Brew Update

And another week has gone by! What has been going on? Not much, just planning/thinking about brews and brew upgrades.

Casket Ale v1.1 update

It has been 1 week since brew day, and fermentation seems to be going on without a hitch. I have fermented at 18c for the first two days, then slowly increased the temp up to 21c by the end of the week for a diacetyl rest. It's still fermenting away today(Sunday 2nd), not crazy but nice slow bubbles. I pulled off a test sample to check gravity and to see if I can detect any distinct changes to the beer from adding the brew salts. Gravity went from a SG of 1.052 to 1.012, so a nice sessionable 5.2% abv.

Casket Ale v1.1 Sample

Tastes and aroma notes:
Straight off, the nose is definitely more distinct. Mango/pineapple/tropical fruit, much more pungent and distinct compared to v1.0. So far, adding the brewing salts has already made a major change compared to the previous batch. At this point last time the hops where not very distinct, and now they are popping quite nicely! I have not even added the dry hops yet.
The bitterness is not as bad as I was dreading. When I had the gas problem on brew day, I thought the extra bitterness was going to unbalance the beer. But the bitterness is good, the finish of the beer is much dryer compared to the previous version though, so the bitterness is smooth but lingers with the dryness of the beer.
Hops are nice and prominent on the palate, mango/pineapple the more dominant flavours. They fall off smoothly with the dryness of the beer.
The dryness is more similar to a lager than ale, but with this base single malt beer is understandable. With dry hopping I have high hopes of this being a very sessionable/easy drinking beer for summer. Until I have tried out the final product, with dry hopping and carbonation, I will hold my verdict for now, but I can say it is promising!

Kombucha:
As far as I can see it seems to be going well. It does not smell off or have any mold on it, so it's

Small Kombucha Mother

looking promising. There seems to be a "mother" growing on the top and there seems to be quite a bit of sluggy stuff going on in the tea, which I think is the yeast and bacteria. It is still early days though, one week in and three more to go. I will keep you updated on how it cracks on.

Cold brewed coffee:
Not much of a update on this wee project except that it is almost finished... Damn is this a tasty way to drink coffee! Specially served over ice, a splash of milk and sweetened slightly with condensed milk. Only thing I would do next time is use a darker roast and more coffee beans. As tasty, as it was, the body was a bit lacking and it could have some more kick... Will just have to make another brew.

That is the update for this week, nothing too crazy, but everything is going smoothly. I have received one small upgrade for the brewery. Well, a tool to be exact. As you can see, I have purchased myself a step bit so that I can add a tap to my hot liquor pot and maybe install my thermometer into my boil kettle. I will finish off this blog entry with a link to my latest Homebrew Wednesday. I hope all is well!

Churs! Chubby.