

Thanks for the welcome. Well I have fallen behind a little but I have finally started my brew. I think (I hope) it went ok, day 2 of fermentation and there is a layer of stuff on top of the wart and it is giving off a nice smell (apple and cinnamon), I hope that is good. I actually adjusted everything for metric units and as my malt came in kilo bags, the simplest conversion was to do a double batch using 3kg (6.6 pounds) of malt and then adding a little more of everything, this also had the added benefit of producing more beer . I must say I did enjoy using a huge pot with all four gas burners on the stove going at full blast, that got it to a really good boil. Now a few questions...Is there a rough rule in regards to ratios of ingredients for most beers? Can the ratio of ingredients of the recipe we have just done and the others to follow be applied to other recipes of your own creation? Ok then goodluck all, will keep you updated and hopefully this will be a success. Rom