What are you brewing?

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

Did my version of a cali common yesterday. Used Munich pale instead of SAB pale because I scored 25kgs a while back.

[Guest Close AtronSeige]

1.090 should end up close to 11%. 1.160 is VERY high gravity, and IMO would risk ending up with a lot of sugars left after the yeast taps out.

I have brewed higher than 1.160 and it ended up at 1.020.

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he is gonna age for 2 years so plenty of time to dry out

I hope it doesn't dry out in bottles, because that means that more fermentation is taking place and I may have bottle bombs! O_o

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I have brewed higher than 1.160 and it ended up at 1.020.

And that's quite sweet, no? That's dessert wine sweetness, and when it's sparkling and chilled the perceived sweetness is going to be almost overbearing.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

And that's quite sweet, no? That's dessert wine sweetness, and when it's sparkling and chilled the perceived sweetness is going to be almost overbearing.

Many of the stouts I've made ended at 1020 and actually tasted perfect from what I want from a stout. Im not sure if it would have been worse or better if it did go down to 1010-1012

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And that's quite sweet, no? That's dessert wine sweetness, and when it's sparkling and chilled the perceived sweetness is going to be almost overbearing.

You are forgetting the bitterness (hops/dark malt) that counters the sweetness. For a low IBU beer, like a pils, the beer would be very sweet. For a 92 IBU beer, it will not be sweet.

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Many of the stouts I've made ended at 1020 and actually tasted perfect from what I want from a stout. Im not sure if it would have been worse or better if it did go down to 1010-1012

The lower FG is going to make the beer drier, more bitter (possibly very roasty) and with less mouth feel. So you need the higher FG to give you a rich, smooth experience.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I did indeed forget about the hops, yes. I referenced this in the line of wines, which I'm currently busy with, and in that regard 1.02 is considered "very sweet". I tried some 1.02 wine a week or so ago and it was sickly sweet - in fact too sweet to enjoy when chilled. Beers contain hops, so that makes all the difference.

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

I did indeed forget about the hops, yes. I referenced this in the line of wines, which I'm currently busy with, and in that regard 1.02 is considered "very sweet". I tried some 1.02 wine a week or so ago and it was sickly sweet - in fact too sweet to enjoy when chilled. Beers contain hops, so that makes all the difference.

whine is what women do
and they do wine as well

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

whine is what women do
and they do wine as well

Hah! Specially about beer... :P

In all seriousness now, I'm busy with a small batch of mead (which is technically a wine). It's seriously slow now as it's nearing it's end (around 1.01 down from 1.091), but it's absolutely brilliant (on the nose, at least). Light, tender and floral with a lekker alcoholic kick (without being overbearing or full of fusels). It just needs to damn-well end now...

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

Hah! Specially about beer... :P

In all seriousness now, I'm busy with a small batch of mead (which is technically a wine). It's seriously slow now as it's nearing it's end (around 1.01 down from 1.091), but it's absolutely brilliant (on the nose, at least). Light, tender and floral with a lekker alcoholic kick (without being overbearing or full of fusels). It just needs to damn-well end now...

mead needs to age for a decent period
you need to back-sweeten as well

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

mead needs to age for a decent period
you need to back-sweeten as well

Not always, no. Modern techniques allow you to get a very drinkable mead in as little as 4 weeks. This one was fermented in near-perfect conditions, regarding oxygen supply, food for the yeast, temperature, etc. etc. It's already drinkable, I just want it to finish now so I can backsweeten, clear, stabilize and bottle.

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mead needs to age for a decent period
you need to back-sweeten as well

I agree with Toxxyc. New techniques allow you to make very good mead quite fast. Back sweetening is not always required. You can either stop fermentation or just make a dry mead.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I agree with Toxxyc. New techniques allow you to make very good mead quite fast. Back sweetening is not always required. You can either stop fermentation or just make a dry mead.

Exactly. Mine's fermentation has slowed down now to such a point that I decided this morning that I'm going to cold crash it from this afternoon, leave it sitting until the weekend at low temperatures to get the yeast to drop out and then I'm going to stabilize and bottle. I'm splitting my batch - one will be backsweetened (if needed) with plain honey and the other half will be backsweetened with a mixed berry juice concentrate. On top of that I'll be making one or two bottles of plain dry sparkling mead, so those will probably have to go into a different bottle or container to keep fermenting until it's completely dry, since I don't know what amount of sugar I need in terms of gravity and I don't want to risk bottle bombs :P Will only be like 2~3 bottles anyway, so I might just finish them off in 1l glass containers I have at home. Anyway, that's what I have going.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

Ag just a bit of marula “beer”.
Sitting at 6brix now. Need to be at 16 or 17
Gonna add a bucketload of sugar and another 10L of water 10 days from now. Just allowing the 5 bags of lalvin to do its thing with the marula 1st.

[The Flying Brew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Flying Brew]

Not brewed since Feb... Inspired by Duvel, so plan to brew some Belgian Golden Blonde this weekend. Not a clone though, going for a bit lower alcohol (6.5%) as I've not yet brewed much Belgian. Looking forward to lighting those burners up!