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Golden Days of Summer Ale


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2 minutes ago, Gillies Brewing said:

Just per recipe. I'm not the hoppiest guy and so far I haven't invested in bags of different hop pellets. I want to get a good handle on it all first before I do...

Smart thinking, I wasn’t a big hoppy guy for years, some so and so’s on here have even got me up to 60g, and I’m enjoying it. However I do take small steps and always brew my first one to the recipe to give me the base flavour etc of the beer.

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Just now, Gillies Brewing said:

My plan for the next step is to stop buying the hop oils and dry hop those ones instead. Then I'll start experimenting more

That’s the go. As you’re indicated with the hop pellets you can adjust as you wish however with the liquid hop your really locked in. To be fair I think BrewArt realised that there was a major swing here in topics etc to dry hop pellets and the they reacted by doing the D series for purchase. Coopers being customer focused again.

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1 minute ago, Dustin Frothman said:

Using hop pellets makes a significant difference to most beers including better head retention and aroma.

Once you try it you won't go back.

That was my understanding. I just need a bit of time to get the basics down pat, get my head around how much to buy of what, make room to store it and all that. Looking forward to it though!

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4 minutes ago, Gillies Brewing said:

That was my understanding. I just need a bit of time to get the basics down pat, get my head around how much to buy of what, make room to store it and all that. Looking forward to it though!

Absolutely.

There's plenty on great info on this site but feel free to ask any questions along the way as there's generally always someone about at any time to help you out.

🍻

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On 16/01/2022 at 11:58 AM, Gillies Brewing said:

Just per recipe. I'm not the hoppiest guy and so far I haven't invested in bags of different hop pellets. I want to get a good handle on it all first before I do...

This is one of the things of being on this forum, these ale drinkers, snobby as they are...and they are...want you to go hop crazy.

"Put a kilo of hops in this, 900 grams of hops in that" they are unhinged man. :)

Dry hops will be the way to go eventually but baby steps, get them when you feel ready. As for this beer, Amarillo hops are a little different, when they suit your pallete...they kick big goals but when they don't...

Point in case, I made a West Coast Ale and whilst it was OK, it wasn't something I would brew again, there was something about the taste that was a bit..."bitey". Anyways, I had a bottle I hadn't touched and that got to 16 weeks....just brilliant. With this one, I felt the bitey taste, it was good  but with this one, once it got to 8 weeks...just sweet.

Now, both of those were done dry hop and the flavour is stronger with dry hops than liquid hops, so it will be worth experimenting with this beer to see where you like it and where yo love it...when it is good..well you know

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9 hours ago, Gillies Brewing said:

So I've just realised when I put the dry hops in after getting the notification I didn't press tick on the droid until 20hrs later. Is that going to affect the taste having it in there for a bit longer?

No that won't affect it. She'll be right. 

Cheers 

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I have another question. I'm sure they'll slow down as I get more brews under my belt, but hey you want an active forum right? 😅

After the dryhop it's switched temp to 4° for cold crash, but it's not actually getting down to 4. It's stopping and starting between 5.5-6.5c, still reading "cooling". No notifications or errors, app still reading "Dry hopping". Anything to worry about? Should I just cancel it and bottle it now or will the program continue as it's meant to even if it doesn't get to 4? Is this a sign of potential future issues?

Edited by Gillies Brewing
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27 minutes ago, Gillies Brewing said:

I have another question. I'm sure they'll slow down as I get more brews under my belt, but hey you want an active forum right? 😅

After the dryhop it's switched temp to 4° for cold crash, but it's not actually getting down to 4. It's stopping and starting between 5.5-6.5c, still reading "cooling". No notifications or errors, app still reading "Dry hopping". Anything to worry about? Should I just cancel it and bottle it now or will the program continue as it's meant to even if it doesn't get to 4? Is this a sign of potential future issues?

Nothing to worry about.

Where are you reading the temperature from? The app or the panel on the Droid?

Just leave the Droid to do the cold crash as its purpose is to settle both the vegetable matter and yeast suspended in your beer. Whether it's 4, 5 or 6 degrees is irrelevant really.

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6 minutes ago, Dustin Frothman said:

Nothing to worry about.

Where are you reading the temperature from? The app or the panel on the Droid?

Just leave the Droid to do the cold crash as its purpose is to settle both the vegetable matter and yeast suspended in your beer. Whether it's 4, 5 or 6 degrees is irrelevant really.

I'm reading it on both, and though I understand the point of a cold crash I was just a bit worried it won't move on to the next stage if it never gets to 4, and also concerned if there's something faulty with my machine stopping it get down there. External temp is 28 and the droid is sufficiently ventilated to prevent overheating.

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3 minutes ago, Gillies Brewing said:

I'm reading it on both, and though I understand the point of a cold crash I was just a bit worried it won't move on to the next stage if it never gets to 4, and also concerned if there's something faulty with my machine stopping it get down there. External temp is 28 and the droid is sufficiently ventilated to prevent overheating.

How long has it been stuck above 4 C then?

It'll probably get there.

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12 hours ago, Gillies Brewing said:

I have another question. I'm sure they'll slow down as I get more brews under my belt, but hey you want an active forum right? 😅

After the dryhop it's switched temp to 4° for cold crash, but it's not actually getting down to 4. It's stopping and starting between 5.5-6.5c, still reading "cooling". No notifications or errors, app still reading "Dry hopping". Anything to worry about? Should I just cancel it and bottle it now or will the program continue as it's meant to even if it doesn't get to 4? Is this a sign of potential future issues?

I had the same issue when the ambient temp was in the high 30’s. The cold crash is set for 48hrs so you can just leave it without harm and if it doesn’t automatically change to the keg mode then do it manually.

I noted that the Droid in its attempt to get to 4C, the compressor did not continually run but came on and off (duty cycle). I believe this is so over heating doesn’t occur and the cooling process is staged.

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Bottled it all up 24/1/21

Found ice inside it because I was too impatient to wait for kegging temp after cold crash. I guess I can say with certainty it was cold enough in there.... My guess is the ice impeded the flow so the compressor was working its end off but the cold water wasn't going very far and the temperature sensor was reading somewhere only passively cooled by the ice.

Anyway still got 14 bottles even with volume lost to ice. My 10L indicator might be a bit high... Anyway I suppose that will increase the ABV since ethanol freezes after water. That's how they used to make Applejack.

Edited by Gillies Brewing
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